Author: LoveWorld UK

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he did not believe the case had yet been made for Russia to rejoin the G7 following its “provocations” in places like Salisbury, Ukraine and elsewhere. Russia was pushed out of the G8 in 2014 because of its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The European Union subsequently slapped sanctions on Moscow after it supported rebels fighting Ukrainian troops in the east of the country. The conflict between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces has killed an estimated 13,000 people since 2014. A ceasefire deal brokered by France and Germany ended the major conflict in eastern…

French President Emmanuel Macron told Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson there was not enough time in the month ahead to negotiate a new Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday challenged Britain to come up with alternatives to the Irish border backstop within 30 days — a challenge which Johnson readily accepted. “What Chancellor Merkel said yesterday, and which is in line with the substance of our talks, is that we need visibility in 30 days,” Macron told reporters standing alongside Johnson. “Nobody is going to wait until Oct. 31 without trying to find a good solution.” Macron’s…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told French President Emmanuel Macron that he wanted a Brexit deal and believed it was still possible to reach one in time for the Oct. 31 deadline. Johnson also said he had been “powerfully encouraged” by what he had heard from German Chancellor Angela Merkel during talks in Berlin on Wednesday. Johnson insisted that under no circumstances would the United Kingdom set up border checks on the boundary between EU member Ireland and the British region of Northern Ireland. He added that understood the EU’s desire to preserve the integrity of its single market, but…

Michael Gove, the minister in charge of coordinating no-deal Brexit planning, said that Britain’s National Health Service will have access to what it needs in a no-deal Brexit and any stockpiling is counterproductive. Britain is due to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to take the country out of the bloc with or without an agreement. Gove, visiting the Holyhead port in Wales to discuss Brexit preparations, said that he believed the flow of goods would broadly be maintained if there were a no-deal Brexit. Holyhead port offers access to Ireland via…

The European Union rebuffed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s demand that it reopen the Brexit Withdrawal deal as British MPs delivered a letter demanding the PM recall Parliament from its summer recess. In his opening bid to the EU ahead of meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Johnson wrote a four-page letter to European Council President Donald Tusk asking to axe the Irish border “backstop.” Johnson proposed that the backstop – part of the Withdrawal Agreement that then-prime minister Theresa May agreed last year – be replaced with a “commitment” to implement alternative arrangements as part…

Tensions rose on a rescue ship stranded off southern Italy on Tuesday, as 10 of the migrants aboard jumped into the sea and tried to swim ashore, according to the Spanish charity that operates the vessel. The ship Open Arms, at sea for 19 days with almost 100 migrants onboard, has been waiting just off the port of Lampedusa, asking permission to bring the mostly African migrants ashore, despite an Italian ban on private rescue ships docking. The migrants, wearing life jackets, were pulled out of the water by the Italian coast guard. Dozens of other migrants have been taken…

China cried foul on Tuesday saying it had a right to put out its own views, after Twitter and Facebook said they had dismantled a state-backed social media campaign originating in mainland China that sought to undermine protests in Hong Kong. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, declined direct comment on the Twitter and Facebook moves, but defended the right of Chinese people and media to make their voices heard over the Hong Kong protests. Twitter said on Monday it suspended 936 accounts and the operations appeared to be a coordinated state-backed effort originating in China. Facebook Inc said it…

Boris Johnson has told the EU the Irish border backstop must be scrapped as it is “unviable” and “anti-democratic”. In a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk, the PM also said the backstop risked undermining the Northern Irish peace process. But Mr Tusk said those opposing the arrangement without “realistic alternatives” supported re-establishing a hard border. This was the reality “even if they do not admit it,” he added. “The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found,” Mr Tusk tweeted.

These are the protesters in Hong Kong: young, brave and fighting for what they say is the erosion of the “one country, two systems” arrangement enshrining some autonomy for Hong Kong when China took it back from Britain in 1997. The increasingly violent protests since June have plunged the Asian financial hub into its most serious crisis in decades and are one of the biggest popular challenges to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. Despite the intense police response and a toughening stance from China, the movement that began two months ago in opposition to…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she would meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday evening to discuss Britain’s planned departure from the European Union, adding that Berlin was also prepared for a disorderly Brexit. Johnson is seeking to persuade European Union leaders to reopen Brexit talks or face the prospect of its second-largest member leaving abruptly on Oct. 31 with no deal in place to mitigate the economic shock – a move that businesses expect would cause major disruption. “We are prepared for any outcome, we can say that, even if we do not get an agreement. But…