Britain has defended its extension of grace periods to allow businesses to adapt to new regulations under Brexit, after Brussels said London had violated its obligations by doing so unilaterally.

On Wednesday, a Brussels official said Britain had unilaterally extended the transition phase of a key protocol for food deliveries to Northern Ireland until October without consulting the European Union (EU).

The European Commission said Britain’s decision to continue grace periods regarding checks along the Irish Sea border until October is a violation of its post-Brexit obligations.

Britain’s former Brexit negotiator David Frost spoke to European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic and explained that the changes were to help businesses cope, a British government spokesman said Wednesday evening.

The measures followed official-level notification to the EU earlier this week, the statement said.

Frost called the measures “temporary technical steps, which largely continued measures already in place, to provide more time for businesses such as supermarkets and parcel operators to adapt to and implement the new requirements.”

During the call, he said those were needed “for operational reasons and were the minimum necessary steps” to allow time for constructive discussions to continue without the prospect of disruption to the everyday life of people in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks.

Frost and Sefcovic agreed that both parties would remain in close contact.

Border checks were put in place between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain after it left the European Union’s single market on Dec. 31, to monitor goods entering and leaving the bloc.

The arrangement was made to keep the politically sensitive border open between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which remains an EU member, but goods checks have already led to delays and attacks against officials.

Businesses in Northern Ireland had been calling for an extension to the grace periods to avoid the sudden increase in bureaucracy linked to the protocol.

Sefkovic had earlier said that by delaying the grace periods for some goods, Britain is set to breach international law for a second time.

The Irish government also called the extension “deeply unhelpful,” the PA news agency reported.

Sefkovic said in a statement that he had expressed the EU’s “strong concerns over the UK’s unilateral action, as this amounts to a violation of the relevant substantive provisions of the protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland and the good faith obligation under the Withdrawal Agreement.”

He called it a departure from the constructive approach that has prevailed up until now, saying the move undermined the work and trust needed for solution-oriented co-operation.

World leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on his 90th birthday on Tuesday.

“You rightly belong to those bright, unconventional people, extraordinary statesmen of our time, who have had a significant impact on the course of national and international history,” Putin wrote in a congratulatory letter to Gorbachev, published by the Kremlin.

Gorbachev’s “great professional and life experience” still allowed him to “actively participate in popular social and educational work” as well as “international humanitarian projects,” Putin wrote.

“Your commitment to freedom and your courage over the decades to make the tough, albeit necessary, decisions, have made the world a safer place,” Biden wrote in a letter released by Gorbachev’s staff.

The letter said that the agreed extension to the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms treaty START was proof that the two countries would continue Gorbechev’s “legacy.”

German Chancellor Merkel joined Putin and Biden in congratulating Gorbachev, who was one of the architects behind German reunification more than 30 years ago.

“I take your day of honour as an opportunity to thank you once more for your personal commitment for the peaceful overcoming of the Cold War and the completion of German unity,” Merkel wrote in a letter to the former leader.

“Your important contribution to a reunification in freedom remains as unforgotten in Germany as your constant personal engagement for friendly relations between our two countries,” Merkel said.

Gorbachev, the former secretary-general of the Communist party, is considered one of the greatest reformers of the 20th century.

He introduced policies that opened up the Soviet Union to the world and ultimately led to the collapse of the Communist regime and the end of the Cold War with the U.S.

Many Russians also say he is responsible for the ensuing downfall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Pro-democratic forces, however, see him as a symbol of freedom, as he has criticised repression under Putin and warned against falling back into a dictatorship.

Gorbachev also owns a political foundation and co-owns the Kremlin-critical newspaper Novaya Gazeta. (dpa/NAN)

A mother from the western German city of Solingen accused of killing five of her six children has been charged with murder on all five counts.

A court spokesman said on Monday.

The woman, aged 27 at the time of the crimes, is thought to have sedated the children with an over the counter drug before suffocating them.

The dead children were discovered at her flat in Solingen on September 3, 2020.

After killing the children, the woman threw herself in front of a train at the main railway station in nearby Dusseldorf. She was seriously injured but survived.

The children were Melina (1), Leonie (2), Sophie (3), Timo (6) and Luca (8).

The woman has since claimed that a stranger broke into her residence and killed the children.

However, the public prosecutor says there is no evidence to back that claim up.(dpa/NAN)

The 12th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) earlier scheduled to hold in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan has been moved to Geneva, the WTO announced on Monday.

The organisation annouced this on  Twitter

“WTO members have just agreed that the organisation’s 12th Ministerial Conference will take place on Nov. 29, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland.

“The conference will be chaired by Kazakhstan’s Minister of Trade and Integration, Bakhyt Sultanov,’’ WTO wrote.

The ministerial conference was due to be held in summer 2020 in Nur-Sultan but was canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier reports suggested that the conference could be held in Nur-Sultan in summer 2021. (Sputnik/NAN)

The United Nations is calling for funding in an international donor meeting on Monday to save millions of people in Yemen from hunger.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), estimates that a sum of 3.85 billion dollars is needed this year to help the warn-torn country.

In 2020, countries only donated 1.9 billion dollars for people in Yemen, just over half of the funding that would have been needed, OCHA said ahead of the online pledging conference.

Out of the 29 million people in the impoverished country, 24 million need humanitarian aid, according to UN estimates.

A record 2.3 million children suffer from acute malnutrition and nearly 400,000 children below the age of five face death unless they receive urgent food aid.

Yemen has been ravaged by civil war since 2015.

The conflict has since become a proxy war in the region with Saudi Arabia leading a coalition fighting alongside the Yemeni government, while rival Iran backs Yemen’s Houthi rebels.