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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…

Nato and Ukrainian officials to meet in response to Russian ballistic missile attack
Nato officials will meet their Ukrainian counterparts for emergency talks next week to discuss Russia’s use of an experimental hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine. Ambassadors from Nato allies will meet Ukrainian diplomats on Tuesday in Brussels, according to people familiar with the plans. The meeting was first reported by Agence France-Presse. Financi a l Times, November 22

Putin warns west: You’re pushing us towards a world war
President Putin warned of a global conflict and threatened that Moscow could carry out attacks on Britain and the United States after they allowed Ukraine to launch their long-range missiles at targets in Russia. In a surprise televised address to the nation, Putin said on Thursday that Russia had fired a hypersonic ballistic missile called Oreshnik (Hazel) at a defence plant in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine. He said the missile was designed to carry nuclear weapons, but that it had been armed with a conventional warhead. Putin portrayed the attack on Dnipro as a response to the use by Ukraine this week of American Atacms and British Storm Shadow missiles on targets in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions. “From this moment on … the regional conflict in Ukraine provoked by the west acquired elements of a global nature,” he said. The Times, November 22

ICC issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip. It was an extraordinary blow to Israel’s global standing as it presses on with wars on multiple fronts. The court said the warrants included accusations of using starvation as a weapon of war and “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population”. A warrant was also issued for Muhammad Deif, Hamas’s military chief. Israel has said that it killed Deif in an airstrike, but the court said it could not confirm that. Netanyahu’s office and opposition politicians alike rejected the accusations in a rare display of unity. New York Times, November 22

COP29: new draft text published
A new draft text has been published at COP29. The text proposes that developed countries give developing countries $250bn (£199bn) annually per year by 2025. Jasper Inventor, head of Greenpeace's COP29 delegation, called the proposal "inadequate". He says it is "divorced from the reality of climate impacts and outrageously below the needs of developing countries". BBC news, November 22

Paris’s ‘bioclimatic’ plan to transform the city by 2035
The Paris City Council on Wednesday adopted its highly anticipated local urban development plan (Plan local d’urbanisme, or PLU) after four years of intensive discussions and more than 50,000 public proposals. The plan is built on four pillars: adapting to climate change, increasing public housing, promoting local business and preserving Paris’s architectural heritage. “The challenge is to ensure that Paris remains the city we want to live in for generations to come,” said Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo, receiving warm applause from her majority following the vote. Aligned with Paris’s 2024-2030 climate action goals, the PLU aims to contribute to the city’s broader effort to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 while tackling social challenges. France 24, November 22

Pro-Brexit views not protected from workplace discrimination, tribunal rules
Supporting Brexit is not a belief that is protected from workplace discrimination, an employment tribunal has ruled, as a former Ukip councillor lost her claim that she was bullied and harassed by her charity employer because she supported the UK’s departure from the EU. Colette Fairbanks was sacked from her job at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation charity Change Grow Live after sharing “offensive” posts about immigrants on social media, a tribunal hearing was told. Fairbanks argued that her political views were philosophical beliefs protected by the Equality Act. These included a belief the UK should be outside of the EU, an opposition to illegal migration and being happy to leave the European convention on human rights. However, the tribunal found that these were not beliefs protected by the Equality Act. Wanting to leave the EU was an opinion rather than a philosophical belief that fell under equality laws, the employment judge Paul Jumble said. The Guardian, November 22

Russia targets Ukraine with intercontinental ballistic missile for first time, Kyiv says
Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile during an attack on Ukraine on Thursday, Kyiv’s air force said, in the first known use in the war of such a powerful, nuclear-capable weapon with a range of thousands of kilometres. The air force reported the launch after Ukraine fired US and British missiles at targets inside Russia this week, despite warnings by Moscow that it would see such action as a major escalation in the 33-month-old war. Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, did not immediately comment on the air force statement. Intercontinental ballistic missiles are strategic weapons designed to deliver nuclear warheads and are an important part of Russia’s nuclear deterrent. The Ukrainians did not specify what kind of warhead the missile had or what type of missile it was. There was no suggestion it was nuclear-armed. France 24, November 21

UK war tech sent to Russia by Insta model's company, documents seen by BBC show
High-tech equipment made by a UK company worth $2.1m (£1.6m) has been sold to companies in Russia connected to the military, customs documents seen by BBC News suggest. The documents indicate the British-made camera lenses were shipped by a company registered in Kyrgyzstan, apparently run by a swimwear model. The UK manufacturer, Beck Optronic Solutions, which has worked on British Challenger 2 tanks and F35 fighter jets, told us it had not breached sanctions, had no dealings with Russia or Kyrgyzstan, and was unaware of the shipments. Our investigation raises questions about the effectiveness of sanctions imposed on Russia since the war in Ukraine began. BBC news, November 21

Gaza food production ‘decimated’ with 70% of farmland hit, UN finds
More than 90 per cent of cattle have died and about 70 per cent of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found. More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found. Local food production in Gaza had been “decimated”, Rein Paulsen, the director of the Office of Emergencies and Resilience at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said last week. “Satellite images … indicate that heavy vehicle tracks, razing, shelling and other conflict-related pressures have damaged large areas of farmland, infrastructure, wells and other productive infrastructure,” Paulsen told the UN security council, adding that the destruction substantially increased the risk of famine there. The Guardian, November 21

US seeks Google divestitures including Chrome sale in search monopoly case
The US Department of Justice has asked a judge to force Google to divest its Chrome browser and if necessary its Android mobile operating system, in a bold remedy request aimed at curbing the group’s power over online search. In a proposal filed late on Wednesday, the DoJ argued divestitures would free the search market from Google’s long-standing grip. Prosecutors also sought to impose restrictions on how the company trains artificial intelligence models. The broad request follows a ruling this year by US district judge Amit Mehta, who found that Google had developed an illegal monopoly in online search by spending billions of dollars on exclusive deals with wireless carriers, browser developers and device manufacturers, in particular Apple. It will be up to the judge to decide ultimately what remedies to impose on Google. If adopted, the requested relief would be a landmark win for the DoJ’s antitrust unit, which under Jonathan Kanter has cracked down on anti-competitive conduct across the economy, with a particular focus on Big Tech. Financial Times, November 21

Republicans block release of an ethics report
House Republicans voted to block the release of an Ethics Committee report about allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use against Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, setting up a possible constitutional clash between the House and the Senate. Separately, federal investigators established a trail of payments made by Gaetz to women, including some who testified that he had hired them for sex, according to a document obtained by The Times and a lawyer representing some of the women. The document shows a web of thousands of dollars in Venmo payments between Gaetz and a group of his friends, associates and women who had drug-fuelled sex parties between 2017 and 2020, according to testimony that participants are said to have given to federal and congressional investigators. New York Times, November 21

Ford cuts 800 jobs in UK as part of Europe-wide cull
Another 800 jobs are to go at Ford, just 18 months after the company cut one fifth of its UK workforce. The hundreds of jobs going this time represent 15 per cent of the 5,100 remaining people the company employs in the UK. Last spring the US motor company made 1,300 people of its UK workforce redundant from the 6,400 it then employed. The latest round of redundancies, part of 4,000 jobs across Europe, comes as the company struggles to make the transition to retiring petrol and diesel engine cars and moving to a zero-emission future, despite its bold and unfulfilled promises to be an all-electric brand in Europe in 2025. “Making this announcement isn’t something that anybody wants to do and I appreciate it will have a very significant impact on our employees,” said Lisa Brankin, managing director of Ford in the UK. The Times, November 21

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Between the Rock and a hard Brexit