European Parliament backs bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them over three years.
The European Parliament has voted to impose tariffs on fertiliser and certain farm produce imports from Russia and its ally Belarus, despite European farmers’ fears that the move could lead to higher prices.
The European Parliament on Thursday voted 411 to 100 in support of the bill that will enact duties in July and gradually increase them to a point where they would make imports unviable in 2028.
In 2023, more than 70 percent of EU fertiliser consumption was of nitrogen-based fertiliser, of which Russia accounted for 25 percent of EU imports worth about 1.3bn euros ($1.5bn).
According to the bloc, the tariffs for certain fertilisers will increase over three years from 6.5 percent to an amount equivalent to about 100 percent, effectively halting trade by 2028.
For farm produce, an additional 50 percent duty will apply.
While Russia and Belarus were hit with prohibitive tariffs last year over the war in Ukraine, the new measures will apply to 15 percent of agriculture imports from Russia that were not previously hit, including meat, dairy produce, fruit and vegetables.
EU lawmaker Inese Vaidere, spearheading the push for increased tariffs, said the bloc must stop fuelling “the Russian war machine” and “limit the dependency of Europe’s farmers to Russian fertilisers”.
Member states still must formally give the bill their final approval, having already supported the idea.
Russia said on Thursday that the tariffs would cause fertiliser prices in the EU to rise.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that demand for Russian nitrogen fertilisers on other export routes remained high, adding that Russian fertilisers were of the highest quality.
Farmers’ fears
The pan-European farmers’ group Copa-Cogeca told the AFP news agency that using Russian fertilisers was the “most competitive in terms of price, due to well-established logistics”.
The tariff could be “potentially devastating” for the agriculture sector, the group warned, adding, “European farmers must not become collateral damage”.
A farmer in Belgium accused the EU of hurting its farmers.
Amaury Poncelet told AFP that he “doesn’t understand the European Union’s idea of punishing its farmers”.
“We’re losing money because of these European decisions that treat us like pawns who don’t matter,” he said.
The European Commission has argued the tariffs will help support domestic production and suggested duties on imports from other regions could be removed to alleviate price pressures, among other mitigating measures, in case of price shocks.
Russia questioned Ukrainian sovereignty and undermined the authority of its president as the two countries engaged in their first direct talks since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Istanbul on May 15 for the talks his Russian counterpart suggested days earlier. Accompanying him were his foreign and defence ministers.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin did not show up, nor did his cabinet members. He sent a junior delegation, headed by ambassador-at-large Rodion Miroshnik, that was not empowered to sign a ceasefire.
However, in sour tones, Russia cast aspersions on the legitimacy of the Ukrainian team.
“The delegation is waiting for the clown to speak out, for the hallucinogens to wear off, and for him to finally allow those he’s banned from negotiating for three years to sit down at the table,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on social media, referring to Zelenskyy’s decree against direct talks while Russia waged war in Ukraine.
“We analysed Ukrainian legislation, and according to it, we understand that Zelenskyy’s powers as the legitimate leader of the country have expired,” said Russian lead negotiator Rodion Miroshnik on May 16, the day of the talks.
He was referring to the fact that Zelenskyy did not hold a scheduled presidential election last year. The Ukrainian constitution allows Zelenskyy to remain in office at a time of national crisis, and the Ukrainian parliament extended Zelenskyy’s term until the end of martial law. But Russian officials have used the extension to paint Zelenskyy as illegitimate.
“There is a risk that agreements reached and signed in an illegitimate manner may be disavowed,” said Miroshnik.
“The most important and fundamental thing for us remains who exactly will sign these documents on the Ukrainian side,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov the day after the talks.
(Al Jazeera)
But Russia’s stance has stirred suspicion that Moscow is laying the groundwork to eventually wriggle out of any agreement.
“This rhetorical campaign is part of efforts to set conditions for Russia to withdraw from any future peace agreements at a time of Russia’s choosing,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.
What the two sides proposed
Ukraine proposed a ceasefire followed by a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin.
Russia rejected both demands, proposing instead an exchange of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side, followed by a submission of ceasefire proposals in writing.
“We agreed that each side would present its vision of a possible future ceasefire, laying it out in detail,” said Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, a member of the negotiating team.
The war will meanwhile continue – in its favour, Russia believes.
During the talks, Russian forces launched assaults near Pokrovsk and Toretsk in Ukraine’s east, capturing some turf.
On Saturday night, Russia unleashed 273 drones on Ukraine’s cities – its largest barrage of the war.
And on Monday, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed to have captured two settlements, Maryino in Sumy and Novoolenovka in Donetsk.
(Al Jazeera)
Moscow has answered Kyiv’s calls for a ceasefire by insisting on talks without preconditions, but it reportedly demanded them on Friday.
Sources familiar with the proceedings told Bloomberg the Russian delegation demanded a priori recognition that the four provinces Russia partly occupies, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, be handed over in their entirety.
Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev insisted that the four regions Russia invaded in 2022 were Russian by law.
“They first proclaimed themselves the subjects of international law following referendums and then addressed us with a request to accede to the Russian Federation. So, from the standpoint of international law, everything is fine here,” he told the St Petersburg International Legal Forum on Tuesday.
It appeared that Russia was trying to set another precondition for a second round of talks, which should entail an agreement on Ukraine’s non-aligned status, Leonid Slutsky, the head of the State Duma’s committee on international affairs, told the pro-Kremlin newswire TASS on Tuesday.
The surrendering of the four regions and neutrality – an agreement never to join NATO and the European Union – are among conditions Putin set in a speech last June.
As delegations resumed their talks on Monday, Zakharova confirmed that those still constituted Russian goals.
“Russia is ready and will continue to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a potential future peace treaty outlining a number of positions, such as, for instance, settlement principles, the timeframe for signing a potential peace agreement, and so on, including a potential ceasefire for a certain period in case relevant agreements are reached,” Putin told reporters .
The next day, Putin called Ukrainians Neonazis for tearing down World War II monuments, and “idiots” who “would come second in a contest of idiots”, as he visited the border region of Kursk for the first time since Russian forces reclaimed it following a Ukrainian counter-invasion.
(Al Jazeera)
Trump urged Putin to meet with Zelenskyy.
Peskov downplayed the demand, saying they “touched upon the issue of direct contact”.
“It is important that America remains engaged in the process of bringing peace closer. It is America that Russia fears, and it is American influence that can save many lives, if used as leverage to make Putin end the war,” Zelenskyy said in his Tuesday evening address.
But others had doubts that Trump’s negotiating tactics were going to produce a good result for Ukraine.
US former ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink explained on Monday why she resigned her post last month.
“I resigned from Ukraine and also from the foreign service because the policy since the beginning of the [Trump] administration is to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia,” she told CBS’s Face the Nation. “Peace at any price is not peace at all. It’s appeasement. And as we know from history, appeasement only leads to more war.”
Europe, Canada and Australia remain the holdouts among Ukraine’s allies in favour of a harder line against Russia.
A 17th EU sanctions package came into force on Monday, restricting the movement of 189 tankers considered to be smuggling Russian oil, and bringing the total to 342. The EU also sanctioned Russian arms manufacturers and 28 Russian judges for human rights violations.
Decision comes after two British nationals born on Diego Garcia, the largest island in the archipelago, claimed the islands should remain under UK control.
A British High Court judge has temporarily blocked the government from transferring sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
The last-minute injunction on Thursday morning came hours before the agreement was expected to be signed at a virtual ceremony with representatives from the Mauritian government.
The High Court decision was granted after action was taken by Bernadette Dugasse and Bertrice Pompe, two British nationals who were born at the Diego Garcia military base on Chagos and claimed that the islands should remain under British control.
High Court judge Julian Goose temporarily blocked the British government from taking any “conclusive or legally binding step to conclude its negotiations concerning the possible transfer of the British Indian Ocean Territory, also known as the Chagos Archipelago, to a foreign government”.
“The defendant is to maintain the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom over the British Indian Ocean Territory until further order,” he said.
Another court hearing is set for 10.30am (09:30 GMT).
Earlier this year, the lawyer for the two nationals, Michael Polak, said on his chambers website that the government’s attempt to “give away” the islands without formal consultation with its residents is a “continuation of their terrible treatment by the authorities in the past”.
“They remain the people with the closest connection to the islands, but their needs and wishes are being ignored,” Polak said.
The UK, which has controlled the region since 1814, separated the Chagos Islands in 1965 from Mauritius to create the British Indian Ocean Territory.
In the early 1970s, the government evicted about 1,500 residents to Mauritius and Seychelles to make way for the Diego Garcia airbase on the largest island.
In October, the government announced a draft agreement to hand the islands to Mauritius and allow Britain and the United States to continue using the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease.
US President Donald Trump’s administration, which was consulted on the deal, gave its approval. However, finalising the agreement was delayed by a change in government in Mauritius and reported last-minute negotiations over costs.
These are the key events on day 1,183 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Thursday, May 22:
Fighting
Russia’s Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 105 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including 35 over the Moscow region, after the ministry said a day earlier that it had downed more than 300 Ukrainian drones.
Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said one person was killed in a Russian artillery attack on the region.
H said over the past day, 35 areas in Kherson, including Kherson city, came under artillery shelling and air attacks, wounding 11 people.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the “most intense situation” is in the Donetsk region, and the army is continuing “active operations in the Kursk and Belgorod regions”.
Diplomacy
Legislators from the European Union are expected to greenlight tariffs on fertiliser imports from Russia. A United States Senate bill to pressure Russia with new sanctions over the war gained the support of more than 80 members of both parties.
The Kremlin rejected Ukrainian and European accusations that it was stalling peace talks, saying it plans to name its conditions for a ceasefire without a timeframe.
Poland said its military intervened after a ship from the Russian “shadow fleet” was seen performing suspicious manoeuvres near a power cable connecting Poland with Sweden.
Zelenskyy said he had spoken by phone to NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and that they had discussed joint steps and the need to put pressure on Russia to secure “a just peace”.
Ukraine’s allies, including the US and UK, issued an advisory warning of a Russian cyber campaign targeting logistics and tech firms involved in delivering foreign assistance to Ukraine.
But it was about so much more than just money. Playing conditions were primitive. Surfaces were dirt pitches that doubled as car parks on matchdays and changing rooms were sheds crammed with up to 30 people and fitted with inadequate showers that would always quickly run out of hot water.
“We didn’t ask for the same financial earnings, because you also have to be aware of what men’s and women’s football generate, but we did deserve to play on a decent pitch and to have a decent locker room,” she said.
To add insult to injury they also had to pay their own travel expenses to get not only to and from the ground for training, but also on matchdays. When they asked if they could be reimbursed for their travel costs, they were told the money was not available. All the men’s teams, however, either had a bus organised for them or would be picked up by the club.
And up until 2017, women were still wearing men’s kit for both playing and training.
“When I arrived, we did our laundry at home. They gave us two or three sets, I don’t remember exactly how many, and we washed them at home,” Unzue said.
“They would give us the smallest sizes but even that was too big for us.”
Getting to away games was another ordeal, Unzue explained: “We travelled almost always by bus, except for the longer trips, like Barcelona-Seville, where we flew.
“But from Barcelona to the Basque Country, by bus; to Madrid, by bus; to Valencia, by bus… it was a long bus ride, you arrived super tired, you had to play the game at 12 noon, return late, and on top of that, people were still working.
“There were a lot of people who arrived late at night and had to go to work the next day.”
The club’s much vaunted academy, La Masia, was also out-of-bounds for the women until very recently – women have only been admitted into the La Masia residency since 2021.
Things have improved considerably but there is still a massive divide. Bonmati is not just the greatest woman player on the planet, she is also, deservedly, the highest paid. Her earnings last year were €1m (£840,000). Her team-mate Putellas was the second-highest earner on €700,000 (£590,000). Barca’s star striker for the men’s side, Robert Lewandowski, is paid €30m (£25.3m).
Since the US sanctioned the ICC prosecutor in February, the court is struggling to function.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is facing one of the deepest crises in its history. United States President Donald Trump sanctioned lead prosecutor Karim Khan earlier this year, grinding the court’s work to a crawl. Khan is now on leave as he faces a sexual misconduct investigation. How is the court functioning in his absence, and what does it mean for the future of international accountability?
Disruption from the ‘highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack’, first reported around Easter weekend, continues.
British retailer Marks & Spencer estimates that a cyberattack that stopped it from processing online orders and left store shelves empty will cost it about 300 million pounds ($403m).
The company said in a business update (PDF) on Wednesday that disruption from the “highly sophisticated and targeted cyber attack,” which was first reported around the Easter weekend, is expected to continue until July.
Online sales of food, home and beauty products have been “heavily impacted” because the company, popularly known as M&S, had to pause online shopping.
The attack on one of the biggest names on the United Kingdom high street forced M&S to resort to pen and paper to move billions of pounds of fresh food, drinks and clothing after it switched off its automated stock systems.
That led to bare food shelves and frustrated customers, denting profits.
A month on, M&S’s large online clothing service remains offline, and the attack has wiped more than a billion pounds off its stock market value.
Chairman Archie Norman said the timing of the attack was unfortunate as M&S, which has been implementing a comprehensive turnaround plan since 2022, had been starting to show its full potential.
“But in business life, just as you think you’re onto a good streak, events have a way of putting you on your backside,” he said.
M&S, which has 65,000 staff and 565 stores, said the hack would cost about 300 million pounds ($403m) in lost operating profit in its year to March 2026, although it hopes to halve that impact through insurance, cost control and other actions.
Chief executive Stuart Machin said the company is focused on recovery and restoring its systems and operations.
“This incident is a bump in the road, and we will come out of this in better shape,” Machin said. He did not provide any details on the attack or who might be behind it.
Earlier this month, the company said customer personal data, which could have included names, emails, addresses and dates of birth, was taken by hackers in the attack.
Two other British retailers, luxury London department store Harrods and supermarket chain Co-op, have also been targeted by cyberattacks at around the same time.
Brennan Johnson scores the only goal as Tottenham beat Man Utd to lift the cup and qualify for the Champions League.
Tottenham beat Manchester United 1-0 to win the Europa League final, lifting its first European trophy in more than four decades to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
It is the first major title for Tottenham since it won the English League Cup in 2008, and its first European triumph since it won its second UEFA Cup — the equivalent of the Europa League now — in 1984.
Brennan Johnson squeezed in the winner at the end of the first half on Wednesday to help Spurs salvage a dismal season, in which it will finish near the bottom of the Premier League standings.
The title guarantees Spurs a spot in next season’s Champions League, and brings some much-needed relief for manager Ange Postecoglou after he struggled to keep his team on track all year.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson, left, scores their first goal [Vincent West/Reuters]
The victory comes six years after Tottenham fell short against Liverpool in the Champions League final.
The defeat adds pressure on United coach Ruben Amorim, whose team sits in 16th place — just ahead of Tottenham — in the Premier League. The club will not play in any European competition next season.
United came close to equalising the match on Wednesday when a header by Rasmus Hojlund was cleared at the goal line by Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven in the 68th.
Deep into stoppage time, a header by Luke Shaw prompted a difficult save by Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Micky van de Ven clears the ball off the line [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters]
It had been an even match, with neither team creating many significant scoring opportunities, until Tottenham got on the board in the 42nd minute after a cross by Pape Sarr into the area.
The ball ricocheted off Shaw and fell in front of Johnson, who seemed to get just enough of it to poke it across the goal line.
United pressed forward after conceding, but was not able to get the equaliser in front of a split crowd of nearly 50,000 at Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium.
Manchester United’s captain, Bruno Fernandes, looks dejected as he walks past the trophy after collecting his runners-up medal [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]
United had last won a trophy in the 2024 FA Cup, and its last European triumph was at the 2017 Europa League under manager Jose Mourinho.
The Red Devils lost all four matches against Tottenham this season and is winless against its rival in seven straight games, with the last six under Postecoglou.
United and Tottenham had met in just one previous final — the 2009 League Cup when Alex Ferguson’s United won 4-1 on penalties after a 0-0 draw.
Tottenham striker Son Heung-min, who came off the bench in the 67th, finally ended his decade-long trophy drought with Spurs.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou celebrates with his players after winning the Europa League [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]
Former Matinee idol Buddy Rogers bounded by the winding staircase to the third floor of his Beverly Hills mansion and called to his wife of 37 years: “Mary, darling. You have a visitor, pet.”
There were murmurs upstairs. Then Rogers walked slowly down the white steps to his visitor beneath the portrait of Mary Pickford in the spacious living room.
He shrugged and shook his head. “Mrs. Rogers would like to see you, darling, but she’s in the shower, dear.”
The scene is usually the same whenever anyone calls on the admired queen of the silent films. She is either sleeping or in the shower, always “unavailable.”
Classic stories from the Los Angeles Times’ 143-year archive
Hundreds have been party guests of Buddy Rogers at fabled Pickfair in the last decade, but none has ever seen Miss Pickford. Even her stepson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., doesn’t see her when he spends an occasional week in the guest cottage.
One of her last interviews was in 1965—to an English silent film historian who has tried many times to see or phone her. But she is unavailable.
Mary Pickford, who will be 80 in April, is upstairs in her bedroom in a self-imposed seclusion that has lasted nearly two decades.
She was the first real movie star, a pioneer of the movie colony, coming to Hollywood when it was no more than a country village. She was America’s Sweetheart of the early 20th century—famous for her golden Mary-Jane curls, dimpled chin and simple charm. They called her Goldilocks.
Rogers—tanned, athletic and manicured at 68—shook his head affectionately. “She just doesn’t go out. But she’s doing great, darling. I took her out for a drive last week, but she said it made her nervous and she wanted to go home.”
Pickfair, 1974, is a museum—once called the “White House of Hollywood”—where U.S. Presidents, foreign heads of state, financiers and famous authors paid court to Miss Pickford.
Contemporary accounts of those gleaming parties come so vividly to mind while in the mansion that one can almost hear music and laughter, faint and incessant, from the garden and the cars going up and down the heart-shaped drive.
In the old days, guests at Pickfair could ride horses through the mountains to the Pacific Ocean and pass only one house along the way.
But time and progress have taken their toll on Pickfair. Only five of the original 15 acres remain. Five $150,000 homes were built on what used to be her vegetable garden.
A china set that Napoleon gave Josephine in 1807 is locked inside a glass cabinet. The mansion property and artistic contents are valued at $2 million.
The big rooms and high hallways are full of Frederic Remington paintings, early 18th-century antiques from Europe, Chippendale chairs and mirrors and Victorian tables. A sterling silver urn, given to Miss Pickford by the queen of Siam, is also in a glass case.
Film awards—including the first Oscar for the best performance by an actress in sound—are scattered around.
In almost every room as portraits of Miss Pickford staring down from the walls—at stages of her life from 18 to 59.
Rogers points out every detail eagerly. “Look here, darling.”
He leads the visitor into the small “Rodin Room,” named after Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), father of modern sculpture. There are his rare sketches of nude dancing women, which Miss Pickford bought almost half a century ago.
Ultimately, Rogers confided, the visitor would get her audience with Miss Pickford after all —after a fashion.
He dialed his wife on a house phone on a small table.
Mary Pickford in lace gown, ca. 1930
(Bettmann / Bettmann Archive)
“Yes, darling, she’s here,” he said. “She’s a young one, dear.”
He handed over the phone. “Mrs. Rogers wants to talk to you, sweet. She’s so happy you’re hear, darling.”
Gusty Santa Ana winds slapped hard against Pickfair, howling loudly, rattling closed windows.
“Boy! If I were outside right now I’d feel like hen caught in a tornado,” Miss Pickford laughed. It was fresh and spontaneous laughter.
It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down as if each syllable were an arrangement of notes that would never be played again. Her voice was sad and lovely and grandmotherly, but with bright things in it.
“I just hopped out of the tub,” Miss Pickford said. “I’d come down and chat with you but my hair isn’t fixed. I’m afraid I’d have to get all dressed up for you.”
She said she enjoys the privacy and rest long denied her after all the busy years in the public eye as one of the world’s wealthiest and most beautiful women.
“Yes, I miss my career, certainly,” Miss Pickford said. “But I feel I’ve earned this rest. I used to work from 6 in the morning until midnight—the actress by day, the producer by night! Ut was a struggle. I never had time to myself.
“This is the first time in my life without constantly being interrupted.”
She did not specify what has intruded on her solitude for the last decade or more, but said she now goes nowhere—not to movies, nor to shows, nor out to dinner, nor even shopping. “I’ve chosen this way of life for myself,” she said. “I like my privacy.”
She said she reads mysteries and newspapers, dictates, looks out of her bedroom windows at Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, listens to records and watches television.
“I’m reading all about the devil,” Miss Pickford confessed. “I think all this exorcism business is a hoax. Buddy says the movie is scary and I don’t like to be scared.”
Rogers sat slumped in a nearby armchair watching, amused.
Miss Pickford is aware she is different from other silent stars who have kept busy and still earn honors on stage and screen despite their ages.
(Lilliam Gish, a close friend of 75, often appears in comedies as a little old lady. Gloria Swanson, the same age, is on Broadway and TV. Marlene Dietrich still does her famous songs at nightclubs and theaters at 74.
(Mae West, 83, likes to stay public and recently judged a UCLA kissing contest. And Helen Hayes is starring in a new, prime-time TV series called Snoop Sisters. She’s 73).
It’s been so long since I met the public,” she said. “People are so nervous these days. I don’t think people would have the patience to listen to me…
“I played little girls, you know. Actresses can’t go on and on forever doing that type of role. I can’t imagine Jack Benny being 80, can you? And yet he’s kicking around all the time on TV. Women can’t get away with that like men can.
Pickford disappeared from public view for more than a decade not long after this photo was taken of her at her Pickfair Estate in 1963.
(Los Angeles Times)
“Although I often dream I am before the cameras again. The other night, I imagined myself in a long shot and wondered if I should not redo my hair for it…”
She paused, then said musingly, “I have several pretty house dresses. I could throw one on and come down and talk to you… but I’m too lazy.”
Damn…
Some who have not seen Miss Pickford for years guess that time has not been kind to her. But her business manager, Matty Kemp, 64, describes her as having the “beautiful skin of a baby.” She’s 5-foot-1 and very slim.
“She keeps her hair blonde and has that same winsome smile that everyone remembers,” Kemp said. “You can’t detect a wrinkle on her face.”
Two favorite friends of Miss Pickford are Miss Gish and Mildred Loew (producer Adolph Zukor’s daughter). They visit Miss Pickford once a year when they are in town.
Miss Pickford has not viewed her films for 25 years. They have been shown only twice in the United States since they were locked up in vaults at Bekins and Producers Film Center in Hollywood in 1933.
There they have sat, deteriorating with time. Miss Pickford wanted it that way. She is one of the few stars who owns and controls her films.
Just recently she was persuaded not to order her films burned at her death. She had not wanted to be compared with today’s actresses.
“I always thought of myself as an entertainer for my own generation,” she explained. “That was all that counted. It was Lillian Gish who convinced me that the films belong to the public and that I had no right to destroy them.”
So the Mary Pickford Foundation, run by Kemp, has spent about $260,000 to preserve and restore the films. (Some foreign countries have copies of her movies and show them at special screenings).
Some will be shown this month at film festivals honoring Miss Pickford throughout Europe. Her managers want to test the reaction of other countries before they consider showing them in the United States.
She wants to attend the Paris tribute.
“I’m longing to see Paris again. I got my warmest reception there long ago. I wonder if their reactions to me would be the same. Did you know that I can speak straight French for a half an hour?”
If she goes, it will be her first public appearance since 1965, when she visited Europe.
In the early 1970s, England and France had film tributes for Miss Pickford. There were parades in London and Paris and thousands of people lined the streets to get a glimpse of her. They shouted for her autograph and locks of her hair.
But Miss Pickford was not there. At the last minute, she stayed at Pickfair. Rogers went alone and waved to the crowds for her.
She still misses producer D.W. Griffith.
“No one came close to him,” she said. “He mastered the close-up, the fade-out. No one ever called him David because everyone had the greatest respect for him. He was always Mr. Griffith.”
Miss Pickford also spoke fo Douglas Fairbanks Sr., her second husband. They were considered the world’s most romantic couple.
In films, Fairbanks was the dashing hero who could dispose of 20 adversaries in a running fight. According to Miss Pickford, he was exuberant and often did handstands or leapt over sofas to amuse friends.
“Because he had never outgrown a small boy’s penchant for showing off, he was rarely referred to as Douglas or Mr. Fairbanks,” she said. “It was always Doug.”
She sighed and her voice became sad.
“I got word that my beloved cameraman Charles Rosher died in Portugal. He was a master, too.”
Another pause.
“He once said, ‘I’m not going to shoot this film because there’s a shadow on Miss Pickford’s face.’ I said, ‘Charlie, what does it matter?’ But he insisted. He was so loyal. I don’t know where to send word to his wife.”Miss Pickford said she was appalled by Watergate.
“I can’t see any individuals destroying this country,” she said, vehemently. “The United States is supposed to be the leader of the world and some punks are letting it go to the ashcan. We obviously need some housecleaning.”
(She was a big contributor to President Nixon’s reelection campaign, according to Kemp. During World War I, she also sold $48 million worth of Liberty Bonds for the United States.
(The government wanted her to make war propaganda films then, but she would make only humorous ones. One showed her riding a horse down San Fancisco’s Market St., her golden curls flying in the breeze, leading the 143rd Field Artillery shipward to France.)
Of today’s stars, Miss Pickford said she is most impressed with Katherine Hepburn and Liza Minelli.
But her favorite remains Shirley Temple. “Oh, she was the cutest baby,” she said. “She had more talent than anyone. Too bad she had to retire, but she left us with a lot of beautiful memories.”
She added that there were no actors she was particularly fond of. “Nope. None since Gable,” she said.
There was another deep sigh. Rogers seized on the silence to draw the conversation to a close. “She’s doing great, darling, but I don’t want to tire her out,” he said.
Miss Pickford’s voice started to trail away.
“It was nice talking to you,” she said. “Maybe I’ll see you someday…”
The UK pauses trade talks as the EU threatens to review ties with Israel.
Israel is facing condemnation from some of its strongest allies over its increasing aggression in Gaza.
The UK is cancelling new trade talks and the EU is reviewing old agreements, while both are imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The two powers say they cannot stand by while Israel expands military operations, increases air strikes and starves Palestinians in Gaza with its total blockade.
But critics are asking why they did not step in before.
Will the new measures be imposed?
And most importantly: Will any of this change the reality on the ground for the Palestinians?
Presenter:
Folly Bah Thibault
Guests:
James Moran – Former EU ambassador to Egypt and Jordan
Yossi Mekelberg – Senior consulting fellow at Chatham House
Zaid Belbagi – Managing partner of Hardcastle Advisory and political commentator
Armenia has long relied on Russian weapons in its bitter dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan.
Russia’s top diplomat has blamed the war in Ukraine for affecting the supply of arms to Armenia, and has expressed concern that Moscow’s longstanding ally would now look to the West for military support instead.
Speaking in Yerevan on the second day of a two-day visit to Armenia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that some of Russia’s weapons contracts with the former Soviet republic had been delayed or reassigned due to the pressures created by the war in Ukraine.
Armenia has long relied on Russian weapons in its bitter dispute with neighbouring Azerbaijan, against whom it has fought a series of conflicts since the late 1980s.
“We are currently in a situation where, as has happened throughout history, we are forced to fight all of Europe,” Lavrov said, in a barbed reference to European support for Ukraine in response to the Russian invasion.
“Our Armenian friends understand that in such conditions, we cannot fulfil all our obligations on time.”
As Russia has failed to deliver on weapons contracts paid for by Armenia, Yerevan has increasingly turned to countries like France and India for military supplies.
Lavrov said that Russia would not oppose these growing ties, but said that they raised concerns about its traditional ally’s strategic intentions.
“When an ally turns to a country like France, which leads the hostile camp and whose president and ministers speak openly with hatred toward Russia, it does raise questions,” he said.
Armenia has strengthened its ties with the West amid recent ongoing tensions with Azerbaijan, fallout from the last major eruption of conflict and Russia’s role in that.
In September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a military operation to retake Nagorno-Karabakh, a separatist enclave in Azerbaijan with a mostly ethnic Armenian population that had broken away from Baku with Armenian support amid the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Armenia accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect the more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians who fled the region, fuelled by decades of distrust, wars, mutual hatred and violence, after Azerbaijan’s lightning takeover.
Yerevan also suspended its involvement in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russian-led security umbrella of ex-Soviet countries, last year, saying it would not participate or fund the alliance.
Brits are being warned to check before travelling to the likes of France, Italy, Spain and more to avoid being surprised by a common extra cost when they check-in at their hotel
16:51, 21 May 2025Updated 16:53, 21 May 2025
Tourist taxes are rarely included in the original cost of your holiday(Image: Getty Images)
Brits planning their summer holidays are being warned to check for additional costs before they head off to their destination.
That’s because there are plenty of hotspots in the likes of France, Spain and Italy charge a tourist tax, often for every day of your stay. While this isn’t usually more than a few euros each day, it’s worth noting that it’s rarely included in the original cost of your holiday, but rather is paid when you check-in to your hotel.
However, a survey from Quotezone revealed that 45% of Brits don’t plan for additional expenses on holiday – and so can be caught off-guard when they’re asked to pay at reception.
Greg Wilson, CEO and travel insurance expert at Quotezone.co.uk said: “If you’re planning a trip to any city in Europe this year, you must be aware of the potential additional costs to your holiday such as tourist tax – often these extras are not obvious beforehand and normally due for payment when you check out of your accommodation. Tourism taxes range anywhere between less than €1 to almost €15 per night and can be charged per person.”
Venice has a tourism tax in place to combat the large numbers of visitors descending on the city (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Although tourist taxes aren’t new, they’ve been an increasing source of tension in recent years as holiday destinations look to combat overtourism. Just recently, Jet2’s CEO Steve Heapy raised concerns that tourist taxes might increase as a result of the over tourism demonstrations in Spain.
It comes following protests in hotspots such as Barcelona and the Canary Islands, with locals calling for more restrictions. The Mayor of Salou Pere Granados had previously championed a charge of 84p per day for tourists, explaining at a round table: “The tourists pay tax in the same way as the residents pay taxes. If I come to London, I generate waste.”
However, Benidorm’s mayor Antonio Perez said he was against the tourist tax “because it’s stigmatising the visitors as the ones who are preventing me from having a better city or better services”.
Meanwhile in Italy, in recent years Venice has introduced a tourism tax for ‘day trippers’, in a bid to combat the crowds that descend upon the city, including during peak cruise holiday seasons. Just last year city officials confirmed they would be increasing the tax for 2025, and even doubling the fee for last-minute holidaymakers.
The experts at Quotezone warned: “When budgeting for your trip, it is important to take additional fees and tax into consideration. Recently many countries have actually raised their fees for tourists. Visitors in Paris may find themselves paying up to €14.95 a night – while Venice has introduced a trial for visitors to pay a €5 entry fee to the city during daytime hours, including additional costs for anyone staying in the city overnight. While planning your trip, make sure to research tourist tax in that area so you can be prepared for the additional costs.”
Do you think a tourism tax is a good idea? Let us know in the comments below.
The UK has suspended trade talks, while France and Canada have threatened action if Israel continues to starve and bomb Palestinians in Gaza. So, is the tide turning on foreign support for Israel, or is this all just PR? Soraya Lennie takes a look.
Andriy Portnov was previously a senior aide to removed former President Viktor Yanukovych and had been the subject of US sanctions.
A Ukrainian former politician has been shot dead by an unknown assailant outside a school in Madrid, Spain, authorities said.
The man was identified by Spain’s Ministry of Interior as Andriy Portnov, who was previously a senior aide to Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych.
The attack on Wednesday morning took place outside the gates of the American School in the Spanish capital’s upscale neighbourhood of Pozuelo de Alarcon.
Police were called at about 9:15am (07:15 GMT) and notified that a man had been shot in the street.
Witnesses quoted by the police said he was shot “several times” in the head and body by more than one assailant. The attackers fled on foot, police said.
Radio station Cadena SER reported that Portnov was taking his children to school when he was attacked.
Portnov had been closely tied to Ukraine’s pro-Russian former leader Yanukovych, having served as deputy head of the presidential office from 2010 to 2014.
During Yanukovych’s time in power, Portnov was involved in drafting legislation aimed at persecuting participants of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. He was later placed on several sanctions lists, including by the US Treasury in 2021.
Just when you thought Eurovision had reached peak absurdity – with its glitter-drenched cliches, outlandish lyrics, and performances that make your local karaoke night look refined – it sank even lower in 2025. This year, Israel not only participated amid its ongoing assault on Gaza and international law, it nearly won.
In the lead-up to the contest, activists across Europe called for Israel’s exclusion. Seventy-two former Eurovision contestants signed an open letter demanding that Israel – and its national broadcaster, KAN – be banned. Protests, petitions, and campaigns swept across the continent, urging the contest to uphold its supposed values of “European unity and culture” rather than spotlight a state accused of systematically starving and bombing a captive population of two million.
But Eurovision did not listen.
Instead, it handed the stage to 24-year-old Yuval Raphael – a survivor of Hamas’s October 7 attack on the Nova Music Festival – who won the public televote in most countries and placed second overall, edged out only because, unlike the public, most professional juries preferred Austria’s entry.
Understandably, Israel’s surprising near-victory triggered a wave of backlash. With populations that have been most vocal in their criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza – such as Ireland – supposedly giving the highest marks to Raphael, widespread accusations of vote-rigging emerged. National broadcasters in Spain and Belgium filed formal complaints with the European Broadcasting Union, demanding an investigation into potential manipulation of the televoting system. Meanwhile, The Intercept’s audio analysis revealed that Eurovision organisers had muted audience booing and chants of “Free Palestine” during Raphael’s live performance.
In the aftermath of this year’s contest, the calls for Israel’s exclusion from Eurovision are louder than ever before. Clearly, for many across Europe who love Eurovision – whether for its camp, spectacle, or nostalgic charm – but who also care about international law and Palestinian lives, Israel’s continued inclusion is a moral failure.
And yet, I believe Israel belongs in Eurovision and should stay in the competition going forward. Here’s why.
For one thing, Israel’s continued participation would reflect the reality of European policy. Despite growing public outrage, many European leaders have been unwavering in their support for Israel throughout its devastating campaign in Gaza. While countries like Spain and the Republic of Ireland have called for a reassessment of the European Union’s relationship with Israel, for most of Europe, it’s been business as usual.
In February 2025, despite mounting pressure from human rights groups, European foreign ministers met with their Israeli counterpart and insisted that “political and economic ties remain strong”. A few months later, seven EU countries issued a joint statement calling for an end to what they described as a “man-made humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. But without action, these words rang hollow.
Europe is also divided on whether it would honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Lithuania, Slovenia, and Spain indicated they would comply. The United Kingdom, as usual, hedged, saying only that it would “comply with legal obligations under domestic and international law”. Meanwhile, Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, flatly refused to enforce the warrant. And among Europe’s largest players – France, Germany, and Italy – the response has ranged from evasive to outright dismissive. France claimed Netanyahu enjoys immunity since Israel isn’t an ICC member; Italy said arresting him would be “unfeasible”; and Germany’s newly elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz even vowed to find “ways and means” for Netanyahu to visit.
Given how European leaders have shown far more enthusiasm for cracking down on Palestine solidarity activists than holding Israel accountable, it feels only fitting that Israel continues to sing and dance on the ruins of Palestinian lives – hand in hand with its European friends.
But this alliance isn’t just political. Those who are promoting it suggest it’s also cultural, and even “civilisational”.
Many Western intellectuals have long cast Israel as an outpost of European values in a supposedly savage region. After October 7, this narrative was renewed with fresh urgency. French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy, while insisting he is a “militant defender of human rights”, framed Israel – apartheid and all – as a moral beacon when compared to the usual “others”: Russians, Turks, Chinese, Persians, and Arabs. Their imperial ambitions, he argued, pose a far greater threat to “civilisation” than Israel’s “policy of colonising the West Bank”. He even praised Israel’s “moral fortitude” and supposed concern for civilian life in Gaza – words that have not aged well after 19 months of pure carnage.
American commentator Josh Hammer’s book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West, is even more explicit. For him, Israel is the West’s “agent” in a region plagued by violence and Islamic “terrorism”. Those who support Palestinian rights are, in his words, “anti-American, anti-Western jackals”. UK commentator Douglas Murray echoes the same civilisational framing in the book On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization, calling Israel a bulwark of good in a world of evil.
Israeli leaders have adopted this language, too. Netanyahu declared shortly after October 7 that “Israel is fighting the enemies of civilisation itself”, urging the West to show “moral clarity”. According to this world view, Israel doesn’t just defend itself – it defends the entire Western civilisation.
All this may sound far removed from a song contest. But Eurovision has always been more than sequins and key changes. It’s a projection of “Europeanness” – and “Europe,” as a concept, has always been political. It’s built on a colonial legacy that imagined Europe as enlightened, orderly, and rational – defined in opposition to the supposedly backward, emotional, and irrational non-European “other”.
This legacy justified colonial conquests and the violent suppression of anti-colonial uprisings. Massacres were cast as the price of restoring order; ethnic cleansing, a civilizing mission. Today, that same narrative lives on in how the West frames Israel – as a beleaguered democracy standing bravely against barbarism.
So when people call for Israel to be banned from Eurovision over this year’s vote-rigging allegations, I can’t help but note the irony: that its genocidal campaign in Gaza didn’t cross a red line for Europe – but cheating in a song contest just might.
If Eurovision were to expel Israel now, it would be the harshest penalty the continent has ever imposed on the nation – and it would be not for mass killing, but for meddling with pop music.
And so, yes – I believe Israel should stay in Eurovision.
After all, Europe and Israel deserve each other.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
These are the key events on day 1,182 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Here is where things stand on Wednesday, May 21:
Fighting
United States President Donald Trump told reporters he is not worried about reports that Russia is massing its forces along the border of Finland. “No, I don’t… worry about that at all,” he said, adding that Finland and Norway were “going to be very safe”.
Moscow accused NATO of “aggressive actions” after Estonia last week tried and failed to seize a Russian tanker suspected of ferrying oil in violation of international sanctions.
Diplomacy
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed that Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican are willing to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he expects Putin to present a peace plan in the coming days, which will signal how serious he is about ending the war.
Moscow will offer “just broad terms that would allow us to move towards a ceasefire, and that ceasefire would then allow us to enter into detailed negotiations to bring about an end of the conflict,” Rubio said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is just trying to “buy time in order to continue its war and occupation”, in a social media post.
Poland indicted a man accused of helping Russian foreign intelligence services prepare a possible assassination attempt against Zelenskyy.
Economy
The United Kingdom announced sanctions against 100 new Russian targets, with the intention of disrupting “Putin’s war machine” and its supply chain. The European Union also announced its 18th package of sanctions against Russia.
Canada invited Ukrainian Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko to attend a meeting of the G7 finance ministers this week in Banff, Alberta, as a guest.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Marchenko called for more international sanctions on Russia, including further lowering the $60-per-barrel price cap imposed on Russian crude oil exports by many countries, including G7 members.
The meeting precedes a major G7 summit in June, also hosted by Canada, which is expected to discuss the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Tea is the most popular drink in the world other than water. It beats out coffee and beer, which hold second and third place.
May 21 is designated as International Tea Day by the United Nations, marking the significance and value of the drink globally, not just economically but culturally too.
Tea plays a meaningful role in many societies. From Tibetan po cha to a good old English breakfast brew, tea is considered a unifying and hospitable beverage.
While the exact origins of tea are unknown, it is believed to have originated in northeast India, northern Myanmar and southwest China, according to the UN. There is evidence that tea was consumed in China 5,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest beverages in the world.
How to say tea around the world
Across the globe, nearly all words for tea can be derived from the root words “cha” or “te”.
In many parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the word for tea is derived from cha.
In Mandarin: 茶 (chá)
In Arabic: شاي (shāy)
In Turkish: çay
In Hindi: चाय (chāi)
In Western Europe, many countries use some derivative of te. For example, “tea” was introduced into the English language as a result of trade routes in the East. The word was taken from China, where it was pronounced “te” in the Hokkien dialect.
In English: tea
In French: thé
In Spanish: té
In German: tee
Who produces the most tea globally?
The tea plant is usually grown in tropical and subtropical climates where its cultivation and processing support the livelihoods of millions of people.
According to the latest data from the Tea and Coffee Trade Journal‘s Global Tea Report, China produces nearly half of the world’s tea (48 percent). India is the second largest producer, accounting for 20 percent of world production, followed by Kenya (8 percent), Turkiye (4 percent) and Sri Lanka (3 percent).
The rest of the world accounts for 17 percent of tea production globally.
(Al Jazeera)
How much tea is consumed daily worldwide?
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), world tea consumption reached 6.5 million tonnes in 2022, growing from previous years.
Consumption in China, the largest consumer of tea, reached 3 million tonnes in 2022, representing 46 percent of global consumption.
India, the second largest consumer, accounted for a share of nearly 18 percent at 1.16 million tonnes in 2022, followed by Turkiye with 250,000 tonnes, Pakistan with 247,000 tonnes and Russia with 133,000 tonnes.
According to the FAO, tea consumption expanded by 2 percent in 2022 compared with 2021 and further increased in 2023.
However, tea consumption in countries in Europe and North America has been declining due to increasing competition from other beverages while for Russia, tea imports have been negatively impacted by the war in Ukraine.
Five odd teas around the world
To mark this year’s International Tea Day, here are five somewhat unusual teas from around the world and how to make them:
Butter tea (po cha)
Found in: Tibet and other Himalayan regions
What’s odd?: It’s in the name. Made with yak butter, black tea and salt, butter tea is broth-like. Apparently, there is a tradition where the host will refill your cup with butter tea until you refuse or until they stop filling it, signalling it’s time for you to leave.
Kombucha – is it tea?
Found in: China, Japan and the Koreas
What’s odd?: Kombucha is considered a tea. It’s a fermented tea made using a jelly-like SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). Kombucha fans often name their SCOBYs, treat them like pets and pass them to friends like family heirlooms.
Butterfly pea flower tea
Found in: Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam
What’s odd?: It is known as blue tea because of its colour, which then changes to purple when lemon juice is added. It’s caffeine free and made from a concoction of floral petals from the blue pea flower.
Baobab leaf tea
Found in: sub-Saharan Africa
What’s odd?: Baobab leaf tea is traditionally used in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa as a mild herbal remedy and nutritional drink.
Unlike most herbal teas, which are often floral or fruity, baobab leaf tea has a mildly earthy or even slightly bitter taste, a bit like spinach water.
Guava leaf tea
Found in: Philippines, Central America, Africa
What’s odd?: The tea is made from the leaves of the guava tree, which have an earthy flavour. In Philippine culture, it is said to have medicinal benefits for soothing stomach aches and bathing wounds.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a “landmark deal” with the EU that lays the ground for closer collaboration with the bloc.
Nearly nine years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, the new agreement includes a new security and defence pact, fewer restrictions on British food exporters and visitors, and a controversial new fishing agreement.
Britain said the reset with its biggest trading partner would reduce red tape for agricultural producers, making food cheaper. The deal would also improve energy security and, by 2040, add nearly 9 billion pounds ($12.1bn) to the economy.
While Starmer sold the deal as a “win-win”, attacks immediately emerged from the opposition Conservative Party, which said the deal would make the UK a “rule-taker” from Brussels.
Nigel Farage, head of the hard-right, pro-Brexit Reform UK party, called the deal an “abject surrender”.
What are the terms of the deal?
As part of Monday’s defence-and-security agreement, the UK and the EU will work more closely on information sharing, maritime issues and cybersecurity.
Crucially for Britain, the bloc committed to exploring ways for the UK to access EU procurement defence funds.
British weapons manufacturers can now take part in a 150-billion-euro ($169bn) programme to rearm Europe – part of United States President Donald Trump’s push for Brussels to spend more on defence.
Meanwhile, both sides have agreed to work on a joint agrifood agreement to remove Brexit-era trade barriers like safety checks on animals, paperwork and bans on certain products.
In 2023, UK food and drink exports to the EU were worth 14 billion pounds ($18.7bn), accounting for 57 percent of all the sector’s overseas sales. Monday’s agreement should raise that.
In exchange, the UK will need to follow EU food standards – a system known as “dynamic alignment” – and accept the European Court of Justice’s oversight in this area.
There have been talks on linking up the UK and EU’s carbon markets (i.e., a tradable price on CO2 emission) and on a joint electricity market.
The deal also paves the way for the UK’s return to the Erasmus student exchange programme, as well as granting young people access to the EU through work and travel.
In a symbolic gesture to please tourists, Britons will be allowed to use border e-gates at most EU airports, reducing queues at passport controls.
Finally, the UK will grant EU fishers access to British waters for an additional 12 years, an eleventh-hour concession from the UK – three times longer than it had originally offered.
Does this amount to backtracking on Brexit?
Critics from the Conservative Party and Reform UK quickly denounced the deal as a betrayal of Brexit, arguing that the price of the trade agreement was excessive.
The fisheries deal drew fierce disapproval, with opposition politicians saying it meant handing over Britain’s fishing waters to European fishers for an extra decade.
Fishing is a key issue in the UK, despite making up just 0.04 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). And Starmer’s deal appears to have reignited tensions last seen during Brexit negotiations.
Offering “12 years access to British waters is three times longer than the govt wanted,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X. “We’re becoming a rule-taker from Brussels once again.”
Reform’s leader, Farage, told Bloomberg that Starmer’s deal on fisheries “will be the end of the industry”. The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation called it a “horror show”.
Elsewhere, there were complaints about Britain having to submit itself to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice on agrifood policies.
For their part, the Conservatives vowed to reverse all these changes if they got back into power.
Still, Starmer stuck firmly to his election promise of not re-joining the European single market (in which goods and people can move freely) or the customs union (which eliminates tariffs on goods traded between EU countries).
What were the costs of Brexit?
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the Ministry of Finance’s independent forecaster, the UK’s decision to leave the EU will shrink trade flows by 15 percent.
The OBR also that calculated Brexit will lower GDP by 4 percent over the long term. That’s the equivalent of costing the economy 100 billion pounds ($134bn) per year.
For starters, Brexit involved erecting significant trade barriers with Europe. In 2024, UK goods exports to the EU were 18 percent below their 2019 level, in real terms.
The decision to leave the EU also triggered business uncertainty. Lacking clarity over the UK’s future economic relationship with the EU, business investment softened.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimates that business investment was 13 percent lower in 2023 than under a remain scenario.
Brexiteers promised that leaving the EU would allow Westminster to sign global free trade agreements and break away from the EU’s demanding regulatory regime.
“The argument was that doing business at home and abroad would be simplified,” says Gaurav Ganguly, head of EMEA Economic Research at Moody’s Analytics.
“And while the UK has signed several trade deals since 2020, Brexit has not unleashed the potential that was talked about [by its advocates].”
In recent weeks, the UK has signed up to trade agreements with India and the US. But Britain’s average GDP growth was just 0.64 percent between 2020 and 2024.
Elsewhere, public support for Brexit has fallen since the 52-48 percent leave vote in the 2016 referendum.
Earlier this year, polling by YouGov found only 30 percent of Britons now think it was right for the UK to vote to leave the EU, versus 55 percent who say it was wrong.
Roughly 60 percent of people believe Brexit has gone badly, including one-third of leave voters. A majority also believe that leaving the EU has damaged Britain’s economy.
Are the economic benefits from the new agreement?
Ever since last year’s election, the Labour government has pledged to improve Britain’s anaemic levels of growth. It sees lower trade barriers with the EU as crucial to that goal.
Acknowledging the damage inflicted to Britain’s trade by Brexit, Starmer said the deal to remove restrictions on food would give 9 billion pounds ($12bn) boost to the UK economy by 2040.
In a government briefing, Downing Street said it would redress the 21 percent drop in exports and 7 percent drop in imports seen since Brexit.
That said, 9 billion pounds ($12bn) would amount to just 0.2 percent of the UK’s national output. As such, this week’s agreement deal has dismantled only a fraction of the trade barriers erected post-Brexit.
“Yesterday’s deal may lift growth,” Ganguly told Al Jazeera. “But the UK economy continues to struggle from structural weaknesses, including low productivity and limited fiscal space.”
The Centre for European Reform, a London-based think tank, recently calculated that the UK-EU reset would boost Britain’s GDP by between 0.3 percent and 0.7 percent.
Ganguly said he is “not inclined to change my forecast in the short term”, adding “In addition, it’s clear that yesterday’s agreements won’t completely reverse the economic hit from Brexit.”
The upshot is that Ganguly expects modest GDP growth of around 1-2 percent between now and the next election cycle, in 2029.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy slammed the Israeli government for expanding its war on Gaza, calling comments made by its government as ‘repellent’ and ‘monstrous’. The UK also said it was pausing free trade negotiations with Israel.
Outlet is one of several media services whose funding was cut by the Trump administration amid an aggressive downsizing effort.
The European Union plans to step in to help save longtime media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) after United States President Donald Trump’s administration abruptly stopped funding it.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday that 5.5 million euros ($6.2m) will be provided to “support the vital work of Radio Free Europe”.
“It’s short-term emergency funding designed as a safety net for the independent journalism,” she added.
Trump suspended all funding for RFE/RL in March along with other US broadcasters, including Voice of America, to slash government spending.
Critics of the administration said the cuts are also politically motivated and part of a push to control and curb news media that do not hew to its outlook.
Trump earlier this month signed an executive order slashing federal subsidies to two US public broadcasters, PBS and NPR , accusing them of biased reporting and spreading “left-wing” propaganda.
Lawyers for RFE/RL, which has been operating for 75 years, secured an order last month from a US federal judge for the Trump administration to restore $12m that was appropriated by Congress.
The money has not been sent so far as lawyers said the service will have to shut down in June without the funding.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic [File: David W Cerny/Reuters]
Kallas said on Tuesday that the EU funding would not cover the work of the outlet across the globe but would focus on interests closer to the agenda of the bloc.
“So our focus should be really to help Radio Free Europe to work and function in those countries that are in our neighbourhood and that are very much dependent on news coming from outside,” she said.
The EU’s top diplomat said she hoped the 27 EU member countries would also provide more funds to help Radio Free Europe longer term. Kallas said the bloc has been looking for “strategic areas” where it can help as Washington cuts life-saving foreign aid.
The outlet’s corporate headquarters are in Washington, DC, and its journalistic headquarters are based in the Czech Republic. The service has aired programmes in 27 languages in 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East and has more than 1,700 staff.
Radio Free Europe began broadcasting in 1950 in the early years of the Cold War to several Eastern European nations that had become Soviet Union satellites. Radio Liberty began broadcasting to Russia a few years later. Both were initially funded by the US Congress through the Central Intelligence Agency.
