General news

• PM May says hopes UK lawmakers will not block EU exit laws

  09-06-2018 23:55
  LA MALBAIE, Canada (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Saturday she hoped lawmakers would recognise the importance of passing legislation next week which will end Britain's membership of the European Union.
  
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• House destroyed by fire after lightning strike

  09-06-2018 23:43
  A house near Glasgow has been destroyed after it was struck by lightning, as parts of Scotland faced extreme weather.
  
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• Underpaid and exhausted: the human cost of your Kindle

  09-06-2018 23:11
  In the Chinese city of Hengyang, we find a fatigued, disposable workforce assembling gadgets for Amazon, owned by the world’s richest man.Five o’clock in the morning and the young woman’s eyelids are drooping. All night she has been removing spots of dust from Amazon smartspeakers with a toothbrush. Time seems to crawl. Now she is overwhelmed with exhaustion.She works on, more and more slowly, until she can do no more. She looks around the workshop. Other workers have rested th
  
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• Workers not paid legally by Amazon contractor in China

  09-06-2018 23:10
  US tech giant admits audit of Foxconn factory in Hengyang found irregularitiesAmazon has admitted that thousands of agency workers who make its Echo smart speakers and Kindles in China were hired and paid illegally.The US giant issued a statement regretting “issues of concern” following an investigation by the Observer and the US-based China Labor Watch into the “unethical and illegal” working conditions at its supplier factory in Hengyang. Continue reading...
  
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• March against jailing of former EDL leader Tommy Robinson turns ugly

  09-06-2018 23:03
  The march on Whitehall is the latest following Robinson's imprisonment for contempt of court last month.Two of those arrested were held over an assault on a police officer, one for possessing an offensive weapon, one for possession of a flare and another for causing criminal damage to a bus.The founder of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson - real name Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon - was sentenced to 10 months in jail in May.
  
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• ‘Extraordinary secrecy’ in Whitehall is crippling Brexit plans

  09-06-2018 23:01
  Brexit secretary David Davis appeared to be on the brink of resigning last week.A damaging culture of “extraordinary secrecy” inside government is blighting its ability to plan for Brexit, according to a comprehensive study of Whitehall.The installation of a network of secured computers that can only be accessed by officials with very high security clearance is also being accelerated, to keep the documents under wraps.
  
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• Pro-Tory Facebook group filled with Islamophobic abuse

  09-06-2018 23:00
  Angry Rees-Mogg says he was signed up without consentA controversial pro-Conservative Facebook group has been exposed as containing Islamophobic, homophobic and racist comments about public figures including Sadiq Khan, Diane Abbott and anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.Comments include demands to “expel the London mayor” and “send back” immigrants, while another post states that “Islam should be banned”. There are also homophobic remarks about Scottish Tory
  
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• Body of woman killed by alligator found in Florida lake

  09-06-2018 22:55
  Shizuka Matsuki, 47, was walking dogs near lake in DavieAlligator killed by officials found to have bitten womanFlorida officials confirmed on Saturday divers had found the body of a woman who was killed by an alligator while walking her dogs near a lake in south Florida. The 12ft 6in alligator involved was captured and killed. Related: Miami woman bitten and likely killed by alligator, officials sayContinue reading...
  
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• ‘Stop Boris’ MPs rally round May ahead of crucial Brexit votes

  09-06-2018 22:25
  Rebels fear sparking leadership crisis while Corbyn faces his own revolt from Labour remainersRebel Tory MPs who want to keep the UK in the EU customs union and single market appeared on Saturday to be backing away from defeating Theresa May in crucial parliamentary votes this week – because they fear the resulting humiliation could threaten her leadership and let in Boris Johnson.Before a momentous week in the Commons, several votes – including on the customs union and the role of p
  
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• Liverpool deal to sign Nabil Fekir collapses as Lyon end negotiations

  09-06-2018 22:21
  • Transfer was expected before France forward left for World Cup
  • Lyon say captain will stay for Champions League campaignLyon have called off negotiations for the sale of Nabil Fekir to Liverpool, the French club announced on Saturday.The France forward was expected to join Jürgen Klopp’s side before Les Bleus left for the World Cup but Lyon have ended talks and called off the deal. Continue reading...
  
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• Holocaust Survivor, Gena Turgel, Who Tended To Anne Frank, Dies Aged 95

  09-06-2018 21:51
  Gena Turgel, a Holocaust survivor who comforted diarist Anne Frank at the
  
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• Meghan makes balcony debut at Trooping the Colour

  09-06-2018 21:38
  The new Duchess of Sussex has joined the Royal Family for her first Trooping the Colour, marking the Queen's official birthday.Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, who married three weeks ago, rode in a carriage in procession with Catherine and Camilla, the Duchesses of Cambridge and Cornwall, as well as the Duke of Kent, and Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice.It was also a first for the soldiers, as Guardsman Charanpreet Singh Lall became the first to wear a turban during the annual spectacle.
  
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• Khan attacks May on ‘inhumane’ treatment of Grenfell families

  09-06-2018 21:32
  ‘Chaotic’ government response is fuelling claims of institutional racism, says London mayorSadiq Khan has condemned the way survivors of the Grenfell tragedy were treated as “chaotic and inhumane”, in a furious letter to the prime minister.The London mayor has issued a list of demands to Theresa May detailing concerns about delays in rehousing survivors, potential immigration enforcement against some of those affected and the make-up of the panel investigating the disaste
  
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• Sebastian Vettel storms to Canadian F1 GP pole with Lewis Hamilton fourth

  09-06-2018 21:25
  • German fastest for Ferrari, ahead of Bottas’s Mercedes
  • Verstappen grabs third for Red Bull ahead of Lewis HamiltonWith pole in Montreal for so long his personal fiefdom, Lewis Hamilton was left simply unable to identify why he has finally been ousted from the top spot at the Canadian Grand Prix by his title rival Sebastian Vettel. Hamilton is ahead of the German by 14 points in the championship but, after struggling on Saturday, starting from fourth on the grid means he faces
  
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• Tommy Robinson supporters arrested after London protest

  09-06-2018 21:22
  Demonstrators hoping to secure the former EDL leader’s release from jail blocked off a major road in LondonA group of Tommy Robinson supporters has blocked off a major road in central London in a tense stand-off with police, who made several arrests. Hundreds of demonstrators descended on the capital and blocked off the road around Trafalgar Square.Continue reading...
  
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• Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan dies

  09-06-2018 21:19
  Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan has died in London aged 68.
  
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• Welsh Labour's leader-selection row points to wider struggle

  09-06-2018 21:07 via bbc.co.uk
  Divisions over how to elect the party's leader in Wales could signify a wider struggle.
  
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• John Stones and Gary Cahill construct a case for the England defence

  09-06-2018 20:59
  Gareth Southgate’s rearguard is often seen as a weakness but the side has conceded only three goals in 10 games including clean sheets against Brazil and GermanyWhen it comes to rating England’s chances at the World Cup the obvious place to start is with their attack. Yet the reasons to feel encouraged begin to evaporate when one moves towards the other end of the pitch and looks at a rearguard that could struggle to protect Jordan Pickford. Belgium will certainly be expecting Kevin
  
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• House in flames after lightning strike near Lenzie

  09-06-2018 20:55 via bbc.co.uk
  Pictures on social media showed flames leaping from the roof of the property in East Dunbartonshire.
  
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• Change of pace leaves England at a loss and clubs playing catch-up | Paul Rees

  09-06-2018 20:50
  South Africa defeat exposes what Eddie Jones already knows: that rugby is faster and more fluid at international levelWhen the Premiership clubs raise the issue of Eddie Jones’s national squad training sessions this summer, bristling at a high attrition rate, Twickenham should show a video of England’s latest defeat against a nascent South Africa side who were able to recover from an appalling start because of an ability, honed in Super Rugby, to play at sustained pace.It was a Premi
  
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• Leave voters losing faith in Tories' handling of Brexit, poll suggests

  09-06-2018 20:30
  Opinium interviewed more than 2,000 adults for the poll.Leave supporters are losing faith in the Conservatives to lead the Brexit negotiations, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.With Brexiters in the cabinet also fearing that the issue is being mishandled by Downing Street, the poll showed that only 41% of leave voters trust the Tories most to lead the negotiations – the lowest level since January 2017.
  
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• Leave voters losing faith in Tories' handling of Brexit, poll suggests

  09-06-2018 20:30
  Conservative lead on issue is the lowest recorded by Opinium so far this yearLeave supporters are losing faith in the Conservatives to lead the Brexit negotiations, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.With Brexiters in the cabinet also fearing that the issue is being mishandled by Downing Street, the poll showed that only 41% of leave voters trust the Tories most to lead the negotiations – the lowest level since January 2017. Continue reading...
  
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• Fewer leave voters back Tories' handling of Brexit – poll

  09-06-2018 20:30
  Opinium interviewed more than 2,000 adults for the poll.Leave supporters are losing faith in the Conservatives to lead the Brexit negotiations, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.With Brexiters in the cabinet also fearing that the issue is being mishandled by Downing Street, the poll showed that only 41% of leave voters trust the Tories most to lead the negotiations – the lowest level since January 2017.
  
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• Simona Halep comes of age as she banishes ghosts of grand slams past | Simon Cambers

  09-06-2018 20:25
  The world No 1’s coach believes the player can now cut loose after showing new maturity to beat Sloane Stephens at the French Open for her first major titlePerhaps Darren Cahill, the coach of Simona Halep, put it best. “She’s been close these last couple of years, she’s worked really hard for it, she’s been kicked in the stomach a couple of times, when she’s had chances. They say the destination is more beautiful if there’s a bit of a bumpy road and
  
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• When The Free Tommy Robinson Protest Met The World Naked Bike Ride

  09-06-2018 20:15
  Two very different protests converged in central London on Saturday in a made-
  
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• Preston bus station review – a glorious reprieve

  09-06-2018 20:00
  Earmarked for demolition just six years ago, the brutalist gem that is Ove Arup’s Preston bus station has been sympathetically renovated, right down to the route numbersHow could there have been any doubt? Why was it even considered that the majestic concrete battleship that is Preston bus station might be demolished? Yet it was, a few years back, to make way for a proposed shopping centre of uncertain viability. Central government, in the face of prolonged and well-made arguments for its
  
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• Row over rail boss CBE overshadows Queen's birthday honours

  09-06-2018 19:41
  Stars including Emma Thompson, Mary Beard and Ms Dynamite honoured, alongside Mark CarneArise, Sir Kenny: Dalglish is knighted in Queen’s birthday honoursThe Queen’s birthday honours list, in which actor Emma Thompson was made a dame, has been partially overshadowed by a row over the decorating of Network Rail’s outgoing boss. Mark Carne was awarded a CBE at a time when passengers have been facing huge disruption to their journeys. Continue reading...
  
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• Row over rail boss CBE overshadows Queen's birthday honours

  09-06-2018 19:41
  Mark Carne, who has received a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list.The Queen’s birthday honours list, in which actor Emma Thompson was made a dame, has been partially overshadowed by a row over the decorating of Network Rail’s outgoing boss.Mark Carne was awarded a CBE at a time when passengers have been facing huge disruption to their journeys.
  
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• Trump: I'll know whether Kim summit will be successful 'in first minute'

  09-06-2018 19:34
  Trump guided in nuclear talks by ‘just my touch, my feel’
  Analysis: Trump shows his contempt for G7 alliesDonald Trump on Saturday said his summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore would be a “one-time shot”. Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in La Malbaie, Canada, the US president projected confidence over the prospects for a deal on denuclearization, stating: “I think within the first minute, I’ll know.” Related: Trump's trade tirade casts Canada in u
  
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• Immediate pay increase for NHS staff in Scotland announced

  09-06-2018 19:30
  Nicola Sturgeon has announced an immediate £160m boost in pay for nearly 150,000 NHS staff in Scotland, among a package of new spending measures.The first minister sought to shore up the Scottish National party’s continuing lead in opinion polls by also announcing an increase in support for the poorest students and those from the care system worth more than £20m.In a bid to beat the UK government’s imminent announcement of a new NHS pay deal in England, Sturgeon said all
  
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• S’Busiso Nkosi powers South Africa to stunning comeback win over England

  09-06-2018 19:29
  • South Africa 42-39 England
  • Springboks roar back from 24-3 down in thrilling first TestForget, for a moment, the crazy final scoreline and the inquest into a fourth successive Test defeat for an England team who cannot currently buy a victory. This was a simply wonderful rugby occasion, a triumph not merely for South Africa and their first black Test captain, Siya Kolisi, but for anyone anywhere who might have begun to wonder if the international game is losing its lustre.It also in
  
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• With sales boom in mind, Gucci tightens grip on suppliers

  09-06-2018 19:16
  Kering'sfashion powerhouse Gucci is bringing more manufacturing in-house, as luxury firms step up efforts to meet rampant demand from Chinese shoppers with slicker operations.Gucci, which said this week it could one day overtake LVMH'sLouis Vuitton as the world's top luxury brand by sales, also outlined plans at its strategy update to almost halve its reliance on independent leather goods suppliers.The step comes as labels including Britain's Burberryand France's Vuitton begin to levy greater co
  
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• England continue losing run with S Africa defeat

  09-06-2018 19:16 via bbc.co.uk
  England's losing run continues as South Africa launch an astonishing fightback to win the first Test at Ellis Park
  
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• Anthony Bourdain obituary

  09-06-2018 19:13
  New York chef who took the food world by storm with Kitchen Confidential, a cook’s-eye view of the restaurant sceneAnthony Bourdain, who has taken his own life aged 61, will be remembered by most as one of the world’s first and most influential celebrity chefs. It’s an inadequate description.Bourdain claimed he was a “competent line cook” rather than a chef during the two decades from 1978 in which he ran the kitchens of increasingly large New York restaurants. For
  
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• Disruptive passenger on Jet2 flight banned for life

  09-06-2018 19:10 via bbc.co.uk
  Jet2 said drinking alcohol illicitly contributed to the "deplorable" behaviour on the flight to Ibiza.
  
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• We want to thrill to the beautiful game, but Fifa’s World Cup is toxic | Nick Cohen

  09-06-2018 19:00
  The tournament has never been so blighted by politics and the taint of corruptionLike the male gaze, football fans have eyes for just one thing. Nothing can turn them away from the pitch. When Fifa announced it was handing the World Cup first to kleptomaniac murderers who run Russia and then to the overseers of a serf economy in Qatar, even cynics thought Zurich’s masters of corruption had finally gone too far. Surely the world wouldn’t stand for it.Read the sporting press or examine
  
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• The asteroid rush sending 21st-century prospectors into space

  09-06-2018 19:00
  A race is on to mine billions of dollars in resources from the solar system’s asteroids, fuelling our future among the starsIn an industrial park in San Jose, California, Grant Bonin is holding what looks like the end of a metal water bottle. It is the casing, he jokes, of his company’s “flying steam kettle”: a propulsion system for small spacecraft that uses super-hot water vapour, heated to 1,000C (1,832F), to produce thrust. The company has sold about 40 to date. &ldqu
  
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• Johnny Marr: ‘A middle-aged musician nursing a hangover is a dead duck’

  09-06-2018 19:00
  The former Smiths guitarist on his new album, avoiding political pronouncements, and his long marriage to AngieJohnny Marr was the guitarist in the Smiths and has worked with the The, Electronic, the Pretenders, Modest Mouse, Paul McCartney and Hans Zimmer. He has two children with his wife, Angie, and is based in his native Manchester. He’s currently touring his third solo album Call the Comet, an eclectic blend of the rock he’s known for, and more left-field sonic offerings, includ
  
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• Javier Mascherano: ‘I hope Argentina can meet Lionel Messi’s standards’

  09-06-2018 19:00
  The former Liverpool and Barcelona player knows the forward stars draw the eye but feels defensive stability is what will make Jorge Sampaoli’s side competitive in RussiaFour years ago, Argentina managed to play seven games at a World Cup for the first time since Italia 90, but lost the final to Germany in extra-time. For a country twice world champions, proud exporters of football talent, it was not without frustration that even staying in the tournament past the quarter-finals had become
  
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• Book clinic: how can millennials get through long classics?

  09-06-2018 19:00
  Our expert on how to make reading a lengthy book feel more manageable, both mentally and physicallyQ: Many millennials never read anything longer than a tweet or Instagram caption. How do we revive the discipline and patience for great long reads like Tolstoy’s War and Peace?
  Halima Nawaz, 32, chartered accountant, LeedsA: Viv Groskop, comedian and author of The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature
  Great question, Comrade Halima. First, I would challenge your assumption.
  
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• Focus on winning over Scots to independence from UK, Sturgeon tells SNP

  09-06-2018 18:55
  Scottish National Party supporters should focus on how to increase support for the independence cause, rather than on the timing of when Scotland might split from the United Kingdom, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said on Saturday.Sturgeon, who also heads Scotland's devolved government, acted to dampen expectations among her supporters of an immediate push for a new secession vote while the outcome of Brexit is unclear.Scotland voted to stay in the EU but, because a majority of Britons as a whole vo
  
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• First Bond girl Eunice Gayson dies aged 90

  09-06-2018 18:55
  Eunice Gayson, the actress who played the first Bond girl, has died at the age of 90.Gayson starred alongside Sir Sean Connery in the films Dr No and From Russia With Love as James Bond's love interest.
  
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• 'Lockdown, lockdown': kindergarten uses nursery rhyme to teach shooting response

  09-06-2018 18:43
  Song to tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star hung in Massachusetts school sparks wave of responses onlineA nursery rhyme based on a school shooting lockdown drill that was taped to a board in a Massachusetts kindergarten class has provoked a passionate online response. Related: Middle schoolers given bulletproof shields for starting high schoolContinue reading...
  
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• Trump Warns Against EU Trade Reprisals After Stormy G7 Summit

  09-06-2018 18:29
  Donald Trump accused the European Union of a "brutal" approach to trade with
  
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• Lionel Shriver attacks Penguin publisher's inclusion policy

  09-06-2018 18:29 via bbc.co.uk
  Lionel Shriver says the "dissemination of good books" should be most important for publishers.
  
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• SNP conference: Sturgeon announces 'immediate' NHS pay rise

  09-06-2018 18:18 via bbc.co.uk
  The SNP leader was speaking as the party's two-day conference in Aberdeen drew to a close.
  
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• Weird World Cup beermats – in pictures

  09-06-2018 18:00
  When discussing their favourite World Cup moments – Rob Green’s blunders in goal for England, John Barnes rapping – London-based graphic designers Gordon Reid and Callum Stephenson had an idea. They invited 20 of their favourite designers to celebrate the tournament’s stranger sides: the result is Weird World Cup, a collection of beermats depicting bizarre moments. “I love the World Cup because almost everyone remembers something from it. Even my mum, who hates foot
  
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• Even after the crash, voters still don’t want safe lending | Phillip Inman

  09-06-2018 18:00
  A Swiss referendum on responsible banking looks likely to be defeated. And if it fails there, it would have no chance in BritainTen years after the financial crash, most Britons remain suspicious of calls to be adventurous with public money. Aware that the pre-2008 economy was akin to a high-wire act, they believe lapsing back into the old borrow-to-spend routine will only herald another disaster.That’s why the chancellor, Philip Hammond, feels secure when he bats away calls to throw off h
  
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• The great timetable fiasco: what’s gone wrong with England’s railways?

  09-06-2018 17:54
  After years of engineering upgrades, the stage was set for a vastly improved service: instead, two franchises are crippledFor hundreds of thousands of commuters, a rail timetable change will never seem innocuous again. Before the schedules were switched three weeks ago, plenty of people had predicted teething troubles: train companies had spoken of the logistical challenge ahead, and commuters were told to expect some initial disruption.At the time, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), a key commuter
  
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• One year on, Grenfell survivors’ stories rightly give shape to a painful inquiry | Jackie Long

  09-06-2018 17:50
  Allowing the bereaved to take centre stage is a positive move after a traumatic 12 monthsThe first anniversary after any death looms large. Oddly so, perhaps, because why should that one day be any worse than the previous 364 paralysing, grief-ridden days? And yet somehow it is.I think you can feel that sense of rising panic among some of the families. This anniversary, after all, marks not one life lost but 72. Each personal but very public too. How to navigate that after a year when the w
  
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