EXPLAINER - WRANGLING OVER NORTHERN IRELAND THREATENS BREXIT, AGAIN

 Reuters 7 September 2020

© Reuters/CLODAGH KILCOYNE FILE PHOTO: U.S. House Speaker Pelosi visits Ireland

LONDON/DUBLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain's Brexit negotiations with the European Union have repeatedly snagged - and sometimes collapsed - over Northern Ireland. Why?

THE BORDER

A hard border with customs, security and passport control between the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is unacceptable as it threatens the delicate balance brought by the 1998 peace process that ended three decades of conflict between Irish Catholic nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists.

© Reuters/Phil Noble FILE PHOTO: A man looks out over the Irish sea off Blackpool, England

That created a problem: will the only land border between the EU and post-Brexit UK become a back door into the bloc's cherished single market?

THE SOLUTION: BOTH WORLDS

Prime Minister Boris Johnson agreed to regulatory and customs alignment with the EU for Northern Ireland only, but with the addition of a consent mechanism through which the Northern Ireland assembly could vote to exit the arrangements.

So while Northern Ireland would formally remain part of the UK customs territory it would also be aligned to EU rules and remain a de-facto member of the bloc's single market.

In effect then, the customs and regulatory border is in the Irish sea - between Britain and Northern Ireland.

CHECKS/STATE AID

Squaring the circle on paper was the easy bit: it remains unclear what checks will be needed, and how they should be administered, on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Britain.

Cabinet office minister Michael Gove has set out a Trader Support Service to help businesses in Northern Ireland comply with new bureaucracy of bringing in goods from Britain.

There are also questions over state aid. Any state-aid rules made by the British government would apply to Northern Ireland, as it is part of the United Kingdom.

But if those rules broke EU rules, then Brussels would be able to challenge them in Northern Ireland and by extension across the whole of the United Kingdom. Any dispute would be settled by EU courts.

That is unacceptable to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his top advisers who say they are not scared by a no-deal exit.

FT REPORT:

The Financial Times reported that sections of Britain's internal market bill — due to be published this Wednesday — are expected to "eliminate the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement" in areas including state aid and Northern Ireland customs, according to three people familiar with the plans.

WHAT DOES THE UK SAY?

Britain said on Monday it remained fully committed to implementing the withdrawal agreement it agreed with the European Union, describing proposed changes as limited clarifications.

London wants there to be no need for export declarations for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of Britain and it wants ministers to have the power to step in if required.

The government wants to make sure there is clarification to ensure that EU state aid law will apply in Northern Ireland but not in the rest of Britain. It wants a secretary of state to set out guidance to make clear that is the case.

WHAT DOES IRELAND SAY?

Ireland said that undermining the Withdrawal Agreement would be a very unwise way to proceed.

"International agreements and international treaties have to be honoured and they trump any domestic legislation than any country may pass," Irish Deputy PM Leo Varadkar said.

"That agreement is in place to make sure we don't see the emergence of a hard border between north and south, something we all want to avoid," he said.

WHAT DOES THE EU SAY?

The EU reacted by saying Britain would be shooting itself in the foot if it rolled back on commitments sealed under its divorce treaty with the bloc as it would undermine London's credibility in any international agreements, including on trade.

Should the legal amendments not undermine Northern Ireland's links to the EU's single market or the bloc's own state aid policies, ensure proper controls for customs, live animals and animal products, as well as rules of origin on the sensitive border the bloc might end up not objecting to them.

However, the devil is in the detail as the matter is fraught with multiple political and technical challenges.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, Elizabeth Piper, William James and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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GESY HEADED DOWN SAME ROAD AS DEFUNCT CO-OP KEVE WARNS

 Cyprus Mail 7 September 2020 - by Evie Andreou

Nicosia hospital A&E department Photo: Christos Theodorides

Gesy, unless managed properly, could share the same fate as the now defunct Co-operative Bank, Christodoulos Angastiniotis, head of the chamber of commerce and industry (Keve) has said.

Angastiniotis, during an interview with Insider magazine, said that when the proper, full picture is given on the public healthcare expenditure, it will be seen that it is “going from bad to worse.”

“And I warn that no government, neither this nor the next, should even think about increasing our contributions,” the head of the country’s Cypriot businessmen’s union said.

For Angastiniotis, Gesy, along with the social insurance fund and the Co-operative Bank was one of the major social achievements in Cyprus.

“History teaches us that if there is no measure, professional management and rationality these social conquests will be lost,” he said, expressing fears that Gesy may too end up like the Co-op bank that was shuttered by the government in 2018.

Angasitiniotis said it was inconceivable that an organisation like the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) that runs Gesy, and which controls amounts corresponding to six per cent of the country’s GDP, €1.2 bn, does not yet have a general manager.

He added that state hospitals, that make up 50 per cent of the public health sector, continue to be “a bottomless pit, a black hole in budgets increasing their deficits”.

Nothing substantial has been done to make them competitive, he said, referring to the goal of rendering them administrative and financially autonomous so that they can compete with private hospitals under Gesy.

Angastiniotis called the decision for the state to cover state hospitals’ deficit whatever the amount for five years without substantial control as “a tragic mistake”.

He also expressed fears that if beneficiaries and healthcare providers continue to abuse the system, it would lead to its demise.

“Even if there is no increase in contributions and the government tries to finance it from other sources, what will be the outcome? Won’t we be led to an increase in other taxes again?” he asked.

Angastiniotis warned that unless Gesy operates in an orderly manner and strict supervision is introduced, things will lead with mathematical precision to the same situation as the crash of the stock market in the early 2000s but also the end of the Co-op-bank.

“Today’s practices of impunity and euphoria are reminiscent of the time of the stock market bubble when everyone was winning and was happy until we saw the results,” he said.

He pointed out that something is amiss today referring to the fees of doctors, labs and pharmacies.

Angastiniotis also said Keve was against the HIO’s idea, backed by service providers, of creating closed professions within the system, whereby it will choose which pharmacies and other associates it would cooperate with thus closing the door to the rest.

This, he said, would mean HIO making a pre-selection of associates “as if it were a private company, excluding the rest but also those who will enter the market later after the end of their studies.” He said the same system is being contemplated for MRI centres.

“You can only behave like that when you are in free competition, if you are a state monopoly you cannot even think about it.”

 

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CYPRUS OFFICERS TO BEIRUT OVER INCREASED MIGRANT INFLUX FROM NEIGHBOURING COUNTRY

 in-cyprus 8 September 2020 - by Annie Charalambous

Cyprus is sending representatives to Lebanon over the next 48 hours to discuss with authorities there an apparent increased migrant influx from the neighbouring country, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris has announced.

The representatives will be from the ministries of Justice, Defence and Foreign Affairs, from the National Guard, Police Force and Asylum Services.

The Minister also said on Monday that the authorities in Cyprus will brief thoroughly the European Union on the matter and will ask for its assistance.

And that the increased arrivals cannot be managed by Cyprus as all the reception centers are now full , adding that the pandemic has also created new challenges.

Cyprus borders are also EU borders and FRONTEX could assist the authorities in safely guarding them, he also said.

He pointed out that Cyprus government has the obligation to provide assistance to all those who are seeking a safe refuge but our country’s possibilities in doing so are limited.

The Minister said that at Pournaras reception center the quarantine areas are full and four more areas were prepared to accommodate migrants and refugees.

He said that more than 400 people are now at the quarantine areas and 286 in other areas at the center.

Nouris said that at the moment two boats with migrants are anchored in Cyprus waters and described as inaccurate press reports that the boats who transferred people back to Lebanon were in danger. (CNA)

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A "New" Descendant of the Bavarian and Spanish Royal Families? DNA Testing May Tell.

The Spanish press has recently carried reports about a Spanish man, about forty-seven years-old, who is trying to find his paternal roots. The gentleman, who is unnamed, was born in the 1970s to an unwed mother. The mother allegedly worked as a maid in the household of the man's father, who passed away about two decades ago. After becoming pregnant, the mother was fired from her place of employment.

Almudena Cathedral in Madrid may hold the answer.

The man was raised in Madrid. He now lives and works in Malaga. With the passage of time, this man has sought to discover the truth of his paternity. In 2017, his search led to a legal suit, in which the claimant is represented by lawyer Fernando Osuna. Now, a judge in Malaga desires the exhumation of the remains of the claimant's putative father, who is said to be buried at the Catedral de la Almudena in Madrid. Reportedly, this gentleman was not his father's firstborn child, so his recognition would not interfere with the transmission of any noble titles or inheritance that his father may have possessed and passed down to his offspring.

Only one individual appears to meet the criteria for being this man's father...although, anything is possible, naturally.

The marriage of Infante José Eugenio of Spain, Prince of Bavaria, and doña Marisol Mesia y de Lesseps (1933).

This individual would be don Fernando Juan Luís José Maria Santiago y Todos los Santos de Baviera y Mesia, who was born at San Remo, Italy, on 3 April 1937 as the first son and second child of Infante José Eugenio of Spain, Prince of Bavaria (1909-1966), and his wife doña Marisol Mesia y de Lesseps (1911-2005). Fernando's paternal grandparents were Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria (1884-1958) and Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain (1882-1912); Fernando's maternal grandparents were Don Fernando Mesia y FitzJames-Stuart, Conde de Mora, Duque de Tamames, and Marie Solange de Lesseps (1887-1943), who was herself the daughter of vicomte Ferdinand de Lesseps, the developer of the Suez Canal. Fernando de Baviera y Mesia was a great-grandson of King Alfonso XII of Spain (1857-1885) and his second wife Queen Maria Cristina(1858-1929; née Archduchess of Austria).

Don Fernando de Baviera y Mesia

On 14 May 1966, Fernando de Baviera y Mesia married Sofia de Arquer y Aris (1941-2005) at Biarritz, France. The couple had one daughter, doña Cristina de Baviera y Arquer, who was born at Geneva on 7 February 1974. 

The death notice of don Fernando de Baviera y Media, Borbon y Lesseps, Principe de Baviera (1999).

The resting place of don Fernando de Baviera y Mesia and doña Sofia Arquer y Aris at La Almudena.
Photograph (c) ABC / Ernesto Agudo

Aged sixty-one, Don Fernando de Baviera y Mesia died at Madrid on 15 March 1999. His burial was privately held at La Almudena Cathedral, and his funeral took place on 8 April 1999. He was survived by his widow doña Sofía, his daughter doña Cristina, his mother doña Marisol, and his sisters, doña Cristina and doña Teresa.

Sources: 

La catedral de la Almudena guarda en su interior la clave para una demanda de paternidad por descendencia real

Reclaman la paternidad del que fue heredero de una rica dinastía centroeuropea exiliada en España

Buscan los restos de un aristócrata en La Almudena por la demanda de paternidad de un malagueño
Así es la cripta de la catedral de La Almudena, la más grande de España

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Nigel Bruce: The Man Who Would Be Watson

Internet research is indispensable, but sometimes you just have to ask the right person to get the right answer.

Over the weekend, I had a vague recollection that Nigel Bruce wrote an unpublished autobiography. That’s all I remembered. So, on Saturday afternoon I popped an email over the ocean to my British friend Roger Johnson, the always-helpful editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal, to ask him if there was indeed a Bruce memoir.

On Sunday, Roger sent me a PDF of eight pages from the Winter 1988 number of the Journal. A couple of pages consists of Nicholas Utechin’s interview with Nigel Bruce’s daughter, Pauline Page, and the rest is made up of excerpts from Bruce’s unpublished memoir, Games, Gossip and Greasepaint.

Ms. Page lovingly describes her father as a gregarious, intelligent, very funny man who read at least a book a day and fit in well with Hollywood’s British colony, which included David Niven and Boris Karloff as well as his great friend, Basil Rathbone. She remembered Rathbone fondly as a “wonderful, kind, loving, gentle – really gentle – man without a nasty streak in his body.”

Bruce took just over three years to write his autobiography, ending on Nov. 3, 1947. The extracts in the Journal are limited to his role as Dr. Watson. That began in 1938 when Basil Rathbone sent him a telegram in New York, where he had been involved in a failed Broadway play: “Do come back to Hollywood, Willie dear boy, and play Doctor Watson to my Sherlock Holmes. We’ll have great fun together.”

“Willie,” as all Bruce’s friends called him, was soon making The Hound of the Baskervilles. He earned nearly $10,000 for the picture.

“I never worked with a nicer man than Basil,” he writes, “and I never acted with a more unselfish or more co-operative actor.”

His assessment of Rathbone was based on an experience that included 13 more Holmes films and a long-running Holmes radio series. They also spent many hours together playing golf, both having a 10 handicap.

“Our (Universal) Sherlock Holmes pictures took between 18 and 22 days to make,” he reports. For this he was initially paid a salary of $850 a week in 1942 for 40 weeks. By 1945 his contract was for $1,150 a week, but he was laid off for 12 weeks – during which time he arranged an operation on his legs, which had been wounded in World War I. He acknowledges that Watson "was made much more of a 'comic' character than he ever was in the books."  

Bruce was also playing Dr. Watson on the radio for $500 a week at the same time. This was not only good money, but security for an actor.  

Although Pauline Page blames Basil Rathbone’s “very ambitious, rather pushy little wife” Ouida for ending the Holmes film series, Bruce’s final words about Rathbone in the excerpt are: “Ours had been a very happy association and one which had brought me much publicity and a lot of money. During our long time together Basil and I never had a row or any unpleasantness of any sort.”

Bruce ends his memoir with the hope that his two daughters “will enjoy their lives as much as their father has enjoyed every minute of his.”

It is good to know that William Nigel Ernle Bruce, who gave so much happiness to the rest of us, was a happy man himself. He died in 1953 at the age of 58, one month shy of five years after finishing his memoir.

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SEA GYPSIES - The Hogshead Pub, Emba - 19 September

 

SEA GYPSIES

The Hogshead Pub, Emba

Saturday 19 September - 8pm

Tickets €5.  Reservations 99 994449

Classic 3 piece, playing blues, fusion.  Original arrangements of classic numbers.   Tammy Joe Stewart [guitar], Jim Williams [bass], Dave Samwell [drums].

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ONE NEW CASE AND ONE DEATH TODAY

 Filenews 7 September 2020

The death of a male patient, aged 76, with underlying diseases that was being treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the Nicosia General Hospital is announced. The final cause of death is COVID-19. Therefore, the total number of deaths in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients is 29, and deaths with the final cause of COVID-19 are 22, 16 men and 6 women, with an average age of 72 years.

The Ministry of Health informs that, according to an update received today by the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit from contracting laboratories, a total of 2,049 laboratory diagnoses have identified 1 new case of COVID-19 disease.

The virus-positive atom was detected from 110 samples taken from the Microbiological Laboratories of the General Hospitals.

In addition, the following laboratory tests were carried out, without the detection of a case:

• From samples taken through a private initiative, 149 laboratory tests were completed,
• From samples taken through the process of tracing contacts of already confirmed cases, 112 laboratory diagnoses were carried out,
• From samples taken in the context of passenger and repatriated checks, 1,523 laboratory tests were carried out, and
• From samples taken as part of the programme of referrals from Personal Physicians and control of special teams through the Public Health Clinics, 155 laboratory diagnoses were completed.

Therefore, and on the basis of the data so far, the total number of cases amounts to 1,510.

In addition, a person positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is treated in a ward at Famagusta General Hospital. A COVID-19 patient is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the Nicosia General Hospital.

Source: eyenews

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CHINA CELEBRATES SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF SECRETIVE SPACECRAFT

 Sky News 7 September 2020

China is celebrating the successful launch and return of a reusable spacecraft which reportedly orbited Earth for two days before safely returning to the ground.

© Getty China has launched and landed a reusable spacecraft, state media claims. File pic.

The launch and landing "marked an important breakthrough in my country's technology research on reusable spacecraft", said the government-run Xinhua news agency.

There are very few details available about the spacecraft itself, but reports from independent media in China suggest it is a spaceplane similar to the US X-37B orbital test vehicle.

The X-37B is a reusable and robotic spaceplane which has been tested by the US Air Force by being launched on a rocket and is then capable of gliding back to Earth once it exits orbits.

© N/A China's spacecraft has been compared to the US X-37B

It has flown four classified missions carrying secretive payloads during long-duration orbits for the US military.

Xinhua news agency described this weekend's mission as advancing China's "peaceful use of space".

Beijing is typically secretive about its launches, but the spacecraft tested this weekend is especially mysterious - there are no official photographs or computer images of the spacecraft, and it was not even named by Xinhua.

© Imagebridge China launched a rover to Mars back in July

According to the independent South China Morning Post, an official memo regarding the launch which circulated on social media warned people at the launch site not to film the take-off or discuss it online.

A military source told the newspaper that the document was authentic and explained it was because the spacecraft was new and the launch method was different from usual.

This source declined to explain much about the launch, but provided the comparison with the X-37B spaceplane.

The launch follows China joining the search for signs of life on Mars by sending a rover towards the red planet.

Tianwen-1, which means "quest for heavenly truth", took off successfully from Hainan Island off the south coast of China back in July.

The rover will take seven months to reach the red planet and plans to search for underground water and evidence of possible ancient life forms.

The tandem spacecraft - with both an orbiter and a rover - is expected to enter Mars' orbit in February and is aiming for a landing site on Utopia Planitia.

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GRAPHIC - SURGING EURO, VANISHING INFLATION - FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ECB

 Reuters 7 September 2020

© Reuters/Ralph Orlowski ECB headquarters in Frankfurt

By Dhara Ranasinghe and Ritvik Carvalho

LONDON (Reuters) - Thursday's European Central Bank meeting should be anything but dull: the euro is surging, inflation is negative for the first time since 2016 and there is heightened uncertainty about the coronavirus as the number of new cases edges higher.

No major policy moves are expected since the ECB has acted aggressively to shore up an economy tipped to shrink around a tenth in 2020 due to COVID-19.

But pressure to act again soon is rising. Here are five key questions for markets.

1. How dovish will the ECB be?

A negative inflation reading in August points to an explicit dovish bias. Annual euro zone inflation fell to -0.2% from 0.4% in July. Underlying inflation, watched closely by the ECB, tumbled. That suggests the bloc's deepest recession in living memory could become a bigger drag on consumer prices.

Comments last week from ECB board member Isabel Schnabel imply there is no hurry to deliver more stimulus. But weak inflation and a firm euro are fuelling expectations that the ECB will have to expand asset purchases -- possibly in December.

Graphic: ECB policy response to the COVID-19 crisis - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xklvynjrlpg/ECB0309.PNG

2. What about a soaring euro?

Anything ECB chief Christine Lagarde says about the euro's rapid ascent will be watched closely. The currency hit $1.20 for the first time since 2018 last week and has rallied 4% since the July meeting.

On a widely-watched trade-weighted index published by the central bank , the euro is trading near six-year highs, adding to downward pressure on inflation.

ECB chief economist Philip Lane said last week "the euro-dollar rate does matter" in a sign that concern about currency strength is growing among rate-setters.

"The move in the euro has been incredible and the ECB has to respond to this," said Jim Caron, a fixed income portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.

"Do they say something like we're going to intervene? We don't think they'll say that but if they say nothing, the euro's going higher."

While the ECB has broadly adopted a hands-off approach, it has previously resorted to verbal intervention, such as in 2014.

Graphic: Euro during the coronavirus crisis - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xegpbobwbvq/Pasted%20image%201599140904172.png

3. Will the ECB use emergency bond purchases in full?

Euro strength and negative inflation could settle the debate among policymakers about whether the full firepower of the bank's 1.35 trillion euro emergency bond-buying scheme should be deployed.

Minutes from the July meeting showed some officials were not keen for another increase in the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme.

Comments from Lane suggest the PEPP, designed to protect the bloc from the coronavirus shock, is also a key tool in boosting inflation towards its near 2% target. Lagarde and Schnabel have said the scheme will be used in full.

Some economists expect the ECB to expand the PEPP by a further 500 billion euros by year-end.

Graphic: Will the ECB use the full PEPP envelope? - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/xklpynjolvg/Pasted%20image%201599141019741.png

4. How does the ECB view the economic outlook?

ECB staff projections are due Thursday and the big question is whether new inflation forecasts are below earlier ones. The June forecasts had third-quarter price growth at 0.1% year-on-year and the fourth quarter at 0.0%.

There are also signs the economic recovery is stuttering after a sharp rebound between May and July. Growth in the dominant service industry almost ground to a halt in August, a survey showed.

Graphic: Core inflation during crises vs. current ECB projections - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/qmypmaqwepr/Pasted%20image%201599142128604.png

5. Will the Fed's strategy change impact the ECB?

The Federal Reserve last month unveiled a significant policy shift. It will now target inflation at 2% on average, allowing prices to run hotter to balance periods when they undershoot.

That could have implications for the ECB, which is set to restart its own strategic review. Lagarde has hinted in the past that the ECB would take its cue from the U.S. central bank.

Danske Bank's chief strategist, Piet Haines Christiansen, expects the ECB to adopt a symmetric inflation target - treating an overshoot with the same vigour as an undershoot - to maintain flexibility.

Graphic: Inflation woes - https://tmsnrt.rs/358sh0m

(Reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Additional reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; Graphics by Ritvik Carvalho; Editing by Tommy Wilkes and John Stonestreet)

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GREECE WANTS TO BOLSTER DEFENCE SECTOR AS TENSIONS IN EAST MED GROW

 Cyprus Mail 7 September 2020 - by Reuters News Service

Greek army tanks are driven during a military parade marking Greece's Independence Day in front of the parliament building in Athens

Greece plans to acquire arms, bolster up its army staff and revamp its defence industry, its government spokesman said on Monday, as tensions with NATO ally Turkey over energy resources in the east Mediterranean grow.

Greece, which emerged from its third international bailout in 2018 and has been struggling with the economic impact of the novel coronavirus, wants to spend part of its multi-billion euro cash reserves on its defence sector.

“We are in talks with allies to boost our armed forces,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas told reporters, adding that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will outline his plans during an annual economic policy speech on Saturday.

A Greek government official told Reuters last week that Greece is in talks with France and other countries over the acquisition of fighter jets. Greece has also been trying for more than a decade to consolidate and privatise its loss making defence companies.

Mitsotakis will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Corsica on Thursday, before a Southern European leaders summit (MED 7), and will discuss the issue, Petsas said. The French Presidency has not confirmed the meeting.

Turkey and EU member Greece vehemently disagree over the extent of their continental shelves. Tensions rose last month after Ankara sent an exploration vessel into disputed waters in the region, accompanied by warships, days after Greece signed a maritime deal with Egypt that angered Turkey.

Ankara has since been extending the vessel’s work in the wider region, issuing advisories which Athens calls illegal.

The Greek conservative leader discussed the latest twists in the row with European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs summits of EU leaders. Michel will visit Athens on Sept. 15, Petsas said.

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