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THE U.K. set out its tariffs plan for global trade when it fully leaves the EU at the end of this year, cutting import duties on many products while protecting industries such as automotive and agriculture.

Items like dishwashers, freezers and Christmas trees will be able to enter the U.K. tariff-free as of Jan. 1 2021,

the Department for Interna-tional Trade said in a state-ment yesterday. Tariffs will be maintained on agricultural products like beef, lamb and poultry, plus a 10 percent tariff on cars, the department said.

Britain’s so-called “global tariff” regime is an important feature of its economic policy as it leaves the EU, because

it replaces the EU’s common external tariff, which sets duties on non-EU trade not otherwise covered by a pref-erential trade agreement.

The U.K. said 60 percent of its trade will come in tariff-free under its plan, compared to 47 percent currently.

“Our new global tariff will benefit U.K. consumers and

households by cutting red tape and reducing the cost of thousands of everyday prod-ucts,” International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said in the statement.

“We are backing U.K. industry and helping busi-nesses overcome the unprec-edented economic challenges posed by coronavirus.”

Separately, the U.K. is engaged in trade talks with the EU, aiming to sign a Canada-style accord that would elimi-nate most tariffs and quotas on goods but introduce new barri-ers like customs paperwork.

The latest round of talks ended with few signs of prog-ress.

(SD-Agencies)

UK announces plan for tari� cuts a�er Brexit

THE government watchdog who was fired last week had been investigating the U.S. sec-retary of state, Mike Pompeo, for sidestepping Congress to approve arms sales to the Gulf and using staffers for personal errands, according to congres-sional sources.

U.S. President Donald Trump declared his intention to fire the state department inspector gen-eral, Steve Linick, in a letter sent to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, late Friday night. The White House said the decision was taken at Pompeo’s advice.

According to Democratic congressional aides, Linick had nearly completed an investiga-tion into a highly controversial decision by Trump and Pompeo last May to approve US$8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with-out consulting Congress, on the grounds that the regional threat posed by Iran constituted a national emergency.

Congress had sought to curb the weapons sales in the wake of the Saudi killing of the Washing-ton Post columnist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi and high civil-

ian casualties from Saudi bomb strikes in Yemen.

The congressional aides said Linick had also been looking into allegations that a political appointee at the state depart-ment was being employed to run menial errands for Pompeo and his wife, Susan. The chores included walking the family dog, picking up dry cleaning and making dinner reservations.

Pompeo claimed he was unaware he was being inves-tigated by the inspector gen-eral and insisted he called for Linick’s firing because he

was “undermining” the state department’s work.

Pompeo’s claim to have no knowledge he was under investigation conflict with a report in Politico on Monday that he had refused to sit for an interview with the inspector general’s office about the Saudi arms sales.

In his letter Friday, announc-ing Linick’s dismissal, Trump said he no longer had full con-fidence in him. On Monday, he said he had never heard of Linick before being asked to fire him.

(SD-Agencies)

ENGLISH Premier League (EPL) clubs agreed Monday on the measures that will allow non-contact practice sessions to resume during the coronavirus pandemic.

The protocols for small group training — while maintaining social distancing — begin-ning yesterday were approved unanimously in a vote by the clubs during a conference call after the government eased lockdown restrictions in Eng-land last week.

Up to five players will be allowed to work together on a field, according to details released by Newcastle. The northeast club will operate a rotation that will ensure only 10 players maximum are at the training ground at any one time.

Contact training and matches are yet to be allowed by the government, which is waiting to see there is no new spike in COVID-19 infections before further relaxing the distancing measures.

The Premier League said it is the “first step towards restarting the Premier League, when safe to do so.” The season was sus-pended in March with Liverpool leading by 25 points with nine games remaining.

Coronavirus testing is due to take place twice weekly at clubs of up to 40 players, coaches and support staff.

The league will continue to consult with players, coaches and clubs on the protocols that could allow full-contact train-ing. (SD-Agencies)

THOMAS THABANE has announced he will step down as prime minister of Lesotho following months of pressure after he was named as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife.

He did not say when he would leave office but his party said a new p r e m i e r would be sworn in soon.

The 80-year-old’s current wife, with whom he was living at the time of the murder, was charged in connection with the killing in February. The pair have denied any involvement.

“I decided to personally come and inform you that I am stepping down as prime minister of Lesotho,” he told supporters in his Abia home constituency on the outskirts of the capital Maseru.

Lesotho has been plagued by political instability this year — he lost his majority in parliament last week when the coalition backing him fell apart and a new government is expected to be installed Friday.

Gunmen shot and killed Lipolelo Thabane on June 14, 2017, two days before Tha-bane was sworn in as prime minister.

While returning home, she was ambushed, shot several times at close range and died on the side of a dirt road. She was 58.

At the time, Lipolelo was going through a bitter divorce with Thabane and had been living apart from her husband since 2012.

He had moved in with a new woman, Maesaiah Thabane, some time between 2012 and 2017.

Thabane appeared in court in February for acting in “common purpose” but he hasn’t been for-mally charged yet.

Thabane, 80, is one of Africa’s oldest leaders and has spent most of his working life as a politician.

No stranger to political rivalry, Thabane once fled to South Africa, alleging a coup plot by the military and had to be escorted back to Lesotho by the police. (SD-Agencies)

AN Israeli court Monday found a Jewish settler guilty of three murders in an arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents — a verdict that did little to ease the bereaved family’s pain.

Amiram Ben-Uliel, 25, from the West Bank settlement of Shilo, was also convicted of two counts each of attempted murder and arson, along with conspiracy to commit a hate crime in the 2015 attack.

The court did not set a date for sentencing on the charges, which carry a maximum term of life in jail, and the defense team announced an appeal.

Hours after the verdict, the Palestinian family devastated by the attack said that justice was incomplete, having long insisted that there were several attackers.

Ahmed Dawabsha was four when his parents and brother were killed by Ben-Uliel, who threw a firebomb through a window of their home while they slept in Duma, a village in the occupied West Bank. He was severely burned.

The 2015 killings shone a spotlight on Jewish extremism and sparked accusations Israel had not done enough to prevent such violence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has labelled such attacks acts of “terrorism,” a word more commonly used by Israelis to refer to violence com-mitted by Palestinians.

The verdict came a day after Netanyahu said Israel’s new government should push ahead with annexing West Bank Jewish settlements, a move likely to further inflame

tensions in the territory.Ahmed, who suffered severe

burns, was the sole survivor in his immediate family of the arson attack that killed his 18-month-old brother Ali, his mother Riham and father Saed.

After the verdict, the pros-ecution described the “horrific terror attack in Duma” as a pre-meditated act of revenge for the fatal shooting of settler Malachi Rosenfeld by a Palestinian near Shilo a month earlier.

“The court found that the accused planned the attack in advance, equipped himself with two petrol bombs and threw one in the middle of the night through the window of the bedroom where the Dawabsha family was sleeping at the time,” it said.

(SD-Agencies)

Democrats: Fired watchdog was looking into Saudi arms sale

Court convicts settler of Palestinian arson murders

EPL clubs resume noncontact training

Thabane resigns as Lesotho PM

Thomas Thabane

Amiram Ben-Uliel is brought in for the verdict in the case of the 2015 arson attack, which killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents in the Israeli-occupied West Bank village of Duma, at the Central Lod District Court in Lod, Israel , on Monday. SD-Agencies