Foreign News
Rishi Sunak faces crunch Rwanda vote as Tory MPs split
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing a battle to persuade Tory MPs to back his flagship Rwanda bill, ahead of a key vote today (12).
The legislation seeks to revive the government’s plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country.MPs on the right of the party have said the bill does not go far enough and will not work in its current form. But more centrist MPs warned against any changes which would breach international law.
Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace urged his fellow Tory MPs not to “wreck” the government by voting down the bill. He warned against “making the perfect (but unrealistic) the enemy of the good”.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill faces its first Parliamentary test – known as its second reading – on Tuesday, when MPs get a chance to debate and vote on the main principles of the bill.
The aim of the policy is to deter migrants from crossing the Channel and it is central to the government’s plan to “stop the boats” – which Mr Sunak has made one of his key priorities.
A rebellion by Tory MPs could sink the Rwanda scheme and severely damage the prime minister’s authority.
Among those on the right of the party, the New Conservatives group said the bill required “major surgery or replacement”. More than 40 members met on Monday evening to discuss how they would vote. Several MPs leaving the meeting said they were deciding between abstaining or voting against the bill.Two MPs said the group had the numbers to vote the legislation down and that only one or two in meeting had spoken in support of voting for the bill. Members of the group are due to meet Mr Sunak on this morning.
Earlier, the European Research Group – an influential group of Tory MPs also on the right of the party – said the bill provided an “incomplete solution” to the problem of legal challenges that could be mounted against individuals being sent to Rwanda. It said “very significant amendments” would be needed.
The group has not yet decided how to vote on Tuesday. Its chairman Mark Francois called on the government to pull the bill and come up with a revised version without “so many holes in it”.
However, agreeing to the demands of MPs on the right of the party would risk losing the support of more centrist Tories.
Following a meeting on Monday evening, the centrist One Nation group of Conservative MPs, which includes more than 100 MPs, said it was recommending its members vote for the bill at this stage. But the group said it would oppose any future amendments to the bill “that would mean the UK government breaching the rule of law and its international obligations”.
The group’s chairman, former Deputy Prime Minister Damian Green, urged the government to “stand firm against any attempt to amend the bill in a way that would make it unacceptable to those who believe that support for the rule of law is a basic Conservative principle”.
It is very rare for a bill to be defeated at its first Commons hurdle and this has not happened since 1986.
However, Labour and opposition parties have already said they will try and vote it down, meaning the government needs to ensure enough Tory MPs vote for it to allow it to pass.
Tory critics of the bill could decide to allow it to pass at this stage, possibly by abstaining, in the hope of securing concessions from the government as it goes through the Commons.
But some MPs who previously appeared inclined to back the government in Tuesday’s vote, in the hope of amending the bill at a later stage, now seem much more pessimistic about that possibility. “There’s no way we’d have the votes to amend it next year,” one Tory MP told the BBC. “It’s now or never.”
If there are enough rebels to inflict a defeat this would be near-apocalyptic for Mr Sunak in political terms. That prospect may be enough for him to withdraw the bill completely.
Going ahead with the vote and being defeated would potentially presage a leadership election, perhaps even a general election. Those around the PM acknowledge the numbers are tight but say they are confident they can win and insist they are not going to pull the vote.
The government introduced the emergency legislation last week, after the Rwanda policy was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court.
The bill seeks to stop flights being blocked on legal grounds, by declaring in UK law that Rwanda is a safe country.
Those who want it to go further argue it is still open to legal challenge by individuals, if they can provide compelling evidence their personal circumstances mean they would be at risk of serious harm if they were removed to Rwanda.
In an attempt to win over critics, the government took the unusual step of publishing a summary of its own legal advice on the scheme.
The document says the bill allows for “an exceptionally narrow route to individual challenge” – but that to block all court challenges “would be a breach of international law”.It gives examples such as people in the late stages of pregnancy who are unfit to fly or with very rare medical conditions that could not be cared for in Rwanda.
However, critics argue that even if only some of these claims succeed, they would still clog up the courts and delay removals.
Downing Street said the government would continue to listen to the views of MPs but it believed the bill was “strong enough to achieve its aims”.
(BBC)
Thousands of Georgians protested in the capital Tbilisi as a new president allied with the ruling Georgian Dream party was inaugurated.
Mikheil Kavelashvili, a former pro-footballer, has been sworn in during a critical political period for the country after the government suspended its application to join the European Union.
Georgian Dream won parliamentary elections in October, but the victory was mired in allegations of fraud which have since sparked several street protests.
Outgoing president Salome Zourabichvili refused to step down on Sunday, saying she was the “only legitimate president”.
Addressing crowds gathered outside, Zourabichvili said she would leave the presidential palace but branded her successor illegitimate. “This building was a symbol only as long as a legitimate president was sitting here,” she said.
A few minutes’ walk away, Kavelashvili was sworn in at a closed-doors ceremony in parliament, where he was accompanied by his family. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also attended the inauguration.
Speaking after taking the oath, Kavelashvili went on to praise Georgian “traditions, values, national identity, the sanctity of the family, and faith”. “Our history clearly shows that, after countless struggles to defend our homeland and traditions, peace has always been one of the main goals and values for the Georgian people,” he said.
Georgia’s four main opposition groups have rejected Kavelashvili and boycotted parliament.
Kavelashvili is a former MP with the Georgian Dream party and was the only candidate for the job. Zourabichvili has previously denounced his election as a travesty.
Georgian Dream has become increasingly authoritarian in recent years, passing Russian-style laws targeting media and non-government groups who receive foreign funding, and the LGBT community.
It refused to join Western sanctions on Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and called the West the “global war party”, making a mockery of its stated aim of joining the EU and Nato.
An overwhelming majority of Georgians back the country’s path to the EU and it is part of the constitution.
But in November, the country’s ruling party said the government would not seek EU accession talks until 2028.
The announcement sparked days of protests, and riot police used tear gas and water cannon against protesters, who fought back by throwing fireworks and stones.
On Saturday, protesters waving Georgian and EU flags gathered again ahead of the inauguration, forming a human chain that spanned kilometres.
“I am out in the street together with my whole family trying somehow to tear out this small country out of the claws of the Russian empire,” one protester told the Associated Press.
The US this week imposed sanctions on Georgia’s former prime minister and billionaire founder of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Georgia is a parliamentary democracy with the president the head of state, and the prime minister the head of parliament.
When Zourabichvili became president in 2018 she was endorsed by Georgian Dream, but she has since condemned their contested election victory in late October as a “Russian special operation” and backed nightly pro-EU protests outside parliament.
[BBC]
A court in China has sentenced a man to death for killing 35 people last month by driving into a crowd, in an attack that raised national concern about mass killings.
Fan Weiqiu was venting his anger because he was unhappy with his divorce settlement, the court in the southern city of Zhuhai said in handing down the sentence on Friday.
The victims were exercising at a sports centre. Fan pleaded guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means, a court statement said.
Fan’s “criminal motive was extremely despicable, the nature of the crime was extremely vile, the means of the crime were particularly cruel, and the consequences of the crime were particularly severe, resulting in great social harm”, the court said.
The attack on November 11 was one of the deadliest attacks in contemporary Chinese history.
It was among a spate of violent attacks that have recently raised questions about public safety in China, where citizens have long been proud of streets safe from violence.
The attacks spurred Chinese leader Xi Jinping to order local governments to take steps to prevent future “extreme cases”.
His order prompted pledges from local leaders to examine personal disputes that could trigger aggression, from marital troubles to disagreements over inheritance.
Some analysts have linked the incidents to growing anger and desperation at the country’s slowing economy and a sense that society is becoming more stratified.
A court earlier this week gave a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve to a driver who injured 30 people when he drove into elementary school students and parents in Hunan province. Such sentences are usually commuted to life in prison.
The court in the city of Changde said the driver was taking out his frustration after losing money he had invested.
Chinese authorities keep a tight lid on any reports about the attacks, censoring videos and witness accounts posted on social media and releasing only basic information, often many hours later.
The death toll in Zhuhai was not announced until 24 hours after the attack. In addition to the 35 people killed, 43 were injured, police said.
The 62-year-old driver, Fan, was found in his vehicle trying to stab himself with a knife, a police statement said.
Police set up barricades the day after the attack and barred people from entering the sports complex. Members of the public left bouquets by an adjacent square instead.
[Aljazeera]
More than 1,300 pea-sized, critically endangered snails that were bred in a zoo have been set free to wander (very slowly) on a remote Atlantic island.
The release brings two species of Desertas Grande Island land snails back to the wild. Prior to this they were believed to be extinct – neither species had been spotted for a century.
When a team of conservationists found a small population surviving on the rocky cliffs of Desertas Grande island, close to Madeira, they mounted a rescue effort.
The snails were brought to zoos in the UK and France, including Chester Zoo, where a home was created for them in a converted shipping container.
The tiny molluscs are native to the windswept, mountainous island of Desertas Grande, just south-east of Madeira. Habitat there has been destroyed by rats, mice and goats that were brought to the island by humans.
It was thought that all these invasive predators had eaten the tiny snails to extinction. Then a series of conservation expeditions – between 2012 and 2017 – proved otherwise.
Conservationists discovered just 200 surviving individuals on the island.
Those snails were believed to be the last of their kind, so they were collected and brought into captivity.
At Chester Zoo, the conservation science team made a new home for 60 of the precious snails. The right food, vegetation and conditions were recreated in miniature habitat tanks.
1,329 snail offspring, bred at the zoo, have now been marked with identification dots – using non-toxic pens and nail varnish – and transported back to the wild for release.
“It’s a colour code,” said Dinarte Teixeira, a conservation biologist at Madeira’s Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests. “This will allow us to spot them and track where they disperse to, how much they grow, how many survive and how well they adapt to their new environment.”
A wild refuge has been restored for the snails on Bugio, a smaller neighbouring island in the Ilhas Desertas (Desert Islands) archipelago. Bugio is a nature reserve and invasive species have been eradicated there.
Gerardo Garcia from Chester Zoo said that the reintroduction was “a major step in a species recovery plan”.
“If it goes as well as we hope, more snails will follow them next spring. It’s a huge team effort which shows that it is possible to turn things around for highly threatened species.”
“These snails are such an important part of the natural habitat [on the islands they come from],” explained Heather Prince from Chester Zoo. As well as being food for other native species, she explained, snails break down organic matter and bring nutrients to the soil.
“They help plants grow. All of that is dependent on the little guys – the insects and the snails that so often get overlooked.”
[BBC]
President instructs officials to curb drug trafficking and underworld activities in prisons
President’s Fund to relocate to a new office in the New Year
Implement necessary plans swiftly to make Sri Lanka an attractive tourist destination – President instructs officials
-
News7 days agoOffice of CDS likely to be scrapped; top defence changes on the cards
-
Features7 days agoAn Absurd play in Parliament: Qualifications versus education
-
Midweek Review6 days agoEx-SLN seniors focus on seabed mining and Sri Lanka’s claim for the delimitation of the Outer Continental Margin
-
Opinion5 days agoGoing easy on Year 5 Scholarship trial
-
Editorial6 days agoOf that half-open can of worms
-
News3 days agoService chiefs won’t get extensions; scrapping of CDS Office confirmed
-
Features7 days agoMinorities want govt. to solve their problems directly
-
Editorial7 days ago
Grim Reaper in overdrive