General news

• Shetland ponies stabbed in neck in 'barbaric' night-time attack

  21-08-2017 23:42
  Nine Shetland ponies have been stabbed and slashed in a "barbaric" night-time attack - with one dying from a suspected heart attack.The rescue horses were targeted in a field near Preston, Lancashire.Matilda was rescued seven years ago when it was discovered she was being tethered to a tree with barbed wire.
  
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• Documentary: Searching for Madeleine

  21-08-2017 23:10
  It's 10 years since Madeleine McCann went missing in the Algarve on a family holiday. Sky's Martin Brunt delves deep into the investigation.
  
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• UK offers climbdown on European courts deciding cross-border cases

  21-08-2017 23:00
  Britain will be subject to the rulings of European courts after Brexit, the government has conceded, in an apparent climbdown from its promise of judicial independence.In the latest in a series of policy papers that seek to blur the edges of hard Brexit, the government argues that for the smooth settlement of cross-border disputes it is necessary that foreign judgments sometimes apply to individuals and businesses in the UK.
  
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• Brexit paper backs away from PM's promise of judicial independence

  21-08-2017 23:00
  Britain will be subject to the rulings of European courts after Brexit, the government has conceded, in an apparent climbdown from its promise of judicial independence.In the latest in a series of policy papers that seek to blur the edges of hard Brexit, the government argues that for the smooth settlement of cross-border disputes it is necessary that foreign judgments sometimes apply to individuals and businesses in the UK.
  
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• Hunt for Madeleine McCann needs more cash to continue

  21-08-2017 22:55
  Scotland Yard is to ask for more money to continue its six-year investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.Detectives are struggling to resolve a final lead, which, if it fizzled out, could have brought the £11m Government-funded investigation to an end next month.Madeleine was nearly four years old when she vanished without trace from her family's rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
  
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• Donald Trump Looked Directly At The Sun During The Eclipse Because Of Course He Did

  21-08-2017 22:34
  You don’t need to be Stephen Hawking to know that staring directly at the sun is not a good idea.
  
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• Moon trolls sun on Twitter in solar cyber spat

  21-08-2017 22:14
  (Reuters) - As if a solar eclipse was not enough, the moon threw some virtual shade at the sun on Twitter on Monday, as millions of people watched the first coast-to-coast total eclipse in the United States in nearly a century."HA HA HA I've blocked the Sun!" wrote NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) on its verified Twitter account, which was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.#SolarEclipse2017."The tweet was accompanied with a screenshot photo showing that the moon had blocked the v
  
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• Online Hate Crime Guidance Could Mean Overstretched Cops Neglect Other Crime, Police Federation Warns

  21-08-2017 22:06
  Austerity has left police too stretched to honour a new pledge by prosecutors to treat online hate crime the same as face-to-face hate crime without neglecting other crime, the Police Federation has warned.
  
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• May facing scrutiny over Brexit trade efforts as Japan ‎trip looms

  21-08-2017 21:46
  Theresa May is facing pressure to transform her approach to shaping Britain's post-Brexit trade links amid scepticism from business leaders about the scale and ambition of a forthcoming trip to Japan.Sky News has learnt that the Prime Minister wants to restrict the size of the business delegation that will join her trip to the world's third-biggest economy later this month.Sources said that‎ as few as 15-20 business leaders might accompany Mrs May on the visit, which is scheduled to include
  
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• CORRECTED: Moon trolls sun on Twitter in solar cyber spat

  21-08-2017 21:17
  (Reuters) - (The story corrects to show first coast-to-coast total eclipse, not first total eclipse, in paragraph 1.)As if a solar eclipse was not enough, the moon threw some virtual shade at the sun on Twitter on Monday, as millions of people watched the first coast-to-coast total eclipse in the United States in nearly a century."HA HA HA I've blocked the Sun!" wrote NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) on its verified Twitter account, which was created by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
  
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• Star seekers, a bee party and polar bear explorers: Edinburgh festival kids' shows

  21-08-2017 20:50 via theguardian.com
  The fringe programme is bursting with family theatre this year, from the gentle Snigel and Friends to a campsite Peter and the WolfA long time ago, when the actors’ union was still a closed shop, one of the ways that young performers gained their Equity card was by working in children’s theatre. They did the required number of weeks to get their membership and then moved on to their real goal: acting in plays for adults.But children’s theatre is not a means to an end. Increasin
  
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• Britain pushes plan on goods and services in post-Brexit talks, EU sceptical

  21-08-2017 20:30
  By Elizabeth Piper and Gabriela BaczynskaLONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Britain urged the European Union on Monday not to separate goods from services in Brexit talks, further outlining its negotiating stance to try to nudge discussions forward to a second phase on future relations."3rd round of Brexit negotiations with UK begins next week.
  
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• Total solar eclipse 2017: America gets first glimpse of totality – live!

  21-08-2017 19:41 via theguardian.com
  How to see the solar eclipse – with mapsSome parts of US to be shrouded in darkness as moon passes in front of sunTotal eclipse to begin in Oregon on west coast and pass through 14 states 6.41pm BST 6.36pm BSTWhile the moon begins to reveal the sun in Oregon, a total eclipse has just formed in Idaho Falls.“It just got dark all around us and you can feel the temperature getting colder,” says one of the presenters on Nasa’s live stream.The street lights came on in Idaho Fal
  
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• EFTA court offers way-out for Britain post-Brexit - court president

  21-08-2017 19:39
  By Robert-Jan Bartunek and Elizabeth PiperBRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The court of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) could present a way-out for Britain as it seeks a new authority to arbitrate in disputes after it leaves the European Union, the president of the court said on Monday.The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, says Britain should continue to fall under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for solving any disputes during the transitional phase after March
  
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• The Guardian view on Steve Bannon’s departure: a presidency in eclipse | Editorial

  21-08-2017 19:34 via theguardian.com
  The most combative White House aide has gone. Less a victory for moderation than a win for Wall Street, the generals and low tax RepublicansIn some civilisations, eclipses of the sun have always been seen as powerful portents. Awe-struck humans have even been known to respond with a human sacrifice, designed to appease deities who could make the land dark. If Donald Trump’s sacking of his chief strategist Steve Bannon was a sacrifice of this kind, it did not protect America from Monday&rsq
  
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• The Guardian view on censoring the internet: necessary, but not easy | Editorial

  21-08-2017 19:34 via theguardian.com
  Who should protect us online? And who will guard us from these guards?Among the more absurd things ever said about the internet was that the network “interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it”. The epigram was half true, but the half that was false gets more important every year.The internet can be a vile place, and the instinct to enforce some standards there is not misplaced. The director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, is quite right to say that crime online i
  
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• Barcelona attack: suspected van driver shot dead by police west of city

  21-08-2017 19:28 via theguardian.com
  Younes Abouyaaqoub, identified as driver of van that sped down Las Ramblas on Thursday, shot and killed in town of SubiratsThe last known member of the Barcelona terror cell has been shot dead after he was cornered by armed police while wearing a fake suicide vest.
  Younes Abouyaaqoub was killed in a town 30 miles west of Barcelona, four days after he drove a van along the crowded tourist boulevard Las Ramblas, killing 13 people and injuring more than 130. Continue reading...
  
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• Why Is Big Ben Going Silent For Four Years? A Guide To Why Britain Is Losing It

  21-08-2017 19:27
  Big Ben has gone silent for what will be the longest period in its 157-year history.
  
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• Why Is Big Ben Going Silent For Four Years? A Guide To The Topic Britain Is Losing It Over

  21-08-2017 19:27
  Big Ben has gone silent for what will be the longest period in its 157-year history.
  
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• Why Is Big Ben Going Silent For Four Years? A Guide To The Issue That Made Britain Lose It

  21-08-2017 19:27
  Big Ben has gone silent for what will be the longest period in its 157-year history.
  
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• What is the most annoying thing you can do on public transport?

  21-08-2017 19:25
  Ninety per cent of Londoners say that entering a carriage without giving passengers a chance to get off is annoying. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images
  
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• Moss may prove cheap city pollution monitor, study finds

  21-08-2017 19:23 via theguardian.com
  Common moss changes shape in areas of high nitrogen pollution and drought and has potential to be big bioindicator, say scientistsDelicate mosses found on rocks and trees in cities around the world can be used to measure the impact of atmospheric change and could prove a low-cost way to monitor urban pollution, according to Japanese scientists.Moss, a “bioindicator”, responds to pollution or drought-stress by changing shape, density or by disappearing, allowing scientists to calculat
  
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• Channel 4 defends Isis drama The State after criticism

  21-08-2017 19:16 via theguardian.com
  Broadcaster says series by Peter Kosminsky is based on extensive factual research and tackles an important subjectChannel 4 has defended a new drama about a group of young Britons who travel to Syria to join Islamic State, saying it has been carefully researched and deals with an “important subject to confront and explore”.The State, a four-part series written by Peter Kosminsky, began on Sunday night with an audience of 1.4 million.Continue reading...
  
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• Secret Service director says agency running out of money protecting Trump

  21-08-2017 19:14 via theguardian.com
  Some 42 people require protection under Trump compared with 31 under Obama, leading to an increasing number of agents resigningSecret service agents are resigning and others might have to go without pay after more than 1,000 agents protecting the Trump family hit salary and overtime caps, the head of the US Secret Service said.
  With more than four months to go before the end of the year, director Randolph “Tex” Alles told USA Today the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of age
  
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• UK credit and debit card spending ​growing​ at fastest rate since 2008

  21-08-2017 19:09 via theguardian.com
  New figures showing borrowing is rising more than five times faster than earnings come after warnings from Bank of England New figures show spending on credit, debit and charge cards is growing at the fastest rate since 2008, rising more than five times faster than earnings in a fresh sign of ballooning borrowing by consumers.The number of card transactions increased by 12.3% over the year to the end of June, according to the banking trade body UK Finance, coming amid a boom in consumer debt tha
  
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• Pope Francis: prioritise migrants' dignity over national security

  21-08-2017 19:04 via theguardian.com
  Publication of action plan for governments is response to what Vatican sees as one of biggest global challenges of 21st centuryPope Francis has issued a 20-point action plan to governments on refugees and migrants to try to galvanise their response to an issue seen by the Vatican as one of the biggest global challenges of the 21st century.His intention is to lay the ground for the drafting of two global compacts on refugees and migration, which are expected to be adopted at the UN general assemb
  
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• Putin names hardliner Anatoly Antonov as Russia's US ambassador

  21-08-2017 19:03 via theguardian.com
  Deputy foreign minister, seen as a tough negotiator, to replace Sergey Kislyak with Moscow-Washington ties at a lowVladimir Putin has appointed a new Russian ambassador to the US at a time when relations between the two countries are at a low, driven by accusations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential elections.Anatoly Antonov will take over from Sergey Kislyak, the country’s longstanding top diplomat in Washington who became embroiled in the scandal surrounding possible col
  
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• Eni Aluko accuses England manager Mark Sampson of ‘racist’ Ebola remark

  21-08-2017 19:00 via theguardian.com
  • Aluko says Sampson told her to ensure relatives did not bring Ebola to game• Sampson understood to deny making comment about player’s Nigerian familyMark Sampson, the manager of the England women’s football team, is alleged to have told one of his black players to make sure their Nigerian relatives did not bring Ebola to a game at Wembley, according to extraordinary new evidence the Guardian can present as part of the Eni Aluko hush-money case.Aluko tells this newspaper t
  
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• 'He was a gay guy who won': why I wrote a play about ice-skating genius John Curry

  21-08-2017 18:56 via theguardian.com
  Tony Timberlake has turned his lifelong fascination with the champion figure skater and 1970s gay icon into a heartbreaking one-man show In 1976, John Curry won the figure-skating gold medal for Britain at the winter Olympics in Innsbruck. Later that year he was voted BBC sports personality of the year, at a time when cricketers, runners, racing drivers and members of the royal family tended to hog the award. Not bad for a gay man who in the same year was outed by a German newspaper – a po
  
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• The Secret Service is running out of money to pay Trump’s special agents

  21-08-2017 18:50
  More than 1,000 special agents have reached their annual salary and overtime caps, according to USA Today.
  
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• Refusing to give up seat is most annoying Tube habit, survey finds

  21-08-2017 18:48
  Londoners believe refusing to give up a seat is the most annoying Tube habit by fellow passengers, according to a survey.In the survey of 1,651 London residents, eating smelly food, not getting out of the way of others trying to get off a train and playing music so loud it can be heard through headphones also ranked highly in terms of angering Tube passengers.Londoners appeared less concerned by so-called manspreading (men spreading their legs out wide to take up more room), staring and taking a
  
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• Vuelta a España: Chris Froome takes lead as Nibali wins stage three

  21-08-2017 18:43 via theguardian.com
  • Tour de France winner holds two-second lead over closest rivals
  • Vincenzo Nibali is 10 seconds back after claiming victory in AndorraChris Froome became the new leader of the Vuelta a España on Monday after finishing third in the mountainous stage three as Italian Vincenzo Nibali snatched the stage win in the final 400m of the race in the Pyrenees in Andorra.Froome, who is bidding to become the first rider to do a double of the Tour de France and the Vuelta in 39 years, set t
  
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• Why Grenfell survivors can't begin to recover while painful limbo continues

  21-08-2017 18:42 via theguardian.com
  Psychological support can be of little help to people who have no home or no body to mourn, psychiatrist Dr Lynne Jones saysThe Old Chapel in the St Charles Centre for Health and Wellbeing in west London is no longer solely a place of worship. But for attendees of a workshop on how to support survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire, one of the carefully stencilled Beatitudes on the wall still resonates powerfully. “Blessed are those that mourn,” it reads. “For they shall be comfor
  
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• Ask Hadley: Why do older people hate millennials so much?

  21-08-2017 18:41 via theguardian.com
  Be it boobs or fertility, younger people will always think they know best – so, says our style expert, older people are bound to find the next generation self-entitled and arrogantI’m a millennial. Why do older people hate me so much?Charlotte, by email Continue reading...
  
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• Crabs, chips and carnival chaos: why changing Cromer faced lockdown

  21-08-2017 18:40
  Cromer is traditionally known for its quaint seaside charm.“Crabs, the RNLI, fish and chips and ice creams.” So one born-and-bred Cromer resident sums up the seaside town.As Cromer welcomed visitors to its annual carnival over the weekend, the picturesque town found itself subjected to a night of disorder that captured national headlines.
  
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• Astro-bling: scientists recreate 'diamond rain' of Neptune and Uranus

  21-08-2017 18:31 via theguardian.com
  Using lasers and polystyrene, researchers say they have mimicked the high temperatures and pressures thought to cause diamond rain within ice giants Diamond rain might sound like the stuff of poetry, but deep within the ice giants of our solar system it is thought to be reality – and now scientists say they have recreated the phenomenon.
  The furthest flung true planets of our solar system, the ice giants Neptune and Uranus, are about 17 and 15 times the mass of Earth respectively. Continue
  
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• How neoliberalism left a toxic legacy | Letters

  21-08-2017 18:28
  It’s that moment when you ought to step in, but you don’t bother because you know the market’s invisible hand will sort things out for you,’ writes Ian McCormack.Reading your long read on liberalism, it crossed my mind that Friedrich Hayek must be turning in his grave (The big idea that defines our era, 19 August).Markets are not free: they are controlled by a wealthy minority of state-sized corporations.
  
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• Ambrosia: the startup harvesting the blood of the young

  21-08-2017 18:21
  The study is reminiscent of Robert Boyle’s 17th-century suggestion to ‘replace the blood of the old with the blood of the young’.What we now call “intergenerational fairness” has suffered a lot lately, and it’s not about to be improved by the news that the Baby Boomers are sucking the blood of the young.In Monterey, California, a new startup has emerged, offering transfusions of human plasma: 1.5 litres a time, pumped in across two days, harvested uniquely fro
  
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• Civil servant kept woman from Nigeria in 'domestic servitude'

  21-08-2017 18:20 via theguardian.com
  High court was told Rashida Ajayi worked at the home of Teresa Abu and husband Joel for a decade for about £300 a yearA civil servant and her husband kept an African woman in servitude at their home, a judge has concluded.
  Rashida Ajayi said she had been a domestic worker at the home of Teresa and Joel Abu for a decade. She said she received about £300 a year and complained of being a victim of “labour exploitation”. Continue reading...
  
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• OAP bombarded with London congestion charge fines - despite having NEVER driven in capital

  21-08-2017 18:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  A MOTORIST is being driven around the bend by a flurry of fixed penalty fines for swanning around London in a luxury £200,000 Bentley he doesn’t own.
  
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• Paul Collingwood in line to play for World XI in landmark Pakistan series

  21-08-2017 18:17 via theguardian.com
  • T20 series in September reintroduces international cricket to Pakistan
  • Military style security in place for return eight years after Lahore attackPaul Collingwood is in line to be the English representative in a World XI coached by Andy Flower that will play a three-match series in Pakistan next month as the International Cricket Council brings top-level cricket back to the country.The Guardian understands that Collingwood, England’s World Twenty-20 winning captain, has made
  
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• Cas upholds life bans for Papa Massata Diack and Valentin Balakhnichev

  21-08-2017 18:14 via theguardian.com
  • Former head of Russian athletics federation was banned in January
  • Ex-IAAF president’s son Diack also remains banned for lifeSport’s highest tribunal has upheld life bans on two top Russian athletics officials and the son of the former world governing body president Lamine Diack for covering up an elite Russian athlete’s positive dope test and blackmailing her over it.Valentin Balakhnichev, the former head of the Russian athletics federation, and Alexei Melnikov, t
  
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• This spam email from a fake Theresa May has to be seen to be believed

  21-08-2017 18:07
  The phishing email, titled Emergency Broadcast Alert, has gone viral.
  
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• McDonald's workers to coordinate strike with allies around world

  21-08-2017 18:06 via theguardian.com
  Staff in Cambridge and Crayford to take action on US Labor Day to demand better wages, more secure contracts and union recognitionWorkers at two McDonald’s restaurants in the UK will go on strike on 4 September, the US Labor Day holiday, in an attempt to coordinate action against the fast food giant with allies around the world.The announcement of the symbolic date comes after staff at restaurants in Cambridge and Crayford, in south-east London, voted overwhelmingly on Friday to go on stri
  
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• Have you participated in Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests?

  21-08-2017 18:06 via theguardian.com
  If you live in Hong Kong, we’d like you to tell us what the current political situation is like – and what hopes you have for the future
  Thousands of demonstrators marched across Hong Kong to protest the jailing of pro-democracy leaders Alex Chow, Nathan Law and Joshua Wong. Related: Thousands march in Hong Kong for release of pro-democracy leadersContinue reading...
  
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• Serious farm pollution breaches rise in UK – and many go unprosecuted

  21-08-2017 18:04 via theguardian.com
  Environment Agency figures show severe incidents are weekly occurrence as farms struggle with cost of pollution prevention despite subsidiesSerious pollution incidents in the UK from dairy, poultry and pig farms are now a weekly occurrence, leading to damage to wildlife, fish, farm livestock and air and water pollution.The Environment Agency in England and its devolved counterparts in Wales and Scotland recorded 536 of the most severe incidents between 2010 and 2016, the worst instances among mo
  
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• Subsidised farm causes acres of damage to Sussex countryside

  21-08-2017 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Noxious byproducts from slurry spill at Crouchland biogas farm poisoned neighbouring land and animalsLynda and Richard Whittemore bought Quennells farm in the quiet Sussex countryside six years ago. They were hoping for what Lynda calls “an idyllic lifestyle”, tending their flock of 400 pedigree sheep and 45 cattle on 180 acres of farmland. “We have an undulating field at the back of the stream, winding to the other corner,” Lynda says. “Usually it has lovely clear
  
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• Bowling club facing sexism row after refusing to lift its ban on women

  21-08-2017 17:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE world’s oldest bowling club has been thrust into a sexism row after it refused to lift its ban on women to remain a men only organisation.
  
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• Don't pin your hopes on military generals saving the world from Trump | Joe McLean

  21-08-2017 17:52 via theguardian.com
  Defiance of an elected president would spark a constitutional crisis. Once you start expecting the generals save the republic, there’s no telling where it leadsChaos continues to reign at the White House, with Steve Bannon its latest casualty. Despite the best efforts of the new chief of staff, John Kelly – a retired United States Marine Corps general – to impose order, the real source of the chaos is the president himself.That’s bad enough for domestic politics, but give
  
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• Number of Isis attacks rose in 2016 despite loss of fighters, report finds

  21-08-2017 17:51 via theguardian.com
  Counterterrorism officials say terrorist group has adapted to battlefield setbacks by calling on individuals to carry out ‘lone wolf’ attacks across the worldAlthough Islamic State is losing fighters and territory in Iraq and Syria, it remained the world’s deadliest militant organization last year and the number of its attacks rose, according to a report from the University of Maryland. Islamic State operatives carried out more than 1,400 attacks last year and killed more than
  
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