General news

• 'Stop talking our country DOWN!' Ukip chief FUMES at Remain politicians on BBC panel show

  07-04-2017 23:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  UKIP’S General Secretary targeted politician’s in the UK who have refused to accept the Brexit referendum urging them to support the will of the British people.
  
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• Racing in the street? Way cleared for motor sports on English roads

  07-04-2017 23:30
  
  Despite the rule change, Lewis Hamilton won’t be belting through central London any time soon.New rules paving the way for a Monaco-style street based grand prix come into force on Monday, which will allow motor sports on closed public roads.The changes will clear the way for motor sports promoters to apply for permission to stage races on public highways in England, from small-scale local events to international races such as a city-based grand prix.
  
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• The Masters 2017: second round – live!

  07-04-2017 22:20 via theguardian.com
  
  Live updates from the second round at Augusta NationalFirst round: Hoffman dominates after Dustin Johnson’s withdrawalOfficial Masters leader boardEmail [email protected] with any thoughts 9.20pm BSTIt’s almost certain that Bubba Watson will miss the cut at the Masters for the first time in his career. A missed tiddler at 18, and that’s his third bogey on the back nine. He signs for a miserable 78, and he’s +8 overall. As things stand, we’ll also be sayin
  
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• 'Don't worry, join the AFRICAN union!' Malawian comedian mocks Brexit in BBC sketch

  07-04-2017 22:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A MALAWIAN comedian has offered the UK a solution if it does not get the EU exit deal it wants in a BBC radio sketch mocking Brexit.
  
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• Premier League agent-spend hits £174m after TV boom

  07-04-2017 21:31 via theguardian.com
  
  • Manchester City top the list with total of £26.3m
  • Chelsea are second highest after forking out £25mPremier League clubs paid a record £174m to agents during the year which included the summer 2016 and January 2017 transfer windows, the first since the start of the league’s current £8.3bn three-year TV deals. Figures released by the Football Association on Friday revealed that of the £174m total Manchester City paid the most to agents: £26.3
  
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• Writer, Warhol associate and TV Party host Glenn O'Brien dies aged 70

  07-04-2017 21:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The New York renaissance man was a key player in the city’s punk, fashion and creative scenes for decades – and got his start in Warhol’s FactoryGlenn O’Brien, the New York cultural figure who was an author, musician, magazine editor, style guru, TV host and key figure at Andy Warhol’s Factory, has died aged 70.Described by Rolling Stone, one of the publications he edited along with Warhol’s Interview, as a “renaissance man”, O’Brien was perh
  
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• Ben Jennings on Donald Trump’s missile strikes against Syria – cartoon

  07-04-2017 21:25 via theguardian.com
  
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• 'They voted against EVERY amendment!' Ukip MEP savages Labour's Brexit BETRAYAL

  07-04-2017 21:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A UKIP MEP has attacked Labour's European politicians after they voted against Ukip’s amendments in European Parliament.
  
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• Love-sick priest who stole £50,000 from his parish is spared prison

  07-04-2017 21:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A PRIEST who stole £50,000 from his parish after falling in love with his housekeeper and buying gifts for her family yesterday avoided a jail term.
  
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• The world reacts to Trump’s Syria airstrikes – video report

  07-04-2017 20:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Donald Trump announced on Thursday evening that he launched a missile attack against Syria, targeting the airbase where he said the chemical attack that killed dozens of people was launched. The Syrian army and Russia condemned the strikes, while the UK, along with other US allies, supported the decision. China did not explicitly condemn the US, but said they were opposed to the use of force, even though they are against the use of chemical weapons. Chinese president Xi Jinping is currently at T
  
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• County round-up: Lancashire’s Jimmy Anderson torments Essex with the bat

  07-04-2017 20:50 via theguardian.com
  
  • England bowler shines in last-wicket stand; Surrey punish Warwickshire
  • Gary Ballance starts Yorkshire captaincy with fine innings against HampshireThere was plenty to interest England’s watching chairman of selectors, James Whittaker, on the season’s first day at Chelmsford. With Lancashire opting to bat first, a look at Haseeb Hameed, back from his hand injury, and Liam Livingstone, up at No3.Then, with the shadows lengthening, Jimmy Anderson was involved in a sprightl
  
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• US government drops effort to unmask anti-Trump Twitter account

  07-04-2017 20:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Attempt to reveal identity behind an account criticizing Trump’s immigration policy sparked an outcry from free speech advocates and a lawsuit from Twitter Government seeks to unmask Trump dissident on Twitter, lawsuit reveals
  The US government has backed down from its attempt to unmask an anonymous Twitter account that criticized the Trump administration, a victory for free speech advocates. Just one day after Twitter sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to block its effort to g
  
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• Let’s stop pretending we’re not clueless about the state of the world | Marina Hyde

  07-04-2017 20:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Claiming to know what motivates Assad or Trump is comforting when the future looks so uncertainWhatever happened to known unknowns – and indeed, to their even more mysterious relative, unknown unknowns? These were the range of risks, uncertainties and unforeseeables that need careful assessment and management, whose primary misfortune appears to have been making their popular debut in a speech by Donald Rumsfeld. As a brand association, that’s marginally less desirable than being han
  
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• The Guardian view on Syria missile strikes: a world defined by Trump’s impulses | Editorial

  07-04-2017 20:18 via theguardian.com
  
  The US has sent a symbolic message that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated. But this administration’s approach to international affairs is unpredictable and incoherentThe US missile strike on a Syrian airbase came days after the chemical attack that killed scores in Idlib but years after the evidence began piling up of brutality, torture, the deliberate targeting of civilians, medical facilities and aid and the repeated use of chlorine by forces fighting to defend Bashar al-
  
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• Pay disparities against women at Google are ‘systemic’, labor department testifies

  07-04-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Allegations of possible employment violations emerge at court hearing as part of lawsuit to compel company, a federal contractor, to provide compensation dataThe US government has accused Google of “systemic compensation disparities” against women, with pay inequities across the technology corporation.The Mountain View company may have violated federal employment laws with its salaries for women in its workforce of more than 21,000 people, an official with the Department of Labor (Do
  
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• Cancer treatment for football mascot Bradley Lowery 'not working'

  07-04-2017 19:53
  A post on Bradley Lowery's Facebook support page said hospital tests had revealed that a "last option" treatment was unsuccessful."Scan results show treatment that Bradley has been receiving is not working.The family said Bradley would take part in a trial in London, but the treatment had no previous success for their son's type of cancer.
  
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• Trump's security chief shaped by tough posting near Syria

  07-04-2017 19:46 via theguardian.com
  
  HR McMaster has shown himself to be an accomplished military strategist and an adept White House infighterThe toughest posting for an American officer in the early years of the Iraq conflict was Tal Afar, a small scrubland town close to the Syrian border dominated by a castle and held by Islamist extremists. Lieutenant-General HR McMaster, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, who was pivotal in the decision to attack a Syrian airbase on Friday, was deployed to Tal Afar in spring 2005
  
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• Legal first as butterfly collector is convicted for killing two specimens

  07-04-2017 19:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A BUTTERFLY collector has become the first person in the UK to be convicted under wildlife protection laws for killing two specimens of Britain’s rarest species.
  
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• Tens of thousands march against Jacob Zuma in South Africa

  07-04-2017 19:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Nationwide protests calling for president to quit after country gets second ratings agency ‘junk’ downgradeSouth Africa’s political crisis has intensified as tens of thousands of people joined demonstrations across the country calling for Jacob Zuma to step down, police fired rubber bullets in scattered clashes and a second ratings agency downgraded the country to “junk” status.
  Thousands marched through the rainy centre of Johannesburg, the commercial capital, on F
  
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• It’s no longer just London: now Britain is encircled by the property sharks | Deborah Orr

  07-04-2017 19:38 via theguardian.com
  
  Once the capital was the prime target for foreign speculators, now it’s all our major cities. We could have stopped them, but we didn’tA single generation transformed London into a capital where no person with normal resources could hope to own a modest home. It transformed London into a city where young people couldn’t start their careers, unless they had parents who could help them out. It transformed London into a place where every flat was in a block of “luxury apartm
  
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• Peru Two drugs mule Michaella McCollum leaves LITTLE to imagination on Ibiza jaunt

  07-04-2017 19:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  CONVICTED drugs smuggler Michaella McCollum has turned heads wearing a see-through bralette during a controversial return to Ibiza.
  
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• Free speech and historical accuracy in the Livingstone affair | Letters

  07-04-2017 19:30
  
  Ken Livingstone, suspended from Labour for claiming that Hitler supported Zionism.Whatever motivated Ken Livingstone to play the Hitler card in a bizarre, unprompted and unwanted attempt to defend Naz Shah, justifications on the basis of alleged historical accuracy (Letters, 6 April) miss the point that the context and purpose of such remarks need to be taken into account.It is difficult to see them as anything other than another way of saying that Zionism equals Nazism, an equation that is not
  
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• BBC has no regrets on Brexit coverage | Letters

  07-04-2017 19:29
  
  BBC headquarters, Broadcasting House, London. Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA
  
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• Barnier ‘lobbied to stop May withdrawing article 50 in two years’

  07-04-2017 19:28
  
  The alleged request from Barnier suggests some nervousness about what the UK would be prepared to do.The EU’s chief negotiator lobbied for the UK to be barred from stopping the article 50 process without the rest of the union’s consent, it has been claimed.Senior Brussels sources say Michel Barnier asked for the line stopping the UK from unilaterally reversing the process to be included in a European parliament resolution that passed on Wednesday.
  
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• Knife-wielding man arrested at Manchester's Oxford Road train station

  07-04-2017 19:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  POLICE arrested a knife-wielding man on the rampage at Manchester’s Oxford Road train station.
  
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• UK eats almost four times more packaged food than fresh

  07-04-2017 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Most of western Europe and north America also consumes more calories from packaged food than fresh according to analysis of data from 54 countriesThe UK eats almost four times as much packaged food as it does fresh produce, according to new data, with most of western Europe and north America following a similar pattern.The packaged food revolution – which includes ready meals and calorific cakes and biscuits – is held at least partly to blame for the rise in obesity in the US and Eur
  
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• Actor Tim Pigott-Smith dies aged 70

  07-04-2017 19:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Best known for The Jewel in the Crown, he was awarded an OBE last month and due to star in Death of a SalesmanThe actor Tim Pigott-Smith has died at the age of 70.
  The character actor’s career spanned almost five decades on stage and screen. Born in Rugby in 1946, he graduated from the University of Bristol in 1967 and went on to train at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school. He began his professional career at the Bristol Old Vic in 1969.Continue reading...
  
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• What to buy this spring: the best sandals – in pictures

  07-04-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Go for a chunky heel or slide – thick straps and ankle ties are the order of the season Continue reading...
  
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• A visual guide to the US missile strikes on a Syrian airbase

  07-04-2017 18:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Graphics and maps showing what we know about the strike ordered by Donald Trump on the Shayrat airbase south of HomsThe US fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the warships USS Ross and Porter in the eastern Mediterranean in the early hours of Friday morning Syrian time. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It had a big impact on me’ – story behind Trump’s whirlwind missile response

  07-04-2017 18:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Within hours images of chemical attack victims galvanised the US administration into military retaliation and sidelined the leader of China The first sign of a change came on Wednesday afternoon, when Donald Trump appeared in the White House rose garden. He was giving a news conference. The previous day a rocket had fallen on the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun.At first this appeared to be another airstrike by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad on an area in Idlib province long control
  
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• Sinn Fein demands new Northern Ireland elections if talks fail

  07-04-2017 18:45
  
  Northern Ireland should hold new elections if parties fail to reach agreement on forming a new government by a deadline next week, a senior member of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein said on Friday, after a week of talks he said brought little progress.New elections would leave the British province without a government for two more months during Britain's crucial talks to exit the European Union, and would give Sinn Fein a chance to become the largest party in Northern Ireland for the first tim
  
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• A fried chicken festival is coming to London and it's going to make your stomach rumble

  07-04-2017 18:39
  
  Visitors will vote for their favourite dish at the Bucket List Wall of Fame.
  
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• Truck drives into crowd in Stockholm, killing four people

  07-04-2017 18:37 via theguardian.com
  
  Suspect arrested over incident on busy street in Swedish capital which police are treating as act of terrorism
  Four people died and 15 were injured after a truck drove into pedestrians on Stockholm’s busiest shopping street and crashed into a department store, in what police were treating as an act of terrorism.
  “Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to a terrorist act,” the Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said shortly after the tragedy on Friday afternoon. Co
  
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• Post-Brexit-vote surge for UK economy comes to an end

  07-04-2017 18:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Weakening retail sales as inflation raises price of imports allied with lower industrial output point to the UK economy ‘dropping down a gear’Worries that the UK economy is losing steam have been strengthened by news of a housing market slowdown, a drop in industrial output and the weakest performance for a year by the construction industry.Economists on Friday said there was growing evidence that the UK economy slipped down a gear as it entered the new year, following a strong finis
  
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• Drive to get people back playing golf after decade of decline

  07-04-2017 18:33 via theguardian.com
  
  Wannabe Rory McIlroys clatter balls into nets, practise long putts and chip out of fake bunkers at free weekend eventAs a young man growing up in Cornwall, Paul Ford played golf quite a lot with his friends, but adulthood, work, a move to Wimbledon in south London and a young family gradually put paid to all that. In recent years, however, his 10-year-old son Ethan has fallen in love with the game, joining his dad for nightly sessions in front of Sky Sports and the odd visit to a local golf club
  
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• Portobello Sonnets by Harry Clifton – fluent and humane

  07-04-2017 18:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Memories mingle with the pace of modern Dublin in a wry, sophisticated study of changePortobello Sonnets opens with a quotation from Patrick Kavanagh: “In the third age, we are content to be ourselves, however small.” This seems disputable; less so would be the proposal that if “we” manage to reach the third age (and Kavanagh scarcely did) we must make what we can of it. Now in his mid-60s, the poet Harry Clifton focuses on Portobello, a district of Dublin bounded by the
  
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• White House has no clear plan for next steps in Syria after missile strike

  07-04-2017 18:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Tensions mount with Russia as Sean Spicer says Assad must ‘abide by agreements not to use chemical weapons’ but fails to outline US objectives
  US airstrikes in Syria: what we know so farThe White House appeared to back away from wider military involvement in Syria less than 24 hours after launching Tomahawk missiles at one of Bashar al-Assad’s airbases.Press secretary Sean Spicer refused to discuss any next steps – military or diplomatic – by the US in Syria, as the
  
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• Trump’s airstrike: a convenient U-turn from a president who can’t be trusted | Jonathan Freedland

  07-04-2017 18:15 via theguardian.com
  
  The attack on Bashar al-Assad was welcome – but the US president’s own aims were more important than saving Syrian babies’ livesSometimes the right thing can be done by the wrong person. Donald Trump’s bombing of a Syrian airfield seems to belong in that category, though even that verdict depends on events yet to unfold. For one thing, we don’t yet know if the 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles that rained down on the Shayrat base in the early hours of Friday morning were
  
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• The IPL is back: cue bedlam, squeals, thunder and pure cricketing energy

  07-04-2017 18:14 via theguardian.com
  
  The commentary is awful and the fielding is terrible but T20 franchise cricket positively writhes with energy – the counties cannot ignore the heat and lightBen Stokes held his nerve pretty well for the first half of the opening over of his Indian Premier League career in Pune on Thursday afternoon. Gliding up to the wicket in aubergine pyjamas, pumped and sweating, endorsing at least seven high-end products and services simultaneously, the most expensive overseas import in the history of
  
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• Can you judge a book by its odour?

  07-04-2017 18:14 via theguardian.com
  
  Cocoa, wood, rusks – every book has a distinctive smell. And each smell says something about how and when it was made, and where it has beenWhat does it mean to experience a book? To a bibliophile such as Alberto Manguel, smell plays an important part. In a talk at the British Library this week, the one-time protege of Jorge Luis Borges and director of the National Library of Argentina said he was particularly partial to old Penguin paperbacks, which he loved for their odour of “fres
  
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• Moscow: Syria airstrikes 'significant blow to Russian-US relations'

  07-04-2017 18:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Missile launches in violation of international law, says Vladimir Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov• Latest developments – liveVladimir Putin views the US missile strikes on Syria as “aggression against a sovereign state in violation of international law, and under a false pretext,” according to the Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.“With this step Washington has struck a significant blow to Russian-American relations, which were already in a sorry state
  
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• Brexit raises spectre of dearer Guinness and Baileys

  07-04-2017 18:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Extra costs and complexity of trade highlighted by Diageo drinks crossing Irish border many times during production processCans of Guinness could be an unexpected casualty of Brexit if a new customs border or tariffs are introduced between the Republic and Northern Ireland when the UK leaves the European Union, it has emerged.Guinness is one of Ireland’s most famous exports but Brexit will have a direct impact on its production as the black stuff crosses the Irish border twice before being
  
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• Rupert Murdoch's Sky takeover approved by European regulator

  07-04-2017 18:07 via theguardian.com
  
  European commission says £11.7bn bid raises no competition issues, despite fears over Murdoch’s power in UK news mediaRupert Murdoch’s £11.7bn bid to take full control of Sky has been cleared by the European competition regulator.The European commission, which has been investigating 21st Century Fox’s takeover bid since early March, has given the deal “unconditional approval”. Continue reading...
  
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• The weekend cook: Thomasina Miers’ recipes for cassoulet and chocolate mousse

  07-04-2017 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Easter holidays are a time for friends and family, so keep your cooking simple, but funAt last, a reason to celebrate: Easter is just a week away, and spring buds and blossom are all around. Goodbye winter, hello spring and a fresh cycle of life. Over the holiday, I intend to see friends and family, and not be hidden away in the kitchen the whole time, so I’ll be cooking simple but fun food. For Easter Sunday, I’m planning a light take on cassoulet, using neck of lamb instead of
  
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• Murdoch's Fox wins EU approval to take over Sky

  07-04-2017 17:56
  
  By Foo Yun Chee and Paul SandleBRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The European Commission cleared Rupert Murdoch to take over pay-TV group Skyon Friday, leaving a British investigation into the impact on the country's media landscape as the only remaining hurdle for the $14.5 billion (12 billion pound) deal.The Commission said the bid did not raise any competition concerns as Murdoch's Twenty First Century Foxand Sky were active in different markets in Europe, while existing rules in European Union cou
  
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• Senate confirms Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court after historic rules change

  07-04-2017 17:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Gorsuch, Trump’s pick to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat, is in after a three-day hearing and a debate that included an all-night protest by a Democratic senatorDonald Trump welcomed the first major triumph of his presidency on Friday when the Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to the supreme court in an anticlimactic ending to the unprecedented partisan showdown over the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.Gorsuch was approved by a vote of 54 to 45 after a marathon three-day
  
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• Google to display fact-checking labels to show if news is true or false

  07-04-2017 17:37 via theguardian.com
  
  In its ongoing bid to combat fake news, Google follows Facebook in announcing new technology to help curb spread of misinformationGoogle is to start displaying fact-checking labels in its search results to highlight news and information that has been vetted and show whether it is considered to be true or false, as part of its efforts to help combat the spread of misinformation and fake news.The fact-checking feature, which was first introduced to Google News in the UK and US in October, will now
  
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• Let’s move to Kirkcaldy, Fife: a beautiful bay and an excellent farmers’ market

  07-04-2017 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  This should be boom time for Adam Smith’s home town. However…What’s going for it? Were Adam Smith to be reincarnated here in his home town (as a till-worker at Lidl, perhaps) he might come to different conclusions about the free market. The wealth of nations is in short supply in Kirkcaldy today: the hidden hand of capitalism is hidden indeed and the trickle-down of good fortune to those in need is more of a dribble. Kirkcaldy has not had a good half-century or so. Its raisons
  
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• Prince Harry attends UK team trials for Invictus Games

  07-04-2017 17:17
  
  Prince Harry was on hand to cast an eye over potential new recruits for Britain's Invictus Games team during trials in the southwest English city of Bath on Friday.The 2017 edition will take place in Toronto, Canada from Sept. 23-30 with more than 550 injured and wounded servicemen and women from 17 allied nations expected to take part in 12 adaptive sports.
  
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• Jaeger going out of fashion puts 700 jobs at risk

  07-04-2017 17:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Clothing brand that once dressed Audrey Hepburn could go into administration next week after failing to find a buyerThe struggling fashion brand Jaeger could call in the administrators as early as next week, putting 700 high street jobs at risk.In its heyday, Jaeger dressed Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, but in recent years it has struggled to stay relevant on a competitive high street. The retailer confirmed on Friday that it had filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators –
  
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