The activist group kicked off two weeks of peaceful protests, with thousands of demonstrators blocking roads in London, New York, Sydney, Amsterdam and other cities, calling for their governments to take urgent action to curb carbon emissions
Continue reading...Category Archives: UK news
PM urged to confront Trump over US tariffs on scotch whisky
MPs say thousands of jobs, many in rural Scotland, could be at risk from planned 25% tax
MPs are calling on Boris Johnson to intervene directly with Donald Trump to prevent the US imposing punitive tariffs of 25% on imported scotch whisky later this month.
The US announced last week that scotch would be among a range of European goods subject to hefty import taxes from 18 October, as it hits back against the EU in the long-running trade dispute over subsidies for Airbus.
Continue reading...Johnson says US diplomat’s wife should lose immunity after teenager’s death
PM to appeal to Donald Trump if Anne Sacoolas fails to return to UK over fatal traffic collision
Boris Johnson will personally appeal to Donald Trump if the US continues to refuse to lift the diplomatic immunity it has granted to a US diplomat’s wife who is accused of killing a 19-year-old motorcyclist in a traffic collision.
Anne Sacoolas, who is married to a US communications official, left the UK last month, prompting widespread anger in Britain over the use of diplomatic immunity to flee potential charges of causing death by dangerous driving.
Continue reading...No 10 continues to deflect blame for Brexit impasse on to EU
PM calls on EU to engage but leaked document suggests it has refuted his plans in detail
Downing Street has sought to deflect the blame for the Brexit impasse on to Britain’s EU counterparts, as Boris Johnson’s plans continued to meet a frosty reception.
After the French president, Emmanuel Macron, set a deadline of Friday for progress towards a deal, the prime minister’s official No 10 spokesman repeatedly said Johnson was still waiting for the EU27 to engage with Britain’s plan.
Continue reading...Revealed: the EU’s point-by-point rejection of Johnson’s Brexit plan
Exclusive: Leaked papers obtained by the Guardian show extent of fundamental objections Brussels has raised
The European Union’s full devastating point-by-point rejection of Boris Johnson’s Brexit proposals for the Irish border has been revealed in documents obtained by the Guardian.
Leaked documents lay bare the scale of the multiple faults highlighted to David Frost, the prime minister’s chief negotiator, during the recent talks.
Continue reading...Amazon launches Kindle e-reader aimed at children
New 6in Kindle Kids Edition comes with 1,000 books, word-building tools and parental controls
Amazon has launched a new version of its popular Kindle e-reader aimed at children, which comes bundled with more than 1,000 age-appropriate books.
The new £99 Kindle Kids Edition is a special variant of Amazon’s latest, cheapest frontlit 6in Kindle with software designed to encourage reading through gamification and word building.
Continue reading...HSBC plans to cut 10,000 more jobs worldwide, says report
Bank forced to shed jobs due to low interest ratess, Brexit and global tariff wars
HSBC plans to lay off up to 10,000 staff, more than 4% of its global workforce, as it embarks on a fresh cost-cutting drive, according to reports.
The cuts will affect mostly high-paid roles and come as the UK-based bank grapples with falling interest rates, Brexit and global tariff wars, the Financial Times reported. HSBC declined to comment.
Continue reading...Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: court ruling on £400m tank debt could aid release
Judge in Lodnon to decide amount UK should pay Tehran over 40-year-old arms deal
A court hearing in London over a £400m debt owed by the UK government to Iran could help decide the fate of the Iranian-British dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, imprisoned in Evin jail in Tehran for the last four years.
Mr Justice Phillips is being asked in the high court to settle the precise amount the UK should pay to the Iranians for a broken arms contract stretching bank 40 years.
Continue reading...Jennifer Arcuri refuses to deny claims of affair with Boris Johnson
US businesswoman denies PM helped her career when he was mayor of London
The American businesswoman at the centre of a conflict of interest row involving the prime minister confirmed she had a “very close bond” with Boris Johnson and refused to rule out claims they had an affair.
In her first broadcast interview since her links to Johnson were exposed, Jennifer Arcuri said the then London mayor visited her flat in Shoreditch, east London, a “handful of times” but she denied he had given her favours to boost her career.
Continue reading...Police chiefs ask US to waive immunity for envoy’s wife in crash
Woman who fled country is a suspect in relation to a collision that killed Harry Dunn, 19
Police chiefs have written to the US embassy in London to demand immunity is waived for an American diplomat’s wife who is a suspect in relation to a fatal road crash.
Nick Adderley, chief constable for Northamptonshire police, said US authorities had been appealed to in “the strongest terms” to apply a waiver and “allow the justice process to take place”.
Continue reading...IMF accused of ‘reckless lending’ to debt-troubled states
Jubilee Debt Campaign says the Fund broke its own rules by not ensuring sustainable debt burden
Debt campaigners have accused the International Monetary Fund of encouraging reckless lending by extending $93bn (£75bn) of loans to 18 financially troubled countries without a debt restructuring programme first.
In advance of the IMF’s annual meeting in Washington next week, the Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) said the the Fund was breaking its own rules by providing financial support without ensuring that the debt burden was sustainable.
Continue reading...‘It’s like a death sentence’: retired Britons in EU face loss of healthcare
Reciprocal scheme in which NHS reimburses cost of treatment will cease under a no-deal Brexit
Britons with serious, sometimes terminal, illnesses who live in the EU say they have no certainty about how or even whether their healthcare costs will be covered after a no-deal Brexit and are suffering a “living nightmare” of anxiety and despair.
“It’s like a death sentence,” said Denise Abel, who moved to Italy in 2012. “It’s all you think about. I feel abandoned, betrayed and furious. There are no words for the rage I feel. We’re the collateral damage in the government’s war with the EU.”
Continue reading...Macron gives Johnson until end of week to overhaul Brexit plan
French president’s insistence that UK should give way raises chances of talks imploding
The French president has given Boris Johnson until the end of the week to fundamentally revise his Brexit plan, in a move that increases the chances of the negotiations imploding within days.
The UK proposals tabled last week are not regarded in Brussels as being a basis for a deal and Emmanuel Macron emphasised it was up to the UK to think again before an upcoming EU summit.
Continue reading...Brexit secretary hints UK could rethink DUP veto on deal
Stephen Barclay also says government willing to discuss detail of customs proposals
The Brexit secretary has hinted that the government could amend its proposal to give the Democratic Unionist party an effective veto over its plan for an alternative to the Irish backstop
With EU leaders not willing to accept the UK’s ideas and talks between the two sides suspended over the weekend when Boris Johnson had been hoping to intensify them, Stephen Barclay said on Sunday that the government would be willing to discuss changes to the mechanism designed to ensure the new arrangements receive political approval in Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...Helena Bonham Carter sought Princess Margaret’s blessing through psychic
The actor says she discussed her part in The Crown with the deceased royal herself
Some actors avoid excessive research, but for Helena Bonham Carter to play Princess Margaret in The Crown meant reading all the biographies, talking to friends, ladies-in-waiting and relatives, and consulting an astrologer, a graphologist and a psychic.
The last meeting meant she could talk to the princess herself, the actor told Cheltenham literature festival.
Continue reading...Glastonbury tickets sell out in 34 minutes
Record 2.4 million fans tried to secure ticket for festival’s 50th year next June
Tickets for the 50th year of Glastonbury have sold out in 34 minutes, as a record number of fans tried to secure a ticket for the event at Worthy Farm next June.
Emily Eavis confirmed that a record number of people had registered to be eligible for the sale, which started at 9am on Sunday and was finished in little over 30 minutes. A record 2.4 million people signed up to have a chance of securing a ticket.
Continue reading...Trump’s trade tactics imperil the jobs of those who might vote for his second term
The only tool he has to placate US consumers is successive interest rate cuts – but the whole world is playing at that game
Donald Trump’s cunning plan to make America great again by launching a trade war with China has officially backfired. Last week, a keenly watched measure of US manufacturing showed firms cutting back on production and jobs at a rate not seen since 2009. Recession warning lights are flashing and the outlook seems a world away from the cheery one presented by the president when he entered the White House in 2017.
It is quite something for a president to impose a trade policy that weighs heavily on parts of a crucial sector for the US economy – and it’s a bizarre tactic given that the votes of manufacturing workers delivered him his first term in office.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson faces ultimatum over Jennifer Arcuri messages
London assembly committee may also compel PM to appear before it to answer questions about relationship with entrepreneur
Boris Johnson could be forced to hand over any private text messages and emails he sent to the US technology entrepreneur with whom he has denied an improper relationship – or face prison.
The prime minister has until Tuesday to respond to a summons from the London assembly to provide details of his relationship with Jennifer Arcuri, an entrepreneur whose relationship with Johnson is the subject of several inquiries.
Continue reading...Trump told Theresa May he doubted Russia was behind Skripal poisoning
The US president reportedly disputed UK’s ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Russian involvement in Salisbury attack
Donald Trump disputed that Russia was behind the attempted murder of a former Russian spy in a tense call with Theresa May, it has emerged.
Despite the widespread conclusion that Vladimir Putin’s regime was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year, the US president is said to have spent 10 minutes expressing his doubts about Russian involvement.
Continue reading...London police arrest Extinction Rebellion activists before protest
Officers raid building used by climate activists to store items for Westminster rally
Police have taken pre-emptive action against environmental protesters who are planning to cause disruption in Westminster.
Dozens of officers from the Metropolitan police’s territorial support group raided a building in Kennington, south London, where Extinction Rebellion activists were storing equipment to use in a demonstration next week.
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