NEWS

UK PM May's former senior adviser, Jeremy Heywood, dies aged 56

LONDON (Reuters) - Jeremy Heywood, the former head of Britain’s civil service and a senior adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May on implementing Brexit, died aged 56 on Sunday following illness, May’s office said in a statement.

As Cabinet Secretary from 2012 to late 2018, Heywood helped oversee the preparations for Brexit — Britain’s biggest political and economic shift in decades — and provided politically impartial advice to ministers, including May.

Some eurosceptics have accused the civil service, the non-political administration responsible for the smooth functioning of government, of being biased against Brexit and of trying to soften the terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-heywood/uk-pm-mays-former-senior-adviser-jeremy-heywood-dies-aged-56-idUSKCN1N90AA

NEWS

Egypt says 19 militants killed in security operation after attack on Christians

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces killed 19 Islamist militants from a cell believed to be responsible for an attack on Christians in Minya province in central Egypt which left seven people dead, the interior ministry said on Sunday.

The suspects were killed in a firefight in the desert west of Minya province after security forces pursued them, the ministry said in a statement. It did not say when the firefight took place.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Minya attack, which occurred on Friday, though it provided no evidence of its involvement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-security/egypt-says-19-militants-killed-in-security-operation-after-attack-on-christians-idUSKCN1N90BE

NEWS

French far-right overtakes Macron in EU parliament election poll

PARIS (Reuters) - France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party jumped ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM for the first time in a poll of voting intentions for May 2019 European Parliament elections.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-parliament-france/french-far-right-overtakes-macron-in-eu-parliament-election-poll-idUSKCN1N904J