Plus, unpicking Covid's unequal threat
| Brexit back on the agenda |
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| | | The UK government is drawing up legislation that would tear up a key part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement reached with the EU a year ago. News of the dramatic move comes as the two sides prepare to resume talks over a potential trade deal on Tuesday. Our political correspondent Chris Mason says the new law would remove the requirement for the UK to check goods crossing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. That customs obligation aimed to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic - and many fear peace could be threatened if it's abandoned. No 10 insisted the new law was a "sensible fall-back option" in case talks fail, but Labour said the government was playing "a dangerous game". Ireland, too, described the plan as "very unwise". BBC Europe editor Katya Adler says it's certainly a political grenade that will provoke a strong reaction from other nations. Read more analysis from Katya. Time is ticking down towards the end of the post-Brexit transition period which has kept the status quo in place since the UK's formal departure in January. Boris Johnson is expected to say later that if no agreement on a trade deal is reached by 15 October, both sides should "move on". The key sticking points are fishing and state aid - find out why. | |
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| | | | | Sangita Iyer is on a mission. As a child, the documentary maker, who was born in the Indian state of Kerala but now lives in Toronto, saw ceremonial elephants being paraded and thought they were beautiful. Later, she learned about the ordeal the animals are subjected to. "So many elephants had ghastly wounds on their hips, massive tumours and blood oozing out of their ankles, because chains had cut into their flesh and many of them were blind," Iyer told the BBC. | |
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| | Swaminathan Natarajan | BBC World Service | |
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| | | | Brexit is back on the front pages on Monday. An unnamed source tells the Financial Times the plan for new legislation would "clearly and consciously" undermine the agreement Boris Johnson has already signed to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The Daily Telegraph sees it as the PM moving decisively to break months of deadlock between negotiators. The Times says he will insist the UK can still "prosper mightily" if it leaves without a deal. Elsewhere, the i leads with a vow from Mr Johnson to crack down on disruptive environmental protests after Extinction Rebellion activists delayed the distribution of several national newspapers on Saturday. Writing in the Daily Mail, Home Secretary Priti Patel says she will be exploring all options - including new laws - to make sure police have a "full suite of tools" to tackle "this behaviour". Finally, a former NHS public health director tells the Guardian ministers have "lost control" of coronavirus just as universities prepare to return and more people are encouraged to go back to the office. | |
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| | | Drug policy MPs criticise near "wholesale rejection" of Scottish moves |
| | | | Court delays Lawyers fear plans will not address huge Covid backlog |
| | | | | | Djokovic World number one disqualified from US Open |
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| If you watch one thing today |
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| If you listen to one thing today |
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| If you read one thing today |
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| Need something different? |
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| | | | 1978 Bulgarian defector and journalist Georgi Markov is assassinated with a poison-tipped umbrella on Waterloo Bridge - watch the report on the attack |
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