GOOBJOOG NEWS|UK: More than 100,000 Somalis facing starvation will benefit from a new five million pounds aid package to cushion them from further suffering, the UK government has said
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office announced Wednesday an addition £5 million which will be channelled through the World Food Programme for life-saving support and food assistance to 139,000 people.
The funds are part of £47 million to support humanitarian crises in Sahel, Syria, South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Mozambique.
“This extra emergency UK aid will mean people can feed their families and prevent these crises from escalating into widespread famine,” UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. “ We hope to see other donors step up to the plate with some extra funding to prevent these global crises getting worse.”
An 11th-hour breakthrough in protracted negotiations will keep open Gibraltar’s crucial border with Spain following the United Kingdom’s full departure from the European Union, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya announced Thursday.
Just hours before the UK was to complete its break from the 27-nation bloc, Madrid and London clinched “an agreement in principle” that means people in the speck of British territory on Spain’s southern tip “can breathe a sigh of relief,” González Laya said.
The key to the deal is that The Rock, whose sovereignty is disputed by Spain and Britain, will remain subject to rules in use in Europe’s Schengen area, she said.
Brexit: Gibraltar gets UK-Spain deal to keep open border
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image captionGibraltar relies on thousands of Spanish workers commuting daily
Spain has reached a deal with the UK to maintain free movement to and from Gibraltar once the UK formally leaves the EU on Friday.
To avoid a hard border, Gibraltar will join the EU s Schengen zone and follow other EU rules, while remaining a British Overseas Territory.
The deal was announced by Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya, just hours before the UK exits the EU.
The Rock voted Remain in 2016 and about 15,000 Spanish workers go there daily.
The UK appears to be turning to the Indo-Pacific region as one of its pivots for post-Brexit economic and trade cooperation, which, however, makes more geopolitical sense than it does from an economic perspective.