MY BLOG(18)

A clean break with the EU's single market is not inevitable, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday, seeking to clarify comments that pushed down the pound on the possibility of a hard Brexit from the European Union. She criticised British media for misinterpreting what she described as long-term position on EU talks but the pound failed to recover from a 10-week low and was down more than 1 percent to the dollar and 1.2 percent against the euro on the day. May, under pressure to offer more detail on her strategy before launching divorce talks with the European Union, said on Sunday in her first televised interview of the year that Britain would not be able to keep "bits" of its membership. Some commentators saw that as a sign she was heading for a hard Brexit, which business says would damage the economy by breaking links with the single market of 500 million consumers. May shot back that the media was using terms she did not accept. "I'm tem...

“TO BE ABLE  to understand accurately the damage, threat and the devastation of the disaster in Syria, [it is like] we are having a  7.6  earthquake 50 times a day,” writes Ammar al-Salmo, leader of Syrian Civil Defense in Aleppo, on the agency’s website. To operate in the most dangerous of environments, members of the Civil Defense – also known as the White Helmets – have adapted technically and emotionally. “Before the war, I hated funerals and the sight of blood,” says  Ammar al-Salmo , leader of Syria Civil Defense in Aleppo. “But now I feel like I’m drugged, like my heart has become hardened. Killing and massacres have become commonplace, and we’re all now sick and in need of a hospital. When the war ends, I’ll go back home and sleep forever.” The absence of feeling is undoubtedly a sign of shock in response to the sights of war, but it is also what protects the White Helmets from a nervous breakdown, and enables them to work in the worst of conditions. ...