For me the Eagles Lead Singer Don Henley is the best singer ever. I love the Eagles.

I met Don Henly and the other frontman Glen Frey in California 2011.

The Eagles has now also the most sold album in American history. Since country-rockband has surpassed Michael Jackson to score the biggest-selling album of all time in the US, with the Eagles – Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975.

The compilation is certified 38-time platinum, calculated by the Recording Industry Associstion of America from a combination of album sales and streams. As well as actual physical copies sold, since 2013 the RIAA has counted plays on YouTube and major streaming services such as Spotify towards a song’s “sales”, with 1,500 streams or 10 song downloads the equivalent to an album sale.

The change at the top of the biggest-seller charts comes after the RIAA tallied sales figures for the Eagles’ compilation for the first time since 2006, and found it trumped Thriller, which is 33-times platinum.

The Eagles’ biggest hit, Hotel California, is not included on the compilation as it was released in 1977 – the album of the same name is now the third-biggest selling record in the US.

“We are grateful for our families, our management, our crew, the people at radio and, most of all, the loyal fans who have stuck with us through the ups and downs of 46 years,” said the band’s singer and drummer Don Henley in a statement. “It’s been quite a ride.”

Those ups and downs include an acrimonious breakup in 1980, with Henley assuring fans that “hell would freeze over” before they toured again. Sure enough though, they returned 14 years later for the Hell Freezes Over tour. On the first concert of that tour Glen Frey opended with the legendary words, ‘for the record, we never split up – we just took a fourteen year vacation’.

Since then, guitarist Don Felder was fired in 2001, subsequently suing the band and settling out of court, while founder singer-guitarist Glenn Frey died in 2016.

Source: The Guardian

Is a ‘No-deal Brexit’ one of ‘biggest threats to European unity’ ?

A chaotic, no-deal Brexit would create a strategic split between Britain and its European allies that would take a generation to heal, Britain’s foreign secretary will warn on Tuesday. Jeremy Hunt will tell the US Institute of Peace in Washington that failure to reach a Brexit deal would add to the threats facing the values underpinning the post-war international order.

“One of the biggest threats to European unity would be a chaotic no-deal Brexit. Britain would, of course, find a way to prosper and we have faced many greater challenges in our history. But the risk of a messy divorce, as opposed to the friendship we seek, would be a fissure in relations between European allies that would take a generation to heal – a geostrategic error for Europe at an extremely vulnerable time in our history,” he will say.

“So, as I have been saying to European governments, now is the time for the European Commission to engage with an open mind with the fair and constructive proposals made by the prime minister.”

Mr Hunt faced criticism from hardline Conservative Brexiteers last week when he described a no-deal Brexit as “a mistake we would regret for generations”. He tweeted later that Britain would survive and prosper without a deal, suggesting that failure to reach an agreement would be a big mistake for Europe.

His latest remarks come as the British government prepares to publish the first tranche of more than 70 “technical notices” designed to prepare for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. The notices will include advice for businesses, citizens and public bodies on the impact of a no-deal Brexit on everything from air services to veterinary medicine.

One notice is expected to cover the consequences of a no-deal Brexit for the Common Travel Area between Britain and the Republic. Downing Street said the advice would be “sensible, proportionate, and part of a common-sense approach to ensure stability, whatever the outcome of talks”.

The Daily Telegraph reported on Monday that EU citizens now in Britain will be allowed to continue living and working in the country even if there is no Brexit deal. Britain would make the offer unilaterally, regardless of whether the EU offers similar rights to British citizens living on the continent.

“Making an offer is not only important to provide certainty publicly, but will enable the UK government to take the moral high ground. A number of other plans are also dependent on the government’s position on this issue, relying heavily on the availability of existing labour in a ‘no deal’ scenario,” the Telegraph quoted a leaked cabinet paper as saying.

You can read the full article here: Article: Irish Times

Source: Irish Times

Improving economic opportunities and prospects for the world’s least developed countries remains a key global challenge.

At last week’s Göobal Forum on Inclusive Trade for Least Developed Coubtries (LCDs), governments, businesses, NGOs, and researchers gathered at the World Trade Organizations’ headquarters in Geneva to discuss the importance of trade to the economic and social development of least developed countries — and the unique challenges they face.

The conference, hosted by the Engancwd Integrated Framework, had more than 300 participants, including representatives from more than 40 LDCs. With LDCs leading much of the discussion, the two-day conference provided an opportunity to highlight their commitment to global trade while sharing ideas and experiences on strategies for strong footing in the global trade environment.

Here is a link to the entire article: Trade for Development

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