UBS fined, Gibraltar visa row, & returning IS brides

Tax evasion fine

Swiss bank UBS was ordered to pay €4.5b in fines and damages by a French court for illegal solicitation and laundering proceeds of tax fraud. UBS denies wrongdoing and says it will appeal against the French court’s judgment. More from The Guardian, and the FT,

Gibraltar: overseas territory or colony?

British tourists may need to pay £52 for a visa when they visit the continent because of a spat with Spain over Gibraltar. The agreement that will exempt UK nationals from requiring a travel permit is mired in whether the EU should describe the British overseas territory as a colony in its statute book. More on this from The Guardian.

Jihadi bride citizenship

There has been a groundswell of surprise in the UK at the Home Office’s decision to revoke the citizenship of a young woman who became an Islamic State bride. Shamima Begum, now 19 and with a four-day old infant, was 15 when she left. She married an Isis fighter and lost two children to disease and malnutrition. It is thought she has Bangladeshi citizenship through her mother though both Begum and Bangladesh authorities refute this. She says she has never lived there and doesn’t speak the language. Conservative MP Ken Clarke said the approach of the Home Office would be a “great boost for jihadism”. Find out what people are saying on BBC news, the FT, The Guardian, and inews.

More defections in UK Parliament

Three Conservative MPs have quit their party to join the new independent group set up by Labour defectors. Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen blamed the departure on the fact the Tory modernising project had failed and said that the party had fallen prey to hardline Brexiteers. More from The Guardian, the FT, and the New Statesman.

Spain’s rejection of babies born to Ukraine surrogates

Spain announced on Tuesday it would reject registrations for babies born to surrogate mothers in Ukraine, euronews reports. Spain’s embassy in Ukraine posted the statement on Facebook. Spain implemented similar rules in 2018 citing concerns over human trafficking and medical malpractice.

Bangladesh fire

Around 70 people are thought to have been killed in a fire at an apartment block which also served as a chemical warehouse in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka. More from The Guardian, bdnews24, and Dhaka Tribune.

Caliphate in Syria

The five-year battle with the Isis caliphate in Syria is coming to an end, The Guardian reports. Special forces will soon storm Baghuz town on the Euphrates river to flush out the last IS fighters. The operation was stalled as civilians spilled out of the town. Since it began, an estimated 20,000 civilians and families of fighters have left Baghuz.

Folding phones return

Samsung revealed its latest folding smartphone, which doubles as a tablet, hailing the gadget as the biggest smartphone development in decades. The Galaxy Fold S10 5G comes with a hefty price tag, however, starting at £1,516. More on this from The Telegraph, The Guardian, and BBC news.