General news

• Referrals to anti-terror Prevent scheme double after attacks

  09-08-2017 23:59
  The number of potential extremists flagged up by the public to the Government's counter-terrorism scheme has doubled since the recent attacks in the UK.The figures were released by Simon Cole, the National Police Chief Council's lead spokesman on de-radicalisation efforts."Even though these referrals from the public are increasing, we still need more people to have the confidence to tell our safeguarding experts if they are worried about someone's behaviour," Mr Cole said.
  
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• 'The perfect Alabama candidate': Republicans warm to Vladimir Putin – video

  09-08-2017 23:58 via theguardian.com
  Vladimir Putin’s favorability ratings have tripled among Americans in recent years – and the polls say he’s most popular among Republicans. To find out why, Paul Lewis travels to deeply conservative Alabama in the run-up to next week’s Republican Senate primary to choose a replacement for Jeff Sessions. He finds Putin’s rising popularity may actually be explained through the same Christian evangelical community backing Roy Moore, Alabama’s famed ‘Ten Com
  
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• Canadian army builds 500-person border camp as asylum-seeker numbers rise

  09-08-2017 23:57 via theguardian.com
  Number of asylum seekers entering Canada from US has risen sharply this yearDelays at border means migrants have been forced to wait in area with no bedsThe Canadian military has been deployed to build a 500-person camp at a remote location at the border as authorities grapple with a growing number of asylum seekers crossing into Canada by foot from the United States.On Wednesday, nearly 100 soldiers were sent to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle – just across the border from Champlain, New York &n
  
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• UK defence contractor billed US more than $50m in expenses

  09-08-2017 23:56 via theguardian.com
  Expenses included luxury cars and salaries paid to ‘significant others’ of company’s top executives, according to PentagonA British company hired to help train Afghan intelligence officers billed the US government for more than $50m (£38.4m) in expenses that included luxury cars and salaries paid to the “significant others” of the company’s top executives, according to a Pentagon audit.
  New Century Consulting (NCC) also spent $42,000 on automatic weapons
  
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• Port Vale manager accuses Samu Sáiz of spitting before Leeds hat-trick

  09-08-2017 23:54 via theguardian.com
  • Leeds fellow debutant Caleb Ekuban also scores in 4-1 home win
  • Ched Evans comes off bench to rescue Sheffield United in Carabao CupPort Vale manager Michael Brown has accused Leeds’ hat-trick hero Samu Sáiz of spitting in the face of one of his players during his side’s 4-1 Carabao Cup defeat at former club Leeds.
  Midfielder Sáiz, signed for a reported £3m from Huesca in July, marked his first appearance in England with a brilliant hat-trick, but Bro
  
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• Carabao Cup roundup: Samu Sáiz hits hat-trick for Leeds to sink Port Vale

  09-08-2017 23:54 via theguardian.com
  • Leeds fellow debutant Caleb Ekuban also scores in 4-1 home win
  • Ched Evans comes off bench to rescue Sheffield UnitedPort Vale manager Michael Brown has accused Leeds’ hat-trick hero Samu Sáiz of spitting in the face of one of his players during his side’s 4-1 Carabao Cup defeat at former club Leeds.Midfielder Sáiz, signed for a reported £3m from Huesca in July, marked his first appearance in England with a brilliant hat-trick, but Brown claims the Sp
  
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• José Mourinho: Manchester United have ‘a giant on our chest’

  09-08-2017 23:40 via theguardian.com
  • Manager admits United are long way behind Spanish powerhouses
  • Mourinho says United will be humble on their return to Champions LeagueJosé Mourinho has compared Manchester United’s struggle in the Champions League to having “a giant on our chest” before their return to the competition.United lost Tuesday’s Uefa Super Cup 2-1 to Real Madrid, who have won the European Cup for the past two seasons, the first club to do so in the Champions League era. Unit
  
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• Workload few could shoulder finally takes its toll on 'exhausted' Sharni Layton

  09-08-2017 23:34 via theguardian.com
  Netball community rallies around likeable Diamonds goal keeper after announcement that she will take a break from the gameSharni Layton is many things. She’s a star netballer with a swag of World Cup and Commonwealth gold. She the game’s only true cult figure; complete with a band of fanatical supporters, the Sharni Army. She’s also witty, brash and “unashamedly Sharni”.This combination makes the 29-year-old a relatable hero to the girls who wait hours after matches
  
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• US expels two Cuba diplomats and looks into claims US officials were purposely deafened

  09-08-2017 23:13 via theguardian.com
  Source says investigators looking into whether Cuban government placed sonic devices around embassy staffers’ houses, causing ‘variety of physical symptoms’The US state department has expelled two diplomats from the Cuban embassy in Washington following a series of unexplained incidents in Cuba that left US officials there with physical symptoms that one official said includes potentially permanent hearing loss.Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the Cubans were asked to leave
  
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• Family watched house being burgled in real time via phone app

  09-08-2017 23:12 via theguardian.com
  Donna Marusamy and her husband were on a weekend break when their app alerted them to an intruder at their Birmingham home
  A horrified family watched helplessly via a CCTV phone app as a burglar raided their house while they sat on holiday 120 miles away.Donna Marusamy was on a weekend break to Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset with her husband and children when she received a notification on her mobile that movement had been detected by sensors on an indoor camera at their West Midlands home. The coup
  
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• Liverpool reject £90m Barcelona bid for Philippe Coutinho

  09-08-2017 23:06 via theguardian.com
  • Barcelona make second offer, comprising €85m plus €15m in add-ons
  • Liverpool again insist their Brazil playmaker is not for saleLiverpool have again told Barcelona that Philippe Coutinho is not for sale after rejecting a €100m (£90m) bid for the Brazil midfielder. Barcelona’s second offer, comprising €85m plus €15m in add-ons, was immediately rejected.Barça returned with their latest bid for the 25-year-old on Wednesday having had an offer
  
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• Yemen: dozens drown off coast as smugglers force refugees into water

  09-08-2017 23:02 via theguardian.com
  Women and children among the 29 dead and 22 missing from group of Somali and Ethiopian migrants Smugglers forced more than 120 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into rough seas off Yemen on Wednesday, leaving 29 dead and 22 missing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Related: All roads lead to Djibouti as refugees flee Yemen even as migrants head thereContinue reading...
  
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• Dozens drown off Yemen as smugglers force refugees into water

  09-08-2017 23:02 via theguardian.com
  Women and children among the 29 dead and 22 missing from group of Somali and Ethiopian migrants Smugglers forced more than 120 Somali and Ethiopian migrants into rough seas off Yemen on Wednesday, leaving 29 dead and 22 missing, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Related: All roads lead to Djibouti as refugees flee Yemen even as migrants head thereContinue reading...
  
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• Isaac Makwala sets up showdown with Wayne van Niekerk after beating illness

  09-08-2017 22:57 via theguardian.com
  • Makwala successfully negotiates lone time trial and then a semi-final
  • Mo Farah through to 5,000m final despite stiff legs after 10,000m winIt has taken a series of plot twists worthy of a Hollywood thriller. But now, staggeringly, the world championships has the showdown between Wayde van Niekerk and Isaac Makwala, the usual suspects in the 200m and 400m all season, it has craved all along.First Makwala illustrated powers of recovery worthy of Lazarus to lift himself off his sick b
  
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• Isaac Makwala makes final after beating illness as Farah does just enough

  09-08-2017 22:57 via theguardian.com
  • Makwala successfully negotiates lone time trial and then a semi-final
  • Mo Farah through to 5,000m final despite stiff legs after 10,000m winIt has taken a series of plot twists worthy of a Hollywood thriller. But now, staggeringly, the world championships has the showdown between Wayde van Niekerk and Isaac Makwala, the usual suspects in the 200m and 400m all season, it has craved all along.First Makwala illustrated powers of recovery worthy of Lazarus to lift himself off his sick b
  
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• Isaac Makwala into 200m final while Mo Farah overcomes stiff legs in 5,000m

  09-08-2017 22:57 via theguardian.com
  • Makwala successfully negotiates lone time trial and semi-final
  • Farah through to 5,000m final despite legs feeling stiff from 10,000m winIsaac Makwala illustrated powers of recovery worthy of Lazarus as he lifted himself off his sick bed to qualify for the 200m final with two stupendous runs in the space of two hours.What made this even more remarkable was that until Wednesday lunchtime Makwala was not even in the 200m, having been banned from running in Monday’s heats and pla
  
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• Gang 'systematically groomed and abused' nearly 300 teenagers in Newcastle and Gateshead

  09-08-2017 22:49
  A police operation targeting sex abusers in the North East has so far identified 278 victims and hundreds more complainants.Operation Sanctuary exposed the rape and abuse of underage girls in a sex ring which operated in deprived areas of Newcastle and Gateshead.Four trials at Newcastle Crown Court heard how vulnerable girls were groomed by men who gave them alcohol and drugs before raping them at parties known as "sessions".
  
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• Fired Google memo writer gives first big interviews to rightwing YouTubers

  09-08-2017 22:42 via theguardian.com
  James Damore, the engineer fired this week for his criticism of diversity, spoke with two YouTube personalities who have espoused anti-feminist views James Damore went from an unknown software engineer at Google to widespread internet notoriety when the technology company fired him for writing a memo criticizing diversity initiatives. But as mainstream journalists across the globe reached out to him for interviews this week, Damore largely ignored the queries and instead selected two rightwing Y
  
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• Michael Brown was shot three years ago. America still hasn't changed | Steven W Thrasher

  09-08-2017 22:36 via theguardian.com
  We, as an American society, owe a lot to Michael Brown. The protesters in Ferguson stood up for him – the rest of us must do more to honor his short lifeThree years ago, Michael Brown was shot by officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. He was left in the street for hours to bleed. This not only allowed him to die in public without medical aid, but also traumatized his neighbors and sparked outrage across the world.
  Three years later, America has not changed enough to redress the killi
  
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• Teenage girls 'systematically groomed and abused' by gang in Newcastle and Gateshead

  09-08-2017 22:35
  A police operation targeting sex abusers in the North East has so far identified 278 victims and hundreds more complainants.Operation Sanctuary exposed the rape and abuse of underage girls in a sex ring which operated in deprived areas of Newcastle and Gateshead.Four trials at Newcastle Crown Court heard how vulnerable girls were groomed by men who gave them alcohol and drugs before raping them at parties known as "sessions".
  
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• Huddersfield embraces revivalist talk before taking Premier League plunge | Matthew Engel

  09-08-2017 21:59 via theguardian.com
  Yorkshire town hopes team’s promotion to the big time energises the area in a repeat of the Swansea trickle-down effectThe Huddersfield Town megastore by the main entrance to the John Smith’s Stadium is not mega in the normal sense: it’s more like a boutique, even though the sales space has to be shared with the football club’s groundmates, the Huddersfield Giants rugby league team. But right now business is mega all right.On Saturday Huddersfield make their debut in that
  
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• Parents of murdered Democrat Seth Rich dismayed by Fox News

  09-08-2017 21:58
  Joel and Mary Rich’s criticism of Rupert Murdoch’s company comes at a critical time for the business.The incident has been compared with the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, which led to the closure of the News of the World.The parents of Seth Rich, the murdered Democrat aide, have expressed their dismay at Fox News, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, for publishing a discredited story about their son which is at the centre of allegations of collusion between the broadcaster and
  
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• Man stabbed near Covent Garden in London

  09-08-2017 21:51 via theguardian.com
  Police appeal for information after man suffers ‘possible life-threatening injuries’ in Brydges Place incident on Wednesday afternoonA man has suffered “possible life-threatening injuries” after being stabbed in a prominent London tourist area in broad daylight, police said.Officers were called to reports of an assault in Brydges Place, close to Covent Garden, at 2.20pm on Wednesday. Continue reading...
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn back on the campaign trail as he begins national tour

  09-08-2017 21:35 via theguardian.com
  Labour leader targets Conservative-held seats as opposition party aims to go on the offensive to reclaim parliamentary majorityJeremy Corbyn has said his party is in “permanent campaign mode” as he heads to Cornwall on a national tour that aims to place Labour on a more offensive footing. The Labour leader has chosen dozens of Conservative-held seats across England and Wales, and SNP ones in Scotland, for a series of campaigning events to prepare for the next election.Continue readin
  
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• The man who has to check all the lights on Blackpool Tower

  09-08-2017 21:32 via bbc.co.uk
  The man who has to check all the lights on Blackpool Tower ahead of the Illuminations being switched on.
  
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• Amber Rudd Becomes Latest Victim Of Notorious Email Hoaxer

  09-08-2017 21:31
  Amber Rudd has apparently fallen victim to a notorious email hoaxer known for pranks hoodwinking US President Donald Trump’s advisors and the Bank of England governor.
  
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• Police paid convicted child rapist to spy on Newcastle sex abusers

  09-08-2017 21:28 via theguardian.com
  Northumbria police gave man known as XY nearly £10,000 over 21 months in order to gather evidence for Operation Shelter A convicted child rapist was controversially paid nearly £10,000 by police to spy on the network of men who were sexually abusing young women and girls in Newcastle, it can now be reported. The court was told that Northumbria police paid the man, referred to as XY, £9,680 over 21 months to find out about the times and whereabouts of parties where girls were be
  
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• Boris Johnson should be jailed over Brexit claims, says ex-David Davis aide

  09-08-2017 21:21
  James Chapman’s tweets calling for a ‘Democrats’ party drew support from pro-EU MPs from across the parties.The former chief of staff to David Davis has said Brexit is a catastrophe, and suggested that Boris Johnson and other leading Brexit campaigners should be jailed for claiming there would be an extra £350m a week for the NHS after the UK left the European Union.James Chapman, a former special adviser who now works for a public relations firm, expressed his real views
  
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• The Guardian view on premature deaths: inequality kills | Editorial

  09-08-2017 21:16 via theguardian.com
  England’s northerners are dying younger at far higher rates than their southern counterparts. This is a result of an unequal society with a withered state unable to level life’s playing fieldHas England’s north-south divide turned into a deadly one? If the latest research on premature deaths is to be believed, it certainly seems so. Researchers from Manchester University looked at the death rates of two groups of 25 million people either side of a line from the Wash to the
  
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• The Guardian view on North Korea: careless talk costs credibility, and perhaps lives | Editorial

  09-08-2017 21:09 via theguardian.com
  Donald Trump’s warnings of ‘fire and fury’ will only make it harder to tackle the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear programmeIt is not reassuring when the US secretary of state has to reassure his country that it is not on the brink of war. “I think Americans should sleep well at night,” Rex Tillerson told reporters on Wednesday. He was playing down the incendiary words of his president, who had promised “fire and fury like the world has never seen&r
  
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• Fox & Friends & Trump: North Korea crisis puts cozy relationship in spotlight

  09-08-2017 21:08 via theguardian.com
  As rhetoric over nuclear war suddenly ramped up this week, Trump and the Fox News show set about amplifying each other to a worldwide audienceThe crisis in relations between the US and North Korea has put Donald Trump’s symbiotic relationship with his favorite morning TV show, Fox & Friends, firmly back in the spotlight.As rhetoric over nuclear war suddenly ramped up between the US president and North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-un, on Tuesday night and the US media began intense
  
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• The perfect culture war: how conservative pundits reacted to Google's fired engineer

  09-08-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Pundits identify with James Damore, who wrote a 10-page manifesto suggesting gender inequality in Silicon Valley was naturalGoogle’s decision to fire an engineer who sent out a screed on diversity to his colleagues is the stuff of conservative culture war dreams. For a start, a lot of conservative pundits can identify with James Damore, the now unemployed author of the 10-page manifesto. Damore seems overbearing, writes at punishing length about why inequality is natural, and addresses him
  
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• +/- Human review – Is this the future of artificial intelligence? Bring it on

  09-08-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Roundhouse, London
  Random International’s installation, Zoological, features a flock of airborne spheres that glide and swoop and dance and swarm above and among us. What a mind-boggling showIn René Magritte’s surrealist painting La Voix des Airs (1931), three inscrutable spheres hover in an empty blue sky above green fields. I’ve always wondered what these enigmatic objects really are. Do they come from outer space? Are they about to open and unleash a robot army? What
  
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• Hugo Chavéz's brother among eight Venezuelans placed under US sanctions

  09-08-2017 20:57 via theguardian.com
  Fresh sanctions aim to punish individuals for their role in creating President Maduro’s new constituent assembly, which has been widely condemnedThe Trump administration has imposed sanctions on eight more Venezuelan officials, including the brother of late socialist leader Hugo Chávez, to punish them for their role in President Nicolás Maduro’s creation of a new legislative superbody, US officials said. The US targeted individual politicians and security figures but st
  
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• NSPCC: 'We're staggered' by police tactics

  09-08-2017 20:55
  The NSPCC have criticised the police for using a convicted child rapist to spy on underage 'sex parties'.
  
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• Taylor Swift groping case: DJ says photo with his hand behind singer is 'awkward'

  09-08-2017 20:52 via theguardian.com
  Giving testimony during a civil trial alleging the music star was groped, accused DJ David Mueller insisted he was touching Swift’s ribs not her rear Former disc jockey David Mueller has acknowledged that a photo of him with his hand behind Taylor Swift is “weird and awkward”.But he insists he was touching Swift in her ribs, not her rear, as she alleges in the groping case. Continue reading...
  
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• The right language to protect the natural world | Letters

  09-08-2017 20:50 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to George Monbiot’s recent article and news that the US Department of Agriculture is censoring use of term ‘climate change’George Monbiot’s call to reconsider how we name things (Forget ‘the environment’. Fight for our living planet, 9 August) is a timely contribution to a confusing world. But one word that both he and the majority of online contributors have ignored is “prosperity”. That, after all, is why humans engage in eco
  
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• Seeing ourselves as other nations see us | Letters

  09-08-2017 20:48 via theguardian.com
  Gillian Dalley says majority thinking in the west has been warped, and American Dr T Douglas Reilly says his outlook was changed by moving to EuropeReading Suzy Hansen’s account of how the all-pervasive belief in the notion of American exceptionalism has stopped her and her countryfolk from seeing how their view of the world is misconceived (Unlearning the myth of American innocence, 8 August) makes me want to draw attention to our own myopia. Majority thinking in the west has been similar
  
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• eSports could be medal event at 2024 Olympics, Paris bid team says

  09-08-2017 20:45 via theguardian.com
  Paris bid committee co-president to meet with IOC about competitive gamingIn April, it was announced eSports will be medal sport at 2022 Asian GameseSports could be added to the Olympic programme as an official medal sport in 2024.Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris bid committee, has confirmed that he will speak with the International Olympic Committee and eSports representatives about the full-fledged inclusion of competitive video gaming when the Games come to France in seven years&rsqu
  
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• There is no shame in suffering mental pain | Letters

  09-08-2017 20:44
  Thank you for Giles Fraser’s insightful piece on suicide (It is dangerous to think of suicide as heroic – or cowardly, 8 August).What does take fortitude, though, is facing the reasons for wanting to kill yourself, such as mental pain, profound grief, overwhelming debt, unsustainable rejection etc – and the shame it is thought they bring with them, which we can feel puts us beyond self-acceptance and the reach of others.When we can find the understanding to think of our sufferi
  
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• We could close this lethal north-south gap – if we wanted to | Dawn Foster

  09-08-2017 20:42 via theguardian.com
  The regional death gap has widened since 2008. If we do not acknowledge the role that poverty plays, poorer people will continue to sufferIf the Conservative party were a car, it would be in dire need of new tyres, having worn the treads bare with the sheer number of policy U-turns since this year’s snap general election. The reversal on funding rail electrification in the north and Wales is symbolic of the Conservatives’ contempt for the regions, and symptomatic of how Britain has p
  
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• Danny Willett works with Tiger Woods’ former coach in attempt to end slump

  09-08-2017 20:36 via theguardian.com
  • 2016 Masters winner parts company with long-time coach Pete Cowen
  • Sean Foley coached Woods between 2010 and 2014
  Danny Willett’s latest bid to reverse a dreadful run of form has seen the 2016 Masters champion part company with long-time coach Pete Cowen. Sean Foley, who previously coached Tiger Woods and currently tutors Justin Rose, started an alliance with the troubled Willett at this week’s US PGA Championship. Willett had his first session with Foley on Tuesday befo
  
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• Danny Willett turn to Tiger Woods’ former coach in bid to end slump

  09-08-2017 20:36 via theguardian.com
  • Masters winner parts company with long-time coach Pete Cowen
  • Sean Foley coached Woods between 2010 and 2014Danny Willett’s latest bid to reverse a dreadful run has seen the 2016 Masters champion part company with his long-time coach Pete Cowen.Sean Foley, who coached Tiger Woods and now tutors Justin Rose, started an alliance with the troubled Willett at this week’s PGA Championship. Willett had his first session with Foley on Tuesday before a practice round in the comp
  
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• Ben Jennings on Donald Trump and North Korea – cartoon

  09-08-2017 20:36 via theguardian.com
  Continue reading...
  
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• US defense chief warns North Korea that it risks the 'destruction of its people'

  09-08-2017 20:32 via theguardian.com
  James Mattis says overwhelming force would be used in the event of a North Korean attack on Washington or its allies, following Trump’s threatsAnalysis: how likely is war?
  Explainer: where is Guam and why is North Korea threatening it?
  Explainer: what is the US military’s presence near North Korea?
  The US defense secretary, James Mattis, has warned the North Korean regime that it risked the “end of its regime and the destruction of its people” if it attacked Washington or
  
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• Here’s everything you need to know about the US stand-off with North Korea

  09-08-2017 20:28
  Tensions have worsened since two North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July.
  
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• Worldpay takeover deal: not bad, but could have been better | Nils Pratley

  09-08-2017 20:27 via theguardian.com
  Is the £9.3bn deal with US firm Vantiv another example of unambitious British management selling out cheaply?Worldpay is the payments processor that escaped from the wreckage at Royal Bank of Scotland to become a member of the FTSE 100 index. Ignore the memory that RBS sold for £2bn in 2010. Worldpay has enjoyed heavy investment since then and its marketplace has boomed. The real question is whether a £9.3bn takeover by US firm Vantiv is another instance of unambitious British
  
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• Liverpool are a selling club and face challenge to keep Philippe Coutinho | Paul Wilson

  09-08-2017 20:19 via theguardian.com
  Barcelona want the Brazilian to follow Luis Suárez to Camp Nou, leaving Jürgen Klopp with a potential hole in his team just as the season is about to startAn unhappy transfer window for Liverpool has every chance of becoming more grim should Philippe Coutinho make a £100m-plus move to Barcelona and, though some well-rehearsed arguments are being heard from both sides over whether the club should make a stand or accept the inevitable, there is an unpalatable truth beneath all th
  
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• Gina Miller afraid to leave her home after threats of acid attacks

  09-08-2017 20:18
  Gina Miller is afraid to leave her home because of threats of acid attacks.Gina Miller, the campaigner who won a Brexit legal challenge against the government, has revealed that she has been receiving threats of acid attacks for months and is afraid to leave her home.Miller spoke of her fears for her life just weeks after Rhodri Phillips, 50, the 4th Viscount St Davids, was jailed for 12 weeks for racially abusing her on social media.
  
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• Contaminated eggs: Netherlands failed to sound alarm, says Belgium

  09-08-2017 20:10 via theguardian.com
  Food safety scandal deepens as Dutch authorities are accused of not passing on early discovery of fipronil in eggsEurope’s latest food scandal has deepened as Belgium accused the Dutch authorities of failing to sound the alarm after discovering eggs were being contaminated with a harmful insecticide as early as November last year.The Belgian agriculture minister, Denis Ducarme, told a parliamentary hearing that his officials had obtained an internal Dutch document that reported “the
  
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