Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
MPs blame failure to sustain momentum following William Hague’s departure from Foreign Office for project falling ‘far short’
A high-profile UK government programme to tackle sexual violence in conflict zones – launched by former foreign secretary Lord William Hague and Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie – has been criticised for falling far short of its ambitions and letting survivors down.
A review, published on Thursday by the aid watchdog, found that waning ministerial interest, severe funding cuts and a lack of senior leadership meant the scheme “never had a strategic vision” and as a result “nothing [was] done to translate … pledges into practical action”.
Commitment to reunite children with family members in UK to be removed from withdrawal bill
The Commons has rejected proposals to keep protections for child refugees in the redrafted EU withdrawal agreement bill, triggering dismay from campaigners.
Alf Dubs, the Labour peer who successfully campaigned for this protection for refugee children in 2016, said it was a “very depressing” development.
EU commission chief calls for focus on common ground on climate change, human rights and security
Boris Johnson and the new European commission president have had a positive first meeting about the next round of Brexit talks in which they discussed their aspirations for a deal based on friendly cooperation, shared history and interests and values, Downing Street has said.
Both sides made a concerted effort to put the bitter divisions of the past three years aside, with Ursula von der Leyen describing the meeting as the start of a new era of “old friends and new beginnings”.
Duke and Duchess of Sussex say they intend to ‘work to become financially independent’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to step back from public life and work towards financial self-sufficiency after a period marked by open warfare with the media over claimed intrusion and bullying.
The couple plan to split their time between the UK and North America, the continent of Meghan’s birth, as they raise their son.
Boris Johnson’s government has not signalled when select committees will sit again
Ministers and civil servants are not being properly scrutinised by parliament because of delays in setting up select committees, senior MPs have claimed.
Despite crucial Brexit policy passing through the Commons and the possibility of conflict in the Middle East, chairs of four committees have said they have not yet been given any indication by Boris Johnson’s government when they will be able to sit again.
It is impossible to feel the British teenager convicted of lying about what happened to her in Ayia Napa has received justice
All she wanted was one last summer adventure before buckling down to the beginnings of adult life.
If all had gone to plan, the 19-year-old would have flown home from Cyprus with nothing more than a few lively gap year stories to show for it, and by now would presumably have been happily settled into university life.
Concerns persist despite MoD initiatives to tackle racism, Guardian call-out shows
Serving soldiers from BAME backgrounds who spoke to the Guardian about their experience of the armed forces say the days of daily abuse and overt name-calling are gone, but instead it has been replaced with “subtle racism”.
“Comments such as ‘people like you’, ‘you people from the colonies,’ or ‘passport seeking’ are still uttered in plain hearing,” said one veteran serviceman, who described his experience over more than a decade in the ranks as “nothing but traumatic”.
Ursula von der Leyen expected to talk up future negotiations during visit to London
The EU’s opening negotiating position on the future relationship will lack detailed demands to avoid an early clash with Boris Johnson as both sides seek to take the heat out of the coming post-Brexit trade and security talks.
In that vein, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to talk up the prospects of the coming negotiations during a visit to London on Wednesday.
Exclusive: leaked resolution by main political groups follows threats of deportation made by British minister
The European parliament will express its “grave concern” about the attitude of Boris Johnson’s government to the 3.3 million EU citizens living in the UK following threats of deportation made by a British minister.
In a leaked resolution drafted by the main political groups and due to be backed by MEPs next Wednesday, Johnson’s administration is accused of creating “anxiety” in recent months.
Steve Gallant was out on licence when terrorist began stabbing people at criminal justice event
A previously unidentified prisoner who helped tackle Usman Khan, the London Bridge knife attacker, has spoken for the first time about his role in the fatal confrontation.
Steve Gallant, who attempted to subdue the terrorist with a narwhal tusk, was spending his first day out on licence at a criminal justice conference on 29 November last year when Khan began stabbing volunteers attending the event.
Shadow business secretary secretary criticises the party’s strategy in last month’s disastrous election
Rebecca Long Bailey has announced that she is standing to become leader of the Labour party with a stout defence of Jeremy Corbyn’s political programme in the general election.
Widely seen as the favoured candidate of the left of the party, the MP for Salford and Eccles announced her candidacy on Monday night with a piece criticising the party’s election strategy and lack of narrative. She promised to defend policies within the party’s current socialist programme with “unwavering determination” in the article for Tribune magazine.
Ian Murray, Labour’s only surviving MP in Scotland, is preparing to enter the contest to become Labour’s deputy leader on a platform of constitutional reform and countering nationalism.
Murray, an arch critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s and an opponent of Brexit, is expected to signal his intention to run tomorrow after being asked to stand by other Labour MPs. His plans to run are thought to depend on getting sufficient early nominations, but it would fuel the brewing conflict between the party’s pro-Corbyn wing and its centrists.
There are no doubts that constitutional and nationalist issues are engulfing our politics. I have the experience and knowledge of dealing with both, and the Labour party has ducked this issue for too long. English nationalism from the Tories and Scottish nationalism from the SNP are squeezing the Labour Party and we must stop it.
[The] danger for our party across the UK is what I have been warning of since 2015. If we don’t tackle the big constitutional issues with reference to our own values and the national interest, then we lose our core purpose.
After listening to Angela Rayner’s speech this morning, my colleague Kate Proctor concluded it was hard to see why she was running for the deputy Labour leadership when she might be a strong candidate for leader. (See 12.23pm.) It is not hard to see why. It’s a good speech, with some compelling lines and a superb opening.
Here is the opening.
I wanted to make this speech here, on the estate where I grew up and lived for most of my life.
I talk about my background because for too long I felt I wasn’t good enough; I felt ashamed of who I was. It took me time for that shame to turn into pride.
We fell into the trap of describing a platform of revolutionary change. By the standards of recent politics, it was, and rightly so.
But actually, we could have told a simpler story.
Many of the friends I grew up with, my own family even, voted to leave the EU.
They felt like we treated them as embarrassing aunts or uncles.
There are also lines beyond which there is no dialogue and no compromise possible.
And the first line in the sand is antisemitism.
Nor should we take for granted the new voters we have won over, any more than we should have done those we have lost.
For all that’s said about London, we made no net advance in seats there either. We faced a fight to hold others like Dagenham and Rainham - a place that, like my own constituency, has so much to gain from a Labour government, but where too many people felt our party had lost touch with them.
Across Europe social democratic parties are collapsing.
The once mighty German SPD, the biggest and oldest social democratic party in the world is on 11 percent
I don’t pretend that I have all the answers. That is the point of being a collectivist. That by the strength of our common endeavour, we achieve more than we do alone.
That final sentence is a quote from the new Clause IV introduced by Tony Blair.
I owe much of my life to Labour.
The Labour governments that provided the welfare state, Sure Start, and the minimum wage, which gave me the help I needed to not just survive but succeed.
A man described as “Britain’s most prolific rapist” will never be safe to be released, a court has heard, as he was jailed for a minimum of 30 years after being found guilty of raping or sexually assaulting 48 young men in Manchester.
Reynhard Sinaga, 36, a mature student from Indonesia, is thought by police to have abused at least 195 men over two-and-a-half years after luring them to his flat under the guise of being a “good samaritan”, drugging his victims and then attacking them after they passed out.
Opposition links violence to Narendra Modi’s BJP party and tensions over citizenship law
Students have protested in cities across India after a masked mob stormed a high-profile university in Delhi and attacked students and teachers with weapons including sledgehammers, iron rods and bricks, injuring more than 30.
Opposition parties and injured students blamed Sunday night’s violence on a student organisation linked to the prime minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has increasingly targeted the institution.
Rise in cost of crude after US attack on Iranian general could affect petrol price
Oil prices have climbed above $70 a barrel for the first time in four months amid fears that the US air strike that killed Iran’s top military commander may trigger a retaliation.
The global oil markets have risen by more than 5% to $70.73 a barrel since the attack that killed Qassem Suleimani in Iraq last week.
Prime minister also intends to press his Brexit bill through Commons in three days
Boris Johnson will host the president of the European commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, in Downing Street this week as he prepares to take Britain out of the EU at the end of this month, kicking off a race against time to secure a free trade deal.
The prime minister will use the comfortable majority he won at last month’s general election to press his Brexit bill through the House of Commons in three days when MPs return to Westminster on Tuesday.
Promises of a better life in many social media posts are often a trap for marginalised communities such as the Roma
In the village of Bag, north-east of Budapest, the houses along the main street are smart and well-kept. Tucked behind, up a slight hill, where the buildings become bare brick and the tarmac road turns into a dust track, people sit on the ground in the afternoon sun, talking and playing cards.
These are the Roma, or the Roma who remain in Hungary, where they live on society’s edge, clinging on in the outskirts of towns and villages, shunned and stigmatised as potential criminals.
Prime minister has spoken to Donald Trump about US drone strike on Iranian general
Boris Johnson has said that assassinated Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was “a threat to all our interests”, and that while “we will not lament his death” he called for de-escalation from all sides.
The prime minister spoke to the US president, Donald Trump, on Sunday after the US drone strike on Iran’s top military leader on Friday.
Flood warnings in place across south-west England, with damage to properties expected
Winds of up to 75mph (120km/h) are forecast to hit Scotland and the north of England on Tuesday, while south-west England braces for floods.
Coastal communities across the north-east of England and the west of Scotland are most at risk from gales, where exposed areas could see gusts of 70-75mph, according to the Met Office, which issued yellow weather warnings for the two regions.
The government was criticised earlier this year for working with the Zimbabwean state to accelerate the removal of asylum seekers after Robert Mugabe was forced from power, despite continuing human rights abuses in the country.