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Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has promised that an Assembly election will take place in the first three months of 2023 if the impasse at Stormont remains unresolved.

The UK government announced on Wednesday it intended to extend the deadline for calling a fresh election in Northern Ireland and cut the pay of Stormont Assembly members while there is no return to devolved government.

Making a statement in the House of Commons, Mr Heaton-Harris said he will introduce legislation to “provide a short straightforward extension to the period for executive formation”.

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The deadline for Northern Ireland parties to form a fresh power sharing executive ran out on 28 October.

The current law stated Mr Heaton-Harris was obliged to call a fresh election within 12 weeks of the deadline passing – which would be 19 January.

Mr Heaton-Harris told MPs he was now extending the deadline for parties to form an executive by six weeks to 8 December, with the option of a further six-week extension.

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The 12-week clock for calling an election will now come into effect either on 8 December – meaning an election would have to be held by March – or six weeks later on 19 January, meaning a poll would need to be held by April at the latest.

The Northern Ireland secretary told Sky News on Thursday there would be an election in the first three months of next year if the stalemate remains unresolved.

“I’ve given myself two periods of six weeks…that simply means the first three months of next year,” he told Kay Burley.

Probed on whether he is positive that an election will take place in the first three months of next year if needs be, Mr Heaton-Harris replied: “Yes.”

The Northern Ireland secretary added the issues arising from the protocol will be solved by “negotiations” and by “showing trust and respect with the European Commission”.

A Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) boycott of the devolved institutions, in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP), has prevented an administration being formed since the May election earlier this year.

The protocol was aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland but has created economic barriers on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, causing resentment and anger among many unionists and loyalists.

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DUP on why NI election won’t work

Announcing the proposed deadline extension on Wednesday, Mr Heaton-Harris said it “aims to create the time and space needed for talks between the UK and EU to develop and for the Northern Ireland parties to work together to restore the devolved institutions as soon as possible”.

The Northern Ireland secretary did not say by how much he is proposing to reduce pay for members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) while Stormont remains effectively mothballed.

Mr Heaton-Harris also confirmed he will give extra powers to Stormont civil servants to enable them to run the region’s public services as the impasse continues.

The proposals will require legislation to be passed at Westminster to be enacted.

The DUP has refused to return to Stormont until decisive action is taken over the treaty.

Read more:
What is the Northern Ireland Protocol and why does it matter?
Why is there still no assembly and what does Brexit have to do with it?

Responding to the Northern Ireland secretary’s announcement, DUP MLA Edwin Poots said the UK government must recognise that until the protocol is replaced with arrangements that unionists can support there will be no basis to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.

“Our opposition to the protocol is not dependent on salaries. The sooner the government deals with the protocol, the sooner Stormont can be restored,” he said.

While in the Commons, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told Mr Heaton-Harris that while courage, understanding, and compromise are “good words”, what is needed is “a solution that sees the institutions restored on the basis that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom”.

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‘Time wasted’ over Northern Ireland protocol

Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney welcomed the decision saying it allows further space for progress in the EU-UK talks.

“I urge the UK authorities to make use of this renewed opportunity to engage positively, and with real urgency, in the knowledge that the European Commission has listened carefully to the concerns of people across Northern Ireland, including and especially unionists,” he said in a statement.

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But Sinn Fein vice-president Michelle O’Neill said the uncertainty over an election was not good enough.

“What we now have are new deadlines, multiple deadlines, in which he may or may not call an election,” she told reporters at Stormont.

“So this is not a good enough space for people to be in and I think the fundamental question today has to be around what’s next?

“What do the British government intend to do to find an agreed way forward on the protocol?”

Ms O’Neill also questioned why Mr Heaton-Harris had not targeted the pay cut at DUP MLAs who were refusing to engage with the devolved institutions.

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Sinn Fein: NI Protocol ‘problematic’

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Colum Eastwood welcomed the move to cut MLA pay, saying the DUP “have no justifiable reason for hanging about while people’s homes get colder and their cupboards get emptier”.

While Alliance Party leader Naomi Long welcomed “clarity” from the Northern Ireland secretary, but added: “However, the overall picture has not changed. As long as any one party can take the institutions hostage, they will.”

The Northern Ireland secretary confirmed last week that a Stormont election will not be held in December, saying he had listened to “sincere concerns” across the region about the impact and cost of a fresh poll at this time.

The UK government has vowed to secure changes to the agreement, either by way of a negotiated compromise with the EU or through proposed domestic legislation which would enable ministers to scrap the arrangements without the approval of Brussels.

Opponents have likened the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to “placing a gun on the table” at talks with the EU aimed at finding a solution, arguing it breaks international law as well as risking a trade war.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

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Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

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US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

More on Russia

General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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