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
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Meghan kept copy of letter to father at centre of legal row
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Court filings seen by the Guardian show that the duchess has a full record of the correspondence, including unpublished sections, which is now being used to assist her legal case against the Mail on Sunday for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy.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...EU leaders gather for summit as Boris Johnson scrambles to get backing for Brexit deal – Politics live
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...‘A body drifted past the window’: surviving the Ladbroke Grove train crash
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...Police arrest hundreds over international child sexual abuse website
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...British family deported after saying they accidentally crossed US border
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...Brexit: Irish PM hints extra EU summit might be needed because ‘many issues’ still to be resolved– live news
Prime minister will brief cabinet today on latest negotiations as UK and EU teams resume talks
- Talks continue after Boris Johnson makes concessions on Irish border
- Will Boris Johnson have a deal to put to MPs on Saturday?
- Lib Dems in renewed push for second referendum vote
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...Harry Dunn’s parents vow to continue fight for justice after Trump meeting
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...Northern Powerhouse seeks more control of HS2 rail scheme
Business and city leaders warn of economic damage of cancellation and call for 2012 Olympics-style authority
A review of HS2 by northern business and city leaders has called for control of construction of the high-speed railway to be devolved to the north and Midlands – and warned that its possible cancellation would leave no viable alternatives for transforming their economies.
The Northern Powerhouse Independent Review (NPIR), established to inform or pre-empt the government’s own review of HS2, recommended a new body, HS2 North, be established to integrate HS2 with proposed Northern Powerhouse Rail links.
Continue reading...‘Rise in homophobic attacks’ in Birmingham after LGBT teaching protests
Anderton Park primary headteacher testifies in hearing over protest ban around school
The headteacher at the centre of a row over LGBT equality teachings in schools told a court there had been 333% rise in homophobic attacks in a part of Birmingham, blaming the surge on protests outside her school.
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, who was subjected to almost six hours of cross-examination, made the remarks during the second day of a hearing to rule whether an exclusion zone around Anderton Park primary school banning protests should be made permanent.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on racism and football: time for Uefa to step up | Editorial
England’s footballers behaved with dignity and discipline on a shameful night of racial abuse in Bulgaria. European football’s governing body must now impose sanctions that bite
Long before the footballers of Bulgaria and England walked on to the pitch of Sofia’s Stadion Vasil Levski on Monday evening, their Euro 2020 qualifying match had become a test of something far more important than sporting prowess. Parts of the stadium had been closed off after previous incidents of racist abuse at international games. Yet warnings by the Chelsea forward, Tammy Abraham, that England would consider leaving the pitch if there was a repeat, drew the ire of the president of Bulgaria’s football federation, Borislav Mihaylov. Bulgaria, he said, had less of a problem with racism than England, and Abraham’s remarks had been “derogatory” and “offensive”.
In fact they turned out to be prescient. Before and during the match, black English players were booed and subjected to monkey chants by sections of the crowd. Far-right ultras repeatedly made Nazi salutes. The defender Tyrone Mings, making his international debut, was a particular target, after pausing to stare in the direction of some of the most virulent abuse. The shameful, hateful spectacle has inevitably raised questions of whether the match should have been abandoned. It was paused twice during the first half, after England reported the abuse to the referee, Ivan Bebek, following to the letter a new Uefa protocol. The protocol provides for a game to be called off as a final step. In the event, after discussing the situation at half-time, England opted to play out the second-half, leaving open the option of walking off the field at any point.
Continue reading...UK family arrested in US for ‘inadvertently crossing border’
Four adults and three children were held in ‘baby jail’ in what they call ‘scariest experience’ of their lives
The Foreign Office is helping a British family of seven who were arrested in the US and subject to the “scariest experience” of their lives at the hands of the immigration authorities after inadvertently crossing the border from Canada.
David and Eileen Connors and their three-month-old son were on a family road trip on 3 October near Vancouver with David’s cousin Michael, his wife Grace, and their two-year-old twin daughters.
Continue reading...Backlash after Booker awards prize to two authors
Decision to make first black female winner, Bernardine Evaristo, share £50,000 prize with Margaret Atwood causes controversy
The Booker prize judges’ decision to break the rules and jointly award the prize to Margaret Atwood and Bernadine Evaristo has been criticised, with detractors pointing out that the first black woman ever to win Britain’s most prestigious literary award has had to share it – while receiving half the usual money.
Chair of the judges Peter Florence shocked the literary world on Monday night when he revealed that the jury had decided – unanimously, he said – to flout rules, which have been in place since 1992, that the Booker “may not be divided or withheld”. After more than five hours of deliberation, he announced that this year’s £50,000 award would be split between Atwood’s follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, and Evaristo’s polyphonic novel Girl, Woman, Other. Told in the voices of 12 different characters, mostly black women, Evaristo has said that the novel, her eighth, stems from the fact that “we black British women know that if we don’t write ourselves into literature, no one else will”.
Continue reading...Uefa charges Bulgaria and England over behaviour in Euro 2020 qualifier
- BFU charged over fans’ racist chants and Nazi salutes
- FA charged over anthem disruption and stewarding
- Aleksander Ceferin demands ‘war’ on discrimination
Uefa has charged the Bulgarian football union over the racist behaviour of its fans at Monday’s Euro 2020 qualifier against England. The Football Association is also facing sanctions after being charged for the disruption of the Bulgarian national anthem by England supporters and for having an insufficient number of travelling stewards.
On a lengthy Uefa charge sheet the most significant aspect was the reference to chants and Nazi salutes by Bulgaria fans. However both national associations were also charged over the disruption of national anthems and among the other charges was one for the BFU relating to the throwing of objects from the stands.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson ‘on brink of Brexit deal’ after border concessions
Negotiators understood to have agreed in principle to customs border down Irish Sea
Boris Johnson appears to be on the brink of reaching a Brexit deal after making major concessions to EU demands over the Irish border.
A draft text of the agreement could now be published on Wednesday if Downing Street gives the final green light, according to senior EU and British sources.
Continue reading...‘Failing’ food system leaves millions of children malnourished or overweight
Unicef report finds poorest children at greatest risk, while price of healthy food in rich nations drives food poverty
At least one in three children under five are either undernourished or overweight, and one in two lack essential vitamins and nutrients, the UN children’s agency has warned.
The Unicef report laid bare the alarming rate at which poor diets and a “failing” food system are damaging children, saying that “millions are eating too little of what they need and millions are eating too much of what they don’t need: poor diets are now the main risk factor for the global burden of disease”.
Continue reading...#MeToo and the justice system: complaints up, but convictions down
UK lawyers say more women are coming forward, but are police and prosecutors ready?
The clearest impact of the #MeToo movement on the British justice system has been a sharp rise in the number of complaints made to police of rape and sexual assault over the past two years.
That surge, however, has coincided with a chaotic response by police and prosecutors, who have been engulfed in problems over disclosure and allegations they have refined their approach to the crime in order to improve conviction rates, although this has been denied by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Continue reading...Revealed: Cameron and May lobbied Bahrain royals for Tory donor’s oil firm
Former PMs asked princes to support bid for $5bn contract by Ayman Asfari’s firm Petrofac
Two former Conservative prime ministers lobbied a Middle Eastern royal family to award a multi-billion dollar oil contract to a company headed by a major Tory donor, the Guardian has established.
In March 2017, while in Downing Street, Theresa May wrote to the Bahraini prime minister to support the oil firm Petrofac while it was bidding to win the contract from the Gulf state.
Continue reading...Home Office ‘infiltrating’ safe havens to deport rough sleepers
Attendees at ‘immigration surgeries’ at churches and centres told it won’t involve enforcement
The Home Office is using information gathered in “immigration surgeries” at charities and places of worship to deport vulnerable homeless people who are told that attending will help them get financial support, the Guardian has learned.
Interviews and internal emails revealed the Salvation Army, Sikh gurdwaras and a Chinese community support centre are among the bodies allowing Home Office teams in London to run sessions in spaces that are intended to be safe havens for homeless people.
Continue reading...Police ban Extinction Rebellion protests from whole of London
City-wide Met police operation begins to clear Trafalgar Square and other protest sites
Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s camp in Trafalgar Square.
The Metropolitan police issued a revised section 14 order on Monday night that said “any assembly linked to the Extinction Rebellion ‘Autumn Uprising’ ... must now cease their protests within London (MPS and City of London Police Areas)” by 9pm.
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