General news

• Brit Awards: Full winners’ list

  20-02-2019 23:47
  The awards were held at the O2 in London.
  
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• Corbyn to discuss Brexit impasse with EU's Barnier

  20-02-2019 23:40
  Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will meet European leaders in Brussels on Thursday to discuss how to try to break the deadlock over Brexit and seek to reassure them that parliament does not want to leave without a deal.With just 37 days until Britain is due to leave the EU, Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking changes to the agreement she struck with Brussels last year to try to win the backing of British lawmakers.May has rejected a proposal put forward by Corbyn, and endorsed by EU Bre
  
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• Several injured as ceiling collapses 'into bar area' at Pontins holiday park in Somerset

  20-02-2019 23:36
  Several people have been injured after a ceiling collapsed "into a bar area" at a Pontins holiday park in Somerset.The South Western Ambulance Service said it had treated 18 patients, including six who were taken to hospital.Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said its officers responded to reports a "section of ducting collapsed into the bar area of a building" at the holiday park.
  
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• Mexican activist shot dead before vote on pipeline he opposed

  20-02-2019 23:35
  Environmental campaigners say Samir Flores Soberanes’s murder is a ‘political crime’A Mexican environmental activist has been murdered before a referendum on a controversial thermal-electric plant and pipeline that he opposed.Samir Flores Soberanes, an indigenous Náhuatl, was killed in his home during the early hours of Wednesday in the town of Amilcingo in Morelos state, 80 miles south of Mexico City. He was a human rights activist, producer for a community radio statio
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn To Tell EU Leaders Parliament Will Not Allow No-Deal Brexit

  20-02-2019 23:35
  Jeremy Corbyn is heading for talks in Brussels in a bid to try to break theBrexit deadlock
  
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• Calvin Harris and the 1975 lead winners at 2019 Brit awards

  20-02-2019 23:20
  Scottish dance producer wins his first two Brits after 14 failed nominations, while the 1975 take British group and British album – and Beyoncé and Jay-Z show support for Meghan MarkleScottish dance music producer Calvin Harris and soft rock band the 1975 were the biggest winners at the 2019 Brit awards, on a night in which no single act truly dominated – but Beyoncé and Jay-Z made headlines with an emphatic statement about Meghan Markle.Harris may be the highest-paid D
  
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• New series of Fleabag will be released weekly as BBC decides against boxset

  20-02-2019 23:04
  Second series will be broadcast on BBC One on Mondays at 10.35pm – despite drive to attract younger audiencesFleabag, one of the most bingeworthy TV shows of 2016, is to return next month – but viewers will have to wait a week for each new episode after the BBC decided against releasing the show in a boxset format despite a renewed bid to attract younger audiences.The show, written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge alongside Olivia Colman, was a word-of-mouth hit when it first app
  
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• Giménez and Godín put Atlético Madrid in charge against Juventus

  20-02-2019 23:03
  For Atlético Madrid it was the perfect finale and it left them dreaming of the perfect final. Two late goals from their two Uruguayan centre-backs, first José Maria Giménez and then Diego Godín, sent a gigantic roar round this stadium, the kind of noise this place has never heard before. The Wanda Metropolitano, Atlético’s home for just over a year, will host the 2019 Champions League final and, as they sang long and loud, they did so in the hope that the
  
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• Welsh connection will not distract Billy Vunipola from England’s cause | Andy Bull

  20-02-2019 23:00
  The No 8 lived in Wales as a child but says he is committed to helping England win their crucial Six Nations encounterPeople say love comes in different shapes and sizes, and in Wales on Saturday it will be 6ft 3in and 20st 7lb. Billy Vunipola says he wants to show the Welsh just how much he cares by helping England win at the Principality Stadium. No joke.Vunipola moved to Wales when he was six years old, and he has so much affection and respect for the people he knows there that he will be usi
  
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• The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway review – digging into the Crossrail catastrophe

  20-02-2019 23:00
  The series following workers on the much delayed rail line is full of fascinating details, but it misses the real drama going on in the boardroomThe second series of The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway (BBC2), originally shown in May 2017, was subtitled The Final Countdown. The third, which concluded last night, might plausibly have been called The Absolute Last You’ll Hear From Us on the Subject of Crossrail. But in the end they didn’t risk a subtitle, holding out the possibility that
  
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• 'He's learned nothing': Zuckerberg floats crowdsourcing Facebook fact-checks

  20-02-2019 22:54
  As site grapples with flood of fake news, former Snopes editor says CEO’s crowdsourcing comments show he has ‘learned nothing’Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he is considering crowdsourcing as a new model for Facebook’s third-party factchecking partnerships.In the first of a series of public conversations, Zuckerberg praised the efforts of factcheckers who partnered with Facebook following the 2016 presidential election as a bulwark against the floo
  
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• 'Time of the essence,' says May on latest Brussels shuttle

  20-02-2019 22:54
  British Prime Minister Theresa May held "constructive" talks in Brussels on Wednesday as she sought concessions on Brexit from a sceptical European Union, her strategy under strain after the defection of three lawmakers.Emerging from an hour or so of discussions with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the second in as many weeks, May told a British television channel that she again pressed for "legally binding changes" to a deal she agreed with the EU in November so that a "backs
  
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• Labour Claims A Breakaway MP Tried To Access Confidential Party Voter Database

  20-02-2019 22:51
  Labour has dramatically shut down its confidential voter canvassing systemamid claims one of the eight breakaway MPs tried to access party supporters'personal data
  
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• Chris Hemsworth to play Hulk Hogan in big-screen biopic

  20-02-2019 22:37
  Thor star to take on famed wrestler in film from Hangover director Todd Phillips that will focus on Hogan’s origin storyChris Hemsworth is to take on the role of Hulk Hogan in a new biopic.According to the Hollywood Reporter, the as-yet-untitled film will come from Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover trilogy and the forthcoming DC Comics prequel Joker, starring Joaquin Phoenix. Continue reading...
  
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• Ceiling collapse causes injuries at Somerset holiday park

  20-02-2019 22:34
  No-one was seriously hurt in the incident at Pontins Brean Sands holiday park..
  
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• Conversion therapy can result in mental illness, poll finds

  20-02-2019 22:31
  Results of survey on faith and sexuality to be presented to Church of England synodAttempts to change a person’s sexual orientation result in high levels of mental health problems including suicide attempts, self-harm and eating disorders, according to a survey.Some respondents said they had been forced to undergo “conversion therapy”, and a handful said they had been compelled to take part in sexual activity with someone of the opposite gender. Continue reading...
  
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• Ceiling collapses in building at Pontins holiday park - several injured

  20-02-2019 22:31
  Several people have been injured after a ceiling collapsed "into a bar area" at a Pontins holiday park in Somerset.The South Western Ambulance Service said it had treated 18 patients, including six who were taken to hospital.Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said its officers responded to reports a "section of ducting collapsed into the bar area of a building" at the holiday park.
  
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• Text: Resignation letter of 3 MPs who quit May's Conservatives

  20-02-2019 22:22
  Three pro-EU lawmakers from Britain's governing Conservative Party quit to join an independent group in parliament on Wednesday, in a blow to Prime Minister Theresa May's attempts to unite her party around her Brexit plans.
  
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• Anne-Marie and Dua Lipa show the way on Brits red carpet

  20-02-2019 22:20
  The annual awards ceremony is taking place at the O2 Arena in London.
  
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• Prince Harry presents Royal Marines with green berets

  20-02-2019 22:15
  Prince Harry has congratulated newly-qualified Royal Marines as he presented them with their coveted green berets.Harry, who assumed the role of Captain General Royal Marines from the Duke of Edinburgh in December 2017, told them: "This is an enormous privilege for yourselves to get the green beret.Former Royal Marine Gareth Evans, 60, watched as his 25-year-old son Huw was handed his green beret by Harry.
  
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• Irish backstop is temporary, May and Juncker say

  20-02-2019 22:10
  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The "backstop" provision in Britain's EU divorce deal aimed at avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland is temporary, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and British Prime Minister Theresa May said after a meeting in Brussels.
  
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• 'Time of the essence' say May on latest Brussels shuttle

  20-02-2019 22:10
  British Prime Minister Theresa May held "constructive" talks in Brussels on Wednesday as she sought concessions on Brexit from a sceptical European Union, her strategy under strain after the defection of three lawmakers.Emerging from an hour or so of discussions with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the second in as many weeks, May told a British television channel that she again pressed for "legally binding changes" to a deal she agreed with the EU in November so that a "backs
  
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• Conservative split as rebels denounce grip of hardline Brexiters

  20-02-2019 22:09
  Three Conservative MPs who resigned to join a new independent group on Wednesday said Theresa May had allowed their former party to fall prey to hardline Brexiters and declared that the Tory modernising project had been destroyed.In the latest evidence that Brexit is reshaping the political landscape, Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston, all outspoken critics of May’s stance on Europe, said that the Conservative party as they had known it under David Cameron was dead.“I&rsqu
  
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• Memorial unveiled for 'true hero' PC Keith Palmer who died in Westminster terror attack

  20-02-2019 22:08
  The police officer killed in the Westminster terror attack was hailed a "true hero" as a national memorial dedicated to him was unveiled.The "fitting and lasting" tribute was presented to members of PC Keith Palmer's family at a private Downing Street reception with the prime minister on Wednesday.The memorial was then moved to its permanent home outside the carriage gates at the Palace of Westminster, close to where the father-of-one was murdered in March 2017.
  
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• Historian who confronted Davos billionaires leaks Tucker Carlson rant

  20-02-2019 22:04
  Rutger Bergman clashes with Fox News host in unseen clipVisibly annoyed Carlson tells Bergman: ‘Go fuck yourself’Rutger Bregman is the Dutch historian who became a global sensation after an appearance at this year’s Davos summit, where he accused attending billionaires of ignoring taxation. Now he has created another viral moment in an extremely uncomfortable interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson.Bregman so riled Carson with his accusations of hypocrisy, critiques of F
  
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• No breakthrough for May after ‘constructive’ Brexit talks in Brussels

  20-02-2019 21:51
  PM asks Juncker for changes to Irish backstop as pair agree to meet again in FebruaryTheresa May has told the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, she needed “legally binding changes” to the Irish backstop if MPs were to back her Brexit deal, during a high-stakes meeting in Brussels that yielded no obvious breakthrough.With only 37 days until the UK leaves the European Union, EU expectations were low when May arrived in Brussels. Shortly before meeting the prime minist
  
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• No breakthrough for May after 'constructive' Brexit talks in Brussels

  20-02-2019 21:51
  Theresa May has told European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker she needed “legally-binding changes” to the Irish backstop if MPs were to back her Brexit deal, during a high-stakes meeting in Brussels that yielded no obvious breakthrough.With only 37 days until the UK leaves the European Union, EU expectations were low when May arrived in Brussels.
  
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• May and Juncker hail ‘constructive’ Brexit talks

  20-02-2019 21:48
  The two leaders acknowledged the 'tight timescale' facing them.
  
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• 'Yanked from the ground': cactus theft is ravaging the American desert

  20-02-2019 21:46
  Hipster tastes have fueled a spike in succulent poaching. Now conservationists are finding creative ways to rescue themWhen most people drive through the Cactus Forest in Saguaro national park, their gazes are fixed skyward. Towering saguaros fill the view on either side of the road, rising 40, even 60ft high, their human-like arms outstretched.But on a recent December afternoon, Ray O’Neil was focused on the ground. He was looking for holes. As the park’s chief ranger, O’Neil
  
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• Galaxy Fold: Samsung unveils hi-tech foldable phone that costs $1,980

  20-02-2019 21:35
  Smartphone-tablet hybrid has standard 4.6in phone on the outside and a 7.3in screen that unfolds on the insideSamsung has unveiled the final design and name for its cutting-edge Galaxy Fold phone that has a screen that folds in half and costs $1,980.The new device will be released on 26 April in the US and 3 May in Europe, after nearly a decade in the making. The Galaxy Fold literally folds in half like a book to use as a phone with a 4.6in screen on the outside, and unfolds to reveal a large 7.
  
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• Shamima Begum is not a Bangladeshi citizen, says foreign minister

  20-02-2019 21:33
  The 19-year-old from London had said she wanted to return to the UK with her newborn baby.
  
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• Progress made on Irish border backstop but time is of the essence - May

  20-02-2019 21:25
  British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday that progress had been made in solving the impasse over the backstop arrangements for the Irish border that has hindered her Brexit deal but added that time was running out to secure changes.May is in Brussels seeking to change the agreement she struck with the EU last year, after the deal was heavily defeated by British lawmakers.Lawmakers in May's Conservative party have criticised backstop arrangements to avoid a hard border in Ireland, say
  
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• Endgame for the Isis ‘caliphate’ looms in small Syrian town

  20-02-2019 21:22
  Special forces said to be preparing to storm Baghuz to flush out last Islamic State diehardsThey left Baghuz in a convoy of trucks, slowly snaking across the desert as thin trails of black smoke from mortar strikes drifted into the sky behind them.The Islamic State fighters dangled their legs off the backs of vehicles normally used for transporting sheep. Brightly coloured keffiyehs wrapped around their faces, they stared at Kurdish troops as they passed without saying a word. Continue reading..
  
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• How Tory Splitters Reached Breaking Point, Why More MPs Could Quit, And What It Means For Brexit

  20-02-2019 21:21
  If you're wondering why and how the trio came to jump ship, and what it meansfor beleaguered Prime Minister Theresa May and Brexit, look no further
  
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• Famous guests arrive for Duchess of Sussex’s baby shower

  20-02-2019 21:20
  Amal Clooney and Jessica Mulroney were pictured entering the Mark Hotel in Manhattan, New York.
  
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• Police probe burglary at Liverpool player’s house during Champions League duty

  20-02-2019 20:59
  Raiders broke into the home of Senegal international Sadio Mane.
  
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• 'My phone is melting': Tory defectors buoyed by support

  20-02-2019 20:58
  Heidi Allen, Sarah Wollaston and Anna Soubry faced their former Conservative colleagues in the Commons.The mobile phones of Heidi Allen, Sarah Wollaston and Anna Soubry were “melting” in the 24 hours before their departure.When David Gauke texted Heidi Allen, he was the only cabinet minister to contact any of them.
  
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• Hillsborough crush like a human cascade, says fan who helped injured

  20-02-2019 20:57
  Frederick Eccleston said he could see that people were ‘in trouble’ in the central ‘pens’, shortly after the match kicked off at 3pm.The lethal crush in the central “pens” of the Leppings Lane terrace at Hillsborough in 1989, in which 96 people were killed, was like a “waterfall”, a “human cascade”, a Liverpool supporter who helped injured and dying people has recalled.Frederick Eccleston, who was 55 when he went to support Liverpool ag
  
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• Ex-Tory MP Anna Soubry Claims Theresa May Has 'A Problem With Immigration'

  20-02-2019 20:51
  Ex-Tory MP Anna Soubry has claimed Theresa May has a "problem withimmigration" on the same day she decided to quit the Tories to joinparliament's new Independent Group
  
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• Germany resists UK plea to resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia

  20-02-2019 20:48
  Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt raises issue at Brexit talks with German counterpart in BerlinGermany has rejected a plea by the UK foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to resume arms sales to Saudi Arabia, denying that its embargo weakens Europe’s credibility or harms the European defence industry.At a joint press conference with the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, Hunt was told his plea for a resumption of arms sales made in a leaked letter had been rejected for the moment. Continue readin
  
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• Duke of Sussex hands green berets to newly-qualified marines

  20-02-2019 20:38
  Harry took over the role of Captain General of the Royal Marines in December 2017.
  
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• EU's Tusk - Longer Brexit talks would be better than no deal

  20-02-2019 20:37
  Brexit negotiations might be extended if Britain fails to work out a sensible deal for leaving the European Union, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday."Together with Prime Minister May we have prepared a very good and secure deal for both sides and it turned out that the British rejected it and offered nothing in exchange," Tusk said in an interview for private broadcaster TVN24."Of course, if Britain fails to prepare some sensible option on time, then there is always a poss
  
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• Labour and Tories, for once, were a lot closer than they like to think | John Crace

  20-02-2019 20:33
  May and Corbyn danced on eggshells to avoid main issue of their parties haemorrhaging MPsIt was Britain at its most British. In any other country, the sight of 11 MPs – eight from Labour and three from the Tories – taking their seats next to the DUP on the opposition benches for the first time as the Independent Group (TIG) for prime minister’s questions might have caused a stir. Or even a comment. Instead everyone was determined to keep any embarrassment to a minimum. Don&rsqu
  
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• Labour and Tories, for once, were a lot closer than they like to think

  20-02-2019 20:33
  The 11 Tig-ers take their seats on the opposition benches in the House of Commons.In any other country, the sight of 11 MPs – eight from Labour and three from the Tories – taking their seats next to the DUP on the opposition benches for the first time as the Independent Group (TIG) for prime minister’s questions might have caused a stir.Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn restricted their exchanges entirely to Brexit.
  
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• The splitting of the Tories and Labour could redefine British politics | Martin Kettle

  20-02-2019 20:32
  Britain is split down the middle on Brexit. In response the independent MPs have made a bold breakHeidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston are not the first MPs to break away from the Conservative party. The list of Tory resigners goes back to Winston Churchill in 1904 and beyond. And they are unlikely to be the last. Back in October I had a coffee at the Tory conference with a cabinet minister who confessed: “Part of me is longing for Boris Johnson or Jacob Rees-Mogg to become leader
  
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• Shamima Begum: 78% of Britons support revoking IS bride's UK citizenship - Sky Data poll

  20-02-2019 20:27
  The vast majority of the British public support the home secretary's decision to remove the UK citizenship of Islamic State recruit Shamima Begum, a Sky Data poll reveals.Eight in 10 Britons (78%) think Sajid Javid was right to remove the 19-year-old's citizenship, with 15% saying he was wrong, and 7% unsure.Shamima Begum, who left Britain to join Islamic State aged 15, recently gave birth in a refugee camp in Syria and wants to return to the UK.
  
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• Ex-Militant figure Derek Hatton suspended by Labour just days after re-admittance

  20-02-2019 20:27
  Left-wing firebrand Derek "Degsy" Hatton has been suspended by the Labour Party - just 48 hours after his controversial re-admission was confirmed.The 71-year-old, a member of the Militant tendency that infiltrated Labour in the 1970s and 1980s, was expelled from the party in 1986 after being found in breach of their rules.On Wednesday, shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner told the House of Commons he had written to Labour's general secretary Jennie Formby to lodge a formal compla
  
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• Steve Bell on Tory defectors to the Independent Group – cartoon

  20-02-2019 20:25
  Continue reading...
  
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• Murder inquiry after woman dies at hospital stroke unit

  20-02-2019 20:21
  A murder investigation is under way into the death of a 75-year-old woman at a hospital stroke unit.Valerie Kneale, who died at Blackpool Victoria Hospital on 16 November, had an "unexplained injury" thought to be suspicious.The hospital workers, who have all been suspended, were later released pending further inquiries as detectives ordered a number of post-mortem examinations.
  
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• Derek Hatton suspended from Labour just days after being readmitted

  20-02-2019 20:19
  The outspoken firebrand has attracted criticism since returning to party ranks 34 years after expulsion.
  
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