Cross-party rebel alliance gears up for Brexit clash with Johnson

Cross-party rebel alliance gears up for Brexit clash with Johnson

Hastily convened group plans to force PM to seek article 50 extension if no deal is reached

Heather Stewart, Jessica Elgot and Kate Proctor

Wed 28 Aug 2019 20.58 BST Last modified on Thu 29 Aug 2019 00.55 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/28/cross-party-rebel-alliance-gears-up-for-brexit-clash-with-johnson

Rebel MPs from across the political spectrum are gearing up for a historic parliamentary clash next week, after Boris Johnson announced plans to suspend parliament for a critical five-week period in the run-up to Brexit.

Conservative and opposition MPs took part in a series of hastily convened conference calls on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to prevent a no-deal outcome, after the prime minister confirmed he had obtained permission from the Queen to prorogue parliament.

The surprise decision provoked widespread fury, with Commons Speaker John Bercow describing it as a “constitutional outrage”.

Robert Kerslake, the former head of the civil service, said Whitehall would have to think carefully about whether to put ministers’ instructions into effect. “We are reaching the point where the civil service must consider putting its stewardship of the country ahead of service to the government of the day,” he said.

In a letter to MPs, Johnson insisted the suspension would allow him to focus on his domestic priorities of funding the NHS and tackling violent crime, and parliament would have “ample” time to debate Brexit – but it was widely seen as a bid to curtail MPs’ chances to bind his hands.

The cross-party rebel alliance agreed to focus on fast-tracking legislation aimed at mandating the prime minister to request an extension to article 50 if he fails to strike a new Brexit deal by mid-October.

The fresh scramble to prevent a no-deal Brexit came on a day of extraordinary drama, as:

• The leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, flew to Balmoral to receive the Queen’s formal approval for the prorogation plan at a meeting of the privy council.

• Sterling tumbled by more than 1 cent against the US dollar, as investors interpreted Johnson’s ploy as heightening the risks of a no-deal Brexit, before rallying later in the day to close 0.5 cents down.

• Senior EU figures were taken aback, with the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, calling the move, “sinister”.

• A petition against the suspension of parliament rapidly exceeded 800,000 signatures.

• Jeremy Corbyn protested against the move in a letter to the Queen.

• Lawyers for the activist Gina Miller made an urgent application to the high court for a judicial review of the prime minister’s decision.

Parliament will now sit for little more than a week from 3 September, before breaking until 14 October, when a new Queen’s speech will be held setting out what Johnson called “a bold and ambitious domestic legislative agenda for the renewal of our country after Brexit”.

In practice, given MPs do not sit on most Fridays, they are only likely to lose between four and six sitting days in parliament. MPs would have been due to hold conference recess anyway, from 12 September until 7 October.

But Johnson’s gambit squeezes the time available for rebel MPs to act. Their numbers have been boosted by the sackings of key members of the “Gaukeward squad”, including former chancellor Philip Hammond, who is expected to spearhead next week’s efforts.

“At a time of national crisis parliament must be able to meet to hold the government to account and to represent our constituents and it is profoundly undemocratic to shut parliament down to stop it doing its job,” Hammond said.

“We are determined parliament will show its resolve to stop a no-deal Brexit … We will have to try to do something when parliament returns next week.”

He could table a vote of no-confidence in Johnson’s government; but Labour have repeatedly said they would not do so unless they were convinced of success – which is deemed unlikely while potential Tory rebels are focused on blocking no deal through legislation.

Donald Trump waded into the row on Wednesday, fresh from showering praise on Johnson at the G7 summit in Biarritz over the weekend. The US president claimed it would be “very hard” for Corbyn to win a no-confidence vote, because Johnson was “exactly what the UK has been looking for”.

Donald J. Trump

✔

@realDonaldTrump

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One senior Labour figure speculated that Johnson’s rationale might be to show that he had been forced into a general election. “Buckle up, summer’s over,” he said.

But Downing Street insists Johnson is focused on getting a new deal with the EU; and is determined not to go to the polls before Brexit day, even if he loses a vote of no confidence.

“We have been very clear that if there’s a no-confidence vote, he won’t resign. We get to set an election date. We don’t want an election, but if we have to set a date, it’s going to be after 31 October,” said a senior government source.

The first hint that something was afoot came when the chancellor, Sajid Javid, cancelled a major speech planned for Wednesday, announcing instead that a slimmed-down spending review will take place next week.

Johnson’s cabinet, which is packed with veterans of the Vote Leave campaign, were only informed of the prime minister’s decision to suspend parliament in a conference call on Wednesday morning – after Johnson had already made a request to the Queen.

 It is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit

Speaker John Bercow

Downing Street insisted this had been the standard approach to planning a Queen’s speech for previous governments.

During the conference call, the prime minister stuck resolutely to the line that the suspension was simply aimed at paving the way for his new government to press on with its domestic agenda.

No dissent was expressed, the Guardian understands – though one senior Tory source said Amber Rudd was “more reserved” than others. They described the culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, as “enthusiastic as Andrea Leadsom” in supporting the plan.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, faced ridicule on Twitter, with his letter to fellow candidates during the Tory leadership contest calling on them to rule out prorogation being widely shared.

Hancock warned in the letter that “a policy on Brexit to prorogue parliament would mean the end of the Conservative party as a serious party of government”.

Matt Hancock

✔

@MattHancock

 Proroguing Parliament undermines parliamentary democracy and risks a general election. I rule it out and call on all candidates to do the same

Allies said he had been referring to the more drastic proposal of proroguing parliament through to exit day – and believes narrowing the window in which MPs can debate and vote on an improved Brexit deal could help it to pass, by sharpening the dilemma for MPs.

The rebels’ plan for averting a no-deal Brexit leans heavily on Bercow’s assistance. In an extraordinary intervention for the Speaker, whose role demands political neutrality, Bercow said Johnson’s move was a “constitutional outrage”.

“However it is dressed up, it is blindingly obvious that the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit and performing its duty in shaping a course for the country,” he said.

“I have had no contact from the government, but if the reports that it is seeking to prorogue parliament are confirmed, this move represents a constitutional outrage.”

The rebels believe Bercow, who is often accused of trying to thwart Brexit by Eurosceptic MPs, will grant a request for an emergency backbench debate – known as an SO24 – on the the first day parliament returns, 3 September.

An amendable motion could then be voted on in a matter of days. If successful it would pass to the Lords who would be required to sit in emergency sessions over the weekend of 7 and 8 September. It must have received royal assent before parliament is prorogued, or the Commons would have to start again from scratch when parliament returns on 14 October.

One former Conservative cabinet minister suggested a key rationale for the government’s approach was that, by convention, the Queen’s speech is debated for six days – clogging up the timetable to prevent wrecking manoeuvres.

“They have worked through the options and decided this is their only reasonably safe option for delivery on 31 October,” he said.

Johnson said MPs would get the opportunity to vote on the outcome of the key 17 October European council meeting, at which he hopes a new Brexit deal will be agreed, during the following week, on 21 and 22 October – little more than a week before exit day.

What the suspension of parliament means for Brexit

Amazon fires spark Macron threat to kill South America trade deal

Amazon fires spark Macron threat to kill South America trade deal

French president takes aim at Brazilian leader ahead of G7 summit.

By          HANS VON DER BURCHARD AND RYM MOMTAZ               8/23/19, 7:12 PM CET Updated 8/26/19, 4:48 AM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/mercosur-brazil-amazon-fires-spark-macrons-threat-to-kill-mercosur-deal/

BIARRITZ, France — The Amazon rainforest is ablaze, and Emmanuel Macron feels like he just got burned.

Only two months after Europe concluded a landmark trade deal with the South American Mercosur bloc, the French president is threatening to kill it off over what he sees as betrayal by Brazil's maverick President Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of allowing big business interests like ranchers and loggers to torch the forest.

Macron has called for the burning Amazon to lead the agenda of the G7 summit he is hosting in Biarritz this weekend. In an unusually undiplomatic broadside against his Brazilian counterpart, he concluded that Bolsonaro "lied to him" about the Mercosur pact when it was struck in June, by promising to respect the Paris Climate Agreement and to protect the rainforest, an Elysée official said.

If France doesn't sign up to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, it is dead.

Putting deforestation onto the G7 agenda could well put Macron on a collision course with Donald Trump in Biarritz. The U.S. president will be far keener to focus on a French digital tax that he thinks penalizes U.S. tech companies. Trump also has a far more cordial relationship with Bolsonaro and is also eyeing a trade deal with him.

The accord needs to be ratified by EU governments, the European Parliament and some 40 other parliaments across Europe.

When the EU-Mercosur deal was concluded at a political level in June, Macron hailed it as a "good deal" but warned of the need for vigilance on the environmental fall-out. Bolsonaro has subsequently startled the international community by accusing foreign environmental activists of being behind the fires. He argues that foreigners should not be interfering in Brazilian sovereignty.

"Bolsonaro’s inaction on fires, and his response by talking of manipulation and instrumentalization when the fires are highlighted, has made his inaction more visible and tangible," the Elysée official said. "That’s why, as things stand, we are opposed to the Mercosur [deal]. We are being coherent."

The French comments raise very serious doubts over the EU's deal with Mercosur (comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay). The accord needs to be ratified by EU governments, the European Parliament and some 40 other parliaments across Europe.

Massive forest fires have destroyed trees in the Amazon at record pace this year, with Brazil’s space agency reporting its satellite data showed an 84 percent increase in fires over the same period in 2018. The NGO Amazon Watch suggested Thursday that many fires had been lit by farmers wanting to clear the land.

Macron's opposition came hard on the heels of comments by Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who vowed Friday his country would not ratify the Mercosur deal "if Brazil does not honor its environmental commitments." He said the idea that foreign non-governmental organizations were behind the fires was "Orwellian."

The Mercosur deal has proved especially politically toxic in both France and Ireland because both countries have important beef farming constituencies that feel threatened by waves of cheap imports from Brazil and Argentina.

Finland's Finance Minister Mika Lintilä — whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency — also said Friday that "the EU and Finland are urgently exploring the possibility of banning imports of Brazilian beef."

Lintilä added that he wanted to discuss the issue with his EU colleagues at a meeting in Helsinki in mid-September.

A German government spokesperson, however, said Friday that Berlin opposes Macron’s threatened block, stressing that such a step is “not the appropriate response” to fires raging in the Amazon rainforest.

In a televised address late Friday, Bolsonaro vowed to take “firm action” against the blazes and pledged to mobilize the army to support firefighters. Responding indirectly to Macron’s threat, he said: “Forest fires exist in the whole world and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions.”

Trump fallout

Macron seized the political initiative in a tweet on Thursday night when he called the Amazon fires "an international crisis" and vowed to "discuss this emergency first order" at the G7 summit, which he will host from Saturday to Monday in the upscale coastal resort of Biarritz.

European threats to block the Mercosur deal could offer an opening to Trump, however. In July he said he wanted to do his own tariff-slashing trade deal with Brazil. If Macron snubs Bolsonaro, the Brazilian leader could quickly turn to Trump, who is demanding fewer environmental conditions.

Land that has been scorched by fire in the state of Mato Grosso | Rogerio Florentino/EFE via EPA

European Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva on Friday directly acknowledged that risk over Brazil's strategic direction: "We have seen that the American president is trying to convince other words leaders to join him in rejecting the Paris Agreement," she said.

"With the EU-Mercosur agreement, Brazilian President Bolsonaro has made his choice, he has come with us," Andreeva went on, adding that the deal was "a way ... to push and encourage each other to live up to the commitments we have made together."

Bolsonaro, meanwhile, protested against Macron's proposal to make the Amazon fire a priority at the summit of the G7, where Brazil will not be in attendance.

"The French president's suggestion that Amazonian issues be discussed at the G7 without the participation of the countries of the region evokes a colonialist mentality that is out of place in the 21st century," he wrote on Twitter.

This article has been updated.

This article is from POLITICO Pro: POLITICO’s premium policy service. To discover why thousands of professionals rely on Pro every day, email pro@politico.eu for a complimentary trial.

Boris Johnson comments on plans to suspend parliament / Boris Johnson’s intention is clear: he wants a ‘people v parliament’ election

(…) "Declaração de guerra"

O speaker (presidente) do Parlamento, John Bercow, classificou a decisão de Johnson de “afronta constitucional”. Já Dominic Grieve, deputado conservador e opositor do “Brexit”, disse tratar-se de um “acto revoltante” e avisou que pode avançar com uma moção de censura a Boris Johnson. “Este Governo vai cair”, avisou, citado pela BBC.

“Boris Johnson está a tentar usar a rainha para concentrar poder nas suas próprias mãos — isto é uma forma profundamente perigosa e irresponsável de governar”, escreveu no Twitter a deputada trabalhista Yvette Cooper.

O ex-ministro das Finanças Philip Hammond, que abandonou o Governo quando May saiu, sem esperar ser demitido por Boris Johnson, disse que se o Parlamento for impedido de fiscalizar a actividade do Governo seria “um escândalo constitucional”. Hammond tornou-se um activo opositor de uma saída do Reino Unido da UE sem acordo, e do Governo de Johnson.

“Boris Johnson acabou de desafiar a democracia parlamentar”, disse Tom Brake, porta-voz para o “Brexit” dos Liberais Democratas. “A mãe de todos os parlamentos não vai permitir fechar o Parlamento do povo perante a maior decisão que o nosso país enfrenta. Esta declaração de guerra vai ser recebida com punho de ferro.”

Se houver uma moção de censura ao Governo, no entanto, o executivo conservador pode avançar para a dissolução do Parlamento e convocar eleições antecipadas, diz no Twitter Sebastian Payne, jornalista do Financial Times, citando fonte governamental.

A primeira-ministra escocesa alerta para a necessidade de uma reacção rápida. “Se os deputados não se unirem para travá-lo na próxima semana, o dia de hoje ficará na história como um dia negro para a democracia do Reino Unido”, escreveu Nicola Sturgeon no Twitter.

A figura que está a ser falada na imprensa britânica para suspender o Parlamento é a “prorrogação”, um poder que pertence à rainha (que, por convenção, segue os conselhos do primeiro-ministro). Segundo o Institute for Government, um think tank britânico, esta não é usada desde 1948, quando foi usada para contornar a oposição da Câmara dos Lordes a uma lei que diminuía os seus poderes.

No caso do “Brexit”, a prorrogação tem sido referida como opção para avançar com um “Brexit” sem acordo, o que potencialmente podia ser chumbado pelo Parlamento.

Boris Johnson anunciou na semana passada ter uma alternativa ao ponto mais controverso do acordo negociado por Theresa May, a cláusula de garantia de que, após a saída do Reino Unido da União Europeia, não haverá uma fronteira física entre as duas partes da Irlanda. A inexistência desta fronteira é também um ponto importante do Acordo de Sexta-Feira Santa que pôs fim à violência sectária na Irlanda do Norte. Na cimeira do G7, a UE fez saber estar disponível para ouvir as propostas de Boris Johnson.

Ao mesmo tempo que se está a evitar um novo chumbo do “Brexit” no Parlamento - antes da saída de Theresa May os deputados não conseguiram chegar a qualquer acordo sobre como a saída deve ser feita -, Johnson pressiona Bruxelas, a quem um “Brexit” sem acordo também não interessa.

https://www.publico.pt/2019/08/28/mundo/noticia/governo-ingles-vai-pedir-rainha-suspender-parlamento-1884670

Boris Johnson’s intention is clear: he wants a ‘people v parliament’ election

Tom Kibasi

The plan to prorogue parliament is a nakedly populist move that Johnson hopes will lead to a parliamentary majority

Wed 28 Aug 2019 12.47 BST Last modified on Wed 28 Aug 2019 15.21 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/28/boris-johnson-election-prorogue-parliament-populist-majority

Boris Johnson’s plan to prorogue parliament ahead of a Queen’s speech on 14 October is intended to provoke parliamentarians into blocking a no-deal Brexit, or triggering a general election through a vote of no confidence. Both are feasible in the time available.

The last time parliament stepped in to block no deal earlier in the year, the necessary legislation was passed in just three days. Johnson has deliberately left enough time for parliament to seize control again. That’s because Johnson’s real objective is to use Brexit to win a general election, rather than use a general election to secure Brexit. By forcing the hands of his opponents, he has defined the terrain for a “people versus parliament” election. Expect him to run on “Back Boris, Take Back Britain”. He will say that the only way to definitely leave on 31 October is to give him a parliamentary majority to do so. The man of Eton, Oxford and the Telegraph will position himself as the leader of the people against the hated establishment and “remainer elite”.

Johnson’s electoral strategy is simple: unite the Brexit-supporting right of politics behind him while remainers are fractured across Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens. Since the day he took office, Johnson has been acting to consolidate the votes of leave supporters behind him. From Brexit party supporters to leave-backing Labour voters, Johnson has sought to create a winning electoral coalition.

The Tories have spent recent weeks closing off predicted Labour attack lines. Sajid Javid has announced a one-year spending review will take place on 4 September. After nearly a decade of relentless reductions in spending, the public have plainly tired of austerity. Waiting times in the NHS are longer; class sizes are larger; and the police are no longer able to keep up with rising crime or keep many communities safe. Johnson’s government has already promised more spending in each of these areas.

But these are very Tory announcements, with an added rightwing edge. So the leaked proposal to invest in schools is to be accompanied by proposals to allow teachers to use “reasonable force” against pupils, and the additional resources for the police include proposals to allow all officers to carry Tasers. There is no serious public policy discussion about precisely how much force grown adults should use against children, just as the problem with knife crime is not the police’s ability to pacify knife-wielding youths with Tasers. These plans are red meat for the Tory base, designed to distract from rather than solve the problems our society faces.

The political logic is obvious. In 2017, Theresa May lost the slim Tory majority she inherited from her predecessor in an election campaign that turned away from Brexit and towards the state of the country at home. Labour’s clear anti-austerity message resonated across the Brexit divide and paid electoral dividends for the party. Johnson is aiming to prevent such a turn taking place this time.

Yet the public will be sceptical that the same people who needlessly degraded public services are now prepared to invest in them. While Johnson is unconstrained by principle or the shackles of ideology, he leads a cabinet of the hard right of the Conservative party. For those who have dedicated a lifetime to hacking back the state and severing Britain’s ties with the European Union, it seems unlikely that they are on board with a project of investment in public services. But they are certainly committed to a no-deal exit that is an Atlanticist project rather than a unilateralist one – and to the aggressive tax cuts that Johnson has promised. This is a government that intends to realign Britain to the US and is set to govern just like US Republicans – cut taxes first, then maintain spending to blow up the deficit before using that to justify far deeper spending cuts.

So why would the public believe what Johnson says? The real secret of populists, from Donald Trump to Matteo Salvini to Johnson, is the conflation of transgression with truthfulness. The willingness to engage in bigotry and violate hard-won social norms against racist, homophobic or misogynistic language convinces people that these politicians “speak their mind” and “say what they think”. Paradoxically, their lack of virtue confirms their veracity.

Their bigotry is the result of calculation rather than miscalculation – and the predictable howls of outrage from critics only serves to amplify the message. The upcoming election will turn on whether Johnson is found out for what he is: Trump with a thesaurus, whose real agenda of a Brexit for the elite is disguised behind the thin veneer of a few spending announcements that come after a desperate decade of the degradation of Britain at home and abroad.

• Tom Kibasi is director of the Institute for Public Policy Research. He writes in a personal capacity

Macron and Bolsonaro's war of words over Amazon fires, aid and their wives

Jair Bolsonaro demands Macron withdraw 'insults' over Amazon fires

Brazilian and French presidents continue feud over G7 aid package for wildfires raging in Amazon rainforest

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent

Tue 27 Aug 2019 18.47 BST Last modified on Tue 27 Aug 2019 21.26 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/jair-bolsonaro-demands-emmanuel-macron-withdraw-insults-over-fires

Brazil’s far-right president and his backers have escalated their row over the Amazon with Emmanuel Macron, attacking the French president’s “lamentable colonialist stance” as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest rainforest.

As Brazil said it would reject a $20m (£16m) G7 contribution to fight the fires, Jair Bolsonaro spurned Macron’s criticism of his environmental record and flaunted Donald Trump’s support for his far-right administration.

“We have nothing against the G7. We have something against one of the G7’s presidents,” Bolsonaro told a summit of governors from the nine states that make up the Brazilian Amazon.

Brazil’s leader said he had been cheered by an earlier tweet in which the US president said Bolsonaro was “working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil”.

Bolsonaro responded tweeting: “Thank you, President Trump. We’re fighting the wildfires with great success. The fake news campaign built against our sovereignty will not work.”

Macron has been less kind to Bolsonaro, a rightwing nationalist who campaigners accuse of greenlighting a new era of environmental destruction and being partly responsible for the scale of this year’s Amazon burning season.

Last week, Macron sparked a diplomatic skirmish with Bolsonaro when he called for emergency talks on the Amazon at the G7 summit – a move Bolsonaro responded to by mocking the appearance of Brigitte Macron, France’s first lady, on Facebook.

On Monday, Macron lamented Bolsonaro’s “extraordinarily rude” attack on his wife and said he hoped Brazil would soon have a leader worthier of the office.

Bolsonaro and his backers hit back on Tuesday. Bolsonaro condemned what he described as Macron’s meddling in Brazilian affairs and insisted he would only consider the G7’s Amazon aid package if Macron withdrew his “insults”.

Gen Augusto Heleno, Bolsonaro’s hawkish institutional security chief, took a particularly hard line, lambasting “Macron’s lamentable colonialist stance”.

“Ninety percent of [former] French colonies are in a deplorable state,” Heleno, the former head of the Brazil-led United Nations stabilization mission in Haiti, told the gathering of governors.

“Wherever they went they left a trail of destruction, chaos and misery. They shouldn’t be giving anyone advice. This is a joke.”

Mauro Mendes, the governor of the Amazon state of Mato Grosso, accused Macron of “surfing on the ashes” of the Amazon conflagration for political and economic purposes.

“Macron isn’t worried about our environment. He’s worried about creating mechanisms to introduce possible barriers [to Brazilian products],” Mendes claimed.

The Amazon assembly in Brasília was convened to discuss responses to the blaze currently sweeping through swaths of the region.

But Bolsonaro used the encounter to repeatedly pillory environmentalists and what he called the “psychotic” demarcation of indigenous reserves, claiming both had hamstrung Brazil’s economy.

He said: “This environmental question has to be dealt with rationally and not with the almost savagery that it has been throughout previous governments. We cannot allow a country as rich as ours to be in the situation it finds itself in.” He vowed to “take the decisions that need to be taken” to turbo-charge development of the Amazon.

Bolsonaro insinuated that indigenous reserves had been created by previous governments as part of a foreign conspiracy designed to hinder Brazil’s economic development.

He complained: “Indians don’t do lobbying. They don’t speak our language. And somehow they’ve ended up with 14% of our national territory.”

He added: “One of the aims is to make us unworkable.”

Bolsonaro also accused Brazilian journalists of waging a “a massive, anti-patriotic, sell-out campaign” against his government by reporting on the Amazon fires.

Many of the Amazon governors cheered Bolsonaro’s vision.

The governor of Rondônia state, Bolsonaro ally Marcos Rocha, said: “We have always had presidents who thought about environmental protection. Today, we have a president who thinks about protection but who puts human development first.”

But there was also pushback.

Mendes, the governor of Mato Grosso state said he was “very worried” about how Brazilian farmers might be affected by the negative international reaction to the crisis.

“Sixty percent of our GDP comes from our exports,” Mendes noted.

The governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho, cautioned against spurning foreign aid mechanisms such as the Amazon Fund – to which Norway and Germany recently suspended contributions because of Bolsonaro’s environmental policies.

Barbalho warned that Bolsonaro’s clash with Macron was a distraction when Brazil should be attempting to avoid a costly boycott of Brazilian products.

He said: “I think we are wasting too much time on Macron. We should take care of our own country and get on with our own lives. we should be taking care of our own problems and showing our environment diplomacy to the world, which is essential to agribusiness.”

Flávio Dino, the Communist party governor of Maranhão, also opposed rejecting much-needed international support for environmental protection.

“We cannot tear up money – tearing up money is not sensible,” said Dino, a staunch Bolsonaro critic who has described the Brazilian president as the “insane” leader of a “minority sect”.

Dino also warned against the “satanization” of environmental NGOs, which Bolsonaro has vowed to expel from the Amazon and accused, without evidence, of starting this year’s fires.

“It isn’t by setting NGOs on fire that we are going to save the Amazon,” Dino warned, urging Bolsonaro to show “moderation”.

Prince Andrew needs to ‘comes clean about it’ says Epstein accuser

Prince Andrew 'knows what he's done', claims Epstein accuser

Royal has previously denied Virginia Giuffre’s accusation that she was forced to have sex with him

Victoria Bekiempis

Tue 27 Aug 2019 22.56 BST Last modified on Wed 28 Aug 2019 04.38 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/27/prince-andrew-virginia-giuffre-epstein-accuser

An accuser of the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday addressed her accusation that she was coerced into sex with Prince Andrew, saying the royal “knows what he’s done”.

Virginia Giuffre had already alleged in 2011 testimony that Andrew “knows the truth” about Epstein’s abuse of underage girls and said he should be made to testify. In a December 2014 court filing she alleged that she was made to have sex with Andrew and other friends of Epstein.

The prince has always vehemently denied the allegations. In 2015 a court decided that the allegations made by Giuffre about the prince were “immaterial and impertinent” and ordered them to be struck out of a claim against Epstein.

On Tuesday, Giuffre, who now lives in Queensland with her Australian husband, spoke to reporters outside federal court in Manhattan. She was one of nearly two dozen women who spoke about alleged sexual abuse by Epstein during a unique court proceeding scheduled after the financier’s death in prison on 10 August, which was ruled a suicide.

Epstein’s death at 66 brought an end to his criminal case but the judge gave accusers the opportunity to speak publicly.

“He knows what he’s done and he can attest to that,” Giuffre said about Prince Andrew, a video of the press conference showed. “He knows exactly what he’s done, and I hope he comes clean about it.”

Brad Edwards, a lawyer representing a number of Epstein accusers, said that “with respect to Prince Andrew or anyone else who made statements, gratuitous statements, if anyone wants to come over here and talk with us, and answer real questions that the victims have, and that we have on their behalf, we welcome that invitation.

“I personally extended that invitation to Prince Andrew multiple times. Any time, we are ready, and we have a lot of questions for him.”

Andrew said in a statement last Saturday that he made Epstein’s acquaintance in 1999 and saw him once or twice each year. The prince also said he stayed at several of Epstein’s homes.

He said he did not “see, witness or suspect any behavior of the sort that subsequently led to [Epstein’s] arrest and conviction”.

He added: “I have said previously that it was a mistake and an error to see him after his release [from prison] in 2010 and I can only reiterate my regret that I was mistaken to think that what I thought I knew of him was evidently not the real person, given what we now know.”

The prince also said: “His suicide has left many unanswered questions and I acknowledge and sympathize with everyone who has been affected and wants some form of closure.

“This is a difficult time for everyone involved and I am at a loss to be able to understand or explain Mr Epstein’s lifestyle. I deplore the exploitation of any human being and would not condone, participate in, or encourage any such behaviour.”

G7: Trump skips talks on climate crisis and Amazon fires

G7: Trump skips talks on climate crisis and Amazon fires

US president misses key G7 meeting as summit agrees €20m fund to fight wildfires

Angelique Chrisafis in Biarritz

 @achrisafis

Mon 26 Aug 2019 14.54 BST First published on Mon 26 Aug 2019 13.13 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/donald-trump-skips-g7-talks-on-climate-crisis-and-amazon-fires

Donald Trump’s empty chair at the G7 talks on the climate emergency

Donald Trump did not attend Monday’s crucial discussion on climate and biodiversity at the G7 meeting of international leaders in Biarritz, missing talks on how to deal with the Amazon rainforest fires as well as new ways to cut carbon emissions.

Reporters noticed at the start of the session that the US president’s chair was empty.

Trump was later asked by reporters covering a meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, whether he had attended the climate session. He replied: “We’re having it in a little while.” He did not appear to hear when a reporter told him it had just taken place.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, confirmed Trump had not personally attended the climate session but that Trump’s team had been present.

He said he had held long and in-depth talks with Trump on the Amazon fires and that the US president “shares our objectives” and was “fully engaged” in the joint G7 effort to help Brazil put out the fires and reforest.

Macron had placed the climate emergency and protection of biodiversity at the heart of the summit, even before the Amazon rainforest fires.

But just before the session began on Saturday, it appeared that Trump’s entourage felt discussing climate was of little importance, compared with the economy. Reports in the US said senior Trump aides felt Macron was seeking to embarrass his US counterpart by making the summit focus on “niche issues” such as climate change or gender equality.

In 2017, Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate accord.

Macron announced that the G7 had agreed to an immediate fund of at least $20m (£16m) to help Amazon countries fight wildfires and launch a long-term global initiative to protect the rainforest.

He said the Amazon was the “lungs” of the planet and leaders were studying the possibility of similar support in Africa, also suffering from fires in its rainforests.

All G7 countries – the US, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada – would give technical and financial help to fight the Amazon fires.

Macron had shunted the Amazon fires to the top of the summit agenda after declaring them a global emergency, and kicked off discussions about the disaster at a welcome dinner for fellow leaders on Saturday.