Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
A hearing at the High Court in London relating to a bid to challenge the suspension of Parliament will take place on Thursday 5 September, a spokesman for the judiciary has confirmed.
The spokesman told PA:
“A hearing into an application for judicial review received from Gina Miller with the Prime Minister as defendant has been fixed for Thursday 5 September 5 2019 at the Divisional Court in Court 4 at the Royal Courts of Justice, with the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett presiding.
“The court will first consider the request for the case to be heard and, if it agrees, a full hearing will follow the same day. Further information will be given early next week.”
The chancellor, Sajid Javid, was not informed in advance about the sacking of one of his senior advisers by Boris Johnson’s strategist Dominic Cummings, it has emerged.
Sonia Khan, Javid’s media adviser, was escorted from No 10 by a police officer after being accused of misleading Cummings over her contact with individuals close to the former chancellor Philip Hammond, who has been trying to block a no-deal Brexit.
Visiting hacked sites was enough for server to gather users’ images and contacts
An unprecedented iPhone hacking operation, which attacked “thousands of users a week” until it was disrupted in January, has been revealed by researchers at Google’s external security team.
The operation, which lasted two and a half years, used a small collection of hacked websites to deliver malware on to the iPhones of visitors. Users were compromised simply by visiting the sites: no interaction was necessary, and some of the methods used by the hackers affected even fully up-to-date phones.
Priti Patel discusses increasing financial support amid hike in attempted crossings
The UK government is considering increasing the amount it pays France to help deal with people trying to make the perilous Channel crossing to England using small boats, Paris has said.
The proposal was discussed during talks on Thursday between the British home secretary, Priti Patel, and her French counterpart, Christophe Castaner, that were prompted by an increase in the number of such attempted crossings over the summer.
Study prompts medicines regulator to advise all women using HRT to remain vigilant
The risk of breast cancer from using hormone replacement therapy is double what was previously thought, according to a major piece of research, which confirms that HRT is a direct cause of the cancer.
The findings of the definitive study will cause concern among the 1 million women in the UK and millions more around the world who are using HRT. It finds that the longer women take it, the greater their risk, with the possibility that just one year is risk-free. It also finds that the risk does not go away as soon as women stop taking it, as had been previously assumed.
Decision to rule out UK and Hong Kong would be major blow to both financial centres
Saudi Arabia’s revived plans for a $2tn mega-listing of its state oil company may rule out the London Stock Exchange amid Britain’s rising political uncertainty, according to reports.
Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, may instead look to Japan’s Tokyo stock exchange to host the second phase of what would be the biggest public offering in history.
Move could help some Britons seeking EU passports who were rejected after the referendum
The German government has said it will ease the process for descendants of people persecuted by the Nazis to regain citizenship, after a campaign by a British-based group.
The interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said on Thursday he had issued a decree that would overturn the rejections of those previously considered ineligible. These are most commonly descendants of women who fled Nazi Germany and who lost their citizenship after marrying non-German men.
Human rights campaigners claim Lord Carlile’s appointment undermines review’s credibility
Human rights campaigners have threatened the Home Office with legal action over its appointment of Lord Carlile as the independent reviewer of its anti-radicalisation programme Prevent.
The peer’s appointment, announced this month, was met with criticism from human rights and civil liberties groups, citing his previous on-record support for the Prevent programme.
If the past few years of Brexit debate have passed you by, here is what you need to know
If you’ve lost track of Brexit’s seemingly endless “cliff edges”, now is the time to pay attention as three years of argument appears set to come to a head.
SNP MP Joanna Cheery has confirmed that she has spoken to her legal team about speeding up the action in the Scottish courts to stop Boris Johnson shutting down parliament, which was due to be heard of September 6.
Ian Murray, another of the cross-party group of more than 70 MPs and peers said that they will now consider seeking an interim interdict (similar to an injunction in England and Wales) in the Court of Session to block prorogation.
The Speaker, John Bercow, has issued an extraordinary statement. “I have had no contact from the government, but if the reports that it is seeking to prorogue parliament are confirmed, this move represents a constitutional outrage,” he says.
Boris Johnson has confirmed he has asked the Queen for permission to suspend parliament for five weeks from early September.
The prime minister claimed MPs would have “ample time” to debate Brexit, as he wrote to MPs on Wednesday, saying he had spoken to the Queen and asked her to suspend parliament from “the second sitting week in September”.
Royal has previously denied Virginia Giuffre’s accusation that she was forced to have sex with him
An accuser of the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday addressed her accusation that she was coerced into sex with Prince Andrew, saying the royal “knows what he’s done”.
The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has responded to an invitation from MPs to chair a “citizens’ forum on Brexit” in which alternatives to a no deal would be discussed.
It’s an unexpected privilege to be asked to chair the proposed Citizens’ Forum on Brexit. In the past such gatherings have opened the way for careful deliberation. I’m open in principle – provided the Forum doesn’t aim to stop or delay Brexit, and has cross-party support. https://t.co/pYLYUDFzwJ
It is an unexpected privilege to be asked to chair this proposed citizens’ forum on Brexit. In the past this kind of gathering has, in many places and in difficult situations, opened the way for careful deliberation if at the right time and genuinely representative.
I am honoured to be approached and would be willing to accept in principle, subject to some conditions which have not yet been met. The main three are first, and indispensably, that the forum should not be a Trojan horse intended to delay or prevent Brexit in any particular form. That power can only be exercised by the government and MPs in parliament. A forum must be open to all possibilities. Second, that it has cross-party support (although its members will not be politicians). Third, the process must have time to be properly organised.
I generally don’t criticise the archbishop but he shouldn’t allow himself to be tempted into what is essentially a very political issue right now. This assembly is designed to destabilise Boris Johnson’s position. As such I hope he will recognise the deeply political nature of this.
Jeremy Corbyn was not at today’s meeting of opposition leaders at Church House – the shadow chancellor said he was busy in meetings – but the Labour leader has spoken to broadcast media this afternoon.
Jeremy Corbyn has backed cross-party plans to delay a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson and prioritise rebel MPs’ attempts to use legislation to stop a no-deal Brexit, with plans set to be agreed by the end of the week..
In a meeting with opposition parties convened by the Labour leader, Corbyn opened the discussion by reassuring MPs that Labour would not seek a premature vote of no confidence that might stymie legislative efforts to stop no deal.
Group taken to hospital from Coil to the Soil national metal detecting event in Doncaster
A group of metal detectorists have been taken to hospital after eating cake reportedly infused with cannabis at an event in South Yorkshire.
Fifteen people were taken ill at the Coil to the Soil national metal detecting event in Doncaster on Saturday. Yorkshire ambulance service said it had received an emergency call just before 6.30pm reporting that people had become ill after “ingesting an unknown substance”.
Aras Amiri and Anousheh Ashouri accused of spying as UK-Iran tensions rise
Iran has sentenced a British-Iranian man to 12 years in prison after accusing him of spying for Israel, while upholding the 10-year sentence of another UK resident.
A spokesman for the Iranian judiciary, Gholamhossein Esmaili, said on Tuesday that Anousheh Ashouri – the latest Iranian national with a western passport to be detained in Iran – had been sentenced to 12 years for ties to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
Isla and Eilidh Noble praised by emergency services after coming to aid of struggling pair
Two teenage sisters who used a lilo to rescue a man and his young son when they got into difficulty off the north-east coast of Scotland “deserve medals”, according to the emergency services.
Isla and Eilidh Noble were on the beach at the Waters of Philorth, near Fraserburgh, on Monday afternoon when they heard shouting. At first they thought the man was playing with his child, who was on his shoulders as he swam in deep water, but quickly realised he was out of his depth and in trouble.
But while temperatures in Britain remained just the right side of uncomfortably hot, much of Europe experienced serious extremes, in the continent’s warmest August on record. And far from being confined to the area around the Mediterranean, even Scandinavia had worryingly hot weather.