A group of British members of parliament have said they will try to pass a law that would force Prime Minister Theresa May to seek a delay to the United Kingdom‘s departure from the European Union.

The move, announced on Tuesday, is intended to prevent a potentially chaotic no-deal exit on April 12, following a third parliamentary defeat for May’s Brexit divorce deal. 

Leaving the EU without a deal is the default legal option if the UK cannot present another viable alternative to EU leaders, who are set to hold an emergency Brexit summit on April 10.

“We are now in a really dangerous situation with a serious and growing risk of no-deal in 10 days’ time,” opposition Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who presented the bill, said on Tuesday.

“There’s been too much brinkmanship going on, everyone’s leaving it to the final hours in the hope that somebody blinks first. The prime minister has a responsibility to prevent that [a no-deal exit] happening …If the government won’t act urgently, then parliament has a responsibility to try to ensure that happens even though we are right up against the deadline”.

Cooper has proposed the legislation alongside eleven other MPs from several political parties, including members of May’s Conservatives. 

We are now in dangerous situation. Risk of damaging No Deal on 12 April rising fast. Whatever is/isn’t agreed this wk, PM must put forward plan for extension to avert No Deal on April 12. For sake of jobs, families & security, this cross party bill aims to ensure that happens pic.twitter.com/6tQTL45txl

— Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) April 2, 2019

Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan, reporting from Westminster, London, said the cross-party attempt to put a one-clause legislative bill before parliament would likely be debated this week.

“The expectation is, procedurally, that the bill would be debated on Wednesday, hopefully cleared by Thursday [by] the lower house and then go to the [House of] Lords for further consideration, but the timetable is extremely tight,” he said. 

“Essentially it uses the way that the MPs have taken control back from the government and put it in parliament, it uses that process to carve out a window of opportunity to put this bill up for debate, which would force the prime minister to apply for an extension of Article 50.

“There is a real sense of almost panic here in parliament that the only alternative that is coming through as a default position is no deal and that’s something that nobody here wants – in fact the MPs have already voted that they don’t want that to happen,” Brennan said. 

EU cannot be ‘held hostage’

The other 27 EU member states would have to agree to any further delay to the negotiating period and have said the UK would need to provide a suitable reason.

The UK government is eager to avoid any extension that would see the country participating in the European Parliamentary elections in May.

Speaking in Brussels, Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said a no deal scenario is becoming more likely each day. 

“No deal was never our design or intended scenario, no deal was never my intended design or scenario, but the EU 27 is now prepared,” he said. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the UK to come up with plan before the summit in Brussels next week.

Speaking on Tuesday ahead of talks with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Macron said the UK would only have itself to blame for a no-deal scenario.

“If the United Kingdom is not capable, almost three years after the referendum, of coming forward with a solution that is supported by a majority, it will have effectively chosen a no-deal exit on its own,” Macron said, adding that whether an alternative plan involved a snap election, a referendum or a customs union was for Britain to decide.

“It’s up for London to say it, and to say it now … The EU cannot be held hostage to the resolution of a political crisis in the United Kingdom on a long-term basis”.

The action from MPs comes as May is holding crisis talks with her cabinet in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock.

Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker, reporting from outside 10 Downing Street, May’s official residence, said senior ministers had been in talks for almost seven hours. 

“What we’re hearing is that the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, has hinted that the only way that will be allowed to happen is if it is significantly different from the last time.” 

Monday’s rejection of May’s deal has left the government with a range of unpalatable choices. It can gamble on a fourth attempt to push May’s unloved deal through Parliament, let Britain tumble out of the bloc without a deal, or roll the dice by opting for a snap election to shake up parliament.

2020 Elections

The online fundraising powerhouse took in about 900,000 contributions from 525,000 individual donors, Sanders’ campaign said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised more than $18 million since launching his second bid for the White House, his campaign announced Tuesday.

The fundraising haul, which surpasses the other two 2020 presidential candidates who have announced their cash totals so far, demonstrates how Sanders’ enormous online following will power his campaign, while some of his rivals jockey for support from large donors who can give several thousand dollars at a time.

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Aides said the Vermont senator’s average donation in February and March was $20, and 88 percent of the money raised came from people who gave $200 or less. Sanders’ team said he received almost 900,000 individual contributions after setting a goal of 1 million in the first quarter of the year.

The campaign has $28 million cash on hand after beginning with $14 million in the bank from Sanders’ other federal campaign accounts, it said — another big advantage over Sanders’ rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders has put about 100 people on his campaign staff so far, fueled by the high fundraising totals.

On Monday, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said she raised $12 million in her first quarter. Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said he brought in more than $7 million. Buttigieg tweeted Monday that he raised 64 percent of his haul from people who gave less than $200, while Harris did not specify the share of her total that came from small-dollar donors, as Democrats hone in on grassroots fundraising as a key metric of support in the campaign.

No other presidential candidates have revealed how much money they’ve amassed, including former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who proved to be a small-dollar fundraising sensation in his unsuccessful 2018 bid for Senate in Texas. On the first day of his presidential campaign, O’Rourke said he raised $6.1 million — slightly more than the $5.9 million reaped by Sanders in his first 24 hours.

Campaigns must file reports with the Federal Election Commission by April 15. In 2016, Sanders raised about $15 million in the first fundraising quarter of his campaign.

Sanders’ senior staffers argued that his skill for raising money through small-dollar donations — while not holding fundraising events — make him the best Democratic candidate to run against President Donald Trump.

Trump has “put the ultra-rich in charge of the government,” said Faiz Shakir, Sanders’ campaign manager. “How are you going to take that on? Are you going to say that we’re 55 percent different than him? Are you going to say you’re 100 percent different than him?”

Sanders’ aides also said the money he raised will enable him to compete in all states in the primary.

“While we had to in 2016 make choices about where we could compete, I’m certain that in this race some of our opponents will also have to make similar difficult choices,” said Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Sanders. “This campaign will have the resources and the volunteer grassroots strength to compete in every single state in the primary.”

The Sanders team revealed other statistics about their donors: They said a majority of his contributors are under 39 years old, and that 99.6 percent of the money collected in the first quarter was raised online.

About 525,000 people donated to the campaign, and 20 percent of those donors are new givers to Sanders, the campaign said.

The campaign also shared information on its staff: The team’s employees are mostly women, it said, and 40 percent are people of color.

Image: lili sams / mashable

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has arrived in the North Macedonian capital Skopje to mark a “new chapter” in relations after the resolution of a bitter and decades-old dispute earlier this year.

      

“This is a historic day. Until now, we only watched opportunities go by and time waste away,” Zaev said on Tuesday.

      

The North Macedonian prime minister was exceptionally cordial, welcoming Tsipras outside the government building and even taking a selfie with him after formally posing for cameras.

Zaev then showed Tsipras around his office and pointed to photos of his son and various memorabilia.

“Our nations are showing how courageous decisions turn what was yesterday an impossibility today becomes reality,” he said after the meeting.  

Tsipras is the first Greek prime minister to visit the neighbouring country since Macedonia was established first as a federal Yugoslav republic in 1945, then as an independent country in 1991.

He arrived less than two months after Macedonia agreed to rename itself to North Macedonia on February 12, ending a 28-year diplomatic dispute.

Greece claims the name Macedonia for its ancient northern province and its legacy, but eventually agreed to allow its neighbour to use the name with a geographic qualifier added.

The row had led to Greece blocking Skopje’s entrance into international organisations, including NATO.

      

The two countries are now “starting a new chapter” on the “solid ground” provided by the name agreement, Tsipras said.

The two leaders pushed the agreement through in spite of fierce opposition from nationalists on both sides of the border, each feeling that their country had conceded too much.

In an interview with the North Macedonian news agency MIA published on Monday, Tsipras said the deal carried a steep political price.

It was now up to him and Zaev to show that their people “can only benefit from the path now opened”.

Reporting from Skopje, Al Jazeera’s Maja Blasevska said that the two leaders were focused on the future, with economic cooperation a priority.

“Both prime ministers said that this is a very important message about this region, about the region and Europe, that countries need to go forward and not look to history,” she said.

“Dozens of contracts have been signed today. Greek and Macedonian sides are expecting to boost economic cooperation. A business forum will be opened today in Skopje. Both prime ministers will attend the opening, which also be attended by representatives from more than 400 companies from both countries.”

Additionally, Greece is to assume the policing and protection of the North Macedonian airspace.

Browbeating European NATO countries to spend more on their own defence has become a staple of US President Donald Trump‘s foreign policy. So too has his administration’s “Buy American” drive to boost US arms exports to allies around the world.

The tandem push has thrown the United States’ commitment to NATO into question and tarnished the notion that the alliance’s collective defence clause is unconditional.

Last July, Trump reportedly delivered an ultimatum to NATO allies in a closed-door meeting in Brussels, warning that if they didn’t increase their defence spending by January, the US would “go it alone”.

“The Trump Administration is ruthlessly transactional and disregards the normal diplomatic route for doing things,” Jacob Parakilas, deputy head of the US and the Americas Programme at London think-tank Chatham House told Al Jazeera.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if American diplomats were told to get out and sell weapons,” he added.

But as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg prepares to meet President Trump in the White House on Tuesday, and address a joint session of Congress in the run-up to NATO’s 70th-anniversary celebration in Washington later this week, President Trump appears to be getting more of what he wants.

In 2014, only three of the NATO 29 member allies had fulfilled a pledge to spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence.

By 2018, seven had met that threshold.

And although Germany‘s continued failure to meet the two percent target could draw further criticism from Trump this week, US arms sales to Europe are rising and projected to climb even further.

‘Buy American’

When it comes to supplying arms to the rest of the world, the US has long held a commanding lead and it’s getting wider.

US share of total global arms exports soared from 30 percent between 2009-2013 to 36 percent between 2014-2018, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 

The shopping list for US arms is long – fighter jets, cruise and ballistic missiles, and guided bombs to name a few.

While the Middle East accounted for the majority of US arms exports tracked by SIPRI, tensions elsewhere are also helping to boost sales around the globe.

“The US is harvesting a worldwide increase in tensions,” Aude Fleurant, director of SIPRI’s Arms Transfers and Military Expenditure Program, told Al Jazeera.

Despite talk among NATO’s European allies of reducing reliance on US-made military equipment, US arms sales to Europe are strong. And forecasters see an even bigger spend on the horizon.

Europe accounted for 16 percent of US arms sales in 2017.

“That’s going to increase massively,” said Ben Moores, a senior defence and aviation analyst for Jane’s, IHS Markit which compiled that figure.

Moores told Al Jazeera the US is set to deliver $30.4bn in arms globally by 2022, with Europe accounting for $8.6bn or around 28 percent of those sales.

Strained relations with Russia have helped boost the sale of US weapons to NATO’s European allies.

But Moores cautions the increase is “not as momentous as it first appears”, given the cyclical nature of arms sales and the need for NATO countries to maintain “interoperability” between member nations’ weapons systems. 

Around every three decades, air forces need to replace ageing fighter aircraft – an expensive undertaking.

According to Moores, NATO countries are looking to replace US-made F-16 fighter jets, which are upward of 40 years old, with US-made F-35 fighter aircraft – which cost around $100m each.

Hitting a limit?

But “Buy American” appeared to have hit a limit on Monday. The Pentagon has halted deliveries and activities related to Turkey‘s F-35 jet operational capability until Ankara backs down from its commitment to take delivery of a Russian S-400 missile defence system.

The move marks the first time the US has blocked delivery of the jet to its NATO ally.

Ankara’s decision to buy Russia‘s S-400 anti-aircraft system is putting it at odds with US politicians who say handing Turkey American premier attack aircraft would be a security risk.

S-400 anti-aircraft systems are adaptive. They learn and therefore are dangerous. The US worries if Turkey links the F-35 with Russia’s S-400 anti-aircraft system, the system will read and record US fighter computer weapons systems, and relay that data to Moscow.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she does not think the allegations against Joe Biden of unwelcome contact are disqualifying for a 2020 run, but that the former vice president should be more aware of others’ personal space.

“I don’t think it’s disqualifying,” Pelosi said during a POLITICO Playbook interview, adding, “He has to understand in the world that we’re in now that people’s space is important to them, and what’s important is how they receive it and not necessarily how you intended it.”

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Former Nevada assemblywoman Lucy Flores on Friday described in an essay how Biden kissed her on the head during a campaign event in 2014, which she said made her feel uncomfortable and was unacceptable.

Amy Lappos of Connecticut has also come out with allegations of unwanted contact against the former vice president, saying he grabbed her head and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 fundraiser.

At least three Pakistani soldiers have been killed when India and Pakistan exchanged fire across the Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, Pakistan’s military said, in the latest round of hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

The soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire in the Rawalakot area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, a Pakistani military statement said. Another soldier was wounded, the military said.

Tensions have been high in South Asia since India and Pakistan conducted air raids on each other’s territory and Pakistan shot down an Indian fighter jet in February.

The military escalation followed a suicide attack in the Indian-administered Kashmir town of Pulwama that killed at least 40 Indian security personnel and which India blames on Pakistan.

Both India and Pakistan claim Kashmir – a territory over which they have fought two of their three wars – in full but administer separate portions of it, divided by the Line of Control (LoC).

On Monday, an elderly man was killed and five others wounded by Indian shelling in the Nezapir area of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, officials said.

Pulwama attack

There has been a tenuous ceasefire in place at the LoC since 2003, but both sides regularly violate it, especially at times of high tensions.

In 2018, Pakistan’s military said there had been a marked uptick in Indian shelling across the de facto border, killing at least 55 people – mostly civilians – and wounding more than 300 others.

India says Pakistani shelling across the LoC killed at least 14 security personnel in 2018, according to government data.

Since the Pulwama attack, shelling across the Line of Control has increased, with residents reporting almost daily barrages by both sides across the length of the de facto border.

Indian authorities blamed Pakistan for the Pulwama attack, sharing a dossier of evidence that they said linked the attack to Pakistan-based armed groups.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign office said Pakistani authorities had investigated the leads provided in the dossier and found “no link” to Pakistan.

“While 54 detained individuals are being investigated, no details linking them to Pulwama have been found so far. Similarly, the 22 pin locations shared by India have been examined. No such camps exist,” said a statement.

Pakistan has come under increasing pressure from the international community to crack down on armed groups operating on its soil, particularly those such as Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that conduct activities centred around Kashmir.

In the wake of the Pulwama attack, Pakistan said it had renewed its crackdown on armed groups, sealing dozens of mosques and schools run by JeM and LeT and taking steps to implement UN-mandated assets freezes on those groups.