Border issue foils Brexit deal
Harry, Meghan expect 1st child in spring
LUXEMBOURG, Oct 15, (Agencies): Days ahead of a summit once seen as the moment Britain and the European Union would have to reach a Brexit deal, both sides are still staring at each other over the question of the Irish border, refusing to blink.
A flurry of diplomatic meetings over the weekend had raised hopes for an agreement, only to be disappointed by the issue that has dogged the talks for months – how to ensure no hard border is created between the EU’s Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland once Brexit happens on March 29.
The EU has proposed keeping Northern Ireland in a customs union to avoid a hard border between it and Ireland. The fear is that such a border could revive tensions between Northern Ireland’s pro-Irish Catholic and pro-UK Protestant communities, in which over 3,700 people died over 30 years of “troubles” ending in 1998.
Britain says it will only accept that plan if it is temporary and does not hive Northern Ireland off permanently from the rest of the UK in terms of customs arrangements.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman James Slack said Monday that negotiations are stuck because the EU “continues to insist on the possibility of a customs border down the Irish Sea,” a move it feels will effectively split up the U.K., which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Britain’s lower house of parliament has allowed a culture of bullying and sexual harassment to thrive, and its top officials may need to be replaced to restore confidence, an investigation published on Monday said.
A report, commissioned by the British legislature in March after a string of harassment allegations, said it found institutional failings in the way the House of Commons responded to complaints against lawmakers and staff.
It described a “culture, cascading from the top down, of deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence, in which bullying, harassment and sexual harassment have been able to thrive and have long been tolerated and concealed.”
and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, are expecting their first child in the spring, Kensington Palace said Monday.
The announcement came hours after Harry and the former
arrived in Sydney at the start of a 16-day visit to Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand. Hundreds of people gathered to catch a glimpse of the couple after they landed.
After their arrival in Sydney, the prince and the former American actress held hands and walked out an airport rear entrance and into a car. Meghan, wearing skinny black pants and a black, burgundy trimmed coat, was smiling and clutching folders, while Harry gave a thumbs up to bystanders.
Kono didn’t mention China specifically in his comments. But he said the Pacific region was important in a strategic sense to both Japan and New Zealand.
Peters said New Zealand was also concerned about the loans and the ability of small island nations to repay them. (AP)
Monk Wirathu hits back at UN:
An ultra-nationalist monk – dubbed the “Buddhist Bin Laden” – on Sunday condemned the international community for their calls to bring Myanmar’s generals to justice over the Rohingya crisis.
Firebrand monk Wirathu, known as the face of Myanmar’s Buddhist nationalist movement, was speaking at a pro-military rally that attracted hundreds of supporters, his first since being barred from giving public sermons last year. The ban, which ended in March, was issued by a council of senior monks who said Wirathu had “repeatedly delivered hate speech against religions to cause communal strife”. (AP)