'Unsafe and unprofessional'
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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/07/politics/us-russia-navy-near-collision-intl/index.html
2019-06-07 14:31:00Z
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CNN's Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.
CNN's Mary Ilyushina contributed to this report.
LONDON – If all had gone to plan, Britain would be starting its first summer out of the European Union and Prime Minister Theresa May would be looking forward to a well-earned vacation.
Instead, May steps down Friday as leader of a Conservative Party in turmoil and a country in limbo — half in, half out of the EU. She will remain as caretaker prime minister for a few weeks during a party leadership contest to choose her successor.
May will be remembered as the latest in a long line of Conservative leaders destroyed by the party's divisions over Europe, and as a prime minister who failed in her primary mission: to lead Britain out of the EU. But history may also see her as a leader who faced a devilishly difficult situation with stubborn determination.
The daughter of a rural Anglican vicar, May attended Oxford University and worked in financial services before being elected to Parliament in 1997.
She was quiet and diligent, but also ambitious. One university friend later recalled that May hoped to be Britain's first female prime minister, and "was quite irritated when Margaret Thatcher got there first."
She was not a natural political campaigner; her stiff public appearances as prime minister landed her the nickname "The Maybot." Her only touches of flamboyance are a fondness for bold outfits and accessories like brightly patterned kitten-heel shoes.
But she soon established a reputation for solid competence and a knack for vanquishing flashier rivals.
May served for six years in the notoriously thankless job of home secretary, responsible for borders, immigration and law and order. In 2016, she beat flashier and better-known politicians to become Britain's second female prime minister.
May was the surprise winner of a Conservative leadership contest triggered when Prime Minister David Cameron stepped down after voters rejected his advice to remain in the EU, instead voting 52%-48% to leave.
In her first speech as prime minister in July 2016, May sketched out plans for an ambitious policy agenda. She spoke of giving the poor a helping hand and lifting barriers to social mobility.
But Brexit soon crowded out almost all other policies.
Like Cameron, May had campaigned to remain, but in office she became a champion of Brexit. "Brexit means Brexit" became her mantra — a meaningless one, said her detractors, as it emerged that undoing 45 years of ties with the bloc would be a fraught and complex process.
Attempting to win the support of Conservative Brexiteers suspicious of her past pro-EU leanings, May set out firm red lines in negotiations with the EU: Britain would leave the bloc's single market and customs union and end the right of EU citizens to live and work in the U.K.
For a time, May's resolve helped her unite the warring factions of her party, which for decades has been divided over policy toward Europe.
But she then gambled on a snap election in June 2017, in an attempt to bolster her slim majority in Parliament and strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations with the EU.
The move backfired. May ran a lackluster campaign on a platform that included plans to cut benefits to pensioners and change the way they pay for long-term care — quickly dubbed a "dementia tax." The Conservatives lost their majority, and May had to strike a deal with 10 lawmakers from Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party to stay in power.
The DUP's support became a complication when the border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland emerged as a major issue in Brexit negotiations. The unionist party strongly opposed special measures to ensure the border remained free of customs posts and other barriers, worrying they might weaken the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.
May pressed on and in November 2018 struck a divorce agreement with the EU, setting out the terms of Britain's departure and establishing a transition period of almost two years for the two sides to work out their future relations.
All that remained was for the British and European Parliaments to ratify it. And that is where May's best-laid plans came undone.
Her careful compromise of an agreement was rejected by both sides of the Brexit debate. Brexiteers felt it gave too much away and left Britain bound to EU rules. Pro-EU lawmakers wanted a softer Brexit that kept close economic ties to the bloc. In January, May's deal was rejected by 230 votes, the biggest government defeat in British parliamentary history.
Whatever her flaws, May was no quitter. Late last year she likened herself to Geoffrey Boycott, a cricketer who was famous for his dull but effective batting style.
"Geoffrey Boycott stuck to it and he got the runs in the end," she said.
She tried again to get her Brexit deal approved, losing by 149 votes. A third attempt narrowed the margin of defeat to 48.
She tried talks with the Labour Party about securing a compromise, but managed only to further alienate her own lawmakers with her concessions to the opposition. A promise to let Parliament vote on whether to hold a new EU membership referendum was the final straw.
Most Conservatives, even those sympathetic to her plight, concluded that May was the problem and would have to leave before Brexit could be sorted out.
Now almost a dozen Conservative lawmakers are competing to succeed her as Conservative leader and prime minister. Party members and lawmakers are scheduled to choose the winner by the end of July.
The leading candidates, including Brexit champion Boris Johnson, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, all vow to succeed where she has failed and lead Britain into the sunlit uplands outside the EU.
Only May, perhaps, knows how hard that will be.
"To succeed he or she will have to find consensus in Parliament where I have not," May said in her May 24 resignation statement. "Such a consensus can only be reached if those on all sides of the debate are willing to compromise."
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Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit
Deirdre Shesgreen USA TODAY
Published 7:56 AM EDT Jun 7, 2019
WASHINGTON – The biggest flashpoint in the U.S.-Mexico negotiations over tariffs and immigration revolves around asylum – specifically which country should be responsible for absorbing the desperate migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
The Trump administration wants Mexico to agree to take almost every asylum seeker that crosses into Mexico – pushing the Mexican government to sign an agreement that would essentially bar Central American migrants from trying to gain asylum in the United States.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has resisted that step so far, although there were signs Thursday that Mexican negotiators might relent.
If that happens, the U.S. and Mexico could sign a little-known treaty – called a safe third-country agreement – that would carry huge implications for immigration in both countries.
“That’s probably the most important demand that we have of Mexico,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors stronger limits on immigration.
Migrants generally must seek asylum in the first country they reach after fleeing their homeland – but only if that country is considered safe. If it’s not safe, migrants can pass through – as they’re doing in Mexico right now – and apply in the next country they reach, in this case the United States.
If Mexico agrees to be designated as a safe third-party country, the U.S. could deny the asylum claims of virtually all the Central American migrants now seeking refuge in the U.S.
American immigration authorities could “turn them around and send them back” to Mexico, Krikorian said. He has accused Mexico of being an “asylum free rider” by enacting liberal asylum laws but steering most refugees to the U.S. border.
Designating Mexico as a safe asylum country “would really take away most of the incentive” for migrants to trek across Mexico to the U.S. border, Krikorian said.
But immigration advocates say Mexico’s asylum system is already overwhelmed, and the country is not safe – particularly for vulnerable migrants. Trump’s own State Department has advised Americans not to travel to five Mexican states, citing rampant and often violent crime.
“Robberies, extortion, kidnapping ... these are common situations,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst with the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group devoted to stronger protections for immigrants.
The council recently conducted a survey of migrant mothers detained in Mexico, and 90% said they did not feel safe. Nearly half of the 500 women said that they or their child had been robbed, sexually assaulted, threatened or subject to other harm.
“The Mexican police and state agencies charged with providing security are often the very actors robbing migrants, charging them fees in order to pass, or handing them over to criminal groups who tax or victimize migrants,” Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas, wrote in a 2018 analysis of the issue.
She and others note that Mexico has already moved to take in more refugees. Asylum requests have increased each of the past five years, with the nation on track to reach nearly 60,000 in 2019, nearly double the number from the year before, according to data from the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance.
Leutert said Mexico’s government institutions are too weak to absorb more migrants than they’re already taking in.
“I think the U.S. should be working with Mexico more on these issues and not pushing all this enforcement onto a country that doesn’t” have the resources to handle it, she said in an interview.
Krikorian says the U.S. might need to offer Mexico financial assistance in exchange for an asylum agreement.
“I think we should combine carrots along with the sticks,” he said, referring to President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on all Mexican imports if the Obrador government does not stop the flow of migrants.
Indeed, Obrador has called for the U.S. to help Mexico address the root causes of the migrant crisis – urging the Trump administration to help foot the bill for economic development and other initiatives aimed at relieving the crippling poverty and corruption in Guatemala, Honduras and other Central American countries.
“The U.S. stance is centered on immigration control measures, while our focus is on development,” Roberto Velasco, a spokesman for the Mexican Foreign Ministry, tweeted on Thursday evening. “We have not yet reached an agreement but continue to negotiate.”
Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard declined to comment Thursday on the prospect of a safe third-country agreement. And the White House did not respond to questions about the Trump administration’s demands for that.
But Krikorian said a fat financial aid package could go a long way in persuading Mexico to accede to Trump’s demand.
“We can make it worth Mexico’s while, in combination with a stick that if they don’t take our more money that they’re going to suffer some consequences,” he said.
Contributing: Alan Gomez
A Russian warship and a US warship have come close to collision in the western Pacific Ocean, with each side blaming the other for the incident.
Russia's Pacific Fleet said the cruiser USS Chancellorsville crossed just 50 metres (160ft) in front of the destroyer Admiral Vinogradov at 06:35 Moscow time (03:35 GMT).
It was forced to perform "emergency manoeuvring" to avoid the US ship.
But US forces blamed the Russians, claiming their ship was responsible.
US Seventh Fleet Commander Clayton Doss called the Russians "unsafe and unprofessional", saying their destroyer "made an unsafe manoeuvre against USS Chancellorsville". He dismissed the Russian allegation as "propaganda".
Admiral Vinogradov came within 50 to 100 feet (15m-30m) of the USS Chancellorsville in the Philippine Sea, the US said.
The Russian Pacific Fleet meanwhile said the incident took place in the southeast of the East China Sea, and added they had sent a message of protest to the US ship's commanders.
Both countries regularly accuse the other of dangerous military manoeuvres - at sea and in the air.
In November, the US posted footage of a Russian jet intercepting one of its planes over the Black Sea - a move they called "irresponsible", but which the Russians said was to stop "a violation of Russian airspace".
CNN's Kate Sullivan, Jeremy Diamond and Kaitlin Collins contributed to this report.