the EU defer Friday’s exit until June 30 but in Brussels a “flextension” until the end of the year or until March 2020 was being discussed, EU diplomats said.
New Zealand Votes to Amend Gun Laws After Christchurch Attack
parliament’s choice of an interim president on Tuesday after the resignation of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, demanding radical change after decades of domination by the ailing leader’s inner circle. The appointment of upper house chairman Abdelkader Bensalah accords with Algeria’s constitution but many people oppose him because he is part of a ruling caste that has dominated Algeria since independence from France in 1962. The choice of Bensalah angered many as protests grew in central Algiers
EU to Grant May a Brexit Delay, With Conditions The European Union will grant Prime Minister Theresa May a second delay to Brexit at an emergency summit on Wednesday but leaders will debate a longer extension with conditions to prevent any future British leader jeopardising the bloc. In what was cast in London as a national humiliation, May dashed to Berlin and Paris on the eve of the summit to ask Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron to allow her to postpone a divorce that was supposed to have been Britain’s ‘liberation’ May had requested
Lawmakers in New Zealand voted almost unanimously on Wednesday to change gun laws, less than a month after its worst peacetime mass shooting, in which 50 people were killed in attacks on two mosques in Christchurch. Parliament passed the gun reform bill, the first substantial changes to New Zealand’s gun laws in decades, by 119 to 1. It must now receive royal assent from the governor general to become law. “There have been very few occasions when I have seen parliament come together in this way, and I can’t imagine circumstances when it is more necessary,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in presenting the legislation. Ardern banned the sale of all military style semi-automatics (MSSA) and assault rifles just six days after the March 15 shooting, and announced plans to tighten gun laws.
U.S. Attorney General Says Mueller Report Will Be Released Within a Week U.S. Attorney General William Barr told lawmakers on Tuesday that he intends to release “within a week” a redacted version of the long-awaited report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. During a congressional hearing, Barr was repeatedly
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challenged by Democrats who raised suspicions that he may have misrepresented Mueller’s report to paint the Republican president in a better light. Barr, an appointee of Trump who last month announced what he said were the main findings of the report, said he would be as open as possible about redactions of sensitive information when he hands over the full document.
Image of Black Hole Released in Astrophysics Breakthrough An international scientific team on Wednesday announced a milestone in astrophysics - the first-ever photo of a black hole - using a global network of telescopes to gain insight into celestial objects with gravitational fields so strong no matter or light can escape. The research was conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international collaboration begun in 2012 to try to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole using a global network of Earthbased telescopes. The announcement was made in simultaneous news conferences in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo.