The EU is prepared to change its Brexit position if Theresa May softens her negotiating red lines, Michel Barnier has said. The offer from the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator could be seen as a strategic olive branch coming just as the prime minister tries to strike a deal between the warring sides of her cabinet at Chequers.

“I am ready to adapt our offer should the UK red lines change,” Barnier said in a speech to the Institute of International and European Affairs in Brussels. “Our objective has always been to find an agreement with the UK, not against.” He called on all sides to stop arguing over the Irish border, imploring everyone to “de-dramatise” the issue.

However, he said the EU would not shift its own red line on the single market, which he said was “not and never should be seen as a big supermarket; it is economic, cultural and social life, it should be developed in all its dimensions”. He added: “The single market is our main economic public good. We will not damage it. We will not unravel what we achieved with the UK. We must find solutions that respect the integrity of the single market.”(theguardian)…[+]

The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), with funding from the CARIFORUM 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Programme of Support for Wider Caribbean Cooperation, will host the Barbados National Faith Leaders Consultation in Saint Michael Parish Barbados from 6 – 7 July 2018.

The Consultation forms part of a series of engagements with faith leaders in Barbados under the PANCAP Justice for All programme. It will facilitate the development of an action plan for advancing faith leaders’ implementation of key elements of the Justice for All programme. Participants will include 40 faith leaders representing national faith leaders’ networks from across Barbados.

The action plan will include but not limited to the establishment of the main goals for an inter-religious faith leaders network in Barbados with emphasis on contributing toward the end of AIDS; identification of the lessons learned for ending AIDS from faith leaders’ engagements with People Living with HIV and with other groups such as parliamentarians, youth leaders, civil society and members of church communities; challenges for developing a viable Faith Leaders Network and proposals for overcoming them; specific recommendations to achieve the goals of the inter-religious/faith leaders network and priorities and timelines for achieving the goals of the Network.

In an invited comment, coordinator of the consultation, Dr. Nigel Taylor, Chair, Barbados Evangelical Association, stated, “The many challenges faced by faith-based organizations (FBOs) necessitates a strategic partnership framework of cooperation with all stakeholders in the HIV prevention and response. As such, there must be a concerted effort to increase the partnership and collaboration between all the major stakeholders as we seek to put all systems in place to end AIDS by 2030”…[+]

As England fans fly the flag of St George at pubs, out of windows and from cars during the World Cup, an Italian mayor has suggested claiming back centuries’ worth of arrears from England for its use of the red cross. Genoa, once a powerful maritime city, adopted the St George’s Cross as its flag and St George as its patron saint during the Crusades. The symbol was adopted by England toward the end of the religious wars, in the 13th century, with English ships flying the flag of Genoa as a deterrent to enemies.

For the privilege, the English monarch paid an annual tribute to the doge of Genoa, or ruler of the Republic of Genoa. However, the tribute apparently fell by the wayside after the republic collapsed. Marco Bucci, the mayor of Genoa, said the arrears claim could be the “biggest stroke of marketing” for the city. He said he would write to the Queen seeking to recoup funds that could then be spent on the city’s needs. “Your Majesty, I regret to inform you that from my books [it] looks like you didn’t pay for the last 247 years,” he joked.(theguardian)…[+]

In a prison in the Balkh province of Afghanistan, more than 200 girls and young women are crammed into dirty prison cells. Many have been here for months – and some for more than a year. When they are eventually released, they face a future defined by shame, exclusion and destitution. Their crime is that they all failed a virginity test performed by a health professional at a clinic or hospital.

Last year, under increasing pressure from human rights campaigners, Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, promised that forensic virginity tests – invasive examinations to check whether the hymen is intact – would be banned as an official procedure. The tests nonetheless remain widespread, and the implications for girls and women who are deemed to have failed them are both immediate and catastrophic.

“I’ve been inside a jail in Balkh province and the majority of those who have failed virginity tests and found themselves locked up are between 13 and 21 years old,” said Farhad Javid, country director for Marie Stopes International in Afghanistan. “What I saw there was so upsetting, the conditions were so bad, more than 12 young girls to each very small cell. And even though they are supposed to only be in there for three months, many are kept for a year or a year and a half. When they get out, their families have disowned them; they are in a very precarious position.”(theguardian)…[+]

Port of Spain, Trinidad. The Honourable Mr. Justice Saunders was installed as the third President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in Montego Bay, Jamaica by His Excellency, the Most Honourable Sir Patrick Allen, ON, GCMG, CD, KSt.J, Governor General of Jamaica. The ceremony was held on July 4th, ahead of the Opening of the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and was attended by Prime Ministers, Presidents and Premiers from throughout the region.

In his remarks, the 3rd CCJ President, a national of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, noted “as I take up the responsibilities of President of the CCJ, I consider myself to be exceptionally fortunate. I have been preceded in that office by two outstanding Caribbean jurists and I was privileged to have enjoyed a close collegial relationship with both of them. Each in his own way, Mr. Justice de la Bastide and Sir Dennis Byron, have contributed to the solid platform upon which the Court now rests.”

He has served as a Judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice, since the Court’s inauguration in 2005 and has acted as President numerous times in the past. Prior to his time at the CCJ, he served a barrister and solicitor for 19 years before being appointed as a Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme (ECSC). He served as Judge at the ECSC for 7 years and was then confirmed as a Justice of Appeal in 2003. A year later, he was appointed to act as Chief Justice of the Court…[+]

Angela Merkel has sought to defend her government’s migration policy in her first speech to parliament since a showdown with the interior minister, Horst Seehofer, over the policing of Germany’s borders. The German chancellor spoke up for the compromise agreement the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) struck with its smaller partner, the Christian Social Union (CSU), to erect transit zones along the southern German border to speed up the deportation of ineligible asylum seekers, insisting migration had to be better regulated.

“We must have more regulation regarding every type of migration, so that people have the impression that law and order are being enforced,” Merkel told a packed Bundestag, in a speech intended to show she is still in control after intense speculation that her 13-year chancellorship was about to end. Stressing that migration was a “global problem requiring a global solution” and countries could not go it alone, she said the EU’s future was dependent on a solution being found.

“How we deal with the migrant question will decide whether Europe continues to exist in the future,” she said, referring to her fraught attempts to secure deals with other EU members to accept the return of refugees who had registered in their countries. At the same time, she underlined the necessity of protecting Europe’s outer borders more effectively as well as agreeing partnerships with African countries to tackle illegal migration and lessen the incentives for economic migration.(theguardian)…[+]

Counter-terrorism police have joined the investigation into two people in a critical condition in Wiltshire, amid fears that they may have been exposed to a nerve agent.

Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley were found unconscious at a property in Amesbury and were initially believed to have overdosed, but their symptoms raised alarm among medics and Wiltshire police, which led them to suspect a possible nerve agent.

The couple, both in their 40s, were in a critical condition at Salisbury district hospital, Wiltshire police said on Wednesday. Tests were being carried out on the substance at the nearby Porton Down government defence laboratory. Whitehall sources said that it was too early to tell whether the substance was related to illegal drugs or “something more sinister”.(theguardian)…[+]

Fears are mounting about the safety of more than 270,000 civilians who have fled recent fighting in southern Syria, with aid groups and local doctors issuing urgent appeals for people stranded in the desert without shelter. Fighting in Deraa province, a strategic area that borders both Jordan and Israel, has halted while negotiations for a surrender deal between rebels in the region and the Syrian government’s main backer, Russia, continue. But UN officials say more than 270,000 people have fled their homes in the last two weeks, including 160,000 who have headed towards the Golan Heights and the Israeli border.

More than 200 civilians are believed to have been killed in the fighting in Deraa, which is meant to be a “de-escalation” zone with a ceasefire guaranteed by Russia, Turkey and Iran in place. The latest bout of violence began in mid-June after a year of relative peace, while the regime of Bashar al-Assad pursued military campaigns in other parts of the country.(theguardian)…[+]

Campaigners have condemned a ban that will prevent pregnant teenage girls and young expectant fathers from attending formal schooling in Burundi, warning the country is violating its human rights obligations.

Burundi’s minister of education, Dr Janvière Ndirahisha, announced last week that pregnant teens and young mums, as well as the boys who made them pregnant, no longer had the right to be allowed into public or private schools. In a letter to the country’s provincial education directors, he added that such students could instead attend vocational or professional training. According to the UN population fund (UNFPA), 7% of girls aged 15-19 in Burundi have at least one child.The move has been called a “double punishment” for girls, and campaigners say it is unclear how schools will identify fathers for exclusion. “More often than not the boy will deny it,” said Naitore Nyamu-Mathenge, a human rights lawyer and programme officer for the organisation Equality Now. “Unless they have a way of proving it – I am sure they will not get into those details – this ban is definitely skewed towards violating the rights of girls accessing education.”(theguardian)…[+]

Najib Razak, the former Malaysian prime minister, has been arrested for his alleged role in the 1MDB scandal, in which billions were embezzled from a government fund.

Najib, who was toppled from power in May, was arrested in his Kuala Lumpur home on Tuesday afternoon and will be charged in court in the Malaysian capital on Wednesday morning, according to a statement from the team investigating 1MDB.

The former prime minster was picked up from his property using three unmarked cars and taken to the Malaysian anti-corruption agency (MACC) headquarters in Putrajaya where he will be held overnight. His arrest came after the newly elected government, led by 92-year-old Mahathir Mohamad, reopened the investigation into 1MDB the moment it came into power in May and pledged to bring to justice all of those responsible for the multibillion dollar fraud.Mahathir said last week that authorities had an almost “perfect case” against Najib on charges including bribery, theft of government funds and embezzlement.(theguardian)…[+]