Tony Blair’s intervention in Brussels is an attempt to persuade European leaders that they can help avert Britain’s departure. Stephen Lock for the National
Tony Blair’s intervention in Brussels is an attempt to persuade European leaders that they can help avert Britain’s departure. Stephen Lock for the National

Brexit jeopardising Northern Ireland peace process, says Blair



The Good Friday peace agreement that ended the conflict in Northern Ireland is “at risk because of Brexit”, Tony Blair has said.

The former British prime minister, who was one of the chief architects of the 1998 deal, told the BBC on Sunday that it was written on the assumption that both Ireland and the UK were EU member states.

Allowing free movement of people, goods and an open border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland had been critical in reaching an agreement, he said.

But there are fears that Brexit could lead to a hardening of the border on the island of Ireland, similar to the one that existed in the years before the agreement was signed.

"If you end up with a hard border, obviously that causes tensions,” Mr Blair said.

"It doesn't mean that you should abandon the Good Friday Agreement, but it poses real challenges to it."

Mr Blair’s comments come just one day before crunch Brexit talks in Brussels, in which prime minister Theresa May needs to make a “final offer” on the Irish border.

European Council president Donald Tusk has insisted that Monday will mark the "absolute deadline" for London to deliver "sufficient progress" in its divorce offer, before leaders decide whether to move the discussions on to a future trade relationship.

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On Friday, Mr Tusk said the bloc will refuse Britain’s demand for talks on a post-Brexit transition and future trade pact if Ireland is not satisfied with London’s offer on border arrangements with Northern Ireland.

Mr Tusk, who will chair a summit of EU leaders on the issue in two weeks, was speaking after meeting the Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar in Dublin.

"Before proposing guidelines on transition and future relations to the leaders, I will consult the taoiseach [Mr Varadkar] if the UK offer is sufficient for the Irish government," Mr Tusk said.

"Let me say very clearly: if the UK offer is unacceptable for Ireland, it will also be unacceptable for the EU," he said.

"This is why the key to the UK’s future lies - in some ways - in Dublin, at least as long as Brexit negotiations continue."

After speaking with Mr Tusk, Mr Varadkar added: "The UK must offer credible, concrete and workable solutions that guarantee that there will be no hard border, whatever the outcome of the negotiations and whatever the future relationship between the EU and the UK is."

"The next couple of days will be crucial," he said.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Simon Coveney, Ireland's tánaiste (deputy prime minister) warned that a hard border must not become the "collateral damage" of Brexit.

"We cannot allow some kind of collateral damage or unintended consequence of Brexit to [be] the recreation of a border on the island of Ireland," he said.

Mr Blair admitted that it was difficult to see how the issue of a hard border could be resolved.

He called on negotiators to try and overcome the “conundrum” of creating a hard border between Britain and the EU after Brexit, while at the same time, avoiding one re-emerging on the island of Ireland.

Mr Blair has previously called for a second nationwide vote to decide whether the UK should leave the EU when the full detail of any negotiated deal is known.

The vote – either a national election or referendum - could lead to a reversal of the decision to leave the EU if the terms struck during the negotiations were unfavourable, the former prime minister told The National in October.

“What’s important is that we don’t have a vote on the divorce until we see the terms of the new relationship,” he said. “It could be an election, it could be a referendum … you have to have a final say.”

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

War

Director: Siddharth Anand

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor

Rating: Two out of five stars 

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WHAT IS GRAPHENE?

It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were experimenting with sticky tape and graphite, the material used as lead in pencils.

Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But when they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.

By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.

In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. 

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

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Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

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Stage 2

1. Mathieu van der Poel (NED) Alpecin-Fenix 4:18:30

2. Tadej Pogacar (SLV) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:06

3.  Primoz Roglic (SLV) Jumbo-Visma 0:00:06

4. Wilco Kelderman (NED) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:06

5. Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:00:08

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UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

The nine articles of the 50-Year Charter

1. Dubai silk road

2.  A geo-economic map for Dubai

3. First virtual commercial city

4. A central education file for every citizen

5. A doctor to every citizen

6. Free economic and creative zones in universities

7. Self-sufficiency in Dubai homes

8. Co-operative companies in various sectors

­9: Annual growth in philanthropy

Race 3

Produced: Salman Khan Films and Tips Films
Director: Remo D’Souza
Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Salem
Rating: 2.5 stars

Results

Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent

Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent

Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent

Ticket prices
  • Golden circle - Dh995
  • Floor Standing - Dh495
  • Lower Bowl Platinum - Dh95
  • Lower Bowl premium - Dh795
  • Lower Bowl Plus - Dh695
  • Lower Bowl Standard- Dh595
  • Upper Bowl Premium - Dh395
  • Upper Bowl standard - Dh295
Conservative MPs who have publicly revealed sending letters of no confidence
  1. Steve Baker
  2. Peter Bone
  3. Ben Bradley
  4. Andrew Bridgen
  5. Maria Caulfield​​​​​​​
  6. Simon Clarke 
  7. Philip Davies
  8. Nadine Dorries​​​​​​​
  9. James Duddridge​​​​​​​
  10. Mark Francois 
  11. Chris Green
  12. Adam Holloway
  13. Andrea Jenkyns
  14. Anne-Marie Morris
  15. Sheryll Murray
  16. Jacob Rees-Mogg
  17. Laurence Robertson
  18. Lee Rowley
  19. Henry Smith
  20. Martin Vickers 
  21. John Whittingdale

The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience

by David Gilmour

Allen Lane

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