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A8 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 7 March 2019
EU says talks with UK ‘difficult’ as Brexit impasse drags on

By JILL LAWLESS legally binding Brexit with-
RAF CASERT drawal agreement can’t
Associated Press be reopened, and talks are
LONDON (AP) — The Euro- focusing on drafting an ad-
pean Union said Wednes- dendum or other addition-
day that “difficult” talks al words.
with Britain have failed to May has said she will bring
break the Brexit deadlock, the deal back to Parlia-
less than a week before ment — with any changes
U.K. lawmakers are due to she has secured — by Tues-
approve or reject the gov- day. If it is rejected again,
ernment’s divorce deal lawmakers will vote on
with the bloc. whether to leave the EU
Britain’s chief law officer without an agreement or
claimed the two sides were seek to delay Brexit.
holding “robust” discussions May opposes the idea of
on new British proposals. postponing Britain’s EU exit,
As Britain lurches toward but has not said whether
an EU exit due in just over she and her government
three weeks, EU Commis- would vote instead to
sion spokesman Margari- crash out of the bloc with-
tis Schinas said that “while out a deal.
the talks take place in a International Trade Secre-
constructive atmosphere, tary Liam Fox said Wednes-
discussions have been dif- day that leaving without a
ficult.” deal was “hugely sub-opti-
“No solution has been iden- Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers’ mal, compared to getting
tified at this point,” he said. Questions session, in parliament in London, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. a deal.” But he said “po-
Attorney General Geoffrey Associated Press tentially all things are pos-
Cox said a meeting Tues- we’re now really into the nesses to adjust to new for checks until a perma- sible” in next week’s votes.
day with EU chief nego- detail of the discussions.” trade rules. nent new trading relation- U.K. businesses overwhelm-
tiator Michel Barnier had As he arrived back in Lon- British concerns center on a ship is in place. ingly oppose a “no-deal”
been “robust” — often a don, Cox said the two sides provision designed to keep Brexit-supporting lawmak- exit, which would impose
code-word for fraught with would be “resuming talks an open border between ers in the U.K. fear the back- tariffs and other barriers
disagreement. soon.” the U.K.’s Northern Ireland stop could be used to bind between Britain and the
“These are very sensitive Britain is due to leave the and EU member Ireland. Britain to EU regulations in- EU, its biggest trading part-
discussions. We’re into the bloc on March 29. But the The mechanism, known definitely, and Prime Min- ner. It could also destabilize
meat of the matter now,” U.K. Parliament has so far as the backstop, is a safe- ister Theresa May wants to Northern Ireland’s peace
Cox told Sky News. “We rejected a divorce deal guard that would keep the revise the deal to reassure process, which has come
have put forward some laying out the terms of an U.K. in a customs union with opponents that it would to rely on free movement of
proposals — very reason- orderly departure and a the other 27 EU countries in only apply temporarily. people and goods across
able proposals — and transition period for busi- order to remove the need EU leaders insist that the an open border.q

Poland considers exhumations at pogrom site and Jews object

By VANESSA GERA ligious traditions of those War II. Nearly 6 million Polish
Associated Press who were buried there,” citizens died, some 3 million
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Schudrich told The Asso- Jews and almost as many
The Polish government is ciated Press. “Jewish law non-Jews.
reconsidering whether to hasn’t changed in 2,000 That the question of ex-
exhume human remains years, and what we said huming remains has resur-
at a World War II-era site in 2001 remains the same faced reflects the pressure
where Jews were burned now.”The Jedwabne po- on Poland’s ruling party
alive by Polish neighbors, grom was one of several from far-right groups that
though the country’s chief massacres carried out by call historical evidence of
rabbi says the work would In this Sunday, July 10, 2011 file photo, in a sign of mourning, Poles during the German Poles doing the killings to
violate Judaism’s prohibi- participants place pebbles on a monument to honour the occupation. Many histori- be a “Jewish lie.”
tion on disinterment under hundreds of Jews murdered by their Polish neighbours during ans see it as evidence that A right-wing TV broadcast-
most circumstances. state and religious ceremony marking 70 years since the World anti-Semitism existed in a er sparked the discussion
Authorities will weigh “vari- War II massacre in Jedwabne, Poland. Associated Press significant part of the Polish anew by asking an official
ous circumstances” in de- population. about it recently.
ciding if exhumations should victims were locked inside days due to Jewish objec- Many Polish nationalists The ruling Law and Justice
go forward in the town of a barn that was set on fire. tions. think it is unfair to blame party is led by the twin
Jedwabne, Prime Minister Some Poles want the mas- Chief Rabbi Michael Poles and that Germany brother of the justice min-
Mateusz Morawiecki told sacre site excavated to Schudrich said exhuming bears the ultimate respon- ister who stopped the ear-
private broadcaster Polsat uncover possible evidence the place where the barn sibility given the methods lier exhumation, Lech Kac-
News. that Germans ordered Pol- stood “would desecrate of terror and violence Nazis zynski. He was killed along
During the German Nazi oc- ish villagers to do the kill- the memory of those who used in occupied Poland. with 95 others in 2010 when
cupation of Poland, Poles ings. The work was started were buried there.” Poland was occupied by the Polish air force plane
killed at least 340 Jews on in 2001 and stopped by the “It makes moral sense that Nazi Germany for more they were on crashed in
July 10, 1941. Most of the justice minister after several we should follow the re- than five years during World Russia.q