Euobserver.com

Companies like the Boston Consulting Group, Google and Uber are pushing the EU to join the race for autonomous (self-driving) cars. But one key question is missing from the debate: should we?

British PM Theresa May battles for survival as she faces calls for her resignation and the rebellion of several ministers who resigned over the draft Brexit deal - which the EU is preparing to sign later this month.

The main points of the Brexit withdrawal deal between London and Brussels dissected. Although the EU is preparing to sign the agreement, the UK government has been rocked by resignations since its publication less than 24 hours ago.

Under-fire British prime minister Theresa May spent three hours on Thursday defending her government's withdrawal deal with the EU to the House of Commons, despite the resignation of two cabinet ministers. May admitted she shared some MPs "concerns" at the backstop, but refused to consider a second referendum. The opposition Labour party, as well as many of her own Conservative MPs, said they would not vote for the deal.

Conservative pro-Brexit MP Jacob Rees-Mogg on Thursday wrote to the UK prime minister calling on her to resign, in the wake of the publication of the withdrawal agreement between the UK and the EU, and the subsequent resignations of two cabinet ministers. In his call for a no-confidence vote, Rees-Mogg wrote "it would be in the interest of the party and the country if [you] were to stand aside."

Denmark has suspended €8.7m of aid to Tanzania over a homophobic crackdown in the country. Ulla Tornaes, the Danish development minister said she was "very concerned" by "unacceptable homophobic comments" made by a senior politician. She spoke after Paul Makonda, a commissioner in charge of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital, urged people to denounce gay men to police. "Respect for human rights is crucial for Denmark," Tornaes said.

A second British cabinet minister resigned on Thursday morning rather than supporting the Brexit withdrawal deal agreed between the UK and the EU on Wednesday night. Esther McVey quit as secretary for work and pensions, just minutes after the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, also resigned - throwing the agreement, and Theresa May's authority as prime minister, into question. Parliament is set to vote on the deal in December.

Dominic Raab, the UK Brexit secretary, dramatically resigned on Thursday morning, just hours after signing off on the withdrawal agreement agreed between the UK and the EU. Raab, in his resignation letter, cited the Northern Ireland border and the 'backstop' as issues he could not agree to. The resignation, possibly to be followed by others, throws into doubt the deal only agreed by the UK cabinet on Wednesday night.

Some 43 Romanian MPs have signed a petition urging the government to adopt a 'Magnitsky Act', imposing sanctions on human rights abusers, named after Russian anti-corruption activist Sergei Magnitsky. "Today the campaign for a Romanian Magnitsky Act began," Bill Browder, Magnitsky's former employer, who is behind the campaign, said. Four EU states, plus Canada and the US, have them in place, amid a Dutch proposal for action at EU level.

Romania's ruling party has, literally, shown the middle finger to EU institutions as it prepares to take on the bloc's presidency next year.

Greek anti-money laundering authorities have ordered the opening of former Pasok prime minister Costas Simitis and his family's bank accounts, as well as those of Simitis' public order minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis in relation to bribe allegations related to the acquisition of a security system for the 2004 Athens Olympics. Simitis said he has "nothing to hide".

European Council president Donald Tusk announced Thursday that EU leaders will meet for a summit to formalise the Brexit deal on Sunday 25 November, at 9:30AM – "if nothing extraordinary happens" between now and then. He said that EU ambassadors will meet by the end of this week to discuss the agreement. "I hope there will not be too many comments," said Tusk, after meeting EU negotiator Michel Barnier.

EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Wednesday that the EU has a list of potential retaliation targets ready in case US president Donald Trump imposes auto tariffs on EU member states. "It could be cars, it could be the agricultural sector, it can be anything," Malmstrom said after a conversation with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington. The list still needs to be coordinated with the member states.

Illegal border crossings into the EU have dropped to a five-year low, with Spain now the main destination, accounting for 60 percent of new arrivals, the EU's border agency Frontex said on Wednesday. Frontex reported 118,900 illegal border crossings in the first 10 months of the year, which is more than 30 percent lower than in the same period in 2017.

The scandal over a dubious and possibly illegal transfer of €130,000 from a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company to fund the election of German AfD MP Alice Weidel grew on Thursday, with the AfD admitting Weidel also received €150,000 in February from a Belgium foundation, Stichting Identiteit Europa. The money was transferred from the Netherlands. The AfD party returned the full amount in May, three months after receiving it, it said.

Cyprus has overlooked undertakings on bank probity made to the EU in the context of the 2013 bailout - but it might prove harder to get the US off its back.

Brexit talks have reached "decisive progress" after May's cabinet backed the draft deal on Wednesday, but the EU27 still have to comb through the massive text and British MPs still have to agree.

The EU published the full text of the agreement between the UK and Brussels on a withdrawal agreement on Wednesday, just after Theresa May received backing from her cabinet for the deal. The text runs to 585 pages and will now be scrutinised by UK MPs, and EU member state governments, ahead of a decisive vote to approve or reject the agreement in the British parliament, expected in December.

Theresa May persuaded her cabinet to agree the withdrawal deal between the UK and EU on Wednesday evening, after a marathon session the PM described as "long, detailed and impassioned". May called the deal "the best that could be negotiated", and the only option apart from a no-deal or no Brexit. The cabinet is now bound by collective responsibility to support the deal ahead of parliamentary approval vote in December.

Authorities in Budapest confirmed the former prime minister of Macedonia, fleeing a jail sentence in his own country, has filed for asylum. Despite Hungary's strict asylum laws, the pro-Kremlin politician was not turned away.