Duke of Edinburgh expected to join Queen in Sandringham for Christmas
The Duke of Edinburgh has left hospital, where he was receiving treatment for a pre-existing condition.
Related: Queen's Christmas message: '2019 has been quite bumpy'
Continue reading...Location for talks to be split with Brussels in symbolic shift marking UK’s non-EU status
London is expected to co-host the next stage of post-Brexit negotiations with Brussels in a symbolic shift marking the UK’s position outside the EU after 31 January.
The most likely location for the talks involving teams led by Michel Barnier for the EU and a yet-to-be-identified minister for the British government is the Cabinet Office in Whitehall.
Continue reading...Bollo Brook youth centre credited with saving children from knife crime is at centre of gentrification row
A London youth club credited with saving children from rising knife violence is facing calls for its closure from new residents who think it would be better used as a coffee shop.
The Bollo Brook youth centre in South Acton, which serves some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in London, is embroiled in a gentrification row with residents demanding the council close it down and remove it from the area, claiming it has been “dumped” on them causing “nothing but problems”.
Continue reading...A 35-year-old man is being questioned after the suspected stabbing in the city
Detectives investigating the deaths of two people found in a flat in Belfast have arrested a 35-year-old man, police have said.
He has been taken to Musgrave police station for questioning after the bodies of a man and a woman were found in the apartment in the Kinniard Close area on Monday afternoon. Local sources said it is understood they suffered stab wounds.
Continue reading...English football’s racism crisis took a new twist after it emerged that a Chelsea supporter was arrested for allegedly racially abusing Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min on Sunday– during the Premier League match that had to be paused because a monkey chant was aimed at Chelsea’s Antonio Rüdiger by members of the home crowd.
Anthony Taylor, the referee, stopped play after Rüdiger claimed he had heard racist taunts during the second half of Chelsea’s victory over their London rivals. An announcement on the public address system informed the crowd at the Tottenham stadium that “racist behaviour from spectators is interfering with the game”. The announcement was made on two further occasions, in line with Premier League protocols.
Continue reading...New version of widely derided movie starring Idris Elba and Judi Dench to get CGI update
A new version of Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of the musical Cats with “improved visuals” is reportedly being sent to cinemas after a barrage of negative reviews in which the film was hammered for its “disturbing” CGI effects.
On Sunday, the Hollywood Reporter said it had seen a note that was sent by Universal Studios to thousands of cinemas in the US confirming that a new version with “some improved visual effects” was being distributed to chains.
Continue reading...Police were called to property in Crawley Down where they also found a man seriously injured
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the deaths of two women outside a property in a West Sussex village.
Police said they were called shortly before 10.20am on Sunday to an address in Crawley Down, where they also found a seriously injured man inside.
Continue reading...Billie Jean King leads wave of tributes to Fallon Sherrock after ‘gamechanging’ victories
Fallon Sherrock has said she is overwhelmed by the “incredible” response to her historic victories at the PDC World Darts Championship, as Billie Jean King led a wave of congratulations from across the globe.
Sherrock became the first woman to defeat a male darts player in the sport’s best-known competition last week and repeated the feat by beating one of the world’s top-ranked players on Saturday.
Continue reading...Lawyers warn loss of reunion rights for unaccompanied refugee children will put them in danger
The loss of family reunion rights for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children will leave them with “no options” except taking dangerous routes and using smugglers, charities in France and Greece are warning.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, faced criticism after he told parliament he had dropped a promise to replace the EU law that allows child refugees stranded in Europe to reunite with family members in the UK after Brexit.
Continue reading...Anne Sacoolas has been charged with death by dangerous driving but her lawyer has said she will ‘not return voluntarily’ from US
The family of Harry Dunn will meet with the home secretary, Priti Patel, as her office considers extraditing the US suspect charged with causing the teenager’s death by dangerous driving.
Patel is expected to sit down with Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles, and father, Tim Dunn, on Sunday, just days after the Crown Prosecution Service said they had authorised Northamptonshire Police to charge US citizen Anne Sacoolas.
Continue reading...The election was bad, but the aftermath is worse for a divided party
Labour leadership contests are normally traumatic events held in very unhappy times for the party. The election of Ed Miliband in 2010 followed a general election defeat that ended 13 years of Labour government. Five years later Jeremy Corbyn was installed after Miliband failed to return the party to power. Then in the summer of 2016 a revolt against Corbyn by his own MPs sparked another contest, which saw the incumbent win again and take revenge on the mutinous parliamentary party.
Inevitably these contests cause internal ruptures as rival candidates set out opposing visions and their supporters divide into camps. The 2010 campaign had its tragic aspects too, as the Miliband brothers, Ed and David, fell out while fighting each other for the right to succeed Gordon Brown.
Continue reading...Dog undergoes two lifesaving operations in Dorset after gorging on gingerbread tree ornaments
A seven-year-old labrador has undergone two lifesaving operations after gorging on more than 30 homemade gingerbread Christmas tree decorations.
The dog’s owner, Rachael Bulmer, from Bournemouth, rushed her pet Marley to the PDSA Pet Hospital in the Dorset town after it became seriously ill. Vets performed emergency surgery on Marley to remove ribbons attached to the biscuits.
Continue reading...The Duke of Edinburgh is expected to stay in hospital for a few more days while receiving treatment relating to a “pre-existing condition”.
His planned admission on Friday to King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London, which has treated members of the royal family for decades, was described as precautionary by Buckingham Palace.
Continue reading...Irish leader fears UK wants to ‘undercut’ European rivals in areas such as food after exit
Boris Johnson appeared to sidestep accusations from European leaders that he is on course to deliver a “harder Brexit”.
The prime minister is expected to have combative trade talks in the new year after ruling out adhering to Brussels’ rules after 2020 when the transition period ends.
Continue reading...Man whose body was found with stab wounds in Elstree is being linked to fatal stabbing in north London on Thursday
The death of a man whose body was found with stab wounds in Hertfordshire is being linked to a murder in north London, the Met police said.
Hertfordshire police made the discovery in Hogg Lane, Elstree, on Friday. Detectives are treating it as linked to a stabbing near Scratchwood Park, Barnet, on Thursday.
Continue reading...It is famous for smelling like “a thousand dead elephants rotting in the sun”, its petals resemble decaying flesh, and it is so rare that outside its natural habitat in Papua New Guinea, few botanists in the world have ever seen it in flower.
Now this highly pungent orchid – Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis – is in bloom for the first time in a glasshouse at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
Continue reading...Founding family criticises approval of £4bn deal despite national security concerns
The government has been accused of handing control away after it approved a US private equity firm’s £4bn takeover of the UK defence company Cobham despite national security concerns.
The deal had been delayed since mid-2019 after fears were raised that Advent International’s acquisition could undermine the country’s security.
Continue reading...Civil servant Darryn Frost confronted terrorist and pinned him to the ground
A civil servant has described the moment he confronted the London Bridge terrorist with a narwhal tusk as the terrorist threatened to detonate a suicide vest.
Darryn Frost, 38, a South African who has lived in the UK for 14 years and works in the Ministry of Justice, intervened after Usman Khan had fatally wounded Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt at a criminal justice conference at Fishmongers’ Hall on 29 November.
Continue reading...Bill passes second reading by 358 votes to 234 leaving UK on course to leave EU by end of January
Britain has taken a pivotal step towards leaving the European Union as Boris Johnson was rewarded for the Conservatives’ thumping general election victory with a majority of 124 for his Brexit deal in the House of Commons.
Addressing MPs on Friday morning, the prime minister sought to draw a line under three years of bitter parliamentary conflict, urging his colleagues to “discard the old labels of leave and remain”.
Continue reading...MPs vote on the EU withdrawal agreement bill, and Clive Lewis becomes the second Labour MP to enter party’s leadership contest
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said the general election had delivered a clear instruction to parliament to leave the EU and so MP should respect that decision and back the bill.
This bill is not a victory for one side over the other. The time has come to discard the old labels to move from the past divisions and to come together as one United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary who is predicted to run for the Labour leadership, warned Conservative MPs to “be careful”. “Doing things because the government has a majority doesn’t mean those things are right,” he said.
He said that the move to water down commitments to child refugees is an example of that. “That is a moral disgrace,” he said.
I turn to my own benches. We may have lost the general election, but we have not lost our values and our beliefs and we must fight for them – day in, day out – in this parliament and we will.
That doesn’t mean that the deal negotiated by the prime minister is a good deal. It isn’t. It was a bad deal in October when it was signed. It was a bad deal when it was first debated in this House in October. It was a bad deal last Thursday and it’s a bad deal today.
Continue reading...