Mehreen Khan
@MehreenKhn
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Economics Editor @thetimes and co-host of the @heroesandhumans football podcast. Views are mine but we can occasionally share them.
Joined January 2009
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EU journalists walking out of a Macron - Metsola press conference which will take no questions from the media
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Rutte's going to go back in a few mins to collect the pennies
World leaders toss a coin at Trevi for good luck fighting the climate emergency
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Finland's prime minister says her government is withdrawing lockdown restrictions forcing people to stay at home after they were deemed illegal by the country's constitutional committe
Hallitus katsoo, että perustuslakivaliokunnan lausunnon vuoksi esitys liikkumisvapauden ja lähikontaktien väliaikaisesta rajoittamisesta on vedettävä pois eduskunnasta. Asiasta järjestetään vielä tänään ylimääräinen valtioneuvoston istunto.
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Egypt's military dictator receiving France's highest honour, the legion d'honneur, in Paris in the presence of Macron who also threw Sisi a gala dinner. Images all courtesy of Egyptian regime as they were not provided by the Élysée to French press
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🚨 Moody's rating agency tonight warns the UK's new fiscal policy regime is "credit negative".
"A sustained confidence shock arising from market concerns over the credibility of the government's fiscal strategy...could permanently weaken the UK's debt affordability"
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Juncker told his commissioners that Boris Johnson only really "understood what the single market means" in the Luxembourg lunch. EU officials wondering whether PM actually grasps what it means to replace the backstop. Today's
@ftbrussels
briefing ~
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EU27 ambassadors had a perfunctory meeting with Michel Barnier this morning (it's Sunday after all). EU noted the British extension request. From one diplomat:
"The best that can be said this morning: nobody was found dead in a ditch."
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🔔🔔 Here is the letter Boris Johnson has sent to Brussels tonight saying an extension would "damage" interests of the EU and UK
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A win for pro-Catalan leader
@junqueras
. The ECJ's advocate general issues an opinion saying he is an MEP - despite being barred from taking office. Will likely open a debate about how the EP applies immunity rules should any final judgement follow suit
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French Muslims must be pretty flattered that in a middle of global pandemic and even a European Council, Emmanuel Macron has taken the time out to tell them all how they should stop becoming Islamist separatists.
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After more than five hours of Macron in the plenary, having Metsola and he repeat press statements with no questions is a waste of time. Designed only to ensure the new EP president gets her photo op with Macron with the nice flags
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Life comes at you fast: Geert Wilders, chief proponent of the Netherlands burka ban, says he doesn't want to live in a country where the government tells you what you can or can't wear (masks)
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The French government has ordered the dissolution of the largest NGO that documents racist and Islamophobic attacks against French Muslims
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EU energy crisis splits in brief:
-- EU action now: 🇫🇷🇪🇸🇬🇷🇷🇴🇨🇿
-- Anglo-Saxon ETS to blame: 🇵🇱🇭🇺🇨🇿🇪🇸🇧🇬
-- Need EU joint gas procurement: 🇮🇹🇪🇸
-- Make nuclear green: 🇫🇷🇨🇿
-- Relax, it will be over soon: 🇩🇪🇳🇱🇩🇰🇫🇮🇦🇹🇱🇺🇸🇪🇧🇪🇵🇹
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Poland and Hungary have vetoed an EU decision on lifting the bloc's own resources ceiling this afternoon and thus blocking ratification of the €1.8tn recovery package. In the words of one senior diplomat, this means "we are in a crisis"
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Deutsche Bank doubling down on their call for an emergency Bank of England rate rise next: “A large, inter-meeting rate hike from the Bank of England as soon as next week to regain credibility with the market…And, a strong signal that it willing to do “whatever it takes””
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Happy new year from Planet Brussels where this has just landed in some people's inboxes 🎁
#taxonomy
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EU economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni walked out of a G20 meeting in Washington today when Russian finance minister (dialling in) spoke. Yellen and Sunak not attending some sessions in protest over Russia's war in Ukraine
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Former Dutch central bank governor Nout Wellink says his government should back coronabonds: "We are no longer a rich north if the whole south fails"
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Seems the Elysee insisted on some form of press statement (with no questions) rather than simply cancelling the press conference altogether. EP officials left annoyed at the overshadowing of what should have been start of a new president's term and mandate
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New: Moody's rating agency changes its outlook on the UK to negative tonight. This follows in the wake of S&P who did a similar outlook change three weeks ago in the aftermath of the mini budget
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R.I.P Commissioner for "Protecting our European Way of Life".
@vonderleyen
has agreed to strip
@MargSchinas
of the job title after MEPs accused commission of using dog-whistling language of the far-right
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🔔 Personal news cliche: today is my last day at
@ftbrussels
after four rollercoaster years covering the EU. Thanks to all the brilliant colleagues in the press room and the bubble for making it so memorable!
What a sadness to see
@MehreenKhn
leave
#Brussels
. Her impressive knowledge, directness, sense of synthesis, impeccable sourcing as well as her sharpness for pointing at the several blind spots conventional EU reporting suffers from is an immense loss for journalism in this town
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“The market is giving very strong signals that it is no longer willing to fund the UK’s external deficit position at the current configuration of UK real yields and exchange rate” - DB’s Saravelos
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Michel Barnier, who denounced Brexit as a vote driven by Britain's imperial nostalgia, now openly celebrating France's "great" colonial history
Notre pays est un grand pays, avec une grande Histoire. Je ne suis pas dans la repentance, je ne m'excuserai pas pour notre Histoire.
Nous avons une présence dans le monde entier grâce à l'Outre-Mer. La France est une grande puissance et le restera !
#DebatdelaDroite
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The EU's highest court has today again upheld the right of employers to sack Muslim women from their jobs for wearing the headscarf if justified by notion of "neutrality". The ECJ also seems to admit that this is a form of discrimination 🤷♀️
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🔔After Sebastian Kurz's broadsides against the EU and demands for a vaccine correction mechanism, the EU is now considering ways to send extra vaccines to hard hit countries - excluding Austria
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That feeling when Macron keeps you up until 2am in the morning blocking accession talks and then wants an 8am breakfast to complain about the European Parliament blocking his ambitions for Europe 😕
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EU Commission has slashed its forecast for EU economy this year to a 8.3% from May estimate of 7.4%. In order of severity (%):
🇮🇹 -11.2
🇪🇸 -10.9
🇭🇷-10.8
🇫🇷-10.6
🇵🇹 -9.8
🇬🇷-9.0
🇸🇰-9.0
🇧🇪-8.8
🇮🇪-8.5
🇨🇿-7.8
🇪🇪 -7.7
🇨🇾-7.7
🇧🇬 -7.1
🇱🇹-7.1
🇦🇹-7.1
🇱🇻-7.0
🇸🇮-7.0
🇭🇺-7.0
🇳🇱-6.8
🇩🇪-6.3
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President
@vonderleyen
announces a commission that is "as diverse as Europe is". Everyone is white
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47 years of lost in translation. History will show that the final words ever uttered by the EU to the UK ambassador before Brexit were "thank you, goodbye and good riddance"
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Deutsche Bank expect eurozone GDP to contract 11.4% in the second quarter of 2020. Broken down country-by-country (cumulative change in GDP between Q1 and Q2):
🇪🇸 -20.1%
🇮🇹 -16.3%
🇬🇧 -15.1%
🇫🇷 -14.8%
🇩🇪 -12.2%
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Having spent a good few years pointing out the deep seated prejudices of Europe's "progressives", "liberals" and "centrists", this conflict has been a remarkably useful in smoking out Islamophobes and their true feelings about their Muslim populations
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck jabbed Muslim groups and threatened deportations while expressing concern over rising antisemitism in Germany.
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Moody's the first of the major rating agencies to issue a UK warning following the mini-budgrt. It is not a credit downgrade but revision of their forecast: "We do not expect growth to return to its potential until 2026"
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For anyone still interested, the EU's Conference on the Future of Europe has abandoned the idea of a single president in favour of having 6 presidents instead (three honorary presidents and three executive presidents). EU job creation scheme ftw
#sixpresidentsreport
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Dutch public opinion and even its economic establishment not as universally opposed to coronabonds. Even "hawkish" central bank chief Knott distances himself from Rutte's gov and calls for solidarity with the south.
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Eurozone heading for its worst GDP contraction on record at 7.75% this year according to
@EU_Commission
forecasts. In order of magnitude for 2020:
🇬🇷 -9.7%
🇮🇹 -9.5%
🇪🇸 -9.4%
🇫🇷 -8.2%
🇮🇪 -7.9%
🇱🇹 -7.9%
🇨🇾-7.4%
🇧🇪 -7.2%
🇱🇻 -7%
🇸🇮 -7%
🇪🇪 -6.9%
🇵🇹 -6.8%
🇳🇱 -6.8%
🇸🇰 -6.7%
🇩🇪 -6.5%
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🚨S&P Ratings downgrade their outlook on the UK to "negative" from stable tonight.
"The negative outlook primarily reflects what we view as rising risks to the UK's fiscal position over the next two years."
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Macron wants to centralise Islam with state approved imams, institutions, and texts. If he succeeds, it would make France the rightful heir to the Ottoman Empire and the first Caliphate in western Europe. He will succeed where the Muslim Brotherhood failed. I'm living for it tbh
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Quite remarkable. The slur "Islamo-Gauchisme" used to be a far-right conspiracy theory. It's now used by gov ministers to stigmatize political opponents and is widespread in media. Echoes with "judeo-Bolshevism" are hard to miss
Le ministre de l'Education nationale, Jean-Michel Blanquer, dénonce "l'islamo-gauchisme" qui "fait des ravages à l'université"
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Austria's bluff over blocking potential 100m in additional Pfizer vaccines for the EU has been called in Brussels today. The commission has told EU diplomats today that the deal for the additional doses has been signed, sealed and will be delivered despite Vienna's threats
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Not saying there is lots of bad blood around after
#euco
but an EU official has just suggested that France should impose a tax on Dutch caravans at the border 🚌🚌
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Garlanding of Sisi by Macron comes in days after the EU agreed a "Magnitsky Act" for targeted sanctions on regimes for international human rights abuses. And a day before the French government put out a draft law to fight "Islamist separatism" and "reinforce Republican values"
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@MacaesBruno
That moment when you realise you're not Islamophobic enough for the French government
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Seems like the private consultants Von der Leyen hires for social media advice weren't able to tell her that appearing in a party political campaign video for Croatia's HDZ on the eve of elections is probably not a good idea
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@ftbrussels
Juncker in Strasbourg this morning: "Not everybody understands why the backstop was agreed". Wonder who he means👀👀
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Mark Rutte is closer to resigning as PM than at any point in his 11 years. Dutch parliament holding a debate now and likely vote of no confidence in Rutte tonight after he was caught lying about having a prominent gov critic - Pieter Omtzigt - as a minister in a new coalition
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BoE deputy governor says the Bank was given no briefing/forewarning on the contents of Kwarteng's mini-budget before it was announced
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🔔 Dutch election exit poll (Ipsos) shows Rutte's VVD to win most seats at 35 (up from 32). Big big winners are the pro-EU D66 who rocket to 2nd with 27 seats from 19. Wilders falls to third place losing seats to 17 from 20.
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Commission and
@vonderleyen
were due to deliver a "roadmap" for an exit strategy from coronavirus tomorrow but were slapped down by member states today - 🇮🇹 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 in particular who said they were not consulted. Wednesday's college meeting has now been downgraded to a "debate"
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‼️ And there it is. The yield on the 30-year gilt has surpassed the level it hit before the Bank of England’s emergency intervention after the mini-budget. Now at 5.01%
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Barnier saves his toughest words in Strasbourg for City of London. EU equivalence decision is not a negotiation: "I want to make it clear to certain people in the UK that they should not kid themselves about this. There will not be general open-ended" negotiations for fin serv
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An official from Rutte's VVD party once told me that if they needed to ramp up popularity ahead of elections they can activate a fallback plan called the "three M's: Money, Migrants and Morroccans". Four months to go before election day:
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After threatening to jump in his helicopter and leave last night, Macron spent dinner session tonight ticking off (almost yelling) at the Frugals, telling them that France and Germany are the big payers who have built the EU that the Frugos benefit from
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German Greens have won the right to propose the country's next EU commissioner. There has been an expectation that VDL would serve two terms. It's a canny move which will mean VDL will feel obliged to keep Greens on side for next 2.5 years.
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For those who think the EU has no sense of humour: the Czech Republic is rewarded for blocking the first proposal by having its additional vaccines share cut from around 140k to 70k. The missing 70k would be distributed to its allies in Austria and Slovenia.
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Karlsruhe demanding an impact assessment from ECB is the most EU thing ever
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NEW: Andrew Bailey and Kwasi Kwarteng attended a meeting of the G7 counterparts in Washington this afternoon, where their counterparts, led by Janet Yellen, made a number of "backhanded" swipes at events in the UK
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A tale of two cultures: the EU budget's net recipients hold massive leaders summit in Portugal to find common line. The Frugals: Skype session.
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EU27 ambassadors have been briefed on Brexit state of play by Michel Barnier today. Still no ideas on table from Brits over the backstop. Mood towards UK turning glum in Brussels. One participant says it's v clear that EU - UK relations will be v difficult to manage from here
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Breaking: EU Copyright directive passes - 348 votes to 274
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The European Parliament's main groups have backed a resolution saying they "do not accept" and "deplore" the deal on the budget ..."as it stands" 🤔
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💥Boom there it is: Commission confirms it will try to find ways to avoid member state veto on tax affairs, including use of Article 116 to go after multinational tax avoidance. No coincidence this is coming on
#Apple
day
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The EU's recovery fund is dead. "We now call it the recovery initiative" says commission spokesman
@MamerEric
🤷
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EU leaders finishing 1st round of
#euco
interventions (they've been told to send an SMS if they want to speak again). So far:
- 🇫🇷🇮🇹🇬🇷🇪🇸 🇵🇹want grants from recovery fund ~€1-1.5tn
- Frugals, led by 🇸🇪: no grants and no trillion camp
- 🇩🇪 avoided g-word but wants "huge" effort
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An excitable EU diplomat on a Saturday night: "the greatest soap opera ever" (!!)
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Official government Twitter accounts inciting pile-ons and witchhunts against anti-racism campaigners. Again, the rule of law is not simply an "eastern" problem in the EU (
@_MarwanMuhammad
)
La France 🇫🇷 se bat contre le racisme sous toutes ses formes dont celui qui vise les musulmans, n'en déplaise à l'activiste islamiste se faisant passer pour un défenseur des droits des musulmans -
@_MarwanMuhammad
⬇️
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First time he went to visit, Macron spent most of it wondering where the rest of Rutte's office is
Dans le bureau de Mark Rutte, Premier ministre des Pays-Bas.
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Wow. Barnier eviscerating the Brits over the state of talks.
1. Reneging on level playing field, with UK saying two sides are "too far apart to reach an agreement"
2. Brits deviating from data privacy standards
3. No progress on fishing
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Mark Rutte after
#euco
: "I cannot forsee any circumstances in which the Netherlands will accept eurobonds. This is against the design of the EMU"
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The EU is once again being accused of being a clandestine Islamist plot puppeteered by the "Muslim Brotherhood" because there is a Muslim women on a poster for the Conference on the Future of Europe 👏
Le choix d’une femme voilée pour illustrer une conférence «sur l’avenir de l’Europe» laisse sans voix.
Les Frères Musulmans n’osaient pas en rêver, les idiots utiles l’ont fait.
Je combattrai pour ma part de toutes mes forces pour éviter un tel avenir à l’
#Europe
.
#islamisme
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And yes, the EU Council's top lawyer is called Hubert Legal. No-one does nominative determinism quite like the EU
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Austria's Arnautovic used his goal celebration against North Macedonia to go on a racist hate fuelled rant against Albanians. David Alaba, teammate, told him to STFU
So we realize Arnautovic flashed the "white power" symbol and then went on a racist (allegedly anti-Albanian) rant, right?
#EURO2020
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New: European Commission wants to go after it low-tax member states using a treaty article that will rob countries of individual vetoes. Part of a push to attack sweetheart tax arrangements in wake of Covid-19
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The BoE's Andrew Bailey and a senior Treasury official also left the room along with US and Canadian representatives
#g20
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Juncker, we're going to miss him: "I don't like the idea that the European way of life is opposed to migration. Accepting those that come from far away is part of the European way of life"
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French draft law against separatism would ban practice of "virginity tests". In 2011 Amnesty International condemned El-Sisi for defending the widespread use of virginity tests on women as a way to protect the army from rape accusations
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Two of the four ruling parties in the Netherlands have now distanced themselves with Rutte/Hoekstra on the EU response to the coronacrisis. Leader of the Christian Union junior coalition partner calls for an EU Marshall Plan for southern Europe
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Look who's back: Jean Claude Junkcer has been named as "special adviser" to EU budget commissioner Johannes Hahn...🙄
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🔔 The European Parliament's main pro-Europe groups say they will veto any future UK-EU trade deal if the Withdrawal Agreement is not respected
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Winning tweet of the night
You’re all thinking: another extension. I am thinking: another three weeks listening to Farage
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“If you’re a woman working in economics from a non-Ivy League university saying something outside the mainstream, the presumption is that you don’t understand basic economics." A chat with
@IsabellaMWeber
who is rightly getting the plaudits she deserves
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Macron ramps up pressure on the UK: "We have a European renaissance to run and I don’t want Brexit to come and block us on this. The time for decision is now… it’s with lots of impatience that I am going to listen to Theresa May. Nothing is decided"
#euco
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Theresa May thinks people who have English as a 2nd language can't actually speak English. Good luck in Brussels
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