General news

• China drone maker steps up security after U.S. Army ban

  14-08-2017 23:54
  Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd is tightening data security on its drones after the U.S. Army ordered its members to stop using DJI drones because of "cyber vulnerabilities," a company official told Reuters on Monday.The privately held Shenzhen-based company is speeding deployment of a system that allows users to disconnect from the internet during flights, making it impossible for flight logs, photos or videos to reach DJI's computer servers, Brendan Schulman, vice president of pol
  
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• Ryanair calls for curbs to alcohol sales at UK airports

  14-08-2017 23:50
  Ryanair said its intervention came "in the wake of increased disruptive behaviour from passengers travelling from British airports"
  
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• A giant inflatable rat that looks a lot like Donald Trump appears in New York

  14-08-2017 23:32
  Trumpy the Rat appeared outside the Trump Tower.
  
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• Google, GoDaddy boot neo-Nazi site that mocked rally victim

  14-08-2017 23:23
  A leading neo-Nazi website continued to be accessible Monday despite efforts by website registration companies Google and GoDaddy to oust it after it mocked the woman killed in a deadly attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
  
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• CORRECTED: China drone maker steps up security after U.S. Army ban

  14-08-2017 23:21
  By Alwyn Scott(Reuters) - (The story corrects headline and first paragraph to remove reference to DJI hoping to regain the U.S. Army as a client.Corrects DJI headquarters to Shenzhen, not Shanghai.)Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd is tightening data security on its drones after the U.S. Army ordered its members to stop using DJI drones because of "cyber vulnerabilities," a company official told Reuters on Monday.The privately held Shenzhen-based company is speeding deployment of a sy
  
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• Father of white nationalist Charlottesville protester publicly disowns his son in an open letter

  14-08-2017 23:01
  Pearce Tefft said his son is no longer welcome at home unless he “renounces his hateful beliefs”.
  
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• Barclays closures add to toll of vanishing British bank branches

  14-08-2017 22:46
  By Anjuli DaviesLONDON (Reuters) - Barclays plans to close around 54 branches by the end of the year in an effort to cut costs, further reducing access to banking services for customers in parts of Britain.Barclays, which told customers about the planned closures in recent weeks still has around 1,300 branches across the country.Branch closures in Britain are disproportionately affecting lowest-income areas, taking bricks-and-mortar services away from communities where they are needed most, Reut
  
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• Car Crashes Into Pizza Restaurant In Sept-Sorts, France, Killing Young Girl And Injuring Several Seriously

  14-08-2017 22:31
  An eight-year-old girl has died and five people been injured when a car was driven into a pizza restaurant in France.
  
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• Car Crashes Into Pizza Restaurant In Sept-Sorts, France, Killing Eight-Year-Old Girl And Injuring Five

  14-08-2017 22:31
  An eight-year-old girl has died and five people been injured when a car was driven into a pizza restaurant in France.
  
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• Trump condemns white supremacists and says racism is evil but the internet is divided

  14-08-2017 22:22
  The US president named and condemned hate groups and described then as “criminals and thugs”.
  
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• China drone maker hopes security upgrade will reverse U.S. Army ban

  14-08-2017 22:19
  Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd is tightening data security in the hopes that the U.S. Army will lift its ban on DJI drones because of "cyber vulnerabilities," a company official told Reuters on Monday.The privately held Shanghai-based company is speeding deployment of a system that allows users to disconnect from the internet during flights, making it impossible for flight logs, photos or videos to reach DJI's computer servers, Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and legal a
  
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• Call for action over 'scandalous' charity costs after warning for breast cancer helpline

  14-08-2017 22:12
  Charities are being urged to spend at least 65% of donations on direct support after a helpline was censured for only spending 2.8% on "charitable activities".Gina Miller, founder of the True and Fair Foundation, said it was "absolutely scandalous" that the National Hereditary Breast Cancer Helpline's (NHBCH) accounts had gone unnoticed for so long.Ms Miller, who is also known for her interventions on Brexit, said charity donors expect most of their money to fund support services, rather than ru
  
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• Black pirate radio: The 'Robin Hoods' of music

  14-08-2017 21:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Trevor Nelson, DJ Jazzie B and Gilles Peterson on the pirate radio boom of the 1980s.
  
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• Cyclist Charlie Alliston, Accused Over Kim Briggs' Death, 'Posted It Was Her Fault’, Court Told

  14-08-2017 21:21
  A young man rode into a pedestrian then blamed his mortally injured victim, saying people have “zero respect for cyclists”, a court heard.
  
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• The Guardian view on London’s garden bridge: a worthless vanity project | Editorial

  14-08-2017 21:01
  The garden bridge project, the superfluous and now abandoned plan to build a Thames crossing in the richest and best connected heart of London, may one day be judged the peak of the capital’s narcissistic hubris.It was a vanity project of a group of cronies that included the then mayor Boris Johnson – the man who is now Britain’s face to the world – with the then chancellor, George Osborne, the celebrity Joanna Lumley and her protege, the architect Thomas Heatherwick, mas
  
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• Grenfell Tower Fire: Silent Vigil Held To Remember Victims Two Months On

  14-08-2017 20:55
  Hundreds of people have now joined the silent march, demanding justice two months after the #Grenfell tragedy pic.twitter.com/a9dU8c3cSW—
  
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• London garden bridge project collapses in acrimony after £37m spent

  14-08-2017 20:51
  Boris Johnson has hit back at Sadiq Khan’s comments about the bridge plan wasting taxpayers’ money.It was intended to be a “floating paradise” for London but instead Joanna Lumley’s vision of a Thames garden bridge has collapsed amid acrimony, with the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his predecessor Boris Johnson arguing over how £37m of public money had been spent on a project without a brick being laid.
  
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• Share your photos and stories of anti-fascist protests after Charlottesville

  14-08-2017 20:49 via theguardian.com
  Are you participating in demonstrations following the events in Charlottesville? Share your pictures, videos and stories as we continue to cover this storyThe white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend resulted in a tepid response from Donald Trump, and outrage from citizens and politicians of all parties seeking to combat bigotry and racism.Protests are being planned around the globe this week, notably Monday in New York City as Trump is due to return to his hometown. Ar
  
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• TfL pulls campaign featuring girl in hijab amid 'sexualisation' accusations

  14-08-2017 20:01
  Transport for London (TfL) has pulled a road safety campaign featuring a young Muslim girl wearing a hijab following accusations it was "sexualising" a child.The £2m Children's Traffic Club campaign shows a three or four-year-old girl called Razmi wearing a religious headscarf as she plays with her Chinese best friend Maylin.Shaista Gohir, chair of Muslim Women's Network UK, told Sky News: "It is frustrating to see that every time a Muslim girl or women needs to be represented, she has to
  
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• UK education is eroded by the Ebacc, academies and tuition fees | Letters

  14-08-2017 19:59
  ‘Schools need the flexibility to offer subjects that will actually be needed by employers,’ writes Kirstie Donnelly.The Ebacc is significantly narrowing the curriculum in many schools without considering young people’s varied aspirations and educational needs.It is yet another example of the government’s fixation on academic subjects to the detriment of all others.
  
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• Ethnicity is not something dictated by people’s genes | Letters

  14-08-2017 19:59 via theguardian.com
  John Collis on the limitations of DNA testing, Peter McKenna on the Romans and race, and Alun Thomas on West Midlands historyDNA testing to determine people’s origins (DNA uncovers villagers’ exotic heritage, 11 August) should come with a major health warning as interpretations are based on false scientific methodologies.First, there is a confusion between two types of data. Our DNA is what we inherit from our parents and, until recently at least, could not be altered. Ethnic or &ldq
  
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• Universities are not spying on students | Letters

  14-08-2017 19:58 via theguardian.com
  Spying, as opposed to awareness and management of risk, is prohibited by the guidelines to the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, write Steven Greer and Lindsey BellGiles Fraser contributes to the mythology about the Prevent duty in universities rather than helping to dispel it (Universities stop spying on their students? That’s a radical idea, 4 August). The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 imposes a statutory obligation on schools, universities, the NHS and other institution
  
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• Modern-day slavery is widespread in the UK | Letters

  14-08-2017 19:53
  First, despite the increasing amount of information available, most people do not understand that slavery is widespread in the UK, or if they do, don’t know how to spot it or what to do about it.Second, modern-day slavery is found in every form of UK economic activity – food, clothing, social care, fishing, hotels, leisure and construction etc.
  
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• Recovery of giant pipes that washed up on Norfolk beaches begins

  14-08-2017 19:40 via bbc.co.uk
  Salvage experts have begun the removal of four giant pipes that washed up on Norfolk beaches.
  
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• Mark Thomas review – comic gambles on his audience in a lively show

  14-08-2017 19:31 via theguardian.com
  Summerhall, EdinburghThe political comic mixes debate about Britain’s future with confessional memoir in an odd hybrid that solicits contributions from the crowdMark Thomas has called this latest fringe outing The Show that Gambles on the Future, which you’d peg as a reference to Britain’s Brexit vote. It isn’t, or not explicitly. The campaigning comic’s new set (he alternates these days between standup and solo theatre shows) is an interactive affair, soliciting au
  
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• Hacker who ended NHS cyberattack arrested by FBI

  14-08-2017 19:25
  A British cyber security researcher who helped stop the NHS's systems has been arrested by the FBI and indicted on several criminal counts.
  
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• Requiem for Aleppo: 'I couldn't keep watching the news. I had to do something'

  14-08-2017 19:14 via theguardian.com
  A hard-hitting new dance show uses the stories of Syrians to capture the horrors of Aleppo – and the hope that will not die
  Last summer, David Cazalet was busy running the cybersecurity firm he had started 18 years earlier, but he found himself increasingly preoccupied and disturbed by the news from Syria. He would watch the 10 o’clock bulletin with mounting dismay. “There was a sense of horror at seeing hospitals being bombed and kids being killed – and then seeing it sl
  
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• NHS hack hero Marcus Hutchins pleads not guilty in US to malware charges

  14-08-2017 19:12
  According to his lawyers, Marcus Hutchins, from Devon, will "vigorously defend himself" and be "fully vindicated" when his case goes to trial.The case is unrelated to the WannaCry attack that struck the NHS and 300,000 computers around the world in May, for which Mr Hutchins gained worldwide attention after he detected a "kill switch" that effectively disabled the virus.Mr Hutchins has been released on conditional bail with a $30,000 (£23,000) cash bond which was provided by "a variety of
  
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• Kensington And Chelsea Council Told To Sever Ties With TMO Two Months On From Grenfell Disaster

  14-08-2017 19:12
  Thousands of people are calling for Kensington and Chelsea Council to sever ties with the body that managed the Grenfell Tower, two months after the devastating fire.
  
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• Scottish ministers refuse to release Prince Charles lobbying letters

  14-08-2017 19:07
  The Scottish government is refusing to release correspondence showing the Prince of Wales lobbied ministers to loosen up strict rules on teacher training for a charity that stands to earn money from the changes.Ministers have rejected three requests to publish letters and documents from Prince Charles’s office supporting proposals from Teach First, a charity he helped set up 15 years ago, to introduce fast-track teacher training in Scotland.
  
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• Donald Trump Finally Condemns White Supremacists After Charlottesville Violence

  14-08-2017 18:53
  Donald Trump has condemned the KKK, neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “criminals and thugs”, saying: “Racism is evil.”
  
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• GoDaddy boots neo-Nazi site after post on protest violence

  14-08-2017 18:46
  A leading neo-Nazi website is losing its internet domain host after its publisher posted an article mocking the woman who was killed in a deadly attack at a white nationalist rally in Virginia. GoDaddy ...
  
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• British cyber researcher pleads not guilty to U.S. hacking charges

  14-08-2017 18:45
  By Dustin VolzSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - British cyber security researcher Marcus Hutchins pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges he built and sold malicious code used to steal banking credentials.Hutchins, 23, rose to overnight fame within the hacker community in May when he helped defang the global "WannaCry" ransomware attack, which infected hundreds of thousands of computers in May and caused disruptions at factories, hospitals, shops and schools in more than 150 countries.U.S. prose
  
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• 20 years on

  14-08-2017 18:38 via bbc.co.uk
  Your chance to share your stories and memories of Princess Diana on the anniversary of her death.
  
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• Bladerunners - UK lawnmowers in 12-hour endurance race

  14-08-2017 18:28
  Drivers donned their suits and climbed into their cockpits at the weekend for a 12-hour endurance race with a difference: they weren't driving rallying cars, but lawnmowers.The annual race in Five Oaks, a hamlet in West Sussex, England, started at 8 p.m. on Saturday and saw 51 three-driver teams take to the 1.4 km (0.87 mile) circuit, with the winning team completing 363 laps.The lawnmowers can reach speeds approaching 50 mph but a week of rain preceding the race left the surface of the dirt tra
  
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• Alex Salmond Made A 'Joke' About Having Sex With Nicola Sturgeon, Theresa May And Ruth Davidson

  14-08-2017 18:10
  Alex Salmond has been told to apologise cracking a “joke” about having sex with female politicians.
  
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• Baby boxes to be sent to new mothers in Scotland from this week

  14-08-2017 18:00
  Scotland’s baby boxes include bodysuits, sleepsuits and a digital ear thermometer, said to be worth about £45.All new mothers in Scotland are being offered free baby boxes including clothes, thermometers and books in an effort to improve their children’s life chances.The cardboard boxes come with a fitted mattress, a sheet and bedding to allow them to act as temporary cribs as part of efforts to reduce cot death rates and promote safe sleeping.
  
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• The maker of Tiki torches denounces their use by white supremacists in Charlottesville

  14-08-2017 17:56
  The protest and counter-protest in Charlottesville over the weekend ended in violence.
  
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• Pri- or Pree-mark?

  14-08-2017 17:38 via bbc.co.uk
  As Primark sets the record straight, which other brands do we pronounce incorrectly?
  
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• Why Mental Health Service Cuts Are Contributing To The Mental Health Crisis

  14-08-2017 17:32
  As a senior mental health nurse, I have recently made the difficult decision to leave my 17-year career due to stress and burnout caused by the constant cuts faced daily in NHS mental health services, and I'm not alone.
  
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• Walton-on-the-Naze and the Tornado celebrate 150th year of rail

  14-08-2017 17:29 via bbc.co.uk
  A steam locomotive helps a seaside town celebrate its railway heritage, as thousands line the route.
  
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• Daily Mail targets 96% of US population with new TV show

  14-08-2017 17:24
  Former American football player Jesse Palmer joins DailyMailTV from ABC News.The Daily Mail’s parent company is to launch its own television programme to be syndicated across the US, it has been announced.DailyMailTV will be hosted by former American football player Jesse Palmer, who has joined from the US broadcaster ABC News, where he contributed to Good Morning America.
  
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• Mo no more

  14-08-2017 17:22 via bbc.co.uk
  Mo Farah wishes to be known as Mohamed - but is changing your name a good career move?
  
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• Donald Trump Condemns Ken Frazier, Who Quit White House Over His Refusal To Condemn White Supremacists

  14-08-2017 17:18
  Donald Trump has condemned a businessman who quit a White House panel in protest of Trump’s refusal to condemn the white nationalist groups after the deadly violence at the weekend.
  
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• Have you suffered at work because of your appearance? Share your stories

  14-08-2017 17:13 via theguardian.com
  We’d like to hear from people who feel they were unreasonably treated in the workplace as a result of their weight or appearanceThe recent story of an East London bar which advertised for “extremely attractive” bar staff has again highlighted the issue of professional discrimination on the basis of physical appearance. The ad stated that “physical attractiveness is unfortunately necessary for this role” and that female applicants “must be comfortable wearing b
  
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• World Athletics Championships 2017: The Moment A Refugee Athlete Met Sir Mo Farah

  14-08-2017 16:40
  This is the moment a refugee athlete got to meet his idol, Sir Mo Farah.
  
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• Hero the hedgehog: World Athletics mascot

  14-08-2017 16:38 via bbc.co.uk
  From larking around with Usain Bolt to photo-bombing victory celebrations, here are his highlights.
  
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• Edinburgh festival shows examine mental health – with sticky tape and silliness

  14-08-2017 16:13 via theguardian.com
  After the recent fringe hits Every Brilliant Thing and Fake It ’Til You Make It, a new crop of theatre productions are taking startling approaches to exploring mental illnessAt the 2014 Edinburgh fringe, the trailblazing Every Brilliant Thing – written by Duncan Macmillan and performed by Jonny Donahoe – talked to us about depression in a refreshingly warm, open and honest way. A year later, Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn’s Fake It ’Til You Make It tackled the tab
  
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• A Holistic Approach For Youth To Build Peace

  14-08-2017 16:01
  We cannot ignore the case in many parts of the world that the majority of the society is under 30.
  
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• It's Time For A Media Food Pyramid

  14-08-2017 16:00
  Graphic courtesy of Florida Hospital Nicholson Center In 2008, Nicholas Carr published a provocative message in The Atlantic magazine, "Is Google making us stupid?", which he followed with the longer book The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains.
  
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