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Stephen Hawking has joined more than 150 top scientists in calling for Britain to stay in the European Union, saying that leaving would be "a disaster for UK science and universities". The physicist and other members of the Royal Society, including three Nobel laureates, made the case against Brexit, as leaving is widely called, in a letter to The Times on Thursday. They argued that losing EU links would be devastating for research

The Queen has been hailed as a backer of Brexit tonight after details emerged of an extraordinary alleged bust-up between her and Nick Clegg over Europe. Her Majesty let rip at the then Deputy PM during a lunch at Windsor Castle, The Sun has been told. The 89-year-old monarch firmly told passionate pro-European Mr Clegg that she believed the EU was heading in the wrong direction. Her stinging reprimand went on for “quite a while”, leaving other guests around the table stunned. The account of the bombshell lunch during the last government - which a handful of other government ministers...

Buckingham Palace last night moved to deny extraordinary claims that the Queen backs Brexit in the EU referendum. She is said to have told former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg during a lunch at Windsor Castle that she thought Europe was going in the wrong direction, according to The Sun. A source told the paper the pro-EU then deputy PM was reprimanded by the Queen – who is politically neutral in public – for ‘quite a while’ over the issue of Europe.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Turkey on Monday demanded an additional 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) from the European Union to help deal with the refugee crisis as EU leaders appealed to Ankara to take back thousands of migrants and prevent others from setting off for Europe. Turkey — a temporary home to an estimated 2.75 million refugees, many from the conflict in Syria — is an indispensable EU partner in trying to dissuade people fleeing conflict or poverty from taking to makeshift boats and making the short but often-dangerous trip across the Aegean Sea. "To avoid that refugees arrive in Greece...

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has criticized leading U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a right-wing populist whose political views pose a threat to peace and prosperity. The comments by Gabriel, economy minister and leader of the Social Democrats, are the clearest sign yet that ruling politicians in Europe are increasingly worried about the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections. "Whether Donald Trump, Marine le Pen or Geert Wilders - all these right-wing populists are not only a threat to peace and social cohesion, but also to economic development," Gabriel told Welt am Sonntag newspaper in an interview published...

Analysts at Nato centre claim to have found evidence of ‘information war’ over migration crisis with links to Vladimir Putin Russia is trying to topple Angela Merkel by waging an information war designed to stir up anger in Germany over refugees, Nato’s most senior expert on strategic communications has claimed. The attempt to provoke the removal of the German leader, who has been a strong supporter of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime, is said to have been identified by Nato analysts. Jānis Sārts, director of Nato’s Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, based in Riga, Latvia, told the Observer that Russia...

Serbia’s president dissolved Parliament and called early elections on Friday, after the government said it needed a new mandate to pursue the difficult economic changes that it deems essential for the country to join the European Union. “The government has launched a whole series of reforms for which it is seeking a new mandate, so that it can be sure it is acting according to the will of citizens,” the president, Tomislav Nikolic, was quoted by B92, an independent broadcaster, as saying. The vote is scheduled for April 24.

The Swiss parliament has voted to withdraw the country’s long-standing application to join the European Union (EU) amid a row on immigration. The National Council, the lower house of the Swiss parliament, voted by 126 to 46 to formally withdraw the application, 24 years after the country first applied for membership of what was then the European Community (EC). The withdrawal motion will now go to the Council of States.

A recession in Europe could lead to the collapse of the eurozone, as the single currency would buckle under the political turmoil unleashed by a fresh downturn, a leading investment bank has warned. In a research note titled "Close to the edge", economists at Swiss bank Credit Suisse warned the fate of monetary union hangs in the balance if Europe's policymakers are unable to ward off another global slump and quell anti-euro populism. "The viability of the euro is contingent on the current recovery," said Peter Foley at Credit Suisse. "If the euro area were to relapse back into...

PARIS — Top officials with the European Union are exploiting the refugee crisis they helped create to usurp more power from the nations and peoples ensnared in the controversial super-state. Without decisive action to turn back the assaults on national sovereignty and self-government, Europeans could soon find an armed EU force intervening in their nations on everything from “crime” and “terror” to border issues — without approval from their own elected representatives. But critics are speaking out loudly as the agenda marches forward. Chief among the various schemes allegedly needed to deal with the refugee influx is the creation of...

It's little wonder the European Union can't find common solutions to Europe's urgent problems when its main members are having such different national conversations. Like the biblical Tower of Babel, Europe's ambitious construction is in danger of toppling because its peoples are not speaking the same political language. Tune in to Germany and the fierce debate is all about how to cope with an influx of a million migrants, whether to limit the numbers and, in some quarters, how to stop them coming. Switch to France and you're listening to a nation that thinks it is at war, still living...

Norwegian PM Erna Solberg doesn’t want to have to skirt her country’s responsibilities under the Geneva Convention and she doesn’t want to trample over human rights either, but she will if she has to. "It is a force majeure proposals which we will have in the event that it all breaks down,” Solberg said, in an interview with Berlingske, describing new measures she believes Norway may have to take if Sweden buckles under the weight of the refugee influx which saw some 163,000 asylum seekers inundate the country last year. Solberg is effectively prepared to turn everyone away and go...

David Cameron has boasted of his efforts to help sell “brilliant things” such as Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia on the day the European parliament voted for an arms embargo on the country over its bombardment of Yemen. The prime minister talked of the UK government’s role in selling equipment made by defence company BAE Systems to Saudi Arabia, Oman and other countries as he visited the firm’s factory in Preston. At almost the same time, the European parliament voted in favour of an EU-wide ban on arms being sold to Saudi Arabia in protest at its heavy aerial bombing...

London: Twelve former senior military officers insisted Britain should stay in the European Union today, saying the country was "stronger" as a member of the 28-nation bloc in a "dangerous world". Writing ahead of a membership referendum on June 23, the retired military chiefs said the EU helped protect the country against threats from ISIS terrorists and Russia. The signatories of the letter to the Daily Telegraph newspaper include four former professional heads of the overall armed forces as well as two former heads of the army and two of the navy. "Will Britain be safer inside the EU or...

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey are headed towards a "hot war," as she voiced concerns that the growing tensions between the two on the Syrian border risk spilling over into open warfare. Speaking at a debate at the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Mogherini said, "we are always referring to Syria as a proxy war among regional actors. This risks to become something bigger than this." "I'm not thinking of a cold war. No, we risk a hot war among different actors than the one we always think of. Not...

Robert Frost wrote in "Mending Walls" that "good fences make good neighbors", and this week it appears that people in this country and the UK are chock full of citizens who agree. As I explain, the immigration crises both here and in Europe have underscored growing anger at the arrogance and incompetence of unelected bureaucrats and their rules. The big election kerfuffle of the week was the Pope's ill-considered attack on those who want to limit illegal immigration from Mexico by building a wall at the border. To many it seemed an attack on Donald Trump whose campaign against illegal...

London's mayor Boris Johnson has thrown his weight behind the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union, in a blow for his old friend and rival Prime Minister David Cameron who had appealed for his backing. "After a great deal of heartache... I will be advocating vote 'Leave'," Johnson said, making his long-awaited announcement to a large crowd gathered outside his home in north London.

Two questions. 1. David Cameron has lumped Boris Johnson in with the Eurosceptic. Why? Boris is mayor of London, a city that depends on EU access to make its money. Has anyone seen good commentary on Boris and the opt out vote? 2. The UK will vote on the EU membership question in June. The Murdoch vehicle WSJ came out yesterday in the weekend edition in favor of an exit. Impact on the US election?

The revelation that Nigel Farage and George Galloway are to work together on the European Union referendum has been mercilessly mocked, with the unlikely pact described as an "unholy alliance". The Ukip and Respect party leaders appeared together at a rally for the Grassroots Out campaign on Friday, launching the campaign to persuade voters to end Britain's membership of the EU. Yet instead of being welcomed, Galloway's appearance prompted a mass walkout at the event, and the party leaders' partnership is now the subject of intense scrutiny - and mockery.

Chancellor Angela Merkel hoped this week’s EU summit on migration would provide at least a show of European unity in the refugee crisis. Instead, it ended in disarray. An Austrian plan to cap the entry of asylum-seekers at just 80 a day left the German leader isolated, Greece threatening to scupper any deal on Brexit in response, and leaders more divided than ever over the EU’s biggest challenge in decades. European leaders, from Berlin to Vienna to Athens, are now improvising and pursuing often contradictory policies. Ms Merkel took even her own officials by surprise when she demanded another summit...