Here’s a quick summary of what has happened around the world over the last 24 hours, brought to you exclusively by British Herald.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit team has been ordered to come up with plans to “get around” the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit withdrawal agreement. Officials in Taskforce Europe, which is run by David Frost, the prime minister’s European Union negotiator, are seeking to evade Irish Sea checks on goods passing from Britain to Northern Ireland. The officials believe that Suella Braverman, the new attorney-general, may need to give fresh legal advice to justify the move. Braverman was appointed because her predecessor Geoffrey Cox was not willing to take such action.
Johnson’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday to sign off on the proposals, which will then be presented in parliament and published online on Thursday.
Britain will underline its desire for a Canada-style trade deal with the EU when formal talks start next month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street office said. Ministers will meet on Tuesday to sign off on the formal trade mandate document which will frame Britain’s negotiating aims, before it is published on Thursday.
The EU-Canada deal, which came into force provisionally in 2017, removes most tariffs on goods traded between the two countries but does little to facilitate trade in financial services, which are very important for the UK economy. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said Britain cannot have such a deal free from the bloc’s rules and French president Emmanuel Macron said earlier it was not clear whether an agreement can be reached, as Johnson wants, by the end of the year.
Anti-Western hardliners are set to sweep Iran’s parliamentary elections and appear favourites to clinch the presidency next year, but an economic crisis could force them to engage with the United States despite their tightening grip on power. Tehran has ruled out any talks with Washington unless it lifts crippling sanctions reimposed on Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump exited a 2015 multinational nuclear pact with Iran and demanded a broader deal.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran’s enemies tried to put people off voting in Friday’s parliamentary election by exaggerating the threat of the new coronavirus but that participation had been good. Iranian authorities have yet to announce the turnout and the final result of the Feb. 21 election for the 290-seat parliament — a litmus test of the popularity of the establishment.
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Stay tuned for our daily roundup tomorrow!