World

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday hosts his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin, as they bid to end a dispute over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland that has stymied power-sharing. 

The two leaders meet in Blackpool, northwest England, with signs that frosty ties are thawing over the issue that has paralysed Northern Irish politics and put London at loggerheads with Brussels and Dublin.  

In a sign of renewed commitment to resolving the row, Sunak will become the first UK prime minister since 2007 to open the bi-annual British-Irish Council summit.

Downing Street said Sunak will tell Martin he is “determined” to help restore the power-sharing assembly in Belfast “as soon as possible”. 

It collapsed in February over opposition from pro-UK unionists to the Northern Ireland Protocol governing post-Brexit trade.

The pact was signed separately from the trade and cooperation deal that cemented the UK’s formal departure from the European Union in January 2021.

But its implementation has proven a flashpoint for disagreement between the bloc, member state Ireland and Britain — and even threatens a possible EU-UK trade war.

The protocol kept Northern Ireland in the European single market and customs union, stipulating checks on goods moving from the rest of the UK to Northern Ireland.

– ‘Time and space’ –

That was designed to prevent a “hard” border between Ireland and Northern Ireland — a key plank of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended three decades of conflict.

But it has enraged hardline unionists, including the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), leading to their boycott of the Stormont assembly in Belfast earlier this year.

Elections in May further complicated the situation, after pro-Irish party Sinn Fein on a historic first election.

The UK government, which is risking EU reprisals by trying to overhaul the protocol through legislation, has threatened to order a new vote.

But on Wednesday it extended a deadline “to create the time and space needed” for talks with the European Commission.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said on Thursday that the protocol remained “one of the biggest obstacles” to resuming power-sharing.

But in a further sign of a more conciliatory tone from London, he noted “showing trust and respect with the European Commission” could help solve disagreements over it.

Both Brussels and Dublin have signalled hopes that they can break the deadlock in the coming weeks.

Europe’s point person on the talks, Maros Sefcovic, said on Monday an agreement could be found with the right “political will”.

– Peace guarantors –

The Irish and UK governments are guarantors of the 1998 peace accords which ended the sectarian violence over British rule in Northern Ireland that left 3,500 dead.

The British-Irish Council brings together the UK, Ireland and representatives from the devolved Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh governments, plus those on the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey.

Sinn Fein leader Michelle O’Neill — who is set to become Northern Ireland’s first minister if the executive can be restarted — said the political impasse in Belfast meant there would be “no political representation from Stormont” on this occasion.

“The DUP are preventing our voice from being heard, when it counts,” she tweeted.

In Blackpool, Sunak will also have his first face-to-face meetings as leader with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and her counterpart in Wales, Mark Drakeford.

Sturgeon is pushing for a second referendum on independence despite opposition from the government in London.

During a debate Drakeford recently exploded with rage at the economic damage caused by Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss, whose proposed unfunded tax cuts caused turmoil in the markets. 

Downing Street said Sunak will urge leaders to work together to tackle the current economic crisis, Downing Street said.

Commuters in London and Paris scrambled for alternatives Thursday — or simply stayed home — as public transport workers went on strike for higher pay, the latest industrial action seeking relief from soaring prices in Europe.

Spreading labour unrest poses a problem for governments that are already spending billions trying to blunt the worst effects of rising prices, at least for the most vulnerable.

“I am very deeply affected by the strike,” said 36-year-old Nicco Hogg in London. “I took my car, the train and now I have to cycle.”

The action in Britain, by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) and Unite unions, follows several walkouts this year amid a long-running dispute over job cuts, pensions and working conditions.

Some commuters were sympathetic to their cause, with 28-year-old Pema Monaghan in London, a writer also working in publishing, saying “they are defending their working conditions and their pay so it’s fair enough”.

Others doubted that the action would have much impact on politicians.

“They have loads of strikes,” said Daniel Osei, 26, who works in mental health for children in the London borough of Fulham. “They’re not really affecting the government as much as they are affecting us.”

In France, the strike aims also to ratchet up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron before he brings a controversial pensions overhaul bill to parliament, which would require millions of people to work longer before retiring.

“It’s to show that if we want to take action, we know how to take action,” said Frederic Souillot, head of France’s FO union.

The capital’s public transport operator RATP said nearly every Metro line would be shut down or operating with only limited rush-hour service, and urged people to work from home or postpone trips.

Many commuters appeared to heed the call, with the morning crush less chaotic than many feared, and the city’s growing network of bike lanes saw a surge of cyclists under a bright autumn sky.

But the two main suburban rail lines called RER A and B, which connect central Paris with Disneyland Paris and the Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, saw more severe disruptions.

Many metros were packed, with some trains running only every 15-20 minutes instead of the usual three-minute rhythm.

“It’s a mess,” said Sylvie, 46, after failing to board a metro on the number seven line.

Authorities in London also said the Underground system was “severely disrupted”, with limited or no services running, and advised people to avoid trying to use the network.

Reports said many buses were packed to capacity and unable to pick up more passengers as many waited at stops, while roads were expected to be more congested than usual.

– New CEO awaited –

French unions have staged strikes across several sectors in recent weeks seeking pay hikes or increased hiring as spiralling energy costs feed into widespread inflation.

Thursday’s strike will also include a protest march in the capital in the afternoon that will shut down major traffic avenues.

But the Paris transport strike did not spill over into other sectors, with only the hard-line CGT union calling for general work stoppages. 

Unions representing the RATP’s nearly 70,000 employees say they are feeling the pinch of soaring prices, but are also overstretched because of insufficient hiring, resulting in increased sick leave.

That has led to more service delays or lower frequency on busy metro lines in recent months, causing headaches for the system’s roughly 12 million daily users.

The government is set to appoint former prime minister Jean Castex as RATP chief, with parliamentary panels giving their green light after questioning him this week.

“The most urgent issue… is the continuity and quality of service,” Castex told lawmakers. “The heart of our job is to meet the expectations of our users.”

The family of Egypt’s jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah said Thursday prison authorities had told them he is “under medical intervention”, as fear mounts that means force-feeding.

The family have repeatedly demanded information on the health of the British-Egyptian activist in recent days after he escalated his months-long hunger strike to include water too.

His mother Laila Soueif, at the Wadi al-Natroun prison north of Cairo, was informed that “medical intervention was taken” with Abdel Fattah “with the knowledge of judicial entities”, his sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter.

“They should allow our mother to see him immediately and see for herself how he is,” Seif added.

Abdel Fattah, a veteran pro-democracy and rights campaigner, is serving a five-year prison sentence for “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

International concern has mounted since Abdel Fattah, 40, also began declining liquids since Sunday, the start of the UN climate summit COP27 hosted by Egypt.

Since then, his mother had visited the Wadi al-Natroun prison about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Cairo, pleading for news. 

On Thursday, an officer told her that her son was “under medical intervention”, but gave no other details.

Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the country’s largest rights group, said the prison officer statement “means he is being force-fed”.

– ‘Hidden behind high walls’ –

A key figure of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah gained British citizenship this year.

“Surely our mother should see him, or someone from @UKinEgypt (British embassy in Cairo) so we understand his real health status!!” Seif added on Twitter.

The dissident’s aunt, novelist Ahdaf Soueif, earlier this week said the family was concerned about “rumours of force-feeding and of sleep-inducing drugs”.

She demanded that the British-Egyptian activist be moved to the Qasr al-Aini University Hospital, Cairo’s largest state medical facility, and given access to lawyers and British embassy officials.

She said she feared “the prison hospital is probably not equipped” to care for a patient who has been living for months “on 100 calories a day”.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have all voiced concern and called for his release.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk has warned Abdel Fattah’s “life is in great danger”.

Activists at COP27 summit in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh have posted widely on Twitter under the hashtag #FreeAlaa, and several speakers have ended with the words “you have not yet been defeated” — the title of the jailed activist’s book.

On Thursday, hundreds of COP27 participants, dressed in white like Egyptian prisoners, chanted “Free him!” and “no climate justice without human rights!”.

Others shouted “Free them all!” in reference to the 60,000 political detainees rights groups say are incarcerated in the country, many of them in brutal conditions and overcrowded cells — accusations which Cairo rejects.

“We are carrying out this action to draw attention to those who are invisible, hidden behind high walls, incarcerated in the country hosting COP27 — and all over the world,” one of the organisers George Galvis said.

– ‘Unacceptable insult’ –

The issue is intensely sensitive in Egypt, ranked 135 out of 140 countries in the World Justice Project’s rule of law index.

As international criticism mounts, a counter-campaign has grown. 

One Egyptian lawmaker protested during a press conference by Sanaa Seif, Alaa Abdel Fattah’s other sister, at COP27 — before being expelled by UN security — and another has called on parliament to protest.

Egypt’s mission in Geneva slammed the intervention by the UN’s Turk, saying his “characterisation of a judicial decision as ‘unfair’ is an unacceptable insult”.

A lawyer has also filed a complaint against Sanaa Seif for “conspiracy with foreigners” and “false information”, according to campaigners calling for Abdel Fattah to be freed.

The prosecution has yet to decide on the complaint, the same potential charge of spreading “false information” that Abdel Fattah was himself jailed for.

He had shared a post — written by someone else — accusing an officer of killing an inmate under torture.

US President Joe Biden returns to the world stage with a spring in his step after midterm elections he sees proving that, in the global contest between democracy and autocracy, good guys don’t always come last.

Biden is scheduled to leave Washington on Thursday for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt the next day, an ASEAN regional summit in Cambodia at the weekend and the gathering of G20 major economic powers in Indonesia next week.

The tense midterms campaign had left the world wondering which Biden would show up.

Would it be the “America is back” champion, passionately arguing that the United States is indispensable to steering democracies through competition with the likes of China and Russia?

Or would a diminished figure board Air Force One, a lame-duck president reduced to little better than a speed bump in the inexorable return of Donald Trump and eventual collapse of US democracy?

Biden still faces turmoil if Republicans are confirmed to have narrowly won the House of Representatives.

But he argues that US allies can breathe again after a mostly smooth election and the surprisingly strong Democratic results — limiting losses in the House, potentially holding the Senate, and chastening Trump’s far-right Make America Great Again wing.

“The rest of the world looks to us,” Biden told a news conference.

“They’re very concerned that we are still the open democracy we’ve been and that we have rules and the institutions matter,” he said. 

“With their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are.”

– Test case –

At the G20, Biden will rub shoulders with key European and Asian allies as well as China’s Xi Jinping, who has just cemented his position as undisputed ruler of the superpower with a third term as president.

Ash Jain, at the Atlantic Council think tank, said the summit will prove a “kind of test case” for Biden’s twin-track policy of strengthening the democratic camp while negotiating with autocracies from a position of strength.

The likes of China and Russia are “looking gleefully at dysfunction” in US politics, Jain said.

The midterms results, however, give them a little less to crow about.

Biden says the Kremlin even seemed to have been waiting for the outcome of the election before announcing its humiliating retreat from the city of Kherson, the latest military setback in Russia’s botched invasion of pro-Western Ukraine.

“I found it interesting they waited until after the election to make that judgment, which we knew for some time that they were going to be doing,” Biden said.

The suggestion was that Moscow had been holding out to see whether Russia-sympathising Trump supporters could get a big majority in Congress.

– But for how long? –

Analysts say Biden will travel with other arrows in his quiver.

At COP27, he will flag the successful passage through Congress this year of the biggest US spending package to address climate change. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act includes $369 billion for such things as clean energy.

“For the first time, the US has some momentum on climate and a credible claim to something that looks like a climate policy,” said Joseph Majkut, energy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank. He “will want to take something of a victory lap”.

In Asia, Biden will tout a resilient US economy, which despite high inflation continues to see low unemployment and a resurgence of manufacturing. With China “stumbling in terms of economic growth”, Biden enters with “some wind at his back”, said Matthew Goodman, an expert on economics at CSIS.

None of this, however, will dispel lingering questions in the minds of US democratic allies — and autocratic foes — over the durability of Biden’s vision.

He turns 80 this month and it remains unclear whether he will run again in 2024. Trump, meanwhile, is in vengeful mood and even if he fades before the next election, his isolationist instincts are widely shared in Washington.

In his news conference after the midterms, Biden repeated one of his favourite stories — how, at a G7 summit soon after becoming president, he told leaders of the six closest US allies: “America is back.”

“And one of them turned to me and said, ‘For how long? For how long?'”

“It was a deadly earnest question,” Biden said. “‘For how long?'” 

Tropical Storm Nicole slowed after making landfall in the US state of Florida, meteorologists said Thursday, with high winds raising concerns that a long-delayed NASA rocket launch could be disrupted.

The storm, a rare occurrence this late in the year, sparked mandatory evacuation orders just weeks after Florida was battered by Hurricane Ian.

But just an hour after Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement Thursday.

The NHC said Nicole was packing sustained maximum winds of up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour and heading towards Georgia and South Carolina, which would also be affected.

The storm could also possibly hit Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York later in the week, it said.

Nicole passed over the Bahamas on Wednesday, with the level of destruction not immediately clear.

A tropical storm warning was issued for Florida’s eastern coast from the city of Boca Raton to the boundary between Flagler and Volusia counties, the NHC said.

“Strong winds, dangerous storm surge and waves, and heavy rains continue over a large area,” it said.

Forty-five of the state’s 67 counties were under a state of emergency, Governor Ron DeSantis said, while four counties were under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the state’s Division of Emergency Management.

More than 100,000 customers in the affected areas were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.

In preparation for the storm’s impact, DeSantis said 16,000 people had been recruited to respond to power outages and 600 national guardsmen had been activated.

The death toll from Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, stands at more than 100 in Florida alone.

– NASA launch delay –

Nicole has also raised concerns that a long-delayed NASA rocket launch could be disrupted again.

The storm is heading towards NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, located near Florida’s eastern city of Orlando, having already disrupted plans to launch the agency’s most powerful rocket next week.

The Artemis 1 mission had been due to launch on November 14, but NASA said on Tuesday it would be delayed to November 16.

A backup launch date has been set for November 19.

NASA said it would leave the giant 322-foot (98-meter) SLS rocket on the launch pad, where it had been placed several days before.

Experts have voiced concern that the rocket, which is estimated to cost several billion dollars, could be damaged by debris from the hurricane if it remains exposed.

After two launch attempts were scrubbed this summer because of technical problems, the rocket had to be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building to protect it from Hurricane Ian.

The uncrewed mission aims to bring the United States a step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon five decades after humans last walked on its surface.

Apple limited file-sharing for Chinese iPhone users Thursday, a month after reports that anti-government protesters were using the function to share digital leaflets with strangers.

Under the update to the AirDrop function, users of smartphones sold by Apple in China can only opt in to receive files from non-contacts for a 10-minute window before it automatically shuts off. The feature did not previously have a time limit.

The update, rolled out in the operating system released overnight, makes it virtually impossible to receive unexpected files from strangers.

The change follows widespread reports of people using AirDrop to spread leaflets critical of the Chinese Communist Party in crowded public spaces, partly inspired by a protest in Beijing in which a man hung banners calling for the removal of President Xi Jinping.

Chinese censors quickly scrubbed online videos and posts referring to the protest, while hundreds of users on the popular payment and chat app WeChat had their accounts blocked after speaking about the rare act of rebellion.

Apple did not respond immediately to AFP’s request for comment and did not give a reason for the specific change.

It said in its update description for users the operating system now “includes bug fixes and security updates”.

Apple phones sold outside mainland China did not appear to be affected by the update, while iPhones sold in China displayed the limit regardless of which country the user’s App Store account was based in.

The California-based tech giant, which touts security and privacy protections as key features of its devices, has previously faced criticism for alleged concessions to Beijing.

That included opening a data centre in China, as well as removing an app in 2019 that allowed Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters to keep track of police.

It has also faced boycott threats in China as it stands in the crossfire of US-China tensions, with Beijing warning in 2020 that it could turn its citizens against Apple if Washington blocked Chinese apps.

Some Chinese social media users on Thursday hailed the iPhone update as a positive step in preventing unsolicited messages from strangers. One Weibo user said the change would “greatly reduce the probability of iPhone users being harassed”.

A handful questioned why the function was only being rolled out on Chinese iPhones, with one Weibo commenter joking about Apple CEO Tim Cook’s friendliness with Beijing: “So is Tim Cook a Party member or not?”

Tropical Storm Nicole slowed after making landfall in the US state of Florida, meteorologists said Thursday, with high winds raising concerns that a long-delayed NASA rocket launch could be disrupted.

The storm, a rare occurrence this late in the year, sparked mandatory evacuation orders just weeks after Florida was battered by Hurricane Ian.

But just an hour after Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a statement Thursday at 0900 GMT.

The NHC said Nicole was packing sustained maximum winds of up to 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour.

The storm had passed over the Bahamas on Wednesday, with the level of destruction not immediately clear.

A tropical storm warning was issued for Florida’s eastern coast from the city of Boca Raton to the boundary between Flagler and Volusia counties, the NHC said.

“Strong winds, dangerous storm surge and waves, and heavy rains continue over a large area,” it said.

Forty-five of the state’s 67 counties were under a state of emergency, Governor Ron DeSantis said, while four counties were under mandatory evacuation orders, according to the state’s Division of Emergency Management.

At least 60,000 customers in the affected areas were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us, with Brevard county being the worst hit

In preparation for the storm’s impact, DeSantis said 16,000 people had been recruited to respond to power outages and 600 national guardsmen had been activated.

The death toll from Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, stands at more than 100 in Florida alone.

– NASA launch delay –

Nicole has raised concerns that a long-delayed NASA rocket launch could be disrupted again.

The storm is heading towards NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, located near Florida’s eastern city of Orlando, having already disrupted plans to launch the agency’s most powerful rocket next week.

The Artemis 1 mission had been due to launch on November 14, but NASA said on Tuesday it would be delayed to November 16.

A backup launch date has been set for November 19.

NASA said it would leave the giant 322-foot (98-meter) SLS rocket on the launch pad, where it had been placed several days before.

Some experts have voiced concern that the rocket, which is estimated to cost several billion dollars, could be damaged by debris from the hurricane if it remains exposed.

After two launch attempts were scrubbed this summer because of technical problems, the rocket had to be returned to the Vehicle Assembly Building to protect it from Hurricane Ian.

The uncrewed mission aims to bring the United States a step closer to returning astronauts to the Moon five decades after humans last walked on its surface.