The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Boris Johnson

  • Prince Harry appointed Commonwealth youth ambassador

    Prince Harry has been appointed a Commonwealth youth ambassador, his highest-profile public role to date and a job that will see him working with his future wife encouraging young people to use the network of mostly former British colonies.

    Queen Elizabeth awarded the position to her 33-year-old grandson who is fifth-in-line to the throne and has led a rebranding of the monarchy in a bid to make it more modern and relevant.

    “I know that serving as ambassador to young people I’m going have to try to keep up with you all … my job will be to listen to you, my duty will be to ensure that your ideas, concerns, thoughts and hopes are heard,” Harry told the opening of a Commonwealth forum discussing youth issues.

    The announcement coincides with the start of a summit of the Commonwealth Heads of Government in London this week, which will seek to boost the network at a time when Britain is negotiating its departure from the European Union.

    “I’m also incredibly grateful that the woman that I am about to marry, Meghan, will be joining me in this work, in which she too is hugely excited to take part in,” the prince added, drawing applause and cheers from the audience.

    Harry will marry American actress Meghan Markle on May 19.

    In a statement, Buckingham Palace said more than 60 percent of the Commonwealth’s 2.4 billion people were under the age of 30.

    The Queen is the head of the Commonwealth, but questions have been raised over whether her son and heir, Prince Charles, should succeed her.

    “The Queen clearly is personally very committed to the Commonwealth but after her, maybe it’s a time to say ‘well actually the Commonwealth should decide who its own president is on a rotational basis’,” Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, told the BBC.

    Foreign minister Boris Johnson said it was “a matter for the 53 to decide”.

    In his opening speech, Harry praised the queen’s role in the development of the Commonwealth, calling her “the ultimate source of guidance in all things Commonwealth,” citing a speech she made in 1947.

    “She said that whether her life be long or short, it would be dedicated to the service of the people of the Commonwealth. All of us here today can be grateful that it is a long life the Queen is still enjoying,” he said.

    Reuters/NAN

  • Trump asked to finalise details of visit to Britain – May

    Trump asked to finalise details of visit to Britain – May

    British Prime Minister Theresa May and U.S. President Donald Trump have asked officials to “work together on finalising the details of Trump’s visit to the UK later this year,’’ May’s office reports.

    May and Trump met on Thursday on the sidelines on the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a day ahead of a scheduled keynote speech by Trump.

    They discussed Iran and Syria, while May briefed the U.S. president on the “good progress’’ in Britain’s negotiations on leaving the European Union, Downing Street said.

    “The two leaders reiterated their desire for a strong trading relationship post-Brexit, which would be in the interests of both countries,’’ it said.

    Trump announced earlier this month that he had cancelled a visit to London coinciding with the opening of a new U.S. embassy on February 26, when mass protests against him were planned in London.

    He said he did not like the building and thought it was a “bad deal’’ financially.

    Critics said the real reason for Trump’s cancellation of the trip was the strong opposition to him in Britain.

    Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday blamed the opposition Labour party for whipping up anti-Trump sentiment, which risks “damaging the national interest.’’ (dpa/NAN)

  • European powers urge U.S not to abandon Iran nuclear deal

    European powers urge U.S not to abandon Iran nuclear deal

    European powers have urged the United States not to abandon the 2015 agreement with Iran that limits its nuclear programme, saying it is making the world safer.

    After meeting his Iranian, French, German and European Union counterparts in Brussels, United Kingdom Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, insisted the deal was preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

    He also challenged Washington to come up with a better alternative.

    U.S President, Donald Trump, wants to amend the deal or withdraw from it, the BBC reports.

    In October, he refused to recertify for Congress that Iran was complying, accusing it of “not living up to the spirit” of the agreement.

    Mr Johnson described the deal, which is known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a “considerable diplomatic accomplishment.”

    “I don’t think that anybody has produced a better alternative to the JCPOA as a way of preventing the Iranians from going ahead with the acquisition of a military nuclear capability,” he said.

    “It is incumbent on those who oppose the JCPOA to come up with that better solution, because we have not seen it so far.”

  • Mugabe: Call to Africa to save democracy from military

    Mugabe: Call to Africa to save democracy from military

    The seized of Harare, Zimbabwe by military officers and placing President Robert Mugabe under house arrest after weeks of political turmoil should be condemned by the African Union and world leaders in general.

    The  Military takeover in this modern age is a bad omen for Africa as a continent and black race in general and if not quickly checked could become a trend again.

    The non-condemnation of the military intervention in Zimbabwe by Western leaders clearly depicts that the Western world leaders version of democracy in Africa is “Expedient Democracy” – Democracy based on post-imperialism governance. The vote doesn’t matter but gets it done anyway.

    This was evident in a statement credited to the UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson who described Mugabe as a power-hungry despot who would not be missed.

    “This House will remember the brutal litany of his 37 years in office: The elections he rigged and stole, the murder and torture of his opponents, the illegal seizure of land — leading to the worst hyperinflation in recorded history measured in the billions of percentage points — and forcing the abolition of the Zimbabwean dollar.”

    Even if the Zimbabweans are no longer comfortable with their leader, it should be made known through their majority voices and civil struggle and not through the anarchy of military intervention. It is an act of cowardliness for the Zimbabweans not to resolve in defending their democracy just like the Turkish people but cowed to military approach.

    I pray President Muhammadu Buhari could stand to the task of re-sending the strong signal delivered to the military officers in Sao Tome by the ex Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo.  In 2003 in Sao Tome, the former president of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo restored democracy in the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe (DRSTP).

    Obasanjo action sent a strong signal to military officers contemplating extra-constitutional means to subvert democratically elected governments that military adventurism in politics is no longer fashionable.

    As much as Africans condemn authoritarianism, the African leaders, as well as their followers  must preserve democracy and stand to defend the continent against the intervention of the military in their democracy because the consequences will be devastating to the future of the continent.

     

    By Ayoola Lawal
    Lawal is All Progressives Congress (APC) Scandinavia Chief and Global Affairs Analyst.
    He writes from Sweden

  • Britain will not pay ‘penny more’ to leave EU: Boris Johnson

    Britain will not pay ‘penny more’ to leave EU: Boris Johnson

    Britain will pay “not a penny more, not a penny less” than what the government thinks its legal obligations are to the European Union as the country leaves the bloc, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

    Talking to BBC Radio Four, Johnson said his comment that the EU could “go whistle” on its demands for payment was in response to being asked whether Britain would pay “100 billion euros or pounds”, and not a suggestion that the government would not pay.

    A financial settlement is set to be one of the most difficult issues to resolve in negotiations to unravel more than 40 years of union.

    The EU has said it is one of three areas the two sides must make progress on before starting talks on a future relationship, including trading arrangements.

    Johnson said: “some of the sums that I’ve seen seem to be very high.

    Of course, we will meet our obligations.

    “We should pay not a penny more, not a penny less of what we think our legal obligations amount to.”

  • Brexit not about ‘turning away from the world’ – Johnson

    Brexit not about ‘turning away from the world’ – Johnson

    Brexit “is not, was not and will not be about Britain turning away from the world,” British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, said in New Zealand on Tuesday.

    Johnson said this at a news conference in Wellington during his first visit to New Zealand.

    “On the contrary, it is about us wanting to keep great relations with all our European friends and partners and do a great free trade deal with them,” Johnson.

    Johnson, who is visiting the south-west Pacific nation for three days, met with Prime Minister, Bill English, and Foreign Minister, Gerry Brownlee and discussed topics including North Korea and the “nuclear adventurism of that regime” as well as the fight against terrorism.

    On Tuesday in Wellington Johnson said the people who voted for Brexit weren’t hostile to immigrants, they just wanted to feel that the British government had a handle on migration.

    “I have been the mayor of London where 40 per cent of the population was born abroad,” Johnson said.

    “Being open to talent is a great thing, but in any society, you have to manage it and you have to control it. That is what Brexit was about,” he said.

    He also said Brexit was also about rediscovering and intensifying friendships and partnerships around the world.

    Johnson said Britain and New Zealand would continue to work on a range of issues of mutual interest, including opportunities that existed for citizens to live and work in each other’s countries, Johnson said.

  • Britain dismisses report of worsening relations between May, Hammond

    Britain’s Defence Minister on Thursday dismissed a Times newspaper report suggesting that relations between Prime Minister Theresa May and her finance minister, Philip Hammond, had deteriorated.

    The Times newspaper said relations between the teams of the two most senior members of government had deteriorated following a series of disagreements over policy and presentation ahead of a June 8 election.

    Fallon was however asked about the front page report and he said he would have thought John you would be the last person to fall for such tittle-tattle.

    “Philip Hammond, (interior minister) Amber Rudd, Theresa May, (foreign minister) Boris Johnson and I in the cabinet are working together,’’ he said.

  • Britain regrets 2013 decision after Syrian gas-attack – Minister

    Britain regrets 2013 decision after Syrian gas-attack – Minister

    Britain’s Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson said on Wednesday that Syrians were suffering the consequences of a decision taken by Britain and the U.S. in 2013.

    Johnson said the decision of not to act following a gas attack in Syria despite having threatened that the use of chemical weapons was a “red line.”

    He made the comment during an EU-hosted international conference on Syria which had been overshadowed by an apparent chemical weapons attack in Syria’s Idlib province on Tuesday that left at least 72 people dead.

    “We made a historic decision, the UK and the U.S., back in 2013 not to respond to the crossing of the red line that everybody remembers: the use of gas at Ghouta.

    “That, I’m afraid, vacated the field in Syria as everybody knows, and we are living today with the consequences.

    “I’m afraid the people of Syria are living today with the consequences of that decision,” he said.

    In August 2012, former U.S. president Barack Obama warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the use of chemical or biological weapons in Syria was a “red line” that should not be crossed.

    In August 2013, a chemical weapons attack was carried out in the Ghouta area outside of Damascus killing more than 1,400 people.

    The Syrian regime was accused of the attack.

    While the U.S. was weighing military action, it decided against taking any military steps after the Syrian government agreed to eliminate its chemical weapons stash under a UN Security Council resolution.

    However, chemical weapons attacks have continued.

    UN investigators found last year that the Syrian government had carried out attacks using chlorine gas on three occasions since 2014.

    The alleged chemical attack on Tuesday has been blamed on the Syrian government by the U.S. and several other countries.

    The White House also blamed the Obama administration for failing to act more forcefully to prevent such attacks by the Syrian government.

    “These heinous actions by the Bashar al-Assad regime are a consequence of the previous administration’s weakness and irresolution,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

    He pointed to Obama’s decision to draw a “red line” on chemical weapons as doing “nothing.”

  • UK exit from EU will endanger peace – Cameron

    Peace in Europe could be at risk if Britain votes to leave the European Union, David Cameron has warned.

    The United Kingdom has regretted “turning its back” on Europe in the past, the prime minister said, arguing the EU had “helped reconcile” countries and maintain peace.

    Was leaving the union a “risk worth taking,” Mr. Cameron asked.

    But ex-London mayor Boris Johnson hit back, saying the EU’s “anti-democratic tendencies” was “a force for instability and alienation.”

    The Vote Leave campaign said: “During the renegotiation the PM said he ‘ruled nothing out’. Now he thinks leaving the EU would lead to war. What changed?”

    Despite his security warning, Mr. Cameron defended his decision to call the referendum, telling the BBC: “You shouldn’t try to hold an independent sovereign nation in an organisation against its will.”

    There are just over six weeks to go until the 23 June referendum which will decide whether Britain remains in or leaves the EU.

    The PM’s comments – and a rival speech from Mr. Johnson – came as the referendum campaign intensifies, following last week’s elections.

    Mr. Cameron, who was introduced by former Labour foreign secretary, David Miliband, argued the EU – with Britain in it – had helped bring together countries that had been “at each others’ throats for decades.”

    He warned the peace and stability Europe has enjoyed in recent years could not be guaranteed, saying leaving risked “the clock being turned back to an age of competing nationalism in Europe.”