UK lawmakers warn of lost residency rights in no-deal Brexit

BRUSSELS (AP) — British lawmakers met the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator on Friday, seeking an iron-clad guarantee that the 1.3 million U.K. citizens in the bloc won’t have their rights removed and their lives disrupted if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

The rights of U.K. citizens living in the 27 other EU nations, and those of the more than 3 million EU citizens in Britain, are one of the thorniest issues of the Brexit negotiations.

Their rights to live, work and study are protected under an agreement struck between the two sides — but the divorce agreement has been rejected by Britain’s Parliament, raising the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.

The U.K. is due to leave the bloc on Oct. 31, and both men vying to take over as prime minister next week, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, say it’s imperative that Brexit happens, with or without a deal.

Conservative lawmaker Alberto Costa, who led the cross-party delegation that met EU negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels, said “if there’s no agreement, there’s no protection.”

“British nationals will potentially lose access to pension entitlement, lose access to health care entitlement, lose access to welfare entitlement and a whole gamut of other issues,” he said.

Pilot whales strand on Iceland beach in group of 50 or more

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Tourists and a pilot on a helicopter sightseeing tour of Iceland have found dozens of dead whales on a remote beach in Iceland.

David Schwarzhans, a pilot for Reykjavík Helicopters, said he and his passengers counted 50 long-finned pilot whales washed up on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland on Thursday.

Schwarzhans said “there might have been more. Some were already buried in sand.” He says the whales were concentrated in one spot and described it as “a very sad scene.”

The whales are believed to have swum ashore at the same time and died of dehydration.

The pilot whale is notorious for stranding in mass numbers, for reasons that are not entirely understood.

Last year, locals got a large group of whales to turn away from a spot on the opposite side of the peninsula.