General news

• Labour 'scenario planning' for run on sterling if elected

  26-09-2017 23:40
  Britain's opposition Labour Party is drawing up a plan to counter capital flight and a run on the pound if it is elected to run the country, the party's economic policy chief has said.Labour is holding its annual conference three months after an election in which its left-wing programme found unexpected support among an electorate hungry for change, but fell short of the level needed to take power from Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives.What happens if there is this concept of capital fl
  
  Read more

• Twitter to test 280-character tweets, busting old limit

  26-09-2017 23:27
  By David IngramNEW YORK (Reuters) - The days of Twitter Inclimiting messages to 140 characters, a signature of the social network since its launch in 2006, may be numbered.Twitter said on Tuesday that it would begin a test with a random sample of users allowing them to send tweets that are as long as 280 characters, double the existing cap, in most languages around the world.The San Francisco-based company has stood by its short messages as a defining characteristic - like chirps from a bird, wh
  
  Read more

• This comedian decided to insult every flag in the world on Twitter and his journey is enthralling

  26-09-2017 23:12
  It’s taking quite a bit longer than he first thought.
  
  Read more

• Twitter tests expanding tweet limit to 280 characters

  26-09-2017 23:06
  Twitter says it is testing a plan to expand tweets to up to 280 characters, double the existing limit
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Putting May on notice, Corbyn says Labour ready for government

  26-09-2017 23:04
  By Elizabeth Piper and William JamesBRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - Britain's main opposition Labour Party is ready for government, its leader Jeremy Corbyn will say on Wednesday, calling on Prime Minister Theresa May to end her government's "Brexit bungling", give up power and make way for his negotiators.Corbyn is keen to press home his advantage over May, who is struggling to unite her party over Britain's negotiations to leave the European Union and to keep her own position, under threat from
  
  Read more

• Twitter experiments with doubling its character limit

  26-09-2017 23:00
  Over the past couple of years, Twitter has slowly chipped away at its 140-character constraint.
  
  Read more

• Corbyn's message to May: 'Pull yourself together or make way'

  26-09-2017 23:00
  Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn prepares his speech that he will deliver to the Labour Party annual conference on Wednesday in Brighton.Jeremy Corbyn will use his speech to Labour’s conference in Brighton to urge Theresa May’s cabinet to “pull yourself together or make way” and let his team negotiate Britain’s exit from the European Union.Corbyn will close Labour’s annual gathering on Wednesday with an upbeat speech, insisting his party is a government in wa
  
  Read more

• Jeremy Corbyn: The full interview

  26-09-2017 22:40
  The Labour leader talks to Sky News' Political Editor about a range of subjects at his party's conference in Brighton.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Labour could face Brighton conference ban over anti-Semitism claims

  26-09-2017 22:30
  Labour has been threatened with a ban on holding future conferences in Brighton unless it tackles anti-Semitism.Brighton and Hove's Labour council leader Warren Morgan said he was very concerned at "the anti-Semitism being aired publicly in fringe meetings and on the floor of conference".In a letter to Labour Party general secretary Iain McNicol, Mr Morgan said: "As the Labour leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, I will undoubtedly face questions as to why we allow any event where anti-Semi
  
  Read more

• Girl, 16, accused of attempted murder at school near Scunthorpe

  26-09-2017 22:27
  A 16-year-old girl has been charged with attempted murder after a welfare officer at a school near Scunthorpe was stabbed.The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested after Joy Simon, 61, was attacked at Winterton Community Academy.Humberside Police said the girl has been charged with attempted murder and carrying a blade or pointed article on school premises.
  
  Read more

• Stokes out of fourth ODI after arrest in Bristol

  26-09-2017 22:18
  England all-rounder Ben Stokes was arrested early on Monday after an incident in Bristol and will miss the fourth one-day international against West Indies, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said."He was held overnight and released under investigation, without charge, late on Monday and will not join the team in London," the ECB said in a statement on Tuesday.Opener Alex Hales, who was with Stokes on Sunday night, will also miss Wednesday's match at The Oval.
  
  Read more

• Scunthorpe School Stabbing: Girl, 16, Charged With Attempted Murder Of Welfare Officer

  26-09-2017 22:03
  A 16-year-old girl has been charged with attempted murder after a welfare officer was stabbed at Winterton Community Academy, near Scunthorpe, Humberside Police said.
  
  Read more

• Inventor James Dyson aims for electric car launch by 2020

  26-09-2017 21:38
  By Paul SandleLONDON (Reuters) - James Dyson, the billionaire British inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, said on Tuesday his company was working ondeveloping an electric car to be launched by 2020.Dyson said he was spending 2 billion pounds to exploit his namesake company's expertise in solid-state battery technology and electric motors to be found in his innovative vacuum cleaners and other products like bladeless fans and air purifiers."Battery technology is very important to Dyson, elect
  
  Read more

• UK inventor James Dyson aims for electric car launch by 2020

  26-09-2017 21:37
  By Paul SandleLONDON (Reuters) - James Dyson, the billionaire British inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, said on Tuesday his company was working ondeveloping an electric car to be launched by 2020.Dyson said he was spending 2 billion pounds to exploit his namesake company's expertise in solid-state battery technology and electric motors to be found in his innovative vacuum cleaners and other products like bladeless fans and air purifiers."Battery technology is very important to Dyson, elect
  
  Read more

• Saudi Arabia To Allow Women To Drive For The First Time

  26-09-2017 21:22
  Saudi Arabia says women will be allowed to drive for the first time.
  
  Read more

• Parsons Green tube attack: Three men released without charge

  26-09-2017 21:17
  Three men arrested over the Parsons Green Tube attack have been released without charge.There will be no further action against the men, aged 20, 25 and 30, or three others arrested after the attack in southwest London.Ahmed Hassan, 18, is now the only remaining suspect being held by police after the homemade device partially exploded during the early morning rush hour on 15 September, injuring 30 people.
  
  Read more

• This Canadian author described Donald Trump as the ‘political equivalent’ of London’s fatberg

  26-09-2017 20:51
  A fatberg is a congealed lump of fat and sanitary products found in sewers.
  
  Read more

• Corbyn allies say Labour anti​​semitism row driven by leadership plot

  26-09-2017 20:43
  Loach insisted on Tuesday that Labour did not have a problem with hate speech.The row over antisemitism in the Labour party was reignited on Tuesday night as three allies of Jeremy Corbyn suggested complaints about hate speech within the party were motivated by plots against the leadership.The Unite boss Len McCluskey, the film director Ken Loach and former mayor of London Ken Livingstone told reporters they had not experienced antisemitism in the Labour party, with McCluskey describing it as &l
  
  Read more

• Designer Sabrina Kouider Shouts 'I haven't Done Anything Wrong' In Murder Case Appearance

  26-09-2017 20:39
  A designer accused of murder following the discovery of charred human remains in a garden sobbed in court and shouted repeatedly: “J’ai rien fait” - I haven’t done anything.
  
  Read more

• Brexit negotiations not ready for next stage yet - EU's Tusk

  26-09-2017 20:36
  Sufficient progress has not yet been made in Brexit talks to allow negotiations to move to the next phase of discussing the future relationship including trade, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Tuesday.After a meeting in Downing Street with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Tusk said he welcomed a new constructive and realistic tone from the government, adding that "this shows that the philosophy of having a cake and eating it is finally coming at an end - at least I hope so."He
  
  Read more

• New Activists: Episode Two Of HuffPost UK's Docu-Reality Series

  26-09-2017 20:35
  In the second episode of HuffPost UK’s docu-reality series, we meet two more of our activists; Samantha Renke and Charlie Craggs.
  
  Read more

• No, m'lud: Brexit stymies EU judges' English conversion

  26-09-2017 20:34
  By Francesco GuarascioBRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Court of Justice could cut costs and speed up verdicts by letting judges speak English rather than only in French, an EU audit showed on Tuesday - but a plan to let them has been stymied by Brexit.The Luxembourg-based court is a bogeyman for British critics of the EU and negotiations on the 2019 withdrawal from the European Union are deadlocked over London's insistence the ECJ should have no future say in Britain."This assessment has not ye
  
  Read more

• Dyson reveals plans to build electric car by 2020

  26-09-2017 20:22
  British vacuum company Dyson is to branch out into electric cars.The firm's chief executive Sir James Dyson told employees in an email that a team had secretly been working on plans for an all-electric vehicle for more than two years.The company has committed to spending £2bn on developing solid-state battery technology to power the vehicles.
  
  Read more

• 'Like night and day': Labour celebrates a conference united under Corbyn

  26-09-2017 20:12
  Only a year ago, the talk at the Labour conference in Liverpool was about whether the party was facing a historic split.Jeremy Corbyn’s critics wandered miserably around the main conference centre predicting total wipeout at the next election, while celebrations over his second decisive leadership victory were largely confined to the Momentum-backed World Transformed festival in a different part of the city.There could not be a bigger difference with the jubilant atmosphere suffusing the B
  
  Read more

• The number of Jaffa Cakes in a box is being reduced, much to the annoyance of the public

  26-09-2017 20:05
  From now on, it’s 10 Jaffa Cakes to the box, instead of 12.
  
  Read more

• Labour fights antisemitism by rowing about not rowing about it | John Crace

  26-09-2017 19:58
  The penultimate day of the Labour party conference was not the usual soporific affair.Usually the opening session of the Labour party conference’s penultimate day is a quiet affair.The national treasurer, Diana Holland, looked astonished to find the hall was almost full to hear her annual report and tried to race through the agenda as fast as possible.
  
  Read more

• Facebook wants to know: is it good or bad? You tell us …

  26-09-2017 19:55 via theguardian.com
  The site is polling users about how they perceive it but declining to publish the results. Answer these survey questions and let us know your thoughtsIs Facebook having an existential crisis? The company has been asking users a stream of questions that indicate some wear and tear in the company’s previously optimistic outlook.Is Facebook good for the world? Does it care about its users? Is it making the world better or worse for people having a tough time in life? Does my butt look big in
  
  Read more

• The PFI contracts that keep costing the taxpayer | Letters

  26-09-2017 19:51
  John McDonnell addressing the Labour party conference in Brighton on Monday, at which he announced that a Labour government would buy back PFI contracts.In your editorial (26 September) on John McDonnell’s proposal that PFI contracts be bought back by a future Labour government you suggest that any such action might be constrained by the need to persuade the financial markets to continue to lend the government money.Firstly that is because no government has to borrow.
  
  Read more

• Labour’s manifesto contained nothing radical | Letters

  26-09-2017 19:51
  Badges promoting Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn. His manifesto was populist but not radical, writes Martyn Sloman.Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
  
  Read more

• People-Smugglers Are Advertising Their Illegal Businesses On Facebook

  26-09-2017 19:48
  Facebook has been accused of “facilitating harm and misery” because of people-smugglers openly advertising their illegal services on the social media platform.
  
  Read more

• Ireland announces a referendum on abortion rights: Here’s what you need to know

  26-09-2017 19:48
  The vote will take place in May or June 2018.
  
  Read more

• Incredible Stories Of Refugees Fleeing Intense Violence In Myanmar

  26-09-2017 19:45
  More than 400,000 people have reportedly fled for their lives from Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh, and each one has their own heart-wrenching story to tell.
  
  Read more

• Victim's CCTV shows moments before killer struck

  26-09-2017 19:30
  Jason Marshall posed as an MI5 agent before stripping, gagging, handcuffing and smothering 58-year-old Peter Fasoli with cling film.
  
  Read more

• This is how a bunch of people say they contribute to society in ways other than their jobs

  26-09-2017 19:25
  They exchanged tales of things they do that make them feel like they’re helping.
  
  Read more

• Psychopath who tortured man to death is jailed

  26-09-2017 19:23
  A psychopathic killer has been jailed for at least 39 years for torturing a man to death -as a judge asked how police failed to spot it was murder for two years.Jason Marshall posed as an MI5 agent before stripping, gagging, handcuffing and smothering 58-year-old Peter Fasoli with cling film.Mr Fasoli, a computer repairman, could be heard begging for his life on the film.
  
  Read more

• Mike Ashley firm’s profits nearly halve as Newcastle ticket sales dip

  26-09-2017 19:22
  Newcastle United and Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley’s personal investment firm’s profits nearly halved last year after a difficult period for both of his main assets.Revenues at the billionaire’s Mash Holdings group rose by 2.4% to £3.03bn but pre-tax profits slumped by 47% to £278m in the year to 26 April 2016, as ticket sales fell at Newcastle over a “hugely disappointing season” in which the club was relegated from the Premier League while the retail
  
  Read more

• Two worlds of Labour, Britain's opposition party struggles to unite

  26-09-2017 19:16
  By Elizabeth PiperBRIGHTON, England (Reuters) - A baby gurgles in the background, posters defend workers' rights and between DJ decks and a well-stocked bar of an old nightclub,dozens of young activists flesh out their demands that Britain's Labour Party become a wider movement for the left.Across the road, in the southern seaside town of Brighton's main conference centre, and in the nearby hotels and restaurants, Labour's established lawmakers are discussing Brexit, policy and how to oust the g
  
  Read more

• Vacuum maker Dyson to launch electric car by 2020

  26-09-2017 19:09
  British vacuum company Dyson is to branch out into electric cars.The firm's chief executive James Dyson told employees in an email that a team had secretly been working on plans for an all-electric vehicle for over two years.The company has committed to spending £2bn on developing solid-state battery technology to power the vehicles.
  
  Read more

• The Grenfell Inquiry Must Leave No Stone Unturned

  26-09-2017 19:06
  The horror the nation witnessed as fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in June is a black mark on modern British history.
  
  Read more

• Sexual Harassment Must Be Criminalised

  26-09-2017 19:06
  Sexual harassment is an abhorrent abuse of human rights.
  
  Read more

• Planning For The End Of My Life, Aged Just 17, Made Me Live A Life That Ensured I Wasn't Forgotten

  26-09-2017 19:02
  I'm 23-years-old; an age, if I went by my prognosis, which I should never have reached.
  
  Read more

• Man found guilty of girl's attempted murder after wife's suicide

  26-09-2017 19:02
  Jarosz’s car hit a van and a railway bridge in the crash in Wilton, Wiltshire.The crash happened hours after Lukasz Jarosz found the body of his wife, Aneta, in the bathroom of their home in Wilton, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, in January.
  
  Read more

• Amazon Faces Moral Questions, Government's Jobs Tsar Matthew Taylor Says

  26-09-2017 19:00
  Amazon should “think very hard” about how it treats its staff, employment tsar Matthew Taylor has said, after it was revealed some workers are losing out after effectively being forced to pay third-parties for the “benefit” of special buses.
  
  Read more

• Mike Ashley investment firm’s profits nearly halved last year

  26-09-2017 18:58
  Newcastle United and Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley’s personal investment firm’s profits nearly halved last year after a difficult period for both of his main assets.Revenues at the billionaire’s Mash Holdings group rose by 2.4% to £3.03bn but pre-tax profits slumped by 47% to £278m in the year to 26 April 2016, as ticket sales fell at Newcastle over a “hugely disappointing season” in which the club was relegated from the Premier League while the retail
  
  Read more

• 'Mermaid' banned from Bromsgrove swimming pool over health and safety fears

  26-09-2017 18:58
  Leia Trigger, who goes by the name Mermaid Aries, had previously worn her costume to explore the water in the guise of "a mythical, amazing, graceful creature" at the swimming pool in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.
  
  Read more

• Northern Ireland beef farmers call for five-year Brexit transition

  26-09-2017 18:44
  Northern Ireland beef farmers have called for a five-year Brexit transition period, warning that the two-year plan outlined by Theresa May in Florence will just be a “stay of execution” for the industry.The Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) is the first industry body to come out against the prime minister’s plan saying it needs more time to offset the negative impact of Brexit in Northern Ireland, which has the weakest economy of the 12 regions of the UK.
  
  Read more

• Dyson to produce electric car by 2020

  26-09-2017 18:40
  Dyson to produce electric car by 2020
  
  Read more

• Ireland Abortion Referendum Scheduled For Next Year, Government Confirms

  26-09-2017 18:37
  Ireland will hold a referendum on whether to repeal its constitutional ban on abortion in May or June next year, the government announced on Tuesday.
  
  Read more

• Oil prices fall from 26-month high on profit-taking

  26-09-2017 18:35
  By Julia SimonNEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent oil prices fell 1 percent on Tuesday after investors took profit following a rally to 26-month highs spurred largely by threats from Turkey to cut crude exports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan repeated a threat to cut off the pipeline that carries 500,000-600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from northern Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, intensifying pressure on the Kurdish autonomous region over its independence r
  
  Read more

• North Korea has just released this absolutely bonkers propaganda video

  26-09-2017 18:29
  It shows their missiles blowing up American targets.
  
  Read more

Follow @GeneralnewsUK on Twitter!