Latest news with #pro-Brexit
France 24
4 days ago
- Politics
- France 24
Thought police? U.S. scrutinizes foreign student visas
44:22 The man who coined the term 'soft power' recently died. It's ironic that Joseph Nye taught at Harvard University… … the institution that's in the eye of the storm of the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign students. A court's now stopped the U-S government from banning foreign student enrollment at the country's most elite university but more suspensions of federal funding are in the works… and now comes a broader move... The U-S state department pausing visa applications for the country's more than one million foreign students this quote 'in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting.» In a land that prides itself on its first amendment of the constitution guaranteeing free speech, who decides when posting a picture of a Palestinian flag constitutes a national security threat? A passing fancy or the true decline of US soft power? As Europeans try to lure students and researchers to migrate to these shores, as the UK moves towards rejoining the Erasmus foreign student exchange program that the pro-Brexit Conservatives quit – we'll ask what the pushback against foreign students and the use of social media posts as evidence for the prosecution say about our times… and the free flow of ideas and information.
Straits Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
France says it diverted British fishing boat in French waters without correct licence
France says it diverted British fishing boat in French waters without correct licence PARIS - A British fishing boat was escorted away from French waters earlier on Friday after it was found to have been fishing there without the appropriate licence, the regional French authority for the English Channel area said on Friday. Fishing rights have consistently been a contentious issue in talks between Britain and the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit, with the EU having taken Britain to court over its ban of fishing for sand eels in UK waters. The French authority said the incident happened over the course of Thursday night and early on Friday morning. "This operation shows how vigilant the French state will be in terms of protecting seafood resources and making sure that all rules are respected," said the French maritime local authority responsible for the English Channel and North Sea. Britain and the European Union this week struck a new wide-ranging deal that included giving British and EU vessels access to each other's waters for 12 years. However, Nigel Farage - who is head of the right-wing and pro-Brexit Reform UK party - called the deal an "abject surrender - the end of the fishing industry." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
France says it diverted British fishing boat in French waters without correct licence
PARIS (Reuters) -A British fishing boat was escorted away from French waters earlier on Friday after it was found to have been fishing there without the appropriate licence, the regional French authority for the English Channel area said on Friday. Fishing rights have consistently been a contentious issue in talks between Britain and the European Union in the aftermath of Brexit, with the EU having taken Britain to court over its ban of fishing for sand eels in UK waters. The French authority said the incident happened over the course of Thursday night and early on Friday morning. "This operation shows how vigilant the French state will be in terms of protecting seafood resources and making sure that all rules are respected," said the French maritime local authority responsible for the English Channel and North Sea. Britain and the European Union this week struck a new wide-ranging deal that included giving British and EU vessels access to each other's waters for 12 years. However, Nigel Farage - who is head of the right-wing and pro-Brexit Reform UK party - called the deal an "abject surrender - the end of the fishing industry."
Euronews
23-05-2025
- Business
- Euronews
'I hope the British public see how practical it is,' EU Trade Commissioner says about EU-UK deal
The EU Trade Commissioner Maros Šefčovič says he hopes the British public have a pragmatic view of the recent EU-UK deal covering trade, defence and fishing. The first ever EU-UK summit was 'an important step forward' in repairing relations between the two sides after almost of a decade of bitterness and mistrust following the referendum which saw the UK withdraw from the EU in 2020. 'I think we really made a very important step forward and we are opening the new chapter in EU-UK co-relations', Šefčovič told The Europe Conversation. 'We are eternal neighbours, we are the biggest trading partners', he said. Despite the warm words and practical nature of the deal, reaction from pro-Brexit politicians and newspaper columnists was one of outrage, accusing the Labour government of 'surrender' to Brussels. The deal opens up discussions for the UK to sign up to equal SPS (Sanitary and Phytosanitary) standards, EU regulations relating to human, animal and plant life from risks like diseases and pests and carcinogens. When complete, it means the farming and fishing industries will no longer have the burden of extensive paperwork required to the enter the EU marketplace similar to the arrangement before the UK left the Single Market. The UK will adhere to EU standards - which the vast majority of production lines in the UK maintained since leaving the EU – but they will have full access to closest trade partners. Approximately 42% of UK trade goes to the EU. The deal also includes provisions to eventually allow young citizens of the EU and UK limited travel visa-free. In addition, UK travellers will soon be able to use E-Gates at EU airports meaning tourists won't have to wait in line to have their passports stamped. A key element to this, was also a Security and Defence partnership to bolster European security given the geopolitical instability facing the continent. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said she would reverse the deal if she comes into power after the next general election, due to take place sometime in 2029. However, Šefčovič says he hopes the British public will appreciate the 'practical results and practical implementation of the agreements', he told Euronews. 'If you want to restore the bridge building among the young people, and between the EU and the UK if we want to make it easier for the farmers, for the fishers through the SPS agreement and if you want to make it even better for the people from Northern Ireland, I think these are all very important decisions,' he said. Meanwhile, in relation to the ongoing negotiations with the US over trade tariffs, Šefčovič indicated it's unlikely he'll settle for an arrangement which involves a widespread tariff base, similar to what the UK recently agreed. Goods coming from the UK will be subjected to a tariff baseline of 10%, but aluminium and steel tariffs of 25% have been removed as part of that deal. EU member states have stated they would be against any similar settlement, noting the size and heft of the EU's Single Market as an equal competitor to the US market. 'A very clear message I got from our trade ministers was that they insist on having a balance deal with the US. So of course we are ready to negotiate with our American partners,' he said. 'We are pushing for a balanced deal.' The US imposed 25% tariffs on EU cars, steel and aluminium and 20% on other goods last April. But then halved the 20% rate for a 90-day period to negotiate a new agreement. A new YouGov survey has found that between 41% and 55% of respondents in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain think another world war is likely to occur within the next five to 10 years. The vast majority expect that such a conflict would involve the use of nuclear weapons. The research interviewed 7,095 people in the five European countries in the first two weeks of April. If another world war did break out, the respondents expect that their nation would be involved, ranging from 66% in Italy to 89% in Great Britain. Yet there is also a clear sense that European militaries are not prepared for a global conflict. Only France believes that its armed forces could effectively defend the country in the event of World War III, at 44%. The other four countries lack confidence in their armed forces' ability to defend their country, especially Germany, where only 16% have confidence and Italy, with 20%. However, survey respondents were likely to take part militarily if another world war did break out. Britain had the highest percentage of participants at 89%, while Italy had the lowest at 66%. Russia tops the list as the biggest obstacle to peace in Europe, with up to 82% of Western Europeans seeing it as a major or moderate threat on the continent. Islamic terrorism is the second biggest threat, with Germany being the European country most concerned about this issue at 78%. As Donald Trump continues to make controversial foreign policy moves, more than half of the surveyed people in Spain, Germany and France see tensions between Europe and the US as a major or moderate threat to continental peace. Since the start of his second term, Trump has made threats against Greenland, and caused confusion with his shifting stance on the war in Ukraine. Greenland is home to about 40 of the 50 critical minerals that the US considers vital to its national security. These minerals, which include uranium and graphite, are essential for manufacturing and global supply chains, although Greenland's resources remain largely unexplored.
New Statesman
22-05-2025
- Business
- New Statesman
Labour has put the EU back on the agenda. Will the party regret it?
Photo byEver since Labour's landslide victory last summer, the party has discussed plans to reset Britain's relationship with the European Union. It seems the UK is condemned to be locked in a cycle of constant re-negotiation with the bloc – voters wanted out, but the economic logic of a closer union is too tempting. The hardest of all Brexits never really conferred the benefits its biggest champions suggested it might. As my colleague Rachel wrote on Tuesday, Kemi Badenoch's reaction to this run-of-the-mill trade negotiation was a bit histrionic: 'We've got to be a little bit more realistic and a lot less naive,' she told a press conference on Monday afternoon, flanked by Victoria Atkins and Priti Patel for emotional support, shortly after saying she was gobsmacked by Starmer's reset. She called him 'a failure of a Prime Minister' too. The Tory existential doom spiral continues to whirl. Meanwhile Labour is selling the deal as something that will deliver cheaper food and energy prices for British people. As it should: the party's re-election will hinge entirely on the cost of living. Pretty much everything else – save a completely unforeseen ruction – is window dressing. But hold on a minute. Labour is polling several points behind the Reform-led right at the moment. That is, the pro-Brexit right. Led by Brexiteer-in-chief Nigel Farage, no less. In fact, Farage said on Monday he would tear up the deal if he made it to Downing Street. On what planet would you trumpet the success of an ever-closer union at a time when your main opponent argues for the very opposite? This one, surprisingly. Here are the things you need to know about Brexit, the electorate and Labour's political calculations, in numbers. Brexit regret is real, but inflated Most Brits believe the vote to Leave in 2016 was the wrong decision. Though a caveat is important: until recently the number of Brexit 'Regretters' was probably inflated. Leave-leaning voters have been feeling pretty apathetic lately, disenchanted with the Conservatives after 14 years. People like this don't tend to be keen on commenting on political surveys, hence the slightly warped figures. Reform's rise has reversed that, and the numbers are steadying at a more reliable point. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Brexit salience is waning More than one in ten of those that voted in the EU referendum are now dead. And one in ten eligible voters today were not of age for the 2016 referendum. Young people are overwhelmingly for Remain (or rather, Rejoin) which we might expect to shift the needle and give Rejoin a default majority. This isn't quite the case – these young people are not quite as shaped by 2010 loyalties, the passing of time has numbed them and the EU question is just less relevant now. But this situation still makes it hard to whip up a sense of 'Leaver's grievance' that Brexit wasn't done right, as Farage is trying to do. All of this is laid out in the graph below. A have-three-cakes-and-eat-them approach was not the position I expected from Reform's disparate support base. But it speaks to the dulled feelings over Brexit, even among the most enthusiastic of Nigel Farage fans. What now? It is in Reform's blood to stamp its feet over this EU reset stuff. But Brexit wasn't what rallied its voters. The party, then, will continue what it's been doing already: focus on immigration, on boats, and on a perceived cost-of-living betrayal (winter fuel, for example, despite Starmer's hinted-at U-turn yesterday). As you can see above, when you poll these voters on what they want you'll find incoherence: they want closer relations, to keep things as they are, and to loosen ties. We can only assume that they like the sentiment of Brexit, but that we are all too far gone from the Brexit wars to care about specifics. Up to one tenth of the current Reform vote looks to be historic Remain voters, by the way. What Starmer's reset deal can do is rally the middle classes, who are not too stressed by the cost of living, and remind them of their pro-European bent. Labour could exploit this as a means to outpace the growing number of the Reform-curious middle class. Just because the EU is low salience now, it does not mean it won't be exploitable as a fault line in the future. Related
