‘What about Corsica in France?’ – Raab attacks EU leaders ‘who see N Ireland as different to UK’

Published

5 years ago

June 13, 2021

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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called for “a bit of respect” from EU leaders as he claimed the bloc’s senior figures “serially” talk about Northern Ireland “as if it were somehow a different country from the UK”.

The UK and EU are currently at loggerheads over the implementation of post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland – known as the Northern Ireland Protocol – ahead of the end of a “grace period” for some border checks at the end of this month.

The row has threatened to overshadow the UK’s hosting of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, this weekend – during which Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed some in the EU needed to “get into their heads” that the UK is a single country.

The prime minister’s ire is reported to have been raised during his bilateral talks with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday morning.

Mr Johnson is said to have attempted to explain his frustration with the protocol by asking what Mr Macron would do if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris.

The French president was claimed to have responded by arguing the comparison did not work because Paris and Toulouse were both part of the same country, thereby suggesting Northern Ireland is not within the UK.

Asked by Sky News at the G7 summit if those reports were true, Mr Raab said “as a matter of diplomatic profession” he would not “spill the beans”.

But he added: “No one should be surprised by these reports and it’s not just one figure.

“We have serially seen senior EU figures talk about Northern Ireland as if it were somehow a different country from the UK.

“That is not only offensive, it has real world effects on the communities in Northern Ireland – it creates great concern, great consternation.

“Could you imagine if we talked about Catalonia, the Flemish part of Belgium, one of the Lander in Germany, northern Italy, Corsica in France as different countries?

“We need a bit of respect here and also, frankly, a bit of appreciation of the situation for all communities in Northern Ireland.”

Mr Raab claimed the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol had been “very lopsided”, which had had “real life effects” on people in Northern Ireland.

Politics

OKX reports trading increase after expansion into US, EU

Published

14 mins ago

December 23, 2025

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OKX reports trading increase after expansion into US, EU

Crypto exchange OKX said volume in its licensed and regulated markets increased 53-fold in 2025, driven by its expansion into the United States and the European Economic Area.

Citing internal data, the exchange said daily active wallets doubled over the past year, with an average of about 190,000 new wallets created each day, while decentralized exchange volume on its platform rose 262% globally and centralized trading increased 16% over the same period.

The company attributed its market growth to an operating model focused on licensed access to regulated markets. OKX expanded across the European Economic Area in January after receiving a license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, or MiCA.

In the United States, the exchange noted that its April market entry coincided with several positive regulatory developments, including the passage of the GENIUS Act and steps by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to charter crypto-native trust banks.

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Data from CoinMarketCap place OKX fourth globally among cryptocurrency exchanges, using rankings that weigh factors such as platform traffic, liquidity, reported trading volume and confidence in volume authenticity.

In December, OKX was among several cryptocurrency exchanges blocked in Belarus after the Ministry of Information restricted access to their global websites, citing violations related to “inappropriate advertising” under the country’s Law on Mass Media.

Coinbase, Kraken, MiCA, OKX, Bybit, Genius Act — *Top crypto spot exchanges. Source:* *CoinMarketCap*

Top exchanges secure licensing in Europe

The MiCA legislation created a single licensing regime for crypto service providers across the bloc and became fully applicable to exchanges in December 2024. Since then, several major platforms have moved to secure approvals that allow them to passport services across the European Economic Area.

In 2025, Bybit received authorization from Austria’s Financial Market Authority and established Vienna as its European headquarters, while Coinbase obtained a MiCA license a month later from Luxembourg and designated the country as its regional base.

Kraken followed with approval from the Central Bank of Ireland, building on earlier MiFID and electronic money licenses, and Gemini secured authorization from Malta’s Financial Services Authority in August, according to regulatory records.

In the US, the passage of the GENIUS Act in July established a federal framework governing stablecoin issuance and use. Since then, the stablecoin market has grown to more than $310 billion, with US dollar–backed tokens Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC) together accounting for about 85% of total supply, according to data from DefiLlama.