The United Kingdom's defence ministry has launched an investigation into a social media video apparently showing British soldiers using a picture of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn for target practice.
The ministry said the incident, allegedly filmed at a shooting range in the Afghan capital, Kabul, was "totally unacceptable", according to a report by Sky News.
"We are aware of a video circulating on social media, this behaviour is totally unacceptable and falls well below the high standards the Army expects," an army spokesperson said.
"A full investigation has been launched," he added.
Al Jazeera was not able to verify the authenticity of the footage.
The video has prompted outrage, and many social media users criticised the footage, coming in the wake of the 2016 murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by far-right killer Thomas Mair and a foiled 2017 plot to murder Rosie Cooper, another Labour MP.
Video has emerged of soldiers on a shooting range in Kabul firing at a target of Jeremy Corbyn. MOD confirms it as legit: pic.twitter.com/qOr84Aiivj
Corbyn has not been a popular figure for some army circles due to his views on the UK's involvement in the war in Iraq and army practices in Northern Ireland during the Troubles - a violent period when more than 3,500 people were killed in sectarian violence.
A junior government minister has resigned in protest at the Prime Minister's decision to hold talks with opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Nigel Adams, minister for Wales and assistant government whip, told Theresa May that her decision to hold talks with the Labour leader was a "grave error."
"At Cabinet yesterday, there was an opportunity to get onto the front foot for once," he wrote to the Prime Minister. "However, by legitimizing and turning to Jeremy Corbyn to assist you at this crucial stage, rather than being bold, is a grave error."
"It is clear that we will now end up in the Customs Union. That is not the Brexit my constituents were promised, and it is contrary to the pledge we made in our manifesto," the Adams said.
The UK is now at risk of "simultaneously failing" the British public on its Brexit vote, he wrote, potentially leading to the "calamity of a Corbyn government."
"It now seems that you and your Cabinet have decided that a deal -- cooked up with a Marxist who has never once in his political life, put British interests first -- is better than no deal."
Theresa May has finally made a decision. And it's not one her hard-Brexit allies will like.
The Prime Minister has recognized what many have been saying for weeks -- that there's no majority for her deal in Parliament.
In offering talks with the opposition Labour Party -- and, crucially, offering to accept the result of any vote in Parliament for an alternative Brexit plan -- May has also recognized that she will never be able to persuade her supposed allies in the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, nor a hard core of Brexiteers in her own Conservative Party.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May giving a statement inside 10 Downing Street in London.
May has picked a side, and in agreeing to a cross-party approach, it's the side of a "soft" Brexit -- one that envisages a closer relationship with the EU than she previously could countenance.
"This is a difficult time for everyone. Passions are running high on all sides of the argument. But we can and must find the compromises that will deliver what the British people voted for," May said.
That's a sign that she's about to rub out at least some of her infamous "red lines" which shaped the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU -- out of the Customs Union, which stops the UK signing independent trade deals, and out of the Single Market, which requires the UK to accept unlimited immigration from the EU.
Theresa May is expected to meet Jeremy Corbyn later after she said she wanted to work with the Labour leader to break the Brexit deadlock.
The prime minister hopes the two of them can come up with a modified version of her withdrawal deal with the EU that can secure the backing of MPs.
Mr Corbyn says he wants a customs union and workers' rights to be priorities.
But Tory Brexiteer Boris Johnson has accused Mrs May of "entrusting the final handling of Brexit to Labour".
Jacob Rees-Mogg, another prominent Brexiteer, described the offer as "deeply unsatisfactory" and accused Mrs May of planning to collaborate with "a known Marxist".
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says the latest move means the prime minister is likely to adopt a closer relationship with the EU - a softer Brexit - than she has agreed so far.
European Parliament Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt, who had said he thought a no-deal Brexit was "nearly inevitable", welcomed Mrs May's offer of talks with Mr Corbyn.
"Good that PM Theresa may is looking for a cross-party compromise. Better late than never," he tweeted.
The UK now has until 12 April to propose a plan to the EU - which must be accepted by the bloc - or it will leave without a deal on that date.
Mrs May said she wanted to agree a new plan with Mr Corbyn and put it to a vote in the Commons before 10 April - when the EU will hold an emergency summit on Brexit.
If the two leaders do not agree a single way forward, Mrs May said a number of options would be put to MPs "to determine which course to pursue".
In either event, she said she would ask the EU for a further short extension to the Brexit date to hopefully get an agreement passed by Parliament before 22 May so the UK does not have to take part in European elections.
The final decision on a delay rests with the EU. The BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler said that while Brussels "welcomed" discussions between the PM and Mr Corbyn, its demands had not changed and it was "likely to put strict conditions on any further extension".
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Mr Corbyn said he was "very happy" to meet Mrs May and recognised his own "responsibility" to try to break the deadlock.
Labour has previously said it has six tests for judging any final Brexit deal, including protecting workers' rights, establishing a permanent customs union with the EU and securing the same benefits of being in the single market the UK has currently.
She was for budging. The prime minister has made her priority leaving the EU with a deal, rather than the happy contentment of the Brexiteers in the Tory party.
For so long, Theresa May has been derided by her rivals, inside and outside, for cleaving to the idea that she can get the country and her party through this process intact.
But after her deal was defeated at the hands of Eurosceptics, in the words of one cabinet minister in the room during Tuesday's marathon session, she tried delivering Brexit with Tory votes - Tory Brexiteers said "No".
Now she's going to try to deliver Brexit with Labour votes. In a way, it is as simple as that.
The offer of talks with the Labour leader provoked a backlash among Brexiteers, with Boris Johnson saying Brexit was "becoming soft to the point of disintegration".
Jacob Rees-Mogg added: "To decide you'd rather be supported by a Marxist than by your own party is unwise."
Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party - which helps prop up Mrs May's government but has repeatedly voted against her deal - said: "It remains to be seen if sub-contracting out the future of Brexit to Jeremy Corbyn, someone whom the Conservatives have demonised for four years, will end happily."
However, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, himself a leading Brexiteer, said he backed the talks with Labour because he "wanted to ensure that minds are concentrated so that we do leave".
After Mrs May's statement, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, called for patience.
European leaders have been intensifying plans to cope with a possible no-deal, particularly surrounding the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
If passed into law, the bill - presented by Labour MP Yvette Cooper - would require the PM to ask for an extension of Article 50 beyond that deadline.
Normally, the government chooses which bills to present to Parliament, but MPs previously voted to allow backbenchers to take charge of business in the Commons on Wednesday, meaning Ms Cooper can bring hers.
Wednesday 3 April: Theresa May likely to begin talks with Jeremy Corbyn; cross-party group attempts to rule out no-deal in law
Wednesday 10 April: Emergency summit of EU leaders to consider any UK request for further extension
Friday 12 April: Brexit day, if UK does not seek / EU does not grant further delay
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The White House took a step back on Tuesday from a threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, even as a redeployment of border officers in recent days has led to a slowdown of legal crossings and commerce at U.S. ports of entry there.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the Trump administration sees Mexico “stepping up and taking a greater sense of responsibility” for dealing with the immigration flows that U.S. officials say are overwhelming ports of entry along the border.
“They have started to do a significant amount more. We’ve seen them take a larger number of individuals” and hold those who have asylum claims in Mexico while they are being processed in the United States, Sanders told reporters at the White House.
“We’ve also seen them stop more people from coming across the border so that they aren’t even entering into the United States. So those two things are certainly helpful and we’d like to see them continue,” Sanders said.
Trump threatened on Friday to close the border this week unless Mexico took steps to stop immigrants from reaching the United States illegally. Closing the border could disrupt millions of legal border crossings and billions of dollars in trade.
Trump hinted at a softening earlier in a Twitter post on Tuesday. “After many years (decades), Mexico is apprehending large numbers of people at their Southern Border, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,” he said.
Sanders said the administration was “looking at all options when it comes to closing the different ports of entry, what that looks like and what the impacts would be.”
She told Fox News the administration wanted Mexico to continue working to address the issue so, and added that the administration is doing studies on the impact of closing different ports of entries to give Trump some options.
SLOWER BORDER
Senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said on Tuesday a redeployment of some 750 officers on the border to deal with a surge in migrants - mostly Central American families turning themselves into border agents - had led to a slowing of legal crossings and commerce at ports of entry.
“Wait times in Brownsville (Texas) were around 180 minutes, which were two times the peaks of last year,” said a senior DHS official on a call with reporters. “We ended the day yesterday at Otay Mesa (California) with a back-up of 150 trucks that hadn’t been processed,” the official said. “This is a reality.”
DHS officials said on the call that border facilities have been overwhelmed by families who cannot be deported quickly because they hope to seek asylum in the United States.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent cast his shadow on a plaque marking the boundaries of Mexico and United States, at Paso del Norte international border crossing bridge, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection estimated that some 100,000 migrants would be apprehended or encountered at the border in March, the highest level in a decade. “The system is on fire,” a DHS official said.
Because of limits on how long children are legally allowed to be held in detention, many of the families are released to await their U.S. immigration court hearings, a process that can take years because of ballooning backlogs.
To try to address the problem, the administration in late January started returning some migrants to Mexico to wait our their U.S. court dates in Mexican border cities. On Monday, DHS said it would dramatically ramp up the pace of that program, even as it is being challenged in court and immigration attorneys have raised concerns about how the process is being implemented.
Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland in Washington and Mica Rosenberg in New York; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Alistair Bell
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By Associated Press
LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday that she will seek to further delay Britain's exit from the European Union and seek to make an accord with the political opposition in a bid to break the Brexit impasse.
May made the announcement after the E.U.'s chief negotiator warned that a chaotic and costly Brexit was likely in just 10 days unless Britain snapped out of the political crisis that has paralyzed the government and Parliament.
After a seven-hour Cabinet meeting, May announced a significant softening of her Brexit terms.
"I have always been clear that we could make a success of no-deal in the long term but leaving with a deal is the best solution," she said in a televised statement from 10 Downing St.
"So we will need a further extension of (the E.U.'s) Article 50 — one that is as short as possible and which ends when we pass a deal."
Feb. 7, 201909:58
May said "this debate, this division, cannot drag on much longer" and offered to sit down with opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to find a compromise solution.
Hours before May's statement, E.U. negotiator Michel Barnier offered E.U. legislators his downbeat assessment as British Cabinet ministers tried to thrash out a new proposal that the U.K. Parliament could consider following the defeat of the government's plan and a range of lawmaker-written alternatives.
"As things stand now, the no-deal option looks likely. I have to tell you the truth," Barnier said in Brussels. "We can still hope to avoid it" if the intensive work in London produces a breakthrough before an April 10 EU summit.
Britain could depart from the E.U. without a road map two days after the summit. The leaders of the EU's 27 remaining countries gave the U.K. until April 12 to leave the bloc or to come up with a new plan, after lawmakers thrice rejected an agreement struck between the bloc and May.
The House of Commons on Monday threw out four alternatives to May's Brexit deal — the second day of inconclusive votes on options.
May's statement seemed to indicate that she was veering away from the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.
Exiting without a deal in place would jeopardize trade and travel, with new checks on borders and new regulations on dealings between the E.U. and Britain.
Amid all the uncertainty, analysts have said the economic impact in Britain could be massive.
Ford's European boss said that if the U.K. can't work out a deal on leaving the EU that guarantees "frictionless trade," the vehicle maker "will have to consider seriously the long-term future of our investments in the country."
Ford of Europe Chairman Steven Armstrong told The Associated Press that "a no-deal Brexit would be a disaster for the automotive industry in the U.K."
Barnier warned that challenges remain for the E.U. too, though said the bloc is prepared for a chaotic exit.
"Being prepared for no deal does not mean that there will be no disruption," he said.
Barnier urged Britain's Parliament and government to take a more realistic approach as soon as possible.
"We still have a little bit of patience," he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar also made urgent appeals before May's statement for Britain to propose an alternative Brexit plan to avoid a no-deal departure.
"We cannot spend the coming months on solving terms for the divorce," Macron said before he and Varadkar met in Paris.
Varadkar stressed "there's still time" for May to come to the April 10 summit with "credible" proposals.
The EU negotiated a long post-Brexit transition period with May. But it was linked to the overall agreement that hasn't won approval in Parliament, so "there is no transition if there is no deal," Barnier said.
Barnier reiterated that the EU was unwilling to renegotiate the 585-page withdrawal agreement but said he would agree to open up the political declaration attached to the legal text.
In Britain, political chaos continued to reign as the Cabinet held a marathon session to try to find a way out of the crisis. A group of pro-Brexit ministers pressed May to go forward with a no-deal departure. Other Cabinet members and a majority of lawmakers think that would be a disaster.
"We are now in a really dangerous situation with a serious and growing risk of no deal," Labour Party legislator Yvette Cooper said.
Cooper has introduced legislation, which Parliament is set to consider, this week, that would require May to seek to extend the Brexit process beyond April 12 in order to prevent a no-deal departure.
That's because every automaker operating an auto plant in the United States depends on parts imported from Mexico, said Kristin Dziczek, the vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research.
About 16% of all auto parts used in the United States, both at assembly plants and sold at auto parts stores, originate in Mexico. Virtually all car models in America have Mexican parts, she said. Because of that reliance, she said the auto industry would stop producing vehicles relatively quickly.
"You can't sell cars with missing pieces," she said. "You've got to have them all. I see the whole industry shutdown within a week of a border closing."
President Trump is threatening to close the border within a week as a way to stop illegal immigration. Members of his own administration have told CNNthat he has been warned several times about the economic consequences of a shutdown. One administration official described the effects as "catastrophic" and "a whole world of hurt." But the president continues to contemplate the idea of shutting the border in sections or in its entirety, according to officials.
The auto industry is particularly vulnerable to a border shutdown because it imports $59.4 billion worth of parts from Mexico. It also exports $32.5 billion worth of parts from US automakers and parts manufacturers to assembly plants operating in Mexico. Those exports could be shutdown as well.
When reached for comment about the impact of a possible border closing, Ford(F), GM(GM) and Chrysler(FCAU) referred CNN to a statement from Matt Blunt, the president of the American Automotive Policy Council.
"Any action that stops commerce at the border would be harmful to the US economy, and in particular, the auto industry,"Blunt said."Access to Mexico's marketplace and North American integration are critical to operations in the US."
Blunt saidit's imperative that goods move across the US-Mexican border, and that's one reason why the industry supports the USMCA, the Trump administration's new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that is designed to replace NAFTA.
"USMCA is essential to maintaining the competitiveness of the US auto industry and we are urging Congress to pass it without delay," he said.
But closing the border could halt the very trade that the USMCA agreement is designed to regulate.
Parts makers that supply US assembly lines could shut down, because the auto plants don't have a place to store massive amounts of unused parts. So a shutdown of auto plants will ripple through the broader economy. About 1 million people work at US auto assembly and parts plants, according to Labor Department statistics.
Parts imported from Mexico are typically low cost, labor intensive components that don't make economic sense to build here, Dziczek said. She points to wire harnesses, the collection of wires that carry power throughout a vehicle. She said there are few if any wire harnesses made in the United States, and that more than 70% of wire harnesses come from Mexico. Much of the rest of the harnesses arrive at the US-Mexican border from countries south of Mexico.
"It's one of the first pieces you install when you're assembling a car," she said. "You can't build the whole car and slap the wire harness in later. This is a big critical part that shuts down the assembly line if you don't have it."
But she said there are many other critical parts, from seat belt anchors to engine components that also come from Mexico, and can't be replaced by US factories any time soon.
This story has been updated to include the percentage of Mexican-made auto parts used in production in the United States.
