International

• Monday, July 31st 2017 - 08:06 UTC

  Spanish economy recovering strongly reaches pre-2008 size

  

  Spain's economy grew by 0.9% in the second quarter thanks to improved exports and household spending. The growth figure, a first estimate from the National Statistics Institute (INE), suggests the country's economy has finally grown back to the size it was before the credit crunch of 2008.

• Monday, July 31st 2017 - 07:46 UTC

  Open divisions on post-Brexit policy surface in the British cabinet

  

  Allowing free movement of people after Britain leaves the European Union would not “keep faith” with the Brexit vote, the international trade secretary said, underling divisions in the government over the issue. Liam Fox told the Sunday Times that senior government ministers had not reached a consensus on retaining free movement of people for a transitional period, a proposal outlined by finance minister Philip Hammond on Friday.

• Saturday, July 29th 2017 - 14:53 UTC

  Hammond admits post-Brexit transitional deal up, but until general election in 2022

  

  Any “transitional deal” in the period after Brexit must end by June 2022, the time of the next general election, Philip Hammond has said. But the chancellor said there must be “business as usual, life as normal” for Britons as the UK left the EU.

• Saturday, July 29th 2017 - 13:58 UTC

  Brexit controversy: Ireland against any “economic border” with North Ireland

  

  Ireland is against the imposition of an “economic border” with Northern Ireland and the Irish government is not going to help Britain design one, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.

• Saturday, July 29th 2017 - 12:55 UTC

  Century anniversary of the Third Battle of Ypres, remembered for the scale of casualties

  

  Next 31 July 2017 will mark a century since the beginning of the Third Battle of Ypres – widely known as Passchendaele. The UK Government, in collaboration with the Belgian Government, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the Royal British Legion is hosting a series of events to mark one of the defining battles of the First World War.

• Saturday, July 29th 2017 - 12:23 UTC

  Gibraltar reminds Madrid of close cross-border cooperation and the 7.800 Spaniards working in the Rock

  

  Gibraltar will continue to grow in a post-Brexit world and Spain should not create obstacles to cross-border cooperation that will generate jobs and wealth for the region, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told a seminar in the neighboring town of San Roque in Andalucía.

• Saturday, July 29th 2017 - 11:46 UTC

  Post-Brexit trade deals and serious obstacles when it comes to food

  

  As the United Kingdom begins contacts to negotiate new trade deals as it leaves the EU in 2019, food will be one of many areas that will need to be addressed. The ongoing spat over chlorine chicken highlights how tastes and safety practices around the world can differ hugely, since what might seem normal practice in one country can seem problematic elsewhere.

• Friday, July 28th 2017 - 12:19 UTC

  Air France-KLM buys 31% of Virgin Airlines; Delta retains 49%

  

  Air France-KLM is buying almost a third of Virgin Atlantic, leaving Sir Richard Branson's parent company, Virgin Group, with a minority stake in the airline he founded. Air France-KLM is taking a 31% stake, worth £220m, in Virgin Atlantic as part of a four-way joint-venture with US partner Delta.

• Friday, July 28th 2017 - 11:30 UTC

  May's loses another member of her inner circle; Johnson says “people want government to get on with its job”

  

  British Prime Minister Theresa May has lost another member of her inner circle after her strategy director and chief speechwriter Chris Wilkins quit. Wilkins follows the prime minister’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill, and policy chiefs John Godfrey and Will Tanner, who also resigned after the disastrous snap general election in June, which led to the Conservatives losing their majority in the House of Commons.

• Friday, July 28th 2017 - 06:04 UTC

  World Hepatitis Day: 325 million affected; annual deaths exceed those linked to HIV

  

  New World Health Organization, WHO, data from 28 countries - representing approximately 70% of the global hepatitis burden - indicate that efforts to eliminate hepatitis are gaining momentum. Published to coincide with World Hepatitis Day, the data reveal that nearly all 28 countries have established high-level national hepatitis elimination committees and more than half have allocated dedicated funding for hepatitis responses.