Category Archives: UK news

Raab urges Cyprus to ‘do the right thing’ over Ayia Napa teenager

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Woman convicted of lying about being gang-raped is due to be sentenced on Tuesday

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has urged Cyprus to “do the right thing” in the case of a British teenager convicted of lying about being gang-raped in Ayia Napa but cautioned against aggravating the situation before her sentencing this week.

Last week, a judge ruled the 19-year-old wilfully indulged in public mischief in claiming she was raped by a group of Israeli males while on holiday in July.

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Harry Dunn: protesters at RAF base demand Anne Sacoolas’s return

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Wife of diplomat refuses to return to UK to face charges over death of 19-year-old

Family and friends of Harry Dunn have demonstrated outside the RAF airbase near where he was killed and warned that protests could spread to other bases across the country.

Dunn, 19, died in a road crash in Northamptonshire in August after which US citizen Anne Sacoolas departing for America under diplomatic immunity. The Crown Prosecution Service has said that Sacoolas would face a charge of causing death by dangerous driving if she returned to the UK.

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My father, the quiet hero: how Japan’s Schindler saved 6,000 Jews

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Chiune Sugihara’s son tells how he learned of his father’s rescue mission in Lithuania, which commemorates his achievements this year

As a child in Japan in the 1950s and 60s, Nobuki Sugihara never knew his father had saved thousands of lives. Few did. His father, Chiune Sugihara, was a trader who lived in a small coastal town about 34 miles south of Tokyo. When not on business trips to Moscow, he coached his young son in mathematics and English. He made breakfast, spreading butter on the toast so thinly “nobody could compete”.

His son had no idea his father saved 6,000 Jews during the second world war. Over six weeks in the summer of 1940, while serving as a diplomat in Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara defied orders from his bosses in Tokyo, and issued several thousand visas for Jewish refugees to travel to Japan.

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Fresh Cambridge Analytica leak ‘shows global manipulation is out of control’

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Company’s work in 68 countries laid bare with release of more than 100,000 documents

An explosive leak of tens of thousands of documents from the defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica is set to expose the inner workings of the company that collapsed after the Observer revealed it had misappropriated 87 million Facebook profiles.

More than 100,000 documents relating to work in 68 countries that will lay bare the global infrastructure of an operation used to manipulate voters on “an industrial scale” is set to be released over the next months.

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Rod Stewart charged over alleged altercation at Florida resort

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Police report says singer punched a hotel security guard on New Year’s Eve


Sir Rod Stewart has been charged with battery after an alleged scuffle at the entrance to a private New Year’s Eve party for children at a hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.

The altercation is also believed to have involved Stewart’s 39-year-old son, Sean, who is accused of pushing a security guard.

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Appeal by Cyprus rape claim teenager may take three years

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Foreign Office under pressure to get Cypriot authorities to move case to front of queue

The British teenager allegedly gang-raped in Cyprus could face a three-year wait to exhaust the legal process relating to her conviction for lying. The long delay increases pressure on the Foreign Office to lobby Cyprus to expedite the appeal process.

The student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was ruled to have “wilfully indulged in public mischief” by claiming that she was raped by a group of male Israeli tourists while on holiday in Ayia Napa last July.

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To move on, Labour must learn lessons from the left’s failure worldwide | Owen Jones

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The party’s defeat was a debacle, but was part of a global trend. Now leadership hopefuls must say how they would buck it

British exceptionalism – the myth that Britain is uniquely different to its European neighbours – afflicts everything from our understanding of our place in the world to our domestic political situation. The rise of Scottish nationalism, the rightwing populist surge, Brexit, Corbynism: all are seen through the confines of the UK’s borders. And so it goes for Labour’s catastrophic electoral rout. But it does not detract from the party’s own failure to understand the broader context: across the continent and even the world, social democracy and the so-called political centre are in crisis.

Related: Can Keir Starmer pass the tests set by the left and win the Labour leadership? | Chaminda Jayanetti

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Greta Thunberg changes Twitter name to Sharon after quiz show error

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Actor Amanda Henderson answered ‘Sharon’ to Thunberg-related question on Celebrity Mastermind – and the teen activist loved it

Greta Thunberg has been mocked and called many names since becoming the world’s most famous climate activist.

Related: Greta Thunberg: 'I wouldn't have wasted my time' speaking to Trump

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UK tour firm used by teenager in gang rape case ends trips to Ayia Napa

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Summer Takeover’s move comes amid anger over her treatment by Cyprus authorities

The UK tour operator behind the working holiday on which a British teenager was allegedly gang raped has said it will no longer send young clubbers to Ayia Napa following a week of rising anger about her treatment by Cypriot authorities.

Summer Takeover said it would stop operations at the resort “in any capacity” after the Guardian discovered it was still promoting the much-criticised budget hotel where the young woman was allegedly attacked by a group of Israelis in July.

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Mystery of Rolling Stones tracks posted briefly on YouTube

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Vintage recordings may have been published in attempt to extend copyright protection

A mysterious YouTube account that posted, then hid, a collection of 75 rare and unpublished Rolling Stones recordings may have been a canny attempt to avoid EU copyright laws and keep the tracks out of the public domain on the 50th anniversary of their creation.

Shortly before midnight on 31 December, the YouTube account 69RSTRAX posted a collection of recordings including studio out-takes and live performances to its public page on the video-sharing site, with no commentary or explanation. Hours later, on 1 January, again with no warning, the account made all the videos private.

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Costa del Sol deaths: church leaders praise strength of widow

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Pastor describes Olubunmi Diya as ‘remarkable woman’ as her lawyer says case not closed

Church leaders say the widow of a Christian pastor from London who drowned in a pool at a Spanish resort with two of their children on Christmas Eve has astonished them with her grace and dignity in grief, as her lawyer stressed the case was not closed.

Olubunmi Diya, who witnessed the incident with their surviving daughter, Favour, 14, has returned to the UK and is being comforted by members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), of which her husband, Gabriel Diya, 52, was a pastor in Charlton, south-east London.

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Jess Phillips poised to enter Labour leadership contest

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MP to join Clive Lewis and Emily Thornberry in race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn

Jess Phillips is due to announce she will stand as a candidate in the Labour leadership contest, it is understood.

The Birmingham Yardley MP will join Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis as confirmed candidates. Others including Rebecca Long Bailey, Keir Starmer and Lisa Nandy are expected to join the race formally in the coming days.

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Female paedophile Angela Allen to be released next month

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Allen’s release will be subject to strict licence conditions and adherence to ‘exclusion zones’

A female paedophile who operated as part of a “sickening ring” of child abusers is set to be released next month, the Parole Board has confirmed.

Angela Allen was part of a ring including three other women, who were convinced by IT consultant Colin Blanchard to share photographs of themselves abusing children.

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Keir Starmer calls to rebuild party as ‘force for good’

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YouGov poll shows Starmer in lead to head party over nearest rival Rebecca Long-Bailey

Sir Keir Starmer, the favourite to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, has called for the party to become a “trusted force for good” as up to nine rival candidates consider whether to stand next week.

The shadow Brexit secretary is seen as the candidate to beat following a YouGov poll showing he has a commanding lead over nearest rival and Corbyn ally Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary.

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Labour leadership: Blow to ‘continuity Corbyn’ as poll of members suggests Starmer clear favourite – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

The process to strip Northern rail of its franchise has begun after years of poor performance, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has said. My colleague Rajeev Syal has the full story here.

Related: Northern rail to be stripped of franchise, says Grant Shapps

The YouGov figures showing how votes might get redistributed in a Labour leadership contest (see 10.21am) are worth studying because they show that some assumptions about how people might use their second preference votes might be wrong.

For example, you might think that anyone backing Emily Thornberry would be inclined to opt for Sir Keir Starmer as their next choice because he’s another strongly pro-European north London senior lawyer who performs well in the Commons. But the YouGov figures suggest Rebecca Long Bailey would pick up almost as many Thornberry votes as Starmer in the first instance.

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Northern rail to be stripped of franchise, says Grant Shapps

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Transport secretary says he has started process after year of chaos and cancellations

The process to strip Northern rail of its franchise has begun after years of poor performance, the transport secretary has said.

Grant Shapps told the BBC he had started the process that could result in removing the firm’s routes, calling its service “completely unacceptable”.

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Anti-Islamic slogans spray-painted near mosque in Brixton

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Police are investigating the incident at a cultural centre as a suspected hate crime

Anti-Islamic slogans have been painted on a building close to a mosque and cultural centre in south London, the Metropolitan police have said.

Officers were called to a building near the North Brixton Islamic cultural centre on Brixton Road at 11am on Wednesday following reports of spray-painted slogans on a building near the centre.

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Visa applications: Home Office refuses to reveal ‘high risk’ countries

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Campaigners criticise decision not to reveal data in algorithm that filters UK visa applications

Campaign groups have criticised the Home Office after it refused to release details of which countries are deemed a “risk” in an algorithm that filters UK visa applications.

Campaigners for immigrants’ rights were sent a fully redacted list of nations in different categories of “risk”, which were entirely blacked out, on a Home Office response to their legal challenge over the artificial intelligence programme.

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AI system outperforms experts in spotting breast cancer

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Program developed by Google Health tested on mammograms of UK and US women

An artificial intelligence program has been developed that is better at spotting breast cancer in mammograms than expert radiologists.

The AI outperformed the specialists by detecting cancers that the radiologists missed in the images, while ignoring features they falsely flagged as possible tumours.

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