General news

• Netflix develops marijuana strains based on its original shows

  25-08-2017 23:45 via theguardian.com
  Streaming giant creates ‘The Netflix Collection’, a selection of cannabis varieties based on shows including Orange is the New Black and Arrested DevelopmentNetflix has co-created a set of cannabis strains based on a selection of its most popular original shows. Related: Death Note review – overstuffed Netflix horror is a flawed but fun emo rideContinue reading...
  
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• RBS mistreated clients, leaked FCA report reveals

  25-08-2017 23:06 via theguardian.com
  Regulator claims the Global Restructuring Group was responsible for ‘inappropriate action’ against firms in financial difficultiesA division of the taxpayer-owned RBS bank which was meant to help companies in trouble mistreated many of its clients but did not try to “profit from their distress”, according to a leaked report by the regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority.According to the report, seen by the BBC, investigators found “inappropriate action” by
  
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• Police officers attacked near Buckingham Palace as knifeman held

  25-08-2017 23:06
  A man carrying a knife has been arrested outside Buckingham Palace on suspicion of attacking two police officers.The alleged offender was held just after 8.30pm on Friday evening on suspicion of assault and grievous bodily harm.Several witnessed told Sky News they saw a man being "wrestled to the ground" as armed police swooped on the scene.
  
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• Met police boss 'unapologetic' over pre-Notting Hill Carnival arrests

  25-08-2017 23:05
  The senior officer in charge of policing the Notting Hill Carnival says he is "unapologetic" for a series of drugs raids linked to the event.During a three-week crackdown by officers ahead of the west London event, more than 600 people were arrested and a large number of knives, guns, weapons, drugs and money seized.
  
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• Man, 30, shot dead in Brussels after knife attack on two soldiers

  25-08-2017 23:04 via theguardian.com
  Man ‘not known for terrorist activities’ in critical condition after incident in the centre of Brussels on Friday evening where two soldiers were attackedA man who attacked two soldiers with a knife in Brussels has been shot dead by the army. Authorities said they were treating the attack as a terrorist act.“Incident in Brussels. Soldiers have neutralised an individual. Situation under control,” Belgium’s official crisis centre wrote on Twitter. Continue reading...
  
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• Police detain man with knife outside Buckingham Palace

  25-08-2017 22:53
  British police said they had arrested a man carrying a knife outside Buckingham Palace on Friday night, with two officers suffering minor injuries in the process.The man was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assault on police near to Queen Elizabeth's London residence."The man was stopped this evening, Friday 25 August at approximately 20:35 hours by officers at the Mall outside Buckingham Palace in possession of knife," the police said.
  
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• Buckingham Palace Locked Down After Two Police Officers Injured Detaining Man

  25-08-2017 22:26
  A man has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assault on police after two officers received minor injuries outside Buckingham Palace, the Metropolitan Police said.
  
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• Buckingham Palace 'On Lockdown' After Police Detain Man On Suspicion Of GBH On The Mall

  25-08-2017 22:26
  A man has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assault on police after two officers received minor injuries outside Buckingham Palace, the Metropolitan Police said.
  
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• Health service in part of Scotland hit by malware attack

  25-08-2017 22:03
  (Reuters) - A regional authority in Britain's state-run health service was hit by a malware attack on Friday and warned people with non-essential conditions to stay away from its hospitals. NHS Lanarkshire said in a Facebook post it was investigating and working to resolve the issue. http://bit.ly/2wbNQtG "I would ask that patients do not attend our hospitals unless it is essential," said acute division medical director Jane Burns. "Emergency care will still be provided for those who do require
  
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• Brussels Soldiers Shoot Dead Man Who Attacked Soldiers With Knife, Prosecutors Say

  25-08-2017 21:49
  Belgian soldiers shot a man who attacked them with a knife in Brussels on Friday, leaving him in a critical state in hospital, Brussels prosecutors said.
  
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• Brussels Soldiers Shoot Dead Man Who Attacked Soldiers With Knife

  25-08-2017 21:49
  Belgian soldiers shot a man who attacked them with a knife in Brussels on Friday, leaving him in a critical state in hospital, Brussels prosecutors said.
  
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• Operations cancelled as cyber attack hits NHS Lanarkshire hospitals and GPs

  25-08-2017 21:03 via bbc.co.uk
  Operations are cancelled as services run by NHS Lanarkshire are affected by malware in computer systems.
  
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• New York mayor considers Christopher Columbus statue removal

  25-08-2017 20:09 via theguardian.com
  Bill de Blasio orders review amid debate about statues and monumentsColumbus statue erected in 1892 to mark 400 years after explorer’s voyageBill de Blasio, the New York mayor, has said he may order the removal of the landmark statue of Christopher Columbus that has overlooked Manhattan’s Columbus Circle since it was erected as part of the city’s 1892 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the explorer landing in the Americas.Related: Trump: Confederate statue removals 'rip
  
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• The obesity crisis: a healthy population needs a healthy environment | Letters

  25-08-2017 20:06
  Public Health England’s One You campaign is urging inactive people to take up the challenge of walking briskly for 10 minutes a day.Public Health England (PHE) does not understand health.The letter (24 August) from its chief nutritionist, Dr Alison Tedstone, responding to my article on obesity (Want to fight obesity?
  
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• UK accused of 'magical thinking' over Brexit plan for Irish border

  25-08-2017 20:03 via theguardian.com
  Britain’s call for ‘flexible solutions’ as it pursues goal of avoiding border posts with Ireland leaves EU officials rolling their eyesThe European Union has accused the UK of “magical thinking” over plans to create an invisible border in Ireland after Brexit, amid fading hopes of an early divorce deal this autumn.The response came as both sides prepared for the next round of negotiations in Brussels next week, with the EU issuing a stern rebuke against using the pe
  
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• UK accused of 'magical thinking' over Brexit plan for Irish border

  25-08-2017 20:03
  A lorry passes an anti-Brexit placard at the Ireland-Northern Ireland border crossing in Killeen.The European Union has accused the UK of “magical thinking” over plans to create an invisible border in Ireland after Brexit, amid fading hopes of an early divorce deal this autumn.The response came as both sides prepared for the next round of negotiations in Brussels next week, with the EU issuing a stern rebuke against using the peace process as a bargaining chip.
  
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• London zoo weigh-in – in pictures

  25-08-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
  Each year the keepers at the zoo record the animals’ vital statistics to monitor their health and general wellbeing Continue reading...
  
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• Ram Rahim Singh: fatal clashes follow Indian guru's rape conviction

  25-08-2017 19:24 via theguardian.com
  At least 30 killed as violence erupts across two states after spiritual leader found guilty of assaulting two female sect membersAt least 30 people have died in riots and arson attacks that have broken out across two states in northern India after a flamboyant spiritual leader was convicted of raping two of his female followers.The Indian army was deployed in the city of Panchkula on Friday shortly after the court found Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh guilty of sexual assault. The self-styled “god
  
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• Botched surveillance job may have led to strange injuries at US embassy in Cuba

  25-08-2017 18:54 via theguardian.com
  At first thought to be a deliberate attack, the outbreak of mysterious symptoms may be the result of shoddy espionage equipment, experts say
  An outbreak of hearing loss and other health problems affecting at least 16 employees at the US embassy in Havana could have been caused by an electronic surveillance operation that went wrong, former intelligence officials said on Friday. Related: US says 16 people were affected by unexplained health problems at Havana embassyContinue reading...
  
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• Murder-suicide of Devon couple came after wife sought divorce, inquest hears

  25-08-2017 18:53
  Michael Beck wrote in a letter that he was sorry the marriage had ended in ‘a grubby fashion’.A retired stockbroker bludgeoned his wife to death in the early hours of New Year’s Day at their million-pound rural home after she asked for a divorce, an inquest heard.Michael Beck posted a letter to his family confessing he had killed Nicola Beck, then disposed of the weapon, believed to be a heavy tool, before taking his own life in a barn.
  
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• Blind Date couple reunite on Tube train 25 years on

  25-08-2017 18:45 via bbc.co.uk
  Howard Griffiths filmed his meeting with Brigette, 25 years after their first and only date.
  
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• 'I'll either wake up with some new lungs, or I won't'

  25-08-2017 18:41 via bbc.co.uk
  Nine years of working in coal mines destroyed Will Goddard's lungs, but with the help of a specialist clinic in Rotherham he was able to get a double lung transplant.
  
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• Irene Clennell, Singapore-Born Grandmother Deported From Britain After 30 Years, Allowed To Return

  25-08-2017 18:37
  A mother-of-two who was deported despite living in Britain for 30 years has been granted a reprieve by the Home Office after reversing their decision.
  
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• David Gauke signals he will press on with universal credit

  25-08-2017 18:30
  David Gauke was made work and pensions secretary following the election.The work and pensions secretary has signalled that the government will press ahead with controversial welfare changes, insisting the system of universal credit is “making work pay and transforming lives”.Responding to a letter signed by 30 Labour MPs and the Green co-leader Caroline Lucas, expressing concerns about UC and calling for its implementation to be paused, David Gauke underlined his commitment to the po
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn calls for halt to job centre closures at rally in Scotland

  25-08-2017 18:11
  Jeremy Corbyn addresses a public rally at the Quadrant shopping centre in Coatbridge.Jeremy Corbyn has called on ministers to halt the closure of job centres and social security offices as he continued a five-day tour of key constituencies in Scotland.The Labour leader addressed a rally in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, where the Department of Work and Pensions is closing an administration office and relocating 250 jobs as part of a UK-wide cost-cutting and restructuring programme.
  
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• What's the role of the European Court of Justice?

  25-08-2017 18:10
  Sir David Edward, a former European Court of Justice judge explains it's role and its position after Brexit.
  
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• Victoria set to reign again?

  25-08-2017 18:06 via bbc.co.uk
  References to a conflict in Afghanistan lend unexpected resonance to the second series of ITV's royal drama.
  
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• Murder-suicide of wealthy couple at Devon farmhouse

  25-08-2017 18:03 via bbc.co.uk
  The businessman said in a suicide note he had "spent his entire life fighting over money".
  
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• Eton teacher leaves school after 'breach of exam security'

  25-08-2017 17:58 via theguardian.com
  Investigation concluded that deputy head shared questions from upcoming economics exam with other teachers
  A deputy headmaster at Eton has left the college amid allegations he circulated questions from an upcoming economics exam to other teachers ahead of an A-Level equivalent test for sixth-formers.
  Staff and pupils at Eton have been told that Mo Tanweer, Eton’s deputy headmaster of academics and a former investment banker, is no longer employed there and that the exam marks of pupils at
  
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• Teenagers jailed over flare killing of father Vilson Meshi in Basildon

  25-08-2017 17:51
  On Friday, Keani Hobbs, 18, from Pitsea in Essex, was jailed for nine years for manslaughter and 12 months for theft, to run concurrently, following the incident on 27 February last year.Judge Patricia Lynch said they were both equally culpable and had carried out the act "for fun".
  
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• 'Caitlin' gives voice to Dylan Thomas' widow in violent UK dance drama

  25-08-2017 17:51
  By Elisabeth O'LearyEDINBURGH (Reuters) - "Hello.The show at the world's largest arts festival has around a dozen spoken lines by Caitlin, a dancer whose name has always been in the shadow of the author of "Under Milk Wood".Thomas died in 1953 during a United States poetry tour, aged 39.
  
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• Brexit: 80% rise in number of EU citizens seeking UK passports

  25-08-2017 17:47
  The number of EU citizens applying for British citizenship has nearly doubled in the wake of the Brexit referendum, new figures show.The 80% rise in requests comes amid uncertainty over the status of EU citizens once Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.This week, a different set of statistics showed thousands of EU citizens have been leaving the EU - bringing down the overall net migration figure.
  
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• London gears up for Notting Hill carnival, in shadow of Grenfell Tower

  25-08-2017 17:40
  By Alistair SmoutLONDON (Reuters) - It is one of London's most colourful and noisy events - a weekend carnival to celebrate Afro-Caribbean culture in what has become Europe's biggest street festival.The tower stands less that half a mile from the route of the procession and the local community is determined to remember the victims at the two-day carnival, starting on Sunday.Some fear that tempers could boil over at the festival, but the local community is determined it should be a peaceful vigil
  
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• UK Forties oil output below plan, delaying some cargoes - sources

  25-08-2017 17:39
  The North Sea Forties crude stream is pumping less oil than expected, leading to delays in the loading of some cargoes of the crude, two trade sources said on Friday."There are deferrals being offered."Forties was originally scheduled to load 271,000 barrels per day in August, a lower-than-usual rate due to planned seasonal maintenance at offshore oilfields connected to the pipeline.The two trade sources said that the Total-operated Elgin-Franklin field in the North Sea was returning to operatio
  
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• Stormzy's Notting Hill Carnival Comments Countered By Police Chief

  25-08-2017 17:33
  Police have hit back at Stormzy for criticising them over linking Notting Hill Carnival to a series of raids this week, saying that last year four people were almost killed at the Bank holiday event.
  
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• Merseyside police seize Britain's most dangerous gun

  25-08-2017 17:15
  Merseyside Police have Britain’s most dangerous gun.
  
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• BA attacks Border Force for 'dreadful' delays

  25-08-2017 16:55 via bbc.co.uk
  British Airways criticises Border Force's handling of travellers through UK airports.
  
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• Corbyn calls for halt to job centre closures during rally in Scotland

  25-08-2017 16:37
  Jeremy Corby addresses a public rally at the Quadrant shopping centre in Coatbridge.Jeremy Corbyn has called on ministers to halt the closure of job centres and social security offices as he continued a five-day tour of key constituencies in Scotland.The Labour leader addressed a rally in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, where the Department of Work and Pensions is closing an administration office and relocating 250 jobs as part of a UK-wide cost-cutting and restructuring programme.
  
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• 'Anyone missing a barge?' Boat appears on West Midlands footpath

  25-08-2017 16:33
  Council wardens more used to dealing with a dumped sofa or a submerged shopping trolley were surprised to find an abandoned barge blocking a footpath.The narrowboat was discovered on an industrial estate pavement in Smethwick in the West Midlands on Thursday - not far from the Birmingham canal.Sandwell council's highways team sprang into action, tweeting: "Is anyone missing a barge?
  
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• Serial killer applauds judge as he's sent to die in jail - 'At least I'm still alive'

  25-08-2017 16:32
  A South African serial killer clapped ironically at a judge as she handed him four life sentences and an additional 71 years behind bars for committing five murders, a rape, and other crimes.Wilson, 20, smiled as he was led from the court in handcuffs while his victims' families jeered at him from the gallery at Western Cape High Court on 25 August.Wilson was arrested in September 2016 for raping and murdering 18-year-old Lekita Moore.
  
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• Benjamin Zephaniah: ‘I’m almost 60 and I’m still angry. Everyone told me I would mellow’

  25-08-2017 16:31 via theguardian.com
  The celebrated dub poet might grow his own vegetables in the shires – but he is still in a revolutionary mood. From carnival surveillance to the abandonment of the Grenfell families, he says Britain needs radical political change – nowBenjamin Zephaniah’s 1998 poem Carnival Days is a lyrical love letter to the Notting Hill carnival, where “We dance like true survivors / We dance to the sounds of our dreams.” Or, more accurately, it’s a love letter to what the
  
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• Kinder Egg shark hunt boy finds toy after eight-month quest

  25-08-2017 16:23 via bbc.co.uk
  Six-year-old Jayden Lakey's "delighted" parents bought hundreds of eggs in the search for a shark toy.
  
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• Batman and the Joker helped teach these two kids a lesson about Hajj, Islam’s holiest pilgrimage

  25-08-2017 16:22
  The Joker’s got gems.
  
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• DVLA Bans More Than 300 Potentially Offensive Number Plates From UK Roads

  25-08-2017 16:20
  More than 300 potentially offensive number plates have been banned from UK roads ahead of the new 67 vehicle registrations being released next week.
  
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• Phoebe Waller-Bridge dreams up new series of Fleabag while on a bus

  25-08-2017 16:18 via theguardian.com
  Creator and star of BBC3 comedy says second series, to be broadcast in 2019, will be ‘whole new adventure’The hit TV comedy Fleabag is to return after its creator, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, dreamed up a new idea on a bus.
  But the second series of the Bafta-winning show will not air until 2019. Continue reading...
  
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• Sarah Smith: the Sunday Politics host with her own political pedigree

  25-08-2017 16:11 via theguardian.com
  The presenter taking over from Andrew Neil is used to accusations of Labour bias as the daughter of former leader John SmithIt was Sarah Smith’s “political expertise and pedigree” that convinced BBC bosses the broadcaster’s Scotland editor was the perfect replacement for Andrew Neil as Sunday Politics presenter.There is her professional pedigree as a hugely experienced and respected journalist with a string of high profile posts at Channel 4 and the BBC under her belt. Th
  
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• Slow divorce risks leaving future Britain-EU ties in limbo

  25-08-2017 15:55
  By Gabriela BaczynskaBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Divisions between Britain and the EU over mapping out their divorce will be laid bare in Brussels next week when the two sides meet for another round of talks whose timetable already looks tight.London wants to focus on what happens after Brexit but the bloc says more ground must first be covered on settling the terms of departure, including the bill, leaving dozens of officials to pick their way through a diplomatic minefield from Monday to Thursday.The
  
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• Deported Irene Clennell to return to husband of 27 years

  25-08-2017 15:50 via bbc.co.uk
  The Home Office said Irene Clennell, 53, had now been granted a spouse's visa.
  
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• Britain says to rule on Fox-Sky advice as soon as possible

  25-08-2017 15:46
  Britain said on Friday it had received the additional advice it had requested on Rupert Murdoch's bid to buy broadcaster Sky , and it would decide whether to refer the deal for an in-depth review as soon as possible.Regulator Ofcom was asked to look again at the deal earlier this month after opponents lobbied Minister Karen Bradley, who was already deciding whether to refer Twenty-First Century Fox'sbid for a wide-ranging investigation."The Secretary of State will now carefully consider that adv
  
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• Best photos from around the world: snow on Mars as carnival hots up

  25-08-2017 15:29 via theguardian.com
  A selection of the day’s best images, including monsoon rains in Pakistan, rescued dogs in New York and preparations for Notting Hill carnival Continue reading...
  
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