Europe

TBILISI, June 21. /TASS/: Georgian Parliament Speaker Irakli Kobakhidze has decided to resign amid protests in the country’s capital of Tbilisi, Secretary General of the ruling ‘Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia’ party and Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze said at a briefing on Friday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders failed Thursday to back a plan to make the bloc’s economy carbon neutral by 2050 in spite of promises to protesters across the continent to fight harder against climate change.

Ahead of a U.N. meeting in the fall, the proposal was relegated to a non-binding footnote in the final statement of Thursday’s summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

“For a large majority of Member States, climate neutrality must be achieved by 2050,” the footnote read.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are underlining that their divorce agreement with Britain cannot be renegotiated regardless of who becomes the next prime minister there.

At a summit of EU leaders Friday, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said the current Brexit agreement “is the best possible deal.”

With Boris Johnson favorite to become next prime minister, Bettel says it makes no difference who takes office.

He says “it’s not possible (that) because you change the leader in the U.K. that we need to postpone decisions.”

LONDON (AP) — There’s an election underway to choose Britain’s next prime minister, but only one in 400 people gets a vote. And most of those are well-off older white men.

The country’s next leader will be chosen by about 160,000 members of the governing Conservative Party in a runoff between two candidates: former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and current Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt . They were winnowed down from a field of 10 contenders in a series of votes by Conservative party lawmakers.

21 June 2019; DW: The race for Britain's next prime minister narrowed down to two candidates on Thursday, with former London Mayor Boris Johnson set to face off against Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

21 June 2019; DW: Leaders of the European Union's member states on Thursday struggled to break the deadlock over the bloc's key leadership positions.

Heads of government were gathered to decide on five top jobs — most notably who should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the next president of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

But despite talks extending into the early hours of Friday, the leaders deferred any decision on the posts until June 30.

21 June 2019; DW: Austria's Tyrol province announced on Thursday that it would restrict access to country roads for vehicles seeking to avoid its highways. The move has drawn the ire of officials in the state of Bavaria, which borders the western Austrian province, as the ban would affect southern Germany's summer cross country travelers.

19 June 2019; AFP: France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy is to go on trial facing charges of corruption and influence peddling after losing his final bid to avert appearing in the dock, sources close to the case said Wednesday.

The Court of Cassation, which rules on questions of law, said Tuesday that a trial was justified for Sarkozy as well as his lawyer Thierry Herzog and former judge Gilbert Azibert.

20 June 2019; DW: A court of appeal in London on Thursday declared the sale of weapons by the UK to Saudi Arabia unlawful because of the Yemen conflict.

The court accepted the challenge brought by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) that accused the UK government of licensing the arms sale when there is a clear risk that the weapons use could breach international humanitarian law.

20 June 2019; DW: A death threat was sent to Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker, police confirmed on Wednesday, just weeks after a German politician was murdered in what authorities believe was a "right-wing extremist" attack.

Police in the western German city told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper that the threatening note is believed to have been sent by someone active in the right-wing extremist scene.