... The first piece of reality to bite was when the President of the European Council Donald Tusk ruled out striking a UK-EU Free Trade Agreement within the two year divorce proceedings. Mr. Tusk, backed up by the European Council, European Commission and all 27 loyal members of the European Union made it quite clear before any talks could even begin on the subject of a future UK-EU Free Trade Agreement the issues of «people, money and Ireland» would have to be sorted out. The divorce bill for Britain to leave the EU and honour it's budgetary and contractual obligations has risen sharply and now Brussels is calculating it could be anywhere between 80-100 billion Euros. I think this will be the sticking point at which no deal is reached given the slippery nature of the British State in honouring its financial commitments...

... Last weekend the 27 EU leaders - Theresa May was not present - approved within a minute or so the guidelines for the EU's negotiation of Brexit first issued on 31 March by President of the European Council Donald Tusk. EU officials said leaders burst into applause as the negotiating stance was waved through. The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said: «We are ready... we are together». As outgoing French President Francois Hollande said there would inevitably be «a price and a cost for the UK - it's the choice that was made». This is after all, what the British people voted for, so let them have it. I suspect there will be no deal at the end of the two year talks due to my belief that I can not envisage the UK honouring its financial contractual commitments. Thus, the UK will come crashing out without any deal.

If the EU chooses to subject the UK motor industry to tariffs and decides to institute an EU border between Northern and Southern Ireland, there will be nothing the UK can do to stop it. If the EU decides to make life difficult for the millions of British people who holiday on the glorious European continent each year to escape the miserable British weather and sour, passive-aggressive behaviour of their countrymen, there is nothing the UK will be able to do to stop it. There could be huge queues of cars at Dover and a plethora of customs checks. This is why the Leave campaign was such a fantasy, telling people that the UK could vote to leave the EU and still enjoy access to the Single Market.

This was one of the biggest lies told by Leave, just as big as their pledge to spend the extra money saved from EU budget contributions on the NHS. That pledge has quickly evaporated because it was based on lies and I doubt very much once the UK finally exits the EU in 2019 there will be any new money available to spend on the NHS. Indeed, it will be interesting to see what happens to the NHS which is staffed heavily with EU nationals and internationals because of the UK’s inability to train and retain home grown talent...

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/05/05/brexit-britain-on-brink.html

... Social media activist Yameen Rasheed was stabbed to death on April 23. He had fronted a campaign to find a journalist presumed abducted in 2014, and his death has increased concerns over free speech in the Maldives.

The tropical Indian Ocean archipelago of 400,000 people has been mired in political instability since its uneasy shift to democracy in 2008, and critics accuse President Abdulla Yameen of autocratic behavior.

"Through this arrest and several leads uncovered by the investigation team, the Maldives Police Service is confident that the investigation into this case can be successfully concluded in the coming days," the police said in a statement.

The government has faced international pressure to investigate Rasheed's murder, the fourth such crime in the Maldives in the past five years...

http://reuters.com/article/idUSKBN17Z1SY?il=0