France’s military chief has resigned following a public dispute with President Emmanuel Macron over the government’s proposed defense budget cuts. The head of the French armed forces, General Pierre de Villiers, said in a statement on Wednesday that he had tendered his resignation to the president and that it had been accepted.

Villiers explained that with the financial constraints imposed on the army, he was “no longer able to guarantee the robust defense force I believe is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people, today and tomorrow, and to sustain the aims of our country.”

A disagreement between the army chief and Macron started last week when the government revealed the details of a plan to make 850-million-euro cuts to the 2017 military spending. The government said the move was aimed at bringing France’s deficit to below the European Union’s limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

The general protested the plan the following day at the president’s own council of defense and the parliament’s defense commission. Macron reacted to his remarks last Friday, saying, “For me, it is undignified to wash dirty linen in public. I am your leader; I need no pressure, no comment.”

Only two days later, Macron told Journal du Dimanche that if de Villiers “has an issue with the President of the Republic, the chief of staff will be changed.” General de Villiers reacted in a Facebook post this week, saying he could resign.

His open disagreement with Macron was untypical of French military officials, who are historically silent on government policy. The French army is nicknamed “la grande muette” — “the great and silent” — because of that tradition.

But Macron has come under fire over the cuts from other parties, too, including members of his own party. The chairman of the parliamentary committee on defense, Jean-Jacques Bridey, who is also a Macron ally, said last week that he regretted the proposed cuts “while our men risk their lives every day.” Alexis Corbière, a leftwing member of the National Assembly, also warned that consequences of austerity on the French army would be “intolerable.”

Source: Presstv

Ten fire engines and more than 70 firefighters have battled a large fire in a building in London’s popular Camden Lock Market, a well-known tourist attraction, the London Fire Brigade has said. According to the Fire Brigade, the fire which erupted a few minutes before midnight was under control by around 3:00 a.m. local time on Monday, but firefighters would continue to “damp down” the site in order to prevent any re-ignition.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties or cause of the blaze. The London Fire Brigade said on Twitter in an earlier statement that the first three floors and roof of a building within the market were alight. “The Brigade’s 999 Control Officers have taken multiple calls to the highly visible blaze and people are asked to avoid the area,” it said on Facebook.

This is the second major fire incident in London in recent weeks. On June 14, a fire tore through the Grenfell Tower residential building, killing at least 80 people. Cheap materials used to refurbish the tower were cited as the reason for the Grenfell inferno, according to a report published in The Times.

The 24-story building block with 120 apartments was home to many Muslim residents. Reports said a lack of suitable equipment; low water pressure and radio problems hindered the response to the Grenfell Tower disaster. Fire crews have told the BBC that low water pressure, radio problems and equipment that was either lacking or did not arrive before the fire got out of control.

Source: Presstv

French prosecutors have charged a man with plotting to assassinate President Emanuel Macron during an upcoming parade in Paris. A judicial source said Monday that the 23-year-old man was charged on Monday with plotting to commit a terrorist act. He was arrested at his home in the northwest Paris suburb of Argenteuil on Wednesday.
Police was tipped off about the man after users of a chat room linked to a video game said he wanted to buy a firearm. The judicial source said the man had confessed that he wanted to kill Macron at the July 14 national day parade in Paris. The source added that the man had also planned to attack Muslims, Jews and blacks.

The source, who was close to the investigation, said the man had hidden kitchen knives in his vehicles while investigators found information on his computer showing that he had searched on the internet for potential targets.
Reports said the man had criminal records related to terrorism, which dated back to 2016 when he allegedly applauded Anders Behring Breivik, a neo-Nazi mass murderer who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in Norway in 2011. The French man was convicted for condoning terrorism at the time and was given a three-year prison sentence, 18 months of which was later suspended.

France has been reeling from a spate of terrorist attacks over the past years. Authorities introduced a state of emergency in November 2015 when 130 people were killed in a matter of a night in attacks in Paris. The measure has been extended for several times as authorities seek to cope with sporadic attacks on people and security forces in crowded places. Most of the attacks have been claimed by Daesh, a Takfiri terrorist group mainly operating in Iraq and Syria.

Last month, a man drove a car laden with weapons and gas canisters into a police van stationed on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. In April, a gunman shot dead a police officer on the Champs-Elysees days before the first round of the presidential election. On July 14, Macron is to attend the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Elysees.

Source: Presstv

A first item in talks between Britain and the European Union on the so-called Brexit, Britain’s exit from the EU, has appeared to be very problematic as EU leaders slam London’s plan to ensure the rights of EU citizens after Britain leaves the bloc. European Council President Donald Tusk warned on Friday that offers by British Prime Minister Theresa May on how the EU and Britain should ensure the rights of each other’s citizens risked leaving the two sides on more disagreements in the ongoing Brexit talks.

“My first impression is that the UK’s offer is below our expectations, and that it risks worsening the situation of citizens … It will be for our negotiating team to analyze the offer line by line,” Tusk said during a summit of EU leaders in Brussels. Tusk and other EU leaders urged Britain to give more details on its proposal to guarantee the rights of the three million EU citizens who now live in Britain.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “there is a long road in front of” the EU and Britain and that the plan introduced by May was “not yet the breakthrough.” Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said May’s initial proposals were “extremely vague,” which lacked the requirements to deal with the “incredibly complicated” issue of the rights of citizens.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker described May’s offer as a “first step” but said it was not “sufficient.” Many expected May to use her immense leverage on issues such as citizens’ right to make an immediate impact on a negotiation process, which could become very complicated on other thorny issues such as how much Britain should pay to quit the EU and how its access to the EU’s single market would be after the withdrawal.
May, however, described her proposals on citizens’ right as “fair and serious”, reiterating her previous conditions that the EU should guarantee equal respect in the post-Brexit scenario for about 1.5 million British citizens living in EU countries. She vowed that under her plan, the fate of EU citizens will be a priority, laying out a series of benchmarks, which she said could shield the citizens from excessive harm because of the political divorce between Britain and the EU.

“I want to reassure all those EU citizens who are in the UK, who’ve made their lives and homes in the UK, that no one will have to leave, we won’t be seeing families split apart. This is a fair and serious offer,” May said.
Under May’s plan, those EU citizens that have legal status of residence in the United Kingdom will have the chance to regularize their situation after Brexit. They should fill an 85-page form to declare if they want to stay in the country. Authorities have vowed that they would significantly reduce the paperwork needed for the process. More details of her plan would emerge on Monday in the British parliament.

Brexit narrowly won the vote of British voters in June last year. The breath-taking process, which is expected to drag on for two years, officially kicked off on Monday as top negotiators, Michel Barnier for the EU and David Davis for Britain, gave a “positive” start to the talks in Brussels.

Source: Presstv

A massive fire, which has engulfed a high-rise apartment block in west London, has left “a number” of people dead and several others injured, fire officials say.

The fire broke out in the 27-story Lancaster West Estate tower in the early hours of Wednesday when most of the residents would have still been in bed.

The fire brigade said 45 fire engines and 200 firefighters as well as 20 ambulances were sent to the building which has 120 flats and was built in 1974, but recently underwent a major refurbishment. “Firefighters wearing breathing apparatus are working extremely hard in very difficult conditions to tackle this fire,” London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Dan Daly said.

“This is a large and very serious incident and we have deployed numerous resources and specialist appliances,” he said. Several people are trapped inside the building with reports that it might collapse. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said a “major incident” had been declared. A witness told CNN that he saw people jumping from the building.

Police officials said that they had started an evacuation of the block and the neighboring buildings, adding some people were being treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. At least 50 people have been taken to hospital so far, according to officials.

“We have now taken over 50 patients to five hospitals across London,” London Ambulance Service Assistant Director of Operations, Stuart Crichton, said. London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton said, “I am very sad to confirm that there have been a number of fatalities.”

“I cannot confirm the number at this time due to the size and complexity of this building and it would clearly be wrong for me to speculate further,” Cotton added. “Equally, the cause of this fire is not known at this stage.”

The streets around the tower have been sealed off and there is a chaos there with “people in night clothes, no shoes, crying, looking for family.”

George Clarke, the presenter of Channel 4 TV program Amazing Spaces, told Radio 5 Live, “I’m 100 meters away and I’m absolutely covered in ash.” “It’s so heartbreaking, I’ve seen someone flashing their torches at the top level and they obviously can’t get out.”

“People can be seen at the windows, including one man waving a blanket from the window,” a witness told The Guardian.  “Some shouting “put your head out the window” or calling the man with the blanket to shout his flat numbers so they can guide the fire services to him.”

Source: Presstv

Catalonia will hold a referendum on splitting from Spain on Oct. 1-a similar date earlier chosen by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The head of the region confirmed the news on Friday, setting the stage for months of confrontation with the central government which says such a vote is illegal and must not take place.

Previous secessionist challenges in Catalonia – a populous wealthy region whose capital is Barcelona and which has its own language – were blocked by Spain’s conservative government and the Constitutional Court. “The question will be: ‘Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic’,” Carles Puigdemont, president of the government of Catalonia, said.

He said attempts to agree a date and the wording of the question with the Madrid government – which is vehemently opposed to allowing Catalonia to split from Spain – failed and left him with no other choice than moving unilaterally.  “We have always made very diverse offers and all of them have been rejected without any exception,” Puigdemont said.

Pro-independence campaigners staged a symbolic ballot, organized by volunteers rather than government officials to get around court restrictions, in 2014, months after Scots voted to stay in the United Kingdom.

Some 2 million people voted in favor of secession in that non-binding ballot, though turnaround was relatively low. It is not clear how far the legal wrangling may go this time as the Catalan regional government has said it would throw all its weight behind the vote.

Under Article 155 of Spain’s constitution, Madrid has the power to intervene directly in the running of Catalonia’s regional government, forcing it to drop the vote.

This could involve sending in the police or suspending the regional government’s authority to rule. This is widely seen as a last resort move, however, and many analysts believe the clash will instead culminate in regional elections in Catalonia.

(Source: Reuters)

Nineteen people have been killed and more than 50 injured in a suspected terror attack at Manchester Arena. The blast happened at 22:35 BST on Monday following a pop concert by the US singer Ariana Grande. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it was “a barbaric attack, deliberately targeting some of the most vulnerable in our society”.

Paramedics at the scene told the BBC they had treated some of the wounded for “shrapnel-like injuries”. North West Ambulance Service said it had taken 59 casualties from the explosion to hospitals and treated a number of walking wounded. Greater Manchester Police has established an emergency telephone number in response to the attack. It is: 0161 856 9400.

In light of the attack the Conservatives, Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats have all confirmed that Tuesday’s campaigning in the general election has been suspended. The prime minister has announced she will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee at around 09:00 BST.

Theresa May said: “We are working to establish the full details” of what happened in Manchester. “All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.” BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said senior counter-terrorism officers were assembling in London and liaising with the Home Office. Unconfirmed reports from two unnamed US officials suggested the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

BBC

EU countries that imposed border controls in the passport-free Schengen area because of the migrant crisis should end them by November, Brussels said Tuesday.

Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and non-EU Norway introduced the ID checks in 2015 and have been allowed to repeatedly prolong them at set intervals. Sweden said earlier Tuesday that it was scrapping the checks.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said it would now only recommend one final half-year extension from mid-May. “The time has come to take the last concrete steps to gradually return to a normal functioning of the Schengen area,” EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters.

“This will be the last prolongation.” The five countries first introduced the checks as a record wave of refugees and migrants from Syria and other Middle East countries and from Africa streamed across Europe. Brussels initially set the goal of getting rid of the checks by the end of 2016 but that proved impossible.

The British police have identified the attacker who struck in the heart of London on Wednesday as 52-year-old Khalid Masood. “Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Thursday. The police added that Masood was known by “a number of aliases” and had been living in the West Midlands. He was born in Kent in southeast England.

“Five people remain in a critical condition and two have life-threatening injuries,” London police said in a statement. Hours earlier, the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the British Parliament attack that left at least four people dead, including the attacker. A statement published by the Amaq News Agency, which is seen as the group’s official press service, said the assailant was a “soldier” of Daesh.

The statement said the man launched the attack because of Britain’s participation in the US-led bombing on territories in Syria and Iraq. The person “carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of the coalition,” Daesh said. The wording of the statement did not however clearly show that if the attack was directly orchestrated or facilitated by the terror group, but indicated that the assailant was inspired by Daesh ideology.

It comes after Prime Minister Theresa May said the attacker was British-born and known to the country’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, and had been investigated before. “What I can confirm is that the man was British-born and that some years ago he was once investigated by MI5 in relation to concerns about violent extremism,” she told MPs on Thursday, a day after an attack outside the UK Parliament in London which also injured some 40 people.

“He was a peripheral figure,” she added. “The case is historic, he was not part of the current intelligence picture.” She added that “when operational considerations allow, he will be publicly identified.” In a defiant speech to the Parliament, May said, “We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.” Lawmakers earlier held a minute’s silence in honor of the victims. The assailant plowed a car on Wednesday into pedestrians and stabbed a police officer, an incident that has been declared a terrorist incident.

Police have arrested eight people during the investigation into the incident. MI5 Director General Andrew Parker earlier said his agency had fully mobilized its operational response in support of the police. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our police colleagues, grieving at their loss while also applauding the professional excellence of their response,” he said in a statement. Meanwhile, the British Queen expressed her “deepest sympathy” with the people affected by the terror attack, calling it an act of “awful violence.” “My thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy are with all those who have been affected by yesterday’s awful violence,” she said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Presstv

A car mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians crossing the busy Westminster Bridge beside London’s Big Ben. Parliament has been placed on lockdown with MPs locked inside and armed police carrying shields protecting the building.

Reports suggest that 12 people have been injured and Scotland Yard said the attack is being treated as a “terrorist incident”. A “police officer has been stabbed” and the “alleged assailant was shot by armed police”, Commons Leader David Lidington has told MPs. Metropolitan police said they were called to a firearms incident on Westminster Bridge.

The Sun