General news

• 5 Times David Davis Highlighted In-Depth Brexit Reports That He Now Says Don't Exist

  06-12-2017 23:40
  David Davis has revealed the government has not assessed the impact of Brexit on different key sectors of the British economy - despite repeated suggestions by the Brexit Secretary lots of work was being done.
  
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• 5 Times David Davis Highlighted Brexit Asssessments That He Now Says Don't Exist

  06-12-2017 23:40
  David Davis has revealed the government has not assessed the impact of Brexit on different key sectors of the British economy - despite repeated suggestions by the Brexit Secretary lots of work was being done.
  
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• Labour's chief whip in Lords to stand down over expenses claims

  06-12-2017 23:28 via theguardian.com
  Steve Bassam will quit in January after questions were raised over his claiming of £6,400 a year in expenses for travelling to London from BrightonLabour’s chief whip in the House of Lords will stand down in the New Year after questions were raised about his expenses claims.
  Steve Bassam had already offered to repay expenses claimed for travelling between London and his home in Brighton, although he said he had not breached parliamentary rules but could have dealt with the issue in a
  
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• Vancouver protesters ordered to stop blocking homeless housing project

  06-12-2017 23:02 via theguardian.com
  As Canadian city grapples with housing crisis, mayor says interfering with construction of controversial effort ‘is not something the city can accept’A court in Canada has ordered protesters in a Vancouver neighbourhood to stop interfering with efforts to build temporary accommodation for the homeless, bringing an end to a bitter debate triggered by the city’s housing crisis.“We respect people’s rights to protest, but blocking the construction of much-needed housing
  
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• England’s Alex Hales set to lose opener’s spot for ODIs against Australia

  06-12-2017 23:00 via theguardian.com
  • Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow likely openers for January series
  • Trevor Bayliss: ‘It would be difficult to go against Roy and Bairstow’Alex Hales looks to have lost his place as opener in England’s one-day team after being named in the squad for the series against Australia in January with Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow likely to be considered the first-choice pairing up top.Hales missed the final two ODIs of the summer against West Indies after being present when Ben
  
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• All forms of hormonal contraception carry breast cancer risk, study finds

  06-12-2017 23:00
  The study suggests that among women taking the pill for five years, there would be an extra one case of breast cancer for every 1500 women.All forms of the pill and other hormonal contraception carry a small risk of breast cancer, which lasts for about five years after women stop taking it, according to new research.The increased risk has been known for some time, but there were hopes that newer forms of hormonal contraception – such as those which release progesterone only – would b
  
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• Fernando Llorente off the mark for Tottenham in stroll against Apoel

  06-12-2017 22:56 via theguardian.com
  It has taken a while – 17 appearances to be precise – but Fernando Llorente is up and running as a Tottenham Hotspur goalscorer. The summer signing from Swansea City has been used mainly as a substitute by Mauricio Pochettino but, given a starting opportunity in what was a dead Champions League rubber, he responded with a decent all-round performance and he crowned it with his first goal in the club’s colours.Given Spurs’ recent stutters – they have won only once in
  
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• Britain to propose new language on Irish border, Irish PM says

  06-12-2017 22:36
  British Prime Minister Theresa May told her Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar that she would propose suggestions to Brexit negotiators over the next 24 hours to try to break an impasse on the issue of the Irish border, Varadkar said on Wednesday.A tentative deal on the border, which is required if Brexit talks are to move to the next phase, was agreed with Dublin's blessing on Monday after negotiators guaranteed "regulatory alignment" on both sides of the border that Ireland has with the British pr
  
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• Senior Labour Lord to resign over expenses claims

  06-12-2017 21:55
  Labour's chief whip in the House of Lords has announced he will resign - after agreeing to repay £41,000 of taxpayers' money in expenses.
  
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• Anger As Dozens Of Grenfell Tower Families To Spend Christmas In Hotels

  06-12-2017 21:54
  Dozens of families made homeless in the deadly Grenfell Tower fire are set to spend Christmas in hotels, where campaigners claim children are forced to sleep on the floor and survivors have no access to hot meals.
  
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• UK has 48 hours to agree potential deal or Brexit talks cannot progress

  06-12-2017 21:52
  Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said Downing Street said it had a potential solution to the Irish border problem but it had yet to be signed off.Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has told member states that the British government has just 48 hours to agree a text on a potential deal or it will be told that negotiations will not move on to the next stage.Barnier informed EU ambassadors that Downing Street had told him that a potential solution was bei
  
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• #MeToo movement named Time magazine’s Person of the Year

  06-12-2017 20:59 via theguardian.com
  Magazine celebrates anti-harassment movement by naming ‘The Silence Breakers’ on its cover after millions shared stories of sexual assault
  “The Silence Breakers”, the vanguard of a global movement by millions of women to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse, was revealed on Wednesday to be Time magazine’s Person of the Year.The announcement comes as many industries and power centers around the world are still reeling from an unprecedented reckoning wit
  
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• Steve Bell on Donald Trump and Jerusalem – cartoon

  06-12-2017 20:50 via theguardian.com
  Continue reading...
  
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• Three ways to remake the American economy for all | Elizabeth Warren

  06-12-2017 20:47 via theguardian.com
  In a speech at the Open Markets Institute, Senator Elizabeth Warren offers a roadmap for how to tackle growing monopolies in the United StatesThe central question America faces today is this: who does our government work for? Does it work only for giant corporations, for the rich and the powerful? Or does it work for everyone?This isn’t hard to understand. Americans don’t need to review the complexities of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to get what’s going on in this country. F
  
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• Chancellor says UK will pay Brexit bill even if it fails to get free trade deal

  06-12-2017 20:38
  Philip Hammond sparked a further rift with Conservative colleagues on Wednesday by telling the Treasury select committee that Britain would meet financial obligations to the European Union even if it failed to secure a free trade deal, forcing a clarification from Number 10.It came as the chancellor also disclosed that the cabinet had yet to have a full discussion on what should be the government’s preferred “end state position” for the UK after Brexit.Downing Street said the c
  
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• A new vision for railways that's rather short-sighted

  06-12-2017 20:32 via theguardian.com
  The government’s proposed model will just add more complexity to an already baffling franchise system
  The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, unveiled his “new vision for our railways” a week ago and gained a few favourable headlines for the modest commitment to reopen a few lines closed in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Forget that crowd-pleasing diversion, however, because it’s not what the rail industry is talking about.Instead, rail bosses are dumbfounded that Stage
  
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• Theresa May Condemns Donald Trump Again, This Time Over Recognising Jerusalem As Israel's Capital

  06-12-2017 20:28
  Jeremy Corbyn has condemned Donald Trump’s decision to reverse decades of US policy by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, claiming it was a “reckless threat to peace”.
  
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• Former British Telecom's Italy boss wins 1.8 million euros for wrongful dismissal - sources

  06-12-2017 20:28
  A manager at the centre of investigations into an accounting scandal at British Telecom'sItalian business has been awarded almost 1.8 million euros (1.6 million pounds) in damages for wrongful dismissal, three legal sources said on Wednesday.Gianluca Cimini was fired for disciplinary reasons last year, months before the phone company filed a criminal complaint accusing him of grave violations of corporate governance.The accusations arose from its investigation of alleged accounting fraud that co
  
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• Weaving tales: Barber Shop Chronicles and theatre's wave of black hair shows

  06-12-2017 20:23 via theguardian.com
  Inua Ellams’ hit play bounces between barbers around the world, taking audiences into a male world of rituals and politics, while women share their own hair stories in My Fro and Me The politics that surround the way black people choose (or don’t choose) to style (or not style) their hair can be a tangled issue beyond the salon. Theatre-makers are increasingly tackling the subject in stylish ways. In 2015, as part of the Africa Utopia festival, the British African theatre company Tia
  
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• Second Paralympian says she was stopped from racing Tanni Grey-Thompson

  06-12-2017 20:19 via theguardian.com
  Tracy Lewis says she was not selected to race in 1996 Paralympics after ‘highly unethical’ selection process A second Paralympic athlete has told MPs she was denied the chance to race when she was a direct rival to Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson.In written evidence to the digital, culture, media and sport committee (DCMS), Tracy Lewis said she was not selected for the 1996 Paralympic Games after a selectors’ meeting attended by Grey-Thompson as the representative for the British Whee
  
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• Poppi Worthington: 'Botched police probe makes prosecution unlikely', inquest hears

  06-12-2017 20:15
  Police errors mean it is unlikely anyone will ever be prosecuted over the sudden death of toddler Poppi Worthington, an inquest has heard.Officers had "no search strategy" when seizing crucial evidence during their investigation, Kendal Coroner's Court was told.Giving evidence, retired Cumbria Police detective superintendent Cath Thundercloud detailed a series of failures committed when officers visited the family home in Barrow following the 13-month-old's death, and then during the force's pro
  
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• Attractions comeback

  06-12-2017 20:14 via bbc.co.uk
  Despite children's obsession with devices, traditional entertainment is making a revival.
  
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• Police threaten to deport Polish man seeking help after attack

  06-12-2017 19:57
  The Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre near Heathrow, where Miroslaw Zieba is detained.Miroslaw Zieba, 48, and his wife Mariola Zieba, 37, said they went to the police after their landlord walked into the flat they were renting with two other men, all wearing balaclavas, and forced the couple out after threatening them with a kitchen knife and a baseball bat.Mariola Zieba was injured in the attack and needed hospital treatment, she said.
  
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• UK city of culture 2021: five contenders wait to hear if they have won

  06-12-2017 19:56 via theguardian.com
  Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Sunderland, Coventry and Paisley all hope for economic boost from statusOne of five shortlisted cities will be named as the UK’s first cultural hotspot since the Brexit vote on Thursday, with each contender hoping UK city of culture status for 2021 comes with an economic boost. Stoke-on-Trent, home of the potteries, is up against Dylan Thomas’s hometown of Swansea and Sunderland in the industrial north-east. Coventry, which inspired the Specials to write Ghos
  
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• Social mobility for the few or social equality for the many? | Letters

  06-12-2017 19:55 via theguardian.com
  Joan Green, Mary Evans and Pat Hotson call for better working-class conditions of life, Alan Healey and Catherine McGuinness want the work of the Social Mobility Commission to continue and 90 council leaders urge the government to fund a pay rise for council workersPaul Mason (Our national story of upward mobility has been shattered, G2, 5 December) must reflect the lives of many Guardian readers. In my own primary school there were 60 girls in the scholarship year, of which five of us passed th
  
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• The plots to kill prime ministers

  06-12-2017 19:48
  After a terror plot to assassinate Theresa May was foiled, which other prime ministers have been targeted?:: Spencer Perceval is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated.Bellingham was hanged in public later the same month following a trial.
  
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• Women harmed because vaginal mesh regulation 'not fit for purpose'

  06-12-2017 19:44 via theguardian.com
  Oxford University team calls for mandatory clinical trials for invasive devices following scandal that emerged this yearWomen have been exposed to unnecessary harm due to poor regulation for vaginal mesh products, medical experts have warned.
  The team, from the University of Oxford, have called for clinical trials to be made mandatory for invasive medical devices and for a registry to be created in response to the vaginal mesh scandal. Continue reading...
  
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• Trump’s error on Jerusalem is a disaster for the Arab world … and the US too | Rashid Khalidi

  06-12-2017 19:35 via theguardian.com
  The president’s foolish move in recognising the city as the capital of Israel will have negative consequences impossible to predictEvery time it seems Donald Trump cannot outdo himself, he does it again. Now he has announced that his administration will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing nearly seven decades of American policy. This step will have multiple negative ramifications, many impossible to predict. Related: Trump to plunge Middle East into 'fire with no end'
  
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• London priest who fled to Kosovo found guilty of abusing schoolboys

  06-12-2017 19:26
  Andrew Soper subjected pupils to sadistic beatings for ‘fake reasons’, the Old Bailey was told.A former abbot who fled to Kosovo to escape justice has been convicted of abusing 10 boys at a Catholic-run school in London during the 1970s and 80s.Andrew Soper, 74, formerly known as Father Laurence Soper, was found guilty of 19 charges of rape and other sexual offences after a lengthy trial at the Old Bailey.
  
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• Turner prize winner Lubaina Himid: 'I have more things to say – this gives me the chance'

  06-12-2017 19:14 via theguardian.com
  The oldest artist ever to win the prize talks about turning Guardian pages into art, being forced out of London, and how she’ll be spending the prize money on funding her friends – and buying really fancy shoesThe Guardian headline mashupsLubaina Himid is bright-eyed and ferociously on the ball the morning after winning the Turner prize. Perhaps one advantage of being the oldest-ever winner, as the headlines baldly put it (she is 63), is the ability to receive the award with immense,
  
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• Ireland open to adding to border text but clock ticking

  06-12-2017 19:09
  Ireland is open to adding to a tentative Irish border agreement that collapsed on Monday but movement will be needed by the end of the week if Brexit talks are to move onto the next phase this year, the country's European Affairs Minister said on Wednesday.A deal on the border, which is required if negotiations are to progress to trade talks, was agreed on Monday with Dublin's blessing after Brexit negotiators guaranteed "regulatory alignment" on both sides of the border that Ireland shares with
  
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• Security services' failure to stop UK terror attacks will not be assessed by ISC

  06-12-2017 18:50
  Amber Rudd is backing an increased role for MI5.Britain’s security services are to escape further scrutiny by parliament’s intelligence and security committee for their failure to prevent four terror attacks this year in which 36 people died.The decision comes as the home secretary, Amber Rudd, gave her backing to an increased role for MI5 in tackling domestic extremism, including that carried out by rightwing terrorists and groups.
  
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• Man arrested in Parliament on suspicion of GBH after 'incident' in bar

  06-12-2017 18:39
  A man has been arrested in Parliament on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and affray, the Metropolitan police have said.
  
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• Chiding May, opposition Labour presses case for a customs union

  06-12-2017 18:26
  Britain should leave open the option of being in a UK-wide customs union with the European Union after Brexit and aim to keep the benefits of the bloc's single market, the opposition Labour Party said on Wednesday.Labour leads the governing Conservative Party in the polls and earlier this year it shifted policy to aim for what some have called a softer Brexit.This would offer Britain, a country deeply divided over Europe, the option of leaving the EU while retaining tariff-free access to the blo
  
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• Parliament's Sports And Social Bar Closed After Fight Between Parliamentary Staff

  06-12-2017 18:20
  A popular bar in the Houses of Parliament bar has been closed after a fight involving two members of staff.
  
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• Voyeur who hid camera in Starbucks toilet convicted after accidentally filming his face

  06-12-2017 18:12
  A man has been convicted of voyeurism after accidentally filming himself installing a hidden camera in a toilet of a London coffee shop.Anthony Dines placed the tiny device in a ceiling grate at a Starbucks in Vauxhall, south London, where it remained for up to four weeks before being spotted by a male member of the public.After his arrest, Dines admitted installing a similar device in the toilets of his employer's offices in New Malden, southwest London.
  
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• Despite Missteps In Burma Pope Francis Deserves Praise

  06-12-2017 18:11
  As Pope Francis returns to the Vatican following a trip to Burma and Bangladesh, he has been met with both praise and criticism for how he addressed the plight of Burma’s ethnic Rohingya, who faced a horrific military campaign that drove over 600,000 out of Burma and into refugee camps in Bangladesh.
  
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• No more 'my dog ate it' excuses. Where are the Brexit impact reports?

  06-12-2017 18:07 via theguardian.com
  David Davis opted for laziness over contempt of parliament when he went before Hilary Benn over his lack of Brexit contingency plans David Davis knew he had a choice to make. Either to be in contempt of parliament for deliberately failing to provide full disclosure on his department’s Brexit impact assessments. Or to own up to incompetence and laziness. No contest. Incompetence and laziness won hands down. For one thing, they had the virtue of truth. For another, he was just too lazy and i
  
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• Irish, British PMs to speak again on Brexit in coming days

  06-12-2017 18:06
  The Irish and British Prime Minister agreed to speak again over the coming days after Irish premier Leo Varadkar reiterated his firm position on the Irish border in a call with Theresa May on Wednesday, his spokesman said."The Taoiseach (prime minister) reiterated the firm Irish position regarding the text as outlined by him on Monday," Varadkar's spokesman said referring to the tentative Irish border agreement that collapsed on Monday and is required to move Brexit talks on to the next phase of
  
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• Brexiteer backlash as Theresa May told to keep 'red lines'

  06-12-2017 18:04
  The Prime Minister is under pressure from Tory MPs not to breach her Brexit "red lines" as she battles to find a solution to the Irish border question.Theresa May was forced to deal with a series of interventions by her own backbenchers during Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.In an apparently coordinated effort, prominent Leave-supporting MPs warned the Government against closely aligning the UK with Brussels after Brexit.
  
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• UK government still undecided on final Brexit aims - Hammond

  06-12-2017 18:02
  Britain's government has not yet decided what it wants from a final Brexit deal because it is still waiting to clear preliminary talks with Brussels, chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond said on Wednesday.With the clock ticking towards Britain's scheduled March 2019 exit from the European union, the government is focussed at the moment on getting a green light for the negotiations on future trade relations with the EU, Hammond said."The cabinet has had general discussions about our Brexit
  
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• Diplomatic Immunity

  06-12-2017 17:59
  She walked into the clinic room and promptly exclaimed “Another new one?
  
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• Storm Caroline: What you need to know about the 'deadly' weather front

  06-12-2017 17:48
  Storm Caroline is expected to hit the UK early on Thursday, with the Met Office warning there could be "danger to life".
  
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• May, Ireland's Varadkar speak on phone - May's office

  06-12-2017 17:46
  LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on the telephone on Wednesday, her office said in a statement.
  
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• How Independent Journalists In Africa Are Flourishing

  06-12-2017 17:31
  It's almost indisputable that a free, independent and professional media plays a crucial role in democratic societies.
  
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• Birmingham pub bombings inquest 'must address identity of killers'

  06-12-2017 17:28
  The unresolved mystery of who was behind the Birmingham pub bombings must be addressed in the victims' inquests, their families have argued in court.Campaigners have started a judicial review to challenge coroner Peter Thornton QC's decision to exclude the issue of "the perpetrators" from the inquests into the 1974 killings.Twenty-one people died and 180 others were injured when two city centre pubs were bombed on the evening of 21 November and some of the bereaved families have said they would
  
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• 'I want to study and play sport' – a young asylum seeker in Britain, one year on

  06-12-2017 17:26 via theguardian.com
  Twelve months ago, we met Ahsanullah Ahsas who was being helped by the Children’s Society, one of the recipients of our annual appeal. Now granted leave to remain, he explains the impact of the charity’s workAhsanullah Ahsas, a shy, gaunt teenager from Afghanistan, told his traumatic life story to the Guardian last year; how he fled his country after the Taliban shot his father in front of him, the terrifying journey across Europe to England where he sought refuge, and how the Childr
  
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• May will discuss Brexit vision with team before year-end - spokesman

  06-12-2017 17:19
  British Prime Minister Theresa May will discuss the desired "end state" for Brexit with her top team of ministers before the end of the year, her spokesman said on Wednesday."The cabinet will be discussing 'end state' before the end of the year," the spokesman said, when asked about comments by chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond, who said earlier that cabinet had not discussed the matter yet.
  
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• Newborn ‘Stolen’ From Her Parents Is Reunited With Relatives 40 Years On

  06-12-2017 17:13
  A woman taken from her mother as a newborn baby has appeared with the campaign group who reunited her with her relatives in Argentina.
  
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• Businesses, unions urge UK and EU to settle citizens' rights for Christmas

  06-12-2017 17:11
  Major British business groups and trade unions called on Wednesday for Britain and the European Union to end the uncertainty around citizens' rights after Brexit and guarantee before Christmas that there will be no change.There must be certainty whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations," a joint statement said.The statement was signed by the heads of the British Chambers of Commerce, Trades Union Congress, Confederation of British Industry, the EEF manufacturers' association and Federatio
  
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