General news

• Who are the contenders to replace Tim Farron as leader of the Lib Dems?

  15-06-2017 23:41
  
  Jo Swinson is currently the bookies’ favourite.
  
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• Second soldier dies in Pembrokeshire firing range tragedy

  15-06-2017 23:40
  A second soldier has died following a tragic training exercise at a firing range in Pembrokeshire.The two victims, both from the Royal Tank Regiment, were among the four soldiers hurt on Wednesday afternoon at Castlemartin Ranges, west Wales.The area is used by the Royal Armoured Corps for tanks and armoured units to carry out direct-fire live gunnery exercises.
  
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• 'Huge validation': Oregon becomes first state to allow official third gender option

  15-06-2017 23:33 via theguardian.com
  
  State adopts new rule that allows people to put an ‘X’ on state IDs and driver’s licenses instead of the traditional ‘M’ for male or ‘F’ for femaleOregon has become the first state in the US to allow a third gender option on licenses and identification cards, a major civil rights victory for non-binary people who identify as neither male nor female.State officials adopted a new rule on Thursday that allows people to put an “X” marker on state
  
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• Search for family members goes on

  15-06-2017 23:30
  
  Sky's Charlotte Lomas joined the family desperately searching for HeshamRahman.
  
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• Mayor of London calls for interim inquiry on tower fire

  15-06-2017 23:30
  
  Sadiq Khan met with some strong questioning from residents of West London when he visited the burned out Grenfell Tower.
  
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• Aidy Boothroyd urges England Under-21s to grasp moment in the spotlight

  15-06-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  
  • England travel to Poland after group stage exits in last three tournaments
  • Under-20s’ World Cup win adds to focus on side for opener with SwedenAidy Boothroyd has urged his England players to forget the failures of previous years as they prepare to kick off the Under‑21 European Championship against the holders, Sweden, on Friday.With a new format that sees 12 nations placed into three groups in a scramble to reach the semi-finals in Poland, the presence of some of the
  
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• Grenfell Tower death toll at 17 as hunt for bodies delayed

  15-06-2017 23:25
  The number of people who perished in the Grenfell Tower tragedy is expected to rise, as police warn some victims may never be identified.Syrian refugee Mohammed Alhajali, 23, and artist Khadija Saye, 24, have been named as the first victims of the disaster in west London.London Fire Brigade commissioner Dany Cotton has said it is extremely unlikely that any survivors could remain inside, while police have warned a full search of the tower and the recovery of bodies could take weeks or even month
  
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• Varnish’s lawyers say report into British Cycling was toned down deliberately

  15-06-2017 23:20 via theguardian.com
  
  • Varnish angered at being referred to as a troublemaker
  • MP Damian Collins calls for resignations at British CyclingJess Varnish’s lawyers believe the final report into the culture of British Cycling has been diluted from a draft version in what could be a ploy to make it more difficult for her to win any future legal battle.Varnish is considering launching legal action against British Cycling after she was dropped from the Olympic squad last year. She also claimed that the for
  
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• Brendan Cox: 'Jo's death took the heart out of our family. But we are not broken'

  15-06-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  
  MP’s widower has spoken on the anniversary of her murder at the start of a series of events celebrating her lifeThe widower of Jo Cox has spoken out on the anniversary of the MP’s killing, describing how her murder had “taken the heart out of our family” but not broken them. Brendan Cox was joined by all four of Britain’s living former prime ministers in paying tribute to the MP and the impact she had on the country’s political discourse.They spoke as a series
  
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• Brendan Cox: 'Jo's death took the heart out of our family. But we are not broken'

  15-06-2017 23:00
  
  Brendan Cox was joined by Britain’s four living ex-prime ministers: Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron.The widower of Jo Cox has spoken out on the anniversary of the MP’s killing, describing how her murder had “taken the heart out of our family” but not broken them.Brendan Cox was joined by all four of Britain’s living former prime ministers in paying tribute to the MP and the impact she had on the country’s political discourse.
  
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• Two soldiers dead after incident at Castlemartin firing range in Wales

  15-06-2017 22:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Investigation under way after two Royal Tank Regiment members die and two others injured at base in PembrokeshireTwo British soldiers have died and two others are being treated for injuries after an incident involving a tank at a firing range. The two dead soldiers were members of the Royal Tank Regiment, which has been taking part in a live-fire exercise at the Castlemartin ranges in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales.Continue reading...
  
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• Australian government unveils gun amnesty amid terror warnings

  15-06-2017 22:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Three-month amnesty, the first since Port Arthur massacre in 1996, announced due to ‘deteriorating national security environment’The Australian federal government is to call a three-month national gun amnesty, the first since the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996.The amnesty is being held against a backdrop of an increased threat of terrorism and repeated incidents involving shootings and gun violence across the country. Continue reading...
  
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• Otto Warmbier has severe brain injury and is unresponsive, doctors say

  15-06-2017 22:54 via theguardian.com
  
  College student has not spoken since returning from North Korea in comaWarmbier’s father says son was ‘terrorized and brutalized’ during detentionAn American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea and returned to his home state of Ohio in a coma has a severe brain injury and is in a state of “unresponsive wakefulness”, according to doctors who are treating him.Otto Warmbier, 22, who arrived in the United States on Tuesday, is stable but “shows no si
  
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• Salford see off Wakefield to reach first Challenge Cup semi-final since 1998

  15-06-2017 22:51 via theguardian.com
  
  • Salford Red Devils 30-6 Wakefield Trinity
  • Salford one win from first Challenge Cup final since 1969That it would take a Salford fan of a certain age to recall the last time their club walked out at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final perhaps best underlines the extraordinary journey one of Super League’s traditional strugglers currently find themselves on.Eight months removed from that dramatic day in Hull when they preserved their Super League status in the Million Pound Game
  
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• Green streets are the way to go

  15-06-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Green roofs and walls insulate buildings and soak up rain. And like trees and hedges, they absorb pollutants. What’s not to like?As the connected problems of climate change and air pollution from traffic make living in cities more hazardous, the health benefits of greening our streets become ever more apparent.
  On crowded city roads green barriers, in the form of dense hedges between traffic and people on the pavements, dramatically reduce the danger from fumes, but are difficult to squeez
  
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• London fire: Victim's brother recounts final call

  15-06-2017 22:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Mohammed Alhajali is the first named victim of the Grenfell Tower fire. His brother Omar survived.
  
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• Candidates line up for Lib Dem leadership race

  15-06-2017 22:15
  
  Tim Farron, who has resigned, citing pressure over public interest in his views on homosexuality.Senior Liberal Democrats are already jockeying for position to replace Tim Farron, after he stepped down as party leader on Wednesday, citing an irreconcilable conflict between his deeply held Christian beliefs and political leadership.Jo Swinson, who was equalities minister in the coalition government, and regained her East Dunbartonshire seat at last week’s general election, is widely thought
  
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• Grenfell is a shameful symbol of a state that didn’t care | Gaby Hinsliff

  15-06-2017 22:14 via theguardian.com
  
  It is hard to think of a more literal representation of the words ‘poverty trap’ than that burning pyre Grenfell Tower fire: six victims provisionally identified, say police – latest updates
  Home is the place we go to feel safe. Or at least it should be. Parents should have the right to put their children to bed, secure in the knowledge that everyone will wake up in the morning. Every human being should have a warm, dry place of refuge to call their own, a way to shut out their
  
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• Steve Bell on the Grenfell Tower disaster – cartoon

  15-06-2017 21:57 via theguardian.com
  
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• Experts warned government against cladding material used on Grenfell

  15-06-2017 21:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Safety experts compiled report last year that warned an increasing number of buildings are being wrapped in ‘potentially combustible materials’• London fire - latest updatesThe government’s building safety experts warned last year that the drive for greater energy efficiency meant more and more buildings are being wrapped in materials that could go up in flames.In a report compiled before the Grenfell Tower disaster on Wednesday, the Building Research Establishment, which
  
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• Everything you need to know a day after the Grenfell Tower fire

  15-06-2017 21:52
  
  17 people are known to have died in the blaze.
  
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• Derek McInnes turns down Sunderland manager’s job to stay at Aberdeen

  15-06-2017 21:43 via theguardian.com
  
  • Aberdeen had granted Sunderland permission to speak to McInnes
  • David Moyes resigned from Stadium of Light club on 22 MayDerek McInnes has turned down the opportunity to take charge of Sunderland and will instead remain as Aberdeen manager, the Scottish club have announced.McInnes had held talks with the Wearside club, who are in the market for a new manager after David Moyes left last month following relegation from the Premier League. Continue reading...
  
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• Controversial Lib Dem donor gave £200,000 to election campaign

  15-06-2017 21:42
  
  A businessman who is facing claims in India that he had a role in the Rolls-Royce bribery scandal gave £200,000 to the Liberal Democrats’ general election campaign, it has emerged.Sudhir Choudhrie has denied he acted as a middleman in Rolls-Royce deals investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, after calls by anti-corruption campaigners for a criminal inquiry in New Delhi.
  
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• Teenage survivor took exam morning after Grenfell Tower fire

  15-06-2017 21:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Ines Alves, who escaped the blaze with her family, did last-minute revision for her chemistry GCSE outside the devastated building• Grenfell Tower fire: all today’s developments
  A girl who escaped the inferno at the Grenfell Tower went on to do her chemistry exam the same morning, after reading her revision notes while sitting by the burning building. Ines Alves, a pupil at Sacred Heart school in Hammersmith, managed to deal with the trauma of losing her home and all her possessions t
  
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• Citizen Clem: 'extraordinary biography' of Clement Attlee wins Orwell prize

  15-06-2017 21:31 via theguardian.com
  
  John Bew’s life of the self-effacing founder of the NHS praised by judges as a ‘monument to the greatest leader the Labour party has ever had’“A model of the biographer’s art”, which pulls back the curtain on one of the most significant but least recognised political figures of the last century, has won Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing. John Bew’s Citizen Clem, about Clement Attlee, the founder of the NHS, was named winner of
  
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• 'We are together': Hundreds help fire victims

  15-06-2017 21:30
  
  People from the local area and far away explain why they had to help after the fire at Grenfell Tower.
  
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• Givenchy: the designer hailed as a 'personality maker' by Audrey Hepburn

  15-06-2017 21:27 via theguardian.com
  
  As his eponymous exhibition opens in Calais, the 90-year-old fashion legend recalls career-defining friendships with Hepburn and Jackie KennedyA retrospective exhibition self-curated by a 90-year-old legend of fashion has all the hallmarks of an ego-flaunting vanity project. But Hubert de Givenchy, who attended the opening of his self-titled show at the Calais Museum for Lace and Fashion on Thursday, has more class than that.The stars of this exhibition are not the couturier himself, but some of
  
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• Multiple design and building firms at Grenfell Tower raises oversight concerns

  15-06-2017 21:24
  
  A long chain of companies was responsible for refurbishing Grenfell Tower, raising concerns among architectural and fire safety experts about the quality of oversight and accountability on the £10m project of 2015-16.Grenfell Tower is also absent from the websites of several companies involved, many of which list the other projects they have worked on as case studies intended to demonstrate excellence.The Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (KCTMO) hired the construction
  
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• Ten-month-old Houston boy shot dead in father's arms

  15-06-2017 21:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Messiah Marshall was being carried by his father outside apartment complexHouston police department searching for three suspects in early 20sA 10-month old boy has been shot dead in his father’s arms as he was being taken for a walk outside a Houston apartment complex.Messiah Justice Marshall was being carried by his father at about 1.30pm on Wednesday when three men approached them. According to police, an argument ensued, and one of the suspects fired repeatedly at the baby’s fathe
  
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• MPs demand Grenfell Tower answers in sombre Parliament meeting

  15-06-2017 21:22
  It was not the maiden speech in Parliament that Emma Dent Coad, the new MP for Kensington, would have wanted to make.On Tuesday, after MPs had re-elected John Bercow as Speaker, I interviewed her for Sky News about her first impressions of the House of Commons.
  
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• Sam Underhill to make England debut in Argentina as Chris Robshaw returns

  15-06-2017 21:15 via theguardian.com
  
  • Mark Wilson and Tom Curry will make way for the pair in the second Test
  • Eddie Jones welcomes back Robshaw from injury for first Test in six monthsTen new caps last weekend for England – but only the one this. Sam Underhill has been picked by Eddie Jones to start the second Test against Argentina at the Estadio Brigadier General Estanislao López. His inexperience, however, is counterbalanced by a rather more familiar proposition on the other flank of England’s scr
  
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• Families of Grenfell Tower's missing wait in helpless agony

  15-06-2017 21:07
  
  The photographs circulated on social media, too, as frantic families, facing the helpless agony of waiting, paced out time scouring hospitals.“We have been trying everything – searching all the hospitals twice, three times over,” said Carlos Ruiz, uncle of Jessica Urbano, aged 12, who rang her mother at 1.39am fleeing the 20th floor.A poster saying: “Jessica is 12 years, approx 5ft with brown eyes and long curly hair” was pressed into the hands of the Labour leader,
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs about prophets and prophecy

  15-06-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Make your nomination in the comments and a reader will pick the best eligible tracks for a playlist next week – you have until Monday 19 June Perhaps you already know what will be on next week’s playlist, but that shouldn’t stop you sharing your nominations with us – where would be the fun without them?
  You have until 11pm on Monday 19 June to post your nomination and make your justification. RR contributor known as HopelessCase in the comments will select from your recom
  
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• Boxing world champion Deontay Wilder charged with marijuana possession

  15-06-2017 20:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Undefeated heavyweight champion released on $1,000 bond after arrest Wilder’s attorney says drugs do not belong to his clientThe WBC heavyweight boxing champion Deontay Wilder has been charged with marijuana possession.Police in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said in a statement they arrested Wilder on Wednesday after they found marijuana in his Cadillac Escalade. They say they stopped Wilder for a window tint violation. The department says officers got permission to se
  
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• It's not just sofa sales that are sagging: shoppers are growing uncomfortable | Nils Pratley

  15-06-2017 20:50 via theguardian.com
  
  If the supermarket wants investors to back the renumeration report, it shouldn’t annoy them with a top-up that looks greedyWhen 48% of shareholders rebel against a company’s remuneration report, most chairmen scuttle into the shadows muttering empty words about seeking further engagement with investors. So Andy Higginson, chairman of Morrisons, deserves some credit for coming out fighting after more than half of investors either voted against the proposal or withheld their vote. Morr
  
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• What does Robert Mueller's team tell us about the Russia investigation?

  15-06-2017 20:47 via theguardian.com
  
  Seasoned lawyers with a depth of experience that includes the investigations into Watergate, Enron and the bombings of the US embassies in east Africa won’t be intimidated by the intense spotlight, experts sayEven before the special counsel’s inquiry has begun in earnest into links between the Trump campaign and Moscow, the team Robert Mueller is building provides clues about which way the investigation is heading.
  One is a veteran of the Watergate investigation, and Donald Trump &nd
  
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• Suicide bomber strikes at Shia mosque in western Kabul

  15-06-2017 20:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Several killed in latest of a string of attacks on civilians in Afghanistan during holy month of RamadanAt least four people have been killed in Kabul after a suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a mosque where worshippers had gathered for an important Shia holiday.
  Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes after weeks of escalating violence that have turned this year’s holy month of Ramadan into one of the most violent periods in the Afghan capital since 2001. Continu
  
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• How might we avert another tragedy like the Grenfell Tower fire? | Letters

  15-06-2017 20:40
  
  A girl writes on a wall full of messages commemorating those who died in the fire at Grenfell Tower and supporting all those affected by it.It is urgent for the thousands of families living in tower blocks around the UK that the process of understanding and learning the lessons of the tragedy at Grenfell Tower gets under way as soon as possible and leaves no stone unturned (The warnings were ignored, 15 June).One issue I hope to see addressed is the almost religious adherence of the public secto
  
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• That supposedly ‘suicidal’ 1983 Labour manifesto | Letter

  15-06-2017 20:30
  
  Labour leader Michael Foot walks his dog on London’s Hampstead Heath, 1983 Photograph: PA
  
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• Cosy media means democracy loses out | Letters

  15-06-2017 20:30
  
  George Osborne arrives at the London Evening Standard offices to start work as its new editor.George Monbiot is to be applauded for acknowledging the crisis in British journalism (The biggest losers?British journalism is shredding its own future.
  
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• Rookie ministers forced to weather MPs' anger over Grenfell Tower | John Crace

  15-06-2017 20:15
  Jeremy Corbyn made the case for action most forcefully.After listening to MP after MP express their outrage at the Grenfell Tower fire for the best part of 90 minutes in an emergency meeting, housing minister Alok Sharma finally caved in to the pressure.As this went a lot further than Theresa May’s somewhat half-hearted guarantee to rehouse everyone in London, it rather felt as if Sharma was making policy up on the hoof.
  
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• Bridge players believe change to tax status is on the cards

  15-06-2017 20:13 via theguardian.com
  
  European court of justice indicates it could look favourably on UK governing body’s longrunning claim that card game is a sportThe card game bridge is hardly the most physically strenuous of activities. But according to a judgment by one of the European court of justice’s most senior lawyers, the game should be considered a sport – for tax purposes at least.The recommendation is the latest salvo in a longrunning legal case brought by the English Bridge Union (EBU), which argues
  
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• Woman raped by Uber driver in India sues company for privacy breaches

  15-06-2017 20:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Woman alleges executives obtained medical records to cast doubt on claimsLawsuit comes at time of considerable turmoil for scandal-hit companyAn Indian woman who was raped by an Uber driver sued the ride-hailing company on Thursday, alleging that Uber executives had “violated her a second time” when they obtained her medical records and used them to cast doubt on her credibility. Related: Uber board member resigns after sexist remark at meeting addressing sexismContinue reading...
  
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• Queen's speech to take place next Wednesday

  15-06-2017 20:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Theresa May presses on with state opening of parliament, despite Sinn Féin claims that any Tory/DUP deal would breach Good Friday agreement Post-election fallout – live updatesTheresa May faced a backlash from republican parties at a series of meetings in Downing Street on Thursday over her plan to strike a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party to prop up her minority Conservative government.The leader of the House of Commons, Andrea Leadsom, announced that th
  
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• Scientists make quantum leap towards a secure new kind of internet

  15-06-2017 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A global quantum internet is a major step closer as satellite beams ‘entangled’ light particles to ground stations more than 700 miles apartScientists have taken a major step towards building a global quantum internet by beaming “entangled” particles of light from a satellite to ground stations more than 700 miles apart.The feat paves the way for a new kind of internet which draws on the curious ability for subatomic particles to be connected to one another despite being
  
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• No one can quite get over the realisation that Sasha Obama's name isn't actually Sasha

  15-06-2017 19:56
  
  How is everyone finding this out now?
  
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• DUP's Arlene Foster allegedly tried to curb Scots' gay marriage law

  15-06-2017 19:47
  
  Former Scottish minister Marco Biagi said Arlene Foster, above, asked for curtailment of Northern Irish access to Scotland’s same-sex marriages.The row over the Democratic Unionist party’s stance on gay rights has deepened after it was alleged that the Northern Irish party’s leader, Arlene Foster, tried to restrict Scotland’s gay marriage laws.
  
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• Serbia gets its first female – and gay – prime minister

  15-06-2017 19:45 via theguardian.com
  
  President Aleksandar Vučić announces appointment of Ana Brnabić, 41, a graduate of the University of HullA gay woman has been appointed prime minister of Serbia in a double first for the EU-candidate state.Ana Brnabić, 41, a graduate of the University of Hull in England, is the Balkan nation’s first gay PM and first female PM.Continue reading...
  
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• The Guardian view on Grenfell Tower: Theresa May’s Hurricane Katrina | Editorial

  15-06-2017 19:44
  
  Theresa May speaks to members of the fire service as she visits Grenfell Tower in London on Thursday.In the two long days since the first flames licked up the newly fixed cladding on Grenfell Tower in west London, the prime minister has failed to show any of these qualities.Less than an hour later Jeremy Corbyn arrived.
  
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• High-rise towers are safe but tougher inspections needed, say experts

  15-06-2017 19:39
  
  Just as the collapse of the Ronan Point Tower in Newham, east London, in the 1960s led to the end of system-built concrete construction and stigmatised tower blocks for decades, might the inferno in this Kensington landmark put the brakes on some of the 450 new towers currently planned or under construction in the capital?Experts have pointed to the Grenfell Tower’s recently installed cladding panels as one of the potential reasons why the fire spread so quickly.“There have been a nu
  
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