transition

BRUSSELS: European Union negotiator Michel Barnier warned Britain Tuesday that it could not have an open-ended post-Brexit transition and that a deal on the phase remained out of reach. Barnier added ahead of a key speech by Prime Minister Theresa May on future trade relations that Britain’s plans for partial access to the single market were “cherry picking”. “There are quite a lot of points of disagreement. I regret, but maintain the evaluation I made a few weeks ago: in the light of these disagreements, we have not…

LONDON: The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has warned that plans for a post-Brexit transition period to ease the pain of the split were at risk because of “substantial” disagreements with Britain. Barnier also rejected claims by his British counterpart David Davis that Brussels had been “discourteous” by including a punishment clause in a draft transition deal in case Britain breached the bloc’s rules. “If these disagreements persist, the transition is not a given,” Barnier told a news conference in Brussels…

HUANGCHUAN VILLAGE, China: Every day after lunch, Qu Yexiu used to potter around her house in north west China doing housework and looking after her two-year-old grandson. Now, every day after lunch, Qu and her grandson visit the newly opened early-childhood development center in their village of Huangchuan in the mountains of Shaanxi province, where he can play with other toddlers. “Things are better now that we have this village center,” said Qu, 56. She looks after her two grandchildren while their parents work and…

NEW YORK: President-elect Donald Trump took a break from recruiting a national security team Thursday to seek advice from one of the more illustrious -- if controversial -- officials from the past: Henry Kissinger. The 93-year-old served as secretary of state and national security adviser under presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, was the architect of the US outreach to China and helped negotiate the Paris Peace Accords that ended the Vietnam War. He is still a respected policy expert and consultant, but his…

WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump used his Twitter account on Wednesday to denounce reports of problems in his transition team, singling out the New York Times for saying world leaders have had trouble getting in touch with him. Trump, whose aggressive use of Twitter against rivals was a key element of his presidential campaign, tweeted a list of several world leaders he had spoken with since his upset victory in the Nov. 8 presidential election. "I have recieved and taken calls from many foreign leaders despite…