Jewish refugee descendants challenge Germany over citizenship
By Luke Hanrahan BBC News
13 August 2019
British descendants of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis are challenging the German government's rejection of their citizenship bids.
Anyone deprived of citizenship during the Nazi regime is eligible for it to be restored.
But some claim they have been turned down as they were adopted, or their parents left Germany before 1941.
The German Embassy said people can apply for citizenship under a different law starting this month.
Some of the people who spoke to the BBC have been fighting for citizenship for years.
Image caption Jacqueline Boronow-Danson (right) said she was not granted citizenship because she was adopted
Jacqueline Boronow-Danson, from Golders Green in north London, has been trying to get German citizenship for five years, but says her application was rejected because she was adopted.
"We can't be both biologically related and adopted, but in as far as I know, we don't feel any different to any close relationship between a child and its parents and that's why the German thing is so upsetting," she said.
"It's insulting because it doesn't acknowledge the truth."
New figures show the number of Brits applying for German citizenship has increased since the 2016 EU referendum.
In 2015, only 43 requests were made via Article 116, which applies to the descendants of anyone who was deprived of their German citizenship during the 12 years of Nazism on political, racial or religious grounds.
Since the Brexit vote, that number has increased to more than 600.
Image caption Sally Morgan said Brexit had made her reflect on who she was
Sally Morgan, from London, who has also been fighting for citizenship for years, said Brexit had been "a catalyst to make me reflect on who I am, and I am European".
She claims she was rejected because her nationality request was based on her mother being German, not her father.
Ms Morgan added: "The European links have grown because my in-laws are Polish, my son's married to a French woman... but it stems from my mother being German and I feel an entitlement for that citizenship to be acknowledged."
Diana Cook, from Leeds, said she was "trying to reclaim something that was stolen from my mother".
She said she had not been successful with her application because she was born "too early".
"I think there's a lack of understanding about how simple the solution is.
"For most people like me it's simply a matter of dates, and I was born a little bit too early. It feels bizarre."
Grounds for exclusion:
Born in wedlock to a formerly German mother with a foreign father before 31 March 1953
Born out of wedlock to a formerly German father with a foreign mother before 1993
Adopted by formerly German parents before 1977
Ancestor fled Germany and acquired a foreign citizenship before being forcibly denaturalised
Female ancestor fled Germany and married a foreign man before being forcibly denaturalised
Ancestor fled Germany and applied for the removal of their German citizenship before being forcibly denaturalised
Peter Guillery, also from London, said: "It feels quite wrong. There was no question [my father] had to leave Nazi Germany.
"He would not have become British if it were not for the fact that their lives were in peril and other members of the family died in the camps.
"I had a European passport for all those years and it just felt natural being half English and half German, and I don't want that taken away."
The German Embassy said it was aware there were cases of individuals that were not covered by the law, but who were equally interested in restoration of their German citizenship.
It said from this month, the German Interior Ministry would instigate new rules to allow people to apply for citizenship under a different law but it meant those applying would have to prove they could speak German and had strong ties to the country.
He lost two children in the Sri Lanka bombings
By Luke Hanrahan, CNN
Updated 1926 GMT (0326 HKT) April 25, 2019
London (CNN)Matt Linsey's face is peppered with minute scars from the shrapnel and debris that hit him, as he recalls the split-second decision he and his two children made to run, rather than hide, just after the first of two bombs went off.
"The bomb went off and they both were running toward me," he said. "I knew there'd be another bomb because there always is with these things."
His instinct was right, but it was as they fled that the second blast hit his children, Daniel and Amelie, detonating near the elevators on the third floor of the upmarket Shangri-La hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The 61-year-old US investment banker is both numb in grief after their deaths and tormented by what he could have done differently, faced with the impossible task of protecting his children from such murderous intent.
"Maybe I should have stayed and covered them with my body," he said of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that struck seven buildings in three Sri Lankan cities. Officials say more than 300 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.
Four days after the coordinated attacks, the Sri Lankan Health Ministry revised the death toll, saying 253 people had died. That toll is significantly lower than the 359 initially reported to CNN by a Colombo police spokesman this week. The health ministry cited the condition of remains and the difficulty in identifying them for the discrepancy.
Moments earlier, the breakfast buffet had been alive, Amelie, 15, going to fetch his father food. "My children were so nice, they actually went down to the buffet before me and got the food for me and filled up my plate," he said. "And I wanted a bit more to drink, I was going to get it, my daughter said, 'No I'll get it.'"
Both were joyous expressions of how young people seek to help others, as described by their brother David, 21.
Daniel, 19, volunteered to help orphans in Ethiopia and Amelie was a source of so much energy and love in their family. The US-UK dual nationals had gone with their father on a vacation in Sri Lanka. Their mother and two siblings had stayed at home.
At the family's London home, luggage sits unpacked in the hallway. The victims' 12-year-old brother, Ethan, scrolled through family pictures on the computer. That morning, he cried and said he wanted his siblings back. David held Amelie's smartphone, a hole ripped through it by what must have been a ball bearing from the blast.
After the second blast in the Shangri-La, Matt Linsey raced over to their injured bodies.
"They both were unconscious," he said. "My daughter seemed to be moving. My son wasn't. A woman offered to take my daughter downstairs to the ambulance. I needed help moving my son." Thinking his daughter was in safe hands and less injured, Linsey traveled with his son in the ambulance to the hospital.
There he tried to revive his son, unsuccessfully. "I tried to massage his heart," the father said.
He tried to find his daughter, he explains, his voice a hoarse whisper of exhaustion. "This was the worst part... because I yelled for help. That's why I've lost my voice." Amid the overflowing hospital, Linsey found a lifeless Amelie under a hospital sheet.
"The people were very helpful," he said of the hospital staff. "They're rudimentary facilities, they did their best."
He recalls how a Sri Lankan doctor helped him get to the US Embassy, where the staff were "fantastic," including a Marine named Wolf. They got him on a plane home in eight hours. There was little more he could do to help his children, amid the continuing threat.
Asked whether he is full of rage for the senseless murder of his two teenage children, he said a song his daughter loved came to mind.
"My daughter and I, one of our favorite songs is a song called 'Love is the Answer'," Matt Linsey said. "When my Dad passed away, my daughter and I -- that became our song. She was only 6. Yes, you want the government to do what they have to do to stop these people. I agree with that completely. But also, [to] the people on the other side: Love is the answer ultimately, and helping people."
Business 'Brexodus': How no-deal uncertainty is hurting small companies
By Luke Hanrahan EuroNews 15/02/2019
With just 42 days to go until the UK leaves the European Union and with parliament still split on whether to let the country crash out without a deal, small businesses are increasingly joining the "Brexodus".
Several banks and multinationals including Airbus, Nissan and Ford have in the past few months made moves to disengage from the UK fearing the impact a no-deal Brexit would have on their operations.
According to EY's Brexit Tracker released in January, financial companies have already transferred nearly €877 million worth of their assets from Britain towards EU countries, with Dublin in Ireland keeping a slight edge over rivals Paris and Frankfurt.
'It's crunch time'
Small businesses are now increasingly joining the movement,
"This is a real crunch time for small businesses with confidence absolutely on the floor, investment decisions on hold and so much uncertainty not just for business owners but also their employees," Alan Soady, from the UK's Federation of Small Business (FSB), told Euronews.
As the March 29 D-Day gets nearer, growth in the UK slowed down last year to its lowest level since 2012, even contracting slightly in December.
Muscle Shoals, Alabama: the small town that’s given the world some of its biggest hits
Nestled in the corner of Alabama, Muscle Shoals was originally known for being the location of the Wilson Dam across the Tennessee River…
The government has been at pains to argue Brexit has little to do with the drop but the Bank of England has warned that uncertainties are weighing on the "UK financial markets." Business confidence, meanwhile, continued to plummet to an expected -16.3% in the first quarter of 2019, down from an already dire -12.3% in the previous quarter.
According to the FSB, confidence among small businesses is even weaker, reaching as low as -48% and -44% for food services and retail companies respectively. This is a problem given that small businesses account for half of the revenue generated by the private sector and employ more than 60% of all private sector jobs.
Parliament is no closer to alleviating uncertainties after lawmakers defeated Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday night, voting down her Brexit strategy and upping, once more, the possibility of a no-deal exit.
"They (small businesses) need time to prepare for whatever the future relationship with the EU is," Soady said.
"Just a few weeks before a potential no-deal Brexit, that is not going to be enough time. There needs to be a transition period so they have plenty of time and support to adapt to whatever the future holds," he explained.
For some businesses though, it's already too late.
'We've been thrown under the bus'
Sports clothing exporter Freestylextreme.com has already taken some drastic steps. The company imports most of its stock from the EU and exports most of it back to the Old Continent.
In a few weeks, it will be packing up its warehouse in Bristol, in southwest England, and opening up shop in Bratislava, in Slovakia.
"We can't reverse the decision," the company's managing director, Shaun Loughlin, told Euronews.
"The lease is signed, employment contracts are in place, people (in Bristol) have been made redundant," he added.
The company "hit the panic button" on its contingency plan when progress in the Brexit negotiations stalled.
"We feel that we've been completely hung out to dry by the UK government, We have quite literally been thrown under the bus in the process," Loughlin said.
"You never expect as a business leader for your entire market to change so dramatically overnight the way that it has.
"I cannot believe I'm letting these persons go, who I've worked with for x amount of years. It's incredibly surreal," he added.
'We have no idea'
However, some companies have benefited from the uncertainty, which has caused the British pound to weaken thus boosting exports.
One such company is Alchemy Coffee.
The small company, based in Wimbledon, south London, has seen higher demand from Europe after the weaker currency helped make its expensive, high-quality product more affordable on the other side of the Channel.
But although it has forsaken contingency plans for now, uncertainty still weighs heavily and a no-deal Brexit would add to worries.
"I don't know if that's going to be a double import. Do I have to import into Europe, then export it out of Europe to the UK? Will I be charged VAT? Will there be tariff barriers?," director Joseph O'Hara said.
"Because we're not going to see this coffee for three months, we're going to go see farmers before we leave Europe but the coffee comes afterwards, so we have no idea," he told Euronews.
For O'Hara, the best solution — one he is crossing his fingers for — would be for the UK to remain within the customs union.
UK suffers from shortage of seasonal fruit pickers this summer
By Luke Hanrahan in the UK 12/06/2019
In Herefordshire, in the West of England, the berry harvest has begun. But this year soft fruit farmers are finding there are far fewer eastern European seasonal workers coming back to fill jobs, putting the berries at risk of rotting unpicked on the fields.
Three years ago there were four workers for every job. But according to the largest provider of labour to farms like this one, the figures have reversed. Now one person has four jobs to choose from - in large part because growers across Europe are now competing for labour on a greater scale
“Workers in eastern Europe are incredibly attracted by other countries. Main competitors are Germany and the Netherlands” says Stephanie Maurel, who works for a top agency providing seasonal jobs to farms in England. She adds: “these countries are doing a really good job in governmental support for workers, tax breaks, their growers have invested heavily and their farms have developed really quickly so they are in need of more labour.”
In 2017, Britain had a 10% drop in the number of European seasonal workers coming from Europe, in 2018 the drop was higher at 13% and the same figure is expected this year. The UK is around 10,000 to 15,000 workers short and fields go unpicked with fruits that won’t end up in the shops.
The situation this summer has meant UK fruit farmers are fighting on many fronts. Improving working conditions for workers compared to its EU competitors is a priority.
A reason why this is happening now is that a weaker British economy means these seasonal migrants stand to make less money when they go over to the UK. Claudiu Netoiu works as a foreman in a farm in Kent: “We did have some no shows, so it’s quite challenging because today we have a gang of 50 people and sometimes we have only 40 turning up.” He adds: “one of the big reasons is the value of the British Pound as before the Brexit referendum the Sterling was strong, now it’s dropped to something awful.”
Private college GSM London goes bust and will stop teaching
By Luke Hanrahan 31 July 2019
GSM London, one of the biggest private higher education providers in England, has gone into administration - and will stop teaching students in September.
The college says it has not been able to "recruit and retain sufficient numbers of students to generate enough revenue to be sustainable".
It teaches about 3,500 students - with degree courses validated by the University of Plymouth.
The college, based in Greenwich and Greenford, says 247 jobs are at risk.
The for-profit college is owned by a private equity company and focused on business courses.
It is one of a wave of private providers encouraged to promote more of a market in higher education.
Its collapse is likely to raise questions about the success of such a commercialisation of the sector.
It was not a university - and not regulated by the higher education watchdog, the Office for Students (OFS).
But a spokesman for the OFS said its "overarching priority is to ensure that students are able to complete their studies".
"We understand that some students who are nearing the end of their studies will be able to stay at GSM but it is likely that most will need to transfer to another higher education provider."
The OFS says in 2017-18 the college had 5,440 students, with the latest figures showing 3,500.
A statement from GSM London says that "discussions are under way with other higher education providers to identify alternative courses for our students and we will be supporting them in the application process".
'Marketisation'
The college says it could not remain financially viable and had been unable to find a buyer to ensure its "longer-term future".
It says it will teach until September - which for some courses will be the end of term - ahead of an "orderly wind-down and closure of the college".
The UCU lecturers' union blamed the "marketisation of education" and warned of "funding a free for all among private providers".
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We want a broad, sustainable market in higher education, which offers students flexibility and a wide range of high-quality choices for where and what they study.
"Whilst the vast majority of institutions are in good financial health, the Department for Education and the Office for Students have been clear that neither will bail out failing providers."