MPs are understood to have begged the parliamentary watchdog to reimburse their expensive ski holidays after the February recess was cancelled to tackle the Brexit chaos. The Commons had been expected to rise at the end of business on February 14 and return on February 25. But on Thursday the government confirmed they would not […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump expressed optimism on Thursday about high-level trade talks with Chinese officials in Washington but said no final deal would be made until he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the near future. The United States and China opened a pivotal round of talks on Wednesday aimed at […]

Below the calm surface, a sense of fear and anger is simmering at the place where the backstop stops. Middletown nestles in the hills of Co Armagh on the border with Ireland’s Co Monaghan. Its name is apt, as it is caught in the middle of a history-defining stand-off between the UK and the EU. […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican and Democratic members of Congress will open negotiations on Wednesday in search of a deal to fund the government and address border security, including the construction of a wall demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump. The team of negotiators from the House of Representatives and the Senate have less than three […]

Hillary Clinton is not running for president again in 2020 — and her ex-campaign chair seems quite sure of that. John Podesta said as much in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Tuesday. “First of all, I love her. I wish she was president,” Podesta said. “She would have been a great president, but she […]

Capitol Hill negotiators are hopeful of an agreement as they officially kick off talks on a homeland security spending bill that has been trapped in a stalemate over President Donald Trump‘s long-stalled border wall. The impasse led to the nation’s longest government shutdown. Left on their own, the seasoned House and Senate lawmakers say they […]

Stacey Abrams, the rising political star who marshaled the power of black women voters but narrowly lost the Georgia governor’s race, will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, congressional Democrats said Tuesday. The choice elevates Abrams in Democratic politics as the party looks to keep core supporters, such […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon is planning to send thousands more troops back to the U.S. border with Mexico, acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Tuesday, as Democrats in Congress questioned the merits of a mission that had declined in size. The U.S. military says the new deployment will be largely on top […]

Voting against her own Brexit plan is desperate even for the Queen of Bizarre, Theresa May. Nothing better illustrates her humiliating status of impotent follower than the cowed Prime Minister pretending she’d be able to rewrite swiftly a draft deal she personally negotiated with our European neighbours over nearly two months. This is phantom politics […]

The pound fell after MPs defeated a bid to delay the UK’s departure from the EU if no Brexit deal is in place. Growing expectations that Britain can avoid a nodeal have fuelled a 3% rally in the pound this month against the dollar and the euro. But sterling tumbled after MPs voted down a proposal to wrest […]