World Top UK bishops slam 'disastrous' bill as Brexit talks teeter

LONDON (AP) — The U.K.’s most senior Anglican bishops warned Monday that legislation breaching part of the Brexit divorce agreement the government signed with the European Union will set a “disastrous precedent” and could undermine peace in Northern Ireland.

© Provided by Associated Press English flags and a Union flag fly above a souvenir stand opposite Britain's Parliament in London, Friday, Oct. 16, 2020. Britain’s foreign minister says there are only narrow differences remaining in trade talks between the U.K. and the European Union. But Dominic Raab insists the bloc must show more “flexibility” if it wants to make a deal. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The top archbishops in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland condemned the Internal Market Bill in a letter published in the Financial Times.

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Iga Swiatek took note when Naomi Osaka was accumulating three Grand Slam trophies by age 22. Swiatek also was paying attention, of course, when Bianca Andreescu won her first major at 19. And when Sofia Kenin added her name to the list of Slam champions at 21. “For sure, it’s, like, inspiring. I know that there are no limits,” Swiatek, still just 19 herself, said Saturday after winning the French Open for the first tour-level title of her nascent career. “Even though you’re really young, and you’re an underdog, you can do a lot in a sport like tennis.

Business organisation the British Chambers of Commerce has slammed what it describes as "division and disorganisation" over Brexit in Westminster… What are the top stories today?

In the European Parliament, Brexit Party MEP Belinda de Lucy accused Mr Sassoli of “interfering” with British politics. She said: “Let me be very clear Mr Sassoli, you have no right to go and speak with the UK Speaker having conversations that are directly interfering into our domestic politics.

They said the bill “asks the country’s highest law-making body to equip a government minister to break international law. This has enormous moral, as well as political and legal, consequences.”

“We believe this would create a disastrous precedent,” said the letter, signed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who heads the Church of England, and four other archbishops.

“If carefully negotiated terms are not honored and laws can be ‘legally’ broken, on what foundations does our democracy stand?” they asked.

The Internal Market Bill has been approved by the House of Commons and begins its passage through the House of Lords on Monday. It is likely to face strong opposition in Parliament’s upper chamber, where the governing Conservative Party does not have a majority.

English villages wake up to find they're Brexit's new border

SEVINGTON, England (AP) — Four years after Britain voted to leave the European Union, Brexit can still seem abstract. But in the county known as the Garden of England, it is literally taking concrete form. Just beyond the ancient oaks and yews that surround medieval St. Mary's Church in the village of Sevington, bulldozers, dump trucks and cement mixers swarm noisily over a field. They are chewing up land to create part of Britain’s new border with the European Union — a customs clearance depot with room for up to 2,000 trucks.

Gates provided the example of challenges the polio vaccine faced in some countries – and the cunning lengths some were willing to go to get their populations jabbed. In places like Nigeria we had to go to the religious leaders, talk to them, have them speak out, you know, vaccinate their children.

Talks in June between Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen revived hopes that the two sides might be able to reach a compromise but little progress has since been made. Johnson’s controversial plan to rewrite the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement as it relates to Northern

The bill has triggered a crisis of trust between Britain and the EU, who have been attempting to strike a new trade deal since the U.K. left the bloc on Jan. 31.

If passed, the bill will allow the British government to override parts of the legally binding Brexit withdrawal agreement relating to trade with Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. to share a border with the EU.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government says it needs the legislation as an insurance policy in case the EU behaves unreasonably after a post-Brexit transition period ends on Dec. 31 and tries to impede the flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

The bloc sees it as a flagrant breach of an international treaty that could undermine the delicate foundations of Northern Ireland’s peace settlement, created by the 1998 Good Friday accord.

The bill soured talks aimed at securing a new trade deal between Britain and the EU before the post-Brexit transition period ends. Those talks appeared to break down last week, with each side calling for the other to shift its policies to secure a deal. The EU said it was happy to keep talking, but the British government said the talks were over unless there was a “fundamental” shift from the bloc.

Despite that hard line, Britain’s Brexit preparations minister, Michael Gove, said the door to talks was “still ajar.” The two sides’ chief negotiators, Michel Barnier for the EU and David Frost for the U.K., are expected to speak by phone Monday to see whether progress can be made.

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