General news

• Sir Elton John: 'Prince Harry has inherited Diana's gift'

  08-06-2018 23:55 via bbc.co.uk
  The prince has his mother's ability to "make everyone feel equal", says Sir Elton John.
  
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• Grenfell Tower Firefighters Miss Out On Queen's Birthday Honours Again – Here's Why

  08-06-2018 23:33
  Firefighters and first responders who worked to save lives during the Grenfell
  
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• Why The Queen's Birthday Honours Has Brought New Zealand Sex Workers 'In From The Cold'

  08-06-2018 23:32
  When former sex worker Catherine Healy received a letter asking if she would
  
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• Queen's Birthday Honours 2018 Sees Network Rail Boss Mark Carne Awarded CBE

  08-06-2018 23:30
  Following unprecedented chaos on the railway networks this week, the news that
  
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• Emma Thompson made a dame in Queen's birthday honours

  08-06-2018 23:30
  Emma Thompson attends the 66th Berlinale International Film Festival.One of Britain’s best loved actors, Emma Thompson, has been made a dame in the Queen’s birthday honours list.The gong for Thompson adds to a long list of awards including Oscars, Baftas, Golden Globes and Emmys.
  
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• May orders ministerial 'away-day' to sort out squabbling ministers

  08-06-2018 23:04
  Prime Minister Theresa May will gather together squabbling British ministers at her country residence after this month's European Union summit to hammer out the final details of a much-anticipated Brexit policy paper.With less than a year to go until Britain leaves the European Union, May has yet to agree some of the fundamental details of what type of trading relationship she wants to have with the bloc after Britain leaves in March next year.
  
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• IMF says Argentina fiscal goals are flexible, stocks cheer deal

  08-06-2018 21:11
  Argentina could revise the fiscal targets set as part of a $50 billion (£37.2 billion) financing arrangement with the International Monetary Fund to increase spending on social programs, an IMF director said on Friday.Argentina requested IMF assistance on May 8 after a run on its peso currency in an investor exodus from emerging markets.
  
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• Westminster terror suspect Khalid Ali had skills to make explosives, court told

  08-06-2018 21:09
  A man arrested with three knives by armed police in Westminster had the skills to create explosives, a court has heard.Khalid Ali, 28, was detained at the Parliament Street junction in April last year, a month after Khalid Masood killed five people in the Westminster Bridge attack.Ali is currently on trial at the Old Bailey, accused of preparing acts of terrorism.
  
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• Arron Banks refuses to appear before Commons committee

  08-06-2018 21:01
  Banks had been due to give evidence to MPs next Tuesday, but announced he would not turn up, claiming the digital, culture, media and sport select committee was biased against him.Arron Banks and his Leave.EU colleague Andy Wigmore risk being summoned to give evidence to MPs after the Brexit-backing duo suddenly said they would not appear before a select committee next week, claiming they were victims of a “witch hunt”.“It is perfectly clear that the committee, which comprises
  
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• Met police pose as delivery drivers to combat moped crime

  08-06-2018 21:00
  Deliveroo is among the fast-food delivery companies that have stepped up their cooperation with the Met police.Officers from the Metropolitan police are being disguised as takeaway delivery drivers as part of operations to catch and disrupt moped-riding criminals in London, the Guardian can reveal.The covert tactic forms part of a range of measures deployed by authorities to combat last year’s surge in thefts, robberies and violent crime involving mopeds, when delivery drivers were frequen
  
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• Grenfell emails reveal turmoil at council in aftermath of fire

  08-06-2018 20:50
  Internal emails revealing how the leadership of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea knew they could not cope in the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.Nick Paget-Brown, who later resigned as council leader, complained about a “complete media shitstorm” and another email, sent internally between councillors was titled “Who is in charge?”, according to Channel 4 News, which obtained the corresponden
  
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• Man charged over death of 100-year-old woman in Derby

  08-06-2018 19:48
  A man has been charged with the manslaughter of a 100-year-old woman who died more than a week after she sustained a broken neck in an alleged robbery.Arthur Waszkiewicz, from Derby, will appear at Southern Derbyshire magistrates court on Saturday accused of robbery and the manslaughter of Zofija Kaczan, a widow who reportedly survived a Nazi concentration camp during the second world war.Kaczan was left with multiple injuries including a broken neck, fractured cheekbone and bruising to her face
  
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• Man charged over 100-year-old Zofija Kaczan's mugging death

  08-06-2018 19:48
  A man has been charged with the manslaughter and robbery of 100-year-old Zofija Kaczan, who died after being mugged.
  
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• Northern Irish almost evenly split on whether to remain in the UK - survey

  08-06-2018 19:09
  Nearly as many Northern Irish people would back joining the republic of Ireland as support remaining in the United Kingdom, with Brexit pushing some to switch in favour of unification, according to a poll conducted for the BBC.The future of the border on the island has dominated the Brexit debate in recent weeks with ministers on Thursday finding a compromise on the thorny issue of a backstop Brexit plan for the Irish border.Politics in the province have long been divided between mainly Catholic
  
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• Virgin Trains apologises to Louis Smith after ticket check of black passengers

  08-06-2018 19:04
  Virgin Trains has apologised to Olympic gymnast Louis Smith after he complained that only black passengers had their tickets checked in a first class carriage.Smith claimed he and another black man were the only people asked to prove they had first class tickets by a staff member serving drinks on an East Coast train.The former Strictly Come Dancing contestant posted a series of messages on Twitter about the alleged incident, which he called "interesting and political".
  
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• PM May rebuts foreign minister's Brexit criticism

  08-06-2018 19:03
  LA MALBAIE, Canada (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May reacted defiantly to critical comments by her foreign minister Boris Johnson on Friday, stressing that he was not the only one with strong views on Brexit.
  
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• Arthur Waszkiewicz Charged With Manslaughter Following Death Of 100-Year-Old Zofija Kaczan

  08-06-2018 18:59
  A man has been charged with manslaughter following the death of a 100-year-old
  
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• Geordie Greig: hack who mastered media politics to rise to the top

  08-06-2018 18:45
  Geordie Greig was announced on Thursday as the new editor of the Daily Mail.Geordie Greig first encountered Paul Dacre in the mid-1980s, when the young journalist was working casual shifts at the Daily Mail.Dacre, the news editor at the time, was initially unimpressed by the old Etonian cub reporter and allegedly declared Greig “hadn’t got the Daily Mail sparkle”.
  
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• 'Acerbic and firm': Mary Wilson remembered fondly after death at 102

  08-06-2018 18:38
  The 1960s satirists mocked Mary Wilson as the epitome of middle-class domesticity.“She was an intelligent woman, and a very interesting one,” said Cherie Blair on Friday.Mary Wilson was the epitome of a woman thrust into the public arena without in any way seeking the spotlight.
  
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• Theresa May dismisses leaked recordings of Boris Johnson criticising her Brexit plans

  08-06-2018 18:36
  Speaking to Sky News at the G7 summit in Canada, Mrs May dodged a question about whether Mr Johnson had become "unsackable", but hit back at his assertion that the Irish border issue was "a folly" and that the "tail was wagging the dog"."The issue of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland is very important to the United Kingdom," she said.
  
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• Decrying 'witch hunt' against Brexit-backers, Banks shuns MPs

  08-06-2018 18:30
  Arron Banks, the founder of Brexit campaign group Leave.EU, pulled out of a hearing with a parliamentary committee, saying on Friday it had been conducting a witch hunt of those who want Britain to leave the European Union.Banks and Leave.EU communications chief Andy Wigmore had agreed to appear before it on June 12.The MPs have questioned senior figures from Facebook and Cambridge Analytica as part of its investigation into "fake news" after the data of millions of Facebook users was improperly
  
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• Politics, war and Picasso: David Douglas Duncan's life in pictures

  08-06-2018 18:21 via theguardian.com
  From US Marines in Korean trenches to Picasso in his studio and Nixon deep in thought, the photojournalist captured the tumult of the 1950s and 1960sWar photographer David Douglas Duncan dies aged 102Continue reading...
  
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• SNP delegates rebuke ministers with vote for state-run financing

  08-06-2018 18:17
  Scottish National party delegates have voted heavily to replace privately financed schemes with a state-run infrastructure agency, in an implied rebuke to SNP ministers.The party’s spring conference overwhelmingly supported calls for Scottish ministers to set up a publicly funded infrastructure agency after the Guardian disclosed new evidence that firms in offshore tax havens invest heavily in Scottish government-sponsored building projects.Research for the Guardian and the Ferret website
  
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• UK, U.S. are good friends despite trade row - PM May

  08-06-2018 18:16
  Britain and the United States remain good friends who can talk frankly with each other when they disagree, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Friday ahead of a Group of Sevensummit."The United States and the United Kingdom are good friends.President Trump and I work together," May told Channel 4 News.
  
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• Ageism widespread in UK, study finds

  08-06-2018 18:14
  Ageism is rife in Britain, with millennials holding the most negative attitudes towards ageing, according to a study.A quarter of millennials believe it is normal for older people to be unhappy and depressed, while 40% believe there is no way to escape dementia as you get older, research from the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) shows.“Ageist attitudes abound in society and have a major impact on the public’s health, and yet they are rarely treated with the seriousness they des
  
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• Michel Barnier's jibe at PM as Brexit impasse on Irish border remains

  08-06-2018 18:13
  The EU and UK have failed to move beyond a Brexit impasse after Brussels rejected significant parts of Theresa May's proposed backstop solution to the Irish border issue.Little more than 24 hours after the UK's fresh proposal for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland was published, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier dismissed key elements of the plan.On Thursday, Brexit Secretary David Davis fought the prime minister for clarification of the time-limited nature of the back
  
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• The Queen has surgery to remove cataract from eye

  08-06-2018 18:12
  The Queen had surgery last month to remove a cataract from her eye, Buckingham Palace has said.In recent weeks, the monarch has been seen wearing sunglasses at events including Buckingham Palace garden parties and the Royal Windsor Horse Show.A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye, leading to a decrease in vision.
  
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• Rebels muster as PM May battles for her Brexit vision

  08-06-2018 18:00
  A parliamentary vote on the shape of Britain's relationship with Europe next week is likely to force rebels in Theresa May's government into the open, threatening instability and adding yet another twist to the tortured effort to reach a Brexit deal.MPs are due to vote on June 12 and 13 on amendments to the EU withdrawal bill, which lays out the legal foundation for the biggest transformation in Britain in decades.Nearly two years after Britons voted in a referendum to leave the European Union,P
  
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• Grenfell inquiry: mayor calls for move to venue nearer tower

  08-06-2018 18:00
  The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called for the Grenfell inquiry to be moved closer to the homes of the survivors and bereaved, warning that continuing with hearings in the city’s legal district could undermine confidence in the process.The first phase of the inquiry started this week at Holborn Bars, close to the offices of many of the dozens of solicitors and barristers involved.Survivors have complained that it is too far away and that some cannot travel there by London underground
  
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• Chinese nuclear plant developer will not seek UK state investment

  08-06-2018 17:58
  A planned nuclear plant to the east of London will not require state investment, the Chinese company building it said after the British government was criticised for helping another project."It is not our plan to seek direct investment from the UK government for Bradwell B," Robert Davies, chief operating officer of CGN UK, a UK subsidiary of China's General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), told Reuters.
  
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• 'More questions than answers' in UK Brexit offer - Barnier

  08-06-2018 17:49
  EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday a British proposal for avoiding border problems with Ireland after Brexit "raises more questions than answers" but was still welcome progress toward solutions.A day after British Prime Minister Theresa May said she could keep the whole United Kingdom within the EU customs area for up to an extra year after Britain leaves in March, Barnier dismissed any time-limit.
  
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• Barnier criticises May's UK-wide Brexit backstop plan

  08-06-2018 17:48
  Michel Barnier said the backstop offer made over Northern Ireland in March was ‘exceptional’ and could not be extended.Michel Barnier has warned that Theresa May’s backstop solution to avoid a border on the island of Ireland raises “more questions than answers” as he ruled out the whole of the UK staying in the customs union and key parts of the single market after Brexit.“Backstop means backstop,” the EU’s chief negotiator told a press conference
  
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• Chaos on the railways entirely predictable

  08-06-2018 17:36
  The debacle with new railway timetables is entirely of the Tory government’s own making (Report, 6 June).It’s been obvious for years that the franchising system is both dysfunctional and has destroyed the operational economies of scale that were an essential part of the British Rail integrated network.What is truly alarming is the escalating cost of propping up the failing franchises, now in the billions and possibly about to rise yet further if GTR and Northern collapse.
  
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• Not feeling quite so blue, Peter, Val et al

  08-06-2018 17:34
  Former Blue Peter presenters reunite for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.• Richard Willmott (Letters, 7 June) thinks that there could have been a connection between Wilson’s resignation and the Thorpe case.
  
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• Theresa May enters Northern Ireland abortion debate

  08-06-2018 17:06
  Theresa May has spoken openly for the first time about her support for abortion and a woman’s right to choose.Although the supreme court ruled on Thursday morning that it did not have the power to intervene in the matter, a majority of judges added that Northern Ireland’s abortion law was incompatible with the right to respect for private and family life as guaranteed by the European convention on human rights.“My preferred option is for it to be dealt with and addressed by tho
  
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• Why This G7 Summit Is Going To Be A Rough Ride For Trump – And Everyone Else Too

  08-06-2018 16:59
  Donald Trump is expected to prompt a storm of confrontation as the G7 gets
  
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• Queen, 92, had eye surgery last month

  08-06-2018 16:55
  Queen Elizabeth, 92, the world's oldest monarch, underwent successful surgery to treat an eye cataract last month, Buckingham Palace said on Friday."I can confirm that the queen successfully underwent a short, planned procedure to treat a cataract last month," a palace spokesman said, declining to give further details.The Press Association news agency said Britain's longest-reigning monarch, who has been on the throne for more than 66 years, underwent the surgery, the most common operation perfo
  
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• US governor candidate kisses husband in advert to annoy Donald Trump

  08-06-2018 16:48
  ‘Take that, Trump’.
  
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• What's happened since 2017 UK general election

  08-06-2018 16:43 via bbc.co.uk
  Archive footage and updated statistics looking back at 2017 general election.
  
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• 'Respect your own red lines' Barnier tells 'paradoxical' UK ministers

  08-06-2018 16:43
  Britain does not respect its own red lines in talks with the European Union about the country's withdrawal from the bloc, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday, responding to comments by British foreign secretary Boris Johnson.Johnson, in comments taped secretly during a dinner on Wednesday evening, had warned there could be a Brexit meltdown while adding that U.S. President Donald Trump would have taken a tougher stance in the separation talks."The only thing I can say is, ver
  
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• Queen has surgery to remove cataract from eye

  08-06-2018 16:18
  The Queen had surgery last month to remove a cataract from her eye, Buckingham Palace has said.
  
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• Queen Elizabeth, 92, had eye surgery last month - palace

  08-06-2018 16:17
  LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's 92-year-old Queen Elizabeth, the world's oldest monarch, underwent successful surgery to treat an eye cataract last month, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.
  
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• Sound Energy to build pipeline to commercialise Moroccan gas

  08-06-2018 16:07
  Britain's Sound Energyhas signed a heads of terms agreement with a consortium to build a 20 inch gas pipeline and a processing plant to commercialise its discoveries in Eastern Morocco, it said.The consortium comprising Spain's Enagas , Elecnorand Fomento has been awarded the deal under a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) structure, the Morocco-focused company said.
  
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• Michel Barnier rejects May's UK-wide Brexit backstop plan

  08-06-2018 16:03
  Michel Barnier said the backstop offer made over Northern Ireland in March was ‘exceptional’ and could not be extended.The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has rejected the suggestion that the whole of the UK could temporarily stay in the customs union and elements of the single market to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.“Backstop means backstop,” Barnier told reporters in Brussels, as he also insisted that the demand by David Davis, t
  
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• May will never accept customs border between Northern Ireland and UK - spokesman

  08-06-2018 15:57
  Britain will never accept a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom and that position will not change, a government spokesman said on Friday, referring to a plan for the Irish border.Earlier, the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator said an economic arrangement to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland could not be extended to the whole of Britain, as London proposes.
  
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• Irish border 'backstop' fix cannot be for whole of UK - EU's Barnier

  08-06-2018 15:57
  An economic arrangement to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland cannot be extended to the whole of Britain, as London has proposed, the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator said on Friday.Britain proposed on Thursday a compromise solution for the Irish border issue that would see Britain staying tied to the EU's customs union for up to another year after an almost two-year Brexit transition period.EU negotiator Michel Barnier told a news conference that the proposal posed
  
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• Soros-backed anti-Brexit group targets lawmakers in push for new referendum

  08-06-2018 15:47
  An anti-Brexit group backed by billionaire financier George Soros launched a campaign on Friday targeting lawmakers, in an attempt to strengthen its call for a second referendum that could stop Britain's exit from the European Union.With under 10 months left until Britain is due to leave the EU, opponents of Brexit are exploring ways to thwart what they call Britain's biggest mistake since World War Two.The group, "Best for Britain," unveiled a timetable for another referendum on membership of t
  
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• Plastic and cotton found in UK's wild mussels

  08-06-2018 15:47 via bbc.co.uk
  Scientists warn material including strands of underwear could be found in the seafood.
  
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• Premier League footballers to get two-week mid-season break

  08-06-2018 15:41
  A two-week winter break is to be introduced into the Premier League football season, beginning during the 2019-20 campaign, bosses have announced.The February break will be staggered, with five Premier League matches one weekend during that period, and five the next.In a statement on its website, the Premier League said it, the Football Association and English Football League (EFL) had reached agreement on the issue.
  
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• France calls for more German ambition on the euro zone

  08-06-2018 15:35
  France called on Friday for more ambition from Germany in reforming the euro zone, saying Europe faced a "now or never" moment with rising external threats from the United States and China.French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, speaking in German to a business conference in Berlin, offered the first official response from Paris to European reform proposals sketched out by Chancellor Angela Merkel in a weekend newspaper interview.
  
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