I mean, did the EU really want to limit the UK's access to Europol and Eurojust? Or were these just negotiating positions to give away so the UK could 'win' something?
Is this one really a "UK win" and not just a sensible compromise between two positions that were both flexible and close to begin with?
You thought this was done? Now negotiations on a Financial Services Memorandum of Understanding must begin, so they can be agreed by March 2021.
Also coming soon: complicated negotiations on Geographical Indications.
I'd be interested in expert opinions on this. I always thought the ratchet was a pipe dream for the EU, a negotiating position to get non-regression. This seems to be an area where the UK has backed down on the core issue, non-regression.
but maybe I'm misunderstanding the strength of the EU position on the ratchet and this is a big climbdown on both sides?
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In England, 521,594 people had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine by Sunday 20 December. Of those, 367k, 70%, were over the age of 80.
There are something like 2.5 million people in England and Wales over the age of 80, so this is impressive but there's a long way still to go.
Israel vaccinated 60k people yesterday, up to 1.4% of the total population, but is offering the vaccine to all under-60s, which leaves some of the oldest, most vulnerable people fighting for appointment slots.
A night of high drama in Israel's Knesset tonight, which will automatically dissolve in a day unless the 2020 budget deadline is extended. First, a filibuster from the coalition's Isaac Pindrus, to give coalition MKs more time to arrive for the vote.
It looked like the vote would fail, but then Netanyahu did a deal with one of the Arab parties, Ra'am, convincing them to abstain, giving the Likud coalition a slight edge. In the electronic vote, Likud seemed to have it, assuming the confirmatory voice vote matched.
Suddenly, four Knesset members walk in for the voice vote, including one who was reportedly hiding in his car and, unexpectedly, a Likud member too. All four voted against the delay, killing the proposal and leading Israel to its fourth election in roughly two years.
Trump has filed to intervene in Texas' attempt to overturn the US election. But who REALLY wrote his lawsuit? Let's find out. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/2…
According to the metadata, Trump's legal intervention wasn't written by John Eastman, the Counsel of Record. It was written by someone else: Lawrence Joseph.
Who is Lawrence Joseph? Well, he's one of the lawyers in the original Texas complaint, listed as the "Special Counsel to the Attorney General of Texas".
Trumpworld is excited: Breitbart is reporting that the State of Texas has filed suit against MI, PA, WI and GA in the Supreme Court in an attempt to get the election results tossed out in those states.
This lawsuit ticks a lot of Trump boxes:
🟣As a dispute between states, it starts out in SCOTUS
🟣It seeks to put enough EVs in play to swing the whole election result
🟣It's the 'big beautiful lawsuit' Trump has wanted all along
Breitbart hasn't published the actual complaint, and it doesn't appear to be anywhere else yet, but we can say some things about it from their reporting:
The GOP's problem now is that their base will never accept any of them recognising Biden as President. Not on December 14, not on Jan 6, not on Inauguration Day.
GOP Senators and Congress members have missed the chance to jump of the crazy train. The longer they deny Biden's win, the more unacceptable they make it to ever acknowledge him.
A proportion of the elected GOP will outright claim that Biden isn't President, even after Jan 21. That's going to have consequences.