Sky News has established the Government has been signing a series of secret agreements with companies and industry groups over highly controversial outcomes of the Brexit process for Britain's trade border.
The attempt to enforce silence about outside discussions on the changes urgently required to the border after Brexit has raised eyebrows across industry.
A series of non-disclosure agreements have been forced into the process of consultation with the logistics companies that actually operate the UK border, with one industry source calculating that "many dozens" have been signed.
The development was described by Meg Hillier MP, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee, as "extremely unusual" and "a sign of Government paranoia".
Reports based on anonymised data from this exercise, calculating likely difficulties and delays caused by border checks, have been fed back into the Border Planning Group, a cross Whitehall committee of senior officials.
But in recent weeks the requirement to sign non-disclosure agreements has also spread to more arcane technical committees on the future of the border.
Some have refused to sign them, citing concern about Brexit secrecy curtailing political debate about the economic consequences of the Government's red lines and suggesting the "bizarre, Secret Society" agreements were preventing trade bodies from discussing their Brexit approach internally.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-15 21:30:36
France, Germany, UK, US blame Moscow for ex-spy chemical attack - joint declaration
The leaders of France, Germany, the US and the UK jointly demanded "complete disclosure" from Russia over the Novichok nerve agent used in the attack on former spy Sergei Skripal.
The four governments said they "abhor" the poisoning that took place in the southern English town of Salisbury on March 4.
"This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War," they said in a statement on Thursday
The four nations described the incident as "an assault on UK sovereignty" that threatened "the security of us all."
Berlin, Washington and Paris all agreed with the British government's belief that there was "no plausible alternative" to Russia being linked with the attack.
The document also called on Moscow to provide information on its nerve poison to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
血源詛咒
2018-3-15 22:03:41
佢都返重投金將軍懷抱唧
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桜の抹茶刺身
2018-3-16 03:49:24
BREAKING NEWS: 'Multiple deaths' as 950-ton pedestrian bridge collapses on top of cars and people on Florida college campus just days after it was installed
•Pedestrian bridge linking two parts of Florida International University campus collapsed on Thursday
•The 950-ton bridge was installed last Saturday and had not yet been open to pedestrian traffic
•Police say there are 'multiple deaths' as well as a number of cars and motorists trapped underneath the rubble
US special counsel Robert Mueller delivered a subpoena to the Trump Organization requesting material related to President Donald Trump's businesses, including any related to Russia.
The White House said the Trump administration is cooperating with the special counsel's requests. The story was first reported by The New York Times newspaper on Thursday.
The request by Mueller — who is investigating claims of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election as well as possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia — was the first to specifically target the president's business dealings.
The subpoena is the first indication that the special counsel is methodically approaching the issue of the president's business dealings, something Trump has previously said would be a "red line" for him. The president did not, however, say what would happen should the special counsel cross that line.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-16 17:19:28
Gibraltar warns it could rescind citizens rights if Spain uses veto on Brexit deal
The government of Gibraltar has warned that it could rescind the rights and protections enjoyed by Spanish and other EU nationals living and working in the territory if Madrid uses its veto to exclude the Rock from any Brexit deal between the EU and the UK.
According to EU negotiation guidelines issued in April last year, Gibraltar will find itself outside any future trade deal with the UK unless an agreement is reached in advance with Spain over its status, effectively giving Madrid a veto.
Gibraltar’s deputy chief minister, Dr Joseph Garcia, described the veto clause as illegal and said its use would be challenged in court.
He said that its invocation could prompt his government to review the status of EU nationals and also to revisit an agreement guaranteeing the payment of pensions to Spaniards who worked in Gibraltar before Franco closed the border in 1969.
“We said at the very beginning – before the UK had spoken about guaranteeing citizens’ rights – that we would honour citizens’ rights already and acquired rights in particular,” he said.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-16 17:20:30
US accuses Russia of cyber-attack on energy sector and imposes new sanctions
The US has accused Russia of a wide-ranging cyber-assault on its energy grid and other key parts of its infrastructure, as it stepped up sanctions on Russian intelligence for its interference in the 2016 elections.
US officials said that malware had been found in the operating systems of several organisations and companies in the US energy, nuclear, water and “critical manufacturing” sector, and the malware as well as other form of cyber-attacks had been traced back to Moscow.
At the same time, the US treasury announced new sanctions against Russian individuals and entities, including the FSB and GRU intelligence agencies, as well as the Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg, for interference in the 2016 elections.
As a result of Russia’s election interference, officials said that thousands of Russian-planted stories reached “millions of people online” during the US presidential campaign.
The new sanctions represent the broadest set of US punitive measures against Russia since the start of the Trump administration, and many of their targets are the same as those identified by an indictment by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
North Korea's foreign minister has attended talks in Stockholm with Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, ahead of a possible meeting between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un.
Pyongyang said Ri Yong-ho's trip was for "bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern". Sweden has a long history of mediating between Washington and Pyongyang.
Sweden's foreign ministry said their discussions would focus on tensions between the two Koreas, and Sweden's diplomatic work on behalf of the US in North Korea.
The agenda of the talks has broadened, the news site says. One topic is said to be confidence-building measures with the US, including the release of US citizens from North Korean detention.
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-16 20:52:57
Horst Seehofer: Islam does not belong to Germany, says new minister
Turkey claims to have encircled Afrin in northern Syria, besieging up to 200,000 civilians, many of whom were attempting to flee what they fear will be an imminent blockade and bombardment of the majority Kurdish city.
The advances marked a significant moment in more than two months of clashes between Kurdish groups and Turkish-led forces and raised fresh questions about Ankara’s plans for the ethnically mixed area, which has rapidly become a focal point of Syria’s civil war and an exemplar of tensions between Arabs, Turks and Kurds more generally.
Turkey’s gains also continue to showcase friction between Ankara and Washington, which has used Kurdish groups as proxies to fight Islamic State in north-east Syria must to the chagrin of Turkish leaders. The US has not intervened since the campaign began on 20 January, claiming it was committed to the defence of its allies only in areas in which it had a presence.
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation promoting contacts between Washington officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, angering China, which considers Taiwan as part of its territory.
The Taiwan Travel Act will allow unrestricted two-way travel for officials from the United States and Taiwan, thus restoring direct official US contacts with the self-ruled island, which were cut in 1979 when Washington switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing.
The White House said the bill, which was passed unanimously by Congress, would go into effect on Saturday morning even without the president's signature.
China has reacted angrily to the bill, with the Chinese embassy saying in a statement that certain clauses of the legislation "severely violate the one-China principle, the political foundation of the China-US relationship."
Filibuster_HK
2018-3-17 18:03:48
Russia to expel 23 British diplomats in spy-poisoning row
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that it would expel 23 British diplomats from the country in retaliation for Britain's expulsion of 23 Russians over a nerve-agent attack on British soil.
It said that it would also close the British Council in Russia, and reserved the right to take further measures against Britain in the event of further "hostile steps" from London.
SYDNEY (AFP) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants Australia to become a full member of Asean, signalling on Friday (March 16) he is keen on Canberra playing a bigger regional role in defence, trade and security matters.
His comments come with Australia hosting a special summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) leaders in Sydney, as China increasingly flexes its muscle and the threat of violent extremism grows.
Australia has been a dialogue partner of Asean, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, since 1974.
They began biennial leaders' summits in 2016, with the first in Vientiane.
In a report last month, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute argued that Canberra should aim for Asean membership by 2024 - its 50th anniversary of being a partner - and use the Sydney summit as a launch pad.