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☆ Northern Irish police suspect New IRA behind shooting of detective
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Amanda Ferguson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The gunmen continued to fire while the detective was on the ground, McEwan said. The primary focus is on violent dissident republicans and within that there is a primary focus as well on New IRA," McEwan told BBC Northern Ireland. While the peace agreement largely ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, police officers are still sporadically targeted by splinter groups of mostly Irish nationalist militants opposed to Britain's rule over the region. The last time a police officer was shot in Northern Ireland was 2017 and the United Kingdom last year lowered its Northern Ireland-related terrorism threat level for the first time in more than a decade. "Unfortunately this is a stark reminder for our colleagues that 25 years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, policing in Northern Ireland is still a very dangerous occupation and carries extreme risk," Kelly said.

☆ Northern Ireland post-Brexit talks nearly done, EU says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Johanna GeronDUBLIN, Feb 21 (Reuters) - The European Union's Brexit chief said on Tuesday that the finishing line was in sight for talks on easing post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland ahead of a second successive day of discussions with his British counterparts. After weeks of intense London-Brussels talks, momentum has been building towards a deal to revise the Northern Ireland Protocol - the arrangements agreed to avoid a hard border with EU member Ireland when Britain exited the EU in 2020. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his cabinet that intensive talks continued, his spokesman said, as his foreign and Northern Irish ministers prepared to speak to European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic later on Tuesday. But in such a negotiation, being close doesn't mean being done", Sefcovic told a press conference, declining to say when exactly an agreement might be reached. The DUP, Northern Ireland's largest pro-British party, has boycotted the region's devolved power-sharing parliament for the last year in protest at the protocol.

☆ Explainer: What is the Northern Ireland protocol?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] A truck parked beside a 'money changed' sign is seen on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland near Jonesborough, Northern Ireland, October 13, 2021. WHAT IS THE NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL? Northern Ireland also remains part of the UK's customs territory, effectively creating a customs border in the sea between Britain and Northern Ireland. The protocol specifies those EU regulations and directives with which Northern Ireland must remain aligned, and means new EU acts may be added to those that apply in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Protocol bill, if passed by parliament, would give the British government the power to unilaterally decide to all but renege on the agreement.

☆ Explainer: Talks on post-Brexit Northern Ireland trade edge closer to deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WHAT IS THE NORTHERN IRELAND PROTOCOL? Northern Ireland also remains part of the UK's customs territory. That effectively created a customs border in the sea between Britain and Northern Ireland, which pro-British communities say erodes their place within the UK. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland's biggest unionist party, also says the province should not have to follow laws without having a say. According to so-called dynamic alignment, this also means that any new EU acts may also be added to those that apply in Northern Ireland.

The talks follow weeks of media speculation that a deal was close with the EU to revise the Northern Ireland protocol, which was agreed when Britain left the bloc three years ago. Speaking earlier in Munich, Sunak said a new deal was "by no means done," adding that Brussels and London had an understanding of how the problems could be resolved. "We're working through them (the issues) hard and we will work through them intensely with the EU, but we are by no means done." Sunak reassured the audience at the conference that Britain wanted to have a positive relationship with the bloc. Reporting by Muvija M and Kate Holton; Editing by Jane Merriman and David HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Britain's Sunak touts EU protocol progress in Northern Ireland, no deal yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Amanda Ferguson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

After weeks of intense London-Brussels talks, momentum has been building towards a deal to revise the Northern Ireland Protocol - the arrangements agreed to avoid a hard border with EU member Ireland when Britain exited the EU in 2020. "I had positive conversations with political parties in Northern Ireland," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters. In Belfast, Sunak focused his attention on the Democratic Unionist Party, whose opposition to the protocol must be overcome to make any deal work. The other political parties that met Sunak on Friday said detail from the prime minister on a potential deal was "scant". Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the militant Irish Republican Army that wants Northern Ireland to split from the UK and unite with Ireland, became the province's largest party for the first time at elections last year.

While the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, Northern Ireland voted 56% to 44% to remain. But if there is no agreement unionists can support, Northern Ireland will continue to have no functioning political institutions, he said, "and I don't think that is an outcome that anybody really wants". "If the choice is Sinn Fein rule or even imperfect British rule I would certainly take British rule before I would take Sinn Fein rule," said TUV leader Jim Allister. Completing the intense pressure Donaldson is under from all sides as the defining moment of his leadership nears is the more liberal Ulster Unionist Party, ready to cast itself as the unionist party of pragmatism if the DUP's boycott escalates. What will ultimately protect Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom is if Northern Ireland works."

☆ Irish premier hopeful of post-Brexit trade talk breakthrough — but ‘we’re not there yet’
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar talking to the media outside the Stormont hotel on Jan. 12. Irish premier Leo Varadkar on Thursday said there has yet to be a breakthrough over Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trade rules, but expressed hopes that an agreement is within reach. I am hopeful that we will get there," Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Varadkar told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "I think certainly Prime Minister [Rishi] Sunak and the British government seem to be very serious about coming to an agreement and settling this issue. And I think there is increased flexibility from the European Union side, which includes Ireland, around coming to an agreement."

☆ UK minister Coffey: N. Ireland elections will 'definitely' happen
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - British environment minister Therese Coffey said an election to Northern Ireland's regional assembly will "definitely" happen, following the refusal of the province's largest pro-British party to drop its boycott of a power-sharing government. "There is clear emphasis that both our government and the Irish government want the executive to form and we will keep up our efforts to do so," Coffey told Sky News on Friday. Asked if elections the British government is legally obliged to call within 12 weeks will go ahead, she said: "They will definitely happen." The vote would be the second in six months amid a political deadlock in the region. read moreReporting by Kylie MacLellan, writing by Muvija MOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Liz Truss and King Charles III could be the end of the 'United' Kingdom
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Peter Mcloughlin | World Politics Review | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

King Charles III and Prime Minister Liz Truss now lead a United Kingdom with profound divisions. However, when this ends with the late queen's funeral Monday, the new heads of state and government, King Charles III and Liz Truss, will be left leading a United Kingdom that is profoundly divided. However, the EU, the Irish government and most nationalists in Northern Ireland oppose any unilateral changes to the treaty. Nationalists, who are growing in numbers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, might see this as the moment to unravel the union. Peter McLoughlin is a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, where he focuses on contemporary political history in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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