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Stephen Barclay, the Brexit Secretary has accused the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Bernard Barnier, of trying “to rerun old arguments”. Michel Barnier said that Britain would be free to leave the proposed single customs territory which is designed to avoid physical border on the Irish border.

This is rejected by the Government and the DUP, since the Northern Ireland would have to remain within it. The UK had “put forward clear new proposals” said Barclay.

The Parliament has yet to agree the terms of withdrawal, but The UK is due to leave on 29 March. The UK and EU have been arguing over the contentious issue of the Irish backstop. This is to prevent the checking on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

In some Tweets, Mr Barnier said the UK would not be forced into a customs union against its will through the Northern Ireland backstop. “With a very real deadline looming, now is not the time to rerun old arguments. The UK has put forward clear new proposals. We now need to agree a balanced solution that can work for both sides.”, Tweeted Barclay.

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Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday vowed to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook if elected US president to promote competition in the techn sector.

Warren, who is on a vie to be in the top positions in the presidential candidates said in a blog that on their way to the top, the big tech companies purchased a long list of potential competitors, like Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram.

She wrote: “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation,”, said in reuters reports.

Amazon unexpectedly cancelled plans in February to build an important outpost in the neighborhood that might have created 25,000 jobs, blaming opposition from local leaders.

In an event held near the proposed Amazon site, Warren said that large tech companies come into towns, cities and states and “bully everyone into doing what they want” and “roll right over” small businesses and startups which are a threat.

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The Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a meeting said that he will defeat a “crazed minority”, pointing the self proclaimed Venezuelan leader Juan Guido and his supporters. Juan Guaido had defied him by returning home on Monday and this was reported as Maduro’s first public comment after that.

Maduro said that he will be organising an “anti-imperialist” demonstrations on Mar 9. An opposition march had been announced by Guaido on this same date.

Elliott Abrams, The US envoy for Venezuela said it was hard to see a role for Mr Maduro in future democratic elections. “If he wanted to build a democratic Venezuela, he had the opportunity to do so, but he did not” said Elliott Abrams.

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The U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions against six military leaders who played a role in blocking humanitarian aid to the embattled South American nation. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the agency’s leader, Manuel Ricardo Cristopher Figuera, and its first commissioner, Hildemaro Jose Rodriguez Mucura.

The Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a statement said “We are sanctioning members of Maduro’s security forces in response to the reprehensible violence, tragic deaths, and unconscionable torching of food and medicine destined for sick and starving Venezuelans”.

Steven Mnuchin said that the blockades used to halt stop the aid from entering the country are the recent example of Maduro’s “illegitimate regime weaponizing the delivery of food and critically needed supplies in order to control vulnerable Venezuelans.”

Reuters reports that a representative the U.S. Transportation Department that oversees NHTSA said that “NHTSA’s Crash Investigation Division assigned a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash”, while the NTSB said it is sending a team of three “to conduct a safety investigation”.

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The Spanish government has decided to conduct a snap election, as its budget has been failed in the parliament due to the withdrawal of Catalan separatists’ support to the socialist government, which came to power nearly eight months ago with the support of an anti-austerity party and the Catalan separatists.

In the 350 member parliament, the PSOE (the ruling socialist party) has less than 85 members. And, its main ally Podemos (the anti-austerity party) has little more than 65 seats. Meanwhile, the main opposition Popular Party has as many as 134 seats.

It was the Catalan separatists who were preventing the minority government from being washed away by the heavy tides of the opposition.

The absence of that protective layer formed by the Catalans means the government is no longer indestructible.

In the statement released during the announcement of the government’s decision to conduct the snap election, the ruling government has criticised the opposition heavily. It has alleged that the opposition has purposefully defeated many important bills in the parliament to destabilise the government.

A poll survey predicts that no party will cross the magic number in the proposed snap election. Meanwhile, the same survey suggests that the conservatives will defiantly make little progress in their number of seats in the parliament in the election.

Spain is new to political destabilisation. Never in its recent history has it suffered such a situation. The last time that it suffered some thing similar to this is when the country found itself liberated from its decades-old dictatorship post the unexpected demise of Francisco Franco.

Vignesh. S. G
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The British Prime Minister Theresa May has suffered yet another embarrassing defeat after MPs voted down her approach to Brexit talks. On Thursday the MPs voted by 303 to 258 – a majority of 45 – against a motion endorsing the government’s negotiating strategy, the BBC reported. The lawmakers remain resistant to May’s EU divorce plan. The reason for this situation is that Teresa May has lost the support of many of the long standing leave campaigners in her own party.

The defeat has no legal force. Downing Street said that it would not change the PM’s approach to talks with the EU. “On a point of order, tonight’s vote shows there is no majority for the Prime Minister’s cause of action in dealing with Brexit. Yet again her government has been defeated. The government keep on ignoring parliament or plaving on towards the 29th of March without a co-hearing plan.” said Jeremy Corbyn.

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As the government of Spain loses the budget vote, the risk of snap election arises. The parliament rejected the government’s 2019 draft budget, and this brings the country to the snap national election. 191 lawmakers voted against the budget, and 158 votes came in favour.

The socialists hold less than a quarter of the seats in the parliament, and need its support from smaller regional parties including the Catalan parties, to get the budget proposal voted through. But the Catalan parties are unhappy with the government’s refusal to consider or discuss an independence referendum for their north-eastern region. The Catalan secessionists had rejected the national budget.

“We have supported the government of Pedro Sanchez for eight months with nothing in exchange. We gave them all the support in the censure motion in exchange for nothing.” said Joan Tarda, the Pro Catalan independence MP. Spanish prime minister’s office says that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez plans to announce whether he will call early election after his government lost their key budget vote.

Sunaya Paison
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The demand for snap election is active in Spain, which is at present in the hands of leftists. Hours before, the rights have successfully organised a protest in Madrid demanding the resignation of the ruling leftists. Through it has been triggered by the ruling’s lenient stand towards the Catalonian separatists’ demand (that is, the independence of Catalonia), all efforts have been directed solely towards the destruction of the political base of the leftists in the country.

The tread is not different elsewhere in Europe. It is evident in Italy (with the presence of the Five Star Movement and Northern League), France (with the presence of Marine Le Pen), the UK (with the victory of Brexit), and even in Germany (with the emergence of far-rights voices in the country).

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Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK are the four biggest economies in the continent. It is on these economies the entire European Union stands. With the UK’s proposed departure and the ongoing friction between France and Italy, the union at present already has a buddle of problems to deal with.

It is sure that the union cannot survive another big blow. It is high time to articulate a applicable strategy to counter the emerging threat of euroscepticism.

Vignesh. S. G
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The streets of Hungary filled with protesters against Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government and a so-called “slave law”. The protesters marched to President Janos Ader’s office, angry that he signed the legislation.

Demonstrations first broke out in December following an amendment to a law that increases the number of overtime hours employees can be asked to work. According to the challenge, the bosses can ask the employees to work up to 400 extra hours per year of overtime, while the current limit is 250. Meanwhile payment for this overtime can be delayed by up to three years.

Prime Minister Victor Orban says to get rid of “silly rules” so that those who want to earn more can work more. He also waived personal income tax for women raising at least four children and reiterated his hard rhetoric on immigration.

Sunaya Paison
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Thousands of people gathered and protested Madrid on Sunday against the government’s handling of the Catalan question, as the country braced for the landmark trial of 12 separatist leaders this week. Protesters were angered by the government’s outreach to Catalan separatists and calls for new elections in Spain.

The people gathered were weaving Spanish flags and were residing the slogans for the nation’s security forces and for Sanchez to resign. Pablo Casado, who asked the voters to punish Sanchez’s socialists in upcoming European, local and regional elections in May, said that “The time of Sanchez’s government is over,”. During the upbeat demonstration recordings of popular music including Lady Gaga were also played.

The public proceedings at Spain’s supreme court, which are expected to last three months and which will be broadcast on television, will focus on the independence referendum held in October 2017 and the regional parliament’s subsequent unilateral declaration of independence.

Sunaya Paison
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