Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has warned of a “vicious” approach by the EU in negotiations over Britain’s exit from the bloc. Speaking among politicians, business leaders, trade unionists and community organizations in the capital Dublin on Wednesday, the premier further assured the nation that Brexit would not limit movement between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland by setting a “hard border.”

He said he had been assured by British Prime Minister Theresa May that there would be “no return to the borders of the past” after Brexit. The prime minister also urged leaders of the European Union not to be “obsessed” with the UK’s gains and losses in Brexit negotiations, asserting that “The other side of this argument may well get quite vicious after a while, because there are those around the European table who take a very poor view of the fact that Britain decided to leave.”

Ireland’s foreign minister, Charlie Flanagan, who also attended the Dublin conference along with all leaders of the nationalist political parties on the island, said London was being pushed over maintaining the “invisible” border after Brexit.

“It is vitally important in the context of the [Brexit] negotiations next year that the matter of the invisibility of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is not only featured but is both preserved and maintained,” Flanagan said. On June 23, nearly 52 percent of Britons voted in a referendum to end their country’s 42-year membership in the EU. Nearly 56 percent of the voters in Northern Ireland voted in favor of remaining an EU member.

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British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing criticism over her comments about Brexit at a leaked private speech to Goldman Sachs. The premier, who has publicly made the case for a hard Brexit following a June referendum, speaks of the “benefits” of being an EU member in the hour-long session, whose audio file was leaked to the Guardian on Tuesday night, drawing harsh criticism on Wednesday.

“I think the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500 million [population] trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe,” she is heard saying. “If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms.”

The leader of the rival Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, attacked the prime minister for having failed to address her own concerns about leaving the European Union. Corbyn has previously been calling on the Tory-held government for a clear plan to exit the bloc.

“The prime minister has given her private views on Brexit to Goldman Sachs bankers, but refuses to give the British people a clear plan for negotiations,” said the Labour leader. “It shouldn’t take a leaked tape for the public to find out what she really thinks.”

The former Labour leader and leading member of the Open Britain campaign group, Ed Miliband, also reacted to the comments, saying, the leaked comments prove that May shares the concerns of all the Britons on Brexit. “If private warnings are to be matched by proper public debate, it is essential that the government is not allowed to hoard vital analysis of the impact on our economy of leaving the single market. This work is being done in government and it must now be published,” he said, asserting that May’s comments “demonstrated that the prime minister was just as worried privately as the rest of us are publicly about the economic impact of the hard, destructive Brexit her government seems set on.”

According to the Guardian, the audio file was leaked as May was “prioritizing cutting immigration over staying in the single market, while refusing to elaborate any further on her plans for taking the UK out of the EU.”

In an unpublished newspaper column written before the June 23 referendum for the Telegraph, UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson, who is another Leave campaigner in the public, also defended remaining an EU member.

“This is a market on our doorstep, ready for further exploitation by British firms. The membership fee seems rather small for all that access. Why are we so determined to turn our back on it?” he wrote, calling the EU a “boon for the world and for Europe.”

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The British bank National Westminster has decided to close down the accounts of the Russian broadcaster RT without offering any explanation.“They’ve closed our accounts in Britain. All our accounts. ‘The decision is not subject to review.’ Praise be to freedom of speech!” the network’s Editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said in a tweet on Monday.

In a letter to RT’s London office, NatWest announced that it would no longer count the channel as a client, but stopped short of specifying the reason. “We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities,” the bank’s letter read, adding that the entire Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which owns NatWest, will never service RT.

NatWest said the decision was final and that it was “not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it.”Despite the initial statement, Simonyan wrote in tweet on Tuesday that the both parties had agreed to discuss the issue.

She even joked that the bank may simply blame the whole thing on a “computer glitch” and resume its normal business with the network.

No matter the outcome, the RT press office noted that its UK branch “will continue its operations uninterrupted.” NatWest’s decision elicited angry reactions from Russian MPs, the foreign ministry and human rights officials, who unanimously blasted the British government for violating freedom of the press and exercising double standards. “It seems that freedom of speech is completely lost in Albion’s Russophobic fog,” said Konstantin Dolgov, Russia’s foreign ministry commissioner for human rights.

The backlash was so severe that London weighed in on the issue, denying any role in the bank’s decision. “It’s a matter for the bank and it’s for them to decide who they offer services to based on their own risk appetite,” UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesperson told reporters.

The UK Treasury also insisted that the decision was made independently by the bank. This is not the first time that a network is being subjected to double policies by the British. In 2012, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, banned Press TV’s broadcast in the UK and removed the channel from the Sky platform.

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French National Front Party Leader Marine Le Pen says the EU is responsible for the crisis in Syria, because it has been trying to bring down the government instead of battling terrorism. “You’ve done everything to bring down the government of Syria, throwing the country into a terrible civil war, while accusing Russia which is actually fighting Daesh,” she said while addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

Russian air force fighters have been striking armed terrorists, including the Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham terror groups, across Syria at the official request of the government of President Bashar al-Assad since September 2015.

She stressed that the EU and US policies had directly contributed to Syria’s current crisis, which has claimed the lives of some 400,000 people since March 2011. “You cannot hide your responsibility […] for plunging this part of the world into an absolutely monstrous chaos,” noted Le Pen, who intends to run for president next year.

Le Pen also censured the EU’s “irresponsible” approach towards the refugee crisis in Europe.

“No real measures are taken to curb the crisis. Your irresponsible policy, on the contrary, brings us more and more economic migrants,” she said.

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

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Belgian police have reported a stabbing attack on two officers as counter-terror investigators begin a probe into the incident, which could spark fresh public fears over terrorism in the country.

Prosecutors said a man wielding a knife stabbed the two police officers in Schaerbeek area in the north of Brussels on Wednesday before being shot in the leg.

Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, said suspicions were high that the attacker had terrorist motives.

“We have elements to believe that the incident was a terrorist attack,” said Van Der Sypt, adding that the suspect was in police custody.

Other police officials said the officers, who were wearing plain clothes, were not seriously injured. They said another police officer was also injured as he tried to stop the attacker, who attempted to escape the scene.

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The German interior minister has denounced as a national “disgrace” a surge in the number of violent attacks targeting asylum seekers, which are carried out by far-right extremist amid growing anti-refugee sentiment in the European country.

Thomas de Maiziere made the remarks in an address to an event called ‘To think home anew – more security on the ground,’ in the capital, Berlin, on Friday. “Last year we investigated and counted criminal offences carried out against asylum seekers and asylum seekers’ institutions, with shocking results, which you all know. Increase of arson, increase of attempted murder, increase of bodily harm, and so on, from the right-wing extremist sector. This too is a disgrace for our country,” he said.

The minister further stressed that the level of crimes committed by asylum seekers was not out of the ordinary. He also put forward changes to the residence permission law in Germany, noting that the reforms would see many more applicants “voluntarily” leave the western European state.

Over 700 cases of attacks against refugee accommodation centers have been registered so far this year, ranging from swastikas, spray-painted outside the door, to arson and other forms of property damage, according to the latest police figures.

In 2015, there were a total of 1,047 attacks on planned and completed refugee shelters across Germany. The eastern German town of Bautzen has become a flashpoint for anti-refugee sentiment. A refugee home in Bautzen was set on fire in February while onlookers applauded and chanted right-wing slogans.

Germany, one of the most popular destinations for refugees, opened its borders to the refugees last summer with a welcoming mood, but it gradually shifted away from the policy.  The country registered about 1.1 million of them refugees in 2015.

Germany has not experienced the deadly attacks that France and Belgium have, but it has witnessed a string of sexual assaults and robberies on New Year’s Eve in Cologne. Prosecutors say the assaults were committed largely by foreigners.

The country has recently seen the rise of far-right groups opposing the entry of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in the violence-hit regions, forcing more people out of their homes.

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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said London plans to begin the formal process for leaving the European Union (EU) early next year following the Brexit vote in June. Speaking from New York on Thursday, Johnson told Sky News that Britain will trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty under which London can leave the EU after a two-year negotiations period.

“By the early part of next year, you will see an Article 50 letter which we will invoke and, in that letter, I am sure we will be setting out some parameters for how we propose to take this forward. You invoke Article 50 in the early part of next year (and) you have two years to pull it off. I don’t actually think you need to spend the full two years, but let’s see how we go,” he said.

“We are going to benefit from fantastic opportunities for free trade with our friends in the EU,” he said. “It’s overwhelmingly in their interests…They’re not going to put that at risk.” But the British foreign secretary said he does not think the full two years would need to be completed.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Theresa May held talks with President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz in London. Schulz has urged Britain to start Brexit process as soon as possible. Last week, European Council President Donald Tusk said that Prime Minister May had told him the UK could be ready to begin talks by February.

“She declared it is almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year. But she said it is quite likely they will be ready in maybe January or maybe February next year,” Tusk said on September 16 after an informal EU summit in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

Tusk said the rest of the EU was ready to start negotiations tomorrow. “We are well prepared for negotiations and could even start tomorrow” but “our British colleagues need more time to prepare themselves.” On June 23, some 52 percent (17.4 million) of British people voted to leave the EU after 43 years of membership.

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France has commemorated all victims of the recent terror attacks that shook the country to its core. A memorial service has been held in the capital Paris to honor the memory of all those people who unjustly lost their lives to vicious acts of terror and violence.

Hundreds of victims’ families and people who sustained injuries in the attacks attended Monday’s ceremony. President Francois Hollande and former president Nicolas Sarkozy also took part in the event during which the names of all victims of attacks carried out by Takfiri terrorists in Paris last year and in Nice in July this year were read out. “Our country had never been attacked to this extent, with such destructive rage, with such barbarian cruelty. That’s why it was so important for names, all names to be evoked,” Hollande said.

The ceremony also commemorated those killed in terror attacks in Brussels, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali. Hollande also hailed the courage of the survivors present at the event, stressing the need for helping and supporting them and their families. “You’ve been through a tragedy, yet you want to live, you’re fighting for it, and you will stand up again. Your energy is an example,” Hollande said.

France terror attacks: A timeline

March 22, 2012: French police move in to kill Mohammed Merah, a self-styled al-Qaeda-inspired gunman, after he takes the lives of seven people in the city of Toulouse in a 12-day killing spree. Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, killed three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi before he was shot dead following a 30-hour standoff with security forces.

January 7, 2015: Two Takfiri militants attack Charlie Hebdo magazine, killing 12 people, including top editorial staff. The attack is largely believed to have been launched over the weekly’s insulting cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). A day after the magazine attack, another militant kills a policewoman. On January 9, he also takes people hostage at the HyperCacher supermarket and kills four of them before being shot dead by police. On the same day, the escaped Charlie Hebdo gunmen are killed in a printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele north of Paris.

November 13, 2015: Daesh launches a series of violent attacks, targeting cafes and a concert hall in Paris, and massacring a total of 130 people. On the same day, three bombers explode themselves and kill a bystander in a stadium in Saint-Denis.

July 14, 2016: A truck driver deliberately plows through a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding 200 others. An 85th victim of the attack, claimed by Daesh, dies later in hospital.

July 26, 2016: Two knife-wielding men loyal to Daesh take a number of people hostage at a church in Normandy. The attackers kill a 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest. Police later shoots dead the two assailants.

France is still under a state of emergency.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has acknowledged that the European Union (EU) is in a “critical situation,” as it is struggling to find a way forward without the United Kingdom. Upon her arrival for a summit in the Slovakian capital of Bratislavato on Friday, Merkel said the EU has been facing so many problems that cannot be resolved at one meeting.

“The point is not to simply expect a solution to Europe’s problems from one summit — we are in a critical situation — but rather it is about showing through actions that we can be better,” she told reporters. The leaders of the union, minus those of Britain, have gathered in Bratislavato to discuss the EU’s post-Brexit future.

“I hope that today we can show that we can work together in the EU and that we can solve problems,” Merkel said. “Protecting Europe’s outside borders will also be discussed, but this will all be decided in the coming months, we can then also take concrete steps,” she added.

Merkel further said that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker “showed in his speech that the European Commission has similar plans.” Juncker earlier warned that the union faces an “existential crisis.”

On the eve of the summit, European Council President Donald Tusk also warned that the remaining 27-member states should not “let this crisis go to waste.” “After the vote in the UK the only thing that makes sense is to have a sober and brutally honest assessment of the situation,” Tusk said in Bratislava.

The leaders, however, are not expected to discuss Britain’s departure from the bloc in any detail in Bratislavato. Tusk formerly called on British Premier Theresa May to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty– the step required to officially begin the withdrawal.May, however, said her government will not begin the negotiation this year. Starting the negotiations would begin a two-year countdown for the UK to separate itself from Brussels.

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