Six In The Morning Thursday 24 December 2020

 

UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

No 10 says ‘we have taken back control’, after years of tortuous talks end in historic settlement allowing tariff-free trade in goods

Daniel Boffey in Brussels and Lisa O'Carroll in London

Thu 24 Dec 2020 15.55 GMT

A historic deal on the UK’s future trading and security relationship with the European Union has been struck on Christmas Eve, a week before the end of the Brexit transition period, triggering a victory cry from Downing Street and sombre reflection in Brussels.

As the country leaves the single market and customs union on 31 December, new arrangements allowing for tariff-free trade in goods and close police and judicial cooperation will come into force.

The announcement followed a final call between Boris Johnson in Downing Street and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in her Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels – at least the fifth such telephone conversation over the last 24 hours.

Pakistan court orders release of British-born man charged with beheading Daniel Pearl

Pakistan’s supreme court is scheduled to hear the appeal against Sheikh’s acquittal in January 2021 

Mayank Aggarwal@journomayank

A Pakistan court has ordered the release of British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a key suspect in 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

Sheikh was sentenced to death for his role in the plot but earlier this year Pakistan’s Sindh High Court acquitted him and three others – a decision that was opposed by many, including Pearl’s family. But even after that, they were kept in custody by the government while the appeal was being filed against the acquittal.  

However, on Thursday, the Sindh High Court ordered Sheikh’s overturned the government’s detention order and ordered their release while calling the provincial government’s detention orders illegal.

'Iran’s Hidden Slaughter': a video investigation

Between November 15 and 18, 2019, hundreds of people were killed in Iran when the government cracked down on protests that had been sparked by a hike in petrol prices. The government shut down phone lines and internet access, but hundreds of videos emerged showing uniformed soldiers and police shooting unarmed civilians. The Observers team reviewed more than 750 amateur videos and photos, focusing on the images that showed gunshots and injuries.

As the protests spread to cities across the country on November 16, the government put in place what the monitoring group NetBlocks called “a near-total national Internet shutdown.”

One man who had joined the protests in Shahriar, a working-class suburb of Tehran, told the Observers: “I took lots of photos and videos, but the Internet was shut down so I couldn’t share them online. In the end I had to erase them because the police were stopping people in the street and checking their cellphones.”

Despite the government’s efforts, hundreds of video and photos circulated widely during and after the internet shutdown, especially on Telegram, the messaging app popular in Iran.

‘Blood cheaper than water’: Outrage over Trump Blackwater pardons

Iraqis express anger after Trump pardoned four guards convicted in the 2007 Baghdad massacre that killed at least 14 civilians.

US President Donald Trump’s issuance of pardons for security guards convicted of killing at least 14 Iraqi civilians in a 2007 Baghdad massacre has caused international uproar, including in Iraq where people expressed outrage and sadness.

Trump issued pardons for the four Blackwater security contractors who were convicted of murder and manslaughter six years ago.

Japan's top court gives retrial hope for man who spent almost 50 years on death row

By Emiko Jozuka, CNN

Updated 0430 GMT (1230 HKT) December 24, 2020

Japan's Supreme Court has overturned a ruling blocking the retrial of an 84-year-old man who spent almost half a century on death row awaiting the hangman's call over the murder of a family of four, his lawyer told CNN Thursday.

Former professional boxer Iwao Hakamada -- declared the world's longest-serving death row inmate by Guinness World Records in 2014 -- was accused of robbery, arson and the murder of his boss, his boss' wife and their two children in 1966. The family was found stabbed to death in their incinerated home in Shizuoka, central Japan.

US parties wrangle in Congress after Trump shuns Covid stimulus bill

Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress have blocked each other's attempts to amend a vital $2.3 trillion (£1.7tn) stimulus package, after President Trump asked for changes.

The bill combines coronavirus economic relief with federal spending, and had been agreed by both sides.

But Mr Trump said one-off payments to Americans should increase from $600 to $2,000, and foreign aid should be cut.