Britain and the European Union are unlikely to fundamentally change their underlying Brexit settlement, making sector-specific deals for financial services, fisheries and energy necessary to prevent more disruption, a report said.

The report from academic body UK In a Changing Europe, UKICE, published on Tuesday, said that despite a significant economic hit to Britain from leaving the bloc and falling support for Brexit among the British public, major changes in the UK-EU relationship were unlikely.

“Prospects of such a renegotiation are slim,” UKICE Director Anand Menon said.

UKICE said polling it conducted in December showed 56% of Britons said they would vote to rejoin the EU, up from 45% in February, largely consistent with other polls.

However, Britain’s governing Conservative Party is committed to Brexit and the opposition Labour Party is keen to avoid suggestions it would seek to unravel the post-2016 settlement.

Northern Ireland Protocol
Talks between Britain and the EU continue on how to implement post-Brexit arrangements which accommodate the largely open border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member state Ireland.

“The immediate challenge is resolving the issues surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol but even if this is achieved other deadlines and decisions are looming, relating to, for example, data exchange, electric cars, and fish,” the report said.

UKICE said UK-EU relations were “far from either settled or stable” but neither side seemed likely to want to reassess the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA, signed in December 2020 after more than four years of political argument.

“There appears to be little political space on either side of the Channel for a major reconsideration of the relationship or renegotiation of the TCA in the short term,” it said, citing a lack of trust, the domestic politics of the UK and the benefits of the current deal to EU exporters.

“Changes to the relationship are likely to be slow and incremental in the immediate future,” it said, adding science research, energy security and emissions trading might be areas where the current relationship could be deepened.

Reuters /Shakirat Sadiq

The judge leading the investigation into the devastating port explosion in Beirut in 2020 has reportedly charged more key figures as part of his probe.

Despite Tarek Bitar’s work being frozen for 13 months amid legal challenges, he unexpectedly said on Monday that he thought he could restart his inquiries.

But on Tuesday the public prosecutor told him that he had no jurisdiction.

More than 200 people were killed when ammonium nitrate that was being stored unsafely at a port warehouse ignited.

“The blast it created was one of the worst non-nuclear explosions in recent history, and devastated a large area of the Lebanese capital.”

There is no official confirmation of the identities of those who have been charged, or detail of what indictments they may face.

Instead, lists of names and potential dates for questioning sessions are being circulated among local journalists, apparently released by judicial sources.

Senior figures like the heads of the General Security and State Security departments are new names to appear on the list.

Others have been called previously, like Hassan Diab, who was prime minister at the time of the blast. He’s yet to appear before the judge to answer questions.

All those who have previously been linked to the investigation have ‘denied’ any involvement.

Judge Bitar also apparently ordered the release of five men who had been “arrested after the explosion,” including port officials and maintenance workers.

The thousands of people who were wounded in the disaster, and the families of the deceased, have faced a long fight in their search for justice.

They have held “regular vigils and protests” in over the past two and a half years.

In recent days, they have demonstrated again outside the Lebanese parliament in a bid to get the official investigation restarted. However, nobody has yet faced trial as a result of it.

The inquiry has been dogged with problems since it was set up.

BBC /Shakirat Sadiq

At least 124 people died in freezing temperatures in Afghanistan in the past fortnight, Taliban officials say.

About 70,000 livestock had also perished in what is the coldest winter in a decade, a State Ministry for Disaster Management spokesman said.

Many aid agencies suspended operations in recent weeks after the Taliban banned Afghan women from working for non-governmental organisations.

A Taliban minister said despite the deaths, the edict would not be changed.

Acting Minister of Disaster Management Mullah Mohammad Abbas Akhund says many areas of Afghanistan were now completely cut off by snow; military helicopters had been sent to the rescue, but they couldn’t land in the most mountainous regions. Reports said.

The acting minister said the forecast for the next 10 days indicated temperatures would warm. But he was still worried about a rising death toll – of Afghans, and their livestock.

“Most of the people who lost their lives to the cold were shepherds or people living in rural areas. They didn’t have access to healthcare,” Mullah Akhund said.

Mountain Regions
“We’re concerned about those who are still living in the mountain regions. Most of the roads which pass through the mountains have been closed due to snow. Cars have got stuck there and passengers have died in the freezing temperatures.”

Winters are always harsh here in Afghanistan but this is the worst weather in a decade.

And this year’s relief operations are hampered by last month’s Taliban government edict barring Afghan women from working in aid agencies.

But Mullah Akhund was categorical. This edict could not be lifted – the international community, he insisted, had to accept Afghanistan’s Islamic culture.

“Men are already working with us in the rescue effort and there is no need for women to work with us. The men from every family are already participating in relief efforts, so there’s no need for women,” he says. Reports said.

Aid officials, including the United Nations, are urgently trying to find ways to work around this ban.

BBC /Shakirat Sadiq

Russia’s new military reforms respond to possible NATO expansion and the use of Kyiv by the “collective West” to wage a hybrid war against Russia, the newly appointed general in charge of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine said.

Valery Gerasimov, in his first public comments since his Jan. 11 appointment to the role, admitted also to problems with the mobilisation of troops, after public criticism forced President Vladimir Putin to reprimand the military.

The military reforms, announced mid-January, have been approved by Putin and can be adjusted to respond to threats to Russia’s security, Gerasimov told the news website Argumenty i Fakty in remarks published late Monday.

“Today, such threats include the aspirations of the North Atlantic Alliance to expand to Finland and Sweden, as well as the use of Ukraine as a tool for waging a hybrid war against our country,” said Gerasimov, who is also the chief of Russia’s military general staff.

Finland and Sweden applied last year to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Under Moscow’s new military plan, “an army corps will be added to Karelia in Russia’s north, which borders with Finland.”

The reforms also call for two additional military districts, Moscow and Leningrad, which existed before they were merged in 2010 to be part of the Western Military District.

In Ukraine, Russia will add three motorized rifle divisions as part of combined arms formations in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, parts of which Moscow claims it annexed in September.

“The main goal of this work is to ensure guaranteed protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country,” Gerasimov said.

Intensity of Military Hostilities
Gerasimov added that modern Russia has never seen such “intensity of military Hostilities,” forcing it to carry out offensive operations to stabilise the situation.

“Our country and its armed forces are today acting against the entire collective West,” Gerasimov said.

In the 11 months since invading Ukraine, Russia has been shifting its rhetoric on the war from an operation to “denazify” and “demilitarise” its neighbour to increasingly casting it as defence from an aggressive West.

Kyiv and its Western allies call it an unprovoked act of aggression, and the West has been sending increasingly heavy weaponry to Ukraine to help it resist Russian forces.

Gerasimov and the leadership of the defence ministry have faced sharp criticism for multiple setbacks on the battlefield and Moscow’s failure to secure victory in a campaign the Kremlin had expected to take just a short time.

The country’s mobilisation of some 300,000 additional personnel in the fall proceeded chaotically.

“The system of mobilization training in our country was not fully adapted to the new modern economic relations,” Gerasimov said. “So I had to fix everything on the go” 

Reuters /Shakirat Sadiq