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...Protester Ben Atkinson scales scaffolding on Houses of Parliament without ropes
An Extinction Rebellion protester is climbing Big Ben without ropes as part of the final protests of the group’s “October Rebellion”.
The organisation said the “free solo” climber was Ben Atkinson, a 43-year-old tree surgeon. Just before 4pm on Friday he unfurled two Extinction Rebellion banners from the scaffolding on the clock tower.
Continue reading...Benjamin Field killed Peter Farquhar in village of Maids Moreton to inherit his house and money
A church warden has been jailed for life after being found guilty of murdering a university lecturer following a sustained campaign of physical and mental abuse.
Benjamin Field, 28, was convicted in August of killing Peter Farquhar, 69, a retired teacher and part-time university lecturer, to inherit his house and money, and trying to make his death look like an accident or suicide.
Continue reading...Ian Hemmens acted as a driver because it gave him the chance to chat, court heard
An 81-year-old former burger van worker who took up work as a getaway driver to overcome his “isolation” and helped an alleged drug dealer flee the UK, has been jailed.
Ian Hemmens, of Chichester in West Sussex, was used because his age and appearance meant he would not draw attention. He was prepared to act as a driver because it gave him the chance to have a chat with someone, Portsmouth crown court was told.
Continue reading...Police have had to intervene and separate groups at events in university cities
Supporters of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests say they are being intimidated and harassed by pro-Beijing Chinese students and others at their events around the UK, forcing police to step in to separate them from counter-demonstrations.
Below-the-radar tensions have boiled over into incidents that include the arrest of a 19-year-old Chinese student after bottles were thrown at a Sheffield event, while police and university security have intervened in other town centres and campuses.
Continue reading...MPs point to lack of progress on promised safeguarding improvements for whistleblowers and survivors
MPs have accused aid organisations of “dragging their feet” over combating sexual exploitation and abuse in the sector, despite safeguarding pledges made in 2018 after the Oxfam abuse scandal.
Work to improve protection and support for whistleblowers has “stalled”, and more needs to be done to protect survivors, a report by the UK international development committee (IDC) has said.
Continue reading...Roger Jenkins would have risked losing £50m if he had sought any criminal deal, lawyer says
A former Barclays executive who is on trial in London on fraud charges would have risked losing a £50m “good leaver” package if he had sought a criminal deal with Qatar during the credit crisis, a court has heard.
It would have been “lunacy” for Roger Jenkins to put at risk such accrued benefits and a job that had paid him £38m in 2007 alone, his lawyer said at the Old Bailey.
Continue reading...The Irish PM said on Thursday he had 'mixed feelings' over the Brexit deal reached between the UK and the EU. Speaking at a press conference after the deal was ratified and sent to the UK parliament for approval, the taoiseach said he regretted Brexit but added that 'there will always be a place at the table for the United Kingdom, if they ever choose to come back'
Duke of Sussex reveals emotional toll of following in footsteps of Diana, Princess of Wales
The Duke of Sussex has described the emotional impact of walking in his mother’s footsteps, and how dealing with her death is a “wound that festers”, in a new ITV documentary.
In an interview with ITV News at Ten anchor Tom Bradby, Prince Harry was asked how he felt retracing the steps of Diana, Princess of Wales, during the recent southern Africa tour with the Duchess of Sussex, 22 years after his mother’s death.
Continue reading...European commission president puts pressure on British MPs to pass new Brexit deal by pouring doubt on the possibility of any further extension. Arriving in Brussels for the EU summit, Juncker said there was no argument for further delay
Continue reading...Duchess of Sussex is suing Mail on Sunday for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, kept a copy of a highly personal handwritten letter she sent to her father Thomas Markle, suggesting she may have correctly feared it would later be leaked to the media.
Court filings seen by the Guardian show that the duchess has a full record of the correspondence, including unpublished sections, which is now being used to assist her legal case against the Mail on Sunday for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy.
Continue reading...Prime minister is racing to secure backing from Democratic Unionist party for deal, which EU said they could approve today
For those of you who missed this, late last night Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, announced she was leaving the Labour Party because she could “no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks Corbyn becoming PM”.
Dame Louise, 73, who is Jewish, said she had been “deeply troubled” by the “growth of anti-Semitism” in Labour in recent years.
I have made the truly agonising decision to leave the Labour Party after 55 years. I can no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks Corbyn becoming PM. I will continue to serve the people of Liverpool Riverside as I have had the honour to do since 1997. pic.twitter.com/3BTzUacZvo
Lord Adonis is up and tweeting early, as he often does. He is reiterating his view that Johnson will end up being forced to ask the EU for an extension beyond 31 October.
Obviously Parliament cannot vote tomorrow on a deal which has not been agreed, let alone published, as a legal text. So he will still have to apply for an extension, which is the key operative fact today
Continue reading...On 5 October 1999, two trains collided at speed in west London, killing both drivers and 29 passengers. Barrister Greg Treverton-Jones, who survived the crash and worked on the harrowing inquiry, pieced together what went wrong
• Warning: this article contains graphic descriptions of injury and trauma
There was no warning and no screech of brakes – just a huge bang, and then we were crashing. I was sitting with my back to the direction of travel, towards Paddington, and felt the impact through my seat, as well as hearing it. For a moment or two, it seemed that we might be all right, because the train continued on its way. But then we derailed, and the wheels started to plough over the sleepers and through the ballast beside the tracks. I became aware of a bright yellow light over my right shoulder, and realised that it was a fireball. It moved along the outside of the carriage from front to rear, and then was gone. The carriage tilted to its right and, out of the window to my left, which was now below me, I could see one or two small fires. A body drifted slowly past that same window. It was that of a middle-aged male. The body was intact, and the man’s eyes were closed. I was struck by the peaceful look on his face as he rolled slowly below us. I remember hoping that he was not hurt, and wondering where on Earth he had come from.
Back then, in 1999, by a strange coincidence, I was acting as junior counsel for Great Western Trains Ltd at the public inquiry into the Southall rail crash, which had taken place two years earlier, in September 1997, and killed seven people. Many weeks earlier, I had been chatting to Richard George, managing director of Great Western Trains Ltd, about his experience as a passenger in the Southall crash. He had demonstrated to me how he had got out of his seat and crouched in the aisle as the train had slowed.
Continue reading...South Korean-based site accepted digital currency for access to videos, with victims rescued in US, UK and Spain
Hundreds of people have been arrested in a worldwide operation over a South Korea-based dark web child sexual abuse site that sold videos for digital cash.
Officials from the United States, Britain and South Korea described the network as one of the largest operations they had encountered to date.
Continue reading...Family of seven were detained for nearly two weeks after crossing into Washington state, saying they were trying to avoid an animal in the road
Lawyers for a British family who made an unauthorized crossing from Canada into the United States say the family have been deported after nearly two weeks in federal custody.
Bridget Cambria says US Immigration and Customs Enforcement told her all seven members of the family, including an infant and toddler twins, were headed back to England. Ice declined comment Wednesday afternoon, saying it did not discuss “removal arrangements” before deportees are back in their own country.
Continue reading...Prime minister will brief cabinet today on latest negotiations as UK and EU teams resume talks
These are from RTE’s Tony Connelly.
BREAKING: Michel Barnier has told EU Commissioners he is optimistic of getting a deal done today, @rtenews understands
2/ However, there still outstanding issues, so this could go right to the wire.
3/ It's understood VAT has emerged as a last minute problem: if NI remains inside the EU's VAT system, essential for North-South trade, then a new mechanism will have to be created for East-West trade, as the UK will be in its own VAT system
4/ However, it's understood officials are confident that a solution can be found.
5/ It's understood consent is also proving difficult, with a senior EU source saying the DUP are pushing to restore a tighter Stormont lock
6/ The third big hurdle is on the "level playing field" provisions. The EU is concerned at Boris Johnson's bid to dilute Theresa May's commitments to not stray far from the EU's environmental, state aid, social and labour standards
7/ The meeting of EU ambassadors, whom Barnier will brief, is still scheduled for 14hr CET, suggesting that the timings are still on course
ITV’s Robert Peston say the DUP are going back to Downing Street for another meeting.
DUP going back into Downing St, to try to find a way through roadblock. https://t.co/TDNS9amGqy
Continue reading...Couple say Trump shocked them by revealing woman involved in son’s death, Anne Sacoolas, was nearby
The parents of Harry Dunn have vowed to continue their fight for justice following a White House meeting with Donald Trump where they were told the US woman allegedly responsible for their son’s death would not return to the UK.
Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, fled the UK after 19-year-old Dunn was killed in a road collision. Dunn died near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August.
Continue reading...