International

• Thursday, October 5th 2017 - 08:11 UTC

  European Commission supports Madrid: “Catalonia has chosen to ignore the law”

  

  Three full days after Catalonia’s controversial independence referendum, a top European Commission official finally spoke out about the issue tearing Spain apart. The Spanish government’s “proportionate use of force” was necessary to uphold the rule of law, Vice President Frans Timmermans said.

• Wednesday, October 4th 2017 - 13:20 UTC

  Chancellor Hammond acknowledges private sector needs more clarity on Brexit

  

  Businesses need more clarity on Brexit, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, has acknowledged. Speaking at the BBC's Today program he said the sooner the government gave businesses more certainty about the process, the sooner the economy would pick up.

• Wednesday, October 4th 2017 - 08:09 UTC

  Good Friday agreement must not be damaged by Brexit, says EU parliament coordinator

  

  European Parliament's Brexit coordinator has said he got a “shock” on his recent visit to Belfast when he saw the city's peace walls. Guy Verhofstadt described Northern Ireland as having a “frozen conflict”, and said the Good Friday Agreement must not be damaged by Brexit.

• Wednesday, October 4th 2017 - 08:02 UTC

  “Working class tantrum towards immigration” spurred the Leave vote and Brexit

  

  One of the reasons for the Brexit vote was working class voters throwing “a bit of a tantrum” over immigration, UK government minister Sir Alan Duncan claimed before an audience in Chicago. He said the campaign had “stirred up a lot of sentiment” about migration among people who do not usually vote.

• Wednesday, October 4th 2017 - 07:40 UTC

  Boris Johnson tells Tories, “let the British lion roar” and praised Theresa May's leadership

  

  Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said it is time to “let the British lion roar” as he called for Brexit to be a moment of national renewal. Addressing Tory activists he said the UK “can win the future” and should stop treating the referendum result as if it were “plague of boils”.

• Wednesday, October 4th 2017 - 07:02 UTC

  Catalonia expected to declare independence in matter of days; King says situation is extremely serious and calls for unity

  

  Catalonia will declare independence from Spain in a matter of days, the leader of the autonomous region has told the BBC. In his first interview since Sunday's referendum, Carles Puigdemont said his government would “act at the end of this week or the beginning of next”.

• Tuesday, October 3rd 2017 - 21:31 UTC

  Nobel Prize in Medicine for three US scientists work on the body's daily rhythms

  

  Three United States scientists have won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The three were recognized for their work on the body’s daily rhythms -- the biological processes that our bodies repeat over and over again.

• Tuesday, October 3rd 2017 - 07:50 UTC

  Monarch collapse and ''rescuing'' 100.000 tourists will cost about £60m

  

  Flights returning 110,000 holidaymakers from overseas after Monarch's collapse will cost about £60m, according to the UK airline regulator. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has called the flights the UK's biggest repatriation exercise in peacetime.

• Tuesday, October 3rd 2017 - 07:43 UTC

  Hammond challenges Labour “dinosaurs” to a great clash of ideas over the future of capitalism

  

  The Conservatives must take on and defeat Labour “dinosaurs” in a great “clash of ideas” over the future of capitalism, Philip Hammond has said, adding that activists must expose Jeremy Corbyn's “back to the future socialist fantasy” which was leading people “down a dangerous path”.

• Monday, October 2nd 2017 - 18:28 UTC

  Catalonia wants “a new understanding with the Spanish state”; EC supports Rajoy, an “internal matter”

  

  Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has said he is not planning a “traumatic” split with Spain, after a disputed independence referendum on Sunday. He said he wanted a new understanding with the central government in Madrid.