General news

• Arctic has warmest winter on record: 'Never seen anything like this'

  06-03-2018 23:46 via theguardian.com
  Sea ice has hit record lows for time of year as experts say global warming probably fueled big storms in Europe and north-eastern US The Arctic winter has ended with more news that is worrying even the scientists who watch the effects of climate change closely. The region experienced its warmest winter on record. Sea ice hit record lows for the time of year, new US weather data revealed on Tuesday. Continue reading...
  
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• Rugby League star Scott Moore jailed after high speed chase and police assaults

  06-03-2018 23:42
  A Rugby League star who was tasered six times after a 150mph car chase has been jailed.Scott Moore was repeatedly hit with a 50,000-volt stun gun but got back to his feet to charge at police, Bolton Crown Court heard.The 30-year-old, who became the youngest ever Super League player when he played for St Helens aged just 16, fought off officers who struggled to arrest him for 50 minutes.
  
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• Russian spy: Boris Johnson warns Kremlin over Salisbury incident

  06-03-2018 23:37 via bbc.co.uk
  Sergei Skripal and his daughter remain critically ill as relatives say he feared for his safety.
  
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• Whistleblower: ‘I stole politicians’ rubbish’

  06-03-2018 23:36 via bbc.co.uk
  A former private investigator has spoken out about criminal activity he was involved in while obtaining information for newspapers including the Sunday Times.
  
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• Royal welcome and noisy protests await Saudi crown prince on UK trip

  06-03-2018 23:35
  Britain's grand welcome for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will begin on Wednesday with a lunch with Queen Elizabeth, as the two countries seek to widen longstanding defence ties into a far-reaching partnership.Both sense an opportunity to broaden their existing relationship: Britain is looking for trading partners as it exits the European Union, and Saudi Arabia needs to convince sceptical investors about its domestic reforms.
  
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• Hammond - sceptics are wrong to say banks can't be in Brexit deal

  06-03-2018 23:33
  British Chancellor Philip Hammond will tell the European Union on Wednesday that it must drop its tough stance on the City of London and allow financial services to be part of Britain's post-Brexit trade deal with the bloc.Brussels has so far refused to let Britain pick and choose the parts of the EU's single market to which it can continue to have free access, chief among them the United Kingdom's large financial services industry.
  
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• Brexit deal: Hammond says financial services will not be frozen out

  06-03-2018 23:30
  The City of London’s financial services will not be frozen out of a post-Brexit trade deal, the chancellor claimed.Philip Hammond will insist on Wednesday that Britain can overcome EU opposition and include financial services in a post-Brexit free trade deal.The chancellor is expected to use a speech in the City to challenge the idea – voiced strongly by France’s finance minister on Tuesday – that financial services have never been included in trade deals because of their
  
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• Investigator 'targeted politicians' for Sunday Times stories

  06-03-2018 23:26 via bbc.co.uk
  John Ford says he targeted Tony Blair and Gordon Brown when they were in government.
  
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• Sergei Skripal: Anti-terror police lead poisoned spy investigation

  06-03-2018 22:42
  Theresa May has chaired a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the suspected poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.The PM and senior ministers were updated on the investigation following another meeting of senior government officials earlier in the day, Downing Street said.As inquiries continued on Tuesday, emergency services attended a business park in Amesbury, north of Salisbury.
  
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• Spanish tourist dead after London hotel 'gas leak'

  06-03-2018 21:54 via bbc.co.uk
  A Spanish man dies and a second, thought to have been in the same room, is in a critical condition.
  
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• Harriet Harman hails the rise of 'Tory feminist' MPs

  06-03-2018 21:42
  Harriet Harman also highlighted the increasing number of male MPs supportive of women’s issues.Harriet Harman has claimed that the arrival in parliament of a fresh generation of “Tory feminist” MPs alongside men with modern attitudes has the power to boost the women’s rights movement.The Labour MP, who has been parliament’s leading feminist advocate for decades, said the changing nature of female Conservative politicians from the “doughty tweedy matrons”
  
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• This story about cornbread proves friendship can blossom in the most unlikely of places

  06-03-2018 21:39
  Food is the best way to make friends.
  
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• Floyd Landis scorns Bradley Wiggins over claim as Sutton turns up heat

  06-03-2018 21:35 via theguardian.com
  • Landis says Team Sky chief Brailsford must take responsibility
  • Shane Sutton calls on Wiggins to explain what drugs he tookFloyd Landis, the one-time doper turned informant, has called for Sir Bradley Wiggins to be stripped of his 2012 Tour de France title. The American delivered a scathing assessment of the former Olympic champion and Sir Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky principal, who remained silent amid further calls for his resignation.That came as Shane Sutton, a former Team Sky
  
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• Fraudsters jailed for £37m copycat web scam

  06-03-2018 21:31 via bbc.co.uk
  The group, including a husband and wife, sold passports and birth certificates to fund a lavish lifestyle.
  
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• Factbox - From polonium to a poisoned umbrella: mysterious fates of Kremlin foes

  06-03-2018 20:39
  Britain has warned of a robust response if it finds evidence ofRussian involvement in the collapse of a former Russian agent convicted of betraying dozens of spies to British intelligence.Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, are critically ill after being exposed to what police called an unknown substance.Russia's embassy in London has expressed concern about British media reporting of the incident, which has included suggestions that Skripal and his daughter were poisoned.
  
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• Boris Johnson called pathetic over 2018 Russia World Cup threat

  06-03-2018 20:37
  Boris Johnson has been criticised as "pathetic" over his response to the apparent poisoning of a former Russian spy, after he appeared to suggest England could pull out of this summer's World Cup.The Foreign Secretary told MPs on Tuesday it is "very difficult to imagine how UK representation at that event could go ahead in the normal way", if there is shown to be state responsibility around Sergei Skripal and his daughter who were found unconscious in a shopping centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire, o
  
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• Grenfell survivor sentenced after drugs factory found in flat

  06-03-2018 20:30 via bbc.co.uk
  Officers combing the burnt-out tower block found a cannabis oil factory in Eamon Zada's flat.
  
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• Oxford University blocks staff attempts to challenge pension cuts

  06-03-2018 20:25 via theguardian.com
  Arcane procedures used to halt move to debate proposals that sparked universities strikeThe University of Oxford has blocked attempts by staff to debate pension proposals that have sparked industrial action on campuses across the UK, to cries of “Shame!” from academics.As the strike by members of the University and College Union (UCU) entered its eighth day, Oxford’s arcane procedures were used to halts efforts to force a resolution on the proposals to downgrade staff pensions
  
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• May 'double cherry-picking' on Brexit, says leaked EU report

  06-03-2018 20:24
  A Whitehall source said the document was ‘highly misleading’. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AFP/Getty Images
  
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• Salisbury, scratchcards and sausage: the quiet life of Sergei Skripal

  06-03-2018 20:13
  Sergei Skripal has lived a quiet and modest, but not completely hidden life, in the cathedral city of Salisbury.Skripal, who drives a BMW, shopped for Polish sausage at the Bargain Stop convenience store where he also indulged his love of gambling, buying up to £40-worth of lottery scratchcards at a time.
  
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• Alfie Evans: Decision to remove life support upheld by judge

  06-03-2018 19:57 via bbc.co.uk
  The Court of Appeal rules doctors can stop treating seriously ill 21-month-old Alfie Evans.
  
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• YNAP in line with five-year plan, core profit margins to rise in 2018 - CEO

  06-03-2018 19:52
  Yoox Net-A-Porter (YNAP)is in line with its five-year plan and core profit margins will rise 30-70 basis points in 2018, as revenue is lifted by sales through mobiles and in the Middle East, the group's chief executive said on Tuesday."(The results) in 2017 and the outlook for 2018 put us on track to meet our five-year plan target and we expect an improvement in adjusted core profit margin between 30-70 basis points this year," CEO Federico Marchetti told Reuters in an interview ahead of the gro
  
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• Russia says Britain's allegations on Skripal incident "groundless"

  06-03-2018 19:35
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Ministry rejected as "groundless" Britain's allegations on Tuesday that Moscow may be involved in a mysterious illness that struck down a former Russian spy, the TASS news agency reported.
  
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• European court rejects appeal in Isaiah Haastrup life support case

  06-03-2018 19:27
  An 11th-hour appeal to European court judges by the father of the profoundly brain-damaged baby Isaiah Haastrup to try to prevent doctors from withdrawing his son’s life-sustaining treatment has failed.The European court of human rights ruled inadmissible the appeal to overturn a UK court ruling that the one-year-old could be removed from the ventilator that has kept him alive since birth.Three ECHR judges made the ruling on Tuesday after treating the case as a priority.
  
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• Sergei Skripal: Theresa May chairs poisoned spy security meeting

  06-03-2018 19:21
  Theresa May has chaired a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the suspected poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.The PM and senior ministers were updated on the investigation following another meeting of senior government officials earlier in the day, Downing Street said.
  
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• Rugby player Scott Moore jailed after high-speed chase and assaults on police

  06-03-2018 19:21 via bbc.co.uk
  Police officers had never "been so scared nor witnessed such a violent individual" as Scott Moore.
  
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• Nicola Sturgeon calls on Mark McDonald to quit as MSP

  06-03-2018 19:16 via bbc.co.uk
  Mr McDonald has resigned from the SNP over his conduct towards women, but wants to remain as an independent MSP.
  
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• Six jailed for running £37m 'copycat website' fraud

  06-03-2018 19:15 via theguardian.com
  Thousands of people tricked into buying documents such as UK passports from fake sitesSix people have been given jail sentences after defrauding the public out of more than £37m in one of the largest UK online crime cases brought to court.The group set up and operated a number of “copycat websites”, which impersonated official government services to sell passports, driving licences and other key documents for hugely inflated prices. The convictions and sentences followed one of
  
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• Six jailed for running £37m 'copycat website' fraud

  06-03-2018 19:15
  Key documents such as British passports were sold at high prices in the long-running scam.Six people have been given jail sentences after defrauding the public out of more than £37m in one of the largest UK online crime cases brought to court.The group set up and operated a number of “copycat websites”, which impersonated official government services to sell passports, driving licences and other key documents for hugely inflated prices.
  
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• Sergei Skripal: Theresa May chairs 'poisoned spy' security meeting

  06-03-2018 19:14
  Theresa May has chaired a meeting of the National Security Council to discuss the suspected poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.The PM and senior ministers were updated on the investigation following another meeting of senior government officials earlier in the day, Downing Street said.
  
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• Water shortage: Suppliers 'need to up their game' during bad weather

  06-03-2018 19:11
  An investigation will be launched into how water companies handled last week's bad weather after thousands of homes were left without their water supply.The environment minister said the review would consider whether statutory compensation should be paid, adding water companies should consider how they can reimburse customers on a discretionary basis.Water shortages caused by burst pipes have led to problems for thousands of properties and the closure of Jaguar Land Rover and Cadbury plants in t
  
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• Nicola Sturgeon calls on Mark McDonald to resign as MSP

  06-03-2018 19:05
  Mark McDonald was suspended by the SNP in November following allegations by three women.Nicola Sturgeon has urged her former childcare minister Mark McDonald to stand down as an MSP after he resigned from her party over inappropriate behaviour but refused to quit Holyrood.McDonald announced on Thursday he had left the Scottish National party after three women accused him of unwanted and inappropriate behaviour, but he insisted he would stay on an independent MSP for Aberdeen Donside.
  
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• EU cool towards British "associate membership" in bloc's agencies

  06-03-2018 18:59
  The European Union is cool to the idea of Britain's "associate membership" in various agencies of the bloc as proposed by London to make Brexit less disruptive for British business, with officials saying the approach boils down to cherry picking.Britain started a process to leave the EU last year because it no longer wants to accept the authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the free movement of workers and does not want to contribute to the EU budget.
  
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• BrewDog's mock Pink IPA 'beer for girls' splits opinion

  06-03-2018 18:48 via bbc.co.uk
  The brewer releases a spoof 'beer for girls', promising to give some of its profits to women's charities.
  
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• Salad days: what’s life like following the new calorie guidelines?

  06-03-2018 18:47 via theguardian.com
  The latest recommendations from Public Health England are to eat 400kcal for breakfast and 600kcal for lunch and dinner each – but it’s not as meagre as it soundsPublic Health England’s new calorie guidelines – 400kcal for breakfast, 600kcal each for lunch and dinner – put me right off my 474kcal bowl of muesli this morning. Especially when I found out I could have had a butter croissant, which has a mere 309kcal. Related: Food makers told to cut calories by 20% by
  
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• Lorry driver Ryszard Masierak guilty over fatal M1 crash

  06-03-2018 18:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Eight people died in the crash between two lorries and a minibus last August.
  
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• M1 minibus crash: Lorry driver Ryszard Masierak guilty of death by dangerous driving

  06-03-2018 18:45
  A lorry driver involved in a crash that killed eight people in a minibus on the M1 has been convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.The jury reached unanimous verdicts against Ryszard Masierak, a Polish national, after almost nine hours of deliberations.Another lorry driver, David Wagstaff, also faces eight counts of death by dangerous driving and four counts of serious injury by dangerous driving.
  
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• The recycling industry's £2.8bn problem

  06-03-2018 18:26 via bbc.co.uk
  In England, the packaging industry contributes less than 10% of the £2.8bn needed to recycle their plastics.
  
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• Boris Johnson 'pathetic' over 2018 Russia World Cup threat

  06-03-2018 18:23
  Boris Johnson has been criticised as "pathetic" over his response to the apparent poisoning of a former Russian spy, after he appeared to suggest England could pull out of this summer's World Cup.The Foreign Secretary told MPs on Tuesday it is "very difficult to imagine how UK representation at that event could go ahead in the normal way", if there is shown to be state responsibility around Sergei Skripal and his daughter who were found unconscious in a shopping centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire, o
  
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• UK accused of using 'secretive' deals to sell arms to Saudi Arabia

  06-03-2018 18:22
  The number of open licences for weapons given to Saudi Arabia has increased considerably since Theresa May became Prime Minister, according to government figures analysed by Sky News.During the trip, he will meet Mrs May and senior members of the Royal Family.
  
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• Dead mouse in protein supplement claimant admits lying

  06-03-2018 18:18 via bbc.co.uk
  The rodent could not have been in the Myprotein at delivery, the High Court heard.
  
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• Tom Rebair wins ambassador award after overcoming anorexia

  06-03-2018 18:13 via bbc.co.uk
  Tom Rebair has won a Prince's Trust award for turning his life around after developing anorexia.
  
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• Bill Turnbull reveals he has advanced prostate cancer

  06-03-2018 17:59
  Bill Turnbull is urging people to visit their GP more often after revealing he has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.The TV and radio presenter broke the news to his fans on Twitter, and said he discovered in November that the disease had also spread to the bone - putting him in a "dark chasm".Turnbull, 62, wrote: "I'm receiving excellent treatment including chemotherapy at Royal Marsden NHS and am immensely grateful for the support I've had from colleagues Classic FM, where I continu
  
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• Retired doctor caught with three sub-machine guns at home

  06-03-2018 17:56 via bbc.co.uk
  The former hospital consultant allegedly searched on his laptop for "how to kill someone" before a police raid.
  
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• The 'quintessentially English' home of a Russian spy

  06-03-2018 17:41 via bbc.co.uk
  It's the centre of a modern-day mystery, but what do Salisbury residents make of its new-found fame?
  
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• Twickenham woman killed as family found dead on beach

  06-03-2018 17:36 via bbc.co.uk
  The woman was discovered stabbed an hour after her husband and sons were found dead at the foot of cliffs.
  
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• Inequality at 30,000 feet: is aviation the least progressive industry?

  06-03-2018 17:34 via theguardian.com
  Australian firm Qantas is encouraging staff to be more aware of gender and diversity, but sexist dress-codes and vast pay gaps are still airline staplesHere is a question that has probably never crossed your mind: how woke is aviation? Never, that is, until now. A “political-correctness row” has reportedly errupted at the Australian airline Qantas, whose staff have been advised of language that is more respectful of the LGBTI community and others, as part of a “Spirit of Inclus
  
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• At national security council meeting, May briefed on Salisbury - spokesman

  06-03-2018 17:24
  British Prime Minister Theresa May was briefed at a meeting of the National Security Council on an investigation into a mystery illness that afflicted a former Russian agent, her spokesman said on Tuesday."At a meeting of the national security council this afternoon, the Prime Minister and senior ministers were updated on the ongoing investigation in Salisbury," he told reporters.
  
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• May to hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince at country residence

  06-03-2018 17:03
  Prime Minister Theresa May will hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at her country residence on Thursday, diplomatic sources said, in another sign of the importance with which London is treating his visit.The visit to Chequers, a 16th-century manor house 40 miles (60 km) northwest of London, will be in addition to a previously announced meeting at May's London office on Wednesday, the sources said on Tuesday.Prince Mohammed's visit, part of his first foreign tour as heir appar
  
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• Minister defends threats over Yarl's Wood hunger strike

  06-03-2018 16:55
  The immigration minister has defended the “punitive action” of handing women on hunger strike at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre official letters warning them they could face accelerated deportation if they continue with their protest.Caroline Nokes confirmed that the threat of accelerated deportations was part of official Home Office policy after being challenged in the Commons by the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, who said the letters “sound like punitive d
  
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