Former negotiator believes in an unstable world, it is ‘perfectly possible’ the UK can rejoin the EU with old opt-outs
A couple of years ago, Michel Barnier spent a weekend with Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley. It was not some ghoulish Brexit spin-off of The Traitors, but the result of the former EU negotiator’s wife, Isabelle, being a close friend of Johnson’s French cousin, Anne du Boucheron, the owner of Château de la Baronnière, a 19th-century estate in Mauges-sur-Loire, in western France.
“We spent a weekend together in a French castle. Very friendly. Long promenades in the forest,” Barnier recalls of Johnson senior, with whom he discussed the former prime minister’s motivation to back Brexit. “It was interesting. Boris was much more European at the beginning. Even if he was critical. I don’t see it as a motivation but it is, perhaps, a method or attitude: to be pragmatic in some way. Cynical. Cynical to get power.”
Continue reading...The way substitutes combined for the fourth goal against Croatia vindicated Thomas Tuchel’s desire to instil a brotherhood ethos
It is Bukayo Saka who ignites the move. Tight to the right, approaching halfway, the England winger turns on a sixpence and surges away from Josko Gvardiol. Saka’s work in tight spaces, his close control, is a consistent delight.
He plays a pass up and inside for Morgan Rogers and, at this point, Djed Spence is running on the outside. Rogers looks for him but Nikola Vlasic slides in to challenge and the ball breaks. Saka is alive to it, slicing inside and beating Josip Sutalo. England sense the knockout blow because Saka has options, the best being Marcus Rashford over to the left. Croatia have only Josip Stanisic back. Saka goes to Rashford, who steadies himself, jinks inside Stanisic and sidefoots low into the bottom corner.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Former chief Brexit negotiator says staying out of euro and Schengen area would be ‘perfectly possible’
Michel Barnier has said Britain could regain its special terms if it rejoined the EU and claimed it was becoming clearer every day to the British people that they would be stronger in Europe.
In an interview before the 10th anniversary of the Brexit referendum next week, the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator said he could not see any obstacle to the UK keeping the pound and remaining outside the passport-free Schengen travel area should the country rejoin.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Richard Hermer’s department understood to be first in government to restrict use after recent riots
The attorney general has told his office to no longer post on X, making it the first UK government department to stop using the Elon Musk-owned platform amid increasing worries about its use to incite violence and racism.
Richard Hermer’s office last posted on X on Friday, and it is understood that officials have been told to no longer use the site, unless for the specific purpose of combatting disinformation there.
Continue reading...
Lewis Hamilton recently secured his maiden Grand Prix victory with Ferrari at the age of 41 – who does he join on the list of oldest race winners?
Fred Vasseur has explained how he will be trying to keep Ferrari “calm” as the 2026 campaign develops, after Lewis Hamilton’s breakthrough win for the team generated talk of a championship challenge.
Het zal u natuurlijk helemaal niks verbazen. Uw fiets zat een keer aan een nietje, op een ochtend was alleen het voorwiel over, en toen u melding maakte reageerde de pliesie niet eens. Uw katalysator werd onder uw Prius (ja) vandaan geschroefd en ze kwamen niet eens. Case closed. Er stond een overvaller in uw slaapkamer en toen kwam er weliswaar iemand, maar vier maanden later kreeg u alsnog een berichtje: het onderzoek heeft niks opgeleverd, zaaknummer JAMMERDAN. En dan zijn dat nog niet eens ERNSTIGE misdrijven: "Met duizenden aangiften van ernstige misdrijven is in 2024 niets gebeurd. Dat concludeert de Algemene Rekenkamer na een onderzoek bij de politie. Ongeveer 7.000 aangiften van ernstige misdrijven werden direct afgewezen. In zo'n 3.000 gevallen werd de aangifte wel in behandeling genomen, maar werd het onderzoek na verloop van tijd stopgezet vanwege gebrek aan capaciteit bij de politie of het Openbaar Ministerie." Een deel is (dus) capaciteit en een deel is 'werkelijk geen idee': "De Rekenkamer stelt dat de politie veel op het bord krijgt en niet alles kan doen, maar bij driekwart van het opsporingswerk ook geen zicht heeft op wat wel en niet gedaan wordt en waarom." Nou ja, mocht u vanavond bij een woninginbraak in elkaar worden geramd, en u doet aangifte, dan hebt u een paar procent. Succes!
Twice in the Earth’s history, massive ranges of supermountains have formed on ancient continents.
Studies like these point to something we do know for sure: from the highest peaks to the smallest cells, geology and biology are deeply intertwined. And while it’s often said that we are stardust — built from elements forged in the hearts of dying stars — in a sense, we also might be supermountain dust.
They were perhaps as tall or taller than Everest but their distinguishing feature was their massive breadth — we’re talking ranges 5000 miles long, three to four times the length of the Himalayas — just a unbelievable volume of earth. And their formation may have “fueled two of the biggest evolutionary boom times in our planet’s history”.
That’s a lot of rock to erode — and, according to the researchers, that’s why these enormous mountains are so important.
As both mountains eroded away, they would have dumped tremendous amounts of nutrients like iron and phosphorus into the sea through the water cycle, the researchers said. These nutrients could have significantly sped up biological cycles in the ocean, driving evolution to greater complexity. In addition to this nutrient spillover, the eroding mountains may have also released oxygen into the atmosphere, making Earth even more hospitable to complex life.
I also learned about the Boring Billion from this video, a billion-year period of relative “tectonic stability, climatic stasis and slow biological evolution” nestled in-between the two supermountain eras.
Tags: Earth · geology · paleontology · science · video