General news

• Bloodhound: Jet engine of supersonic 1,000mph car fired up for first time

  29-09-2017 23:57
  The jet engine of a 1,000mph supersonic racing car has been successfully fired up for the first time.Bloodhound, which is fitted with a Rolls-Royce EJ200 jet engine sourced from a Eurofighter Typhoon, was started up and taken to maximum reheat - a feat described as a "huge engineering milestone".When it was fired up, the car's pilot sat in the cockpit - throttling the jet engine with his right foot.
  
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• Horses for courses

  29-09-2017 23:00 via bbc.co.uk
  Banks are investing in the centre of cities like Manchester, but are closing branches in the suburbs.
  
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• Electoral Commission urged to reconsider view on Vote Leave spending

  29-09-2017 23:00
  Other aspects of Vote Leave’s referendum campaign spending are still being investigated by the commission.The Electoral Commission is to be challenged in court to reopen its investigation into £625,000 of spending that eventually reached a digital marketing company during the EU referendum last year.The Good Law Project, which is headed by Jo Maugham QC, has written to the commission demanding that it reconsider its inquiry into how the funds reached AggregateIQ, a Canadian firm, in
  
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• Michael Fallon: Trident Is Only Way To Defend Against North Korea Or Russia

  29-09-2017 22:47
  The UK’s nuclear deterrent is the only way to defend against the danger of a “reckless” North Korea and “increasingly aggressive” Russia, the Defence Secretary has said.
  
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• Poynton Park Body In Lake Believed To Be Serving Police Officer Leanne McKie

  29-09-2017 22:18
  A woman’s body found in a lake is believed to be that of a serving officer with Greater Manchester Police, investigators have said.
  
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• Body found in lake is believed to be serving policewoman Leanne McKie

  29-09-2017 22:03
  A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a body believed to be that of a female police officer was found in a lake.Detectives believe the victim is Leanne McKie, a 39-year-old mother of three who served with Greater Manchester Police.Cheshire Police had been called to Poynton Park near Macclesfield at about 3.45am on Friday morning after receiving reports that a body had been found.
  
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• Universal credit: 'I don't even have 4p to my name'

  29-09-2017 21:59 via bbc.co.uk
  Three people on the new benefit system Universal Credit speak about the challenges they face.
  
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• This love story set on the London Underground will make you believe in commuter crushes

  29-09-2017 21:50
  “These are front row seats in a TfL romance.”
  
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• Ukip Lion Logo Sees Football Chiefs Seek Legal Advice

  29-09-2017 21:18
  The Premier League is believed to be consulting its lawyers over accusations that Ukip’s new logo is a “rip-off” of the emblem of English football’s top flight.
  
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• Big Ben takes a break from bonging

  29-09-2017 21:10
  Four years of renovations mean Britain's best-known clock is taking a break
  
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• Celebrities post childhood photos to raise money for Puerto Rico – in pictures

  29-09-2017 20:36 via theguardian.com
  TV host Stephen Colbert and actor Nick Kroll said they would donate to the Puerto Rico relief effort for every celebrity who posted a photo of their teenage self. Many obliged Continue reading...
  
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• How much? Big Ben repair bill doubles as Elizabeth Tower cost reaches £61m

  29-09-2017 20:23
  The estimated cost of repairing the tower that houses Big Ben has doubled to £61m, authorities have said.The increase is due to a better understanding of conservation work originally costed at £29m, according to a House of Commons statement.Issues including reglazing Big Ben's clock face and repainting metal work, as well as unexpected ground conditions around the Tower, were among the reasons for the "greater complexity" of the project and increased cost.
  
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• Teacher shortages might lead to pay rise for teachers

  29-09-2017 20:19
  The chief secretary to the Treasury, Liz Truss, said the government might accept a pay rise above the 1% limit for 2018-19.Teachers in England and Wales – along with other frontline public servants – may receive a more sizeable pay rise next year, after the government indicated it would lift the tough 1% cap on wage increases it had previously applied.A letter from Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, to the board responsible for recommending teachers’ pay awards sai
  
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• Teacher shortages may lead to pay rise above 1% cap, Truss hints

  29-09-2017 20:19
  Liz Truss said the government recognised that ‘flexibility may be required to deliver world class public services’.Teachers in England and Wales – along with other frontline public servants – may receive a more sizeable pay rise next year, after the government indicated it would lift the tough 1% cap on wage increases it had previously applied.A letter from Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, to the board responsible for recommending teachers’ pay awards
  
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• Complaints against Lavinia Woodward judge are dismissed

  29-09-2017 19:53
  Ian Pringle QC gave Lavinia Woodward, 24, a 10-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, on Monday for stabbing her then partner in a drunken assault.Woodward, a medical student at Oxford's Christ Church college, was due to be sentenced earlier this year after admitting unlawful wounding, but the judge gave her four months to prove herself and stay out of trouble.Oxford Crown Court heard Woodward was later admitted to a clinic for treatment for addictions to Class A drugs and alcohol, and
  
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• UK to extradite suspect in plot to kidnap British model Chloe Ayling

  29-09-2017 19:51
  A Polish man accused of being involved in a plot to kidnap British glamour model Chloe Ayling should be extradited from the UK to Italy, a judge has ruled.Lawyers for Michal Herba say they will appeal the "devastating" decision, as the 36-year-old "continues to protest his innocence in the strongest possible terms".Ms Ayling, 20, was allegedly drugged and stuffed into a suitcase after being lured to a fake photo shoot in Milan in July.
  
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• New Activists: Episode Five Of HuffPost UK's Docu-Reality Series

  29-09-2017 19:47
  HuffPost UK has launched New Activists, a daily docu-reality series following the lives of young people who are changing the world.
  
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• Big bill for Big Ben: cost of renovating Elizabeth Tower rises to £61m

  29-09-2017 19:40
  Scaffolding surrounds the Elizabeth Tower, home to the Big Ben bell.The cost of renovating the tower that houses Big Ben has more than doubled in 16 months, provoking an angry response from MPs.In a statement released late on Friday, the parliamentary authorities said the estimate for the work on the Elizabeth Tower had risen from an estimated £29m in the spring of 2016, to £61m.
  
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• UK Weather: Hurricane Lee Remnants To Usher In Heavy Rain And Gales

  29-09-2017 19:30
  Britain is on course for heavy rain and gales as remnants of Hurricane Lee add “extra oomph” to a low pressure system moving across the Atlantic, forecasters said.
  
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• Delving deeper into the BBC’s idea of impartiality | Letters

  29-09-2017 19:28
  It is not surprising to see that she is also the beneficiary of an expensive private education, writes Richard Bulmer.Nick Robinson’s article asserting that Nigel Lawson should be corrected but not silenced by the BBC on climate change (Silencing the disagreeable won’t work.
  
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• The fluid nature of political reputations | Letters

  29-09-2017 19:23
  In the 1960s, the view ‘was that Attlee was only a little less of an embarrassment than Ramsay MacDonald’ writes Norrie MacQueen.Rachel Holmes (What makes a great Labour leader?, 27 September) provides a reminder of the fluidity of political reputations.The settled view then was that Clement Attlee was only a little less of an embarrassment than Ramsay MacDonald (of whom some in the party at that time still nursed feelings of personal betrayal).
  
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• Sleep-in payments are becoming a nightmare | Letters

  29-09-2017 19:20
  Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, is concerned about retrospective liability and future funding proposals for sleep-ins.Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, remains deeply concerned about the unresolved threats to the existence of the learning disability sector posed by the retrospective liability and future funding proposals for sleep-ins (Crisis over sleep-in payments could force children’s homes to close, theguardian.
  
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• Cameraman Ken Morse is a master of his craft | Letters

  29-09-2017 19:19
  Ken Morse at work. Photograph: ANL/Rex/Shutterstock
  
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• 12 ways to put the new 280 character limit on Twitter to good use

  29-09-2017 19:04
  These are the only long tweets that deserve to be read.
  
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• Tories risk permanent loss of youth vote, says Willetts

  29-09-2017 18:30
  Theresa May meets a helpline adviser at the Young Minds mental health charity during the election campaign in summer.The Conservative party risks permanently losing the support of younger voters unless Theresa May urgently tackles the challenges faced by the squeezed generation, the former Tory cabinet minister David Willetts has said.Data analysed for the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank now chaired by Willetts, shows the lifestyles of 25- to 34-year-olds increasingly falling behind those of
  
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• Anti-EU UKIP party elects fourth leader in a year

  29-09-2017 18:16
  By Michael HoldenLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's anti-European Union UKIP party elected former army officer Henry Bolton its new leader on Friday, handing him the job of trying to stop the party that helped bring about Brexit becoming irrelevant.Bolton, an infantry officer who also served in the police, was elected the UK Independence Party's fourth leader in a year with 3,874 votes, 30 percent of the total."Brexit is our core task," he told party supporters at UKIP's conference in southwest Englan
  
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• Only 'miracles' can move Brexit talks forward by October, EU tells Britain

  29-09-2017 18:10
  By Elizabeth Piper and Julia FiorettiTALLINN (Reuters) - Only "miracles" can move Brexit talks far enough to fulfil Britain's hopes of launching discussions next month on its future ties with the European Union, the head of the European Commission said on Friday.Prime Minister Theresa May had been hoping to use an informal EU meeting in the Estonian capital Tallinn to harness what she describes as renewed goodwill over Brexit to push the talks beyond the terms of the divorce, now just 18 months
  
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• Who Is Henry Bolton, Ukip's New Leader And Defeater Of Anne Marie Waters

  29-09-2017 17:55
  Henry Bolton’s victory in the Ukip leadership race over the “Islam is evil” candidate, Anne Marie Waters, had many political observers breathing a sigh of relief, but also questioning, who is he? Henry Bolton wins #Ukip contest.
  
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• I Wrote The Article About The AfD That Ukip Said Showed It Wasn't Far-Right. Here's Why They're Wrong

  29-09-2017 17:47
  Here are some facts about Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the far-right party that shocked many by winning seats in German's national parliament on Sunday.
  
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• Ryanair agrees to make passengers aware of rights after cancellations

  29-09-2017 17:42
  Ryanair has agreed to make sure all passengers affected by flight cancellations are "fully aware" of their rights and entitlements.
  
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• Michal Herba to face trial for alleged kidnapping of model Chloe Ayling

  29-09-2017 17:39
  Michal Herba - one of the alleged kidnappers of British glamour model Chloe Ayling - will be extradited to Italy to face trial.Ms Ayling, 20, was allegedly drugged and stuffed into a suitcase after being lured to a fake photo shoot in Milan in July.Mr Herba was arrested in the the Tividale area of Sandwell in the in the West Midlands on a European Arrest Warrant last month.
  
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• Henry Bolton elected new UKIP leader at Torquay conference

  29-09-2017 17:39
  Henry Bolton has been elected as the UK Independence Party's new leader.
  
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• 'I was upset at first. Then I thought about the first amendment': readers on NFL protests

  29-09-2017 17:35 via theguardian.com
  More than 200 kneeled, sat or prayed before their games on Sunday after Trump said those who don’t stand for the anthem should be fired. Here’s what you said
  Last week, Donald Trump said any “son of a bitch” who kneeled during the anthem should be “fired”. The president’s comments drew a widespread response among NFL teams with players dropping to their knee during the anthem. Even the Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, a staunch supporter of Trump, took
  
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• Anti-EU UK Independence Party elects former army officer as new leader

  29-09-2017 17:33
  Britain's anti-European Union UKIP party elected former army officer Henry Bolton its new leader on Friday, tasked with the job of trying to stop the party that had helped bring about Brexit becoming an irrelevance.Bolton, an infantry officer who also served in the police, was elected the UK Independence Party's fourth leader in a year with 3,874 votes, 30 percent of the total, saying his priority was to ensure that Prime Minister Theresa May's government delivered the exit from the EU.Led by th
  
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• Henry Bolton is new UKIP leader

  29-09-2017 17:30
  Mr Bolton is a former Liberal Democrat and was not considered the front-runner in Friday's vote.
  
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• Henry Bolton elected new leader of Ukip

  29-09-2017 17:24
  Henry Bolton won a tight seven-way race taking 29.9% of the overall votes.Ukip has elected Henry Bolton to become the party’s fourth leader within a year, tasked with charting a new direction in the post-Brexit world.Bolton, a former soldier and police officer, won a tight seven-way race, taking 29.9% of the overall votes with 3,874 votes, with the result announced on the first day of Ukip’s annual conference in Torquay.
  
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• All the reaction to Ukip’s new logo as the Premier League seeks legal advice

  29-09-2017 17:09
  Ukip’s famous pound sign has been replaced with a lion – which some think looks a bit too familiar.
  
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• Wales could tackle ocean litter with 'plastic tax'

  29-09-2017 17:05
  Wales could be set to follow Scotland with a raft of new measures to cut plastic and other ocean litter. Sky's Lisa Dowd reports.
  
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• The great cover up: 50 coats for women – in pictures

  29-09-2017 17:01 via theguardian.com
  Autumn is in the air, and what better way to mark the new season than by getting a new coat. From faux fur to mustard to padded to PVC, here are 50 of the best Continue reading...
  
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• Sky Ocean Rescue: Scourge of more than 700,000 plastic bottles

  29-09-2017 17:01
  More than 700,000 plastic bottles are littered in the UK every day, according to research seen by Sky News.Calculations by environmental consultants Eunomia suggest a deposit system could reduce the number of littered bottles by at least 85% - around 600,000 every day.Chris Sherrington, who compiled the report, told Sky News that evidence from abroad shows deposits are a powerful driver to recycle plastic.
  
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• Henry Bolton: former soldier has reputation as competent technocrat

  29-09-2017 16:54
  Henry Bolton’s only prior role had been to stand as Kent’s police and crime commissioner – he has slowly built up a reputation as a competent technocrat who might help stabilise the party.While occasionally talking about Islam as a “problem” at hustings, much of Bolton’s pitch was based on his promised ability to put Ukip on a more professional footing, and unify the various factions that have battled each other for years.Another Ukip figure said: “There
  
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• UK court agrees to extradite suspect in Italy model kidnap plot

  29-09-2017 16:52
  By Estelle ShirbonLONDON (Reuters) - A Polish man accused of being part of a plot to kidnap a British model in Milan should be extradited from Britain to Italy, a London judge ruled on Friday.Model Chloe Ayling, 20, has told Italian police she was lured to a photo shoot in Milan in July, abducted and held captive for six days.In a ruling at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court, Judge Paul Goldspring said Michal Herba, 36, the brother of the model's alleged kidnapper, should be extradited to f
  
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• EU watchdogs alerted banks on Brexit risks for capital buffers

  29-09-2017 16:51
  By Francesco GuarascioBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Banks in the European Union have been told they may face large capital gaps if the bloc and Britain do not agree on how to treat their loss-absorbing debt after Brexit, EU banking watchdogs said on Friday.Under new banking rules meant to reduce taxpayers' costs in banking crisis, EU lenders are required to issue a sufficient amount of debt that would be written down, or bailed-in, to absorb losses if they fail.The European Banking Authority estimated th
  
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• Citi applies for Paris broker-dealer licence post-Brexit

  29-09-2017 16:31
  By Anjuli DaviesLONDON (Reuters) - Wall Street bank Citigroupis applying for a licence to conduct sales and trading activities in France, James Cowles, Citi's Chief Executive Officer for Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) told a French newspaper on Friday.Citi said in July that it would headquarter its EU trading operations in Frankfurt and may need to create 150 new jobs in the EU in order to continue doing business across the bloc once Britain leaves in March 2019.The bank also planne
  
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• How advanced are N Korea's nuclear weapons?

  29-09-2017 16:30
  Defence Correspondent Alistair Bunkall explains what we know about North Korea's nuclear capabilities.
  
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• Sir Michael Fallon defends nuclear deterrent amid heightened North Korea threat

  29-09-2017 16:26
  Sir Michael Fallon's defence of Britain's nuclear deterrent comes as he hosts NATO's Secretary General at the nuclear submarine base in Scotland.The two were joined by NATO's ambassadors from the 29 members to mark the 350th patrol by a Royal Navy ballistic nuclear submarine.
  
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• Opinion: Corbyn's nuclear wand waving would play Russian roulette with our safety

  29-09-2017 16:26
  Today we mark Britain's 350th nuclear submarine patrol, keeping watch from the deep.Unseen and undetected, every hour of every day, our continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent has kept us safe for nearly 50 years.The Royal Navy's four Vanguard submarines act as a deterrent to those who would seek to attack us - they protect our people and our future.
  
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• Bank of England warns on draft law for handling failed clearing houses

  29-09-2017 16:25
  The European Union should not circumvent long-standing principles in insolvency proceedings when allocating losses from a failed clearing house, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Friday.The bloc is scrutinising a draft law governing the closing down of a struggling clearing house, a third party that comes between both sides of a stock, bond or derivatives trade to ensure completion of the transaction.Cunliffe said the draft law should stick to the legal principle of "no credit
  
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• Watchdog considers "interim" status for EU financial firms in UK

  29-09-2017 16:22
  By Huw JonesLONDON (Reuters) - Britain's regulators could grant interim permission for European Union investment and trading firms to continue operating in the UK after the country leaves the bloc in 2019.Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority said giving "interim permission" may be one solution for dealing initially with a wave of firms from the EU who need to continue offering services in Britain.
  
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• Chloe Ayling Kidnap Suspect Michal Herba To Be Extradited To Italy

  29-09-2017 16:18
  A man accused of being part of a plot to kidnap a British model in Milan should be extradited from Britain to Italy, a London judge ruled on Friday.
  
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