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      UK defence secretary ‘not optimistic’ Russian invasion of Ukraine can be stopped

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      The UK defence secretary has admitted he is “not optimistic” that Russian president Vladimir Putin can be persuaded against invading Ukraine as the prospect of war between the neighbouring countries grows increasingly likely.Ben Wallace has travelled to Europe to engage with the leaders there about the crisis and to drum up support for sanctions against the Kremlin as Moscow continues to build up its military presence on the border. Prime minister Boris Johnson said earlier this week that the UK would send troops to its allies in eastern Europe should Moscow press ahead with an invasion in the coming days or weeks.Russia denies it is planning an invasion.On Wednesday night Joe Biden’s White House issued its first written response to Russia, which is demanding that Nato will not grow any further east, citing security concerns. Moscow is also seeking assurances that Ukraine will never be allowed to join the military alliance.The US is said to want reassurances from the UK that it would help reinforce Nato’s eastern flank, from the Baltic states to Romania and Bulgaria in the south, by bolstering military presence. Reports say British military officials are in advanced talks about how to respond to the request.Mr Wallace has confirmed he will head for Moscow to speak with Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, once he has finished talks with leaders in Europe. Before making the trip east, he told the BBC that the prospect of a Russian invasion looks increasingly likely. There is still “a chance” that Russia could be stopped, although he warned: “I’m not optimistic”. More

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      UK ‘considering sending hundreds of troops to Eastern Europe’ amid Russia-Ukraine crisis

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      British military officials are reportedly deciding whether to send hundreds of troops to Eastern Europe after Washington asked the UK and other Nato allies to support member countries in the face of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. The US is said to want reassurances from the UK that it would help reinforce Nato’s eastern flank, from the Baltic states to Romania and Bulgaria in the south, by bolstering military presence. It comes after US president Joe Biden’s administration delivered its first written response to Russia’s security demands over the crisis on the border, including a rejection of Vladimir Putin’s call for Ukraine to never be allowed to join the alliance. “Very advanced discussions” are now taking place among UK defence figures, according to The Daily Telegraph, with an announcement on new deployments expected as soon as Thursday. While CNN reported that groups of 1,000 troops could be offered to each of several eastern flank countries by the UK, US and some other Nato allies, it is thought the British military would offer no more than a few hundred of its personnel.Units from the Army, Royal Navy and RAF are said to be under consideration for dispatch, though no final decision has been made. Defence secretary Ben Wallace travelled to Nato’s headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the crisis, and held talks with his various European counterparts, including Germany’s Christine Lambrecht.He is said to have told reporters travelling with him that a “key focus” was to encourage Berlin to support tougher sanctions on Russia – including halting the opening of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which is set to bypass Ukraine – if it were to attack. Mr Wallace said that the pipeline represented a “genuine piece of leverage” against the Kremlin, but the German government is reportedly split on the issue.The UK, which has already sent anti-tank weapons to Ukraine and offered military training to its forces, leads a Nato battlegroup in Estonia with around 850 personnel – and it has 150 based in Poland on other missions. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson told MPs that in the event Russia invades Ukraine, “we would look to contribute to any new Nato deployments to protect our allies in Europe”. Just two days earlier, though, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and former foreign secretary, told Sky News it was “extremely unlikely” the government would send additional troops to the region – suggesting the government’s position is hardening. Downing Street has consistently tried to focus attention on the Ukraine crisis in recent days, in a bid to divert anger and speculation away from the prime minister amid the ongoing Partygate scandal.During prime minister’s questions (PMQs) on Wednesday, Mr Johnson suggested Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer needed to “raise his game” and focus on the situation in Europe instead of lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street.“He talks about the most serious issue before the public today, and before the world today, it is almost as if he is ignorant to the fact that we have a crisis on the borders of Ukraine,” the prime minister said of Sir Keir after being asked if he understood “the damage his behaviour is doing to the country”. More

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      UK, EU, and US received more vaccines in six weeks than Africa did in the whole of 2021

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      When the seriousness of coronavirus became clear in early 2020 and work ramped up on manufacturing a vaccine, campaigners foresaw the issue of roll out inequality. Later in the year as news of vaccine efficacy dominated global headlines, they approached leaders and pharmaceutical companies to ensure low-to-middle-income countries would not be pushed out when demand for jabs peaked.“We were told which countries bought all of the vaccines in the first wave and were reassured that everyone else will get them in the next few months,” Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, told The Independent. “It’s clear that’s not happening, especially as we need boosters… what that means is that vaccine inequality is deepening with every month that goes by.”New analysis by the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA) has shown the UK, European Union and US has received more vaccines in the last six weeks than the African continent has received throughout this year. According to the data, between 11 November and 21 December wealthier countries have gotten hold of 513 million doses, while African countries have acquired only 500 million doses over 12 months.Alongside these findings, figures from Our World in Data show 448.5 million people in high-income countries have received a booster while only 53.6 million people in low-income countries have received their first dose during the same period.The majority of Covid vaccines delivered to the African continent this year have been sporadic donations often close to their expiry date. This ad hoc approach has resulted in chaos upon delivery as underequipped healthcare services struggle to administer the vaccine.“When many countries receive these donations, they are in a huge batch … when you think about how difficult it is for high-income countries to organise a roll out, you can’t just dump a load of vaccines on low-income countries and expect they are going to reach people’s arms within a few weeks. They need to be able to plan and they need investment in their health centres,” says Dearden.During a meeting of G7 leaders in Cornwall this June, a pledge was made to deliver one billion vaccines to low-income countries over the next year but already those targets are being missed. While prime minister Boris Johnson described the move as a “big step towards vaccinating the world”, the UK has only donated 15 per cent of the 100 million doses it has promised. Vaccine hesitancy across the African continent has often been an issue of concern for global leaders. However, research carried out by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to Covid-19 in 19 African Union member states, showed 78 per cent of people surveyed were willing to get the vaccine, should it be made available. In May, 25 per cent of adults in the European Union (EU) said they were unwilling to take any Covid vaccine. According to the PVA just 8.6 per cent of people in African countries have been fully vaccinated.“We need three things [to improve vaccine inequality]. For countries that do have access to lots of manufacturing capabilities, they need to be sharing more doses more rapidly… Secondly, we need much more money to support roll outs in countries which have weaker healthcare systems… and thirdly, we need poorer countries to have their own capabilities to manufacture vaccines. Ninety nine per cent of Africa’s vaccines are imported,” says David McNair, executive director for global policy at the ONE Campaign.Several organisations have called on vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to share their vaccine “recipe” with lower-income countries, rather than continue to make them dependent on donations, so far they have been reluctant to do so. According to the PVA, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna will make $34bn (£25bn) this year in pre-tax profits. More

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      France to start legal action against UK on fishing licences in ‘very first days of January’

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      France will start legal action against the UK over the post-Brexit fishing row within weeks, a French minister has said. Clement Beaune, the secretary of state for European affairs, said on Thursday the case will go before a special tribunal in the “very first days of January”. It comes days after France said it would seek European Union legal action against the UK over the months-long dispute centred around the number of fishing licences granted after Brexit. Mr Beaune said last week Paris would ask the European Commission to initiate judicial proceedings “for licences we are entitled to get”. He told French media on Thursday litigation will kick off in early January. When asked on public TV station France 2 how this would work with the UK no longer being in the EU, he said there was the post-Brexit agreement. “If there are breaches of the agreement, it can lead to sanctions from a tribunal that we jointly established,” Mr Beaune said. “It will be this tribunal that we will refer to in the first days of January.”Last week, the European Affairs minister said France had obtained 93 per cent of the requested licenses to fish in UK waters. But the country still wanted just over 70 more to be granted. French fishermen staged blockades at the Port of Calais and Channel Tunnel last month as they claimed they had been “humiliated” over post-Brexit licences. Downing Street has been approached for comment. More

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      More countries ‘trying to coerce women to have more children’, report finds

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      More countries are adopting policies that coerce women into having more children, a report has found.Around three in ten nations across the globe now have pronatalist policies that encourage citizens to have more children, according to charity Population Matters.Researchers, who examined data from the United Nations, noted a substantial rise from the ten per cent of nations that enacted such policies in 1976.The paper highlighted examples of pronatalism being pursued in countries such as Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Iran and China.However, it also warned politicians in the US and Germany are beginning to champion parallel policies.Monica Scigliano, the report’s author, said: “When people think of coercive population policy, their minds often go to examples like China and India, in which leaders wanted to limit population growth by forcing women to have fewer children.“Now, however, with birth rates declining and in some cases emigration reversing population trends, that has changed.“As people continue to choose smaller families, more governments across the world are resorting to coercive tactics, depriving people of their reproductive rights in order to increase their populations.”Ms Scigliano, a policy adviser, said nationalism can spawn a “toxic brand of pronatalism” which signifies an “almost inevitable threat to sexual and reproductive health and rights”.Researchers warned nationalist governments are infringing on women’s reproductive and sexual freedom rights – suggesting “right-wing, populist and nationalist administrations are stigmatising women who choose to have smaller families as unpatriotic”.The proponents of pronatalist policies sometimes believe in the deeply racist and xenophobic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory which maintains Christian and European populations and their culture will be eradicated due to immigrants from Muslim countries relocating overseas to escape human rights abuses.The report noted Viktor Orban, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, has proposed “a comprehensive agreement with Hungarian women” to bear more children. The leader promotes debt-free education for women but only if they have at least three children.He has also pledged that women who give birth to four or more children need not ever pay income tax again.“We want Hungarian children. Migration for us is surrender,” Mr Orban has previously said.Researchers also drew attention to pronatalist policies in Poland where a near-total abortion ban was enacted last October – further tightening the nation’s already highly restrictive abortion laws and triggering the largest protests in the country since the collapse of communism.Under the new laws, it is now illegal to have an abortion in cases where there are foetal defects. Before that, although terminating a pregnancy has long been illegal in Poland, foetal abnormalities were one of the exceptions where an abortion was permitted, along with cases of rape, incest, or where the mother’s life is at risk.Before the stringent new abortion rules were rolled out, some 98 per cent of the tiny number of legal abortions which occurred in the predominantly Catholic nation were cases of foetal defects.Campaigners have blamed the new for the recent death of a 30-year-old pregnant woman, named only as Izabela, who died after she was blocked from having an emergency operation as doctors said they had to wait until they could stop hearing her baby’s heartbeat.Antonina Lewandowska, an abortion rights campaigner who is one of the report’s authors, said anti-abortion campaigners in Poland forced doctors into “such a state of fear” that they preferred to let Izabela “go into septic shock” than provide her with an abortion earlier on and therefore “save her life”.She said: “They are terrified of prosecution and stigma, as the pro-natalist anti-choice movements would probably eat them alive. On the other hand, there is a group of medical professionals that are rather comfortable with the current situation.“As it lets them argue that medical negligence happens due to that ‘freezing effect’ of an abhorrent law rather than their own incompetence, mistake or deliberate choice to not provide their patients with necessary medical care – an abortion – due to their personal beliefs.“In both cases, it is clear – aggressive, fundamentalist pronatalism paved the way for violating human rights in Poland.”The report is titled Welcome to Gilead, a reference to The Handmaid’s Tale – a 1985 dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, which is set in a fervently patriarchal, totalitarian state where women are forced to bear children for a governing class of men.Robin Maynard, director of Population Matters, said: “Coercive pronatalism is not simply a manifestation of patriarchy or misogyny but can be a product of political and economic forces entirely indifferent to women, for whom they exist simply as productive or non-productive wombs.“These regimes are instrumentalising women’s bodies to serve nationalistic, economic and patriarchal interests. Violating sexual and reproductive health and rights is never justified. It is imperative we all defend them, wherever they are threatened, and for whatever reason.”The report warned world leaders are anxious women deciding to have fewer children will impede their “economic and political goals”.“Pronatalism is often linked to a restrictive, patriarchal ‘pro-family’ agenda and the promotion of ethnic nationalism, based frequently on religious orthodoxy and hostility to multiculturalism and immigration,” researchers added. More

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      Amid pessimism and mistrust, Iran nuclear talks resume in Vienna after lengthy gap

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      After a five-month delay, Tehran and world powers returned to Vienna on Monday to resume talks  to restore the imperiled 2015 deal that limited Iranian nuclear capabilities but were  subsequently torpedoed by Donald Trump.Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saied Khatibzadeh said Tehran was “firmly determined” to salvage the deal, with US State Department spokesman Ned Price saying last week that Washington sought “a mutual return to compliance” in what will be a seventh round of talks.“We are serious about negotiations and reaching an agreement,” Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a video posted online on Sunday.“Let’s get back into the deal,” US lead negotiator Robert Malley told National Public Radio on Friday. “Let’s do it by closing the remaining issues that were left open in June after six rounds of talks. But let’s hurry up because time is not on our side.”Behind the scenes though, many are sceptical that the deal can be revived.“The Iranians would like the Americans to show goodwill and make accommodations and the Americans would like Iranians to show goodwill,” said Sanam Vakil, Middle East and Iran specialist at Chatham House. “But this five-month pause has widened the misperceptions of each other and this has created a very pessimistic environment.”In the months since Iran, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union last met in the Austrian capital to discuss restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that held the Iranian nuclear programme in check, the ground has shifted significantly.The government in Tehran has changed, with the new hardline administration of President Ebrahim Raisi likely making any negotiations tougher. Iran has upped its programme, expanding its output of nuclear material while stonewalling inspectors seeking more information and access to its sensitive facilities.Inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency estimated earlier this month that Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was nearly 2,500 kilograms, more than enough to fuel a nuclear warhead or two if Iran were to break out of its treaty obligations and attempt to assemble a bomb.The delay has emboldened the JCPOA’s long-standing opponents. Over the weekend, the regime launched a violent crackdown on farmers and environmental activists peacefully protesting the drying out of a beloved and historic river in the city of Isfahan, highlighting Iran’s grim human rights record and the reputational risks of dealing with the country.American Republicans maintain their staunch opposition to the deal thwarted by their standard-bearer, Trump.  Since the last round of talks, the US administration of President Joseph Biden has grown weaker, with poll numbers sagging and hawkish Republican opponents smelling blood.“The domestic climate in both Iran and the United States can muddy swift progress,” said Ms Vakil.Israeli Prime Minister Lapid was in the United Kingdom on Monday to lobby the government of Boris Johnson to take a tough stance  on Iran and will visit France to press President Emmanuel Macron later this week. Israel worries that the administration of President Joseph Biden could remove some of the crippling sanctions put in place by Trump in exchange for an Iranian suspension of enrichment.“Israel is very disturbed by the willingness to lift the sanctions and allow billions to flow into Iran in exchange for insufficient restrictions in the nuclear sphere,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was quoted as saying during a Cabinet meeting on Sunday.Iran has grown more paranoid, following repeated attacks on its nuclear facilities, presumably by Israel. On Sunday, Mr Lapid and UK foreign secretary Liz Truss penned a joint piece in a UK newspaper declaring a united front against Iran, prompting a furious response from Tehran.“The British foreign secretary writes a joint article on the night ahead of the Vienna talks together with a party that from the very beginning put all efforts to prevent the signing of the JCPOA and its revocation and today, too, is the main opponent to the Vienna talks and the revival of the JCPOA,” Mr Khatibzadeh said. “You come to see that at least some European countries are not coming to Vienna with the will needed for lifting the sanctions.”Adding to the sense of mistrust, the Iranians have refused to meet directly with American counterparts, instead communicating through European intermediaries, while conferring with their Russian and Chinese patrons. Ms Vakil said a lack of direct contacts was complicating the talks. More

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      ‘Humiliated’ French fishermen block ports and Channel Tunnel in row with UK

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      French fishermen who claim they have been ‘humiliated’ by Britain over post-Brexit operating licences have staged blockades at the Port of Calais and Channel Tunnel rail link in an effort to disrupt trade.Several trawlers manoeuvred inside the Port of Calais on Friday to hold up the passage of two ferries at the major entry point for British goods coming into Europe.At the Channel Tunnel, fishermen erected barricades of burning wooden pallets and lit smoke canisters on nearby roads – briefly blocking access to the freight terminal and causing long queues of traffic.Earlier in the day, French boats lined the entrance to Saint-Malo port from dawn on Friday to stop the British Normandy Trader vessel getting into the Brittany port from Jersey.The fishermen held aloft red flares as they circled their boats outside Saint-Malo to block the boat’s path. “We’re hostage to politics,” said Pascal Lecler, one of the fishermen in Saint-Malo. “It doesn’t make us happy to be here, but it can’t go on.”The Eurotunnel train service put on 12 additional freight trains to clear the backlog following the protest.The fishermen who manned the roadblocks said they wanted to see concessions from the UK by 10 December. “If we don’t get anywhere … believe me, the English will not have a magic Christmas. We’ll ruin the party,” warned Jean Michel Fournier, a fisherman from near Boulogne.Six French fishing boats from the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer blocked access to the Port of Calais in a short but impactful 90-minute operation.Gerard Romiti, the chairman of France’s powerful National Fisheries Committee, said: “This is to demonstrate how professional fishermen come together in response to the UK’s provocative, contemptuous and humiliating attitude towards them.”Mr Romiti said Friday’s blockades should be viewed as “warning shots”.Boris Johnson’s spokesman responded: “We are disappointed by threats of protest activity. It will be a matter for the French to ensure that there are no illegal actions and that trade is not affected.”Before Brexit, French fishermen had free rights to fish in UK waters under EU law and only had to apply to their own government for a licence.But earlier this year the new Brexit agreement came into force, meaning French fishermen now need to apply to the UK for a licence.At present, all vessels that fished in UK waters “for at least four years between 2012 and 2016” should be granted the same level of access until at least 2026, when it will be up to the UK and France to negotiate new deals.The UK is asking French boats to provide tracking and fishing quota data for those years to qualify for a permit. The French have protested, saying smaller vessels under 12 metres do not collect this data and are being unfairly punished. The row over fishing rights comes at a time of strained relations between London and Paris, with clashes in recent days over the issue of migrants and Channel crossings.A Downing Street spokesperson said: “We look to the French authorities to ensure the free flow of traffic and to ensure that trade is not disrupted. We’re also working closely with affected transport companies and local partners in Kent to provide any necessary support.”The spokesperson said there was no change in the UK’s position on the issue of licences to French trawlers under the terms of the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement. “We’ve been clear about our process in terms of the TCA and licencing fishing vessels, which hasn’t changed,” he said. “We’ll continue to work with fishing vessels if they can come forward and provide further evidence as per the requirements under the TCA.”Additional reporting by agencies More

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      Boat at centre of row returns home as UK’s Lord Frost arrives in Paris for key post-Brexit talks

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      A British boat held by the French for alleged illegal fishing arrived back in England just as crunch talks to end the escalating licensing crisis were set to begin in Paris.The Cornelis Gert Jan steamed into Shoreham, West Sussex, early on Thursday morning following a week on the quay in the Normandy port of Le Havre.But – despite being allowed to return home without paying a £125,000 bail bond – skipper Jondy Ward still faces criminal trial back in France in August.This will be one of the key issues discussed by Brexit Minister Lord Frost when he arrives in Paris today, when he will call for an end to French threats “once and for all”.He is due to meet the outspoken French Europe Minister Clement Beaune who said last week as the fishing row exploded that France needed “to speak the language of force” because “it is the only thing this [British] government understands”.Such aggressive rhetoric has included threats by the French to wreak havoc on cross-Channel trade and even to shut down power supplies to the Channel Islands.French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called off plans to block British trawlers from offloading catches in French ports and to introduce new checks on lorries arriving in the country. This came after authorities in Jersey offered to speed up approval for fishing vessels in its waters, in an attempt to defuse the post-Brexit crisis.However, President Macron’s spokesman Gabriel Attal has now warned that sanctions will still go ahead unless Lord Frost offers significant concessions.“All options are on the table,” said Mr Attal. “We may need to implement those measures if we do not reach an agreement.”Under the Brexit trade deal, French vessels are able to fish in the area between six and 12 miles from the UK’s shores until 2026 if they can prove they had previously been operating in those waters.But some boats have had their applications for permits refused because, it is claimed, they have not provided sufficient documentation.Downing Street has insisted it was not looking at weakening the evidence requirements for granting licences as part of attempts to negotiate a solution to the dispute.The Scottish-registered scallop dredger Cornelis Gert Jan docked at Shoreham, near Brighton, at 4.46am on Thursday.Its owners, Macduff Shellfish, have accused the French of using the vessel as a ‘pawn’ in the escalating dispute.Extreme threats suggested by the French have included cutting off electricity to the Channel Islands.Power is supplied to Jersey and Guernsey by undersea cables from Normandy, meaning that it can be switched off almost instantly. More