General news

• Ovo emerges as potential buyer of SSE’s energy services business

  10-08-2019 23:40
  If it goes ahead, the sale would turn Ovo into one of the UK’s largest energy suppliers overnight.
  
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• Own man Frank Lampard ready to prove Chelsea doubters wrong

  10-08-2019 23:29
  Club legend heads into his first competitive match as manager with an imperfect squad and fired by criticismFrank Lampard is under no illusions about the size of the task facing Chelsea. The youngest manager in the Premier League has lost Eden Hazard to Real Madrid, David Luiz joined Arsenal on deadline day and Lampard has not been able to strengthen his squad after arriving at a club operating under a transfer embargo.Gone are the days of heavy spending under Roman Abramovich. Uncertainty cloud
  
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• PM extends police stop-and-search powers in bid to ‘come down hard’ on crime

  10-08-2019 23:25
  The PM says he wants criminals to 'feel afraid' as he promised £2.5 billion to build 10,000 new prison places.
  
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• Swinson’s Lib Dems target Raab’s seat as Tory moderates flee no-deal Brexit

  10-08-2019 23:01
  Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats were buoyed by winning the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PAThe Liberal Democrats are drawing up an aggressive new election strategy targeting more Conservative seats, including that of foreign secretary Dominic Raab amid alarm among senior Tories about the threat posed by Jo Swinson’s party.Research by the Lib Dems conducted over the summer has convinced officials to rip up the party’s existing plans and adopt a more
  
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• Players stake final claim for Japan as Eddie Jones begins to wield axe

  10-08-2019 23:00
  Mike Brown and Ben Te’o first to fall in fight for a place in England’s 31-man World Cup squad but more will followEddie Jones believes that fighting spirit will be needed to win a World Cup that the England head coach predicts will be the tightest yet, but not of the sort that led him to cull Mike Brown and Ben Te’o from the squad to prepare for the first of four warm-up matches for the tournament, against Wales at Twickenham on Sunday.Brown, the Harlequins’ full-back, a
  
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• Suspected car thief runs over police officer in Birmingham

  10-08-2019 22:53
  Man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder as traffic officer left seriously injured A police officer is in hospital with serious injuries after being run over by a suspected car thief.West Midlands police said the officer is being treated for head and pelvic injuries following the incident in Birmingham on Saturday afternoon. The force said a 29-year-old man, from Hall Green, had been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Continue reading...
  
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• Food shortages ease, but isolated Kashmiris fear curfews and crackdowns

  10-08-2019 22:51
  Under a government-imposed data blackout, India’s Muslim-majority state cannot tell the world what is happening.People in Indian-administered Kashmir who had faced spending the Eid religious holiday under curfew, with food shortages in locked-down urban areas, were yesterday reportedly busy buying food after restrictions were eased. Landlines, mobile phones and the internet all remained blocked, however, preventing them from calling relatives or friends. Related: Kashmir: India’s &ls
  
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• The very idea of a united kingdom is being torn apart by toxic nationalism | Gordon Brown

  10-08-2019 22:00
  Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy is imperilling centuries of common purpose. It can’t be allowed to succeedThe first step to solving a problem is to see it clearly. And if we are to understand why we are facing not only our most serious constitutional crisis since the 17th century but an unprecedented economic calamity precipitated by a no-deal exit from the EU, we must recognise that nationalism is now driving British politics.Having set almost impossible terms for any negotiation wi
  
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• No deal spells calamity for union, warns Gordon Brown

  10-08-2019 22:00
  Former prime minister says UK is ‘sleepwalking to oblivion’ as Sadiq Khan says he is open to a unity governmentGrowing nationalism is pulling the United Kingdom apart, driving it towards an unprecedented economic calamity and unleashing the most serious constitutional crisis since the 17th century, Gordon Brown warns on Sunday.In his most dire warning about the impact of a no-deal Brexit on the union, the former prime minister states that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
  
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• Jeremy Corbyn should press for a referendum, not an election | Hugo Dixon

  10-08-2019 22:00
  If Labour can win enough support to change the law, Boris Johnson would be forced to ask the EU for more timeJeremy Corbyn shouldn’t fall into the trap of giving Boris Johnson an election. Unless, that is, he is pretty confident of winning it and, on the basis of the latest polls, Labour needs an election like a hole in the head.Instead, the leader of the opposition should try everything else to foil the prime minister’s devilish plot to crash out of the EU without a deal. With the h
  
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• Britain’s political future predicted: ‘You’ll have a Lib-Lab-SNP coalition by Christmas’

  10-08-2019 21:59
  Leading figures on the left and right and from the worlds of the arts and science attempt to foresee Britain’s fate Continue reading...
  
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• Universal cancels release of violent satire The Hunt after Trump criticism

  10-08-2019 21:37
  Studio scraps movie about a group of elites hunting ‘deplorables’ following gun violence across US and tweet by Trump
  The Hollywood studio behind a violent satire depicting a dozen supposedly red state Americans who wake up in a clearing and realize they are being stalked for sport by elite liberals, is to scrap the movie’s release , days after announcing it would not promote or market the film.The Hunt, produced by Blumhouse, the independent film house known mostly for low-bud
  
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• Two UN staff killed in Benghazi car bombing

  10-08-2019 21:28
  Explosion shattered Libyan conflict ceasefire agreed during Muslim holiday of Eid al-AdhaA car bomb explosion in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi killed two United Nations staff members on Saturday, several medical sources and the eastern military said.The UN is trying to broker a truce in the capital Tripoli, where the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) launched a surprise attack in April. A Reuters reporter at a Benghazi hospital where casualties of the blast were taken saw a list of
  
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• Policeman in serious condition after being run over by suspected car thief

  10-08-2019 21:20
  The incident occurred in Birmingham as the traffic officer attempted to make an arrest.
  
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• Heavy rain and strong winds hit transport links across country

  10-08-2019 21:10
  High winds stopped ferries from docking and blew trees on to railway lines.
  
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• More major US immigration raids likely despite outcry – report

  10-08-2019 21:03
  White House ordered Ice agents to identify targets across the US, report says, with focus on workplacesMore major raids aimed at picking up undocumented immigrants are likely soon despite a flood of outrage at a huge operation last week that saw more than 600 Latino workers detained at poultry plants in Mississippi.Donald Trump’s White House has ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents to identify more targets across the country, according to a report by CNN. The network
  
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• Police officer attacked with machete discharged from hospital

  10-08-2019 20:41
  Despite being stabbed in the head and body, the officer was able to fire his Taser during the incident in Leyton, east London.
  
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• London Hughes review – roof-raising routines from a comic force of nature

  10-08-2019 20:35
  Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
  Raucous and rude, the standup provides a whirlwind tour of her sexual history and blows past all objections with the G-force gusto of her performanceYou might call London Hughes a force of nature – except you’d hesitate to credit that megawatt energy to anyone but herself. It’s part of the joke that she is a rampaging ego, with the personality to fill the Pleasance Attic several times over. So why oh why is she still single? That’s the quest
  
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• Harry Kane’s late double takes Spurs past resurgent Aston Villa

  10-08-2019 20:30
  Tottenham came from behind to seal an exciting win against Premier League new boys Aston Villa, Harry Kane deciding the contest with two goals in the last 10 minutes.Villa had led for much of the match after John McGinn had stolen past a sleepy Spurs defence to finish superbly in the ninth minute. Spurs turned up in the second half, however, with an equally impressive strike from their new boy Tanguy Ndombele levelling matters before Kanesealed the three points in typically unerring fashion. Con
  
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• Brexit enforcer Cummings’ farm took €235,000 in EU handouts

  10-08-2019 20:30
  Dominic Cummings outside his home in London last week. Photograph: Peter Nicholls/ReutersBoris Johnson’s controversial enforcer, Dominic Cummings, an architect of Brexit and a fierce critic of Brussels, is co-owner of a farm that has received €250,000 (£235,000) in EU farming subsidies, the Observer can reveal.The revelation is a potential embarrassment for the mastermind behind Johnson’s push to leave the EU by 31 October. Since being appointed as Johnson’s chief ad
  
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• Fire crews tackle explosion in industrial area on Anglesey

  10-08-2019 20:25 via bbc.co.uk
  North Wales Fire Service says there has been an explosion off the A5 in Holyhead.
  
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• Search ends for Channel migrant missing at sea

  10-08-2019 20:18 via bbc.co.uk
  A rescue operation is called off without finding the woman who is thought to have fallen from a dinghy.
  
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• Greta Thunberg takes climate fight to Germany’s threatened Hambach Forest

  10-08-2019 20:18
  The felling of ancient woodland to make way for a giant coal mine brings together two linked battles for the activistGreta Thunberg started her long journey to climate summits in the Americas by joining a treetop protest in Germany’s Hambach forest, where environmentalists have been fighting for years to stop the ancient woodland being torn up for open-cast coal mining.The battle to save the last remaining oak and hornbeam trees reflects the young activist’s entwined fights to protec
  
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• Leyton machete attack: PC Stuart Outten leaves hospital

  10-08-2019 19:37 via bbc.co.uk
  Stuart Outten was stabbed in the head when he tried to stop a van in east London on Thursday.
  
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• Travel restrictions ease in Kashmir as state remains on knife edge

  10-08-2019 19:19
  Move follows reports of major protests against removal of special rights for India’s only Muslim-majority state There were signs that travel restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir were relaxed on Saturday in the state’s summer capital, Srinagar, where the streets were reportedly busy with people buying food ahead of Eid.Landlines, mobiles and the internet all remained blocked, however, preventing people from calling relatives and friends. Continue reading...
  
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• Thousands march in Moscow demanding open city elections

  10-08-2019 19:19
  More than 100 arrested in biggest opposition rally in six years, prompted by disqualification of independent candidates Russia’s opposition held its largest protest in years in central Moscow in a show of strength and defiance after previous rallies were forcefully dispersed with mass arrests.Monitors from the White Counter group, an NGO that counts participants at rallies, reported that nearly 50,000 people attended the demonstration on Saturday, making it the largest opposition rally sin
  
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• Prince Andrew 'groped' woman in Epstein's house, court files allege

  10-08-2019 19:15 via bbc.co.uk
  The Duke of York was accused of touching a woman's breast, according to newly released court papers.
  
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• Neil Jenkins hails Gatland impact on overhauling Welsh rugby’s mindset

  10-08-2019 19:15
  Wales may be closing in on the No1 spot in the world rankings but the kicking coach is ignoring the World Cup hypeWales used to approach World Cups with hype rather than expectation. No major union has failed to qualify for the knockout stages more often but, as Warren Gatland takes his players on a final march 12 years after taking charge following a ruinous tournament in France, making the quarter-finals will not prompt an explosion of champagne corks.Only winning the final will satisfy Gatlan
  
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• Hayley Turner wins Ascot’s Shergar Cup Silver Saddle for second year running

  10-08-2019 19:10
  • Jockey is first to do so in consecutive years
  • ‘It’s a massive thrill, this event means so much to me’Some jockeys are just made for a particular raceday. Lester Piggott had a pretty good thing going with Derby day but close behind that pairing on any list must come the blissful union of Hayley Turner and the Shergar Cup.The mounts for this unusual day’s racing are distributed according to a formula that should ensure a level playing field for the dozen jocke
  
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• Passengers stuck on ferries in Dover due to high winds

  10-08-2019 19:05 via bbc.co.uk
  The Port of Dover says it is "one ship in, one ship out" and heavy rain is causing rail delays.
  
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• Boudicca Boris Johnson in his no-deal Brexit chariot – cartoon

  10-08-2019 19:00
  With Dominic Cummings at his side, the prime minister crashes through the constitution•You can buy your own print of this cartoon Continue reading...
  
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• Book clinic: can you recommend novels and nonfiction books about cats?

  10-08-2019 19:00
  From the creations of Stephen King to Hilary Mantel, there are many literary felines to savourQ: Can you recommend some novels and nonfiction books about cats?
  Feline lover, 60, Oxford.A: Novelist Jessie Burton writes:
  My cat Margot is my constant writing companion and it seems from Alison Nastasi’s lovely Writers and Their Cats that I’m in good company. Beat novelist William S Burroughs adored cats so much he wrote a whole book about them; The Cat Inside is a dreamlike love letter t
  
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• Benjamin Myers: ‘I got a taste for the macabre early on’

  10-08-2019 19:00
  The prizewinning Durham-born writer on his latest novel – a postwar story of a young man’s friendship with an older womanBenjamin Myers’s eighth novel, The Offing, is the tale of Robert, a young man who, in the aftermath of the second world war, sets out across Yorkshire to Robin Hood’s Bay, where he forges an unlikely friendship with an eccentric and artistic older woman, Dulcie. Myers’s novels have always been challenging, intelligent and linguistically adventurou
  
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• Ukip elects Richard Braine as leader by wide margin

  10-08-2019 18:56
  Chairman of party’s west London branch was choice of ex-leader Gerard BattenRichard Braine has been elected as the leader of Ukip after taking more than half the vote, a party spokesman has said.In a ballot of members, the chairman of the party’s west London branch received 53% of the vote – more than double that of his closest rival. Continue reading...
  
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• One injured in gun attack on Norwegian mosque

  10-08-2019 18:55
  Man, 75, hurt at al-Noor Islamic Centre near Oslo before ‘young white’ gunman overpowered One person has been injured in a shooting inside a mosque in Norway, Oslo police said on Saturday, adding that one man had been apprehended.The suspected shooter at the al-Noor Islamic Centre near the country’s capital was described as “a young white man”, police added. Continue reading...
  
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• Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr still have time to rethink Saudi Arabia fight | Kevin Mitchell

  10-08-2019 18:44
  The two fighters should look to boxing history before signing up to their world heavyweight rematch in the Middle EastIt is nearly 45 years since the Rumble in the Jungle – and still the myth of that wild night lingers, dangerously ignored.There is much to learn from deconstructing the most famous sporting event of the 20th century. When a fierce storm swept through Kinshasa shortly after Muhammad Ali had landed his perfect finisher on George Foreman in the eighth round, coming off the rop
  
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• UK power cut: National Grid promises to learn lessons from blackout

  10-08-2019 18:38 via bbc.co.uk
  The company says the power cut affecting nearly a million people was an "incredibly rare event".
  
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• UKIP: Richard Braine elected as party leader

  10-08-2019 18:37 via bbc.co.uk
  Mr Braine takes 53% of the vote in a ballot of members and says UKIP has "a great future".
  
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• Key dates in controversial relationship between Duke of York and Jeffrey Epstein

  10-08-2019 18:37
  Andrew was photographed with Epstein in New York after he was freed from prison.
  
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• Jeffrey Epstein dies in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges

  10-08-2019 18:36
  Epstein was found dead at the Manhattan Correctional Centre in New York on Saturday morning.
  
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• Fans defend Laverne as Desert Island host

  10-08-2019 18:30
  Listeners and famous names react on social media after criticism of ‘lightweight’ presenter of BBC’s Desert Island DiscsListeners to BBC’s Desert Island Discs have split into factions this weekend as fans of its latest presenter, Lauren Laverne, have mounted a high-profile defence of her in the face of calls for Radio 4 bosses to re-think her appointment as Kirsty Young’s successor.The outpouring of love on social media has come from famous names such as Matt Lucas,
  
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• Jamie Demetriou: ‘After Fleabag, people demand to see my teeth’

  10-08-2019 18:23
  The writer and star of Stath Lets Flats on working with Phoebe Waller‑Bridge, his soft spot for Popstars’s Darius, and why he’s broodyJamie Demetriou, 31, was born in Friern Barnet, north London, and joined the Chickenshed theatre group aged five. He studied at Bristol University and took an acclaimed student revue show to the Edinburgh fringe. His acting credits include Fleabag, This Time With Alan Partridge, Sally4Ever and Paddington 2. He is currently appearing in Horrible H
  
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• Police should have acted earlier on Belfast bonfire: Gerry Adams

  10-08-2019 18:22
  The ex-Sinn Fein leader was in the New Lodge on Saturday, two days after officers had to withdraw amid violence at the site of the illegal pyre.
  
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• Public ownership an option for Ferguson shipyard

  10-08-2019 18:21 via bbc.co.uk
  The Scottish government says it is considering nationalising the beleaguered Ferguson shipyard.
  
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• UK power cut: 'We were stuck on a train with no food or toilets'

  10-08-2019 18:05 via bbc.co.uk
  A huge power cut brought much of the UK's train network to a standstill on Friday night.
  
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• Ireland’s Call: how a derided rugby dirge became a song for Irish unity

  10-08-2019 18:00
  Composed as a blander alternative to the national anthem, it has taken on new popularity and political meaningIt was the anthem everyone loved to hate, a musical concoction derided as an affront to patriotism and taste.The lyrics of Ireland’s Call urged the Irish to stand tall “shoulder to shoulder” before every rugby match, but many preferred to stay seated and mock the injunction. Continue reading...
  
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• EU's Juncker tells Britain: no-deal Brexit will hurt you the most

  10-08-2019 18:00
  A no-deal Brexit would hurt Britain more than the rest of Europe no matter how much Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government pretends otherwise, outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in remarks published on Saturday.Britain has been pressing the European Union to amend the terms of Britain's withdrawal agreement, saying Brussels would have to take responsibility for a no-deal Brexit if it does not compromise.
  
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• Chagos children ‘stuck for years in unsafe lodgings’

  10-08-2019 18:00
  Families of islanders housed in council-allocated accommodation deemed inappropriate by social servicesFamilies descended from islanders evicted from the Chagos Islands are being housed in council-allocated accommodation deemed by social services to be inappropriate for young children, the Observer has learned.The latest revelations prompted fresh calls for an independent investigation into the treatment of British Chagossians, forcibly removed by the UK in the 1960s and early 70s to allow the U
  
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• Begum lawyer says legal ploy could stop her return to Britain

  10-08-2019 18:00
  Citizenship appeal for UK Isis teenager being ‘deliberately delayed’Shamima Begum’s attempt to overturn the decision to revoke her UK citizenship is being deliberately delayed, according to her lawyers, to give police time to charge the former Islamic State member with a terrorism offence.Almost six months have passed since Begum lodged an appeal against the decision, by the former home secretary, Sajid Javid. Yet the 19-year-old, who joined Isis aged 15 and remains in Syria, i
  
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• Abandoned pianos in derelict buildings – in pictures

  10-08-2019 18:00
  Ever since Romain Thiery stumbled upon an abandoned piano in a castle in 2009, the French photographer – a pianist himself – has travelled all over Europe in search of forgotten pianos, giving them a new lease of life through his images. So far, he has captured 124 pianos in countries including Spain, Germany and Romania, as well as in remoter places such as the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine, for his ongoing series Requiem Pour Pianos. First he looked for pianos via Google Eart
  
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