Tag Archives: WorldNews

We’ll block trade deal if Brexit imperils open Irish border, say US politicians

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Johnson-Trump plan could fall foul of Congress if Good Friday agreement is threatened

Any future US-UK trade deal would almost certainly be blocked by the US Congress if Brexit affects the Irish border and jeopardises peace in Northern Ireland, congressional leaders and diplomats have warned.

Boris Johnson has presented a trade deal with the US as a way of offsetting the economic costs of leaving the EU, and Donald Trump promised the two countries could strike “a very substantial trade agreement” that would increase trade “four or five times”.

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Is this fascism? No. Could it become fascism? Yes | Andrew Gawthorpe

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Trump’s persistent hold on his base shows the power to be had in reinventing anti-American values as patriotic

Amid the global rise of rightwing populism, “fascist” has become a common – indeed over-used – epithet. The F-word is convenient for critics of the new wave of populism, seeking as it does to tie their opponents to historical movements which nearly all of mainstream society regards as deplorable. But the word is convenient for the right too, allowing them to wave away their critics as overwrought and deranged while avoiding serious discussion of the substance of their policies and rhetoric.

Even the Trumpified Republican party is not a fascist movement and Trump is certainly no Hitler. Full-blown fascism usually emerges under the pressure of economic collapse or existential war, but it is constructed from pre-existing social and political raw materials. But while the Trump era hasn’t seen the rise of a true fascism in the United States, it has given us sharp and painful insights into the raw materials out of which a future American fascism might be constructed.

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Blaming Leo Varadkar for no deal is bizarre – even for Britain’s media | Roy Greenslade

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The Telegraph and Sun are making ludicrous claims to make the Irish taoiseach the Brexit bogeyman

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, is being demonised by the Brexit-supporting section of the British press. His determination to stick by the backstop provision in the EU withdrawal agreement has particularly outraged the Daily Telegraph and the Sun.

Both papers, with tacit support from the Daily Express, are engaged in a tactic familiar to those who, down the years, witnessed the treatment that has been handed out to homegrown politicians such as Tony Benn, Michael Foot, Neil Kinnock and, of course, Jeremy Corbyn.

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Sinn Féin: vote on Irish reunification must follow no-deal Brexit

Mary Lou McDonald challenges Boris Johnson on Northern Ireland at Stormont meeting

It would be “unthinkable” if a no-deal Brexit was not followed by a poll on Irish reunification, the leader of Sinn Féin has warned Boris Johnson, also telling the prime minister that no one believed he was impartial on Northern Ireland.

“In the longer term, we have advised him that constitutional change is in the air. He can’t say that he hasn’t been told,” Mary Lou McDonald said after meeting Johnson at Stormont on Wednesday morning.

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Greta Thunberg to sail across Atlantic for UN climate summits

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Teenage activist to travel to US on racing yacht to cut environmental impact of travel

Greta Thunberg is to sail across the Atlantic in a high-speed racing yacht next month to attend UN climate summits in the US and Chile as part of a sabbatical year the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist will spend in the US.

“Good news! I’ll be joining the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, COP25 in Santiago … I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II. We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to NYC in mid August,” Greta tweeted. The journey will take two weeks.

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Putin’s treatment of protesters and rivals shows weakness, not strength | Simon Tisdall

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The shocking treatment of Alexei Navalny and the arrest of hundreds of protesters expose the dark underside of the presidency

Vladimir Putin is no ordinary two-faced politician. For Russia’s Janus-like president, double-speak, disingenuousness and duplicity are a way of life. For 20 years, he has shown himself the master of having it both ways. But is he about to be found out? As riots shake Moscow, with the promise of more to come, is an end to the long, dark night of the Putin supremacy a dawning possibility?

On the infrequent occasions when Putin openly presents himself to the Russian public, he cultivates the persona of a caring, fatherly figure, not unlike a tsar, valiant in the cause of people and nation. Kremlin publicists project images of a bare-chested, no-nonsense tough guy and stern, stalwart patriot, as was the case on Sunday when he was pictured reviewing a St Petersburg naval parade.

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