Theresa May tells EU leaders not to hold summits without Britain

UK leader says it will be ‘hard for me to accept things you agreed among yourselves.’

British Prime Minister Theresa May told other European leaders Thursday that they should not hold any more summits without the U.K., saying “otherwise it will be hard for me to accept things you agreed among yourselves,” according to a senior EU diplomat.

During her first EU summit in Brussels, May interrupted a discussion on migration to demand that there be no more such meetings that exclude the U.K., the diplomat said.

The other 27 EU leaders have held two informal meetings since the British referendum to leave the bloc: one a week after the vote and another last month in Bratislava. They plan to have another informal meeting without Britain in Malta in January.

“I accept that 27 needs to meet, but I want the U.K. to play an active part,” May said, according to the diplomat.

“Thus, we should meet as 28, otherwise it will be hard for me to accept things you agreed among yourselves. I expect to be fully involved in all discussions related to the EU 28.”

European Council President Donald Tusk, according to the source, responded that there were reasons for the 27 to meet without Britain and that she needed to accept that.

May thanked the leaders for “the welcome you have shown me,” and specifically thanked Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is chairing the EU’s rotating presidency, and Tusk for “briefing on Bratislava.”

The leaders were expected to hear from May during a working dinner Thursday on the “current state of affairs” in Britain, but were not expected to hold a discussion specifically on Brexit.

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First Lady Melania Trump made a red hot luxury quick change as she departed the White House on Monday for London, England.

Melania Trump followed President Donald Trump out of the White House, strutting across the South Lawn carrying a black umbrella — to shield her from the rain and snow showers — that matched her double-breasted black Burberry coat.

Paired with the Burberry coat is a pair of knee-high suede black boots, similar to this Loro Piana pair which retail for $3,000.

Mrs. Trump has become an early fan of Riccardo Tisci’s takeover of the famed British label, wearing a brown suede Burberry coat to jet set for the Thanksgiving holiday, a classic trench to depart Ireland in June, and a silk blouse and scarf to arrive in London over the summer.

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For her London landing, Mrs. Trump threw on a rich red Calvin Klein coat with a matching knotted belt to cinch her small waist. The roughly $3,000 coat was previously worn on Valentine’s Day in 2017.

Mrs. Trump walked off Air Force One alongside President Trump in sky-high Christian Louboutin stilettos which feature a pointed toe and slick black leather.

In her summer trip to meet Queen Elizabeth II, Mrs. Trump revived a kind of lost glamour with fashion statements like her iconic white hat by Hervé Pierre, an Hermès scarf wrapped, a Philip Treacy original, and of course her custom Dior and Givenchy gowns.

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John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.  

Commission forced to top up Turkey migration money

EU states unhappy at Turkey’s efforts on migration, and want to reduce their share of money promised to Ankara.

EU countries are not stumping up the cash to help Turkey deal with the migration crisis, forcing the European Commission to increase its share of the €3 billion promised to Ankara, according to multiple diplomatic sources.

At a summit between EU leaders and Turkey at the end of November, the bloc agreed to provide “an initial €3 billion of additional resources” to Turkey in the fight against illegal migration. Of that figure, €500,000 was supposed to come from the Commission, with the rest from national governments.

But several countries have objected to this plan and asked the Commission to increase its stake.

Doubling the Commission’s financial commitment was discussed informally at a European Council in December and again at a meeting of EU ambassadors, but it is not on the agenda of Wednesday’s meeting of permanent representatives to the EU at which migration will be discussed, a diplomat said.

A Commission spokesman said “there is a feeling that we are getting closer to an agreement” on a new proposal for sharing out the financial commitment.

Diplomats disagree. “The new proposal is not officially on the table because many countries are still unhappy with the results on the agreement with Turkey that so far has not brought tangible results,” a national diplomat said. The money is supposed to help Turkey deal with the 2.2 million Syrian refugees on its soil and to stem the flow of migrants crossing to Europe. As well as the money, the EU promised fresh efforts in Turkey’s EU membership bid.

Other national officials said that Frans Timmermans, the Commission’s first vice president, has hardened his rhetoric on Turkey in recent days as a response to criticism of Turkey’s efforts on migration from member countries.

“We are all committed as part of the joint action plan to bring the figures [of refugees moving from Turkey to the EU] substantially down,” Timmermans said last week. But he also complained that “it’s quite clear that over the last couple of weeks the figures have remained relatively high.”

Turkey said it plans to offer Syrian refugees work permits, Volkan Bozkir, the European affairs minister, said on Monday after a meeting with Timmermans.

Were the Commission to increase its contribution to €1 billion it would not force cuts to other items such as agricultural or structural funds, said another diplomat, so the budget would remain unchanged.

In its original proposal the Commission put forward a criteria for national contributions, based on their gross national product. Germany would have paid the most €534 million, with France paying €386 million and Italy €281 million. The criteria will remain the same in any new proposal, a diplomat said.

Cyprus, the northern part of which is under Turkish control, does not have to contribute.

On Wednesday, Timmermans will brief the college of commissioners on his meetings with Turkish officials.

The club’s fixtures over the next 15 days have been postponed, in compliance with the Italian Ministry of Health’s regulations

Tuscany-based club US Pianese have been placed in quarantine after three players and a staff member tested positive for Coronavirus.

One of the club’s players began to develop symptoms last weekend, while the team was in Alessandria for a Serie C fixture.

He was tested for COVID-19 later in the week, and was hospitalised in Siena after the results confirmed he had contracted the virus.

More teams

Two more Pianese stars have been diagnosed since then, along with a team official, as the club have confirmed in an official statement.

“At the moment those infected are four, three players and a team official,” a spokesman for Pianese said.

“The first is a young player who had started to experience a slight rise in temperature and headache last Saturday, when the team was away to Alessandria to play a championship game.

“The second player is in self-isolation at his home, while not showing any symptoms, as well as the third player who is slightly feverish.

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“The fourth person tested positive for the swab is a club official who this morning, after spending the night in a feverish state, was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Siena.

“Currently, all the players, the technical staff and the managers present during the trip last weekend are in a 15-day quarantine.”

Club president Maurizio Sani has also placed himself in voluntary quarantine and declared that no Pianese employees are authorised to issue interviews, speak to journalists or members of other clubs on the matter.

Italy has suffered the largest coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with over 650 people infected and 17 deaths.

The Serie A schedule has already been heavily disrupted by the virus, with Juventus v Inter postponed, and Udinese v Fiorentina, Milan v Genoa, Parma v SPAL and Sassuolo v Brescia all rescheduled after originally being set to play behind closed doors.

The affected matches will now be played on May 13.

Inter were forced to play their Europa League round of 32 second-leg tie against Ludogorets in an empty San Siro on Thursday night, which they won 2-1 to progress to the next round.

EU ministers to push corporate tax avoidance rules

Europe’s finance ministers Tuesday gave their backing to new rules that will shine a light on the tax affairs of multinationals.

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The proposal would oblige large companies to provide national tax agencies with a breakdown of their global operations on a country-by-country basis, including revenues, profits, taxes paid and number of employees in each country where they operate.

The new rules “will provide national authorities with the necessary insight to combat aggressive tax planning structures,” said Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs.

He described Europe as being in the throes of a wider “fiscal transparency revolution” driven by the indignation of national electorates.

The European Commission is also expected to publish a proposal in April that would force companies to make such reporting public, although several European countries have expressed reservations.

“Keeping these reports confidential will make it nearly impossible for developing country governments, journalists, or the general public to scrutinize the operations of multinational corporations,” said Koen Roovers, an EU lead advocate for the Financial Transparency Coalition.

Ministers are waiting for a non-binding opinion from MEPs before adopting Tuesday’s deal into legislation.

The European Parliament has only a consultative role for EU tax legislation, which must be adopted by member countries on the basis of unanimity.

The U.K. government has made its approval conditional on the support of British MPs.

Today’s provision is part of a wider set of reforms that would make it more difficult for companies to minimize their taxes by shifting profits between countries.

The series of proposals, presented by the Commission at the end of January, would translate a historic deal brokered between members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development into EU legislation. The Dutch government, which currently holds the rotating chair of the Council of finance ministers, is aiming to push through the entire package by June.

 

LONDON (Reuters) ― Coronavirus panic sent world share markets skidding again on Friday, compounding their worst crash since the 2008 global financial crisis and pushing the week’s wipeout in value terms to US$5 trillion.

The rout showed no signs of slowing as Europe’s main markets slumped 3 per cent  to 5 per cent and the ongoing dive for safety sent yields on U.S. government bonds, seen as probably the securest asset in the world, to fresh record lows.

Hopes that the epidemic that started in China would be over in months and that economic activity would quickly return to normal have been shattered this week as the number of international cases spiraled.

Bets are now that the Federal Reserve will cut U.S. interest rates as soon as next month and other major central banks will follow to try and nurse economies through the troubles and stave off a global recession.

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“Investors are trying to price in the worst case scenario and the biggest risk is what happens now in the United States and other major countries outside of Asia,” said SEI Investments Head of Asian Equities John Lau.

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“These are highly uncertainty times, no one really knows the answer and the markets are really panicking.”

Disruptions to international travel and supply chains, school closures and cancellations of major events have all blackened the outlook for a world economy that was already struggling with the U.S.-China trade war fallout.

MSCI’s all country world index, which tracks almost 50 countries, was down more than 1 per cent ahead of U.S. trading and almost 10 per cent for the week ― the worst since October 2008.

Wall Street shares plunged 4.4 per cent on Thursday alone, their largest fall since August 2011. Futures pointed to a modest 1 per cent drop later, but the S&P 500 has lost 12 per cent since hitting a record high just nine days ago, putting it in so-called correction territory.

Europe’s airlines and travel stocks have plunged 18 per cent in their worst week since the 2001 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Pandemic warning

In Asia, MSCI’s regional index excluding Japan shed 2.6 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei slumped 3.7 per cent on rising fears the Olympics planned in July-August may be called off due to the coronavirus.

“The coronavirus now looks like a pandemic. Markets can cope even if there is big risk as long as we can see the end of the tunnel,” said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

“But at the moment, no one can tell how long this will last and how severe it will get.”

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the virus could become a pandemic as the outbreak spreads to major developed economies such as Germany and France.

 About 10 countries have reported their first virus cases over the past 24 hours, including Nigeria, the biggest economy in Africa.

Oil prices languished at their lowest in more than a year, having plunged 12 per cent this week ― the worst since 2016 ― while all the major industrial metals have dropped between 3 per cent and 6 per cent.

The appeal of guaranteed income sent high-grade bonds rallying. U.S. yields ― which move inversely to the price ― plunged with benchmark 10-year note yields hitting a record low of 1.1550 per cent in frenzied European trading. It last stood at 1.1847 per cent.

That is well below the three-month bill yield of 1.43 per cent, deepening the so-called inversion of the yield curve. Historically an inverted yield curve is one of the most reliable leading indicators of a U.S. recession.

(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

The Italian top flight is facing major disruptions due to the virus, which is spreading across the northern region of the country

This weekend’s Serie A matches that had been scheduled to be played behind closed doors have been postponed and rescheduled to May 13 due to fears over the worsening Coronavirus outbreak.

The clashes between Juventus and Inter, Udinese and Fiorentina, Parma and SPAL, AC Milan and Genoa and Sassuolo vs Brescia have all been affected.

The biggest encounter was due to take place at the Allianz Stadium on Sunday night, where the Bianconeri were preparing to welcome the Nerazzurri for a top of the table clash.

Juve are six points clear of Inter at the summit at the moment having played a game more, with Lazio wedged in between the two teams in second.

All of the fixtures in question have now been moved to the last month of the 2019-20 campaign, as Lega Serie A has confirmed on Saturday morning.

The governing body have released an official statement, which reads: “Having considered the succession of numerous urgent regulatory interventions by the government in response to this extraordinary emergency, to protect public health and safety the president of Serie A announces that the following matches of the championship have been postponed after initially being scheduled to play behind closed doors: Juventus – Inter, Milan – Genoa, Parma – SPAL, Sassuolo – Brescia, Udinese – Fiorentina.

“The rescheduled date of the affected matches is set for Wednesday, May 13.

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“The Coppa Italia final will consequently be scheduled for Wednesday, May 20.”

Lazio vs Bologna, Napoli vs Torino, Lecce vs Atalanta, Cagliari vs Roma and Sampdoria vs Hellas Verona will all still go ahead in Serie A unless the crisis worsens in the coming hours.

Serie B have also been forced to call off a number of fixtures, while Serie C side US Pianese have been quarantined for 15 days after three of their players tested positive for coronavirus over the last week.

Teams in the Premier League’s high positions are having so much of the ball these days that it has led to the development of a new role for full-backs

Over the last five years the role of the full-back has changed almost beyond recognition. This has not gone unnoticed, of course, and it certainly helps that two of the most successful teams ever seen in the Premier League are shining examples of the two major changes.

Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson show how the full-back has become the new chief playmaker, occupying traditional winger positions or even outside No.10 positions. Alexander-Arnold and Kevin De Bruyne, for example, often hover in similar zones of the pitch in order to provide penetrating width in the age of possession dominance, in the age of carefully stretching out a defensive shell.

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola has introduced us to the inverted full-back at Manchester City. In their Centurion 2017-18 season, Kyle Walker and Fabian Delph frequently became auxiliary central midfielders, swinging on a pendulum between central midfield, full-back, and winger. Between Liverpool and City, ‘full-back’ has been shown to be a rather loose term for a set of positions that can cover a huge portion of the pitch.

But there is one way of using a full-back that has flown under the radar.

Last Saturday, Cesar Azpilicueta started on the right side of a three-man defence as Chelsea beat Tottenham 2-1, and later in the day Christian Fuchs did something similar on the left for Leicester City against Man City. It was not at all out of the ordinary, following a pattern that – though not new – has increased in frequency over the last few years.

Luke Shaw has started to regularly play this position in a back three for Manchester United, Walker has done it for Man City – and for England in the 2018 World Cup – while at Arsenal, Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal have been tried at centre-back in recent years.

What’s more, there is a growing tactical trend among the elite clubs to switch from a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 to a 3-2-5 when in possession – see Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal or Jose Mourinho’s Spurs – and  for that to happen one of the full-backs swings infield to become part of a back three. This latter method isn’t exactly innovative – for decades it was common practice for one full-back to stay deep while the other flies forward – but nevertheless full-backs are finding themselves in centre-back positions far more often than they were 10 years ago.

And it is not coincidental that most of the examples, in England at least, are from ‘Big Six’ clubs. The main reason for the shift is that dominating possession – and playing assertive line-breaking passes rather than passing in a tedious U-shape – is now essential for any top club. This is a new phenomenon caused by the growing financial divide between the elite and the rest, who, unable to compete as equals, drop deep to defend their own penalty box.

Consequently, clubs need good passers to connect the back with the front, and particularly in a back three need one of their defenders to be capable of stepping out with the ball to begin moves. The likes of Shaw and Azpilicueta are expected to sit just in front of the other two defenders and, leaning to the left or right, pick up the ball in positions that allow them to survey the entire pitch. It is potentially fertile ground, presenting diagonal passing options that could open out the field; a position that, not long ago, a central midfielder could take up in order to make things happen.

These days pressing is too organised and the centre of the field too compacted for that, hence an outside centre-back with good technical ability stepping forward. On a similar note, possession dominance has reduced the importance and frequency of traditional centre-back defensive actions for the elite clubs, meaning a full-back is less likely to be caught out by a lack of coaching for the position. Fernandinho playing centre-back under Pep Guardiola is a good example of why a high line and possession dominance have made technical attributes as important as defensive ones for the modern centre-half.

Guardiola inverting the full-back also helps explain the trend of full-backs playing in a back three. Walker’s seamless transition between club and international roles in 2017-18, between right-back under Guardiola to centre-back under Gareth Southgate, essentially stitched together two tactical developments of the time. Walker didn’t actually change his role at all. His inverted role at City is exactly the same, positionally, as being deployed as a ball-playing right-sided centre-back in a back three. A big part of Walker’s game is to screen against opposition counterattacks, his base position giving him easy access to central midfield or the right flank should fires start in either place.

Herein lies another explanation for picking full-backs in centre-back positions; they generally have more elasticity than a towering centre-half, meaning they can step out to shut down a counter. As football becomes ever more a territorial battle – of one team attacking and the other defending – the task for big clubs is to play with a high tempo and weave together unexpected passing moves. It makes perfect sense, then, to cram an extra full-back into the team.

After all, whether inverted into midfield, dropping into central defence, bombing forward like a winger, or cutting inside like De Bruyne, the modern full-back is an all-rounder, and usually the most versatile player on the pitch. And yet there is still one development to come.

Chris Wilder’s overlapping centre-backs haven’t quite caught on, but they soon will. Steve Bruce has been experimenting with it at Newcastle, and last weekend Azpilicueta made a couple of overlapping runs at Stamford Bridge. It surely won’t be long before an elite club try to find an edge by copying Wilder, in doing so completing the circle; asking a full-back to make an overlapping run.

In the Premier League in 2020, that’s almost a novelty.

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The Blues boss weighed in on the latest quotes to come from his winger about his long-term future at the club

Frank Lampard says that the timing wasn’t “ideal” on Willian’s interview about his contract situation and insists that no decisions have been made on his Chelsea players’ future yet.

Willian gave an interview to the Brazilian media this week in which the 31-year-old revealed that he could leave Chelsea as he isn’t being offered the three-year contract that he wants.

The Blues boss refused to clarify whether the comments about the talks were true, although he did say that negotiations are ongoing and no decisions have been made yet over the future of any of his squad.

“It’s an ongoing conversation,” Lampard told reporters. “Maybe not ideal timing but I don’t want to get too drawn into it because I am the manager of the team and don’t want to look too far [ahead].

“Some of the headlines this week had a sense of frustration for me because we’re working day-to-day to finish this season and we’re not jumping ahead to the summer. Willy’s one is an ongoing situation. It’s not over. We’ll see.”

This comes amid Chelsea being on the brink of a Champions League exit, with their top-four position firmly in the balance and an FA Cup tie to come next week against Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Fikayo Tomori has not played a single minute of Premier League action in 2020 despite being a regular starter for Lampard in 2019. 

The 22-year-old had been one of the breakthrough stars this season along with Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Reece James, but he has been relegated to the bench or even the stands in recent weeks.

Lampard says that he has a difficult task picking a centre-back from his options that include Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Kurt Zouma. He still thinks that Tomori has a role to play despite not playing in the league since December. 

“I have four centre-backs to choose from, so generally every week two of them are unhappy,” Lampard added. “And then people question you when you stick with a back two or back three. There is competition in that area.

“With Fiks, he always has to train at the top level, that goes for all of the young players because when you are out of the team, however much it hurts, you need to show a good attitude and train very well.

“At the moment he is and he has a long career ahead of him at this club, without a doubt. It’s been more about selection issues.”

Chelsea are now going into an away trip to Bournemouth, who have strung together three wins in a row against the Blues and are looking to make it four on Saturday afternoon.

Lampard is having to lift his team up for a trip to the south coast and remains under pressure with every team down to tenth place coveting their spot in the top four. 

He believes that his young players have made a big impact on the squad this season but he feels the perception that Chelsea have a divine right to be at the top table of football is false.

“Sometimes it’s been the young lads earlier this season who have stepped up and that was great,” Lampard continued. “And sometimes they have had it difficult. So I don’t get too caught up in that conversation.

“Maturity will come for them, that’s why we have to give them some leeway this year. For Mason and Reece on Tuesday night it was a huge game for them in terms of their learning curve.

“I didn’t play my first Champions League game until I think my mid-twenties and for me it was an uplift for me at that level, let alone at their age. Reece was playing at Wigan in the Championship and Mason was at Derby with myself.

“And now they are going up against Thiago and the flying machine Davies from Bayern, who is an incredible looking player – and Gnabry as well. It was a huge test. Make no bones about it. It was a difficult night for them.

“It’s not just those players. Kovacic has been to the final with Real Madrid, Azpi has been to the semi-final here. But if you go through the rest of the starting eleven, there are players who are either new to Champions League football – with Ross I think it was his first knock-out stage – or they are players who have got to the last 16.

“We have to be real, we have to be honest. We can’t pull the wool over our own eyes and think all of a sudden we have a divine right at this level to go up against Bayern Munich and beat them.

“There’s a reason why we are where we are at the moment. We have not challenged in the Premier League for a couple of years. We have to fight and work as hard as we can on the training pitch and in games to close that gap.

“Come the summer, we want to move forward and make some decisions. But the gap is there.  Tuesday showed that. But that should not dishearten us – now it’s how we finish the season.

“I think the landscape of the Premier League has changed. Man City and Liverpool have set incredible standards in the league, and also we had some outside influences with the ban and with circumstance, a huge player left the club.

“Those things are there. We are certainly on the same page here when I speak with the board and we have all our conversations, there is no doubt we know we are fighting for fourth place.

“It is a very dated phrase, when people say: ‘You’re Chelsea, there’s no way you should be happy with fourth’. No, the Premier League has changed. It is not like it was for Manchester United players 15 or 20 years ago, or Chelsea players when we were first or second for a period in the mid-2000s.

“It’s not like that any more and that is the reality. We do want to climb and bridge the gap and I strongly believe we will. But I am very aware of what that is. The players need to be aware of it and we are as a club.”

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Spain has confirmed cases of the infection, but organisers insist that Sunday’s showpiece match will go ahead

La Liga president Javier Tebas confirmed coronavirus protocols are in place should the illness’ spread become severe enough to impact Spanish football but he insists this weekend’s El Clasico is not at risk.

The virus, which emerged in China’s Hubei province in December, has now affected people in at least 53 countries and killed more than 2,800.

While Italy has been the most-impacted European nation to date, with several northern towns put on lockdown, there have also been 32 confirmed diagnoses in Spain as of Friday.

In Italy, coronavirus’ spread has resulted in widespread postponements to sporting events at all levels, while five of this weekend’s Serie A matches – including the Derby d’Italia between Juventus and Inter – are set to be played behind closed doors.

Tebas insists LaLiga is ready to make the necessary decisions if the situation in Spain becomes as serious as in Italy, though he is not concerned about Sunday’s Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid being impacted.

“We haven’t considered the possibility of postponing the Clasico or any other games, but as of Sunday evening we have opened a coronavirus commission within LaLiga to monitor the situation,” Tebas told reporters.

“We have a plan in place for different cities regarding whether we can play behind closed doors or not. That situation has not yet arisen in Madrid and neither has the matter of postponing the Clasico.

“It’s one thing to postpone a game and another not to play it. We have been looking at the possibility of playing games behind closed doors and, if that is not possible, then we will postpone.

“If that case arises, we have dates prepared for when we can stage those games. We have presented this plan to UEFA so they can also bear in mind European ties involving Spanish teams.

“We are working on precaution, not improvisation.”

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