The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, says there are ‘no barriers to justice being done’
Northamptonshire police have sent officers to the US to interview the woman who claimed diplomatic immunity following her alleged involvement in the death of Harry Dunn.
The 19-year-old died when his motorbike crashed into a car driven by the American Anne Sacoolas outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August.
Continue reading...Websites such as OneSub, Nuzzera and AllSides hope to subvert political polarisation by offering news and views from beyond users’ usual sources. But is it that simple?
As strange as it may sound, above a Dorothy House charity shop in the shabbier end of central Bath, a handful of people are quietly trying to push the world – or at least a small part of it – away from the polarisation that currently defines politics, and towards something a bit more open and empathic. To compound the unlikeliness of it all, they are led by a man called Jim Morrison: not the reincarnated singer of the Doors, but the 40-year-old founder of a new online platform called OneSub, whose strapline is “Break the echo chamber”.
I have come to OneSub’s HQ as part of a week-long quest to push my reading habits and general soaking-up of information out of my usual left-inclined social media bubble, get some much-needed perspective, and try to use the internet as it was originally intended – not to confirm my prejudices, but to reintroduce me to the confounding, complicated, surprising realities of the world as it actually is.
Continue reading...Travel guide company says ‘timeless treasures’, seaside and historic buildings put country in second place, behind Bhutan
England has been named the world’s second best tourist destination in 2020 due to its “timeless treasures” by the guide book firm, Lonely Planet, behind Bhutan.
The list, featured in the Best in Travel 2020 book, was compiled based on “topicality, unique experiences and wow factor”.
Continue reading...Merkel ally Peter Altmaier says ‘it goes without saying’ Brexit extension would be granted
Germany’s economic affairs minister has wholeheartedly backed the option of a Brexit extension beyond 31 October, as the European parliament pulled plans to hold a vote on Boris Johnson’s deal this week.
Peter Altmaier, a key ally of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said he believed a technical extension would be offered to allow extra time for legislation to pass or a longer period to accommodate a general election or second referendum.
Continue reading...Dozens of celebrities join Prince Harry in new cases against Sun and Mirror publishers
Princess Diana’s former lover James Hewitt and her butler Paul Burrell are among dozens of individuals who have joined Prince Harry in the latest round of phone-hacking claims against tabloid newspaper publishers.
Hewitt and Burrell recently filed their cases against the publisher of the Daily Mirror at the high court, according to court filings seen by the Guardian, joining the Duke of Sussex in alleging the publisher intercepted their voicemails. Their claims will focus attention on the extent to which British newspapers targeted the royal family and those around them in the hunt for stories during the 2000s.
Continue reading...Equality campaigners celebrate ahead of a midnight deadline for new laws to come into force
Northern Ireland is poised to legalise abortion and same-sex marriage after an 11th-hour attempt by the region’s assembly to block change collapsed into farce.
Equality campaigners celebrated on Monday as the clock ticked towards midnight when laws extending abortion and marriage rights were due to come into force, ushering in momentous social change as Northern Ireland aligned with the rest of the UK.
Continue reading...Fall in UK-produced emissions has been offset by those from increase in imported products
Britain has contributed to the global climate emergency by outsourcing its carbon emissions to developing nations, according to official figures, despite managing to weaken the domestic link between fossil fuels and economic growth.
The Office for National Statistics said the UK had become the biggest net importer of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the G7 group of wealthy nations – outstripping the US and Japan – as a result of buying goods manufactured abroad.
Continue reading...Speaker rules it would be ‘repetitive and disorderly’ for MPs to vote again on deal
Boris Johnson has been denied the opportunity to hold a second vote on his Brexit deal in the House of Commons after the Speaker, John Bercow, ruled that it would be “repetitive and disorderly”.
Bercow said it would break longstanding conventions for MPs to debate and vote on the agreement struck in Brussels last week, little more than two days after Saturday’s historic sitting.
Continue reading...Reading branch of US chain to close after protests over stance on same-sex relationships
A US fast food chain is to close its first branch in the UK after protests and boycott calls by LGBT campaigners.
Chick-fil-A faced demands to “cluck off” when the fried chicken outlet opened in a shopping mall in Reading this month.
Continue reading...Royal speaks of struggling to cope with her new life in interview for ITV documentary
The Duchess of Sussex has revealed she was warned before her marriage to Prince Harry that the British tabloids would “destroy” her life, as she spoke of struggling to cope with the reality of being part of the royal family.
In an interview for the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, she said the last year had been “hard” and that she had had “no idea” of what she would face.
Continue reading...Cast your mind back to 2011 and the Arab uprisings that began in Tunis before spreading to Egypt and beyond. Protesters used social media to communicate and coordinate, so it became the “Twitter revolution” and the “Facebook revolution”. It was the peak of techno-utopia, a moment of hope that technology would transform our political lives and put citizens in control.
Today, techno-utopia has given way to techno-dystopia. Many worry that technology is undermining democracy, spreading misinformation, equipping criminals and the authorities with new tools. This month, Apple, under pressure from the Chinese government, pulled an app that let protesters track the movements of Hong Kong police with crowdsourced data. It has been a long road from Tunis to Hong Kong. There is an element of truth about techno-utopia and dystopia. Social media makes it easier for protesters to communicate, create forums for discussion and spread information. Technology also makes it easier for authorities to snoop on citizens and control dissent.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson concludes his Churchill biography with splutters against historians who insist the “story of humanity is not the story of great men and shining deeds”. The story of Winston Churchill, he cries, “is a pretty withering retort to all that malarkey. He and he alone made the difference.”
The story of Boris Johnson withers too. He is shrivelling Britain: making it cramped, poor and irrelevant. Modern historians may sniff at the 19th-century notion that “the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men” to use Thomas Carlyle’s words. The rest of us should not be so complacent and register the capacity of catastrophic men and women to change the world for the worse.
Continue reading...In one corner were two women, a teacher and a graphic designer, from Cambridgeshire. In the other was the guardian of the country’s heritage and green spaces. Both were engaged in a high-intensity battle – over chocolate.
The usually staid proceedings of the National Trust annual general meeting in Swindon yesterday erupted into a heated row about the conservation charity’s longstanding deal with one of the largest confectionery giants in the world.
Continue reading...British officials have taken the first steps to repatriate children stranded in Syria by liaising directly with agencies on the ground to identify unaccompanied minors for “safe passage” back to the UK.
Whitehall sources have confirmed they are working with “various agencies” in north-east Syria – believed to include the International Committee of the Red Cross – to kickstart the process of transferring children of British parents linked to Islamic State back to the UK.
Continue reading...Former gun runner claims republicans plotted to bomb London power supply in 1990s
The IRA planned to attack power stations in south-east England in the final years of its terror bombing campaign, a former member has claimed.
The plan is alleged to have been made in the mid-1990s, shortly before the Belfast Agreement peace accord.
Continue reading...Donald Tusk says he is ‘waiting for letter’ that PM promised in phone call after Commons vote
Boris Johnson has confirmed in a phone call with the European council president Donald Tusk that he is sending a letter requesting a further Brexit delay beyond 31 October.
Despite the prime minister’s insistence that he would not “negotiate” a further extension of the UK’s membership of the EU, he confirmed on Saturday evening that he would be seeking such an extension.
Continue reading...In one of the largest public demonstrations in British history, a crowd estimated at around one million marched outside parliament to demand MPs grant them a fresh referendum on Brexit.
Organisers of the march said the turnout, buoyed by the dry weather and the promise of “super Saturday”, was comparable to the previous second referendum rally six months ago, when a million people gathered in central London.
Continue reading...No reported injuries or wider threats to the community, says Greater Manchester police
Officers from Greater Manchester police arrested a suspect on Friday after reports of a man with a knife at the Arndale shopping centre.
Footage on social media appeared to show a large police and ambulance service presence outside the Manchester shopping centre, which closed at 8pm on Friday according to its website.
Continue reading...Discovery of whale’s body near Gravesend follows death of young humpback this month
A second whale has been found dead in the Thames less than two weeks after a humpback nicknamed Hessy died near the same stretch of water.
The Port of London Authority confirmed the suspected fin whale was discovered in the river at Denton, near Gravesend, on Friday morning.
Continue reading...Prime minister has said he is ‘very confident’ deal will be approved in historic Commons vote on Saturday
The Labour MP Sarah Champion says she will vote for Boris Johnson’s deal, BuzzFeed’s Alex Wickham reports (assuming MPs get the chance to vote on the deal tomorrow).
NEW: Another Labour MP switcher
Sarah Champion signals she will vote FOR the deal in an email to a constituent this afternoonhttps://t.co/LXj8LW5nu4 pic.twitter.com/foKgazJ03p
Sir Oliver Letwin has released a note to journalists explaining what his amendment will do. (See 4.05pm.) Here it is.
I am writing this as somebody that voted three times for Theresa May’s deal, who has guaranteed publicly to vote for any deal that provides for an orderly exit, and who will vote for Boris’s excellent deal at all stages through to third reading of the implementing legislation, without any changes whatsoever.
The one issue that concerns me is to keep the Benn Act extension in place as an insurance policy until the implementing legislation is passed by both Houses of Parliament and the UK’s withdrawal Is ratified.
Continue reading...