Judged by votes, the PM is losing 8-15 after a century of days – and he hasn’t done much better elsewhere
Thursday was Boris Johnson’s 100th day in office – and when he took charge, he would have hoped that on Friday he would be spending the day celebrating Britain’s departure from the EU. Instead, it has been a rollercoaster ride of broken promises, false dawns and embarrassing defeats – and an election is looming.
Continue reading...Riches to move permanently to new Grand Museum, so London show is being milked by country’s PR department
In the manner of an ageing rock star with a faltering voice but a hefty tax bill, King Tutankhamun and his entourage rolled into London this weekend for the latest stop in what his handlers insist will be absolutely, without question, his last world tour.
Related: Tutankhamun review – thrills and fun as King Tut gets the Hollywood treatment
Continue reading...Tarek Houshieh receives sentence in Lebanon over 2017 killing of Rebecca Dykes
An Uber driver has been sentenced to death for raping and murdering a British embassy worker in Lebanon.
The Mount Lebanon criminal court sentenced Tarek Houshieh on Friday, according to Lebanon’s national news agency.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report allegedly being withheld by No 10 contains submissions from ex-head of MI6’s Russia desk
A report on Russian interference in British politics allegedly being sat on by Downing Street includes evidence from Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk whose investigation into Donald Trump’s links with Moscow sparked a US political scandal.
Steele made submissions in writing to parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), it is understood. A counter-intelligence specialist, Steele spent his career tracking Russian influence operations around the world and investigated Alexander Litvinenko’s 2006 murder.
Continue reading...Ten ambulance crews sent to incident in south-east London, with local roads closed by police
One person has died and 15 more have been injured after two buses and a car collided in south-east London, the emergency services have said.
The Metropolitan police were called to the scene in Orpington, in the borough of Bromley, shortly after 10pm on Thursday night. They said one person, whom they did not name, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...The delay to Brexit plus strict pre-election guidelines left few chances for trenchant jokes in David Walliams and Matt Lucas’s sketch show
In the many risk assessments of the possible consequences of Brexit happening on Halloween – lorry queues, drug shortages, street violence – scant attention was paid to a significant victim of its not happening: broadcasting specials timed to coincide with departure from the EU being forced to go out, even though the UK actually hadn’t.
The special Brexit edition of Little Britain, bringing David Walliams and Matt Lucas’s sketch show back to Radio 4, where it started in 2000, was at a double disadvantage. Having been denied its calendar reason for being, it also now found itself broadcast in the run-up to a general election, when the BBC’s already contorted attempts at political impartiality become even stricter.
Continue reading...US president claims on LBC Radio that Jeremy Corbyn would take UK to ‘such bad places’
Donald Trump has intervened in the UK’s nascent election campaign, calling on Boris Johnson to team up with Nigel Farage to form an “unstoppable force” and claiming Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad for your country”.
Speaking to Farage on LBC Radio, the US president also said Johnson’s Brexit deal could prevent the UK from agreeing a trade deal with the US.
Continue reading...Three UK businessmen plead guilty in US to bribing officials in nine countries over 17 years
Three British businessmen have admitted their roles in paying multimillion-dollar bribes to officials in nine countries over 17 years, American prosecutors have said.
Two brothers from the Ahsani family, who ran the energy consultancy Unaoil, have pleaded guilty to facilitating the payment of bribes between 1999 and 2016 to officials in Africa and the Middle East.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Lawyers seeking compensation in UK for child labourers and their parents
Human rights lawyers are preparing to bring a landmark case against British American Tobacco on behalf of hundreds of children and their families forced by poverty wages to work in conditions of gruelling hard labour in the fields of Malawi.
Leigh Day’s lawyers are seeking compensation for more than 350 child labourers and their parents in the high court in London, arguing that the British company is guilty of “unjust enrichment”. Leigh Day says it anticipates the number of child labourer claimants to rise as high as 15,000. While BAT claims it has told farmers not to use their children as unpaid labour, the lawyers say the families cannot afford to work their fields otherwise, because they receive so little money for their crop.
Continue reading...Former president says ancient pottery should have remained in Downing Street collection
When Cyprus’s former president George Vassiliou made the official gift of an ancient vase to Margaret Thatcher in 1988, he assumed it would remain at 10 Downing Street.
Instead, more than three decades later, the sale at auction of the 2,700-year-old pottery has provoked diplomatic discomfort in London and disquiet in Nicosia.
Continue reading...Halloween promotion was not intended to be ‘insensitive reference’ to historical events
McDonald’s in Portugal has apologised for using the slogan “Sundae Bloody Sundae” in a Halloween campaign for its ice-cream puddings.
It appears the chain decided to celebrate the spooky season with a two-for-one offer on the strawberry dessert and a nod to the early U2 song Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Continue reading...Labour leader says ‘it’s not about me’ as he launches party’s campaign
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say whether he would step aside if Labour fails to win the 12 December election, insisting: “It’s not about me.”
Asked at his party’s campaign launch what he would do if his party failed to get in to government, he replied: “It’s not about me, it’s not about any of the people on this platform, it’s not a presidential election, it’s about each and every one of us.”
Continue reading...O’Neil Wallfall refused leave to remain for failing to show his life would be at risk in country he has never visited
A man caring for his terminally ill partner has been told he faces deportation from the UK to Jamaica because the Home Office concluded that he “failed to demonstrate that his life would be at risk in Iraq”.
O’Neil Wallfall, 49 – who has never been to Iraq – received a refusal letter that appeared to indicate his case had been confused with someone else’s. The government also said it would not be “unreasonable” or “unduly harsh” to expect his British partner, 56-year-old Karen McQueen, to relocate to Jamaica with him.
Continue reading...Briton, 21, disappeared after attending beach party on Koh Rong island last week
The body of the British backpacker Amelia Bambridge has been found at sea more than 30 miles (48km) from where she disappeared, according to Cambodian police.
The 21-year-old gap year student from Worthing, West Sussex, had been missing since last Thursday morning after leaving a beach party on the island of Koh Rong. Her body was found floating in the sea near the Thai border, police said.
Continue reading...Bereaved and survivors welcomed criticism of London fire brigade’s instruction to stay put
Survivors and relatives of victims from Grenfell Tower have said they feel “vindicated” by the inquiry’s initial report into the fire that killed 72 people nearly two-and-a-half years ago.
At an emotional press conference following publication of Sir Martin Moore-Bick’s interim report, bereaved family members stood in silence for 72 seconds – one for each of those killed by the 14 June 2017 blaze.
Continue reading...US businesswoman says Boris Johnson was also aware of her links to Libor-rigger Tom Hayes
Boris Johnson was aware there was a potential conflict of interest in his relationship with Jennifer Arcuri, the US businesswoman has claimed, on the eve of the publication of an inquiry into how she secured a £100,000 government grant.
In an interview for Bloomberg Businessweek, Arcuri also said that a senior official at the then London mayor’s promotional agency London & Partners (L&P) was renting a room in her Shoreditch live/work space in 2013. Around that time Johnson visited Arcuri in the property and the agency was sponsoring her events.
Continue reading...Migrants were found a week after UK police launched murder investigation into death of 39 people in Essex
Belgian police say they have found 12 people “safe and well” in a refrigerated lorry, one week after 39 people lost their lives in a similar vehicle that had travelled to Essex via continental Europe.
The migrants were discovered in the back of a fruit and vegetable lorry on the motorway, near the Flemish town of Oud-Turnhout, in the early hours of Wednesday. Police said they found 12 adult men: 11 Syrians and one Sudanese citizen.
Continue reading...The MPs who condemned the press attacks on the Duchess of Sussex should be praised, but tiptoeing around the language only protects perpetrators
The silence surrounding the Duchess of Sussex’s treatment by the press has become a roar. More than 70 female MPs signed a letter this week in “solidarity” with Meghan after she spoke about her treatment by sections of the media. The letter outlined attempts “to cast aspersions” on her character. It also attempted to address the nature of these attacks: “We are calling out what can only be described as outdated, colonial undertones to some of these stories,” it read.
However, this treatment can be described as only one thing: racist. Not saying so explicitly is part of a growing trend – the word “racist” is now dodged with more fervour than racial slurs themselves.
Continue reading...Police chief says land and sea searches will continue until backpacker, 21, is found
Cambodian police have said they believe the missing British backpacker Amelia Bambridge has drowned.
Bambridge, 21, from Worthing, West Sussex, was last seen on Koh Rong island in the early hours of 24 October. She was reported missing after failing to check out of her hotel on time. Staff at Police Beach, a private venue on the island, found her purple rucksack with her purse, phone and bank cards inside the following morning.
Continue reading...The shocking discovery of the bodies of 39 people in a lorry has reopened the debate about the EU’s harsh ‘Fortress Europe’ immigration policies
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