UK lawmakers warn of lost residency rights in no-deal Brexit

July 20, 2019

BRUSSELS (AP) — British lawmakers met the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator on Friday, seeking an iron-clad guarantee that the 1.3 million U.K. citizens in the bloc won't have their rights removed and their lives disrupted if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

The rights of U.K. citizens living in the 27 other EU nations, and those of the more than 3 million EU citizens in Britain, are one of the thorniest issues of the Brexit negotiations. Their rights to live, work and study are protected under an agreement struck between the two sides — but the divorce agreement has been rejected by Britain's Parliament, raising the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

The U.K. is due to leave the bloc on Oct. 31, and both men vying to take over as prime minister next week, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, say it's imperative that Brexit happens, with or without a deal.

Conservative lawmaker Alberto Costa, who led the cross-party delegation that met EU negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels, said "if there's no agreement, there's no protection." "British nationals will potentially lose access to pension entitlement, lose access to health care entitlement, lose access to welfare entitlement and a whole gamut of other issues," he said.

Talks between the British government and the EU on guaranteeing citizens' rights if the U.K. crashes out of the bloc have failed to produce a breakthrough. EU leaders insist the withdrawal agreement can't be chopped into chunks — Britain must accept all of it or none.

Some EU member states have said they will preserve Britons' rights, but only if the U.K. reciprocates. Britain says all EU citizens living in the country can stay, but has not enshrined that right in law.

"People assume it's fine, everything's dandy . citizens' rights, of course they're going to protect them, that goes without saying," Costa said. "But we have no extraterritorial powers to pass legislation to protect British citizens in the EU. That can only be done with an agreement with the EU."

The winner of the contest to become Britain's next prime minister — widely expected to be Johnson — is due to be announced Tuesday. Costa said whoever wins must ensure citizens' rights are upheld even if there is no Brexit deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday reiterated the EU's long-held stance that it will not renegotiate the divorce agreement it struck with outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May. "The withdrawal agreement is the withdrawal agreement," she said.

"I trust very firmly that Britain will find its way," May said in Berlin at her annual summer news conference. "It is a proud, great nation and it will remain our partner even if Britain is no longer a member of the European Union."

The upcoming change in prime minister also had U.S. President Donald Trump sharing opinions on British politics Friday. Trump enthused about Johnson becoming the U.K.'s next leader when he was asked about the former London mayor and British foreign secretary during a photo op with reporters in the Oval Office.

He said he spoke with Johnson on Thursday and predicted a positive direction for U.S.-U.K. with him occupying 10 Downing Street. "I like Boris Johnson. I always have. He's a different kind of a guy, but they say I'm a different kind of a guy, too," Trump said. "We get along well. I think we'll have a very good relationship."

Trump also panned outgoing prime minister Theresa May's handling of Brexit, as he had previously. "I think the previous prime minister has done a very bad job with Brexit. What can I say?" he said. I mean it's a disaster and it shouldn't be that way. I think Boris will straighten it out."

Jill Lawless in London, Eileen Putman in Washington, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this story.

Diligent Theresa May failed to solve the UK's Brexit puzzle

June 07, 2019

LONDON (AP) — If all had gone to plan, Britain would be starting its first summer out of the European Union and Prime Minister Theresa May would be looking forward to a well-earned vacation. Instead, May stepped down Friday as leader of a Conservative Party in turmoil and a country in limbo — half in, half out of the EU. She will remain as caretaker prime minister for a few weeks during a party leadership contest to choose her successor.

May will be remembered as the latest in a long line of Conservative leaders destroyed by the party's divisions over Europe, and as a prime minister who failed in her primary mission: to lead Britain out of the EU. But history may also see her as a leader who faced a devilishly difficult situation with stubborn determination.

The daughter of a rural Anglican vicar, May attended Oxford University and worked in financial services before being elected to Parliament in 1997. She was quiet and diligent, but also ambitious. One university friend later recalled that May hoped to be Britain's first female prime minister, and "was quite irritated when Margaret Thatcher got there first."

She was not a natural political campaigner; her stiff public appearances as prime minister landed her the nickname "The Maybot." Her only touches of flamboyance are a fondness for bold outfits and accessories like brightly patterned kitten-heel shoes.

But she soon established a reputation for solid competence and a knack for vanquishing flashier rivals. May served for six years in the notoriously thankless job of home secretary, responsible for borders, immigration and law and order. In 2016, she beat flashier and better-known politicians to become Britain's second female prime minister.

May was the surprise winner of a Conservative leadership contest triggered when Prime Minister David Cameron stepped down after voters rejected his advice to remain in the EU, instead voting 52%-48% to leave.

In her first speech as prime minister in July 2016, May sketched out plans for an ambitious policy agenda. She spoke of giving the poor a helping hand and lifting barriers to social mobility. But Brexit soon crowded out almost all other policies.

Like Cameron, May had campaigned to remain, but in office she became a champion of Brexit. "Brexit means Brexit" became her mantra — a meaningless one, said her detractors, as it emerged that undoing 45 years of ties with the bloc would be a fraught and complex process.

Attempting to win the support of Conservative Brexiteers suspicious of her past pro-EU leanings, May set out firm red lines in negotiations with the EU: Britain would leave the bloc's single market and customs union and end the right of EU citizens to live and work in the U.K.

For a time, May's resolve helped her unite the warring factions of her party, which for decades has been divided over policy toward Europe. But she then gambled on a snap election in June 2017, in an attempt to bolster her slim majority in Parliament and strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations with the EU.

The move backfired. May ran a lackluster campaign on a platform that included plans to cut benefits to pensioners and change the way they pay for long-term care — quickly dubbed a "dementia tax." The Conservatives lost their majority, and May had to strike a deal with 10 lawmakers from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to stay in power.

The DUP's support became a complication when the border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland emerged as a major issue in Brexit negotiations. The unionist party strongly opposed special measures to ensure the border remained free of customs posts and other barriers, worrying they might weaken the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

May pressed on and in November 2018 struck a divorce agreement with the EU, setting out the terms of Britain's departure and establishing a transition period of almost two years for the two sides to work out their future relations.

All that remained was for the British and European Parliaments to ratify it. And that is where May's best-laid plans came undone. Her careful compromise of an agreement was rejected by both sides of the Brexit debate. Brexiteers felt it gave too much away and left Britain bound to EU rules. Pro-EU lawmakers wanted a softer Brexit that kept close economic ties to the bloc. In January, May's deal was rejected by 230 votes, the biggest government defeat in British parliamentary history.

Whatever her flaws, May was no quitter. Late last year she likened herself to Geoffrey Boycott, a cricketer who was famous for his dull but effective batting style. "Geoffrey Boycott stuck to it and he got the runs in the end," she said.

She tried again to get her Brexit deal approved, losing by 149 votes. A third attempt narrowed the margin of defeat to 48. She tried talks with the Labor Party about securing a compromise, but managed only to further alienate her own lawmakers with her concessions to the opposition. A promise to let Parliament vote on whether to hold a new EU membership referendum was the final straw.

Most Conservatives, even those sympathetic to her plight, concluded that May was the problem and would have to leave before Brexit could be sorted out. Now almost a dozen Conservative lawmakers are competing to succeed her as Conservative leader and prime minister. Party members and lawmakers are scheduled to choose the winner by the end of July.

The leading candidates, including Brexit champion Boris Johnson, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, all vow to succeed where she has failed and lead Britain into the sunlit uplands outside the EU.

Only May, perhaps, knows how hard that will be. "To succeed he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not," May said in her May 24 resignation statement. "Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise."

Timeline of Brexit and events leading to May's departure

June 07, 2019

LONDON (AP) — A timeline of key events in how Brexit unfolded and how the political crisis led up to Theresa May's ouster as British prime minister:

May 7, 2015: British voters elect a majority Conservative government. Then-Prime Minister David Cameron confirms in his victory speech that there will be an "in/out" referendum on Britain's EU membership.

Feb. 20, 2016: Cameron confirms that he will campaign for Britain to remain in the 28-nation bloc. The referendum date is set for June. June 23, 2016: Britain votes 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the EU.

June 24, 2016: Cameron says he will resign in light of the results. July 13, 2016: Following a Conservative Party leadership contest, May, then Home Secretary, becomes prime minister. Oct. 2, 2016: May says that Britain will begin the formal process of leaving the EU by the end of March 2017. In order to do this, the British government would have to invoke Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

March 29, 2017: The British government formally triggers Article 50, setting in motion a plan for Britain to leave the EU on March 29, 2019. June 8, 2017: A general election called by May to bolster her party's numbers in Parliament to help with the Brexit negotiations backfires as her Conservative Party loses its majority and continues in a weakened state as a minority government.

July 7, 2018: May and her Cabinet endorse the so-called Chequers Plan worked out at a fractious session at the prime minister's country retreat. It leads to the resignations of Brexit Secretary David Davis, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and others who favor a more complete break with the EU.

November 25, 2018: EU leaders approve a withdrawal deal reached with Britain after months of difficult negotiations. May urges British Parliament to do the same. December 10, 2018: May delays the planned Brexit vote in Parliament one day before it is to be held because it faces certain defeat. She seeks further concessions from the EU.

December 12, 2018: Conservative lawmakers who back a clean break from the EU trigger a no-confidence vote in May over her handling of Brexit. She wins by 200 votes to 117, making her safe from another such challenge for a year.

January 15, 2019: The Brexit deal comes back to Parliament, where it is overwhelmingly defeated in a 432-202 vote. March 12, 2019: Lawmakers reject deal again. March 23, 2019: Anti-Brexit protesters flood a central London by the hundreds of thousands demanding a new referendum on whether to leave the EU.

March 28, 2019: May offers up her job in exchange for her Brexit deal, telling colleagues she would quit within weeks if the agreement was passed. March 30, 2019: British lawmakers reject the government's Brexit deal for a third time.

April 11, 2019: Britain and the EU agree to extend the Brexit deadline to Halloween. The Oct. 31 cutoff date averts a precipitous Brexit on April 12. May 7, 2019: The UK government acknowledges for the first time that the country will definitely take part in the European Parliament elections because there's no chance that a Brexit deal can be approved in time to avoid them.

May 17, 2019: Talks between Britain's Conservative government and the opposition Labor Party seeking a compromise over Brexit break down without agreement plunging the country back into a morass of Brexit uncertainty.

May 21, 2019: May offers a concession to lawmakers, giving them the chance to vote on whether to hold a new referendum on the country's membership in the EU — but only if they back her thrice-rejected Brexit agreement.

May 24, 2019: May says she will step down as Conservative Party leader on June 7 and will serve as caretaker prime minister until her successor is chosen. June 7, 2019: May due to formally step down as Conservative Party leader.

Undone by Brexit, May steps down as Conservative leader

June 07, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May formally stepped down as Conservative Party leader on Friday, defeated by the Brexit conundrum. May's three years at the helm ended not with a bang but a whimper: The party simply confirmed there had been a private exchange of letters between May and the committee that oversees party rules, confirming the departure announced by May two weeks ago.

May will remain as acting leader and prime minister for a few weeks while the party picks a successor, who will become Britain's next prime minister. Almost a dozen Conservative lawmakers are already jostling to replace May in a contest that formally opens Monday, vowing to succeed where 62-year-old May failed and renegotiate Britain's deal to pull out of the European Union. There's just one problem: The EU says that's not going to happen.

"There will be no renegotiation," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said — not for the first time — last week. On Friday, Juncker lamented: "Everyone understands English, but nobody understands England."

Britain voted 52% to 48% in 2016 to leave the EU, and the 27 other nations finally agreed late last year to a detailed withdrawal plan with May's government. But her plan has been rejected three times by Parliament, doomed by hardline lawmakers who wanted more of a clean break and those who wanted a softer Brexit that kept close economic ties to the bloc.

The departure day has been postponed from March 29 to Oct. 31. In the wake of the plan's defeat, many of May's Conservative colleagues decided she had to go. The mess has transformed the U.K.'s political map. May's Conservatives and the main opposition Labour Party are both fractured over how to leave the EU.

Frustrated and angry voters are turning away from the big parties to the upstart Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage and — on the other side of the European divide — the Liberal Democrats and Greens, who want Britain to remain in the EU.

Farage's Brexit Party came close to winning its first seat in Parliament on Friday, narrowly losing to Labour in a special election in the eastern England city of Peterborough. Labour's share of the vote fell sharply from the last election in 2017, and the Conservatives came third.

Despite the loss, Farage said the result showed that British politics had "fundamentally changed," with the stranglehold of the long-dominant Conservative and Labour parties now broken. It's too soon to say whether he is right, but the bigger parties are worried.

May became Britain's second female prime minister in July 2016, after her predecessor David Cameron stepped down in the wake of the EU referendum. Now the party will hold a similar contest to replace her.

Conservative lawmakers will hold a ballot June 13, with any candidates who don't get at least 5% of votes dropping out. Further rounds will be held on June 18, 19 and 20 if needed, with the least popular candidate dropping out each time.

The final two candidates will be put to a postal ballot of about 160,000 Conservative members, with the winner announced the week of July 22. The race, which already has 11 candidates, is utterly dominated by Brexit.

The front-runner, Boris Johnson, has warned that the Conservatives face "extinction" if Britain doesn't leave the EU on Oct. 31. Johnson is one of several contenders — including Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Health Secretary Matt Hancock — promising to go back to Brussels and make changes to the Brexit deal.

"I believe that European leaders want to find a way through this," Gove wrote in the Daily Mail. But the chances that the other EU countries would consider reopening the legally binding agreement appear slim at best. Even as the Brexit saga has dragged on and the pressure of a potentially disastrous "no deal" Brexit mounted, no European leader has publicly shown an appetite for renegotiating any part of the 585-page text.

Hard-core Brexiteers in the British leadership contest say they would rather take Britain out of the bloc with no deal than countenance a further delay. Most economists and businesses say a no-deal Brexit would cause economic turmoil, imposing obstacles overnight between the U.K. and the EU, its biggest trading partner.

Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this story.

UK's May under fire as Parliament returns from Brexit break

April 23, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing new pressure from her restive Conservative Party to resign as lawmakers return to Parliament — and to Brexit wrangling — after an 11-day Easter break.

Britain's EU exit, due to take place last month, has been delayed as the government tries to win Parliament's backing for a divorce deal with the bloc. Talks on a compromise agreement are resuming Tuesday between May's government and the main opposition Labor Party. But there are few signs the gap between the two sides is closing.

Anger is growing among Conservative lawmakers and officials over the delay to Brexit and May's bid for compromise. Pro-Brexit Conservative lawmaker Nigel Evans says calls for May's departure are "growing into a clamor" and she should resign "as soon as possible."

Trick or treat? EU, UK agree to delay Brexit until Halloween

April 11, 2019

BRUSSELS (AP) — As if Brexit hadn't spooked Britain and the European Union enough over the past three years, the two sides agreed early Thursday to extend the deadline to Halloween. The new, Oct. 31 cutoff date averts a precipitous and potentially calamitous Brexit that had been scheduled for Friday.

"Please, do not waste this time," European Council President Donald Tusk pleaded. He said the EU was giving Britain six more months "to find the best possible solution" to its Brexit impasse. Like many things related to Brexit, the extension was a messy compromise. May came to an emergency summit in Brussels seeking to postpone Britain's departure from the EU until June 30. Some European leaders favored a longer extension, while French President Emmanuel Macron was wary of anything but a very short delay.

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU member states met for more than six hours over a dinner of scallop and cod before settling on the end of October, with the possibility of an earlier Brexit if Britain ratifies a withdrawal agreement.

May said the possibility of leaving before the deadline was a key request of hers. "I continue to believe we need to leave the EU, with a deal, as soon as possible," she told reporters. She noted that if U.K. lawmakers back her Brexit deal, Britain could still leave by June 30 — the Brexit deadline she had requested from the bloc — and possibly as soon as May 22, which would release Britain from having to participate in elections for the European Parliament.

May spoke to the 27 EU leaders for just over an hour, before they met for dinner without her to decide Britain's fate. In contrast to some testy recent summits, there were signs of warmth, even humor. May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were filmed laughing over a tablet bearing an image showing the two of them speaking to their respective Parliaments on Wednesday while wearing similar blue jackets.

While many leaders said they were inclined to grant a Brexit delay, Macron expressed reservations, warning as he arrived at the summit that "nothing is decided." Afterward, the French president said he was satisfied with the outcome.

"We did the best possible compromise to preserve the unity of the 27 (other EU members) because we have left the United Kingdom more time to deliver a deal," Macron said. Tusk said that during the extension Britain "will continue its sincere cooperation as a full member state, with all its rights, and as a close friend and trusted ally in the future."

Several months have passed since May and the EU struck a deal laying out the terms of Britain's departure and the outline of future relations. All that was needed was ratification by the British and European Parliaments.

But U.K. lawmakers rejected it — three times. As Britain's departure date of March 29 approached with no resolution in sight, the EU gave Britain until Friday to approve a withdrawal plan, change course and seek a further delay to Brexit, or crash out of the EU with no deal to cushion the shock.

Economists and business leaders have warned that a no-deal Brexit would lead to huge disruptions in trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlock at British ports and possible shortages of goods.

A disorderly Brexit would hurt EU nations, as well as Britain, and all want to avoid it — but there's little agreement about how. May's future, meanwhile, is uncertain. She will address the U.K. Parliament later Thursday on the outcome of the summit.

She has previously said that "as prime minister" she could not agree to let Britain stay in the EU beyond June 30, and she has also promised to step down once Brexit is delivered. Many Conservative Party lawmakers would like her to quit now and let a new leader take charge of the next stage of Brexit. But they can't force her out until the end of the year, after she survived a no-confidence vote in December.

Every British initiative to get a deal has floundered so far. Several days of talks between May's Conservative government and the main opposition Labor Party aimed at finding a compromise have failed to produce a breakthrough. Labor favors a softer Brexit than the government has proposed, and wants to retain a close economic relationship with the bloc. The two sides said they would resume their discussions Thursday.

Now, the battle begins in Britain over what to do with the extra time. All options from a no-deal Brexit to a general election to no Brexit at all remain on the table. Pro-EU politicians said the next few months should be used to hold a new referendum on whether to leave the EU or remain. Labor lawmaker Mary Creagh tweeted that Parliament must move swiftly to break the Brexit deadlock with a confirmatory ballot on PMs deal."

Pro-Brexit lawmakers said it was time to replace May with another Conservative leader — preferably a hard-core Brexiteer. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the time had come for Britain to decide what it wants.

"We're giving them a very long time to take a decision," he said. "You know, the European Union is not a prison. Nobody has to stay but it is also a home and we are not going to kick anyone out." As to the symbolic end date? He said it was not on the minds of the EU leaders.

"As I learned this evening, Halloween is not a holiday widely celebrated across the European Union," Varadkar said.

Associated Press writers Mike Corder and Angela Charlton in Brussels, Gregory Katz and Danica Kirka in London and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

UK's May concedes Brexit deal won't pass 'in near future'

April 06, 2019

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that the government's strategies to get her Brexit deal approved in Parliament failed, saying Saturday there's little prospect lawmakers will back the thrice-rejected divorce agreement "in the near future."

With the U.K. once again days away from a deadline for leaving the European Union, May pressured opposition lawmakers to help her find a compromise agreement instead, saying voters "expect their politicians to work together when the national interest demands it."

After May's deal with the EU out for a third time in the House of Commons, the prime minister invited the opposition Labour Party this week to discuss alternatives. But three days of talks ended with no agreement and the left-of-center Labour accusing May's Conservative government of not offering real change.

"I haven't noticed any great change in the government's position so far," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Saturday. "I'm waiting to see the red lines move." Labour favors a softer form of Brexit than the government has advocated. The party says Britain should remain closely bound to EU trade rules and maintain the bloc's standards in areas such as workers' rights and environmental protection.

Britain is due to leave the EU on Friday unless May can secure another delay from the EU, which already agreed to postpone the Brexit day originally set for March 29. May now is asking for Britain's departure to be pushed back until June 30, hoping to reach a compromise with Labour and a deal through Parliament in a matter of weeks.

"The longer this takes, the greater the risk of the U.K. never leaving at all," May said in a statement. But EU leaders favor a longer delay to avoid another round of cliff-edge preparations and politics. And they say the U.K. needs to put forward a concrete plan to end the stalemate to get any further postponement.

An extension requires unanimous approval from the 27 remaining leaders, some of whom are fed up with Brexit uncertainty and reluctant to prolong it further. Last month, the EU gave Britain until April 12 to approve the withdrawal agreement it reached with the May's government, to change course and seek a further delay to Brexit, or to crash out of the EU with no deal in place or transition period to cushion the shock.

The leaders of EU member countries are due to meet in Brussels Wednesday — two days before the April 12 deadline — to consider Britain's request for a second extension. Economists and business leaders have warned a no-deal Brexit would severely disrupt trade and travel, with tariffs and customs checks causing gridlocked British ports and possible shortages of some foods, medicines and other products.

Worries about a chaotic British exit are especially acute in Ireland, the only EU member that shares a land border with the U.K. Any customs checks or other obstacles along the currently invisible frontier would hammer the Irish economy and could undermine Northern Ireland's peace process.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Saturday that it was "extremely unlikely" any of the 27 countries would veto a delay. "If one country was to veto an extension and, as a result, impose hardship on us, real problems for the Dutch and Belgians and French as neighboring countries (to the U.K.)...they wouldn't be forgiven for it," he told Ireland's RTE radio.

UK legislates to avert chaotic Brexit as May seeks new plan

April 04, 2019

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Brexit drama went into overtime Wednesday as Prime Minister Theresa May and the country's main opposition sought a compromise deal to prevent an abrupt British departure from the European Union at the end of next week.

In an about-face that left pro-Brexit members of May's Conservative Party howling with outrage, the prime minister sought to forge an agreement with left-wing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn after failing three times to win Parliament's backing for her Brexit deal.

May also said she would ask the EU for a further delay to Britain's departure date — postponed once already — to avert a chaotic and economically damaging no-deal Brexit on April 12. Skeptical lawmakers, reluctant to take her word for it, approved a hastily crafted law that compels May to ask for an extension to the Brexit deadline if a no-deal departure is looming.

"The country needs a solution, the country deserves a solution, and that's what I'm working to find," May told lawmakers before meeting with Corbyn for about two hours. Afterward, both the government and Labour called the meeting "constructive" and said their teams would hold more in-depth talks Thursday.

May's office said both sides had shown "flexibility and a commitment to bring the current Brexit uncertainty to a close." Corbyn, more muted, said "the meeting was useful but inconclusive." "There hasn't been as much change as I expected," he said.

May's change of direction left her caught between angry Conservatives who accuse her of throwing away Brexit, and Labour opponents mistrustful of her sudden change of heart. Labour lawmaker Paul Sweeney said May's outreach to his party "shows the desperation that she's in."

Pro-Brexit Conservatives, meanwhile, expressed outrage. Two junior ministers quit, and other lawmakers angrily accused May of putting the socialist Corbyn in the Brexit driver's seat. Her cross-party talks — after almost three years of seeking to push through her own version of a Brexit divorce deal — came amid EU warnings that a damaging withdrawal without a plan was growing more likely by the day.

After lawmakers three times rejected an agreement struck between the bloc and May late last year, the leaders of the EU's 27 remaining countries postponed the original March 29 Brexit date and gave the U.K. until April 12 to approve the divorce deal or come up with a new one.

So far the House of Commons has failed to find a majority for any alternative plan. "A no deal on 12 April at midnight looks more and more likely," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday, adding that would bring disruption for EU citizens and businesses, but much worse economic damage for Britain.

EU Economy Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said a "no-deal" Brexit would mean long lines at borders and paperwork headaches for customs checks on the 11,000 vehicles entering and leaving Britain each day.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned that, even though Britain and the EU both wanted to avoid a no-deal Brexit, it remained the legal default position, and the risk of Britain accidentally crashing out was "alarmingly high."

Carney told Sky News that claims by pro-Brexit politicians that such a situation could be managed were "absolute nonsense." May's pivot toward Labour points Britain toward a softer Brexit than the one she has championed since British voters decided in June 2016 to leave the EU. Labour wants the U.K. to remain in the EU's customs union — a trading area that sets common tariffs on imports to the bloc while allowing free trade in goods moving between member states.

May has always ruled that out, saying it would limit Britain's ability to forge an independent trade policy. May's decision to negotiate with Corbyn is risky for both the Conservatives and Labour, and could widen divisions over Brexit that run through both parties.

Labour is formally committed to enacting the voters' decision to leave the EU, but many of the party's lawmakers want a new referendum that could keep Britain in the bloc. They will be angry if the party actively helps bring about the U.K.'s departure.

Meanwhile, May's move infuriated pro-Brexit Conservatives who say Britain must make a clean break with the EU in order to take control of its laws and trade policy. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Brexit "is becoming soft to the point of disintegration."

Junior Wales Minister Nigel Adams quit his post, criticizing May for seeking a deal with "a Marxist who has never once in his political life out British interests first" — a reference to the left-wing Corbyn.

He was followed by junior Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris, who said in his resignation letter that the government "should have honored the result of the 2016 referendum" and left the EU on March 29.

Meanwhile, pro-EU lawmakers were not banking on talks between May and Corbyn succeeding. The House of Commons on Wednesday approved a bill to ensure May can't go back on her promise to seek a delay to Brexit rather than let Britain tumble out of the bloc.

The bill, debated and approved in a single day, compels May to seek to extend the Brexit process beyond April 12 in order to prevent a no-deal departure. In a reflection of how divided lawmakers are over Brexit, it passed by a single vote, 313-312.

The bill still needs approval from the House of Lords, Parliament's unelected upper chamber — likely on Thursday. And it does not force the EU to agree to delay Brexit. EU leaders, weary of the whole Brexit circus, gave a cautious welcome to May's attempt at rapprochement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would work "until the last hour" to secure an orderly Brexit, but stressed that "these solutions have to be reached above all in Britain itself." Britain's televised political melodrama over Brexit — with its weeks of passionate debates, narrow votes and seemingly endless crises — has left EU leaders exasperated, but also fascinated.

The EU's Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, joked that "the sessions in the House of Commons have become more popular than the matches in the Premier League." "The trouble is that it is always a draw in the House of Commons," he said.

Casert reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Biden woos skeptical Sanders backers on health, college debt

April 10, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden attempted to lure progressives to his presidential campaign on Thursday with promises to expand Medicare and forgive college debt. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee backed lowering the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 60 while also pledging to cancel student debt for many low- and middle-income borrowers.

The moves came a day after progressive leader Bernie Sanders ended his presidential campaign, leaving the relatively centrist Biden as the Democrat who will challenge President Donald Trump. With Sanders out of the race, it's critically important for Biden to bridge the party's ideological divide so Democrats can go into the fall unified against Trump.

“Senator Sanders and his supporters can take pride in their work in laying the groundwork for these ideas,” Biden wrote in an online post announcing what he called “two important steps we can take to help ease the economic burden on working people.”

Biden's campaign is at a critical juncture at the outset of the general election. If he gives too much to progressives, he could be portrayed as too far left, an argument the Trump campaign is already trying to make. But if he doesn't bring Democrats together, he risks going into the fall with the same vulnerabilities as Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Trump campaign jumped on Biden’s policy announcements Thursday. Deputy Communications Director Ali Pardo said Biden is “now running on a big government liberal agenda” and suggested Republicans would tie him to Sanders’ policies at every turn.

“When faced with the choice of President Trump’s record of accomplishment or Biden’s far-left agenda, the choice for voters is clear,” she said. Neither of the proposals Biden released Thursday goes as far as Sanders has suggested in the past. And progressives made clear they weren't ready to rally behind Biden, even if he's the last Democrat standing to take on Trump.

“We can try all we want to use our leverage as a movement but, at the end of the day, I wouldn’t expect anything coming from the establishment, the Biden campaign or the Democratic National Committee as a way to bring in the base,” said Nomiki Konst, who worked on Democratic Party reforms on Sanders' behalf. “I think they want power — and I think they want money.”

Biden has set limits on how far he'll go to please progressives. He's not embracing Medicare for All universal health insurance and the sweeping Green New Deal to combat climate change. He has, however, backed an overhaul of bankruptcy laws proposed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the other leading progressive, who ended her presidential bid last month.

RoseAnn DeMoro, a close friend of Sanders and former head of the National Nurses United union, predicted Biden would appease Sanders supporters on labor and environmental issues — but said she's unsure it'll be enough.

“The calculation is, this base has nowhere to go but Biden because of Trump," she said. "But if history teaches anything, a lot of the base sat it out last time.” DeMoro noted that, after 2016, many Sanders supporters knew he would try again for the presidency four years later. That seems unlikely going forward, potentially raising the profile of rising-star congressional progressives such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sanders, and Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who was a Warren backer.

Though he's suspended his campaign, Sanders' name will remain on the ballot in states that have not yet weighed in on the primary. He said Wednesday he still wants to collect delegates to influence the party platform.

Sanders and Warren have also notably stopped short of endorsing Biden. Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, which backed Warren before shifting its support to Sanders when she dropped out, said Biden's goal is to rebuild the Obama coalition, which spanned generations, races and education levels. But he said Biden won't be able to do that without attracting the support of “young people committed to real, progressive change” who were most enthusiastic about Sanders.

“The question is, will Joe Biden increase voter turnout, be able achieve significant levels of voter enthusiasm, be able to achieve significant levels of individual volunteerism and small dollar donations and the type of enthusiastic voter to voter communication?” Mitchell asked.

He added the answer: It "can’t be done simply through rhetorical flourishes.” Jennifer Epps-Addison, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy Action, which endorsed Sanders, said progressives "are a real constituency” that Biden “will have to earn the votes of.”

“’Vote blue no matter what’ is absolutely not a winning electoral strategy,” Epps-Addison said. "Biden has some real negatives.” The movement's next leaders might focus on building bridges with moderates, however, rather than burning them — an approach Warren and Ocasio-Cortez have more closely adopted than some top Sanders supporters.

“Progressives have done a very effective job of moving the mainstream of the party in a more progressive direction,” said Sean McElwee, founder of Data for Progress, a data and messaging organization. “Many people in the Democratic Party have progressive sensibilities, and the way you win them over is you build relationships.”

Biden aides, meanwhile, began outreach to Sanders' camp to discuss policy weeks before the senator suspended his campaign. That included meeting with progressive leaders from at least two groups, the Sunrise Movement and March for Our Lives, who co-signed a letter Wednesday making certain demands of Biden if he hopes to win them over.

The former vice president himself also has had conversations with some of his former rivals — the kind of direct interactions that preceded his adopting Warren’s bankruptcy proposals. Larry Cohen, chairman of Our Revolution, the offshoot of Sanders’ 2016 campaign, said he’d like to see the same kind of moves on other core issues for progressives. That could mean, instead of Biden building his “public option” health insurance plan as something only individuals can buy into, he could structure it so employers could buy in with their employees.

Whatever the outcome, Cohen argued that activist groups must stay aligned to maintain leverage. “The grassroots,” he said, “has to reach out together.”

Fire at Moscow retirement home kills 4, leaves 16 injured

April 09, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — A fire in a retirement home in Moscow killed four people and injured 16 others but firefighters managed to rescue 50 people from the burning building, emergency officials said Thursday. The fire broke out Wednesday night in the basement of the building and quickly spread to the ground floor. It was most likely caused by a malfunctioning electric cable, authorities said.

The retirement home in northwest Moscow housed elderly people with limited mobility, according to Russian media reports. Fifteen men and women aged 66-90 remained hospitalized on Thursday with injuries from burns and smoke inhalation, the Interfax news agency reported. All were reported in grave condition, and four were put on ventilators, Interfax said. One person was apparently discharged.

Police have launched a criminal probe into the fire.

Russia aims to prosecute destruction of war monuments abroad

April 08, 2020

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's defense minister called on law enforcement officials Wednesday to consider filing criminal charges against representatives of other countries where World War II memorials commemorating the actions of the Soviet Union are demolished.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the appeal to the head of the Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigation body. Russia takes offense at any criticism of the Soviet role in the war. The Soviet Union had the most casualties, but its occupation of territory resulted in decades of Moscow-backed Communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

The issue is especially sensitive this year as Russia prepares to mark the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9. In his communique to Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee, Shoigu cited last week’s dismantling of a statue of Soviet general Ivan Konev in Prague.

”There has been an increase in attempts by officials of certain foreign states to falsify the historical truth about the decisive contribution of the Soviet Union to the defeat of the fascist invaders during the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War,” Shoigu said, according to his ministry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law that made damaging such memorials a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison.

In a first, US slaps sanctions on Russian white supremacists

April 06, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday designated a Russian white supremacist group a terrorist organization and hit its members with sanctions. The move against the Russian Imperial Movement is the first time a white supremacist group has been named a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist" group and comes amid doubts the administration believes extremist organizations of that type merit such sanctions. It was not immediately clear what the practical impact will be as the group is relatively small and does not have major international reach.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his counterterrorism coordinator Nathan Sales announced the step, which makes it illegal for Americans to engage in any transactions with the group and freezes any assets it may have in U.S. jurisdictions. The penalties can also include a travel ban.

In addition to the group, the administration placed individual sanctions on its leaders — Stanislav Anatolyevich Vorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariev and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov — by adding them to the list.

“These designations are unprecedented,” Sales said. “This is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacist terrorists, illustrating how seriously this administration takes the threat. We are taking actions no previous administration has taken to counter this threat.”

The Russian Imperial Movement is alleged to provide paramilitary training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Russia and elsewhere from two camps it runs in St. Petersburg, according to U.S. officials. In 2016, it was alleged to have trained two Swedes who later carried out a series of terrorist attacks in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, including bombing a cafe and attempting to bomb a campsite housing refugees, they said.

There are dozens of entities on various U.S. terrorism blacklists, but most are Islamic extremist groups or separatist movements that have engaged in violence to achieve political ends. The al-Qaida network and Islamic State movement along with many of their affiliated organizations are perhaps the best known among them.

Trump and his administration have been criticized for not appearing to take the threat of white supremacism seriously, either overseas or domestically. Trump came under fire for not responding more forcefully to violence provoked by some neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 and has been called out for supporting European nationalist politicians.

Monday's designations will make it easier for national security prosecutors at the Justice Department to bring terrorism-related charges against anyone engaging in financial transctions to people affiliated with the Russian group.

Federal authorities have used the designation to bar entry to United States of members of named groups.

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Euro countries agree half trillion euros in support

April 10, 2020

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Governments from the 19 countries that use the euro overcame sharp differences to agree Thursday on measures that could provide more than a half-trillion euros ($550 billion) for companies, workers and health systems to cushion the economic impact of the virus outbreak.

Mario Centeno, who heads the finance ministers’ group from euro countries, called the package of measures agreed upon “totally unprecedented... Tonight Europe has shown it can deliver when the will is there.”

The deal struck Thursday among the finance ministers did not, however, include more far-reaching cooperation in the form of shared borrowing guaranteed by all member countries. The officials left that issue open, pushing the question to their national leaders to sort out down the road as part of a further discussion about a fund to support the economic recovery in the longer term. Still, Italian Finance Minister Robert Gualtieri tweeted that shared borrowing through “eurobonds” had been “put on the table.”

Borrowing together to pay for the costs of the crisis was a key demand from Italy, Spain, France and six other countries. Italy and other indebted members are expected to see their debt load increase because of the recession caused by the virus outbreak. But shared debt was rejected by Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. Netherlands Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra tweeted that “we are and will remain opposed to eurobonds.”

The question now is whether the package will be seen as big enough to impress markets and enable eurozone governments to handle new accumulations of government debt from the recession. The concern is that increased borrowing could in the longer term trigger a new eurozone financial crisis like the one that threatened the currency union in 2010-2015. For now, bond-market borrowing costs of indebted countries such as Italy are being held in check by the European Central Bank, which has launched an 870 trillion-euro bond purchase program. But that program is so far limited in size or duration.

The ministers agreed that hard-pressed governments such as Spain and Italy could quickly tap the eurozone's bailout fund for up to 240 billion euros ($260 billion), with the condition that the money is spent on their health care systems and the credit line expires after the outbreak is over. A dispute over conditions had held up a decision at a conference Tuesday.

The agreement also provides for up to 200 billion euros in credit guarantees through the European Investment Bank to keep companies afloat and 100 billion euros to make up lost wages for workers put on shorter hours.

Centeno said that countries would work on a recovery fund for the longer term and as part of that would discuss “innovative financial instruments, consistent with EU treaties." He said that some countries support shared borrowing and that others oppose it.

The deal overcame bitter disagreement between Italy and the Netherlands over the conditions for loans from the bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism. Italy had rejected the idea of using the fund because of the ESM's requirement that the money come with conditions to reform. That recalled the tough conditions that recalled the austerity imposed on Greece, Ireland and other indebted eurozone countries that were bailed out during the eurozone debt crisis.

The compromise struck in the final statement says that countries could borrow up to 2% of annual economic output at favorable rates to finance “direct or indirect” costs of the current health crisis. Centeno said during a post-decision video news conference that he expected countries to be able to identify enough health costs to access the money.

The package comes on top of extensive spending measures at the national level by member governments. The European Union has also taken the unprecedented steps of setting aside its limits on debts and subsidies by national governments to their home companies.

Easter observed at home as virus divisions surface in Japan

April 10, 2020

ALBANY, New York (AP) — People around the world began celebrating Good Friday and Easter from the safety of their homes, as rare divisions surfaced in Japan over how to tackle the growing coronavirus outbreak there.

Politicians and public health officials have warned that the hard-won gains against the pandemic must not be jeopardized by relaxing social distancing over the holiday weekend. Across Europe, where Easter is one of the busiest travel times, authorities set up roadblocks and otherwise discouraged family gatherings.

In Japan, many have criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for being slow to act. On Friday, the Japanese prefecture of Aichi, home to the Toyoto car company, declared its own state of emergency, saying it cannot wait for the government to add it to its list.

“The situation is critical,” said Aichi Gov. Hideaki Omura. “We decided to do everything we can to protect Aichi residents’ lives and health.” Japan reported 579 new cases, for a total of about 5,000 and 100 deaths. The country has the world’s oldest population, and COVID-19 can be especially serious for the elderly.

In a measure of how fast the coronavirus has brought world economies to their knees, a staggering 16.8 million Americans lost their jobs in just three weeks. And still more job cuts are expected. The U.S. unemployment rate in April could hit 15% — a number not seen since the end of the Great Depression.

There was some measure of relief in Britain as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved out of intensive care at the London hospital where he is being treated for the virus. The 55-year-old had taken a turn for the worse earlier in the week as his country descended into its biggest crisis since World War II.

Worldwide, the number of dead topped 95,000 and confirmed infections reached 1.6 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, though the true numbers are believed much higher, in part because of different rules for counting the dead and cover-ups by some governments.

The U.S. appeared on course to overtake Italy within days as the country with the highest number of fatalities. However, virus deaths as a proportion of the population in the U.S. remains about one-sixth of those in hard-hit Italy and Spain.

There have been some positive signs. South Korea reported just 27 new cases, its ninth day in a row below 100. California saw its first daily decrease in intensive care hospitalizations since the outbreak began. Australia and New Zealand have this week recorded steady declines in infection rates.

But a spike in deaths in Britain and New York indicated the battle is far from over. New York state reported a record-breaking number of dead for a third straight day, 799. More than 7,000 people have died in the state, accounting for almost half the U.S. death toll of more than 16,000.

“That is so shocking and painful and breathtaking, I don’t even have the words for it,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. He added that there are hopeful signs, including slowdowns in the number of people being hospitalized, admitted to intensive care and placed on ventilators.

The pandemic is a threat to international peace and security, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the U.N. Security Council at a closed meeting, saying it could hinder efforts to resolve conflicts, embolden militants or even provide a blueprint for a bioterrorist attack.

He said the outbreak could lead to an increase in social unrest and violence that would “greatly undermine our ability to fight the disease.” He asked for a signal of unity and resolve from the Security Council but diplomats said the 15 council members could not immediately agree on a statement to the media.

President Donald Trump brushed off fears the economy won’t quickly rebound after the crisis, as he has predicted, saying he had a “strong feeling” that “the economy is going to do very well.” “I think that what’s going to happen is we’re going to have a big bounce, rather than a small bounce,” he told reporters. “I think we’re going to open up strong.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve announced it will provide up to $2.3 trillion in loans targeted toward both households and businesses. In many European countries, where social safety nets tend to be stronger than in the U.S., government programs that subsidize workers’ pay are keeping millions of people on payrolls, though typically with fewer hours and at lower wages.

Governments from the 19 countries that use the euro agreed Thursday on a package of measures that could provide more than a half-trillion euros ($550 billion) for companies, workers and health systems to cushion the economic impact of the outbreak.

The head of the International Monetary Fund warned that the global economy is headed for the worst recession since the Depression. The U.N. labor organization said the equivalent of 195 million full-time jobs could be lost in the second quarter, while aid group Oxfam International estimated half a billion people worldwide could be pushed into poverty.

Amid widespread restrictions on public gatherings, major religious denominations are holding virtual services where members can watch on TV or online. Others are arranging prayer at drive-in theaters, where people can stay in their cars.

Other churches plan to move ahead with services, especially in states like Texas, where the governor declared religious gatherings “essential services.” A Houston church has installed hand-washing stations and rearranged its 1,000-person sanctuary to hold about 100 people spaced 6 feet (2 meters) or more apart.

Pope Francis will celebrate Easter Mass in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica instead of the huge square outside. In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury will deliver his Easter sermon by video. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested mass gatherings may be barred through the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which runs from late April through most of May.

There were some encouraging signs in France, where more than 12,000 have died from the virus. The national health agency saw indications the crisis is stabilizing. New infections, hospitalizations and deaths have been leveling off in hard-hit Italy and Spain, which together have around 33,000 deaths, but the daily tolls remain shocking. Spain reported 683 more dead, bringing its total to more than 15,200. Britain recorded 881 new deaths, for close to 8,000 in all.

For most, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms like fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia. About 355,000 people have recovered, by Johns Hopkins’ count.

Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Germany flies in seasonal farm workers amid virus measures

April 09, 2020

BERLIN (AP) — Two planes carrying Eastern European farmhands arrived Thursday in Germany as an ambitious government program to import thousands of seasonal agricultural workers got underway amid strict precautions to protect both the laborers and the country from the new coronavirus.

The flights to Berlin and Duesseldorf were arranged to address a massive labor shortage created when Germany banned most foreign travelers from entering the country last month in response to the virus outbreak.

Seasonal workers caught up in the ban were not available to pick asparagus, which has already sprouted in Germany, and to plant other crops in the fields where some 300,000 such workers were employed last year.

Most came from Eastern European countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Hungary, where wages are much lower than in Germany, which is Europe’s largest economy. Mariana Hopulele, 43, waited at the airport in the central Romanian city of Cluj with her 17-year-old son, Valentin, for the flight to Duesseldorf. While farm work in Germany is physically demanding, "there is no way to find work that pays enough to support one's family” in Romania, she said.

“I have worked for 15 years abroad, the last eight in Germany on asparagus farms," Hopulele said. "Our contract says we work eight hours a day, but we actually work 10 to 12 hours, seven days a week. It's very, very tough but we do get compensation for the extra hours.”

Under the new program, workers are flown to Germany in controlled groups — to prevent possible infection en route — and are subject to medical checks upon arrival. They will be required to live and work apart from the farmhands already in Germany for two weeks and wear protective gear.

German Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner described the program as a “pragmatic and goal-oriented solution” that would bring up to 40,000 seasonal workers into the country in April and 40,000 more in May. The government hopes to recruit an additional 20,000 during the two months among people in Germany who are unemployed, students or resident asylum-seekers, the minister said.

“This is important and good news for our farmers,” Kloeckner said. “Because the harvest doesn’t wait, and you can’t delay sowing the fields.” Farmers had brought in some 20,000 workers before virus-related travel bans were imposed, and Germany has extended the time seasonal workers are allowed to stay from 70 days to 115 days, Kloeckner said at a press conference at a Frankfurt-Hahn airport.

The government will work with farmers along the way to determine if more needs to be done, she said. “We will need to always reevaluate the situation and then act, and act quickly,” she said. Ahead of time, interested workers have to register online and have their information checked by federal police. Farmers needing help register online with the airlines contracted to bring the workers in, saying when they’re needed and where.

So far, 9,900 people had registered for April and another 4,300 for May. Flights are then organized to bring in groups, and the first group of workers, 530 people from Romania, arrived on Thursday in Duesseldorf and Berlin, said Eurowings, the airline contracted for the initial group of workers. Further flights were already planned to Duesseldorf, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Frankfurt.

Nicoleta, another worker waiting to board a plane in Cluj who did not want to give her last name, said she had traveled to Germany every fall for the last seven years to help make Christmas decorations. With everything uncertain due to the pandemic, she said she leapt at the opportunity to work on an asparagus farm instead.

“We are happy we can go work in Germany” she said. "It is an opportunity. I can go there to earn enough to properly raise my two little children. Other countries in Western Europe have taken different approaches, like in France where authorities and the agricultural sector have launched a call for local residents to help in the fields, called “arms for your plate.”

Spain is trying to prevent a critical shortage of workers for its important agriculture industry in its sunny south, which helps feed the nation as well as providing Europe with exported fruit and vegetables.

Earlier this week, the government launched a campaign to try and find 75,000 residents to help, and extended seasonal migrants' work permits. “If we do not harvest this produce, we will see a drop in our ability to supply our markets, and (that) could increase prices,” said Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas.

Kloeckner, the German minister, cautioned that with the additional costs to fly in the seasonal workers, Germany will also likely see an increase in the cost of fruit and vegetables. “We live in very challenging times,” she said.

Raul Stef in Cluj, Romania, Angela Charlton in Paris and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed to this report.

Half billion more people face poverty due to virus - report

April 09, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Around half a billion people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic unless richer countries take “urgent action” to help developing nations, a leading aid organization warned Thursday.

In the run-up to three key international economic meetings next week, Oxfam has urged richer countries to step up their efforts to help the developing world. Failing to do so, it added, could set back the fight against poverty by a decade and by as much as 30 years in some areas, including Africa and the Middle East.

“The devastating economic fallout of the pandemic is being felt across the globe," said Jose Maria Vera, Oxfam International Interim Executive Director. “But for poor people in poor countries who are already struggling to survive there are almost no safety nets to stop them falling into poverty.”

The report, which is based on research at King’s College London and the Australian National University, warns that between 6% and 8% of the global population could be forced into poverty as governments shut down entire sectors of their economies to manage the spread of the virus. As an example of the repercussions of the lockdowns in many Western countries, the report notes that more than a million Bangladeshi garment workers — 80% of whom are women — have already been laid off or sent home without pay after orders were cancelled or suspended.

Oxfam is calling on world leaders to agree on an economic rescue package to keep poor countries and poor communities afloat. Finance ministers from the Group of 20 leading economies are set to meet next week, as are the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Among the measures Oxfam is recommending is the immediate cancellation of $1 trillion worth of developing countries' debt payments due in 2020. It said cancelling Ghana’s external debt payments this year, for example, would enable the government there to give a cash grant of $20 a month to each of the country’s 16 million children, disabled and elderly people for a period of six months.

Oxfam is also recommending a $500 million increase in overseas aid and the creation of $1 trillion of special drawing rights at the IMF, a move that effectively increases the liquidity available for developing countries in the crucial months ahead. This, according to the report, would give the Ethiopian government access to an additional $630 million, which would be enough to increase health spending by 45%.

UK braces for more virus deaths; Johnson reported stable

April 09, 2020

LONDON (AP) — Britons braced Thursday for several more weeks in lockdown as Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained in a London hospital after three nights in intensive care for treatment of his coronavirus infection.

The British government said Wednesday evening that the prime minister was making “steady progress” at St. Thomas’ Hospital and sitting up in bed. He has been receiving oxygen but not on a ventilator since his COVID-19 symptoms worsened and he was admitted to an ICU.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said Thursday that Johnson was stable and “seems to be doing reasonably well.” An update on the prime minister's condition is expected later. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who is standing in while Johnson is ill, will chair a meeting of the government’s COBRA crisis committee to discuss whether to extend restrictions on public activity and people's movements imposed March 23 to try to slow the spread of the virus.

The original restrictions were for three weeks, a period that ends Monday. But there is little prospect of the government's stay-home order and business closures being lifted. Restrictions could be strengthened if people flock to parks and outdoor spaces over what is forecast to be a warm, sunny Easter weekend.

More than 7,000 people with the coronavirus have died in British hospitals, according to government figures. While the number of new confirmed cases has begun to plateau, deaths continue to rise. On Wednesday, the U.K. reported 938 deaths, the country's biggest increase to date.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said there was no prospect of the lockdown being “lifted immediately or even imminently.” “I wouldn't expect any change coming out of today's COBRA meeting,” she told Sky News.

Dowden said “the curve (of new cases) is beginning to flatten.” “This is the moment that we need to stick to the path we’ve chosen,” he told Sky News. “The British people have really come behind this. We shouldn’t be giving up this Easter weekend, that is the number one thing.”

UK's Johnson in ICU with coronavirus, condition improving

April 08, 2020

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains in intensive care with the coronavirus but is improving and sitting up in bed, a senior government minister said Wednesday, as the U.K. recorded its biggest spike in COVID-19 deaths to date.

Johnson, the first world leader diagnosed with the disease, has spent two nights in the ICU at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. “The latest from the hospital is the prime minister remains in intensive care where his condition is improving,” Sunak said at a news conference. “I can also tell you that he has been sitting up in bed and engaging positively with the clinical team.”

That glimmer of good news came as the number of COVID-19-related deaths in Britain approached the peaks seen in Italy and Spain, the two countries with the greatest number of fatalities. Britain's confirmed death toll reached 7,097 on Wednesday, an increase of 938 from 24 hours earlier. Italy recorded a high of 969 deaths on March 27 and Spain 950 deaths on April 2.

The figures may not be directly comparable, however. Not all the U.K. deaths reported each day occurred in the preceding 24 hours, and the total only includes deaths in hospitals. The government's deputy chief scientific adviser, Angela McLean, said that despite the grim death figures, the number of new cases “is not accelerating out of control ... and that is good news."

Johnson, 55, is the most high-profile of more than 60,000 people in Britain who have been confirmed to have the virus. He was diagnosed on March 26 and still had a cough and fever 10 days later. He was admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital Sunday and moved to the ICU on Monday after his condition deteriorated. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is standing in for Johnson while he is hospitalized.

Johnson spokesman James Slack said earlier Wednesday that the prime minister was receiving “standard oxygen treatment” and breathing without any other assistance. Johnson’s illness has unleashed a wave of sympathy for the prime minister, including from his political opponents. It has also heightened public unease about the government’s response to the outbreak, which faced criticism even with the energetic Johnson at the helm.

Britain was slower than many other European nations to close schools, shut businesses and restrict people’s movements in a bid to curb infections, and the government has struggled to meet its goal of dramatically increasing the number of individuals tested for the virus.

Britain initially restricted testing to patients in hospitals with coronavirus symptoms, but has begun testing health care workers and their families. The government has said even broader testing will be part of the country’s exit strategy from the lockdown, and has promised to test 100,000 people a day by the end of April. The current number is about 14,000 a day.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and death. After a slow start, the government has urged the private sector to get involved. Drug makers GSK and AstraZeneca say they are setting up a lab at Cambridge University capable of performing 30,000 tests a day by the start of May.

Slack defended the government's response. “We took our decisions based on the best available medical and scientific advice,” he said. “We believe we acted with the right measures at the right rime.” In Johnson’s absence, it’s unclear who would decide whether to ease nationwide lockdown measures the British government imposed on March 23 in response to the worldwide pandemic.

The initial three-week period set for the restrictions expires next week, but with cases and deaths still growing, officials say it is too soon to change course. Mark Drakeford, the first minister of Wales, said it was clear “these restrictions will not end” next week.

“We will not throw away the gains we have made and the lives we have saved by abandoning our efforts just as they begin to bear fruit,” he said. Meanwhile, officials are watching anxiously to see whether Britain’s hospitals can cope when the number of seriously ill COVID-19 patients reaches its peak. Before the outbreak, the U.K. had about 5,000 intensive care beds, and the government has been scrambling to increase that capacity.

The Nightingale Hospital -- a temporary facility for coronavirus patients built in nine days at London’s vast ExCel conference center -- admitted its first patients on Wednesday. It can accommodate 4,000 beds, if needed. Several other temporary hospitals are being built around the country, including a facility in Birmingham due to open Friday.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the city, which is the epicenter of Britain’s outbreak, had one-quarter of its existing hospital beds still available, as well as the new Nightingale hospital. Khan was under pressure to do more to keep transit workers safe after 14 London transport staff died from the new coronavirus, including eight bus drivers.

London’s subways and buses have continued to run a reduced service to transport key workers. Khan said buses were being cleaned with antiviral disinfectant and protective screens were being installed between driver and passengers.

Anne Nyack, whose 36-year-old son Emeka Nyack Ihenacho is among the drivers who died, said drivers were still not being protected. “They are at risk, my son was at risk, sadly he died,” she told ITV. “He was given hand sanitizer — he had no mask, no gloves, nothing.”

Wuhan ends lockdown as health workers buckle under strain

April 08, 2020

LONDON (AP) — After 76 days in lockdown, the Chinese city at the heart of the global pandemic reopened Wednesday, and tens of thousands immediately hopped on trains and planes to leave. Elsewhere, the economic, political and psychological toll of fighting the virus grew increasingly clear and more difficult to bear.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care with his country in the grips of its biggest crisis since World War II. The 55-year-old Johnson, the first major world leader confirmed to have COVID-19, was stable and responding to treatment, spokesman James Slack said.

Across the Atlantic, New York City endured one of its darkest days yet, with the death toll surging past 4,000, hundreds more than the number killed on 9/11. New York state recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide total of nearly 5,500.

“Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. There’s a family, there’s a mother, there’s a father, there’s a sister, there’s a brother. So a lot of pain again today,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Across the U.S., the death toll reached about 13,000, with approximately 400,000 confirmed infections. Some of the deadliest hot spots were Detroit, New Orleans and the New York metropolitan area.

More pain was seen on the economic front. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, could contract by a record 25% this quarter, the highest since gross domestic product began to be tracked in 1955. The dismal prediction by two economists said exports are expected to dive 60% in the April-June period.

The Bank of France said the French economy has entered recession, with an estimated 6% drop in the first quarter compared with the previous three months, while Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, is also facing a deep recession. Expert said its economy will shrink 4.2% this year.

European governments have been scrambling to put together hundreds of billions of euros to save lives and prevent bankruptcies. The countries worst hit by the virus are among those that can least afford the costs, like Italy and Spain. But they disagree over how to tackle the challenge.

The finance ministers of countries using the euro failed Wednesday to agree on how to help their nations through the crisis, after marathon all-night talks. They will resume on Thursday. With European health workers toiling round the clock in a desperate bid to save lives, the psychological toll is becoming unbearable.

Weeks into Italy’s outbreak, two nurses have killed themselves and more than 70 doctors and 20 nurses have died from the virus. Hospitals are making therapists available to help staff cope with the effects of seeing so much death. Italy is the hardest-hit country overall, with over 17,000 deaths.

In Spain, nurse Diego Alonso said he and colleagues have been using tranquilizers to cope. “The psychological stress from this time is going to be difficult to forget. It has just been too much,” he said.

Spain’s Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 757 new deaths, bringing the total to more than 14,500, and 6,180 new infections. Both figures were slightly higher than Tuesday’s, when the first increase in five days was explained by a backlog of test results and unreported weekend fatalities.

Spanish authorities have acknowledged that laboratory bottlenecks and a shortage of testing kits are giving an incomplete picture of the disaster. In Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million where the pandemic began, residents waved flags and the city staged a light show with skyscrapers and bridges radiating images of health workers helping patients.

Restrictions in the city where most of China’s more than 82,000 virus cases and over 3,300 deaths were reported have been gradually eased in recent weeks as new cases declined. “I haven’t been outside for more than 70 days,” said Tong Zhengkun. “Being indoors for so long drove me crazy.”

In Washington, President Donald Trump threatened to freeze U.S. funding to the World Health Organization, saying the U.N. agency had “missed the call” on the pandemic. He suggested that WHO had gone along with Beijing’s efforts months ago to minimize the severity of the outbreak.

WHO has praised China for its transparency on the virus despite wide skepticism among experts about the country's actual number of infections and deaths. Some African leaders bristled at Trump’s attack on WHO, especially after its head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia, spoke up this week against “racist” comments by two French doctors who said a coronavirus vaccine could be tested in Africa. Tedros condemned the French remarks as showing a “colonial mentality.”

“Surprised to learn of a campaign by the U.S. govt against WHO’s global leadership. The African Union fully supports WHO and Dr. Tedros,” AU chief Moussa Faki Mahamat tweeted. In Europe, Britain and France appeared to be at different stages of the crisis than Italy, where new infections and virus deaths were declining daily. Deaths in Britain reached nearly 6,200 after a one-day increase Tuesday of 786, its highest figure yet, while in France, the number of dead climbed to more than 10,300.

Worldwide, more than 1.4 million people have been confirmed infected and over 80,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead and deliberate underreporting by some governments.

For most, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and death. Over 300,000 people have recovered. In Japan, Albert Camus' novel “The Plague” has gone into seven extra printings since February and was so popular that one chain limited customers to one book each to curtail literary hoarding.

The novel, first published in French in 1947, portrays the dilemma of human existence as a North African city gets overtaken by the plague.

Becatoros reported from Athens. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed.

Virus puts UK PM in intensive care; Japan declares emergency

April 07, 2020

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in intensive care Tuesday with the coronavirus, while Japan's leader declared a monthlong state of emergency for Tokyo and six other regions to keep the virus from ravaging the world's oldest population.

The 55-year-old Johnson, the world’s first known head of government to fall ill with the virus, was in stable condition and conscious at a London hospital and was breathing without a ventilator or other assistance, said his spokesman James Slack. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was designated to run the country in the meantime.

“We’re desperately hoping that Boris can make the speediest possible recovery,” said Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who is among scores of British officials in self-isolation. Johnson's pregnant fiancee is recovering from coronavirus symptoms.

Japan’s prime minister made the emergency declaration after a spike in infections in Tokyo, but it was a stay-at-home request — not an order — and violators will not be penalized. Despite having relatively few infections and deaths, Japan is a worrying target for a virus that has been killing the elderly at much higher rates than other age groups.

Deaths in the U.S. reached about 11,000, with about 370,000 confirmed infections. In New York and in some European hot spots, authorities were hoping that plateaus in deaths and new hospitalizations meant that the outbreak was turning a corner.

In Spain, one of the hardest-hit countries, new deaths Tuesday rose to 743 and infections climbed by 1,000 after five days of declines, but the increases were believed to reflect a weekend backlog. Authorities said slowing the contagion will be a long process and were confident in the downward trend.

New coronavirus cases were also slowing in Italy and France, while Portugal reported its lowest daily rise in new infections since the outbreak began. To keep up social distancing, Paris banned daytime jogging just as warm spring weather settled in for a week.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the first, faint signs that the outbreak there may be nearing its peak. But h e cautioned against relaxing social distancing restrictions and warned that the health care system is still under extreme pressure.

“This is a hospital system where we have our foot to the floor and the engine is at red line and you can’t go any faster,” Cuomo said. The state has averaged just under 600 deaths daily for the past four days, a horrific toll that was still seen as a positive sign because it was relatively steady. Cuomo also said the number of new people entering hospitals has dropped, as has the number of critically ill patients needing ventilators.

The U.S. government's top infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was cautiously optimistic, saying that in New York, “what we have been doing has been working.” China, the first country to go into lockdown and among the strictest, reported no new deaths over the past 24 hours for the first time since it began publishing statistics on the virus that emerged in December in the city of Wuhan. Many experts, however, have been skeptical of China's virus figures. The final travel restrictions in Wuhan are being lifted Wednesday.

Denmark planned to reopen schools next week for students up to 11 years old — a development that still felt impossibly distant elsewhere in the world. Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte promised residents that they will soon “reap the fruit of these sacrifices” in personal liberties, though he declined to say when a nationwide lockdown would end. Italy has the world’s highest death toll — over 16,500 — but intensive care units in the north are no longer airlifting patients to other regions.

Worldwide, more than 1.3 million people have been confirmed infected and over 75,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are almost certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different rules for counting the dead and deliberate underreporting by some governments.

For most people, the virus causes mild to moderate symptoms such as fever and cough. But for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia. Close to 300,000 people have recovered worldwide.

Global shares were up Tuesday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained nearly 8% on Monday on hopes that the epidemic could be slowing. One of the main models on the outbreak, from the University of Washington, is now projecting about 82,000 U.S. deaths through early August, or 12% fewer than previously forecast, with the highest number of daily deaths occurring on April 16.

One lockdown exception in the U.S. was Wisconsin, which asked hundreds of thousands of voters to ignore a stay-at-home order to participate in its presidential primary Tuesday. China and Russia decided to close their land border and river port near the far eastern city of Vladivostok following the discovery of 59 confirmed cases.

As effective as the lockdowns may be, they come at a steep toll, especially for the poor. In a housing complex in the Moroccan city of Sale, over 900 people live in crowded rooms without running water or incomes. While the North African country entered total lockdown in mid-March, self-isolation and social distancing are a luxury that few families in this complex can afford.

In Sale, children hang around the communal courtyard and run through narrow alleys. Families share one room and fill buckets of water at public fountains. “I am scared for my children. I have to lock them indoors and stay with them, but how am I supposed to feed them?” asked Warda, a mother of three.

Other nations also feared food shortages, with Cambodia banning exports of rice and fish. Medical workers around the world worry they are not being protected well enough against the virus, with doctors in Pakistan and Greece protesting Tuesday against a lack of resources.

To boost spirits, New Zealand's leader clarified the definition of who are considered essential workers. “You will be pleased to know that we do consider both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny to be essential workers,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said just a few days before Easter.

Hinnant reported from Paris. Associated Press writers around the world contributed.

Virus pain easing in Spain, Italy; UK braces for bleak days

April 06, 2020

MADRID (AP) — A week ago, emergency rooms and intensive care wards in Spain and Italy were overflowing with woozy, coughing coronavirus patients and literally buzzing with breathing machines. So many died that Barcelona crematories have a waiting list of up to two years, forcing some people to bury loved ones temporarily in cemeteries with the expectation of exhuming them for cremation later on.

But now the two countries that have suffered more virus deaths than anywhere else in Europe are starting to see their crisis ease, while Britain, where the prime minister was hospitalized in intensive care Monday, seems headed in the opposite direction.

Between them, Italy and Spain saw nearly 30,000 deaths and 265,000 confirmed infections in the pandemic. They, and other European countries that locked down weeks ago and ramped up testing, are now seeing the benefits.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte promised Italians Monday that they will soon ‘’reap the fruit of these sacrifices’’ in personal liberties made to fight the coronavirus. Conte declined during a press conference to say when the nationwide lockdown, now in its fifth week, would be lifted. The current measures expire April 13, but how and when Italy will enter a next phase of ‘’co-existing’’ with the virus will depend on a technical panel of experts. The country's business lobby is also eager to restart production, which also has been significantly blocked by the lockdown.

Britain’s outbreak was headed in the opposite direction as the country reported more than 600 deaths Sunday, surpassing Italy’s daily increase for the second day in a row. “I think that we are just a week away from the surge of this," the deputy chief executive of Britain's NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, told Sky News.

In Spain, deaths and new infections dropped again on Monday. The health ministry reported 637 new fatalities, the lowest toll in 13 days, for a total of over 13,000 dead. New recorded infections were the lowest in two weeks.

Emergency rooms in the hard-hit Madrid region of 6.6 million were returning almost to normal a week after scenes of patients sleeping on floors and in chairs. Patients awaiting treatment in Madrid-area ERs went down Monday to 390 cases, one-tenth of the arrivals last week, the regional government said. The number of people being treated for coronavirus in intensive care stabilized at about 1,500 for five straight days.

Transport, Mobility and Urban Affairs Minister José Luis Ábalos said the figures show Spain is entering “a new phase of the battle.” “This new phase does not mean we can let down our guard. We are assessing the measures that we will need to adopt,” Ábalos said.

At the San Carlos Clinic Hospital in Madrid, nearly 15% of the hospital’s 1,400-strong staff contracted the coronavirus, in line with the national average, “Our priority at the moment is to bring health workers back to work," said Dr. Julio Mayol, the facility’s medical director.

Still, there are fears for a new outbreak as Spanish authorities begin talking about loosening the grip on mandatory confinement, and the strain on hospitalizations will still be seen for another week while that in intensive care units for another two weeks, Mayol said.

Italy still has, by far, the world’s highest coronavirus death toll — almost 16,000 — but the pressure on northern Italy’s ICUs has eased so much that Lombardy is no longer airlifting patients to other regions.

In the northern city of Bergamo, one of Europe's virus epicenters, hospital staff were still pulling long, difficult shifts even if the numbers of new patients had eased a bit. “There has been no reduction in the work,” said Maria Berardelli, a nursing coordinator at Pope John XXIII hospital. “There have been fewer admissions to the emergency room, but our intensive care units are still full, so the activity hasn’t been reduced.”

Illness has been compounded by shocking economic pain as all the world’s largest economies have ground to a halt, including in Italy and Spain. In France, which slightly trails its two neighbors to the south in deaths and infections, the government shut the country down two days after Italy — and has also seen a slight easing.

The U.K. initially resisted taking some of the tough measures seen in other European countries, which banned large events, shut schools and closed their borders to slow the spread of the COVID-19 illness.

The government’s first advice was that people should wash their hands frequently. As the number of cases soared, the response escalated to include the closure of schools, bars, restaurants and non-essential shops and a nationwide order for everyone but key workers to stay home.

Now, Austria and the Czech Republic are openly discussing how to ease some of the crippling restrictions. Austria’s chancellor said the plan is to let small shops and garden centers reopen next week, with limits on the number of customers inside, and the rest on May 1. The Czech government is proposing an end to the ban on travel abroad as of April 14 and the reopening of small stores.

AP reporters Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.