Category Archives: UK news

EU parliament: Boris Johnson Brexit plan not remotely acceptable

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Leading MEP says it is ‘nearly impossible’ to see how Irish border plan can be basis of deal

The European parliament has told Boris Johnson that his proposals for the Irish border do not “even remotely” amount to an acceptable deal for the EU, in comments echoed by Ireland’s prime minister.

The committee of MEPs representing the parliament’s views on Brexit said the prime minister’s proposals could not form the basis for an agreement, describing them as a “last-minute” effort. The European parliament will have a veto on any withdrawal agreement.

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Captain Cook’s legacy is complex, but whether white Australia likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and oppression | Paul Daley

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British and Australian regret over Cook’s treatment of Indigenous people would go a long way to enhancing understanding of the continent’s shared history

The British government has issued an oh-so-carefully worded expression of “regret” for the killing of Māori in Aotearoa, today’s New Zealand, at the point of first contact during Lieutenant James Cook’s “voyage of discovery” 250 years ago.

Regrets! The old empire certainly has had cause for a few when it comes to the violence it has meted out to the indigenes of the places it took during Britain’s colonial expansion.

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Scotch whisky and French wine hit by $7.5bn US tariffs

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The 25% levies also include British knitwear and EU cheese and aircraft as White House retaliates for subsidies given to Airbus

The US is set to impose $7.5bn (£6.1bn) of tariffs on exports from the EU including scotch whisky, French wine and cheese and aircraft in retaliation for subsidies given to the aerospace group Airbus after a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling..

Related: Airbus on course to overtake Boeing as biggest planemaker

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What is the Stakeknife scandal, and what happens next?

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More than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members may be considered for prosecution

The agent code named “Stakeknife” was one of British military intelligence’s most valued assets, operating inside the Provisional IRA. Recruited in the late 1970s, the spy rose through the IRA’s ranks in Belfast to become head of the paramilitary group’s informer-hunting unit known as “the nutting squad”. He had the power of life and death over IRA members accused of being informers for the security forces during the Troubles. His unit used torture methods to extract admissions from those in the IRA accused of treachery. Often their so-called “confessions” were taped and on occasion played to their close relatives to convince them that the victim had been “guilty” of treachery.

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Dismay in Brussels as Boris Johnson finally reveals Brexit plan

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Michel Barnier scathing in his reaction, describing PM’s Irish border proposals as a trap

Boris Johnson appears to be fighting a losing battle to avoid Britain staying in the European Union beyond 31 October after Michel Barnier privately gave a scathing analysis of the prime minister’s new plan for the Irish border, describing it as a trap.

The European commission also refused to go into the secretive and intensive “tunnel” talks with the UK’s negotiators before a crunch summit on 17 October from which the UK had hoped to deliver a breakthrough deal.

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British spy in IRA and 20 others could be charged with Troubles-era crimes

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Belfast prosecutors considering action against ‘Stakeknife’ and his British army handlers

A police inquiry into one of the biggest spy scandals in the history of British intelligence has recommended that more than 20 people including senior security force personnel and ex-IRA members be considered for prosecution, the Guardian has learned.

Operation Kenova, the multimillion-pound investigation into “Stakeknife” – the army agent at the heart of the IRA during the Northern Ireland Troubles – has now sent files identifying military commanders and at least one IRA veteran with a so-called “get-out-of-jail” card to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) in Belfast.

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Brexit: UK set to publish new plan as Varadkar says what he has heard about it ‘not promising’ – live news

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All the day’s political news, including Johnson’s speech to Tory party conference in Manchester and UK offer to EU for alternative to backstop

The government has just published its plan.

Here it is... UK proposal pic.twitter.com/IBD247Fyht

The absence of a “take it or leave it” demand in Boris Johnson’s conference speech has offered some hope in Brussels of a prime ministerial U-turn on what EU officials have described as unworkable proposals for the Irish border, my colleague Daniel Boffey reports.

Related: Boris Johnson speech gives EU hope he will rethink Irish plan

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Why is Meghan suing the Mail on Sunday?

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Action comes after newspaper has published numerous embarrassing stories about her

The Mail on Sunday (MoS) published numerous embarrassing stories about Meghan in the run-up to her wedding to Prince Harry. Many of them required the cooperation of Meghan’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, who helped the newspaper produce numerous articles including staged paparazzi photos.

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Boris Johnson speech gives EU hope he will rethink Irish plan

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Brussels takes heart from PM stopping short of ‘take it or leave it’ Brexit statement

The absence of a “take it or leave it” demand in Boris Johnson’s conference speech has offered some hope in Brussels of a prime ministerial U-turn on what EU officials have described as unworkable proposals for the Irish border.

Downing Street had briefed before the address in Manchester that Johnson would use his platform to make a “final offer” to Brussels, but the rhetoric appeared in the end far more conciliatory than billed.

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PM strikes secret deal with DUP as he draws up ‘final Brexit offer’

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Boris Johnson agrees pact with Northern Irish party as details emerge of ‘two borders’ plan

Boris Johnson has struck a secret deal with the Democratic Unionist party involving radical proposals for a Belfast-Dublin “bilateral lock” on post-Brexit arrangements on the island of Ireland.

Details have emerged of the prime minister’s final Brexit offer that he will lay out on Wednesday, with Northern Ireland staying under EU single market regulations for agri-food and manufactured goods until at least 2025, at which point its assembly in Stormont will decide whether to continue alignment with EU or UK standards.

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Meghan sues Mail on Sunday as Harry launches attack on tabloid press

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Prince compares wife’s treatment to Diana’s as proceedings over private letter are announced

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has taken the unusual decision to sue the publisher of the Mail on Sunday after the newspaper published a handwritten letter she had sent to her estranged father.

The decision came as Prince Harry launched an extraordinary and highly personal attack on the British tabloid press and its treatment of his wife, saying he could no longer be a “silent witness to her private suffering”.

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Revealed: Jennifer Arcuri got visa from scheme run by former Johnson official

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Exclusive: Whistleblower tells of links between Paola Cuneo, PM and US businesswoman

A Whitehall official who ran the scheme that granted Jennifer Arcuri a coveted entrepreneur visa had worked for Boris Johnson when he was mayor, the Guardian has learned.

The US businesswoman, who is at the centre of a conflict of interest row over her friendship with the prime minister, beat nearly 2,000 applicants to gain one of 200 sought-after tier 1 entrepreneur visas on the government’s Sirius programme after Johnson helped promote her firm, Innotech, by giving keynote speeches at her events.

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Iran sentences four men for spying for US and UK

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One man sentenced to death and others receive long sentences in further blow to efforts to calm US-Iranian tensions

Iranian courts have sentenced one man to death for spying for the US and jailed two others for 10 years for the same crime, as well as imprisoning a fourth person for six years for spying for Britain, an Iranian judiciary spokesman has said.

“One person has been sentenced to death for spying for America … but the ruling has been appealed,” Gholamhossein Esmaili told the judiciary’s news website, Mizan, on Tuesday.

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Boris Johnson’s plans for Irish border checks threaten Brexit talks

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Downing Street banks on secretive ‘tunnel’ negotiations to hammer out agreement

Boris Johnson’s hopes of entering into intensive negotiations next week over his Irish backstop plans are likely to be dashed if he continues to back the return of a customs border with checks and controls on the island of Ireland.

With just over two weeks to go before a crunch EU leaders’ summit at which Johnson hopes to sign off on a deal, Downing Street is banking on entering secretive “tunnel” negotiations to hammer out the details of an agreement.

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Boris Johnson dismisses leaked Irish border plans as ‘not quite right’

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Hard border concerns heightened after media reports but PM refuses to explain his ‘very good’ Brexit plan

Boris Johnson has denied the UK government was proposing to install customs clearance zones several miles away from the Irish border after Brexit to get around the controversial backstop arrangement.

The leaked plan, which appeared in the Irish media and has heightened concerns over a return to a hard border, was described as “not quite right” by the prime minister. But in a series of media interviews on Tuesday he would not explain what kind of Brexit plan he would be delivering to Brussels in the coming days, describing it only as “very good”.

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Senior Credit Suisse executive quits over ‘extraordinary’ spying scandal

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Bank rules surveillance of outgoing head of wealth management Iqbal Khan was ‘wrong and disproportionate’

Credit Suisse has sacked its chief operating officer over an “extraordinary” James Bond-style corporate espionage scandal in which the bank hired private detectives to tail a senior executive and his wife through the streets of Zurich following a row with his boss at a cocktail party.

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank said on Tuesday that Pierre-Olivier Bouée had left with immediate effect after the board of directors ruled that the seven-day spying operation was “wrong and disproportionate and has resulted in severe reputational damage to the bank”.

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UK weather: parts of country facing two weeks of rain in an hour

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Met Office says 78 flood warnings and 191 flood alerts in place on Tuesday morning

The Met Office has warned of torrential rain and thunder in parts of Britain.

Some regions are expected to receive the equivalent of two weeks’ worth of rain in less than an hour on Tuesday. There were 78 flood warnings and 191 flood alerts across the country by 7.30am.

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Amal Clooney: give UN power to investigate journalist deaths

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UK media freedom envoy speaks out after targeted killing of Jamal Khashoggi

A “glaring gap” exists in the world’s ability to investigate targeted state killings of human rights defenders and journalists such as Jamal Khashoggi, said Amal Clooney, the UK special envoy on media freedom.

She also said the UN special rapporteur Agnès Callamard, who undertook the UN’s investigation into Khashoggi’s murder, “had been forced heroically to manage a large-scale investigation with ridiculously few resources”.

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Mother of drowned girl ‘told friend not to let daughter go in water’

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Inquest into death of six-year-old Dajahnel Young, who died during beach trip to Margate

The mother of a six-year-old girl who drowned at a seaside resort has said she told the woman looking after the child she did not want her daughter to go in the water.

Dajahnel Young, from Erith in south-east London, was seen lifeless in the sea off Margate, Kent, on 28 July last year, after being reported missing during a trip with friends from her local church.

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Naga Munchetty: BBC reverses decision to censure presenter

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Corporation director general Tony Hall emails staff to say he is overturning ruling over impartiality guidelines

The BBC has reversed its decision to discipline Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty for breaking impartiality guidelines with her comments about the US president following enormous internal and external anger about the ruling.

The U-turn came after the Guardian published leaked internal correspondence casting doubts on the public claims made by senior BBC executives about the nature of the single viewer complaint that led to the ruling.

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