General news

• Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad says royals attack was 'a joke'

  28-09-2017 23:59
  A Labour MP who blasted her royal constituents has said her comments were "a joke" that had been "taken the wrong way".Emma Dent Coad, whose Kensington seat covers the home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, urged her critics to "look at the real issues facing us" instead.On Monday, Sky News revealed how she called the royals "ridiculous", and called for them to lose their public funding.
  
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• Health secretary Tom Price apologizes for taking private flights for work

  28-09-2017 23:54 via theguardian.com
  Price says he will reimburse US treasury after revelations that he billed the government for $400,000 for the flights instead of taking commercial jetsThe health and human services secretary Tom Price apologized on Thursday for taking private charter flights for official business, and said he would reimburse the treasury for the relevant costs.Related: Twitter tells Congress it has suspended hundreds of Russia-linked accountsContinue reading...
  
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• May to press case with EU on security in Tallinn

  28-09-2017 23:34
  Prime Minister Theresa May will press on Friday for Britain to have a new security partnership with the European Union after Brexit, visiting 800 British troops in northern Estonia to strengthen her case.Security cooperation is seen by British government officials as one of their strongest arguments to gain leverage in the complicated talks to unravel more than 40 years of union, and May will again underline Britain's role in European defence.
  
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• Gareth Southgate backs FA’s Dan Ashworth over Mark Sampson controversy

  28-09-2017 23:30 via theguardian.com
  • England manager believes FA technical director would ‘work ethically’
  • Southgate says Sampson should have known potential safeguarding dangersGareth Southgate has defended the Football Association’s under-fire technical director, Dan Ashworth, over allegations that the governing body orchestrated a “sham” inquiry into the Mark Sampson affair and tried to cover up an allegation of racism.Ashworth, one of the FA executives at the centre of the Sampson con
  
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• National Action banned from using aliases such as Scottish Dawn and NS131

  28-09-2017 23:18
  An order that bans a neo-Nazi group is to be extended to stop it masquerading under different names.From Friday Scottish Dawn and NS131 (National Socialist Anti-Capitalist Action) will be proscribed after being identified as aliases of National Action which became the first extreme right-wing group to be banned under terrorism laws in December 2016.An order was laid down in parliament on Thursday that also means being a member of, or inviting support for, the organisations will be a criminal off
  
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• Luke Gale golden point beats St Helens and puts Castleford in Grand Final

  28-09-2017 23:14 via theguardian.com
  • Castleford 23-22 St Helens
  • Luke Gale scores winner 16 days after appendectomyOn nights like these, it seems unfortunate that someone has to lose. For Castleford’s critics, the argument had been for months that when the play-offs came around, the runaway Super League leaders would fail to cope with the expectations of a do-or-die play-off semi-final.Next Saturday will dictate whether they have the credentials to go all the way and become Super League champions at Old Trafford,
  
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• Héctor Yuste earns 10-man Apollon Limassol draw with sluggish Everton

  28-09-2017 23:09 via theguardian.com
  • Everton 2-2 Apollon Limassol
  • Rooney 21, Vlasic 66; Sardinero 12, Yuste 88Ronald Koeman blamed his team for being afraid, the absence of “seven or eight” players after a summer spend of almost £140m, Ashley Williams for another defensive error and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for not converting a gilt-edged chance at the death. Everyone and everything was culpable for a damaging draw at home to Apollon Limassol, it seemed, except the manager who continues to baffle Goodis
  
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• Wolf Alice: Visions of a Life review – exuberant guitar-driven genre jumble

  28-09-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  (Dirty Hit)A rare success story in this era of British guitar music’s managed decline, Wolf Alice’s ambitions stretch far beyond the old genre labels, not only hoping to top this week’s album charts with their second album, but also set to squeak into the box office Top 10 as the subjects of Michael Winterbottom’s not-quite-rock-doc On the Road. It’s indicative of a freewheeling outlook that sets them apart from more orthodox arena-bothering peers like Royal Blood.
  
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• ‘Ethnic minority voting gap’ cost Theresa May 28 seats, report says

  28-09-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Thinktank says Tories would have won 600,000 more votes and a 42-seat majority with more non-white supportThe Conservatives would have won a 42-seat majority in June’s general election if they had secured the same level of support among minority ethnic Britons as they did among white voters, analysis has found.The report, by the British Future thinktank, identifies what it calls an “ethnic minority voting gap” that cost Theresa May 600,000 votes and an extra 28 seats. Continue
  
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• Protomartyr: Relatives in Descent review – sensational, bloodied but unbowed post-punk

  28-09-2017 22:45 via theguardian.com
  (Domino)A slow-burn apocalypse of ennui and injustice crackles through the sensational fourth album from these Detroit post-punks. Singer Joe Casey’s captivating voice is variously reminiscent of Nick Cave at his most brow-furrowed, talky punks such as Parquet Courts, or a more animatedly pissed-off Matt Berninger of the National; on the anti-patriarchal Male Plague, he even adopts the doltish musicality of Donald Trump’s public speeches. Casey’s soapbox poetry alludes to the w
  
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• Uber: Theresa May Slams London Ban Hours After Hailing Britain For Protecting Workers

  28-09-2017 22:32
  Theresa May has hit out at Transport for London’s decision to ban Uber’s London operation despite earlier hailing Britain’s record for protecting workers’ rights.
  
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• Uber London Ban Slammed By Theresa May Hours After Hailing Britain For Protecting Workers

  28-09-2017 22:32
  Theresa May has hit out at Transport for London’s decision to ban Uber’s London operation despite earlier hailing Britain’s record for protecting workers’ rights.
  
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• Miley Cyrus: Younger Now review – big-hearted country-pop from Miley v4.0

  28-09-2017 22:30 via theguardian.com
  (RCA)‘No one stays the same,” sings Miley Cyrus on the excellent title track of her sixth studio album, surely referring to a career of reinventions from Disney child star to Wrecking Ball-era sledgehammer-licking controversies to Dead Petz’s psychedelic weirdness. On Younger Now, she has taken control of the songwriting and production and emerges as a conservative, big-lunged, country-tinged pop star with songs about breaking free. In Malibu, she mourns the loss of an ordinary
  
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• Greek recovery to strengthen, quick bailout review a must - Bank of Greece chief

  28-09-2017 22:28
  By George GeorgiopoulosATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's economy is recovering after a deep recession and growth is set to pick up in the next two years, the head of its central bank said on Thursday, urging a speedy conclusion to its next bailout review to avoid a new cycle of uncertainty."The Greek economy is currently on a growth track.It is now safe to predict that economic activity will continue to pick up at a stronger pace in the near term," Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras told the Br
  
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• Hugh Hefner: effusive tributes ignore Playboy founder's dark side

  28-09-2017 22:24 via theguardian.com
  The man who created Playboy, who has died aged 91, has been remembered as an American icon – but others recall a controlling, emotionally abusive manipulatorAs celebrities shared their memories of Hugh Hefner, who died on Wednesday aged 91, some of the most fervent elegies came from the Playboy “playmates” who lived in his famous – or infamous – mansion.“Hef changed my life,” said Kendra Wilkinson, a former girlfriend who lived with him in his later year
  
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• Hugh Hefner: effusive tributes ignore Playboy founder's dark side

  28-09-2017 22:24
  Gloria Steinem said he wanted to ‘go down in history as a person of sophistication and glamour’.As celebrities shared their memories of Hugh Hefner, who died on Wednesday aged 91, some of the most fervent elegies came from the Playboy “playmates” who lived in his famous – or infamous – mansion.“Hef changed my life,” said Kendra Wilkinson, a former girlfriend who lived with him in his later years.
  
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• Zameer Ghumra told children they would have to behead people in Syria, court told

  28-09-2017 22:19
  Zameer Ghumra, 38, is accused of disseminating terrorist propaganda to the two unidentified primary-school-aged children, including an IS beheading video.The mother of the children told Nottingham Crown Court that she became more and more concerned about Ghumra's influence on the youngsters.
  
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• Trip to world beard competition ends in arrest for alleged dark web drug dealer

  28-09-2017 22:14 via theguardian.com
  Gal Vallerius of France, who has striking facial hair, was arrested at Atlanta international airport and accused of working for an illegal narcotics marketplaceUnited States authorities arrested a suspected dark web drug dealer as he traveled into the country from his home in France to attend the World Beard and Moustache Championships.Gal Vallerius, a French 38-year-old with a magnificent red beard, is accused of being a drug kingpin on the dark web, acting as an administrator for Dream Market,
  
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• Man arrested after commuters see person with ‘samurai sword’ on tube train

  28-09-2017 22:12 via theguardian.com
  Police hold 39-year-man in east London after he was found carrying two knives but incident is not believed to be terror-relatedA man has been arrested on suspicion of possession of two offensive weapons after commuters spotted someone with what witnesses described as a “samurai sword” on a tube train in east London. British Transport police said a 39-year-old man was arrested in Whitechapel after he was found with two knives. Shortly beforehand, firearms officers were called to a con
  
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• Boris Johnson accused of breaching ministerial code over thinktank launch

  28-09-2017 21:58
  Boris Johnson. ‘The ministers involved have shown an astonishing lack of judgment,’ the head of the senior civil servants’ union said.Boris Johnson has been accused of breaching the ministerial code in an “astonishing lack of judgment” by allowing the launch of a right-leaning thinktank on Foreign Office premises.The Institute for Free Trade (IFT), set up and headed by the arch-Brexiter Daniel Hannan, held its first public meeting on Wednesday in the grand surroundi
  
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• Alternative news sites attack Nick Robinson’s claim of ‘guerrilla war’ on BBC

  28-09-2017 21:57 via theguardian.com
  Senior figures at the Canary and the New European say former political editor fails to understand reasons for the eroding trust in established mediaAlternative news sites hit back at comments by the BBC’s former political editor Nick Robinson that they are part of a “guerrilla war” against the BBC and mainstream media organisations, designed to promote their own editorial agenda.Drew Rose, the director of operations at the left-leaning Canary, said the organisation was fighting
  
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• 'She understands BACKSTABBING & betrayal' Verhofstadt MOCKS Theresa May's Florence speech

  28-09-2017 21:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  EU NEGOTIATOR Guy Verhofstadt poked fun at Theresa May’s choice of venue for her landmark Florence speech on Brexit last week.
  
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• May says Uber's London ban 'disproportionate' - BBC

  28-09-2017 21:56
  (Reuters) - The London transport regulator's decision to strip Uber [UBER.UL] of its licence to operate in the capital was "disproportionate" and has put thousands of jobs at risk, British Prime Minister Theresa May has told the BBC.Regulator Transport for London (TfL) last Friday deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and decided not to renew its licence to operate when it expires on Sept. 30, citing the firm's approach to reporting serious criminal offences and background checks on drivers."Y
  
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• EU's Verhofstadt pokes fun at Theresa May but says a Brexit deal can be done

  28-09-2017 21:50
  By PolinaIvanovaLONDON (Reuters) - The lead Brexit negotiator for the European Parliament poked fun at British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday, quipping that she gave her Brexit speech in Florence because she was familiar with the city's 15th century politics of betrayal.In a speech to students at the London School of Economics, Guy Verhofstadt said Brexit was negative and a waste of time and energy, though he also said Britain's decision to leave the bloc was a failure for the European U
  
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• EU chief MOCKS May over Florence speech - 'She is at home in 15th century politics'

  28-09-2017 21:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  GUY VERHOFSTADT poked fun at Theresa May this evening, claiming she chose Florence for her Brexit speech because she feels at home “in 15th century politics”.
  
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• Black Lives Matter cannot be sued, judge rules after police officer takes action

  28-09-2017 21:43 via theguardian.com
  BLM is a social movement like the Tea Party and activist DeRay Mckesson’s actions amounted to protected speech, says judge in dismissing suitBlack Lives Matter is a social movement like the Tea Party or the civil rights movement and therefore cannot be sued, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.Related: Black Lives Matter: birth of a movement | Wesley LoweryContinue reading...
  
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• Steve Bell on the Tories and the general election – cartoon

  28-09-2017 21:37 via theguardian.com
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• Manchester City confirm Benjamin Mendy has ruptured ACL in right knee

  28-09-2017 21:37 via theguardian.com
  • £52m defender faces battle to feature again this season
  • Left-back injured knee against Crystal PalaceManchester City have suffered a major setback before their trip to Chelsea on Saturday after the club confirmed Benjamin Mendy has sustained a serious knee injury that leaves his chances of returning this season remote.After tests in Barcelona, it emerged that Mendy ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, the injury coming in a tackle with Andros Townsend in
  
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• 'It's time for EU to MOVE!' Economist lashes Michel Barnier for slow Brexit progress

  28-09-2017 21:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  A LEADING economist has attacked the European Union’s negotiating position, insisting it was time the EU “move" to push forward with Brexit talks.
  
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• Greek economy's recovery to strengthen - ECB's Stournaras

  28-09-2017 21:32
  Greece's economy is recovering after a deep recession and growth is set to pick up in the next two years, the head of its central bank said on Thursday, urging a speedy conclusion of a bailout review to avoid a new cycle of uncertainty."The Greek economy is currently on a growth track.It is now safe to predict that economic activity will continue to pick up at a stronger pace in the near term," Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras told the British-Hellenic chamber of commerce.
  
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• 'Please give us a teacher' Pupil, 11 goes right to the top

  28-09-2017 21:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  A schoolgirl has written a plea to education secretary John Swinney.
  
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• Man killed in Yosemite rock fall was British climber

  28-09-2017 21:24
  By Dan WhitcombLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The man killed on Wednesday when part of the El Capitan granite monolith in California's Yosemite National Park collapsed onto a hiking trial was a British climber whose wife was badly hurt in the incident, a park spokesman said.The couple was found by a search and rescue team at the base of El Capitan after some 1,300 tons of rock broke off from the monumental granite formation and plunged onto a popular hiking trail, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said
  
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• 'Biggest ever' EU budget overhang casts shadow on Brexit bill

  28-09-2017 21:22
  By Francesco GuarascioBRUSSELS (Reuters) - The overhang of delayed payments yet to be made from the EU budget reached its highest ever level last year, the EU auditor said on Thursday, highlighting an ominous turn as Britain haggles over its Brexit bill.The 28 current member states, including Britain, committed to pay nearly 1 trillion euros (892.59 billion pounds) over the period between 2014 and 2020, the current EU budgetary period.Prime Minister Theresa May made that concession to pay beyond
  
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• Hedge fund Marathon eyes bad loans in Britain on Brexit slowdown

  28-09-2017 21:21
  By Maiya KeidanAMSTERDAM (Reuters) - U.S. credit hedge fund Marathon Asset Management sees buying opportunities in British non-performing loans as Britain's economy slows down following its vote to leave the European Union, the fund's chief executive said on Thursday."We think the UK will really start to feel Brexit a year from now," Bruce Richards, who is also chairman of the $14 billion (10.42 billion pounds) hedge fund, told a conference."The UK is destined -- not for a deep recession --
  
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• European Parliament wants Britain to end discrimination against EU citizens - draft

  28-09-2017 21:21
  European parliamentarians want Britain to end "regrettable" practices that discriminate against EU citizens in the workplace and elsewhere, a draft resolution published on Thursday showed.Lawmakers also urged British authorities to grant broad rights to EU citizens and their families in Britain after it exits the EU in 2019, an issue where EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday big differences remained.The European Parliament "expresses concern about regrettable administrative pract
  
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• Brexit bill gives UK ministers 'excessively wide' powers, parliament committee says

  28-09-2017 21:21
  A parliamentary committee on Thursday accused British Prime Minister Theresa May's government of giving ministers "excessively wide" powers in new bill to transfer EU law into British law."The bill gives ministers excessively wide legislative powers beyond what is necessary to ensure UK law works properly when the UK leaves the EU," said a statement accompanying a report by a committee of lawmakers from parliament's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords.
  
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• Theo Walcott double sets Arsenal on way to victory at Bate Borisov

  28-09-2017 21:15 via theguardian.com
  To butcher a phrase Arsène Wenger coined many years ago, if you eat caviar every day, sometimes it is not so bad to return to sausages. After all those seasons of Champions League, Arsenal have rather taken to life in the Europa League. It is not always easy to get the blend right with a reshuffled team, a mix of older pros who are perhaps not getting as much football as they want, and kids desperate for opportunities. But Arsenal got stuck into their sausages, established enough “c
  
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• Black cab driver Hassan Mahhmood admits harassing Jemima Khan

  28-09-2017 21:05
  Socialite Jemima Khan was bombarded with more than 1,000 phone calls and messages from a black cab driver after she posed for a 'selfie' with him, a court has heard.Hassan Mahhmood, 27, is said to have obtained the 43-year-old journalist's phone number when she booked a ride through the Hailo app.Khan, who is the daughter of late billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Goldsmith and the sister of MP Zac Goldsmith, agreed to a photograph with Mahhmood after he picked up her and friends from a jazz clu
  
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• Readers recommend: share your songs about spinning

  28-09-2017 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Make your nomination in the comments and a reader will pick the best eligible tracks for a playlist next week – you have until Monday 2 October We’re spinning around for your song suggestions this week. For more on how to interpret the theme, keep an eye on the comments.You have until 11pm on Monday 2 October to post your nomination and make your justification. RR contributor Sarah Chappell (who posts as AFictionHabit in the comments) will select from your recommendations and produce
  
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• Marcel Proust paid for reviews praising his work to go into newspapers

  28-09-2017 20:58 via theguardian.com
  Novelist paid for flattering reviews of Swann’s Way to go on front pages of French newspapers, as revealed in letters to be auctioned by Sotheby’sThe French writer Marcel Proust paid for glowing reviews of the first volume of his Remembrance of Things Past to be put into newspapers, letters by the author reveal.The novelist wrote the notices himself and sent them to be typed up by his publisher “so there is no trace of my handwriting” to distance himself “absolutely
  
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• Florida case of clown who killed woman solved, police say – 27 years later

  28-09-2017 20:54 via theguardian.com
  Authorities say Marlene Warren killed at her door by Sheila Keen, who was having an affair with her husband and later married himMurder detectives in Florida believe they have solved a bizarre 27-year-old cold case in which a young woman was shot dead by a balloon-carrying clown who knocked at her door.The killer of Marlene Warren, authorities said on Thursday, was Sheila Keen, who was having an affair with the victim’s husband at the time of the May 1990 homicide and who was later to beco
  
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• Pension warning: Record numbers pay into pension but are STILL not saving enough

  28-09-2017 20:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  A RECORD number of workers are saving with private pension schemes for their old age, official statistics revealed yesterday.
  
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• Only respect for the ‘left behind’ can turn the populist tide | Timothy Garton Ash

  28-09-2017 20:53 via theguardian.com
  It’s not just economic disadvantage that is powering the rise of rightwing nationalism in Europe and the USTo those premature pundits who assured us that the global populist wave was already receding, Germany has just delivered an enormous raspberry. In one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with the strongest possible taboo on xenophobic, rightwing nationalism (A Hitler) and an existential commitment to European integration, one out of every eight voters has turned to a xenoph
  
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• Military response to North Korea ‘worst possible option’, says UK diplomat

  28-09-2017 20:53 via theguardian.com
  Preventive war waged by Donald Trump would be likely to escalate very quickly, says ex-FCO political director Simon GassThe UK diplomat who negotiated the Iran nuclear deal has said a military response to North Korea is “the worst possible option”, and would lead to chilling and unimaginable consequences, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.Related: Trump pledges to 'fix the mess' of North Korea's nuclear programContinue reading...
  
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• London church rebuffs bishop's efforts to get it to remain concert venue

  28-09-2017 20:53 via theguardian.com
  St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in Holborn, widely known as the National Musicians’ Church, is set to ban non-religious eventsA central London church that was a national hub for musicians for more than 70 years has rebuffed efforts by the acting bishop of London to persuade it to reverse a ban on “non-religious hiring” from the end of the year.St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in Holborn, known more widely as the National Musicians’ Church, has rejected pleas from church figures
  
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• Ryanair is in crisis, but Michael O'Leary is barely facing any City scrutiny

  28-09-2017 20:50 via theguardian.com
  Even with 18,000 flights cancelled, almost nobody is asking if the outspoken chief executive is still the right person for the jobMichael O’Leary is a lucky man. As the Ryanair cancellation crisis has gone from bad to worse, despite the chief executive’s insistence that it wouldn’t, almost nobody is asking whether he is still the right person for the job.The question would be asked at most listed companies in Ryanair’s position. The second round of cancellations will affe
  
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• Hampshire’s James Vince ensures Middlesex complete slide to relegation

  28-09-2017 20:49 via theguardian.com
  • Middlesex lose to Somerset and are relegated as Vince’s Hampshire draw
  • Notts and Worcestershire promoted from Division TwoMiddlesex won the County Championship in 2016 with a hat-trick from a seamer with a double-barrelled surname and this time were left hoping for another, only to save them from relegation. Alas, Warwickshire’s Oliver Hannon-Dalby is no Toby Roland-Jones, and he could not weasel out the last three Hampshire wickets; Middlesex had gone from champions on
  
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• Uber licence withdrawal disproportionate, says Theresa May

  28-09-2017 20:47 via theguardian.com
  Prime minister accuses London mayor of ‘damaging lives’ of users, but acknowledges ride-hailing firm must address safety issuesTheresa May has said the decision not to renew Uber’s London licence is disproportionate, and accused the mayor, Sadiq Khan, of putting thousands of jobs at risk. The ride-hailing company to appeal against the decision by Transport for London not to renew its licence to operate in the capital for reasons of public safety.Continue reading...
  
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• A new shock doctrine: in a world of crisis, morality can still win | Naomi Klein

  28-09-2017 20:39 via theguardian.com
  Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders and Podemos in Spain have shown that a bold and decent strategy can be a successful one. That truth should embolden the leftWe live in frightening times. From heads of state tweeting threats of nuclear annihilation, to whole regions rocked by climate chaos, to thousands of migrants drowning off the coasts of Europe, to openly racist parties gaining ground: it feels like there are a lot of reasons to be pessimistic about our collective future.To take one example, the
  
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• Jemima Khan: Black Cab Driver Admits Harassing Socialite With More Than 1,000 Calls

  28-09-2017 20:38
  A black cab driver bombarded socialite Jemima Khan with more than 1,000 phone calls and messages after she posed for a “selfie” with him, a court has heard.
  
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