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April 23, 2017

Macron and Le Pen win French presidential first round

To represent the status quo and the existing political establishment tonight proved a toxic cocktail in French politics, writes John Egan in Paris. In tonight’s first round of the French presidential election,…

April 5, 2017

Le Grand Debat

With 19 days to go before the first round of the French presidential election, last night a Grand Debat – that lasted almost four hours – was held for all 11 candidates…

April 3, 2017

Between the Rock and a hard Brexit

Murray Ritchie explains why Scottish nationalists are smiling. Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon could be forgiven if she let out a shout of delight when the Spanish let it be known they…

March 27, 2017

Leadership: France’s chance to restore hope

Geoff Kitney poses the question: could a Macron presidency in France do what the Obama presidency in the US failed to do? France may be about to embrace a political insurgent of…

March 8, 2017

The no man’s land that is now the ‘sensible centre’

Political leaders failed dismally to recognise that radical political and economic changes were making their constituents increasingly uneasy, Geoff Kitney writes. When Donald Trump delivered his landmark, first speech to the United…

February 23, 2017

Scotland in the EU – the UK’s successor state?

The sudden glow of goodwill from Brussels suggests that when the going gets serious the European Union will be on Scotland’s side, writes Murray Ritchie. Two issues have become central to the…

February 16, 2017

Canada and the EU tie the knot

The European Union is opening the doors to freer trade at precisely the moment that free trade is under the most serious threat since the Great Depression, writes Geoff Kitney Amid an…

February 13, 2017

Climate change faces unsettled future

With the Trump presidency turning its back on the complexities of climate change, China flags it is ready to take the lead, Geoff Kitney writes Key figures in the international coalition working…

January 29, 2017

French socialists select Hamon to carry the flag

John Egan reporting from Paris. Once again it seems that the status quo is a poisoned recipe in politics. Another election has seen a candidate with policies that not so long ago…

January 19, 2017

Europe: Britain never did get it

When Theresa May declared in her landmark Brexit speech this week that it was her fervent wish that Europe should succeed with the European Union (EU) project, it struck me how strange…

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No plan for immediate retaliation against Israel, senior Iranian official says
Iran has no plan for immediate retaliation against Israel, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday, hours after sources said Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil. “The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack,” the Iranian official said on condition of anonymity. According to Reuters, an Iranian analyst also told state TV on Friday that mini drones shot down by air defences in Isfahan were flown by “infiltrators from inside Iran”. Meanwhile, the Israeli hard right minister Ben Gvir has posted a one-word post on X on Friday: “Feeble!” The Guardian, April 19

Israel strikes Iran
Israel struck Iran early this morning, according to two Israeli defense officials, in what appeared to be the country’s first military response to Iran’s attack last weekend. Three Iranian officials confirmed that a strike had hit a military air base near the central Iranian city of Isfahan early on Friday, but did not say which country had attacked. The explosions came less than a week after Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, its first direct attack on the country, in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven Iranian officials on April 1. For days, Israeli leaders have threatened to respond to Iran’s strikes, which turned the two countries’ yearslong shadow war into a direct confrontation. The attack came after the US and European allies imposed new sanctions on Iranian military leaders and weapons makers, while imploring Israel not to risk a wider war by retaliating too strongly. New York Times, April 19

US veto sinks latest Palestinian bid for full UN membership
The United States on Thursday spoiled a long-shot Palestinian bid for full United Nations membership, vetoing a Security Council measure despite growing international distress over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The move by Israel’s key ally had been expected ahead of the vote, taking place more than six months into Israel’s military offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory, in retaliation for the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel. Twelve countries voted in favour of the draft resolution recommending full Palestinian membership. Britain and Switzerland abstained. Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas’s office called the US veto “a blatant aggression … which pushes the region ever further to the edge of the abyss”. France 24, April 19

EU watchdog warns bloc still needs Russian LNG
The EU’s energy regulator has warned the bloc still needs to import Russian liquefied natural gas to avoid an energy shock, even as a group of member states seeks to ban purchases of the fuel from Moscow. Acer, the bloc’s energy watchdog, on Friday said efforts to curb Europe’s record imports of Russian LNG “should be approached with caution” because the supply of pipeline gas from the country is set to fall at the end of the year. “The reduction of Russian LNG imports should be considered in gradual steps,” Acer said in a report that highlighted the difficulty for the EU of balancing energy security with the drive to hit Russia’s finances by cutting gas purchases. The watchdog, which closely monitors Europe’s energy market for adverse developments, plays a lead role in co-ordinating national regulatory bodies. Although the EU has succeeded in replacing Russian pipeline gas with LNG since the Kremlin’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the global gas market is still tight. Financial Times, April 19

Why a deluge of Chinese-made drugs is hard to curb
The US government has long accused China of flooding the country with deadly drugs like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, claims the Chinese government denies. The US says Chinese-made opioids are fuelling the worst drug crisis in the country’s history. In 2022 more than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses. According to a report published by the US select committee on the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government provides subsidies to companies openly trafficking illicit synthetic drugs. The report found tens of thousands of posts online advertising illegal drugs and pre-cursors. The study claims that “wholly state owned” companies are involved in the trafficking of drugs. The Chinese government has consistently denied knowledge of the illegal drug trade. BBC news, April 19

Thames Water submits plan to raise bills by 56%
Thames Water is understood to have resubmitted a business plan to the regulator based on a much sharper rise in bills than previously thought and with households having to foot an increase in charges of 56 per cent over the next five years. The government is finalising a renationalisation plan, codenamed Project Timber, in the event that Britain’s largest water company, heavily in debt, is unable to recapitalise, leaving the taxpayer on the hook for billions of pounds. Thames was plunged into crisis last month after its nine shareholders refused to pump any more financial support into the company. The Times, April 19

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