General news

• Daughter of executed British aid worker says 'The Beatles' jihadis should 'rot in Guantanamo Bay'

  31-03-2018 23:44
  The daughter of a British aid worker who was executed by Islamic State has said his alleged killers should be "left to rot in Guantanamo Bay".Bethany Haines has been angered by claims from Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh that they will not get a fair trial after being stripped of their UK citizenship.The jihadists, who are accused of being part of a death squad nicknamed "The Beatles" because of their British accents, slammed the Government's "illegal" decision in an interview on Saturday.
  
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• Britain and Russia lock horns as Moscow cuts UK diplomats

  31-03-2018 23:43
  Moscow has told Britain it must cut just over 50 more of its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia as a standoff deepened over the poisoning of a Russian former spy and his daughter in England, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.Moscow also demanded an official explanation for the search of a Russian passenger plane in London, saying it reserved the right to act similarly against British airlines in Russia.Britain said the search was routine.
  
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• Hundreds Gather Outside Hawking's Funeral

  31-03-2018 23:37
  Hundreds of people lined the streets of the English city of Cambridge on Saturday to honor renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking outside St. Mary the Great church where his funeral was held. (March 31)
  
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• Saturday Night Takeaway: Dec hosts without Ant

  31-03-2018 23:29 via bbc.co.uk
  Dec jokes he has "twice the amount of work to do" as he hosts without Ant after his drink-drive charge.
  
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• Five takeaways from Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway without Ant

  31-03-2018 23:19 via bbc.co.uk
  How did Declan Donnelly do presenting without his on-screen partner of 30 years, Ant McPartlin?
  
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• Saturday Night Takeaway: lonely Dec takes centre stage

  31-03-2018 23:13 via theguardian.com
  Declan Donnelly flies solo in a show that subtly acknowledges the elephant in the studio“I’ve got twice the amount of work to do,” said Declan Donnelly, welcoming the ITV audience tonight at 7pm. “Thanks for all the support!” he signed off at 8.30pm. These were small references to a situation so big, in television terms, that it would have seemed fitting if the commercial breaks had contained ads for a supermarket called only Marks or Spencer and a fashion line made
  
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• Leading Jewish donor ditches Labour over antisemitism

  31-03-2018 23:00 via theguardian.com
  Sir David Garrard voices dismay at party leadership’s conduct, while top official quits NEC after criticismOne of Labour’s biggest private donors has said he no longer feels “any affinity or connection” with the party, and accuses its leadership of failing in its response to “the most blatant acts of antisemitism”.As Labour struggles to quell a renewed outcry over the issue, Sir David Garrard, who has donated about £1.5m since 2003, said the party he had
  
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• Women found dead six hours after Basingstoke crash 'were amazing'

  31-03-2018 22:44 via bbc.co.uk
  Ella Alford and Aimee Clayton, both 18, were found dead more than six hours after the crash.
  
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• Nods to Ant's absence as Dec presents Saturday Night Takeaway solo

  31-03-2018 22:34
  Declan Donnelly nodded to longterm co-presenter and friend Ant McPartlin's absence as he hosted Saturday Night Takeaway for the first time on his own.The decision for Donnelly to front the last two episodes of the series on his own came after McPartlin was charged with drink-driving over a collision in south west London.Teasing that he had "twice as much work to do", Donnelly introduced actor Stephen Merchant as the show's announcer following a performance by Paloma Faith.
  
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• Spy case: Russia, US envoys leave Washington, St. Petersburg

  31-03-2018 22:26
  MOSCOW (AP) — Russian diplomats and their families climbed aboard buses and left their embassy in Washington on Saturday while across the Atlantic, American envoys took down the flag from outside the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg, loaded up boxes, closed the office down and headed home.
  
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• Industry planning jobs cull to offset Brexit

  31-03-2018 22:00
  A fifth of firms are planning to lay off workers to cope with the costs of Brexit, they say.More than a fifth of manufacturing firms are planning to lay off workers to cope with the costs of Brexit, according to a survey that suggests the sector is already losing business.Unions warned companies not to use Brexit as “an excuse to lay people off”.
  
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• AggregateIQ: the obscure Canadian tech firm and the Brexit data riddle

  31-03-2018 22:00 via theguardian.com
  Documents released last week shed more light on the puzzle of the company’s links to Cambridge Analytica‘Find Christopher Wylie.” That instruction – 13 months ago – came from the very first ex-Cambridge Analytica employee I met. He was unequivocal. Wylie would have answers to the two questions that were troubling me most. He could tell me about Facebook. And he would know about Canada.What Christopher Wylie knows about Facebook, the world now knows. Facebook certain
  
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• Spy poisoning: UK plays down Russia complaint at plane search

  31-03-2018 21:44 via bbc.co.uk
  The UK says the search of an Aeroflot plane at Heathrow was routine - illegal says Russia.
  
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• Rory McIlroy: ‘I’m not due anything, the Masters won’t just fall in your lap’

  31-03-2018 21:00 via theguardian.com
  Northern Irishman has no time for those who say it is his destiny to wear the Green Jacket but his recent form gives the four-times major winner cause for optimismRory McIlroy is aware of the allegation but the rebuttal is firm. Mitigating circumstances aren’t typically factored in when a wait for a major championship victory stretching back to August 2014 – and an inability to capture the Masters – are discussed. To the dissenters, McIlroy has it too easy. Fame, money and marr
  
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• Tesla car that crashed and killed driver was running on Autopilot, firm says

  31-03-2018 20:40 via theguardian.com
  Company says driver took no action despite system’s warningsUber settles with family of woman killed by self-driving carTesla has said a car that crashed in California last week, killing its driver, was operating on Autopilot. Related: Exclusive: Arizona governor and Uber kept self-driving program secret, emails revealContinue reading...
  
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• Teachers' unions vote for strike action over government pay cap

  31-03-2018 20:39 via theguardian.com
  Branches of NEU and NASUWT teachers’ unions move towards industrial action to lift 1% capBritain’s two major teaching unions have started the clock ticking on industrial action for schools in England and Wales after votes at conferences in Birmingham and Brighton.Delegates at the National Education Union (NEU), the section of the newly merged union formerly known as the National Union of Teachers, backed a motion in Brighton to proceed to a ballot of members over possible strikes. Co
  
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• Christine Shawcroft Resigns From Labour's National Executive Committee

  31-03-2018 20:39
  Christine Shawcroft has resigned from Labour's National Executive Committee
  
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• Russian tycoon Magomedov arrested on embezzlement charges

  31-03-2018 20:37
  Russian authorities on Saturday arrested billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov on charges of embezzling more than $35 million (24.99 million pounds), in one of the highest-profile prosecutions of a Russian tycoon in years.The day before he was detained, he had booked a flight from Moscow to Miami, the judge said.
  
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• Telford authorities 'still failing to tackle child abuse' amid grooming investigation

  31-03-2018 20:16
  Sky News has seen a file of documents given to the Home Office which the local MP claims demonstrates authorities in Telford are still failing to tackle child abuse.MP for Telford Lucy Allan says the evidence she's complied from victims and their families shows "a failure to understand the nature of grooming" by the local police and the Crown Prosecution Service.Last Monday, it was announced that the National Independent Inquiry into Child Exploitation will speak to victims in Telford as part of
  
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• UK-Russia standoff deepens as Moscow cuts UK diplomats

  31-03-2018 19:53
  Moscow has told Britain it must cut just over 50 more of its diplomatic and technical staff in Russia in a worsening standoff over the poisoning of a Russian former spy and his daughter in England, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.Separately, Moscow also demanded an official explanation for the search of a Russian passenger plane in London, saying it could reserve the right to act similarly against British airlines in Russia.Britain said the search was routine.
  
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• UK minister says routine for plane to be searched after Russia demands explanation

  31-03-2018 19:53
  EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain said on Saturday it was routine for border officials to search aircraft, after Russia said Moscow would demand an official explanation why a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane was searched at London's Heathrow airport on Friday.
  
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• The Gaza Strip mourns its dead after protest is met with bullets

  31-03-2018 19:47 via theguardian.com
  Day of funerals and anger in wake of Israeli sniper fire as Palestinians demand ‘revenge’
  Opinion: How Gaza clashes could ignite flashpoints all over the Middle East
  The Gaza Strip is reeling from the bloodiest episode in years after Israeli forces killed more than a dozen people during demonstrations near the frontier. Gazans had gathered as part of a “Great March of Return” protest demanding refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to their ancestral homes in
  
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• Locals share their memories at Stephen Hawking’s funeral

  31-03-2018 19:35 via theguardian.com
  Huge turnout at service, as those who knew him reminisce about the great physicistRain had been promised but, as with many of the gloomiest predictions made for the young Stephen Hawking, the threatened deluge did not come.Indeed, despite the solemnity of the occasion, the Cambridge funeral of a man who throughout his life seemed to command as much admiration from the lay public as from his academic peers was something of a celebration. Continue reading...
  
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• British SAS soldier killed by IS in Syria named as Sergeant Matt Tonroe

  31-03-2018 19:14
  A British special forces soldier killed during an anti-Islamic State operation in Syria has been described as "daring and fearless".Sergeant Matt Tonroe, from the 3rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, died in an improvised explosive device blast on Thursday while embedded with US forces.The roadside bomb in northern Syria also killed an American serviceman, and wounded five others.
  
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• British soldier Matt Tonroe killed by a bomb while fighting Isis in Syria is named

  31-03-2018 19:03 via theguardian.com
  Sgt Matt Tonroe, who was embedded with US forces, praised as ‘daring and fearless’A British soldier who was killed by an roadside improvised explosive device while fighting against Islamic State in Syria has been named as Sgt Matt Tonroe.The 33-year-old, who was embedded with US forces, died alongside an American soldier during an operation in Manbij, northern Syria on Thursday. Later on Saturday he was named by the US Defense Department as Master Sgt Johnathan J Dunbar from Austin,
  
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• Nabihah Iqbal: ‘What’s the point being me if I’m going to keep quiet?’

  31-03-2018 19:00 via theguardian.com
  The lawyer turned outspoken creator of multifaceted guitar-based pop is a trailblazer for Asian women in rock. Just don’t make assumptions about her music based on ethnicity, she says“Growing up,” says Nabihah Iqbal, “my parents always made a big effort to make sure we did a lot of extracurricular activities and creative stuff – but I don’t think they actually envisaged any of us would then pursue that as a career.”Shaking yourself free of Asian stereoty
  
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• Stephen Hawking funeral: Eddie Redmayne leads tributes to physicist

  31-03-2018 18:56
  Eddie Redmayne has led the tributes to Professor Stephen Hawking at the world-famous physicist's funeral in Cambridge.The actor, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Professor Hawking in the 2014 biopic The Theory of Everything, gave a reading at the private service, attended by 500 guests.Professor Hawking's children, Tim, Robert and Lucy, were among those at the service, along with celebrities including model Lily Cole, Queen guitarist Brian May and comedian Dara O Briain, who made a document
  
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• Fox News host Laura Ingraham takes week off after David Hogg comments

  31-03-2018 18:45 via theguardian.com
  11 companies boycott The Ingraham Angle over Twitter attackNaomi Wadler: the 11-year-old helping lead a protest movementThe Fox News host Laura Ingraham announced late on Friday that she would take the next week off, after 11 advertisers dropped her show over her mockery of a teenage survivor of the Florida school shooting. Related: Florida school shooting survivors march on unfazed by personal attacksContinue reading...
  
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• British Soldier Killed In Syria Named As Sergeant Matt Tonroe

  31-03-2018 18:41
  A British solider killed in Syria has been named by the Ministry of Defence as
  
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• UK soldier killed fighting IS in Syria named as Sgt Matt Tonroe

  31-03-2018 18:26 via bbc.co.uk
  Sgt Matt Tonroe, from the 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, died in action on 29 March.
  
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• Special forces soldier killed in Syria

  31-03-2018 18:20
  British special forces solder killed in Syria IED explosion
  
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• Russian tycoon Magomedov to stay in pre-trial custody until May

  31-03-2018 18:13
  MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Moscow court ordered on Saturday that Ziyavudin Magomedov, co-owner of Russia's Summa group, remain in pre-trial custody until May 30 over suspected embezzlement case.
  
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• Alex Salmond's LBC Show Ends - But He Continues To Host RT Slot Despite Criticism

  31-03-2018 18:09
  Alex Salmond's political debate show on LBC has come to an end after just six
  
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• Why two brains are better than one

  31-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  A radical technique that makes mature cells act like stem cells is growing a mini brain from tissue I donated. One day it could produce whole organs for transplantLast week, I was told my other brain is fully grown. It doesn’t look like much. A blob of pale flesh about the size of a small pea, it floats in a bath of blood-red nutrient. It would fit into the cranium of a foetus barely a month old.Still, it’s a “brain” after a fashion and it’s made from me. From a pie
  
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• Dressed in excess: people put on all their clothes – in pictures

  31-03-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Canadian photographer Libby Oliver’s striking portrait series, Soft Shells, is a playful exploration of how people express themselves through clothes. It features individuals swathed in every item from their wardrobe, flashes of body parts only just visible. “Clothing is an immediate social cue,” Oliver says, “and one of the few things we have visual control over with ourselves.” The subjects range from Ava, four, to Oliver’s grandma Florence, who is 88. Olive
  
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• Jihadist 'Beatles' complain they will not be given fair trial

  31-03-2018 15:52 via theguardian.com
  British pair refuse to address allegations they were part of Isis cell that beheaded hostagesTwo British militants believed to have been part of an Islamic State cell notorious for beheading hostages in Syria have complained they will not be given a fair trial. The men, along with two other British jihadists, allegedly made up the Isis cell nicknamed “the Beatles” by surviving captives because of their English accents.Continue reading...
  
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• Stephen Hawking Applauded By Hundreds Who Line The Streets Ahead Of His Cambridge Funeral

  31-03-2018 15:46
  Hundreds of people have lined the streets of Cambridge ahead of Stephen
  
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• Stephen Hawking Applauded By Hundreds Lining The Streets For His Cambridge Funeral

  31-03-2018 15:46
  Hundreds of people have lined the streets of Cambridge ahead of Stephen
  
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• Easter Weather Forecast Predicts Rain And Even Snow Over The Weekend

  31-03-2018 15:41
  If you were hoping for some Easter sunshine this weekend, we've got some bad
  
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• Lord Sugar deletes tweet showing Corbyn next to Hitler after backlash

  31-03-2018 15:32
  Former Labour peer Lord Sugar has taken down a tweet showing Jeremy Corbyn in a car next to Hitler after it sparked a Twitter row.Shadow chancellor John McDonnell had called on him to "delete and disown" the tweet.
  
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• Dec 'to deliver emotional message' to partner Ant on TV

  31-03-2018 15:19
  Declan Donnelly is expected to deliver an emotional message of support to his friend and erstwhile co-host Ant McPartlin on tonight's Saturday Night Takeaway.The show will begin with Donnelly addressing what insiders have described as the "elephant in the room", a source told the Daily Express.ITV said it has no comment on the claim but what will be said during tonight's show will be finalised during the afternoon's script meetings.
  
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• Restaurant chains still force waiting staff to give up some tips

  31-03-2018 14:58 via theguardian.com
  Practices persist as restaurants struggle with weak consumer spending and higher minimum wageThe government has come under renewed pressure to crack down on restaurants that ask waiters to hand over some or all of their tips. As restaurateurs feel the pinch from a combination of the rise in the national minimum wage, increased competition and flagging consumer spending, there is concern that some are using a variety of methods to withhold tips from staff.These include: requiring waiters to pay a
  
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• Foreign Office considers Russian consular access to Yulia Skripal

  31-03-2018 14:17
  Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned in Salisbury, is no longer in critical condition.The Foreign Office has said it is considering Russia’s request for consular access to Yulia Skripal as a fresh row develops over why British authorities searched a Russian aircraft travelling from Moscow to London on Friday.Russia’s transport ministry said it would demand an official explanation from the UK government for why a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane was searched by authorities at Heathrow on F
  
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• 'Never again': how 11-year old Naomi Wadler became a rallying voice of black protest

  31-03-2018 14:09 via theguardian.com
  After making a global impact at the March for Our Lives last weekend, Naomi Wadler and her mother retreated to a beach house. They spoke to the Guardian about activism and gun deathsWhen 11-year-old Naomi Wadler gave a speech at last weekend’s March for Our Lives in Washington about the importance of remembering the lives of black women and girls lost to gun violence, the reaction was intense and immediate. Related: 'Haunting' school shooter drills become the new normal in US schoolsContin
  
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• Catalan academic facing extradition draws record crowdfunding appeal

  31-03-2018 13:10
  Carla Ponsati arrives to hand herself in at a police station in Edinburgh.The crowdfunding appeal established to assist the former Catalan minister Professor Carla Ponsati in her fight with the Spanish government against extradition is believed to have set a new record.Ponsati was granted bail at Edinburgh sheriff court last Wednesday after the Madrid authorities issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) charging her with “violent rebellion” and “misappropriation of public funds&r
  
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• Foreign Office 'Considering' Russian Embassy Demand To See Poisoning Victim Yulia Skripal

  31-03-2018 13:03
  The Foreign Office has said it is considering a request from Russia to see
  
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• The big picture: Easter Sunday, 1958

  31-03-2018 13:00 via theguardian.com
  The late Observer photographer Jane Bown turns her natural eye for studies of children to a moment of seasonal longingJane Bown took this picture for the Observer’s Easter Sunday paper exactly 60 years ago. It shared the front page with a couple of stories. One reported on the unseasonable holiday weather, the 1958 equivalent of the “beast from the east”, with a forecast that included “snow, sleet, rain, ice, flooding and fog”.The other dwelt on the previous day&rsq
  
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• Florida school shooting survivors march on unfazed by personal attacks

  31-03-2018 13:00 via theguardian.com
  In the week since the March for Our Lives student activists have rebuffed claims of a secret plan to repeal the second amendment Naomi Wadler: the 11-year-old helping lead a protest movementIn the week since they organized a worldwide protest against gun violence, student survivors of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, have faced personal attacks and accusations that they want to repeal the second amendment. Related: 'Haunting' school shooter drills become the new normal in US schoolsContinue re
  
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• Call to extend HPV vaccine to boys as cancer rates soar

  31-03-2018 12:57
  Health officials will come under increasing pressure to extend vaccination against the cancer-causing human papilloma virus to young men.Doctors say new figures, to be released in a few weeks, will show that rates of head and neck cancers in men are now rising so quickly that it is imperative the policy is reversed.At present, in Britain, only young women are offered the HPV vaccine, which protects them against cervical cancer.
  
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• UK considering Russian consular access to Yulia Skripal as Russia expels more UK diplomats

  31-03-2018 12:17
  The UK government is considering allowing Russian officials to visit Yulia Skripal, who is recovering in hospital along with her father Sergei after a nerve agent attack.Ms Skripal is understood to beconscious and talking having been poisoned with novichokwhile visiting her father in Salisbury.Police are treating as attempted murder the attack, which has provoked a worldwide diplomatic spat as Western nations have joined the UK in expelling Russian officials in response.
  
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