Diplomatic tensions between the UK and Russia deepened amid claims that Moscow was blocking investigators from reaching the site of a chemical weapons attack in Syria. The UK said it was “essential” the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was granted “unfettered access” to Douma.
Theresa May is to face MPs' questions about her decision to authorize air strikes against the Syrian government. Opposition parties say MPs should have been consulted before the UK joined the US and France in bombing three Syrian sites, in response to a suspected chemical attack on the town of Douma. Labour has called for the law to be changed for any future interventions.
Bombs have fallen. Damascus has been beaten again. The United States, United Kingdom and France coalition launched airstrikes against Syrian targets as Donald Trump sought to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack last weekend near Damascus that killed more than 40 people.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was accused of betraying by handing lucrative licenses in the South Atlantic to foreign firms. The row erupted after it emerged that £75million worth of licenses in the South Atlantic have been handed to firms from Norway, Chile and New Zealand, according to reports in the UK media.
United Kingdom legal costs for package holiday sickness cases will be fixed under new rules aimed at deterring false claims. Similar controls are in place for other personal injury claims, but they will now be extended to cases when holidaymakers seek compensation. The travel industry says claims have mushroomed in recent years despite illness in resorts declining.
Jean Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, has again underlined the EU’s position that the Brexit deal must “fully respect” the terms of the Gibraltar veto granted to Spain in the bloc’s negotiating guidelines.
The controversial ‘Clause 24’ veto granted to Spain by the European Union in its Brexit negotiating guidelines reflects the “unanimous solidarity” of the remaining EU members with the Spanish position on Gibraltar, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said in an interview.
The EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK can reverse its position on leaving the single market and customs union up until the end of the Brexit transition period. The EU official gave Theresa May until December 31 2020 to change her mind on Britain exiting the pair as it withdraws from the EU, saying: “So long as they have not left, during the transition period, everything is still possible.”
UK Chief Secretary Elizabeth Truss is this week visiting Brasilia and Sao Paulo for bilateral meetings with authorities and will follow-up on the second UK-Brazil Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD), particularly on infrastructure. Latest figures show that bilateral trade between UK and Brazil is worth £5.4 billion a year.
European Council President Donald Tusk has said Brexit makes him furious, and called on Europe to unite during a speech in Dublin. The statesman warned it would take very little time to demolish the structures of peace and unity built up in the continent.