Brazil will launch its first own satellite to protect the transfer of privileged national security information while boosting the broadband capacity of the country later this month. The Geostationary Satellite Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite (SGDC) will be launched on March 21 from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana. The event is taking place nearly a year after the original launch plan of April 2016.
Boris Johnson has told the BBC that Britain should reject any EU demands for a £50bn exit bill and follow the example of former PM Margaret Thatcher. It has been reported that EU negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK must continue to pay into the EU until 2020.
British citizens should be able to choose to keep various benefits of EU membership including the freedom of movement after Brexit, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator has said. Guy Verhofstadt said he hoped to convince European leaders to allow Britons to keep certain rights if they apply for them on an individual basis.
UK secretary David Davis has urged MPs to back the Brexit bill and insisted the UK would be prepared, if it has to leave the EU with no deal in place. The Brexit secretary urged MPs not to “tie the prime minister's hands” over MPs getting a final vote on the deal and on EU citizens' rights in the UK.
Queen Elizabeth has highlighted respect and understanding between nations as the key to peace in her annual message to the Commonwealth. The Queen's address to 2.4 billion citizens promotes this year's Commonwealth Day theme of a peace-building Commonwealth.
A full program of activities has been planned for this Monday, Commonwealth Day, by the Falkland Islands government. Students and staff from the Falklands Community School will raise the Commonwealth Flag at 08:00, and an hour later the Falklands Junior School together with Defence Force, FIDF, officers will raise the Commonwealth Flag on Victory Green, and the Speaker is to read the Commonwealth Affirmation.
Young Falkland Islanders with a taste for politics will be holding this Monday a special meeting of the Commonwealth Day Youth Parliament. The event will take place beginning at 10:00 at the Chamber of Commerce and is open to the public wishing to attend.A distinguished witness of the debate will be HMA Anwar Choudhury, British ambassador to Peru.
Argentine foreign ministry officials reiterated to representatives from the Malvinas Fallen Relatives Commission and the Confederation of Malvinas Combatants that the initiative to identify Argentine unknown soldiers buried in the Darwin cemetery in the Falklands, is strictly humanitarian.
An Argentine delegation linked to human rights groups is en route to the Falkland Islands with a message of dialogue, peace and demilitarization, hoping to meet Islanders, express support for the identification process of unknown combatants buried in Darwin cemetery, collect evidence on abuses committed by Argentine officers during the 1982 conflict, but also claim sovereignty and reject militarization of the Islands.
British trade minister Liam Fox has urged ministers from more than 30 Commonwealth countries to resist “seductive” trade protectionism on Thursday, eyeing the network of mostly former colonies as a way to boost post-Brexit trade.