Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a failed mission this year and increasing difficulty in raising funding for future missions.
The company laid off most of its staff on Friday and told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in a filing Tuesday that it was looking to sell its assets.
Virgin Orbit said that it has secured $31.6 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Branson’s Virgin Investments Ltd.
Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said that once the financing is approved by the bankruptcy court, the funds are expected to provide Virgin Orbit with the necessary liquidity to continue operating as it attempts to sell the company.
“While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business,” Hart said.
The Long Beach, California, company said in its bankruptcy filing that it has between 200 and 999 estimated creditors. It had approximately $243 million in total assets and $153.5 million in total liabilities as of Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing.
Last week Virgin Orbit said that it was cutting 675 jobs, about 85% of its workforce. Shortly before the announcement, the company said that it was pausing all operations amid reports of possible job cuts. At the time Virgin Orbit confirmed that it was putting all work on hold, but didn’t say for how long.
In January, a mission by Virgin Orbit to launch the first satellites into orbit from Europe failed after a rocket’s upper stage prematurely shut down. It was a setback in the United Kingdom which had hoped that the launch from Cornwall in southwest England would mark the beginning of more commercial opportunities for the U.K. space industry.
The company said in February that an investigation found that its rocket’s fuel filter had become dislodged, causing an engine to become overheated and other components to malfunction over the Atlantic Ocean.
Virgin Orbit, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, was founded in 2017 by British billionaire Branson to target the market for launching small satellites into space. Its LauncherOne rockets are launched from the air from modified Virgin passenger planes, allowing the company to operate more flexibly than using fixed launch sites.
Shares of Virgin Orbit Holdings Inc., which traded above $10 about two years ago, tumbled 24% before the opening bell Tuesday, to about 15 cents.
Britain’s media and communications regulator Ofcom says it has “significant concerns” that Amazon and Microsoft could be harming competition in the market for cloud services.
In a statement Wednesday, Ofcom said it was “proposing to refer” the cloud services market to the Competition and Markets Authority, the UK antitrust regulator, for further investigation.
Ofcom’s own probe, which it launched in October, had so far uncovered some “concerning practices, including by some of the biggest tech firms in the world,” said Fergal Farragher, the Ofcom director leading the investigation.
“High barriers to switching are already harming competition in what is a fast-growing market. We think more in-depth scrutiny is needed, to make sure it’s working well for people and businesses who rely on these services,” Farragher added.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it received Ofcom’s provisional findings Wednesday and was reviewing them. “We stand ready to carry out a market investigation into this area, should Ofcom determine it is required,” a spokesperson said.
The Ofcom announcement comes days after Google Cloud accused Microsoft
(MSFT) of anti-competitive cloud computing practices. In an interview with Reuters, Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery said the company had raised the issue with antitrust agencies and urged EU antitrust regulators to take a closer look.
Cloud services are delivered to businesses and consumers over the internet and include applications such as Gmail and Dropbox.
Europe’s Digital Markets Act, which will apply fromMay, aims to enhance competition in online services. Britain’s own Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill is expected to come before lawmakers this year.
According to Ofcom, Amazon
(AMZN) Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure have a combined UK market share of 60%-70% in cloud services. Google
(GOOGL) is their closest competitor with 5%-10%.
Ofcom said the three companies charged high “egress fees” for transferring data out of a cloud, which discourages customers from switching providers or using multiple providers to best serve their needs.
It also flagged technical restrictions imposed by the leading providers that prevent some of the services of one provider working effectively with cloud services from other firms, and said that fee discounts were structured to incentivize customers to use a single provider for all or most of their cloud needs.
There were indications that these market features were already causing harm, “with evidence of cloud customers facing significant price increases when they come to renew their contracts,” Ofcom said.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the company would continue to engage with Ofcom on its investigation. “We remain committed to ensuring the UK cloud industry stays highly competitive,” the spokesperson added. CNN has also contacted Amazon and Google.
Ofcom has invited feedback on its interim findings and will publish a final decision by October 5 on whether to refer the cloud services market to the Competition and Markets Authority.
“Making a market investigation reference would be a significant step for Ofcom to take. Our proposal reflects the importance of cloud computing to UK consumers and businesses,” it said.
Watchdog says TikTok failed to get consent from parents to process the data, as required by the United Kingdom’s data protection laws.
The UK’s privacy watchdog hit TikTok with a multimillion-dollar penalty for misusing children’s data and violating other protections for young users’ personal information.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said on Tuesday that it issued a fine of 12.7 million British pounds ($15.9m) to the short-video-sharing app, which is wildly popular with young people.
It’s the latest example of tighter scrutiny that TikTok and its parent, Chinese technology company ByteDance, are facing in the West, where governments are increasingly concerned about risks that the app poses to data privacy and cybersecurity.
The British watchdog, which was investigating data breaches between May 2018 and July 2020, said TikTok allowed as many as 1.4 million children in the United Kingdom under age 13 to use the app in 2020, despite the platform’s own rules prohibiting children that young from setting up accounts.
TikTok didn’t adequately identify and remove children under 13 from the platform, the watchdog said. And even though it knew younger children were using the app, TikTok failed to get consent from their parents to process their data, as required by the UK’s data protection laws, the agency said.
“There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws,” Information Commissioner John Edwards said in a press release.
The social media company collected and used the personal data of children who were inappropriately given access to the app, he said.
“That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll,” Edwards said.
The company said it disagreed with the watchdog’s decision.
“We invest heavily to help keep under 13s off the platform and our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community,” TikTok said in a statement.
“We will continue to review the decision and are considering next steps,” the statement added.
TIkTok says that it has improved its sign-up system since the breaches happened by no longer allowing users to simply declare they are old enough and that it is looking for other signs that an account is used by someone under 13.
The penalty also covered other breaches of UK data privacy law.
The watchdog said TikTok failed to properly inform people about how their data is collected, used and shared in an easily understandable way. Without this information, it’s unlikely that young users would be able “to make informed choices” about whether and how to use TikTok, it said.
TikTok also failed to ensure personal data of British users was processed lawfully, fairly and transparently, the regulator said.
The social media company initially faced a fine of 27 million British pounds ($33.7m), which was reduced after the company persuaded regulators to drop other charges.
US regulators in 2019 fined TikTok – previously known as Musical.ly – $5.7m in a case that involved similar allegations of unlawful collection of children’s personal information.
Also Tuesday, Australia became the latest country to ban TikTok from its government devices, with authorities from the European Union to the United States concerned that the app could share data with the Chinese government or push pro-Beijing narratives.
US lawmakers are also considering forcing a sale or even banning TikTok outright as tensions with China grow.
Electric vehicles will play a critical role in slashing transport-related emissions in the years ahead.
Momentum behind the industry is building, with a number of big economies gearing up for the mass rollout of EVs and sales of electric cars hitting 6.6 million in 2021, a record, according to the International Energy Agency.
Not all countries will move at the same pace in the planned transition to low and zero-emission mobility, and the shift away from cars powered by fossil fuels won’t always be smooth.
There are concerns, for example, that the lower noise levels of EVs may pose a challenge to people with sight problems, while talk of a skills gap is sparking discussions about cost and safety.
Charging infrastructure is another area to watch, with the construction of vast networks set to be crucial in allaying fears about range anxiety. Equally important is making sure these EV chargers are accessible to all.
Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro
According to the charity Motability, it’s estimated the U.K. will have 2.7 million disabled drivers by 2035.
As many as 1.35 million of this group, it says, “will be at least wholly or partially reliant on public charging infrastructure.”
The year 2035 is seen as being particularly important because that’s when the U.K. government wants all new cars and vans to have zero tailpipe emissions.
A disabled person who wants to use an EV charger today faces “inaccessibility at lots of different points throughout the process,” Catherine Marris, Motability’s head of innovation, told CNBC.
Such challenges begin when one leaves the house to use a public charger, she added.
“If they want to go on an app, for example, to see where there’s chargers, there isn’t usually information available about which chargers might be more accessible,” Marris said.
“Then, when they get to a charging site, there might not be clear signage and information about where charging points are located.”
The built environment around the charging bay could create difficulties too. “There might not be enough space around the charging bay to exit your vehicle,” Marris said.
“If you’re using a mobility aid, there might be a really high, raised curb that … someone would have to mount to get on the pavement.”
“The charge point itself might be surrounded with bollards that aren’t adequately spaced, so … if you’re using a mobility aid or wheelchair, you wouldn’t be able to actually get up to the charge point itself.”
Marris told CNBC that a charging point may also be “too high for a seated user, it might be too low for someone who might have difficulties reaching down.”
Ensuring EV chargers are accessible to all is a big task, and organizations like Motability are pushing hard to create conditions for change.
In collaboration with the U.K. government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, it commissioned the British Standards Institution to develop a “national accessible charging standard for EV chargepoints.”
PAS 1899:2022, as it’s known, was published in October 2022, and covers everything from curb height and location of charging kits, to the spacing of bollards and height of charge points.
“There was a yearlong process where industry … accessibility experts and disabled people came together, and they developed the standard through consensus as a group,” Marris said.
She went on to describe the end product as “a really powerful document that sets out exactly what accessible charging is and how it can be achieved.”
Read more about energy from CNBC Pro
Another charity, Designability, was included in a steering group to help inform PAS 1899:2022. Separately, it received funding from Motability to develop design guidance for those involved in the charging industry.
The guidance covers three main areas: signage and information; the built environment; and the process of charging a vehicle.
“We did a deep dive into the areas that were really difficult,” Matt Ford, director of design and innovation at Designability, told CNBC.
“It’s out there, it’s free, it’s there for anybody to use that’s involved in providing vehicle recharging,” he said.
Having design guidance and a standard like PAS 1899 is one thing. Getting charging stations that actually incorporate accessible features is another.
In February 2023, Tanni Grey-Thompson, a wheelchair user who won multiple gold medals at the Paralympic Games, highlighted the issue when she tweeted a picture of EV chargers from the firm InstaVolt with the caption: “This is why I can’t change to an electric car.”
Expanding on her point, Grey-Thompson — who sits in the U.K.’s House of Lords — tweeted about a lack of space on either side and how she couldn’t “get close enough to reach.”
In a statement sent to CNBC, InstaVolt CEO Adrian Keen said it’s “committed to cooperating with the requirements outlined in the PAS1899 consultation, while also taking on board direct feedback from charge point users, to improve accessibility at InstaVolt sites.”
“We are in contact with Tanni Grey-Thompson to discuss the work we’re doing in the space, challenges that users face, and how this can influence our site designs in future,” he added.
“We recognise that change is required across the industry as a whole and we are taking steps to ensure we’re providing accessible sites where we can.”
“In addition, we have fully redesigned our chargers based on PAS1899 guidance, and these will be installed at new sites from the spring,” Keen said.
This unit has now incorporated a number of features, such as longer cables, lower screens and payment terminals, as well as what Keen called “an enhanced cable management system, to allow for improved charger accessibility.”
InstaVolt’s plans represent a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of work ahead.
Designability’s Ford explained that a PAS, or publicly available specification, is “not an official standard — it’s not been adopted into legislation. It’s not … regulation.”
“But by creating a standard, by doing it through a robust process with the British Standards Institute, by having a steering group of stakeholders from across industry and the disabled community … what you have is a standard that is a really good blueprint for making chargepoints accessible.”
Such a standard became “really powerful” when local authorities started to incorporate it in procurement forms for companies bidding to install charging installations, Ford said.
“It’s being adopted, from what we can see, really quite quickly, not just by councils [but] … hotel chains, large companies [as well].”
U.K.-based organizations like Motability and Designability aren’t alone in looking to develop ideas and designs focused on accessibility.
In July 2022, the U.S. Access Board, an independent federal agency, issued design recommendations for accessible charging stations.
And in December 2022, the Royal Automobile Association of South Australia announced it was launching a trial focused on creating “access standards for people with disabilities seeking to use electric vehicle charging infrastructure.”
Stock picks and investing trends from CNBC Pro:
The IEA, seen by many as an authoritative voice on the energy transition, describes EVs as being “the key technology to decarbonise road transport.”
To achieve this mass decarbonization, a huge network of public chargers will be required in the years ahead.
For charities like Designability, that represents a huge chance to put accessibility at the heart of charging networks. “It is a once in a generation opportunity … once an infrastructure goes in, it’s very hard to affect it,” Ford said.
For her part, Motability’s Marris said she firmly believes that “100% of charge points should be accessible.”
“Not only because we want disabled people to charge at any charge point they come across — not just only a select few — but also, accessibility is great for everyone.”
“Whether you’re a disabled person, whether you’re an older person, whether you’re a parent pushing a pram and you need some more space, accessibility really does result in a better consumer experience.”
BELFAST — President Joe Biden arrives in Northern Ireland on Tuesday to salute the 25th anniversary of its U.S.-brokered peace accord. But it will be a hollow celebration.
Power-sharing between British unionists and Irish nationalists, the central vision of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, is failing.
Northern Ireland has for nearly a year had no elected government at Stormont, the grand parliament building overlooking Belfast. It has no annual budget either — only red ink, rising in a sea of dysfunction. And thanks to Brexit, the U.K.’s most socially divided region this month lost tens of millions in annual European Union funds that had sustained the poorest communities.
Northern Ireland’s fiscal council, created two years ago to advise Stormont following a previous government shutdown, estimates an extra £808 million is needed this year just to keep existing services running at a time of rising energy bills and wage demands.
Instead, the British government in London wants immediate spending cuts topping £500 million. Its failure to deliver a 2023 budget in time for the new fiscal year, or to fulfil pledges to match now-departed EU funds, have left local hospitals, schools and community groups scrambling for services to curtail and staff to cut.
Who slashes spending when there’s no bona-fide government? Emergency legislation laid in Westminster places this burden on 10 unelected permanent secretaries — senior civil servants who were employed to advise ministers neutrally, not take direct political decisions.
With finances running low, the education department has already ended holiday meal subsidies for schoolchildren from poor households — nearly a third of all students. Other departments are braced for cuts averaging 6 to 10 percent. Those drawing up the cuts are incensed.
“I shouldn’t be forced to play the role of minister. It’s an affront to democracy and it’s politically indefensible,” one of the permanent secretaries told POLITICO.
“Locally elected ministers must be taking these deeply consequential decisions if the power-sharing element of the Good Friday Agreement is to mean anything any more,” said the civil servant, who spoke on condition they were not identified because they traditionally do not talk on the record to journalists.
“As long as power-sharing is not working, London needs to take its own responsibilities seriously. Its refusal to act in a timely fashion is making matters needlessly worse. We’re doing damage to so many lives. It’s truly shameful.”
The U.K. government insists it’s right to expect sharp cuts now, arguing the financial problems were created by years of divided, indecisive Stormont governments that failed to take other tough financial decisions.
“We’ve inherited an enormous black hole,” said Steve Baker, a minister in the U.K.’s Northern Ireland Office. “It hasn’t arisen overnight. It is the product of many years of financial mismanagement, and often the expectation of bailout.”
Notorious DUP
Baker places primary blame on the Democratic Unionists, the main pro-British party in Northern Ireland, who refused to form a new unity government with the Irish republicans of Sinn Féin following last year’s Stormont assembly election.
The Democratic Unionists say they will indefinitely obstruct Stormont in protest at the U.K.’s Brexit treaty with the EU. It keeps Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the U.K., still subject to EU goods rules. Since 2021, that policy has kept cross-border trade with the Republic of Ireland flowing freely — but at the price of complicated new controls on goods arriving from Britain.
Unionists fear, and nationalists hope, that these shifting trade winds will eventually help push Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and into the arms of the republic.
After two years of diplomatic wrangling, the U.K. government and European Commission six weeks ago published a wide-ranging agreement, the Windsor Framework, that vastly reduced EU-required checks on British goods arriving at Northern Irish ports. London and Brussels voiced hopes this would be enough to revive Stormont.
But the famously stubborn DUP — which grew to become the largest unionist party specifically because it rejected the Good Friday deal and opposed compromise with Sinn Féin — is holding out for more, and still won’t re-enter Stormont alongside its adversaries.
Once committed to Northern Ireland’s violent overthrow and abolition, Sinn Féin topped last year’s election ahead of the DUP for the first time, meaning its regional leader — party vice president Michelle O’Neill — should be entitled to the top Stormont post of first minister. The DUP’s loss of top-dog status has increased unionist unease that Northern Ireland’s bonds with Britain could be irreversibly fraying.
The center cannot hold
Moderate politicians blame both extremes for making Northern Ireland ungovernable. They suggest that power-sharing rules drafted a generation ago no longer work in today’s hardened political landscape.
They argue the central requirement for “mandatory coalition” between unionist and nationalist forces should be eased. The policy effectively gives the largest party from each sectarian bloc — for the past two decades the DUP and Sinn Féin — the power to block the formation of any government. As a result, the hard liners have taken turns periodically shutting down Stormont over the past decade.
These rules have a particularly perverse impact on Northern Ireland’s most compromise-minded party, Alliance, which refuses to define itself as either British unionist or Irish nationalist — and is treated as a power-sharing irrelevance as a result.
Alliance was a fringe player back in 1998 but made the biggest gains in last May’s election, finishing third with 17 assembly seats to Sinn Féin’s 27 and the DUP’s 25. Yet instead of Alliance becoming a coalition kingmaker, the current power-sharing rules mean its nonsectarian votes don’t count at all.
Some suggest Alliance leader Naomi Long could sue the British government to force reform.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long says the Good Friday Agreement’s power-sharing rules explicitly permit periodic reviews of the system | Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images
“I don’t believe that our votes counting for less than other people is legal,” Long said, citing legal advice that found the prevailing rules violate European human rights law. “We are willing to challenge what is a fundamental inequality at the heart of our government.”
Long says she hopes such a confrontation won’t be necessary, emphasizing that the Good Friday Agreement’s power-sharing rules explicitly permit periodic reviews of the system.
Time for a new deal?
Bertie Ahern, the former Irish prime minister who worked alongside Britain’s Tony Blair in 1998 to achieve the Good Friday breakthrough, also believes the time for dumping “mandatory coalition” is fast approaching. In its place, as advocated by recent think tank papers exploring ways to save Stormont, would be a voluntary coalition — which Ahern pointedly describes as “what happens in a democracy.”
Such a change would mean Sinn Féin and the DUP retain rights, as the largest parties on either side of the divide, to lead a Stormont coalition together. But should either one balk, they could no longer block the formation of a different government combination. This would open the door for more moderate politicians to represent their communities once again.
But while Sinn Féin has said it would be open to talks on making the rules more flexible, the DUP has been quick to rule out the surrender of its veto.
For the journalist who famously broke the news of the Good Friday Agreement a quarter-century ago, Stormont’s ongoing inability to build a stable culture of partnership has made this week’s anniversary bittersweet.
Stephen Grimason, at that time BBC Northern Ireland’s political editor, became Stormont’s chief spin doctor for 15 years. He worked alongside a string of DUP and Sinn Féin ministers who, in his eyes, too often ducked the difficult decisions that would have delivered strong, reforming government.
“Looking back, I have this emptiness in the pit of my stomach about all the opportunities we had,” he told the Belfast Telegraph last week. “We missed every single one of them.”
It’s the rumor inflating the Brussels bubble: The EU’s top executive, Ursula von der Leyen, could be crossing town to run NATO.
The rationale makes sense. She has a good working relationship with Washington. She is a former defense minister. And as European Commission president, she has experience working with most NATO heads of government. Plus, if chosen, she would become the alliance’s first-ever female leader.
The conversation has crested in recent weeks, as people eye current NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s pending exit at the end of September.
Yet according to those inside NATO and at the Commission, the murmurings are more wish-casting than hints of a pending job switch. There is no evidence von der Leyen is interested in the role, and those in Brussels don’t expect her to quit before her first presidential term ends in 2024.
The chatter is similar to the rumblings around Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a long-serving leader who checks every box but insists he doesn’t want the job.
The speculation illustrates how much Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed NATO — and who can lead it. The war has put a new spotlight on the alliance, making the job more politically sensitive and high-profile than in the past. And allies are suddenly much more cautious about who they want on the podium speaking for them.
In short, the chatter seems to be people manifesting their ideal candidates and testing ideas rather than engaging in a real negotiation.
“The more names, the clearer there is no candidate,” said one senior European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal alliance dynamics.
A second senior European diplomat agreed: “There is a lot of backroom gossip,” this person said, “but no clear field at this stage.”
The (very) short list
The next NATO chief, officials say, needs to be a European who can work closely with whoever is in the White House.
But that’s not all. The next NATO chief needs to be someone who backs Ukraine but is not so hawkish that it spooks countries worried about provoking Russia. And the person has to have stature — likely a former head of state or government — who can get unanimous support from 31 capitals and, most importantly, the U.S.
There are several obstacles to Usula von der Leyen’s candidacy | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images
That’s not a long list.
Von der Leyen is on it, but there are several obstacles to her candidacy.
The first is simply timing. If Stoltenberg leaves office in the fall as scheduled, his replacement would come into the office a year before von der Leyen’s term at the Commission ends in late 2024. She may even seek another five-year term.
“I don’t think she will move anywhere before the end of her mandate,” said one senior Commission official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Speculation is rife that the current NATO chief may be asked to stay on, at least for a little while longer, to allow for a candidate such as von der Leyen to come in at a later stage.
“If Stoltenberg is prolonged until next summer, Ursula von der Leyen’s candidature would look logical,” said a third senior European diplomat.
But in an interview with POLITICO last week, Stoltenberg appeared keen to go home. The NATO chief has been in the job for over eight years, the second-longest tenure in the alliance’s seven-decade history.
Asked about gossip that he may stay on, the secretary-general shot back sarcastically: “First of all, there are many more questions in the world that are extremely more important than that.”
“My plan is to go back to Norway,” he added, “I have been here for now a long time.”
The alliance is divided on the matter. Some countries — particularly those outside the EU — would prefer a quick decision to avoid running into the EU’s own 2024 elections. The fear, a fourth European diplomat said, is that NATO becomes a “consolation prize in the broader European politics” as leaders haggle over who will run the EU’s main institutions.
Another challenge for von der Leyen would be Germany’s track record on defense spending — and her own record as Germany’s defense minister.
A decade ago, NATO countries pledged to move toward spending 2 percent of their economic output on defense by 2024. But Germany, despite being Europe’s largest economy, has consistently missed the mark, even after announcing a €100 billion fund last year to modernize its military.
From the German government’s perspective, keeping von der Leyen at the helm of the Commission might be a bigger priority than NATO | Kenzo Tribuillard/AFP via Getty Images
Additionally, some observers say von der Leyen bears some responsibility for the relatively poor state of Germany’s defenses.
From the German government’s perspective, keeping von der Leyen at the helm of the Commission might also be a bigger priority than NATO — even if she comes from the current center-right opposition. The EU executive is arguably more powerful than the NATO chief within Europe, pushing policies that affect nearly every corner of life.
Predictably, the Commission is officially dismissive of any speculation.
“The president is not a candidate for the job” of NATO secretary-general, a Commission spokesperson told POLITICO on Monday. “And she has no comment on the speculation.”
Who else can do it?
As with von der Leyen, it is unclear if some other names floated are actually available.
Dutch Prime Minister Rutte has dismissed speculation about a NATO role, telling reporters in January that he wanted to “leave politics altogether and do something completely different.”
A spokesperson for the prime minister reiterated this week that the his view has not changed.
Insiders, however, say the Dutch leader shouldn’t be counted out. In office since 2010, Rutte has significant experience working with leaders across the alliance and promotes a tight transatlantic bond.
The Netherlands is also relatively muscular on defense — it has been one of Europe’s largest donors to Ukraine — but not quite as hawkish as countries on the eastern flank.
“Rutte’s name keeps popping up,” said the second senior European diplomat, “but no movement on this beyond gossip.”
Others occasionally mentioned as possible candidates are Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and to a lesser extent British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová.
But despite the gossip, officials acknowledge many of these names are not politically feasible at this stage.
Kallas, for instance, is perceived as too hawkish. And conversely, Canada and some southern European countries are viewed within the alliance as laggards on defense investment. Then there’s the fact that some capitals would oppose a non-EU candidate, complicating a Wallace candidacy.
As a result, a senior figure from a northern or western EU country appears the most likely profile for a successful candidate. Yet for now, who that person would be remains murky. Officials do have a deadline, though: the annual NATO summit in July.
“Either a new secretary general will be announced,” said a fifth senior European diplomat, “or the mandate of Jens Stoltenberg will be prolonged.”
Shares in Cineworld plunged more than 30% Monday, hitting their lowest level since late August, after the owner of Regal Cinemas said it planned to terminate efforts to sell its US, UK and Irish businesses.
The world’s second-largest movie theater chain also announced a debt restructuring plan with lenders to help it exit bankruptcy. The deal does not provide for any recovery of funds for shareholders, the company said in a statement.
“This agreement with our lenders represents a ‘vote of confidence’ in our business and significantly advances Cineworld towards achieving its long-term strategy in a changing entertainment environment,” said CEO Mooky Greidinger.
Cineworld — which, like many cinema operators, was hit hard by the pandemic — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September. Over the past year, the company’s shares have lost more than 93% of their value.
Under the proposed debt restructuring, lenders will reduce Cineworld’s debt pile by $4.5 billion and receive equity in the reorganized group; provide $1.46 billion in new debt; and backstop a $800 million share issue.
The company said it had received offers for its businesses in other parts of the world and was considering them. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Cineworld operates cinemas in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Israel.
It will abandon plans to sell its US, UK and Ireland arms unless it receives an “all-cash bid” significantly higher than the current value of the businesses.
The British company continues to operate its theaters around the world. After two rounds of closures in the United States, around 500 Cineworld theaters remain across the country.
The company said in February that it expected shareholders to be wiped out entirely by the bankruptcy process, even in the event of a sale of some of its businesses.
The pandemic forced movie theaters around the globe to close, dealing a devastating blow to Cineworld and others in the industry, and it is still affecting visitor numbers. Cineworld lost $2.7 billion in 2020 and another $566 million in 2021. It reported another loss, of $294 million, in the six months ending in June 2022.
Cinema operators are coming up with creative ways to claw back revenue. Cineworld’s larger rival AMC Theaters announced recently that it would price tickets based on seat location, charging extra for more desirable seats in the middle of a theater.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is investigating reports that Liverpool’s team bus was damaged after the club’s English Premier League match against Manchester City, the police force said in a statement.
The incident is reported to have taken place close to the Etihad Stadium, where the match was held, on Saturday afternoon, GMP said.
“There were no reports of any injuries and the Liverpool Club coaches were able to continue with their journey. An investigation has now been launched by Greater Manchester Police to identify and locate the offenders,” read the statement sent to CNN.
Manchester City, who won the tie 4-1 to keep alive its hopes of winning a third successive league title, described the incident as “totally unacceptable” and said it would “fully support” the investigation.
“We understand an object was thrown towards the coach in a residential area,” the statement said.
“Incidents of this kind are totally unacceptable, and we strongly condemn the actions of the individual(s) responsible.”
Manchester City also addressed the chanting aimed at Liverpool fans during the game. Some British media outlets reported that the chanting made reference to the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster which caused 97 Liverpool fans to lose their lives.
“We regret any offence these chants may have caused and will continue to work with supporter groups and officials from both clubs to eradicate hateful chanting from this fixture,” City said.
Liverpool has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.
In a statement to CNN, the Premier League said: “The Premier League condemns the chanting heard during today’s match between Manchester City and Liverpool. The League is treating the issue of tragedy chanting as a priority and as a matter of urgency.”
The rivalry between the two English teams has increased in recent seasons as both have vied for the league title. Last season, City finished one point ahead of Liverpool in the title race.
In 2018, UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, fined Liverpool after fans threw objects at City’s team bus ahead of a Champions League quarterfinal at Anfield.
Last October, City manager Pep Guardiola said coins were thrown towards him during a league game between the two teams, and after the same match Liverpool condemned the “vile chants relating to football stadium tragedies” heard in the away end of the stadium, adding that offensive graffiti was also found in the away section.
Fans singing songs about stadium disasters or fatal accidents, which has been described as ‘tragedy chanting,’ has been put in the spotlight in England this season.
Ahead of Manchester United’s league match against Liverpool last month, the respective managers of both clubs called for an end to such chanting in a joint statement.
The Football Association, English football’s governing body, said it strongly condemned such chants.
In a statement to CNN, a FA spokesperson said: “We are very concerned about the rise of abhorrent chants in stadiums that are related to the Hillsborough disaster and other football related tragedies.
“These chants are highly offensive and are deeply upsetting for the families, friends and communities who have been impacted by these devastating events, and we strongly condemn this behaviour.
“We support clubs and fans who try to stamp out this behaviour from our game. We also support the excellent work of the survivor groups who engage with stakeholders across football to help educate people about the damaging and lasting effects that these terrible chants can have.”
LONDON — As the U.K. prepares to overhaul its competition regime, a fierce lobbying battle has broken out between the world’s largest tech companies and their challengers.
Ministers are gearing up to publish new competition legislation in late-April, giving regulators more power to stop a handful of companies dominating digital markets.
But concern over the U.S. tech giants’ influence in Westminster has prompted ministers close to the bill to warn that the new legislation could be watered down.
Two ministers have expressed concerns that Big Tech firms are seeking to weaken the process for appealing decisions made by the country’s beefed-up competition regulator, according to multiple people who were either present at those discussions or whose organizations were represented there. They requested anonymity to discuss private meetings.
One MP said a minister had also approached them to raise concerns, while at an industry roundtable, two ministers spoke of worry about Big Tech firms trying to influence the appeal mechanism.
An industry representative said: “There has been a sh*t load of lobbying from Big Tech, but I don’t know if they’ll succeed.”
Appealing to who?
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill will give new powers to a branch of the Competition and Markets Authority called the Digital Markets Unit (DMU). Under the plan, the DMU will be able fine a company 10 percent of their annual turnover for breaching a code of conduct.
The code, which has not yet been published, would be designed to ensure that a company with ‘strategic market status’ cannot “unfairly use its market power and strategic position to distort or undermine competition between users of the … firm’s services,” the government has said.
Jonathan Jones, senior consultant in public law at Linklaters and formerly the head of the U.K. government’s legal department, wrote that the plan would have “very significant consequences” for Big Tech firms and could force them to “significantly alter” their business models.
One of Big Tech’s concerns is that the bill will only allow companies to appeal decisions made by the DMU on whether or not the right process was followed, known as the judicial review standard, rather than the content or merit of the decision. That puts it in line with other regulators and should mean the process is faster, but it also makes it harder to appeal decisions.
Big Tech firms want to be able to appeal on the “merit”, arguing it is unfair that they can’t challenge whether a DMU decision was correct or not. They also argue it won’t necessarily be slower than the judicial review standard.
One of the biggest fears from medium-sized firms is that the biggest tech companies will use strategies to lengthen the appeals process or even get the entire bill delayed | iStock
Tech Minister Paul Scully, who has responsibility for the bill, told POLITICO: “We want to make sure that the legislation is flexible, proportionate and fair to both big and challenger companies. Any remediation needs to be in place quickly as digital markets move quickly.”
One representative of a mid-sized tech firm said: “This is the fundamental point of contention and it will influence whether the bill works for SMEs and challengers against Big Tech.
“The fear is that big companies with big lawyers understand how to eke things out (during the appeals process) so that they’ll keep their market advantage for years. We’ve heard ministers express these concerns too.”
Consumer group Which? is also urging the government to stay with its proposed appeal system. “For the DMU to work effectively, the government must stick to its guns and ensure that the decisions it reaches are not tied up in an elongated appeals process,” said director of policy, Rocio Concha.
‘Investigator and executioner’
But Jones argued that the bill will make the DMU too powerful.
“The DMU will have power to decide who it is going to regulate, set the rules that apply to them, and then enforce those rules,” he wrote. “This makes the DMU effectively legislator, investigator and executioner.”
On the appeal method, Jones argued that it is an “oversimplification” to think that the government’s proposed standard of appeal would be quicker than one based on merits.
Ben Greenstone, managing director of tech policy consultancy Taso Advisory, said: “I can understand the argument from both sides. The largest tech companies are incentivized to push back against this, but my guess is the government will keep the appeals process as it is, because it keeps it in line with the wider competition regime.”
However, he added the bill would work better if some sort of compromise can be found with the biggest tech companies.
The international playbook
One of the biggest fears from medium-sized firms is that the biggest tech companies will use strategies already tried and tested abroad to lengthen the appeals process or even get the entire bill delayed.
Rick VanMeter, executive director of the Coalition for App Fairness, which is based in the U.S. but has U.K. members, said: “In the U.S. we’ve learned that these mobile app gatekeepers’ will stop at nothing to preserve the status quo and squash their competition.
“To be successful, policymakers around the world must see through these gatekeepers’ efforts for what they are: self-serving attempts to retain their market power.”
Google and Microsoft declined to comment. Apple did not respond.
Former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq went public in 2020, saying he had been the victim of racial harassment.
Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan has been cleared of making a racist comment in 2009 towards a group of teammates of South Asian ethnicity.
The scandal erupted when Azeem Rafiq, a former player at Yorkshire, went public in 2020, saying he had been the victim of racial harassment and bullying during two spells at English cricket’s most successful club from 2008 to 2018.
Vaughan, one of the most high-profile figures in English cricket, was alleged to have used the term “you lot” when referring to four players of South Asian ethnicity, including Rafiq.
A Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) report on Friday said it was “not satisfied on the balance of probabilities” that Vaughan spoke the words he was alleged to have used.
But it added that its findings “do not in any way undermine the wider assertions” made by Rafiq, who told lawmakers in November 2021 that English cricket was “institutionally racist”.
In its concluding remarks, the CDC report said: “This is not a case which necessitated a conclusion from the panel that anyone has lied or acted out of malice.”
In a statement posted on Twitter after the panel issued its report, Vaughn said it has been “both difficult and upsetting to hear about the painful experiences” that Rafiq has described over the past three years.
“The outcome of these CDC proceedings must not be allowed to detract from the core message that there can be no place for racism in the game of cricket, or in society generally,” the 48-year-old wrote.
Among the allegations made in the UK Parliament, Rafiq accused Vaughan of saying to him and other teammates of Asian ethnicity that there were “too many of you lot. We need to have a word about that.”
Vaughan was alleged to have made the comment on the sidelines of a Twenty20 match. He categorically denied the charge, which was issued by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
Vaughan said on Twitter that the past few years had been an “incredibly difficult period in my life” and the process “has brought me to the brink of falling out of love with cricket”.
Former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq testifying before parliament [File: PRU/AFP]
Yorkshire, a team in the north of England that is a record 33-time winner of the county championship, launched an investigation in 2020 after Rafiq said racism at the club had left him feeling suicidal.
The club later apologised that Rafiq had been the victim of “racial harassment and bullying”.
Seven of Rafiq’s 43 claims were upheld in a report commissioned by Yorkshire, but the full version of the report was not published and did not lead to any of the club’s hierarchy facing disciplinary action.
As a result, the ECB chose to issue disrepute charges against seven individuals, including Vaughan, with prior connections to Yorkshire Cricket Club. The club was also charged.
Vaughan was the only individual to appear in person at the CDC hearings in London, which began in early March.
Britain has reached an agreement to join a major trans-Pacific partnership, calling it its biggest trade deal since Brexit.
The country will become the first new member, and the first in Europe, to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) since it came into force in 2018.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the move early Friday, hailing it as a historic move that could help lift economic growth in the country by £1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) in the long run.
“The bloc is home to more 500 million people and will be worth 15% of global GDP once the UK joins,” Sunak’s office said.
The CPTPP is a free trade agreement with 11 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam. It succeeded the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the United States withdrew under former President Donald Trump in 2017.
The UK agreement comes almost two years after it began talks to join the pact.
As a member, more than 99% of UK exports to those 11 countries will now be eligible for tariff-free trade. That includes major exports, such as cheese, cars, chocolate, machinery, gin and whisky.
In the year through September 2022, the United Kingdom exported £60.5 billion ($75 billion) worth of goods to CPTPP countries, Sunak’s office said in a statement.
Dairy farmers, for example, sent £23.9 million ($29.6 million) worth of products such as cheese and butter to Canada, Chile, Japan and Mexico last year, and were set to “benefit from lower tariffs,” it added.
The deal also aims to lift red tape for British businesses, which will no longer be required to set up local offices or be residents of the pact’s member countries to provide services there.
Services made up a huge chunk — 43% — of overall UK trade with CPTPP members last year, according to Sunak’s office.
“We are at our heart an open and free-trading nation,” the prime minister said in the statement, seeking to cast the deal as an example of the “economic benefits of our post-Brexit freedoms.”
“As part of CPTPP, the UK is now in a prime position in the global economy to seize opportunities for new jobs, growth and innovation,” Sunak added.
Several businesses expressed their support for the deal in the government statement, including global bank Standard Chartered
(SCBFF) and spirits maker Pernod Ricard
(PDRDF).
Joining the pact “is a big opportunity for our Scotch whisky business,” said Anishka Jelicich, Pernod Ricard’s UK director of public affairs.
“Five of our top 20 export markets are CPTPP members. We expect tariff cuts and smoother access to some of the world’s fastest growing economies to increase exports and secure jobs and investment in the UK, with sales doubling in some markets.”
BERLIN (AP) — King Charles III became the first monarch to address Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday as part of a high-profile visit by the U.K. head of state aimed at bolstering ties between the two European powers.
Speaking to lawmakers and other dignitaries in the packed lower house, Charles stressed the close bonds between the United Kingdom and Germany going back centuries, including his own family links to the royal House of Hannover, and the present-day economic, scientific, cultural and military cooperation between the two countries.
Charles noted that London and Berlin have provided considerable aid to Ukraine in its efforts to fend off Russia’s invasion, a point that will appeal to German government officials more used to hearing how their country isn’t doing enough to help Kyiv.
“Germany’s decision to provide so much military support to Ukraine is extremely brave, important and welcome,” Charles said.
Speaking mostly in fluent German, he noted how the intertwined history of the two nations could be seen in the home of the Bundestag itself. The restoration in the 1990s of the former Reichstag building, that was heavily damaged during World War II, was capped with a glass cupola designed by British architect Norman Foster intended as a symbol of transparency and accountability.
“From here the citizens can actually watch their politicians work,” Charles said. “Democracy in action.”
The 74-year-old largely trod on safe territory, making gentle jokes about soccer rivalry, national humor and mutual admiration for each other’s cultures — from the Beatles to Kraftwerk and from Brahms to Byron. Charles briefly touched on the grim history of Nazism and WWII.
Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will visit Hamburg on Friday to pay respects at a memorial to the Kindertransporte, or children’s transports, which saw more than 10,000 Jewish children rescued from Nazi Germany 85 years ago. They will also commemorate the more than 30,000 people — most of them civilians — killed in the Allied bombing of Hamburg in July 1943.
“Heeding the lessons of the past is our sacred responsibility, but it can only be fully discharged through a commitment to our shared future,” he said. “Together we must be vigilant against threats to our values and freedoms, and resolute in our determination to confront them. Together we must strive for the security, prosperity and well-being that our people deserve.”
When Charles finished his speech, the lawmakers rose for a long, standing ovation, something rarely seen in Germany’s parliament.
Charles is on his inaugural foreign trip since becoming king. He and Camilla arrived in Berlin on Wednesday. Crowds of well-wishers and Germany’s head of state, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, greeted the couple at the capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate. They later attended a banquet in their honor at the presidential palace.
Pomp and royal glamour aside, the three-day visit has a decidedly political purpose. The U.K. government is trying to mend frayed ties with its continental partners following the painful Brexit process.
The fallout has been considerable: Britain’s departure from the European Union’s common market has resulted in trade barriers and labor shortages, and locked the country out of key European science programs. By devoting special attention to the EU’s two biggest powers — France and Germany — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hopes to normalize relations with the 27-nation bloc.
Charles originally planned to stop in France first, but anti-government protests there delayed that part of his trip. That put the focus on Germany, where the U.K. royal family and particularly the late Queen Elizabeth II have long commanded interest and admiration.
Not all were pleased by the visit, however. Jan Korte, a lawmaker with the opposition Left party, said it wasn’t in keeping with Germany’s democratic tradition to have Charles address the country’s highest political body, the Bundestag.
“A king isn’t elected,” Korte told public broadcaster ZDF. “He can obviously speak everywhere and is very welcome, including by me, but I think that particularly in the Bundestag, which is about representing the people, it’s not really appropriate to have a monarch speak.”
Charles has spoken to the Bundestag before, at an event in 2020 commemorating the victims of WWII, though he was still the Prince of Wales at the time.
Before his speech Charles met briefly with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and visited a farmers’ market in Berlin.
After his speech, Charles visited a refugee center for Ukrainians at Berlin’s former Tegel airport, and met representatives from a joint German and U.K. military unit stationed near Berlin to see a demonstration of their bridge-building amphibious vehicles.
His drive to the countryside was slowed down by torrential rain, and he had to skip a tour of the cowshed with newborn calves. Still, Charles had enough time to try a special, crown-shaped cake made by the farm’s pastry chef in his honor.
When the king’s motorcade left the farm, a few royal fans huddled under umbrellas on a nearby lawn shouted in German “Long live the king,” as Charles waved good-bye from his car.
Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities.
London, United Kingdom – As debates over gender identities rage in the United Kingdom, several medical professionals have told Al Jazeera that they fear speaking on the issue, worried that by doing so they could face bullying, harassment, and threats of disciplinary action for alleged discrimination.
They also warned that health services could be changed in a way that ultimately harms patients and the wider society, should sex-based medical terminology and practices be eroded while gender identities are favoured.
The three experts Al Jazeera spoke to for this article requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, personally and to their careers.
From a medical perspective, human beings come in two forms, male or female.
But in recent years, gender identities have become more prominent, posing challenges for key sectors such as education and health.
Gender is characterised as a person’s internal idea of the qualities of being male or female or otherwise. It is seen as an identity and is not qualified by biological markers.
It is often fluid but always self-declared.
And to make the matter more complicated, gender has often been used as a polite synonym for sex, especially in the United States.
In February 2020, as a forensic psychiatrist, Edith* became increasingly concerned at the conflation of sex with gender after the Association for LGBTQ+ Doctors and Dentists (GLADD) announced that the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC), the regulatory body that educates and trains doctors, would remove sex markers – which GLADD called “gender” – as a protected characteristic from its online public register.
This meant that doctors would be able to remove their sex from the register, which is a divisive issue.
Some argue that patients, for instance sexual violence victims whose abusers were of the opposite sex, should have the right to know the biological sex of their doctors.
Others say doctors should have the right to identify how they wish.
In November 2022, the British Medical Association (BMA) published a report titled “LGBTQ+ equality in medicine”, saying: “Doctors come from a broad cross section of backgrounds, experiences, sexual orientations and gender identities.
“Discrimination, whether from patients or from colleagues, has a detrimental impact on doctors’ lives. The BMA is clear that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity has no place in the medical profession.”
But according to Edith, there is pressure to push an affirmative approach to all matters of gender identity over evidence-based methods.
“It’s not a psychiatrist’s job to promote positive stories; you’re supposed to be neutral and objective,” said Edith.
At an educational event, Edith submitted questions to a panel regarding trans women in mental-health institutions who change gender while awaiting criminal trials.
“They found it [the question] ‘transphobic’, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘biased’. I’m a forensic psychiatrist, this is what you see. Just because you state a fact and you don’t like the fact, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist … People do game the system.”
Earlier this year, the case of Isla Bryson, who now identifies as a trans woman, prompted concerns. The Scottish Prison Service initially placed Bryson, who was convicted of raping women in 2016 and 2019 while known as Adam Graham, in Scotland’s only all-female prison.
But after criticism from politicians and women’s rights groups, Bryson was moved to a men’s prison.
At the time of publishing, GLADD had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
When approached for a response, a BMA spokesperson pointed to an online statement of the organisation’s position and said it stood by signing the GLADD charter, which calls for so-called conversion therapy to be banned – another controversial subject.
Some are concerned that such a move could see clinicians providing meaningful therapy prosecuted.
‘People don’t dare speak’
Ashley*, who has years of experience in medical teaching in colleges and hospitals education, said a culture of fear is brewing.
“People don’t dare speak,” Ashley said. “Even doctors don’t, because it’s just not worth it.”
Ashley said a group of students and healthcare workers affiliated with GLADD routinely comb through tweets of clinicians who decline to use gender identity terms, such as “cis”, instead of sex-based medical terminology.
Ashley shared screenshots of a presentation given by a GLADD-aligned diversity director in November last year, which stated hospitals should accommodate trans women in female wards.
“It’s in the interest of the population not to have queer theory, gender identity in the NHS [National Health Service],” said Ashley, “I worry about the elderly being put in mixed-sex wards. It’s safeguarding issues that aren’t being looked at and I do feel like it’s a failure of the government right now because they’re not protecting the population from this.”
For his part, as the gender rows grind on, the UK’s Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, has asked leaders of NHS bodies to review memberships of LGBTQ+ charities and assess the necessity of having diversity officers.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera: “Taxpayers rightly expect value for money from every penny spent in our NHS. That is why the Health and Social Care Secretary has asked the NHS and all of the department’s arms-length bodies to review whether their diversity and inclusion memberships are good value for money, and consider ways to improve.”
In its first-ever census that included gender identity, the Office for National Statistics stated this year that 262,000, or 0.5 percent of the population aged 16 and over in the UK identify as having a different gender identity than their birth sex.
According to British law, one does not need medical treatment to change from female to male on documents such as passports and driving licences.
But to adapt birth, marriage and death certificates, a five-pound ($6) Gender Recognition Certificate is necessary, and that requires a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and at least two years of living in the “affirmed gender”.
“There are there are clinicians who I’ve spoken to who’ve had men [patients] who identify as women and have had their records completely scrubbed of any information about their biological sex,” said Isadora Sanger, a retired psychiatrist who is still registered as a medical practitioner.
“They [trans patients] present with complaints that could be related to hormone treatment, and doctors are not even able to discuss this openly with them – and so it’s a really strained interaction, not being able to say or inquire … It’s just muzzled doctors from being able to do their job responsibly.”
DUBLIN — U.S. President Joe Biden will pay a five-day visit to both parts of Ireland next month to mark the 25th anniversary of the U.S.-brokered Good Friday peace accord, according to a provisional Irish government itinerary seen by POLITICO.
The plans, still being finalized with the White House, have the president arriving in Northern Ireland on April 11. That’s one day after the official quarter-century mark for the Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal designed to end decades of conflict that claimed more than 3,600 lives.
With Irish roots on both sides of his family tree, Biden has long taken an interest in brokering and maintaining peace in Northern Ireland. He has welcomed the recent U.K.-EU agreement on making post-Brexit trade rules work in the region — a breakthrough that has yet to revive local power-sharing at the heart of the 1998 accord.
According to two Irish government officials involved in planning the Biden visit itinerary, the president will start his stay overnight at Hillsborough Castle, southwest of Belfast, the official residence for visiting British royalty, as a guest of the U.K.’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.
Then he’s scheduled to visit Stormont, the parliamentary complex overlooking Belfast, at the invitation of its caretaker speaker, Alex Maskey of the Irish republican Sinn Féin party.
That could prove controversial given that, barring a diplomatic miracle, the Northern Ireland Assembly and its cross-community government — a core achievement of the 1998 agreement — won’t be functioning due to a long-running boycott by the Democratic Unionists. That party has not yet accepted the U.K.-EU compromise deal on offer because it keeps Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the U.K., subject to EU goods rules and able to trade more easily with the rest of Ireland than with Britain. Nonetheless, assembly members from all parties including the DUP will be invited to meet Biden there.
The president is booked to officiate the official ribbon-cutting of the new downtown Belfast campus of Ulster University. During his stay in Northern Ireland he also is expected to pay a visit to Queen’s University Belfast, where former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton serves as chancellor.
Next, the Irish government expects the presidential entourage to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland, potentially by motorcade, the approach last adopted by Bill Clinton during his third and final visit to Ireland as president in 2000.
This would allow Biden to pay a visit to one side of his Irish family tree, the Finnegans, in County Louth. Louth is midway between Belfast and Dublin. Biden previously toured the area in 2016 as vice president, when he met distant relatives for the first time and visited the local graveyard.
In Dublin, it is not yet confirmed whether Biden will deliver a speech at College Green outside the entrance of Trinity College. That’s the spot where Barack Obama delivered his own main speech during a one-day visit as president in 2011.
A White House advance team is expected in Dublin this weekend to scout that and other potential locations for a speech and walkabout. He isn’t expected to hold any functions at the Irish parliament, which begins a two-week Easter recess Friday.
Members of Ireland’s national police force, An Garda Síochána, have been told by commanders they cannot go on leave during the week of April 10-16 in anticipation of Biden’s arrival. The Irish expect U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to accompany the president and take part in more detailed talks with Northern Ireland’s leaders.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar plans to host the president and Blinken at Farmleigh House, a state-owned mansion previously owned by the Guinness brewing dynasty, inside Dublin’s vast Phoenix Park.
The final two days of Biden’s visit will focus on the other side of his Irish roots, the Blewitts of County Mayo, on Ireland’s west coast, which he also visited in 2016. Distant cousins he first met on that trip have since been repeated guests of the White House, most recently on St. Patrick’s Day.
White House officials declined to discuss specific dates or any events planned, but did confirm that Biden would travel to Ireland “right after Easter.” This suggests an April 11 arrival in line with the Irish itinerary. Easter Sunday falls this year on April 9 and, in both parts of Ireland, the Christian holiday is a two-day affair ending in Easter Monday.
In the venerated halls of London’s Natural History Museum, one of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth is about to make its debut.
Patagotitan mayorum, a dinosaur giant belonging to a group known as titanosaurs, is visiting Europe for the first time since its discovery in Argentina in 2010. Over five meters (16 feet) tall and weighing over two and a half metric tons, its skeleton will give visitors an idea of what this gentle giant, which could have weighed as much as 57 metric tons and stretched over 120 feet, would have looked like when it lived on Earth around 100 million years ago.
A team of technicians is putting the finishing touches to the star exhibit, which arrived in the UK in January and has been reconstructed in a room with a specially reinforced floor, said Sinead Marron, exhibition and interpretation manager at the museum.
Displayed alongside the skeleton, which is a cast, are real fossils, including a 2.4-meter-long (8 feet) femur that weighs around half a metric ton.
“The idea of the exhibition has been in the works for a few years now,” said Marron, explaining that it was disrupted by the Covid pandemic. “We’re so excited to finally introduce Patagotitan to the UK.”
When Patagotitan mayorum was first excavated, it rocked the world of palaeontology. More than nine times heavier than the African elephant and longer than a blue whale, the giant herbivore may have been the largest terrestrial animal of all time.
The first evidence of the Patagotitan emerged in 2010 with the discovery of a single bone, before a more extensive dig in 2013 yielded more than 180 bones from seven partial skeletons. Evidence suggests the dinosaurs were buried in floods.
The fossils were 3-D scanned and used by the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF) in Argentina as the basis of a whole skeleton cast comprising nearly 300 bones. The cast comprises a shell of fiberglass and polyester resin, filled with expanding foam, displayed on a steel framework.
“The replica is a composite – it incorporates bones from at least six different individuals found at the site,” explained Marron. “For the bones that weren’t found, the specialist team at MEF have filled in the gaps using what we know from closely related dinosaurs.”
Replicas of Patagotitan mayorum reside in the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, but the dinosaur hadn’t been exhibited in Europe before the Natural History Museum took loan of the MEF’s cast.
A specialist department of freight company IAG Cargo was tasked with transporting the dinosaur from Argentina.
CEO David Shepherd told CNN the department has transported items including terracotta soldiers, Egyptian mummies and Assyrian treasures to the UK, which, due to their value and delicate nature, means staff and customers go through strict screening requirements to ensure items’ safety. “Cargo is stored in state-of-the-art vaults that are constantly monitored using CCTV and active human surveillance,” he said.
The cast and fossils were stored in more than 40 specially designed crates. These were placed in the belly hold of two British Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliners and flown 7,000 miles from Ezeiza Airport, Buenos Aires, to London Heathrow, before they were taken to a special facility ahead of transportation to the museum.
“The fossils are significantly heavier than the replicas which makes storing, moving and displaying them more complicated than for the replicas,” said Marron. “In addition, the original fossils are of immense value to scientific research.”
“For this move, every single bone required a temporary export permit for paleontological heritage,” Shepherd explained. “This is very similar to a passport and includes details such as the name and code of the collection, its weight, size and a photograph, as well as insurance and a visa-like document, giving it permission to be out of the country for a specified time.”
Clearing customs and security checks took four days, he added.
Assembly inside the museum’s Waterhouse Gallery has happened away from the public eye. “There was a lot of measurement-checking to ensure that we could actually get the specimens into our Victorian, grade II listed building,” said Marron.
The official unveiling on Friday March 31 is timed to coincide with the start of UK school holidays, and huge crowds are expected.
“We hope visitors will experience a sense of awe at the sheer scale of the titanosaur. It’s an incredible experience to stand underneath it, to be dwarfed by this immense creature,” said Marron.
But with the new addition, has the museum considered Dippy’s feelings? The beloved diplodocus skeleton, until 2015 a stalwart of the museum and currently on tour in the UK, is not in London to defend its patch.
The two dinosaurs won’t be having a meeting of minds, however “we’re pretty sure Dippy is excited that a big cousin has come to visit,” Marron said.
Berlin — King Charles III arrived in Berlin on Wednesday for his first foreign trip as Britain’s monarch, hoping to improve the U.K.’s relations with the European Union and show he can win hearts and minds abroad, just as his mother did for seven decades. Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, landed at Berlin’s government airport in the early afternoon. The king, dressed in a black coat, and his wife, in a light blue coat and a feather-trimmed teal hat worn at a jaunty angle, paused at the top of their plane’s stairs to receive a 21-gun salute as two military jets performed a flyover.
The royal couple said in a joint statement, released on their official Twitter account, that it was a “great joy” to be able to develop the “longstanding friendship between our two nations.”
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, right, his wife Elke Buedenbender, left, and Britain’s King Charles and Camilla, the queen consort attend a welcome ceremony, in Berlin, Germany, March 29, 2023.
WOLFGANG RATTAY/AP
An hour later, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Buedenbender, welcomed them with military honors at the German capital’s historic Brandenburg Gate.
Soldiers hoisted the British and German flags as the national anthems were played. Steinmeier and Charles then strolled past the cheering, flag-waving crowd, shaking hands and chatting briefly with people.
Some took close-up pictures on their phones as Charles and Camilla approached, while others gave them flower bouquets. One woman handed Charles a gift bag. Journalists and security personnel trailed the royal couple and their German hosts as they made their way back to their motorcade.
Charles, 74, who ascended the throne after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September, is set to be crowned on May 6. As Britain’s formal head of state, the king meets weekly with the prime minister and retains his mother’s role as leader of the Commonwealth.
Billed as a multi-day tour of the European Union’s two biggest countries, the trip was designed to underscore British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s efforts to rebuild relations with the bloc after six years of arguments over Brexit and highlight the countries’ shared history as they work together to combat Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Now everything rests on Germany, where the king faces the first big test of his ability to channel the “soft power” the House of Windsor has traditionally wielded, helping Britain pursue its geopolitical goals through the glitz and glamour of a 1,000-year-old monarchy.
Charles, a former naval officer who is the first British monarch to earn a university degree, is expected to insert heft where his glamorous mother once wielded star power. His visit to Germany will give him an opportunity to highlight the causes he holds dear, like environmental protection.
During an afternoon reception at Palace Bellevue, the German president’s official residence, Steinmeier lauded Charles for his long-time commitment to creating a more sustainable world.
“You are, quite literally, the driving forces behind the energy transition,” Steinmeier said. “You are helping to make the world a better place.”
Britain’s King Charles III, right, and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, plant a tree in the garden of the presidential Bellevue Palace in Berlin, March 29, 2023.
Jens Schlueter/AP
Charles met with German government ministers, experts and advocacy group representatives during the reception. A white tie dinner at the presidential palace is scheduled for Wednesday night.
On Thursday, the king is scheduled to give a speech to the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. He will also meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, talk to Ukrainian refugees, and meet with British and Germany military personnel who are working together on joint projects. In the afternoon he will visit an organic farm outside of Berlin.
The royal couple plan to go to Hamburg on Friday, where they will visit the Kindertransport memorial for Jewish children who fled from Germany to Britain during the Third Reich, and attend a green energy event before returning to the U.K.
The king was urged to make the trip by Sunak, who during his first six months in office negotiated a settlement to the long-running dispute over post-Brexit trading rules for Northern Ireland and reached a deal with France to combat the people smugglers ferrying migrants across the English Channel in small boats. Sunak hopes goodwill created by a royal visit can help pave the way for progress on other issues, including Britain’s return to an EU program that funds scientific research across Europe.
Britain’s senior royals are among the most recognizable people on the planet. While their formal powers are strictly limited by law and tradition, they draw attention from the media and the public partly because of the historic ceremonies and regalia that accompany them – and also because the public is fascinated by their personal lives.
Elizabeth’s influence stemmed in part from the fact that she made more than 100 state visits during her 70 years on the throne, meeting presidents and prime ministers around the world in a reign that lasted from the Cold War to the information age.
Politicians were eager to meet the monarch for tea, if for no other reason than she’d been around so long.
Melting ice in the Antarctic is not just raising sea levels but slowing down the circulation of deep ocean water with vast implications for the global climate and for marine life, a new study warns.
Led by scientists from the University of New South Wales and published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the peer-reviewed study modeled the impact of melting Antarctic ice on deep ocean currents that work to flush nutrients from the sea floor to fish near the surface.
Three years of computer modeling found the Antarctic overturning circulation – also known as abyssal ocean overturning – is on track to slow 42% by 2050 if the world continues to burn fossil fuels and produce high levels of planet-heating pollution.
A slow down is expected to speed up ice melt and potentially end an ocean system that has helped sustain life for thousands of years.
“The projections we have make it look like the Antarctic overturning would collapse this century,” said Matthew England, deputy director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, who coordinated the study.
“In the past, these overturning circulations changed over the course of 1,000 years or so, and we’re talking about changes within a few decades. So it is pretty dramatic,” he said.
Most previous studies have focused on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the system of currents that carry warm water from the tropics into the North Atlantic. The cold, saltier water then sinks and flows south.
Its Southern Ocean equivalent is less studied but does an important job moving nutrient-dense water north from Antarctica, past New Zealand and into the North Pacific Ocean, the North Atlantic and Indian Ocean, the report’s authors said in a briefing.
The circulation of deep ocean water is considered vital for the health of the sea – and plays an important role in sequestering carbon absorbed from the atmosphere.
According to the report, while a slowdown of the AMOC would mean the deep Atlantic Ocean would get colder, the slower circulation of dense water in the Antarctic means the deepest waters of the Southern Ocean will warm up.
“One of the concerning things of this slowdown is that there can be feedback to further ocean warming at the base of the ice shelves around Antarctica. And that would lead to more ice melt, reinforcing or amplifying the original change,” England said.
As global temperatures rise, Antarctic ice is expected to melt faster, but that doesn’t mean the circulation of deep water will increase – in fact the opposite, scientists said.
In a healthy system, the cold and salty – or dense – consistency of melted Antarctic ice allows it to sink to the deepest layer of the ocean. From there it sweeps north, carrying carbon and higher levels of oxygen than might otherwise be present in water around 4,000 meters deep.
As the current moves northward, it agitates deep layers of debris on the ocean floor – remains of decomposing sea life thick with nutrients – that feed the bottom of the food chain, scientists said.
In certain areas, mostly south of Australia in the Southern Ocean and in the tropics, this nutrient-rich cold water moves toward the surface in a process called upwelling, distributing the nutrients to higher layers of the ocean, England said.
However, Wednesday’s study found that as global temperatures warm, melting sea ice “freshens” the water around Antarctica, diluting its saltiness and raising its temperature, meaning it’s less dense and doesn’t sink to the bottom as efficiently as it once did.
The report’s co-author, Steve Rintoul from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, said sea life in waters worldwide rely on nutrients brought back up to the surface, and that the Antarctic overturning is a key component of that upwelling of nutrients.
“We know that nutrients exported from the Southern Ocean in other current systems support about three quarters of global phytoplankton production – the base of the food chain,” he said.
“We’ve shown that the sinking of dense water near Antarctica will decline by 40% by 2050. And it’ll be sometime between 2050 and 2100 that we start to see the impacts of that on surface productivity.”
England added: “People born today are going to be around then. So, it’s certainly stuff that will challenge societies in the future.”
The report’s authors say the slowing of the Antarctic ocean overturning has other knock-on effects for the planet – for example, it could shift rain bands in the tropics by as much as 1,000 kilometers (621 miles).
“Shut it down completely and you get this reduction of rainfall in one band south of the equator and an increase in the band to the north. So we could see impacts on rainfall in the tropics,” said England.
Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in its latest report that the impacts of rising global temperatures were more severe than expected. Without immediate and deep changes, the world is hurtling toward increasingly dangerous and irreversible consequences of climate change, it added.
The IPCC report found that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels was still possible, but it’s becoming harder to achieve the longer the world fails to cut carbon pollution.
England points out that the IPCC predictions don’t include ice melt from Antarctic ice sheets and shelves.
“That’s a very significant component of change that’s already underway around Antarctica with more to come in the next few decades,” England said.
Rintoul said the study was another urgent warning on top of all the ones that have come before it.
“Even though the direct effect on fisheries through reduced nutrient supply might take decades to play out, we will commit ourselves to that future with the choices we make over the next decade.”
LONDON — Britain will be welcomed into an Indo-Pacific trade bloc late Thursday as ministers from the soon-to-be 12-nation trade pact meet in a virtual ceremony across multiple time zones.
Chief negotiators and senior officials from member countries agreed Wednesday that Britain has met the high bar to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), four people familiar with the talks told POLITICO.
Negotiations are “done” and Britain’s accession is “all agreed [and] confirmed,” said a diplomat from one member nation. They were granted anonymity as they were unauthorized to discuss deliberations.
The U.K. will be the first new nation to join the pact since it was set up in 2018. Its existing members are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and Canada.
Britain’s accession means it has met the high standards of the deal’s market access requirements and that it will align with the bloc’s sanitary and phytosanitary standards as well as provisions like investor-state dispute settlement. The resolution of a spat between the U.K. and Canada over agricultural market access earlier this month smoothed the way to joining up.
Member states have been “wary” of the “precedent-setting nature” of Britain’s accession, a government official from a member nation said, as China’s application to join is next in the queue. That makes it in the U.K.’s interests to ensure acceding parties provide ambitious market access offers, they added.
Trade ministers from the bloc will meet late Thursday in Britain, or early Friday for some member nations in Asia, “to put the seal on it all,” said the diplomat quoted at the top. The deal will be signed at a later time as the text needs to be legally verified and translated into various languages — including French in Canada. “That takes time,” they said.
Speaking Wednesday afternoon, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson said: “Negotiations have been proceeding well on CPTPP, and ministers are due to have discussions with their counterparts later this week.”
Any update will, they added, provided at the “earliest possible opportunity.”
LONDON — As Elon Musk urged humanity to get a grip on artificial intelligence, in London ministers were hailing its benefits.
Rishi Sunak’s new technology chief Michelle Donelan on Wednesday unveiled the government’s long-awaited blueprint for regulating AI, insisting a heavy-handed approach is off the agenda.
At the heart of the innovation-friendly pitch is a plan to give existing regulators a year to issue “practical guidance” for the safe use of machine learning in their sectors based on broad principles like safety, transparency, fairness and accountability. But no new legislation or regulatory bodies are being planned for the burgeoning technology.
It stands in contrast to the strategy being pursued in Brussels, where lawmakers are pushing through a more detailed rulebook, backed by a new liability regime.
Donelan insists her “common-sense, outcomes-oriented approach” will allow the U.K. to “be the best place in the world to build, test and use AI technology.”
Her department’s Twitter account was flooded with content promoting the benefits of AI. “Think AI is scary? It doesn’t have to be!” one of its posts stated on Wednesday.
But some experts fear U.K. policymakers, like their counterparts around the world, may not have grasped the scale of the challenge, and believe more urgency is needed in understanding and policing how the fast-developing tech is used.
“The government’s timeline of a year or more for implementation will leave risks unaddressed just as AI systems are being integrated at pace into our daily lives, from search engines to office suite software,” Michael Birtwistle, associate director of data and AI law and policy at the Ada Lovelace Institute, said. It has “significant gaps,” which could leave harms “unaddressed,” he warned.
“We shouldn’t be risking inventing a nuclear blast before we’ve learnt how to keep it in the shell,” Connor Axiotes, a researcher at the free-market Adam Smith Institute think tank, warned.
Elon wades in
Hours before the U.K. white paper went live, across the Atlantic an open letter calling for labs to immediately pause work training AI systems to be even more powerful for at least six months went live. It was signed by artificial intelligence experts and industry executives, including Tesla and Twitter boss Elon Musk. Researchers at Alphabet-owned DeepMind, and renowned Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio were also signatories.
The letter called for AI developers to work with policymakers to “dramatically accelerate development of robust AI governance systems,” which should “at a minimum include: new and capable regulatory authorities dedicated to AI.”
AI labs are locked in “an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand, predict, or reliably control,” the letter warned.
Rishi Sunak’s new technology chief Michelle Donelan unveiled the government’s blueprint for regulating AI, insisting a heavy-handed approach is off the agenda | Leon Neal/Getty Images
Back in the U.K., Ellen Judson, head of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think tank Demos, warned that the U.K. approach of “setting out principles alone” was “not enough.”
“Without the teeth of legal obligations, this is an approach which will result in a patchwork of regulatory guidance that will do little to fundamentally shift the incentives that lead to risky and unethical uses of AI,” she said.
But Technology Minister Paul Scully told the BBC he was “not sure” about pausing further AI developments. He said the government’s proposals should “dispel any of those concerns from Elon Musk and those other figures.”
“What we’re trying to do is to have a situation where we can think as government and think as a sector through the risks but also the benefits of AI — and make sure we can have a framework around this to protect us from the harms,” he said.
Long time coming
Industry concerns about the U.K.’s ability to make policy in their area are countered by some of those who have worked closely with the British government on AI policy.
Its approach to policymaking has been “very consultative,” according to Sue Daley, a director at the industry body TechUK, who has been closely following AI developments for a number of years.
In 2018 ministers set up the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation and the Office for AI, working across the government’s digital and business departments until it moved to the newly-created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology earlier this year.
The Office for AI is staffed by a “good team of people,” Daly said, while also pointing to the work the U.K.’s well-regarded regulators, like the Information Commissioner’s Office, had been doing on artificial intelligence “for some time.”
Greg Clark, the Conservative chairman of parliament’s science and technology committee, said he thought the government was right to “think carefully.” The former business secretary stressed that is his own view rather than the committee view.
“There’s a danger in rushing to adopt extensive regulations precipitously that have not been properly thought through and stress-tested, and that could prove to be an encumbrance to us and could impede the positive applications of AI,” he added. But he said the government should “proceed quickly” from white paper to regulatory framework “during the months ahead.”
Public view
Outside Westminster, the potential implications of the technology are yet to be fully realized, surveys suggest.
Public First, a Westminster-based consultancy, which conducted a raft of polling into public attitudes to artificial intelligence earlier this month, found that beyond fears about unemployment, people were pretty positive about AI.
“It certainly pales into insignificance compared to the other things that they are worried about like the prospect of armed conflict, or even the impact of climate change,” James Frayne, a founding partner of Public First, who conducted the polling said. “This falls way down the priority list,” he said.
But he cautioned this could change.
“One assumes that at some point there will be an event which shocks them, and shakes them, and makes them think very differently about AI,” he added.
“At that point there will be great demands for the government to make sure that they’re all over this in terms of regulation. They will expect the government to not only move very quickly, but to have made significant progress already,” he said.
It’s a question worthy of a great TV detective: can streamers like Netflix still guarantee a certain proportion of European content if the goalposts are suddenly moved to exclude hits like Sherlock and Doctor Who?
They may soon have to, as the European Commission is considering removing the U.K. from the list of countries recognized as providing “European” content, according to a policy paper seen by POLITICO. That would put broadcasters and streaming platforms in a tight spot, as the U.K. is among the biggest contributors to their European catalogs.
“The need to re-define the concept of European works has been raised in the context of Brexit. It is arguable that, since the U.K. is no longer a member of the EU, works originating in the U.K. should no longer be considered as European,” said the paper. It also raised the idea of cutting Switzerland from the scope of European works.
Under the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, television and streaming must include a share of “European works” in their transmission schedules or on-demand catalogues. These are defined as programs originating in, and produced mainly by nationals of, EU countries or those that have ratified the Council of Europe’s European Convention on Transfrontier Television (ECTT), which includes neighbors such as the U.K., Turkey and Ukraine.
The Commission is now considering how to tighten these criteria.
In the approach laid out in the paper, dated December 2022, countries that have signed up to the ECTT should also have close ties with the EU and its internal market, singling out members of the European Economic Area, EU candidate countries, or potential candidates and sovereignties which signed agreements to use the euro like the Holy See and San Marino.
Move over, Fleabag
That would be bad news for broadcasters and streamers. The U.K. gobbled up about 28 percent of platforms’ European investments in 2021, compared to about 21 percent for German productions and 15 percent for French, according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.
“It is a wrong discussion, at a wrong time,” Sabine Verheyen, chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture and Education, told POLITICO in response to the Commission document. She warned against excluding such an “important partner, even if they are not a member of the Union anymore.”
As early as June 2021, the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) warned against any move to exclude U.K. productions. “Despite Brexit, the audiovisual community continues to work hand in hand across the channel,” it said. “We should focus on building bridges, not burning them.”
In a reaction to the Commission paper, a spokesperson for the U.K. Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport said: “the U.K. remains committed to European works. We continue to support its contribution to cultural enrichment across Europe and to provide audiences access to content they know and love.”
The Commission hasn’t yet indicated how it might roll out the changes, and it hasn’t made a definitive proposition to exclude U.K. content; any such move would no doubt trigger opposition from industry. The EU is due to evaluate the audiovisual directive by the end of 2026.
A Commission spokesperson said in a statement that the EU executive “is currently undertaking a fact-finding exercise” to make sure European works benefit from a “diverse, fair and balanced market.”
