General news

• Beating baldness: How men came to terms with hair loss

  09-05-2018 21:50 via bbc.co.uk
  Men who lost their hair early explain how they came to terms with their baldness in different ways.
  
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• Sir Alex Ferguson no longer in intensive care - Manchester United

  09-05-2018 21:27
  Sir Alex Ferguson is no longer in intensive care and will continue recovering in hospital, Manchester United have said.In a tweet, the club wrote: "Sir Alex no longer needs intensive care and will continue rehabilitation as an inpatient.The update comes after the former football manager, 76, had emergency surgery on Saturday after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
  
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• BBC coverage of raid 'made me feel violated'

  09-05-2018 21:15
  Sir Cliff Richard felt "violated and betrayed" by the BBC's decision to broadcast footage of a police search of his apartment.
  
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• Birmingham woman duped daughter into forced marriage, court told

  09-05-2018 21:02
  If the prosecution is successful the case could lead to the first conviction for forced marriage in England.A mother from Birmingham duped her teenage daughter into travelling to Pakistan before forcing her to marry a man 16 years her senior, a court has heard.The woman, who faces two counts of forced marriage and is also charged with perjury, told the 17-year-old girl she was being treated to a family holiday.
  
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• Postwar generations shut out of economic mobility, finds report

  09-05-2018 21:00
  Girls around the world find it easier to improve their economic position than boys do, says study.Children around the world have failed to get a better education than their parents and improve their economic circumstances, so generations of poor people in developing countries are becoming “trapped in a cycle of poverty determined by their circumstance at birth”, says a World Bank report.Economic Mobility across Generations Around the World , successive generations in the postwar era,
  
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• Crocodile attack bride: 'Every day I wake up happy'

  09-05-2018 20:10 via bbc.co.uk
  Zanele got married to her partner Jamie days after losing an arm in a crocodile attack in Zimbabwe.
  
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• Anti-abortion activists cry foul as Google pulls all referendum ads

  09-05-2018 20:09
  Google announced plans on Wednesday to suspend advertisements related to Ireland's May 25 abortion referendum, sparking an angry response from anti-abortion activists who said the move would hurt them most.Google went one step further and said it would not accept any ads related to the referendum, not just those from groups or individuals seeking to sway the vote."Following our update around election integrity efforts globally, we have decided to pause all ads related to the Irish referendum on
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn says Tory divisions over Brexit are a shambles

  09-05-2018 19:59
  Jeremy Corbyn speaks during prime minister’s questions.Jeremy Corbyn sought to exploit Tory divisions over Brexit in the House of Commons on Wednesday, as he accused Theresa May of presiding over a shambles.At prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader said the prime minister had had “23 months to negotiate an agreement” with her cabinet, but was yet to agree what customs arrangement she wants to strike with the EU27 after Brexit.
  
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• Cracks in British nuclear reactor ring power alarm bells

  09-05-2018 19:59
  Cracks in the core of a Scottish nuclear reactor could signal that most of Britain's ageing plants will not be able to supply the country with much needed power for as long as predicted.Nuclear reactors generate just over 20 percent of Britain's electricity and even before EDF Energy said last week it would need to shut down one of two reactors at the Hunterston B plant, almost half of that capacity was scheduled to go offline by 2025."These reactors are over 40 years old.
  
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• Hepatitis B discovered in 4,500-year-old skeleton

  09-05-2018 19:17
  Scientists say their understanding of hepatitis B has been "transformed" after the virus was found in a 4,500-year-old skeleton.Dating from the Bronze Age, it is the oldest evidence of a human virus ever found.It was like "trying to study evolution without fossils", said joint first author Dr Terry Jones from Cambridge University.
  
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• Sunday Telegraph pays damages to mosque chief over Corbyn article

  09-05-2018 18:57
  Corbyn appeared alongside Kozbar last summer following the far-right terrorist attack near the north London mosque.The Sunday Telegraph has paid “substantial damages” to the general secretary of Finsbury Park mosque after it falsely portrayed him as a supporter of violent lslamist extremism as part of a botched attempt to criticise the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.In March 2016 the newspaper published an article headlined: “Corbyn and the mosque leader who blames the UK for Isi
  
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• Memorial garden for Manchester Arena bomb victim opens

  09-05-2018 18:53 via bbc.co.uk
  Nell Jones was one of 22 people who died in the bomb attack at the Manchester Arena last year.
  
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• Data rules threaten 'last avenue' used in thousands of immigration cases

  09-05-2018 18:51
  The Law Society says the proposed change would hamper scrutiny of Home Office decision-making in immigration cases.Tens of thousands of people each year could be prevented from obtaining information about their own immigration status under new data protection powers, Home Office figures reveal.Changes proposed in the data protection bill, which was being debated by MPs on Wednesday, would deprive applicants of a reliable means of obtaining files on themselves from the department through what are
  
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• Schools must teach art, for all our sakes

  09-05-2018 18:49
  A painting class in school. Photograph: Getty Images/Juice Images RF
  
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• Millennials need a fairer society, not a £10k handout

  09-05-2018 18:49
  Policies ‘ensuring an adequate supply of good accommodation for rent and purchase by fixing and regulating the housing market’ would be much more effective in helping younger people than a £10k payment, argues Brenda Allan.The Resolution Foundation’s recommendation to give £10,000 to all young people when they turn 25 (Report, 8 May), irrespective of income, may make a small contribution to reducing generational inequalities, but it is also highly likely to increase
  
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• Angry Ed Miliband demands press inquiry

  09-05-2018 18:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Ed Miliband says the government should implement part two of the Leveson inquiry into press standards.
  
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• Corbyn 2.0 comes out swinging – and floors May with plain English

  09-05-2018 18:43
  Jeremy Corbyn asks Theresa May if she agrees with Boris Johnson that her customs union plan is crazy.At recent prime minister’s questions Jeremy Corbyn’s main achievement has been to make Theresa May appear less hopeless than she really is by failing to speak in joined up sentences or asking questions even he couldn’t understand.All the prime minister had to do to survive unscathed was stand up and answer the question she would like to have been asked.
  
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• Ask The Host: How much help is Jeremy Clarkson's new Millionaire lifeline?

  09-05-2018 18:42 via bbc.co.uk
  The show's reboot sees contestants able to ask Jeremy Clarkson for help. With mixed results.
  
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• Remembering 'Mr Wales', soldiers look forward to Harry and Meghan's big day

  09-05-2018 18:41
  Soldiers involved in the marriage of Britain's Prince Harry to Meghan Markle are no strangers to pomp and pageantry, but for Corporal Major Daniel Snoxell, it's the wedding of an old colleague rather than a royal.The Household Cavalry have a ceremonial role to play in most major royal events, from the opening of parliament to "trooping the colour," a large parade to mark the Queen's official birthday.
  
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• Time's not up: is it too soon for a Marchesa comeback?

  09-05-2018 18:17 via theguardian.com
  At the Met Gala, Scarlett Johansson was the biggest name to wear Marchesa on the red carpet since the Weinstein scandal. Can the brand be rehabilitated from its negative associations?The dress code for Monday’s Met Gala, one of the biggest events in the fashion calendar, was “Sunday best”, with a mind to paying homage to Catholicism and papal robes of yore. And, as ever, celebrities played fast and loose with the theme. One celebrity, however, sidestepped it altogether, eschewi
  
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• CIA pick Gina Haspel repeatedly declines to say if torture techniques are 'immoral' – live

  09-05-2018 18:10 via theguardian.com
  Haspel, Trump’s nominee for CIA director, faces questions over role in interrogations of terror suspects at secret detention site
  Who is Gina Haspel? Trump’s pick for CIA chief linked to torture site5.10pm BST Burr adjourns the hearing by telling Haspel that she “may in fact be the most qualified nominee ever nominated for this role” and says she’s poised to “crack” the glass ceiling at the agency.5.08pm BST Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican who sits on
  
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• Bid for Leveson Two inquiry narrowly defeated

  09-05-2018 18:06
  The Government has narrowly avoided having to commence the second half of the Leveson inquiry into "unlawful" conduct by the press.MPs voted by 304 to 295 to defeat the bid, spearheaded by former Labour leader Ed Miliband.Five Conservative MPs defied the Government and voted for the second half of Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson's inquiry.
  
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• No mohair: why going vegan is as much about fashion as food

  09-05-2018 18:03 via theguardian.com
  The ban on the angora goat wool by major high-street retailers following outrage over animal cruelty in its production highlights how the fashion industry is gradually embracing veganismKnowing where our food comes from – the processes it’s been through, the whys and wherefores – before it lands on our plates, is big business right now. But with veganism firmly on the rise and many of us eager to hop aboard the plant-based train, is something quite crucial to this lifestyle bei
  
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• Elon Musk elected as Fellow of the Royal Society

  09-05-2018 17:52
  Elon Musk has been named among 50 eminent scientists, researchers and engineers as a Fellow of the Royal Society.The Royal Society was founded in November 1660 by King Charles II and is the oldest national scientific institution in the world.Its previous Fellows have included scientists as notable as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Michael Faraday and Albert Einstein.
  
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• NHS will no longer have to share immigrants' data with Home Office

  09-05-2018 17:46
  Ministers are suspending controversial arrangements under which the NHS shares patients’ details with the Home Office so they can trace people breaking immigration rules.The government’s U-turn on a key element of its “hostile environment” approach to immigration came after MPs, doctors’ groups and health organisations warned that the practice was stopping some patients from seeking NHS care for medical problems.Margot James, minister for the Department for Digital,
  
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• NHS will no longer have to share immigrants' data with Home Office

  09-05-2018 17:46 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: minister announces U-turn over key element in ‘hostile environment’ immigration policyMinisters are suspending controversial arrangements under which the NHS shares patients’ details with the Home Office so they can trace people breaking immigration rules.The government’s U-turn on a key element of its “hostile environment” approach to immigration came after MPs, doctors’ groups and health organisations warned that the practice was stopping so
  
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• Arron Banks company provided £12m of services to Leave.EU

  09-05-2018 17:42 via theguardian.com
  ‘Administrative services’ were provided prior to £700,000 spending cap taking effectLeave.EU received more than £12m of campaign services from a company controlled by the businessman Arron Banks, despite its referendum spending being capped at £700,000.A business associate of Banks said the services were provided prior to the referendum spending cap taking effect in April 2016, and therefore entirely legal. Continue reading...
  
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• Settlement in Abdul-Hakim Belhaj rendition case to be announced

  09-05-2018 17:41 via theguardian.com
  Dissident who was kidnapped and sent to Libyan prison had insisted upon an apologyThe British government is understood to be about to settle a long-running compensation claim brought by a husband and wife who were the victims of a so-called rendition operation mounted with the help of MI6.Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife, Fatima Boudchar, have battled for compensation and an apology for more than six years, after papers that came to light during the Libyan revolution revealed the role that Britis
  
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• People-smuggler's son's DNA boosts case that Italian prosecutors have wrong man

  09-05-2018 17:40 via theguardian.com
  Test on Medhanie Yehdego Mered’s son bolsters view that Medhanie Tesfamariam Berhe is wrongly detainedDNA from the three-year-old son of one of the world’s most wanted people-smugglers shows the man who has spent nearly two years in an Italian jail awaiting trial for his crimes is a victim of mistaken identity, lawyers have said.Prosecutors in Sicily, acting with Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), announced the capture of the notorious Eritrean human trafficker Medhanie Yeh
  
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• Undercover police whistleblower joins boycott of inquiry

  09-05-2018 17:39 via theguardian.com
  Peter Francis boycotts public inquiry into undercover policing over judge’s decision to give anonymity to spiesA former undercover police officer who has become a whistleblower has joined a boycott of a public inquiry into the covert infiltration of political groups, saying it was concealing the state’s misconduct.Victims of the undercover spying had previously walked out of the inquiry, criticising the judge leading it for allowing too much of it to be cloaked in secrecy.Continue re
  
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• Goodwood brawl highlights danger of tracks chasing drink-fuelled profits

  09-05-2018 17:38 via theguardian.com
  On social media and internet forums, racecourses stand accused of encouraging a booze culture on their big daysUnless or until some of the 50 or so individuals who were involved in a sickening brawl at Goodwood on Saturday are identified and, hopefully, charged as a result, it is impossible to say with any certainty how an afternoon at what is possibly Britain’s most serenely beautiful track suddenly descended into violence. But there seems little doubt that alcohol was a significant facto
  
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• Theresa May defeats bid to make her launch part two of Leveson inquiry

  09-05-2018 17:36
  Brian Leveson wrote to the government earlier this year insisting the second phase of his inquiry should be ‘commenced as soon as possible’.The government has narrowly defeated a Labour bid to force it to launch the second phase of the Leveson inquiry into press behaviour.MPs were voting on an amendment to the data protection bill tabled by the former Labour leader Ed Miliband.
  
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• Philippe Senderos: ‘Arsenal gave me the opportunity to fulfil a dream’ | Ewan Murray

  09-05-2018 17:30 via theguardian.com
  Houston Dynamo’s defender on Arsène Wenger, the Invincibles and how his early days in Texas were shaped by a hurricaneEight years have passed since Philippe Senderos left Arsenal. Conversation reveals Arsenal will never leave Philippe Senderos. “I am a fan now, I want them to do well,” explains the Swiss centre-back. Related: Arsène Wenger weighs up PSG offer to become general managerContinue reading...
  
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• Revealed: Network Rail's new £800m scheme to remove all 'leaf fall' trees

  09-05-2018 17:21 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: five-year ‘enhanced clearance’ programme targets trees along 20,000 miles of track to avoid delays, according to an internal document Network Rail is to target all “leaf fall” trees for removal alongside its tracks in a new £800m five-year programme of “enhanced clearance”, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.The policy document for 2019-24 emerged as the environment secretary, Michael Gove, summoned the chief executive of N
  
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• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to visit UK this weekend

  09-05-2018 17:18
  Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit the UK on Sunday, it has been confirmed.
  
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• Troubles investigations are skewed against veterans, May says

  09-05-2018 17:15
  Theresa May has given her tacit backing to cabinet ministers concerned that veterans may be unfairly pursued under plans for a new unit to investigate killings in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, calling the current system “patently unfair”.Cabinet ministers are divided over plans for the creation of a historical investigations unit, which the government agreed to establish in 2014 as part of the Stormont House agreement, to investigate the unsolved murders.At Tuesday’s ca
  
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• Lego builds miniature Windsor castle to celebrate royal wedding

  09-05-2018 17:14
  Attraction park Legoland has unveiled a miniature model of this month's royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor castle, built by a team of 11 model-makers who used almost 60,000 pieces of Lego bricks.The replica includes a 60-brick Markle in her wedding dress and veil, with Harry by her side.The couple are riding in a brick-built carriage being drawn by horses along Windsor Great Park's Long Walk towards the castle, surrounded by 500 spectators, recreating the real life proces
  
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• The custardo – this replacement for the affogato won’t take off in Italy, but it works

  09-05-2018 17:10 via theguardian.com
  One shot of espresso, one scoop of custard and – hey presto! – you have a more than acceptable way of getting round the vanilla crisis currently hitting traditional ice-creamAffogato means “drowned” in Italian and, by no coincidence, an affogato is an ice-cream drowned in coffee. A dessert (or drink, depending on your appetite), it usually involves one scoop of vanilla ice-cream and one shot of espresso. Technically speaking, the ice-cream is burned by the espresso, but &
  
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• Mueller investigating payments to Michael Cohen, Swiss drug giant says

  09-05-2018 17:09 via theguardian.com
  Novartis confirms it paid Cohen’s company nearly $400,000 and was questioned by officials from special counsel’s office last yearRobert Mueller, the special counsel, has been investigating payments made by corporations to Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, one of Cohen’s clients said on Wednesday.The Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis said it had been contacted by officials from Mueller’s office in November last year. Continue reading...
  
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• Trevor Noah: Schneiderman tried to jail Weinstein 'while abusing women himself'

  09-05-2018 17:06 via theguardian.com
  Late-night comics addressed the resignation of New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman and Trump’s decision to leave the Iran dealLate-night hosts on Tuesday discussed Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and the resignation of New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, following recent allegations of physical abuse. Related: Eric Schneiderman: New York attorney general resigns following assault allegationsContinue reading...
  
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• The ‘Intellectual Dark Web’ – the supposed thinking wing of the alt-right

  09-05-2018 17:06 via theguardian.com
  Among their number is political correctness scourge Jordan Peterson and controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos – and they feel shut out of mainstream political debate. Unfortunately, some people are listening to themName: the Intellectual Dark Web.Age: Nobody knows. Continue reading...
  
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• The red tops' obsession with Meghan Markle’s father is a warning of the abuse to come | Zoe Williams

  09-05-2018 17:02 via theguardian.com
  Thomas Markle has been an unexpected gift for the UK’s feral press. It may be rosy for his daughter now, but the honeymoon period won’t lastMeghan Markle’s father is the unexpected paparazzi gift of the season; here’s a picture of him in Starbucks, looking up the castles of Great Britain. Here’s one where he’s power-walking with a resistance band for his triceps. Here he is having his not-insignificant waist measured (perhaps for some kind of special-occasion
  
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• The Fiver | Spinning off into hyperspace in flames

  09-05-2018 17:01 via theguardian.com
  Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!The Fiver, five-star to the very core of its being, spends more time than is technically necessary on TripAdvisor, leaving ill-tempered, hot-faced, disproportionate reviews of hotels in the wake of stays deemed unsatisfactory to our exacting standards. Perhaps there had been a long queue at check-in. Maybe the complimentary toiletries were not produced using natural oils and perfumes by an artisan apothecary. Or perhaps the minibar was all out o
  
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• Sherlock Gnomes review – honeymoon's over for the garden ornaments

  09-05-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  This chuckle-worthy sequel to the animated Gnomeo & Juliet is daft and charming, but creative inspiration is running lowWhatever could have led diminutive megastar Elton John to bankroll a series of digimations headlining humble garden gnomes? The fragile tchotchkes debuted in Rocket Pictures’ 2011 venture Gnomeo & Juliet, which offered Ozzy Osbourne voicing an ornamental faun, a soundtrack of childproofed Elton hits, and near-unsurpassable novelty value. This flatly functional seq
  
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• Amy Schumer’s new film shows Hollywood is the Sunken Place for smart women

  09-05-2018 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Schumer claims I Feel Pretty is all about helping women’s self-esteem when it is in fact one long sneer at her and anyone else who doesn’t look like Emily RatajkowskiSo I’ve just seen Amy Schumer’s new film, I Feel Pretty, and I’m confused. What message am I supposed to draw from it?
  Daisy, by emailGlad you asked, Daisy, because there are many lessons to take from I Feel Pretty, but not one of them is the message that the movie itself is promoting. Let’s look
  
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• Britain plays down media report of Hitachi nuclear deal

  09-05-2018 16:43
  LONDON/TOKYO (Reuters) - Britain's government on Wednesday played down a media report that it will guarantee Hitachi Ltd's Horizon Nuclear Power loans for the construction of two reactors in Wales.British Prime Minister Theresa May met Hitachi Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi last week in London and asked him to go ahead with the project, conveying the government's intention to fully guarantee the loans, Japan's Mainichi newspaper paper said, without citing a source."We don't recognise these reports,"
  
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• Meghan Markle waxwork and a wild leopard: Wednesday's best photos – in pictures

  09-05-2018 16:38 via theguardian.com
  Our picture editors select their favourite photos from the past 24 hours Continue reading...
  
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• Currency relief drives German stocks upgrade at Kepler

  09-05-2018 16:33
  Kepler Cheuvreux upgraded German stocks to neutral on Wednesday, saying the drop in the eurothat has already helped European equities outperform recently could bolster earnings expectations."Currency depreciation is already arresting the under-performance of the region's universe of blue chips most dependent upon external markets," said Christopher Potts, head of economics and strategy at the European bank."We think that it is judicious to remove our underweight position in the German market, at
  
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• How 'poster boy' for Romanian migration died at 100mph

  09-05-2018 16:32 via bbc.co.uk
  Victor Spirescu, the first Romanian to come to the UK to work in 2014, drove above 100mph, inquest hears.
  
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• My community is vehemently against Travellers settling on a local common. How can I challenge this?

  09-05-2018 16:30 via theguardian.com
  In this series Poppy Noor discusses an issue concerning how we can build happy, well-run communities. But what do you think? Send us your thoughts and responsesOccasionally Travellers settle on a small common near where I live. There is a playground on the common, but the caravans that were previously here weren’t near it, and didn’t take up much space. I have never noticed any problems when Travellers settle here, but the rest of my community are vehemently against it. They insist t
  
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