General news

• Theresa May remains defiant as she clings on after cabinet ministers resign

  15-11-2018 23:58
  Theresa May has put on another show of defiance on a turbulent day that saw two cabinet ministers quit and numerous MPs declare they have lost confidence in her leadership over Brexit.The opening act of yet another difficult day at the crease for Mrs May came when Dominic Raab quit as Brexit secretary, telling the PM her draft Brexit agreement was a "very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom" because of its implications for Northern Ireland.Sky News understands Environment secretar
  
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• Roger Federer marches on at ATP Finals as battle over Davis Cup’s future goes on

  15-11-2018 23:46 via theguardian.com
  • Federer defeats Kevin Anderson 6-4, 6-3 to top his group
  • Davis Cup could merge with new ATP Cup to resolve rowTennis might be fighting for its soul but Roger Federer remains its beating heart.On a day when it was learned that a merger of the revamped 118-year-old Davis Cup and the new ATP Cup – which will be held within six weeks of each other at the end of next year and the beginning of 2020 – is one solution being considered to break the impasse that has gripped the s
  
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• Kentucky: white man charged with hate crimes after two black shoppers shot dead

  15-11-2018 23:41 via theguardian.com
  Gregory Bush, who stopped at black church before heading to Kroger grocery store, could death penaltyA federal grand jury in Kentucky has charged a white man with three hate crimes in the shooting deaths of two African Americans last month at a grocery store.The US attorney Russell Coleman announced the indictment on Thursday in Louisville against 51-year-old Gregory Bush. Bush is charged with three hate crimes, one for each person who was killed and one for attempting to shoot another person ba
  
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• California wildfires: death toll at 56 as sheriff releases names of missing

  15-11-2018 23:22 via theguardian.com
  Governor describes scenes of devastation as a ‘war zone’, as thousands remain displaced and more than 100 unaccounted forFifty-six people have died in the Camp fire, authorities said on Wednesday after they tracked down an additional eight sets of remains outside and in the rubble of homes in Paradise.The majority of victims, 47 in total, have been tentatively identified by authorities, the Butte county sheriff, Kory Honea, said, but they are awaiting DNA confirmation. Some remains m
  
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• Europe ‘could be willing’ to renegotiate Brexit, Sturgeon says

  15-11-2018 23:21
  Ms Sturgeon said if the PM fails to get her Brexit deal through Parliament, it might be possible to renegotiate and keep the UK in the single market.
  
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• Theresa May's Allies Move To Prevent Leadership Challenge By Floating Better Brexit Deal

  15-11-2018 23:20
  Allies of Theresa May have launched a desperate bid to woo rebel Tory MPs by
  
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• Woman dies in farmhouse blaze

  15-11-2018 23:11
  A man had to rescued from the building, and suffered minor injuries.
  
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• Republic of Ireland rescued by Darren Randolph in draw with Northern Ireland

  15-11-2018 23:09 via theguardian.com
  This friendly meeting, laced as it was with all kinds of potential drama, of the two Irish sides was a matter of expediency in the international calendar.A dull scoreless encounter ultimately drew a sense of fateful disappointment for the Republic of Ireland and their manager Martin O’Neill in particular, where Northern Ireland – the country he used to captain with much distinction – should have won. Continue reading...
  
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• Japan plot fast route to ‘emotionally smash’ Eddie Jones’s England

  15-11-2018 23:00 via theguardian.com
  • Masakatsu Nishikawa returns fire at former coach• ‘Sometimes size doesn’t work for you,’ says Jamie JosephIf you are looking for a little hint of Eddie Jones’s lingering influence on Japanese rugby, have a read of what the flanker Masakatsu Nishikawa had to say about the England pack he will be playing against on Saturday.Nishikawa said he was not too familiar with the two rookie back-rowers, Mark Wilson and Zach Mercer, but it did not matter because “we
  
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• Inside the Foreign Office review – Brexit and diplomacy don’t make for thrilling TV

  15-11-2018 23:00 via theguardian.com
  You have to bring a lot of prior knowledge to stay with this documentary, and one excited civil servant looks very much the same as an unexcited oneImagine greasy lard being tipped gently from an oiled spoon down a wary gullet, massaged through an unwilling gut by soft perfumed hands, expelled as a loose and painless stool from a gently lubricated bum that is then wiped with a balm-infused tissue as the effluvia is flushed noiselessly away. Ladies and gentlemen, thus hath 300 years of British di
  
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• Brexit deal: What do the other parties think of Theresa May's plan?

  15-11-2018 22:56 via bbc.co.uk
  As the Tories squabble over the draft Brexit agreement, we hear the views of some of the other parties' MPs.
  
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• Analyzing Beto O'Rourke's blogpost: is he running, or just running?

  15-11-2018 22:53 via theguardian.com
  The Texas Democrat published a stream of consciousness Medium post about – what else? – the act of running. Here’s what he said, and what we think he meantAs if the punk band, skateboard and photos of him in a sundress weren’t evidence enough, Beto O’Rourke has solidified his role as the most Gen-X dude alive by dusting off another signifier of the Y2K era: a meandering, hastily proofread blogpost about his feelings. Related: Beto 2020? How O'Rourke became a Texas s
  
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• Ursula Keogh suicide: Girl, 11, 'intended to kill herself'

  15-11-2018 22:23 via bbc.co.uk
  The girl's mother felt "fobbed off" as she tried to get support for her daughter, a coroner says.
  
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• Wounded but still standing, Theresa May lives to see another day

  15-11-2018 22:05
  Soldiering on: Theresa May takes questions from reporters during a press conference on Wednesday evening.When Theresa May delivered her statement in the dusk outside Downing Street on Wednesday night, she may have already known a storm was gathering.After the five-hour cabinet meeting, the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, had told the chief whip he would resign.
  
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• Draft Brexit agreement in detail: What you need to know

  15-11-2018 22:05
  Theresa May is determined to push ahead with her draft Brexit agreement despite a series of ministerial resignations.
  
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• The battle of the Christmas adverts: what's the magic formula?

  15-11-2018 21:58 via bbc.co.uk
  From John Lewis' tear-jerker to Iceland's palm oil campaign - what makes a great Christmas ad?
  
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• How Republican firm's plan to defend Facebook by attacking rivals backfired

  15-11-2018 21:58 via theguardian.com
  Revelation that Definers had used George Soros as a target to defend Facebook unleashed an immediate storm of protestIt was a beguilingly simple idea. Take the tricks learned by political campaign managers on how to boost your candidate’s standing while ruthlessly undermining that of rivals, and apply it lucratively to the corporate world.That was the thinking that led two top Republican operatives – Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, and Joe Pounde
  
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• Homeless man and couple ‘completely made up’ viral story that raised $400,000

  15-11-2018 21:56 via theguardian.com
  Couple and homeless man charged with theft by deception and GoFundMe money will be refunded, prosecutor saidA feelgood tale of a homeless man using his last $20 to help a stranded New Jersey woman buy gas was actually a complete lie, manufactured to get strangers to donate more than $400,000 to help the down-and-out good Samaritan, a prosecutor has said.The Burlington county prosecutor Scott Coffina announced criminal charges on Thursday against the couple who told the story to newspapers and te
  
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• Birmingham stabbing: Horror after man attacked outside busy McDonalds

  15-11-2018 21:36 via feedproxy.google.com
  A MAN in his 20s was rushed to hospital after getting stabbed outside a McDonald's in Birmingham.
  
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• Oxford Islamic scholar Ramadan offered bail in France rape case

  15-11-2018 21:35
  Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan, a professor of Islamic studies accused of rape in France and who had been in detention since February, has been offered bail while an investigation into the case continues, lawyers said on Thursday.Ramadan, an Oxford University professor, last month admitted to having had sexual relations with two French women.The professor, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has been detained at the penitentiary hospital in Fresnes, south of Paris, sought unsuccessfully to be
  
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• Tariq Ramadan: Oxford professor facing rape charges granted conditional release

  15-11-2018 21:30 via theguardian.com
  Paris appeals court rules in favour of Tariq Ramadan, who has been held since FebruaryTariq Ramadan, the prominent Swiss scholar held in France since February on charges he raped two women, on Thursday won conditional release as the allegations continued to be investigated, his lawyer said.A Paris appeals court ruled in favour of Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at the University of Oxford, after the 56-year-old academic had made an impassioned argument for release. His bail
  
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• Welsh artist Cerith Wyn Evans wins Hepworth sculpture prize

  15-11-2018 21:20 via theguardian.com
  Artist who extended possibilities of sculpture with floating light installations takes home £30,000 prizeCerith Wyn Evans, the Welsh artist who was an assistant to the late film director Derek Jarman before establishing himself as a significant figure in contemporary art, has won the UK’s most prestigious sculpture prize.Wyn Evans has been a major art world figure for a number of years but is not well known among the wider public. Winning the £30,000 Hepworth prize for sculptur
  
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• Grenfell Tower management company chief sent warning memo during fire

  15-11-2018 21:17 via theguardian.com
  Robert Black told colleagues that they needed to find answers about the cladding and refurbishmentThe chief executive of the company that managed Grenfell Tower warned colleagues they needed to find answers to questions about the cladding and the specification of the refurbishment even as it burned in front of him, it has emerged.At 6am – just over five hours after the fire started – Robert Black emailed senior officials at the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (K
  
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• May's deal will PASS: Strategist REVEALS why PM’s Brexit plan WILL get through the Commons

  15-11-2018 21:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  THERESA MAY’s Brexit deal will pass through the House of Commons because there is no alternative to her plans, a strategist has claimed.
  
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• May vows to ‘see this through’ amid furious backlash to Brexit plan

  15-11-2018 21:08
  In a defiant message after losing four ministers, the PM compared herself to cricket hero Boycott, who ‘stuck to it and got the runs in the end’.
  
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• Labour: May should spell out contingency in case Brexit deal fails

  15-11-2018 21:06
  Labour will press Theresa May to spell out how she is going to avoid a high-risk no-deal Brexit, arguing that the hostility from MPs since her final deal was unveiled demonstrates that she cannot get her plans through the Commons.Sir Keir Starmer said that Labour’s opposition to May’s plans had hardened in the 24 hours since they were published, and with so many Tories insisting they would rebel, the prime minister had to be forced to consider alternatives.Labour’s Brexit spoke
  
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• The Welsh town hoping to avoid a 'no-deal' Brexit

  15-11-2018 20:59
  For decades the people of Port Talbot have lived day to day with uncertainty hanging over them.The global giant Tata Steel owns the plant that dominates the landscape and relies on smooth trade to make money and keep people in jobs.Demand for steel from Port Talbot would plummet along with the hopes of the town.
  
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• Thong protest in Belfast raises concerns over rape trials

  15-11-2018 20:56 via theguardian.com
  Case in Cork sparked outrage after defence barrister referred to complainant’s underwearIt was a mere scrap of fabric, deep blue and edged with lace. But when the legislator Ruth Coppinger drew it from her sleeve and held it up in the Irish parliament this week, the item of women’s underwear caused consternation among her colleagues.Elsewhere, women took to the streets carrying lingerie. In Cork, dozens of thongs were laid on the steps of the courthouse. In Belfast on Thursday, prote
  
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• Magnus Carlsen thwarts Game 5 ambush in draw with Fabiano Caruana

  15-11-2018 20:55 via theguardian.com
  Carlsen and Caruana play to 34-move draw – as it happenedCarlsen: ‘There is serious room for improvement at this point’World title match remains knotted at 2½-all after five gamesMagnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana played to a fifth draw in as many games on Thursday in the latest episode of their world championship showdown in London, as the Norwegian champion adroitly weathered early fireworks to negotiate a peaceful result after 34 moves and three-and-a-quarter hours. R
  
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• Art is my life now, says Billy Connolly

  15-11-2018 20:54
  Twenty-five of the actor and comedian’s new sketches have gone on show for two weeks.
  
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• Police Federation: No-deal Brexit could lead to disruption, danger, delays and rationing

  15-11-2018 20:48
  Police fear the fallout from a 'no-deal' Brexit could lead to "widescale disruption and dangers for the general public" and have warned they may not have the resources to cope.Officers also say they have had "limited information" from the government about how to prepare for Brexit, fear a return of violence to Northern Ireland and have raised the spectre that rationing may need to be introduced to fend off panic buying.In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Simon Kempton, the operational polic
  
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• Nothing has changed as the Maybot gets stuck in denial mode | John Crace

  15-11-2018 20:33 via theguardian.com
  PM survives by channelling her inner Geoffrey Boycott and boring everyone to death• Follow the latest Brexit news and reaction - live updatesCall it Westminster’s natural predisposition to entropy. The breakdown from a natural state of disorder into outright chaos. Shortly after eight in the morning came the first resignation. Someone who no one had ever heard of quitting a job no one knew he had. An hour later Dominic Raab resigned as Brexit secretary in protest at the Brexit secreta
  
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• Nothing has changed as the Maybot gets stuck in denial mode

  15-11-2018 20:33
  ‘May was in her preferred zone of semi-detachment.Someone who no one had ever heard of quitting a job no one knew he had.An hour later Dominic Raab resigned as Brexit secretary in protest at the Brexit secretary’s inability to negotiate a deal.
  
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• DOOMED to carry on! Clarke predicts May WILL STAY despite Brexit dissent for THIS reason

  15-11-2018 20:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  REMAINER Ken Clarke claimed Theresa May is "doomed to carry on" leading the UK through Brexit and warned "daft" party members attempting to call a no-confidence vote could "strengthen" the Prime Minister.
  
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• Ministers quit over Brexit draft, pound and bank stocks tumble, May vows to fight

  15-11-2018 20:24
  Prime Minister Theresa May battled on Thursday to save a draft divorce deal with the European Union after her Brexit minister, Dominic Raab, and other ministers quit in protest and eurosceptic MPs stepped up efforts to topple her.- Sterling fell 1.8 percent against the dollar [GBP/]- Against the euro, it was down 2 percent, its biggest fall since shortly after the 2016 Brexit referendum.- Credit rating firm S&P Global warned it could cut Britain's AA credit rating again if the risk of a "dis
  
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• Theresa May Ends Crucial Brexit Press Conference By Promising To 'Get The Runs'

  15-11-2018 20:13
  On a day of high-drama in Westminster, Theresa May gave a press conference
  
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• 'We put a remainer in to do Brexit': view from Lisburn, Co Antrim

  15-11-2018 20:10 via theguardian.com
  Constituents in DUP stronghold Lagan Valley voice frustrations at May and negotiators who have got it wrongFollow the latest Brexit news and reaction – live updatesThe constituency of Lagan Valley, a Democratic Unionist Party stronghold in Northern Ireland, voted overwhelmingly to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.As divisions over Brexit convulsed the government on Thursday, with ministers quitting and Tory rebels plotting, people on the streets gave an emphatic verdict: it&
  
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• Lion Air crash victim's family files lawsuit against Boeing

  15-11-2018 20:10 via theguardian.com
  Florida-based firm files suit on behalf of parents of Rio Nanda PratamaThe family of a victim of the Lion Air crash has started legal action against Boeing, after pilots and airlines said the manufacturer had not made them aware of new features in its 737 Max-8 aircraft that could be linked to the disaster.A Florida-based law firm has filed a suit against Boeing on behalf of the parents of Rio Nanda Pratama, a doctor who had been due to marry in Indonesia this week. His father, H. Irianto, said
  
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• US researchers seek to end carbs v fat 'diet wars'

  15-11-2018 20:00 via theguardian.com
  Review seeks to find common ground, arguing that what matters for most people is qualityA group of scientists is trying to end the “diet wars” raging over how much fat and carbohydrate we should eat, arguing that what matters for most people is quality.A review by US researchers with diverse perspectives on the fraught fat v carbs question attempts to find the common ground. Above all, they say, we should be ditching saturated for unsaturated fat and refined grains for wholegrains an
  
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• The Guardian view on a Tory Brexit: irreconcilable differences | Editorial

  15-11-2018 19:58 via theguardian.com
  A divided party will be unable to guide this country out of the European Union. What then?Few prime ministers have taken the pummelling that Theresa May has endured, especially since she published her blueprint for Britain’s relationship with the EU in July. The Chequers plan, as it was known, was pronounced dead by the EU two months later in Salzburg. Mrs May was then sent back to rework her proposals, a humiliation in the eyes of her party that she has not lived down. Since then, the pri
  
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• May seems to think she can go on and on. But she’s running out of road | Gaby Hinsliff

  15-11-2018 19:58 via theguardian.com
  For all her doggedness, she’s not a miracle worker. The impossible demands of Brexiters will ultimately seal her fateHer face was as impossible to read as ever. Theresa May betrayed so little of her emotions as she emerged from Downing Street to unveil her Brexit deal on Wednesday night that with the sound off, you wouldn’t have known if she was resigning or declaring peace in our time.But perhaps she didn’t quite know herself. Only minutes earlier, her Brexit secretary, Domini
  
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• May draws Brexit inspiration from Boycott

  15-11-2018 19:57
  Theresa May said cricket hero Geoffrey Boycott ‘stuck to it and he got the runs in the end’.
  
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• Lords decision to block accused peer’s suspension ‘a complete disgrace’

  15-11-2018 19:57
  Lord Lester of Herne Hill has strongly denied the allegations, saying they are ‘completely untrue’.
  
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• Jean Mohr obituary

  15-11-2018 19:55 via theguardian.com
  Award-winning photographer and longtime collaborator with the writer John BergerJean Mohr, who has died aged 93, began his life as a photographer in 1949, with a camera he had bought for one of his brothers as a present. Working with Palestinian refugees for the International Red Cross in Jordan and the West Bank, Mohr was moved to use the camera himself. He went on to become well known for his photographic work with humanitarian organisations, and particularly with refugees, as well as his coll
  
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• Teenager convicted of murdering man in Telford with cricket bat

  15-11-2018 19:54 via theguardian.com
  A 16-year-old boy has been been found guilty after hitting stepfather who was looking for stolen bikesA 16-year-old boy has been convicted of the murder of a stepfather whom he hit with a cricket bat while the man was searching for his family’s two stolen bicycles.The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, was found guilty by a unanimous verdict after a jury at Stafford crown court rejected his claims of self-defence and lack of intent to cause serious harm. Continue reading...
  
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• 'It’s a fudge – not what we voted for': the Brexit view from Shropshire

  15-11-2018 19:52 via theguardian.com
  Theresa May served a cocktail of outrage and pity from Brexiters in the Wrekin constituencyFollow the latest Brexit news and reaction – live updates“I think they should just get on with it,” said Jo McAllister as she served customers at JP Fruits in the Shropshire market town of Wellington. “I voted out in 2016 and I’d vote out again if it came to it. I don’t know many people who would change their vote. We pay out too much money to the EU, we should be runnin
  
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• Peers block suspension of Lord Lester after sexual harassment claims

  15-11-2018 19:46
  The House of Lords has voted against a record suspension for a peer accused of having offered to make a woman a baroness if she slept with him.A parliamentary watchdog had recommended Lord Lester of Herne Hill be barred from parliament's upper chamber until 3 June 2022 following the allegations of sexual harassment.A number of peers raised concerns over the disciplinary procedure used in Lord Lester's case, arguing it was "manifestly unfair".
  
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• John Lennon's killer says he feels 'more and more shame' every year

  15-11-2018 19:45 via theguardian.com
  Mark David Chapman told parole board members about his remorse at 10th hearing in August, according to transcript The man who killed John Lennon has told a parole board he feels “more and more shame” every year for gunning down the former Beatle outside his Manhattan apartment in 1980.“Thirty years ago I couldn’t say I felt shame and I know what shame is now,” Mark David Chapman said. “It’s where you cover your face, you don’t want to, you know, as
  
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• Alesha Dixon: Mis-Teeq were told 'black girls wouldn't sell records in the UK'

  15-11-2018 19:41
  Alesha Dixon has said music industry bosses told her "black girls would not sell records in the UK" when she was in Mis-Teeq.The singer and Britain's Got Talent judge made the comments on Sky One's the Russell Howard Hour show, saying the band were always "very conscious we were an all-black girl group".Mis-Teeq had hits including All I Want and Scandalous in the early noughties.
  
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• MPs and Peers celebrate Charles’ 70th birthday

  15-11-2018 19:36
  The presentation came after a Brexit backlash with a string of ministerial resignations and calls for Theresa May to be ousted as Prime Minister.
  
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