Barnier to next British PM: May’s deal ‘only option’ for orderly Brexit

Commission’s chief negotiator says nostalgia, City rule-breakers and austerity fueled Leave vote.

If the U.K. wants to leave the EU with a deal, the current Withdrawal Agreement is “the only option,” according to the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

“If the choice is to leave without a deal — fine. If the choice is to stay in the EU — also fine. But if the choice is still to leave the EU in an orderly manner, this treaty is the only option,” Barnier told the New York Review of Books in an interview published Wednesday. “This is all that our legal constraints allow.”

While numerous Tory leadership contenders say they want to scrap the Irish backstop in the Withdrawal Agreement in favor of so-called alternative arrangements, Barnier had a message for whoever succeeds Theresa May: Sign the treaty, and you can pursue alternative arrangements afterward. Otherwise, it’s no deal.

“We said that after the Withdrawal Agreement is accepted, we can immediately start work on a long-term solution for the Irish border,” Barnier said. “It could be, for example, what we call alternative arrangements: technology, drones, invisible controls. None of these arrangements are operational today.”

He added: “You cannot do it immediately. They [the technologies] must be fully operational. I was the French minister of agriculture — how do you control a single cow or a truckload of pork? You need technology. You need technical infrastructure to do that. And this takes time.”

Barnier pointed to contradictions in the Tories’ demands of the EU. “You cannot leave the EU, the single market, the customs union, and ask for no checks and controls at the same time,” he said. “Three types of controls are needed at every external border of the Union. To protect consumers and the EU’s budget, to protect business and stop counterfeiting. It’s not ideological: What is at stake in Ireland is peace and stability. Protection of the single market is important, but only second to peace and stability.”

Brexit should be used as a cautionary lesson for the entire EU, the veteran French statesman said.

“For Britain, it’s probably too late, but it’s not too late for other countries where we have exactly the same problems, including my country,” he said. “Looking at the causes of Brexit, we also find typically British reasons: the hope for a return to a powerful global Britain, nostalgia for the past — nostalgia serves no purpose in politics. In my country, too, some politicians still prefer to live in the past.”

And he said City of London rule-breakers and austerity also fueled the Brexit vote.

“Some based in the City of London voted to leave, as they don’t want to accept the Union’s regulations on their trading; they want to speculate freely and the Union doesn’t allow them to do so,” he said. “And most importantly, there are many people who feel abandoned. They feel that the quality of public services, health care, transport, is worsening. We must listen to these fears and address them.”

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Juncker: Brussels will no longer control the time

‘The people want it, we do it,’ European Commission president says.

Jean-Claude Juncker said the European Commission would propose giving control over setting the time to member countries, some of whom want “permanent summer time.”

“The people want it, we do it,” the Commission president said in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF in the wake of an EU-wide survey on whether to scrap daylight savings time, saying it did not make sense to ask people what they want and then ignore them.

The Commission said Friday it would propose that member countries be allowed to decide whether to change their summer time arrangements. Both the Council and the European Parliament will have to give their green light to the proposal.

Some 4.6 million EU citizens participated in a public consultation on the issue, with 84 percent saying they are in favor of abolishing daylight savings, according to the Commission.

All EU countries currently change their clocks on the last Sunday in March and then again on the last Sunday in October.

“The purpose of EU rules was not to harmonise the time regime in the EU but to address the problems, notably for the transport and logistics sectors, which arise from an uncoordinated application of clock-changes in the course of the year,” the Commission said in a statement.

A number of German politicians in the European Parliament have called for “permanent summer time,” and Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland also support the change, according to ZDF.

The public consultation, which isn’t binding, followed a February request from the European Parliament to carry out a “thorough assessment” of the issue.

This article has been updated.

Actor John Cusack lashed out at supporters of President Donald Trump after a photo showed him sitting in his seat during a military salute at a recent Chicago Cubs game.

“I didn’t stand up for Boeing military salute – fast enough for some maga fuck – see? don’t even have taste not to brand weapons company all over score board,” John Cusack said soon after a photo of him sitting during a Cubs game Boeing Military Salute went viral on social media.

The Twitter account CWBChicago later acknowledged that it had been blocked by Cusack.

“Flag sucking halfwits – maga deathkkkult freaks Being anti war – is pro troops – pro human,” the Hot Tub Time Machine star later said. Cusack also took a shot directly at President Trump, saying, “Trump. Wraps himself in the us flag – literarily hugs it . You think he’s a patriot ?”

Cusack, an ardent Bernie Sanders supporter, barely goes a day without calling the president, his supporters, or Republicans members of a “deathkkkult.” The 2012 actor also constantly calls for the impeachment of President Trump.

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Last week, Cusack huddled with Democrats in Washington, D.C. for their “marathon public marathoning” of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report and demanded that President Trump be “removed from office.”

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

Far-left former talk show host-turned Netflix producer Chelsea Handler backed Democrat Jaime Harrison to “replace” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), becoming the latest Hollywood figure to wade in on local 2020 election.

“Let’s replace Lindsey Graham with this guy @harrisonjaime,” wrote Chelsea Handler, in response to Harrison’s election ad. “He’s running in South Carolina.”

“I may not be a superhero, but I am a proud South Carolinian, and I’m ready to fight for a better future for our state and our country,” wrote Harrison. “I hope you are, too.”

Harrison is currently the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic nomination, having already received endorsements from former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Cory Brooker. His only declared opponent is Gloria Bromell Tinubu, a state representative in Georgia.

South Carolina would be lucky to have @harrisonjaime representing them in the Senate. He has the character, intelligence, and integrity needed to serve his community well. I hope you'll #JoinJaime. https://t.co/Nal3ctZ06A

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) May 30, 2019

“In the U.S. Senate, Jaime will work with anyone to fight for South Carolina. Because when a rural hospital closes, or coverage for pre-existing conditions is threatened, the health of all South Carolinians is put at risk,” reads Harrison’s campaign website. “As the next U.S. Senator from South Carolina, Jaime will carry these values and lessons with him every day. Jaime knows that what you say matters — and that character counts.”

Handler has previously targeted Graham with anti-gay slurs. Last October, she hinted at the idea that he was a closeted homosexual.

“If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay,” the former Chelsea host wrote at the time. “Looking at you @LindseyGrahamSC.”

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The 63-year-old Senator responded to the remark by describing it as the “lowest kind of bar” of humor.

“I don’t think about much about what she says at all. If she wants to live her life that way, it’s up to her,” he told TMZ. “She knows zero about me. To the extent that this matters, I’m not gay. These comments, they don’t reflect well on her. I don’t know how this makes us a better country. That’s up to her, not me.”

It’s not Handler’s first time sticking her nose into local elections. She donated to and campaigned — from her Twitter account — for Beto O’Rourke’s failed Senate bid. Indeed, some of the Hollywood’s most powerful and influential executives donate to Democrat candidates and left-wing PACs more than 99 percent of the time during the 2018 midterms. So, as Handler has already shown, there’s no reason to expect anything different in 2020 but more carpetbagging.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.

euro press review

ISIS ‘Beatles’ could face death penalty in the States

Also on Europe’s front pages: Puigdemont still pulls strings from Germany, and Benalla affair keeps making waves in France.

United Kingdom

After Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, on Friday rejected the U.K.’s plan for its divorce from the bloc, most front pages explored the repercussions for Britain of leaving without an EU trade deal. The Times carried a warning from Doug Gurr, the U.K. head of Amazon, that a so-called no-deal Brexit could lead to “civil unrest.” The i said it could threaten Britain’s food safety and security. On a different note, the Daily Telegraph reported that Britain’s government will not object to American attempts to extradite two notorious British jihadists, nicknamed “the Beatles,” from Syria, even if they are likely to face the death penalty.

France

Papers focused on developments in the Benalla affair. Le Figaro said the government had been “forced to explain itself” after footage emerged of a presidential aide allegedly assaulting a protester, and noted Emmanuel Macron had acknowledged “malfunctions” within the Élysée. Libération wrote that with a “mute” Macron, the government was “paralyzed.” Regional daily La Voix du Nord focused on Interior Minister Gérard Collomb, who — amidst accusations that he sought to bury the affair — will on Monday face two days of questions at the National Assembly. The paper’s headline: “Collomb on the grill.”

Germany

As European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker prepares to visit the White House in an attempt to normalize transatlantic trade relations, the Süddeutsche Zeitung said the U.S. had “demanded new proposals” from Europe, and carried French Minister Bruno Le Maire’s warning that trade should not follow the “law of the jungle.” Frankfurter Allgemeine led with a Tunisian official’s denial that a Tunisian national, whose deportation was recently approved by German authorities, could be tortured upon his return to the country. Die Welt reported that hundreds of White Helmet fighters had been evacuated from Syria by Israeli forces and taken to Jordan, and Germany would take in “dozens” of them. Papers also covered Mesut Özil’s resignation from the German football team, after he faced backlash for his photo-op with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Spain

Most papers focused on the Popular Party’s new leader, Pablo Casado, who was elected over the weekend. ABC led with a behind-the-scenes look at Casado’s campaign. La Razon revealed he was planning to appoint two women to “key positions,” while El Mundo reported he would seek a hands-on approach to the party’s leadership. El País and La Vanguardia focused on ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who is in Germany, from where he appointed a new leader to his Catalan European Democratic Party at the weekend.

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Oettinger: Criticism of EU budget plan means I’m right

Commissioner feels ‘as good as a poodle’ as blueprint comes under attack.

EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger said Thursday that widespread criticism of his long-term financial blueprint means he is on the right track.

“If I’m criticized by all sides, then I’m right,” he told the European Parliament’s budget committee, the day after presenting his proposals for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

“Hopefully I’m criticized — hard but objectively — by north and south, east and west, Council and Parliament. Then I’m the middle and feel absolutely great,” he said, speaking in his native German and using the word pudelwohl — literally “as good as a poodle” — to describe his delight.

Criticism of Oettinger’s plans began even before they were announced. Net contributors such as the Netherlands and Austria say the proposed €1.279 trillion budget for the years 2021 to 2027 is too big. The European Parliament, by contrast, wants a bigger budget. Meanwhile, Eastern European nations such as Hungary have attacked plans to halt EU payouts to countries deemed not to be respecting the rule of law. Farmers in Western Europe and regional leaders, meanwhile, are up in arms over planned cuts to agricultural subsidies and cohesion funds.

But Oettinger said if he is at the center of criticism, that means he is “surrounded by many, and at the end we have to agree somewhere.”

The new budget requires the agreement of all member countries, as well as the approval of the European Parliament.

Responding to criticism that the Commission is playing fast and loose by using different sets of calculations, Oettinger at one point held up copies of his proposal in constant and current prices — making clear both were available for inspection.

Members of the committee objected to proposed cuts in agriculture and cohesion policy, which currently account for around 39 percent and 33 percent of EU spending, respectively.

“No region should lose more than 30 percent” of cohesion funding, the commissioner said in an effort to alleviate legislators’ concerns about regional policy cuts.

This article is part of POLITICO’s new coverage of the EU budget, tracking the development of the seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework, and the first EU budget that will face a low or no contribution from the United Kingdom. This coverage includes the Budget Briefing newsletter every Monday afternoon. Email pro@politico.eu to request a complimentary trial.

The LA Times recently interviewed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin about his new take on To Kill a Mockingbird and the criticism he received for adapting the work of a female author as a white man. As part of the interview, Sorkin said that if he wrote a sequel to the movie The Social Network, it would focus on Mark Zuckerberg’s inability to deal with “bad actors” on Facebook, and how the company has “helped damage democracy.”

The LA Times recently interviewed Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter known for his work on the political drama The West Wing and newsroom drama The Newsroom, along with The Social Network, a movie centered on Facebook. Sorkin has recently adapted the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird into a stage play starring Jeff Daniels, who previously worked with Sorkin on The Newsroom. But Sorkin has come under a surprising amount of criticism — mainly for the crime of being a white man.

The interviewer noted that Sorkin had to deal with multiple legal issues with Harper Lee’s controlling estate when attempting to adapt the book. The interviewer further noted: “You had to deal with the criticism of a white man adapting a classic by a female author that deals with racially charged material. What was the bigger challenge, grappling with the art of adaptation or gearing up for these battles?”

“It wasn’t so much the art of adaptation. It was playwriting. My first draft wasn’t any good at all,” Sorkin replied. “I was just concerned with how not to ruin “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I took all the scenes you needed to tell the story and stood them up and had people talk to each other. It was like a greatest hits album performed by a cover band. The best thing you could say about it was that it was harmless — which is probably the worst thing you could say about ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’”

Later in the interview, the interviewer notes that many on social media were angered at Sorkin’s announcement that Atticus would be the lead protagonist of Sorkin’s adaptation as the book was written by a woman with the female character of Scout acting as the central consciousness of the book. Sorkin replied: “I’m not on social media, so I didn’t experience that earthquake. What I have experience of is an epidemic of people having a big reaction before they’ve seen something. Never has Scout had such a large role in what’s going on. Never has she had so much to say or been such a part of the entire story, which is organized around something that doesn’t exist in the book. Scout is trying to sort out the loose ends of what happened to Bob Ewell the night he died. She’s coming to grips with the truth.”

Sorkin also commented on the possibility of writing a sequel to The Social Network. The interview asked, “If you were to write a sequel to “The Social Network,” what’s the new Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook story?”

Sorkin reponded, “It would be how Mark and company were unable to anticipate that this thing could become a platform for bad actors. And then having discovered that, not doing anything about it. It would be about how Facebook helped damage democracy.” He has not commented on if he will actually write a sequel to his movie on the Masters of the Universe.

Read Sorkin’s full interview with the LA Times here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings donated more than $140,000 to Missouri GOP lawmakers who backed the state’s recent abortion law, public records revealed. This, despite the streaming giant he co-founded taking a stance on Tuesday against Georgia’s similar legislation on abortion, stating that the company may stop filming in the state if the law goes into effect.

While the company publicly paints itself as an unwavering supporter of abortion rights by stating that it may cease production in Georgia, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been donating to Republican members of the Missouri legislature, as first reported by the newsletter Popular Information.

“We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,” insisted Netflix chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, in a recent statement regarding Georgia’s new abortion law.

“It’s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court,” added Sarandos, “Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.”

Missouri lawmakers had recently passed an abortion law very similar to that of Georgia.

Hastings donated $143,000 to 73 Missouri Republicans, according to Public Information, which adds that while some may dismiss these types of donations as a move that powerful people make in donating equally to both parties, Hastings had only donated $10,700 to Missouri Democrats within the same time frame.

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While Netflix threatens to cease filming in Georgia, its CEO may have his eye on Missouri due to the financial perks that might come with filming television and movies in the state.

Missouri once offered tax credits to film studios, but hasn’t in several years, causing producers to shoot scenes set in Missouri in other states, such as Netflix’s Ozark, which, ironically, films in Georgia. Now, Missouri lawmakers are looking to potentially reboot the state’s tax incentive program.

“I have seen the benefits of us being a film tax credits state,” said Republican lieutenant governor Mike Kehoe earlier this year to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “Lake Ozark, Branson area, would really like to work to try to attract some movie-making — I think we need a small amount.”

The newsletter adds that Hastings had also donated $2,600 — the maximum individual contribution — to the campaign of the now-governor or Missouri, Mike Parson, who signed the abortion bill into law last week.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.

Former Greek finance minister: Greece’s crisis is far from over

George Papaconstantinou worries the country will grow too slowly to pay off its debt.

PARIS — George Papaconstantinou, 56, was Greece’s finance minister who revealed at the end of 2009 that his predecessors had hidden the true size of the country’s massive budget deficit, triggering the chain reaction setting off the euro crisis.

He negotiated the country’s first two bailouts with other eurozone members, the European Central Bank and European Commission. He left the finance ministry in June 2011 and wrote a best-selling memoir of the crisis years, “Game Over.”

In an interview with POLITICO, Papaconstantinou, now a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, explains why he disagrees with European officials who think the debt relief agreement signed last week marked “the end of the Greek crisis.”

He also says that because it’s a “political creature,” the eurozone isn’t in danger thanks to its member governments’ “iron will” to keep it together.

The Greek debt relief deal last week was hailed by Commissioner Pierre Moscovici as “the end of the eight-year Greek crisis.” Do you share that view?

It was an important moment, but by no means the end of the crisis. It was a compromise solution, within the framework of what was expected. The restructuring only involves the loans extended by the EFSF [the first incarnation of the eurozone bailout fund, now called the European Stability Mechanism]. It doesn’t include the first aid package, made up of bilateral loans, for both political and legal reasons.

Overall, the agreement does buy time for Greece, and the country doesn’t have a debt problem in the short run.

So why then do you think that was not the end of the crisis?

I have two main sources of worry. The first one is that the cash reserves Greece will have, some €24 billion after it receives the last €15 billion tranche of bailout money, are meant to be used. I would have preferred it to serve as a guarantee. Greece’s borrowing rates are still prohibitive, markets are still worried. That’s a short-term issue.

My long-term worry is more serious. No one, no serious analyst or economist sees Greece growing over the long term at an annual rate topping 1.25 percent. That’s very slow and means, by the way, that the debt burden can only shrink very slowly as well.

Can we change that? Can the country attract foreign investment? Can it undergo a productivity revolution and enter a virtuous instead of vicious circle? The long term doesn’t look good at the moment. That will be a big challenge for the next government.

You don’t believe the current government can do it?

I doubt very much that they would engage in the kind of radical supply-side reform needed to trigger a massive movement of inward investment. And on the other side of the spectrum, [conservative party] New Democracy is split between its liberal and populist wings.

Do you think that the type of reforms that Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron agreed on last week would have helped Greece and the eurozone to better weather the crisis, if they’d been done 10 years ago?

Whenever you try to reconstruct history with counterfactuals, the risk is to assume that whatever measure would have been perfectly and fully implemented. So this has to be taken with a grain of salt. If you look at last week’s deal, it depends on the yardstick you use. If you judge it against my own wishes, it falls short. If you compare it to where we seemed to be a month ago, it’s a big step.

So a mixed bag?

There are two great positive points: the principle of a eurozone budget and the reform of the ESM, with a backstop for bank resolution. Even if those were not fully detailed, those are important steps.

The big negative in my mind is the missed opportunity to complete the banking union with a joint deposit insurance. In the hierarchy of things to do, I would have put that in first place. What caused the crisis to last as long as it did was the migration of deposits from the south to the north, and the banking system’s instability. There is no way we can pretend we can solve this problem without the European deposit insurance scheme.

But opposition to even the limited Meseberg deal among other eurozone members is already apparent …

True, I’m a bit worried about the reaction of countries such as the Netherlands, but my historical view is that the Dutch can also be pressured by Germany.

And do you think that Germany will abide by the deal?

There may not be much consistency in Germany’s positions — they can change, they can backtrack, they can renege on their promises — but Germany is not immobile, it moves. And I think the strategy of enlarging the field of discussion to encompass other geopolitical topics, like Macron is doing, is the right one.

Do you think that the Franco-German plan, if ever implemented, would indeed make the eurozone more resilient in the next crisis?

If things turn sour, markets will take a hard look and decide for themselves. But they will also remember that when push comes to shove, eurozone governments can act and that there is some iron political will to defend the monetary union when it is in danger. The paradoxical lesson of our own improvising is that no one now can doubt our determination to keep everything together.

That’s what I think American economists, for example, have never quite grasped: They look at the eurozone’s institutional architecture and forget that it is also a political creature.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

The POLITICO Global Policy Lab is a collaborative journalism project seeking solutions to pressing policy problems. Join the community.

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A Florida woman is breaking barriers as she will become the first beauty pageant contestant in the state of Florida with autism.

“I was basically promised that I would never graduate any school really or have any friends. Pretty much everything bad was going to happen to me because I have autism,” said Rachel Barcellona, who told WFLA that she would be a Miss Florida pageant contestant in June.

“I love being onstage, and I get the chance to demonstrate my talent for opera singing in the competition, which is my favorite part,” said Barcellona, who has a mild form of the developmental disorder.

But beauty pageants are nothing new for Barcellona, who says she has competed in them since she was five years old. She stayed on the sidelines in middle school due to lingering anxiety and depression but then jumped back into pageantry in her teenage years.

“I was basically promised that I would never graduate any school really or have any friends. Pretty much everything bad was going to happen to me because I have autism,” Barcellona said.

“I resumed when I was thirteen and that is when I really got into it because it helped me make friends and build my confidence,” she added.

She told Fox 35 Orlando that pageantry for her helped her improve her social skills, and she most recently showed off her talents by singing the national anthem at a Tampa Bay Lightning game.

When she’s not on the stage, she told WTSP she plans to work on a novel.

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