As British voters cool on Brexit, UK softens its stance toward EU
LONDON — The British government on Sunday denied a report that it is seeking a “Swiss-style” relationship with the European Union that would remove many economic barriers erected by Brexit — even as it tries to improve ties with the bloc after years of acrimony.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay told Sky News “I don’t recognize” the Sunday Times report, insisting the U.K. was still determined to “use the Brexit freedoms we have” by diverging from the EU’s rules in key areas.
Switzerland has a close economic relationship with the 27-nation EU in return for accepting the bloc’s rules and paying into its coffers.
The U.K. government said “Brexit means we will never again have to accept a relationship with Europe that would see a return to freedom of movement, unnecessary payments to the European Union or jeopardize the full benefit of trade deals we are now able to strike around the world.”
But despite the denials, the new Conservative government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to restore relations with the EU, acknowledging that Brexit has brought an economic cost for Britain. Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt last week expressed optimism that trade barriers between the U.K. and the EU would be removed in the coming years.
The shift comes as public opposition grows to the hard form of Brexit pursued by successive Conservative governments since British voters opted by a 52% to 48% margin to leave the bloc in a 2016 referendum.
Now, according to polling expert John Curtice, 57% of people would vote to rejoin the bloc and 43% to stay out.
The divorce deal struck by the two sides in 2020 has brought customs checks and other border hurdles for goods, and passport checks and other annoyances for travelers. Britons can no longer live and work freely across Europe, and EU citizens can’t move to the U.K. at will.
The British government’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, said last week that leaving the EU has had “a significant adverse effect on U.K. trade.”
Any move to rebuild ties with the EU will face opposition from the powerful euroskeptic wing of the Conservative Party. Even the opposition Labor Party — reluctant to reopen a debate that split the country in half and poisoned politics — says it won’t seek to rejoin the bloc, or even the EU’s single market, if it takes power after the next election.
Japanese politics: The internal affairs minister in Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government was forced into resigning Sunday over funding irregularities, another blow to the scandal-prone Cabinet that has already lost two ministers in the last month.
Internal Affairs Minister Minoru Terada had been under fire over several accounting and funding irregularities. In one, he acknowledged that one of his support groups submitted accounting records carrying a dead person’s signature.
“I apologize for the series of resignations,” Kishida said. “I’m aware of my heavy responsibility for their appointment.” He said Terada’s replacement will be named Monday.
Terada’s resignation is a further blow to the Cabinet already shaken by the governing Liberal Democratic Party’s close ties to
the Unification Church, which has been accused of problematic recruiting and brainwashing followers into making huge donations.
Economic Revitalization Minister Daishiro Yamagiwa quit Oct. 24 after facing criticism over a lack of explanations about his ties to the church. Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi was forced to resign Nov. 10 after saying his job is low-profile and only makes news when he signs a death penalty.
Wintry weather: Parts of New York caught a break Sunday after a storm spent days dumping a potentially record-setting amount of snow on cities and towns east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Many businesses in the hardest-hit areas remained closed, but highways reopened and travel bans in many areas were lifted, though bands of lake-effect snow were expected to bring up to 2 feet by Monday morning in some parts of the state that were largely
spared in earlier rounds.
“This has been a historic storm. Without a doubt, this is one for the record books,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday.
Snow began falling Thursday south of Buffalo. By Saturday, the National Weather Service recorded 77 inches in suburban Orchard Park and 72 inches in Natural Bridge, near Watertown off the east end of Lake Ontario.
Hochul is asking for a federal disaster declaration for the affected areas.
Papal homecoming: Pope Francis honored his northern Italian roots on Sunday by celebrating a special Mass in his father’s hometown and encouraging younger generations to not be indifferent to the poverty and misery around them.
Thousands turned out to greet Francis during his rare personal weekend getaway to the province of Asti, near Turin, and he returned the favor by taking a long popemobile ride around town.
On Saturday, he made a
private visit to relatives in the area and celebrated the 90th birthday of his second cousin. On Sunday, he was given the honorary citizenship of Asti and celebrated Mass in the city’s cathedral, where he assumed the role of a local parish priest ministering to his flock.
Russian volcanoes: Towering clouds of ash and glowing lava are spewing from two volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula and scientists say major eruptions could be on the way.
The peninsula, which extends into the Pacific Ocean, is one of the world’s most concentrated areas of geothermal activity with about 30 active volcanoes. The new activity followed a strong earthquake Saturday, news reports said.
The Russian Academy of Sciences’ volcanology institute said that at Klyuchevskaya Sopka, which at nearly 16,000 feet is Eurasia’s tallest active volcano, as many as 10 explosions an hour were
being recorded.
Lava flows and ash emissions also are coming from the Shiveluch volcano, the institute said.
Afghan lashings: Nineteen people in northeastern Afghanistan were lashed for adultery, theft and running away from home, a Supreme Court official said Sunday.
It appeared to be the first official confirmation that lashings and floggings are being meted out in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. During their previous rule in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.
A Supreme Court official, Abdul Rahim Rashid, said 10 men and nine women were lashed 39 times each in Taloqan in northeastern Takhar province on Nov. 11. Rashid said the punishment took place in the presence of elders, scholars and residents at the city’s main mosque after Friday prayers.