Top News Stories for Today – Mar 13, 2019
Top News Stories for Today – Mar 13, 2019
EU: Only UK can solve Brexit impasse
The risk of a “disorderly” Brexit has never been higher, the EU’s chief negotiator has said, following MPs’ second rejection of Theresa May’s deal. Michel Barnier said the EU “cannot go any further” in trying to persuade MPs to back the agreed terms of exit and the UK had to break the impasse. He questioned what the purpose would be of extending the talks beyond 29 March.
MPs will vote at 19.00 GMT on whether to block the UK from leaving the EU without an agreement later this month. Wednesday’s vote only applies to the 29 March deadline and would not rule out the prospect of a no-deal exit later this year, if Parliament is ultimately unable to agree a way forward. Ahead of the no-deal Commons vote, the government announced that most imports into the UK would not attract a tariff in the event of a no-deal Brexit. As the government considers its next move after May deal was defeated by 149 votes, Barnier said it was time for the UK to take “responsibility” for its actions. BBC
Boeing jet grounded in much of the world
Much of the world, including the entire European Union, grounded the Boeing jetliner involved in the Ethiopian Airlines crash or banned it from their airspace, leaving the United States as one of the few remaining operators of the plane involved in two deadly accidents in just five months.
The European Aviation Safety Agency took steps to keep the Boeing 737 Max 8 out of the air, joining Asian and Middle Eastern governments and carriers that also gave in to safety concerns in the aftermath of Sunday’s crash, which killed all 157 people on board. The Associated Press
US bucks calls on grounding Boeing 737
The administration of US President Donald Trump is resisting growing domestic and international calls for it to ground a new American-made jetliner which has crashed twice in six months, killing nearly 350 people. The president is engaged in discussions about the Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft, according to White House officials who did not specify with whom Trump is speaking.
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg reassured Trump in a phone call Tuesday that the aircraft is safe, according to company officials. White House officials confirm the call occurred but are declining to discuss details of the conversation, which occurred after Trump complained on Twitter that planes “are becoming far too complex to fly.” It is not clear who initiated the call. The Voice of America
California governor to freeze death penalty
California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to announce Wednesday an executive order that immediately establishes a moratorium on killing convicts on death row, USA TODAY learned Tuesday night. California has 737 people on death row, about a quarter of the nation’s death row population and by far the most of any state. Some 24 of them have been convicted of murder and have exhausted their appeals, meaning they could be scheduled to die under Newsom’s governorship.
Governors in Oregon, Colorado and Pennsylvania have established similar moratoriums leveraging the same executive powers. Newsom has long been vocal about his opposition to the death penalty, tweeting on Election Day in 2016 that “the death penalty is a failed policy that wastes money & is fundamentally immoral.” USA Today
Manafort faces 2nd sentencing in DC
Paul Manafort is expected to be sentenced in the District of Columbia Wednesday morning, marking the likely conclusion of the former Trump campaign chairman’s year-and-a-half long legal battle. The federal judge in Manafort’s D.C. case could sentence him to up to 10 years in prison for crimes related to unregistered foreign lobbying and witness tampering, unrelated to his work on the Trump campaign.
Manafort was sentenced separately by Judge T.S. Ellis in the Eastern District of Virginia to almost four years in prison last week on charges of bank and tax fraud. Manafort’s financial charges relate to criminal activities that occurred between 2006 and 2015, though the witness tampering charge relates to contacts he made in 2017 after he was indicted. ABC News
Russia mocks US probe ahead of Mueller report
US special counsel Robert Mueller has yet to release his report about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, but the Kremlin has been rehearsing its response for months. The narrative, shared by President Vladimir Putin, his top lieutenants and state television, is strikingly similar to US President Donald Trump’s description of the investigation as a “witch hunt:” They say the whole process is about the Democrats’ stubborn refusal to admit that they lost the election.
“They don’t want to acknowledge his victory and do everything to delegitimize the president,” Putin said at his annual news conference in December. The Associated Press