General news

• Theresa May says Britain will not 'cherry pick' which parts of EU it wants access to after Brexit

  16-02-2017 23:49
  
  Britain will not try to “cherry pick” which parts of the European Union it maintains access to after Brexit, Theresa May has said.The Prime Minister defended her decision to withdraw the UK from the single market and try to negotiate a trade deal with the EU, saying this did not amount to trying to unfairly keep hold of the best aspects of membership.Ms May has previously said she wants the UK to maintain the “greatest possible access” to the EU trading bloc – trigg
  
  Read more

• Donald Trump asks black reporter if she knows members of the Congressional Black Caucus and says: 'Can you set up a meeting?'

  16-02-2017 23:43
  
  Donald Trump asked a black reporter whether the Congressional Black Caucus was “friends of yours” after she questioned him on whether the parliamentary group would be involved in inner-city policy decisions.April Ryan, White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks, asked Mr Trump whether the CBC would be asked to help work on urban renewal.“Are you going to include the CBC, Mr President, in your conversations with your urban agenda
  
  Read more

• Mark Zuckerberg sparks speculation about political future with 5,800 word global manifesto

  16-02-2017 23:37
  
  Mark Zuckerberg has sparked further speculation about a future political career after publishing a 5,800-word global manifesto.Mr Zuckerberg, 32, said: "Facebook stands for bringing us closer together and building a global community.Facebook was started by Mr Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, and he is now worth an estimated $50 billion.
  
  Read more

• Theresa May hails relationship with France as its most senior politicians call for UK to be 'punished' for Brexit

  16-02-2017 23:30
  
  Theresa May has said that French people will “always be welcome in Britain” just hours after some of the country’s most senior politicians demanded that the UK is punished for Brexit.The Prime Minister wrote an article in French newspaper Le Figaro in which she hailed the relationship between Britain and France.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Jürgen Klopp says winter schedule was a factor in Liverpool’s poor run

  16-02-2017 23:30
  
  • Manager believes EFL Cup semi-finals among hurdles that took toll on players
  • Klopp draws contrast with Chelsea’s freshness and continuityLiverpool suffered at the start of 2017 as a result of reaching the EFL Cup semi-finals and the festive schedule, Jürgen Klopp has claimed, with the manager convinced his team will benefit from lessons learned.Klopp’s side rediscovered form when they defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Anfield, their first league win since New Year&
  
  Read more

• Man, 36, arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of planning terror attacks

  16-02-2017 23:25
  
  A man suspected of preparing to carry out a terror attack has been arrested at Heathrow airport.Counter terrorism officers detained the 36-year-old when he returned to the UK from an undisclosed location on Thursday afternoon.
  
  Read more

• PewDiePie angrily accuses media of 'out-of-context' reports on antisemitic video

  16-02-2017 23:24
  
  The YouTuber, who lost support from Walt Disney Company and Google for posts featuring neo-Nazi ‘jokes’, claimed Wall Street Journal was ‘scared’ of himYouTube star PewDiePie has released an impassioned, 10-minute diatribe in which he blames the mainstream media for cherry-picking parts of his videos to make him look like an antisemite.On Tuesday, the Walt Disney Company and Google severed ties with the 27-year-old YouTuber, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, after the W
  
  Read more

• Nicola Sturgeon facing rates revolt led by leading hotelier and SNP member

  16-02-2017 23:24
  
  Nicola Sturgeon is under mounting pressure to respond to a nationwide outcry over business rate rises after a leading hotelier and SNP member said he had received widespread support for his call to boycott swingeing increases.Stewart Spence, owner of the five-star Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen and a friend of Alex Salmond, said he had been contacted by independent hoteliers, restaurant and pub owners who were all ready to join a campaign against the new rates.The Scottish Government has been asked
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Donald Trump's combative press conference: the six most significant moments

  16-02-2017 23:21
  
  Donald Trump insisted that he had “inherited a mess” in his most vociferous defence of his presidency to date during a wide-ranging 75 minute impromptu press conference on Thursday.Mr Trump claimed his administration was operating like a “fine-tuned machine” and railed against claims to the contrary during a conference initially intended as an introduction for his new cabinet nominee.Mr Trump claimed reports that his senior campaign aides had been in contact with Russian
  
  Read more

• Warren Gatland keeping cards close to his chest on Lions squad decisions

  16-02-2017 23:00
  
  • Coach is ‘just going to and watching games ... I haven’t written down a squad’
  • Stuart Hogg singled out for praise after first two rounds of Six Nations gamesThere are two months to go until the Lions squad is announced and Warren Gatland already has the careworn air of a man who is spending too much time turning the same set of questions over in his mind. Related: Six Nations is showing that a shortened tournament would benefit no one | Paul ReesContinue reading..
  
  Read more

• Senior Tory urges Philip Hammond to protect businesses from 'looming nightmare' of rate rises

  16-02-2017 23:00
  
  Philip Hammond must back down from the "looming nightmare" of higher business rates in his Budget or risk a revolt in the Tory heartlands, a vice-chairman of the Conservative Party has warned.Mark Field, Tory MP for Cities of London and Westminster, says that retailers in his constituency will "simply shut up shop" unless the Chancellor limits the impact of the first revaluation of business rates in seven years.It comes as Mary Portas, a retail expert who previously advised the Government o
  
  Read more

• Zlatan Ibrahimovic hat-trick drives Manchester United past St-Étienne

  16-02-2017 22:58
  
  Manchester United will take a healthy lead to the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for next week’s second leg after Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s hat-trick, sealed by a late penalty. Related: Manchester United 3-0 St-Étienne: Europa League – as it happenedContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Donald Trump defends Melania and insists she is being 'so unfairly maligned' 

  16-02-2017 22:50
  
  President Donald Trump launched a strident defence of his wife on Thursday, insisting that Melania Trump was “a fantastic person” who would embrace the role of first lady.The 46-year-old, whose absence in the first three weeks of her husband’s presidency had raised eyebrows, would soon begin to work on “women’s issues”, he said.Mrs Trump has stayed in New York to enable their son Barron, 10, to finish school, while Mr Trump moved into the White House.
  
  Read more

• Black and mixed race people 'more likely to be Tasered by police in London'

  16-02-2017 22:41
  
  Police in London are more likely to use Tasers on black and mixed race people, figures suggest.Since 2014, black and mixed race people were on the receiving end of a Met Police Taser 40 per cent of time, according to the Guardian.A black or mixed race person was targeted in 1,530 of a total of 3,815 cases.
  
  Read more

• Marc Jacobs channels the 70s in grand final of New York Fashion Week

  16-02-2017 22:37
  
  Jacobs sought to respect youth street style in show which turned focus to the audience in social media spectacleLast season’s Marc Jacobs show provoked a social media row of epic proportions after the designer was accused of cultural appropriation for styling white models’ hair into dreadlocks.Related: New York fashion week autumn/winter 2017: 10 key shows – in picturesContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Frozen lakes end the winter with an 'ice tsunami'

  16-02-2017 22:30
  
  If the winds are strong enough and sustained, the spring can deliver ice shove or ice heave at the edge of lakes in the north of the globeIn late February, the winter ice may start to melt. When that happens, frozen lakes can send spectacular slow-motion waves of crushed ice cascading over the shoreline onto the land. These waves are sometimes called “ice tsunamis” but, to meteorologists, they are “ice shove” or “ice heave”.Specific conditions are needed to pr
  
  Read more

• World stocks hit record highs as Dow keeps rising - as it happened

  16-02-2017 22:17
  
  All the day’s economic and financial news, as shares continue to hit new peaks before coming off the boil in late tradingIntroduction: MSCI World Index hits new high this morningLatest: Dow Jones hits another closing highTrump-Russia worries alarm some tradersVIX fear index hits two-week highEconomic optimism and rising inflation push shares upUS factory survey surges to 33-year highAre shares overvalued? Maybe.... 9.16pm GMTThat’s all for today, after a lively session that saw MSCI&
  
  Read more

• Donald Trump to replace travel ban order for seven Muslim-majority countries 'in near future'

  16-02-2017 22:16
  
  US President Donald Trump will replace his executive order suspending travel from seven Muslim-majority countries "in the near future," according to a Justice Department court filing on Thursday.Given the upcoming executive order, the Justice Department said a federal appeals court should not reconsider a ruling that suspended Trump's Jan 27 order."In so doing, the President will clear the way for immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further, potentially time-consumi
  
  Read more

• Donald Trump insists presidency is 'fine tuned machine' after extraordinary 75-minute press conference in which he attacks press

  16-02-2017 22:08
  
  Donald Trump launched an extraordinary attack on the news media on Thursday afternoon in a wide-ranging, wild 75-minute press conference.Mr Trump insisted that his team was running "like a fine-tuned machine" and lampooned the mainstream media that he said was peddling "fake news".The US president  said reports in the media about his administration's relationship with Russia may make it difficult for him to strike a deal with Vladimir Putin to ease tensions between Washington and Mosco
  
  Read more

• Trump to sign new immigration policy after multiple court defeats of travel ban

  16-02-2017 22:06
  
  The justice department plans to rescind the ban and issue a new executive order to eliminate ‘erroneous constitutional concerns’ after an appeals court lossDonald Trump plans to rescind his executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and replace it with a new one, according to a Department of Justice court filing made Thursday. Related: US travel ban hits major setback as judges uphold temporary restraining orderContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Ryan Adams: Prisoner review – intimacy and restraint amid epic bombast

  16-02-2017 22:00
  
  (Virgin)Related: Ryan Adams discusses his Summer of '69 humiliation: 'I was so angry' It’s hard to make American rock with the epic sweep of Springsteen or Petty and keep it free of bombast. Ryan Adams doesn’t always manage it on Prisoner, his first album since he covered Taylor Swift’s entire 1989 album a couple of years ago, and his first set of original material since 2014. But he comes close. Between the clanging power chords and the big choruses, Adams, who also produ
  
  Read more

• Martín Cáceres signs for Southampton after brother’s death delays move

  16-02-2017 21:55
  
  • Former Barcelona and Juventus defender joins until end of season
  • Cáceres provides cover for the injured Virgil van DijkSouthampton have confirmed the signing of the Uruguay defender Martín Cáceres, who has joined on a short-term deal until the end of the season. Related: Will deadline day signings be key for Palace, Hull, Southampton and Leicester?Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Trump raises spectre of 'nuclear holocaust' amid questioning over Russia

  16-02-2017 21:45
  
  As Donald Trump faced searching questions about US relations with Russia during an 75-minute press conference on Thursday, he raised the prospect of nuclear holocaust should relations between the two countries be allowed to deteriorate.Asked if, given recent Russian activities, he thought he was being tested by Vladimir Putin, Trump responded that it would be "easier" for him to be tough on Russia, but that he believed it would be better for America, and the world, for him to purs
  
  Read more

• JK Rowling: the Donald Trump press conference was 'scariest thing' she's ever watched

  16-02-2017 21:45
  
  JK Rowling has stepped up her feud with Donald Trump, stating his wild Thursday afternoon press conference was the "scariest thing" she'd ever seen.In the press conference, Mr Trump lambasted the news media and insisted his administration was running like a "finely-tuned machine".Earlier this week, the author was embroiled in a Twitter spat with Piers Morgan, the British television presenter and vocal Trump supporter.
  
  Read more

• I, Claude Monet review – portrait of the artist as a passionate man

  16-02-2017 21:45
  
  A documentary that humanises the great impressionist whose stock has been devalued by blockbuster showsAnother elegantly made and thoroughly informative art-history documentary from Phil Grabsky, the latest in the Exhibition on Screen series. Although Grabsky is a past master in the mini-genre of gallery films, this one doesn’t seem linked to a particular show or collection, but rather juxtaposes excerpts from Monet’s letters with the paintings he was working on at the time. What eme
  
  Read more

• Spanish woman gives birth to healthy twins at age of 64

  16-02-2017 21:37
  
  Woman who became first-time mother at 58 conceived again after receiving IVF treatment in the USA 64-year-old woman has given birth to healthy twins after her second successful pregnancy at an advanced age, a doctor in northern Spain has said.Enrique Martin, medical director at Recoletas hospital, said on Thursday that the babies, delivered by caesarean section on Tuesday, were “perfectly healthy”. The twins are a boy, born weighing 5.3 pounds (2.4kg), and a girl who weighed 4.9 poun
  
  Read more

• Streatham murder: Man knifed to death in south London street named by police

  16-02-2017 21:30
  
  Gary Heaven, 51, was stabbed repeatedly in Streatham on Tuesday, Scotland Yard said.Emergency services were called to reports of a stabbing in Hillside Road at about 8.45pm.Chi-Wah Cheung, 38, of no fixed abode, was charged on suspicion murder on Thursday.
  
  Read more

• White supremacist allegedly planned shooting 'in spirit of Dylann Roof'

  16-02-2017 21:28
  
  Benjamin McDowell, a man from South Carolina with prior convictions, bought gun from undercover FBI agent, inspired by deadly attack in CharlestonA white supremacist with felony convictions in South Carolina bought a gun from an undercover FBI agent, telling the agent he planned an attack in “the spirit of Dylann Roof”, authorities said Thursday.Benjamin McDowell, 28, was arrested in Myrtle Beach shortly after buying the .40-caliber Glock and ammunition for $109 from the agent who pi
  
  Read more

• Police arrest man at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of planning terror acts

  16-02-2017 21:27
  
  A man has been arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of planning acts of terror.Detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command say they arrested the 36-year-old this afternoon, in line with Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006, after he arrived into the airport.A Met Police spokesman said they could not speculate as to whether he will be charged with an offence overnight.
  
  Read more

• Community fridge opens in South London to reduce food waste

  16-02-2017 21:27
  
  A community fridge has been installed in south London to ensure that unwanted food goes to people who might need it.Launched a crowd-funding campaign raised more than £2,000 to pay for it, The People's Fridge in Brixton allows small traders and members of the public to donate any food they have leftover.“We’re so excited,” said co-founder Olivia Haughton, a 29-year-old working in food sustainability from nearby Sydenham.
  
  Read more

• Martin Rowson on Brexit and the supreme court – cartoon

  16-02-2017 21:25
  
  Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Southern rail strike: Drivers reject Aslef union-backed deal to end misery for commuters

  16-02-2017 21:19
  
  Aslef said a proposed resolution to the dispute was rejected by 54.1 per cent in a turnout of 72 per cent.Aslef said 953 ballot papers were sent out, with 693 returned.Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union are also embroiled in a bitter row with Southern over staffing and are set to stage a 24-hour strike on February 22.
  
  Read more

• Immigrants flee US for Canada – in pictures

  16-02-2017 21:19
  
  Migrants are fleeing the US for Canada, making the journey through snow and ice to seek refugee status in the country. Reuters photographer Christinna Muschi documented some of them as they crossed the border from the US into Hemmingford in Quebec Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Le Vin herbé: It's Tristan and Isolde, but not as you know it

  16-02-2017 21:08
  
  Frank Martin’s chamber opera about the tragic lovers is the polar opposite of Wagner’s opulent extravaganza. The director of a new production explains how less is becoming moreFrank Martin’s opera about Tristan and Iseult - the tragic couple of Celtic legend whose love for each other is awakened when they drink a potion – is, in many respects, the polar opposite of Wagner’s celebrated version of the same myth. Wagner’s work is famous for being one of the most
  
  Read more

• Readers recommend: share your songs about recovery

  16-02-2017 21:00
  
  Make your nomination in the comments and a reader will pick the best eligible tracks for a playlist next week – you have until Monday 20 February Whether it is from trauma, depression, addiction or just general malaise, share your songs about recovery in all its forms.
  You have until 11pm on Monday 20 February to post your nomination and make your justification. RR reader Hywel Roberts (who posts in the comments as ScarletsOHywel) will select from your recommendations and produce the playl
  
  Read more

• Jérémy Perbet fires Gent to first-leg victory over lethargic Tottenham

  16-02-2017 21:00
  
  If this was Tottenham Hotspur’s grand response to that anaemic defeat at Liverpool last Saturday, then Mauricio Pochettino has plenty to ponder. A team who pride themselves on an all-action, aggressive approach have lost their way. The zest has drained from the play. This Europa League tie can still be claimed back at Wembley next week but it is KAA Gent, mid-table in the Belgian top flight and a team apparently there for the taking, who go into the return fixture with the initiative.Poche
  
  Read more

• Brexit Britain’s Nato strategy is fatally flawed | Martin Kettle

  16-02-2017 20:56
  
  Theresa May wants to engage with our European neighbours to secure our defences, but her government’s most pressing policy is to shun themThe phrase, in different forms, is as familiar as any in politics. “The first duty of government is to protect the security of the country and its people.” All prime ministers of all parties say words of this kind. All of them mean it. And in most cases the words weigh on them, too, because however pompous they sometimes sound, they are true.
  
  Read more

• Blackburn’s Anthony Stokes ordered to pay €230,000 over Dublin head-butt

  16-02-2017 20:53
  
  • Striker sued in Dublin high court over 2013 nightclub incident
  • Elvis impersonator Anthony Bradley had nose and two front teeth brokenAnthony Stokes has been ordered to pay an Elvis impersonator €230,000 (£196,000) for head-butting him in a nightclub.The Blackburn Rovers striker had already agreed to give his victim €30,000 for breaking his nose and two of his teeth and faces the second payout after being sued in the high court in Dublin. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• The Guardian view on Trump and Israel: casual, careless and dangerous | Editorial

  16-02-2017 20:44
  
  The US president’s ditching of the commitment to a two-state solution may not be part of a calculated strategy. That is all the more alarmingPerhaps the most alarming aspect of Donald Trump’s press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday was not, as it would have been with any other US president, his abandoned commitment to a two-state solution, but the casualness and carelessness with which he dropped it: his jocular tone, fumbling words and evident ignorance of the issue. &
  
  Read more

• Met chief: 'brutalised' Isis supporters soon to return to Britain

  16-02-2017 20:43
  
  Outgoing commissioner says terror threat will grow as Britons fighting alongside Islamic State in Syria and Iraq start to returnBritain’s top police officer has warned that battle-hardened jihadis who left Britain to fight with Islamic State may be on their way home to pose a heightened terrorist threat.Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, in his final days as commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said that Britons who had travelled to Iraq and Syria were expected to return as the terrorist group lo
  
  Read more

• Met chief: 'brutalised' Isis supporters soon to return to Britain

  16-02-2017 20:43
  
  Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said returning Isis fighters would have a ‘level of organisation that we don’t experience today’.Britain’s top police officer has warned that battle-hardened jihadis who left Britain to fight with Islamic State may be on their way home to pose a heightened terrorist threat.Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, in his final days as commissioner of the Metropolitan police, said that Britons who had travelled to Iraq and Syria were expected to return as the terroris
  
  Read more

• Alexander Acosta: Trump pick for labor secretary is Muslim-defending Hispanic

  16-02-2017 20:41
  
  The nominee to replace Andrew Puzder is a former NLRB member and has been surprisingly at odds with the president but is a staunchly conservative lawyerTrump press conference: president says team running ‘like fine-tuned machine’
  On the surface, Alexander Acosta, Donald Trump’s new pick for labor secretary, seems an unusual choice for a president who has gone out of his way to attack many of the things Acosta has defended.The only son of Cuban immigrants, and the first Hispanic
  
  Read more

• Monopoly is dropping the thimble from its selection of tokens

  16-02-2017 20:40
  
  The makers of Monopoly have announced that the thimble is to be scrapped as a game piece in its next edition.Hasbro recently put the board game tokens to a public vote  in order to determine which symbols should be employed by players in its new editions, and which should be dropped.The thimble has been a standard-issue part of  Monopoly since the board game was first launched in 1935 - along with a top hat, iron, shoe, battleship and cannon, the last of which has a
  
  Read more

• US ambassador to UN contradicts Trump's position on two-state solution

  16-02-2017 20:35
  
  Nikki Haley said US upholds longstanding policy on Israeli-Palestine conflict, as French foreign minister finds Rex Tillerson’s proposal ‘confusing and worrying’The US ambassador to the United Nations has insisted that Washington “absolutely” supported a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestine conflict, 24 hours after Donald Trump dropped US commitment to the policy.The conflicting messages coming out of the new US administration reflected policy chaos in a week
  
  Read more

• Two-thirds of Pink Floyd raise propect of playing Glastonbury

  16-02-2017 20:32
  
  Only Dave Gilmour, with whom Roger Waters has a poor relationship, was missing from a press conference at the V&APink Floyd have raised the tantalising prospect of finally playing Glastonbury, or at least two-thirds of the surviving members have.Related: Wish you were here: V&A announces details of Pink Floyd exhibitionContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• It's time for the Church of England to lay down the law on marriage

  16-02-2017 20:30
  
  In whatever way that vote in synod is spun, the real issue is not about same-sex marriage but about the authority of the Bible in the Church of England.This moment presents a great opportunity for the House of Bishops to embrace that truth and to act to uphold it firmly within the Church, disciplining those who would seek to abandon the authority of the Bible, and whose actions will eventually bring down the Church by actively denying that truth.The Bishops’ Report on Marriage and Same Sex
  
  Read more

• Donald Trump insists his presidency is a 'fine tuned machine' after extraordinary 75-minute press conference in which he attacks press

  16-02-2017 20:29
  
  Donald Trump holds remarkable 75-minute press conference Trump insists he "inherited a mess" but his presidency is "a fine tuned machine" Trump says "nobody I know of" in his campaign had contact with Russia Trump angered by question about anti-Semitism Trump talks through circumstances surrounding Flynn resignation President relished press conference; laughing and joking for 90 minutes
  
  Read more

• University of Glasgow gets green light for £1 billion expansion project

  16-02-2017 20:28
  
  The University of Glasgow has been given the green light to launch one the biggest educational expansion projects in the country. The expansion project will see a new business school, learning hub and research facility built over the next decade.Professor Anton Muscatelli, the Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the university, said: “We are delighted that Glasgow City Council has endorsed our ambitious plan which we believe will be a major economic driver for the city and for Scotland a
  
  Read more

• Church of England bishops seek to repair divisions over same-sex relationships

  16-02-2017 20:22
  
  Archbishops suggest another debate at the next meeting of the synod and plan to press ahead with ‘teaching document’ on marriage and sexualityChurch of England bishops have been told to meet with synod members in their dioceses in an effort to repair bitter divisions over the issue of same-sex relationships and marriage following this week’s vote to reject a controversial “road map”.The archbishops of Canterbury and York – the two most senior figures in the C
  
  Read more

• Supreme court seeks new judges who will 'improve its diversity'

  16-02-2017 20:14
  
  Law society hopes court will better ‘reflect society’, as all of current panel are white and majority are privately educated men The supreme court began its search for three new judges on Thursday, seeking members who will “improve the diversity of the court”. Of the court’s 11 current members, 10 are men and all are white. Just two were not privately educated. On Thursday, the court’s president Lord Neuberger said he and his colleagues want that to change. &l
  
  Read more

Follow @GeneralnewsUK on Twitter!