Category Archives: UK news

Brexit: France and Germany split as EU leaders debate length of further article 50 extension – live news

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Follow all the latest as the prime minister awaits the EU’s decision on a delay to Brexit

This is from the Telegraph’s James Crisp.

Theresa May has left the summit building for dinner. She is expected to return later.

France and Germany are understood to be at loggerheads over both the length of the extension and the conditions that the EU should put on a delay to Brexit.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is arguing that a short extension to 30 June is unlikely to provide enough time for the impasse in Westminster to be broken, and Berlin is seeking an extension until 31 December.

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Child rapist who fooled judge into thinking he was disabled is jailed

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George Stephenson, 60, was initially deemed unfit to stand trial after ‘Oscar-winning’ act

A child rapist who almost escaped punishment after he tricked a judge and two psychiatrists into thinking he was severely disabled has been jailed for more than 26 years.

George Stephenson, 60, pretended he could not speak, made unintelligible noises during consultations, needed to be pushed in a wheelchair by his wife, was incontinent and appeared not to be able to follow proceedings.

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Spanish police ‘recover Julian Assange surveillance footage’

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Material that originated from Ecuadorian embassy was reportedly offered for sale

WikiLeaks has said it has uncovered a surveillance operation against Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy and that images, documents and videos gathered have been offered for sale.

Spanish police were said to have mounted a sting operation against unnamed individuals in Madrid who offered the material for sale in what lawyers and colleagues of Assange said on Wednesday was an attempt at extortion.

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May signals she would accept EU offer of longer Brexit delay

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British PM says UK will still be able to leave by 22 May if withdrawal deal is approved

Theresa May has signalled that she would accept the EU’s likely offer of a lengthy Brexit delay at a summit of leaders as the UK would still be able to leave when the withdrawal agreement is approved.

Arriving in Brussels, the prime minister said it would still possible for Britain to quit by 22 May if the Commons chose to approve her Brexit deal in the coming weeks.

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Zambians can pursue mining pollution claim in English courts

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Villagers say mine run by subsidiary of UK-based firm has caused illness and deaths

Two thousand Zambian villagers who say their lives have been ruined by toxic runoff from the world’s second-largest opencast mine have won the right to pursue a claim through the English courts.

In a landmark judgment, the supreme court ruled that the mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources, which is based in London, and its Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) can be held to account by English judges, despite the companies’ arguments that they should defend themselves in Zambia.

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Sheffield’s anti-Trump lord mayor ready to run for MEP

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Green party’s Magid Magid says he wants to be a voice for young people and refugees

The departing lord mayor of Sheffield has said he intends to run in European elections in response to growing political turmoil and the rise of far-right groups.

Magid Magid, 29, said on Tuesday he wanted to become Yorkshire and the Humber’s first Green party MEP if the UK participated in the European elections due on 23 May.

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Brexit: ERG Tories tell Brussels it will regret letting ‘Perfidious Albion’ remain in EU beyond Friday – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Theresa May’s talks with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, and MPs debating how long the article 50 extension should be

These are from my colleague Angelique Chrisafis in Paris.

Before Macron meets May, Elysee official insists any long extension would need ‘very strict guarantees’ that UK as an exiting state wouldn’t fully take part in or disrupt key decisions on future of EU eg commission head, budget. Would mean regular checks that UK abiding by this

Elysee source on length of possible Brexit extension: ‘we think one year would be too long’

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Libya crisis: UK officials anxious as blame is laid at doors of Gulf allies

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There will be deep unease in Foreign Office over role of Saudi Arabia and UAE

Blame for the renewed Libyan crisis has been laid at the doors of some of Britain’s closest allies in the Gulf, highlighting again how the UK’s commercial interests so often trump its political priorities in the Middle East.

In exchanges in the UK parliament, the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, traced the crisis to Nato’s overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, an intervention described even by the government minister Mark Field as “calamitous”. She also accused France of supporting Khalifa Haftar’s attack on Tripoli, an accusation that the Élysée Palace strenuously denies. Other MPs blamed Russian meddling.

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UK likely to be offered Brexit extension until end of year

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EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier fails to convince bloc May has plan to break deadlock

Britain is likely to be offered a final long extension ending on 31 December after the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, failed to convince the bloc’s capitals that Theresa May has a plan to break the Brexit impasse.

A number of member states, most prominently France, along with Slovenia, Greece, Austria and Spain, remain sceptical about a lengthy extension, citing the risks to the EU of Britain behaving badly.

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Brexit: Theresa May’s hopes dashed as EU targets delay of up to a year

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Britain’s membership could be extended to March 2020 after PM fails to sell her plan in dash to Paris and Berlin

Theresa May’s request for a short Brexit delay has been torn up, putting the EU on track to instead extend Britain’s membership until 2020.

Despite the prime minister’s desperate dash to Paris and Berlin to convince leaders of her plan to break the Brexit impasse, the European council president, Donald Tusk, signalled EU politicians’ lack of faith in her cross-party talks.

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Brexit: Government sets date for UK participation in EU elections – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

MPs are now debating amendments to Cooper Letwin. A result is expected within an hour or so.

We expect the House of Commons to debate the #CooperLetwin Bill around 9pm for up to an hour, with votes at the end. pic.twitter.com/0leLoH8gZQ

There’s been a split in the hard Brexit-supporting Tory backbench ERG group this evening: The MP, Daniel Kawczynski, has announced his resignation.

There have been recent rumblings of disquiet among the group; some of whom believe others are so determined to deliver the hardest of Brexits that they are actually imperiling the whole project. Kawczynski is one of them.

Have decided to resign from ERG. Despite excellent Chairmanship by @Jacob_Rees_Mogg who has accommodated all views I can no longer be a member of caucas which is preventing WA4 from passing. Hardcore element of ‘Unicorn’ dreamers now actually endangering #Brexit

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Libyan crisis escalates as warplane strikes Tripoli airport

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Passengers reported to have been seen leaving terminal after strike by pro-Haftar forces

A warplane has attacked the only functioning airport in Tripoli as fighting between forces loyal to the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar and rival militias escalated and EU foreign ministers met in Brussels to try to de-escalate the violence.

Mitiga airport, in an eastern suburb of the capital, was closed after it was hit in an airstrike by pro-Haftar forces. Passengers could be seen leaving the terminal, a Reuters correspondent at the airport said. Fighting was also under way at Tripoli’s international airport, 15 miles from the city centre, which has not been functioning since fighting destroyed much of it in 2014.

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Brexiter MPs pursue fresh bid to oust May by indicative votes

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Backbenchers submitting letters to 1922 Committee chair in bid to block further delay

A fresh attempt to oust Theresa May is under way over her decision to enter into talks with Jeremy Corbyn, with leading Brexiter MPs plotting ways to force a vote showing that the majority of the party has lost confidence in her.

Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee, has rebuffed calls from backbenchers for an indicative vote on May’s future, because the prime minister saw off a no-confidence vote in December last year and cannot be challenged again within 12 months.

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Groping a big problem at gigs, say promoters and campaigners

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Calls for venues to have better sexual assault policies as punk duo tweet about fan being groped

Sexual harassment and groping remains a big problem at live music events, promoters and venue owners have warned, after the duo Sleaford Mods said a female fan had been assaulted during one of their shows.

The punk band spoke out after a gig in Bristol on Saturday night, saying on Twitter that they had “had a report of a female fan being groped in the crowd”, and adding: “Touching anyone without their consent is not acceptable no matter how you dress it up.”

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Pesticides and antibiotics polluting streams across Europe

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Wildlife and human health are threatened say scientists as Syngenta accepts ‘undeniable demand’ for change

Pesticides and antibiotics are polluting streams across Europe, a study has found. Scientists say the contamination is dangerous for wildlife and may increase the development of drug-resistant microbes.

More than 100 pesticides and 21 drugs were detected in the 29 waterways analysed in 10 European nations, including the UK. A quarter of the chemicals identified are banned, while half of the streams analysed had at least one pesticide above permitted levels.

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Anti-abortion activists harassing women at UK clinics during Lent

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Clinic staff say protesters are calling women ‘murderers’ and giving out misleading leaflets

Anti-abortion protesters are harassing vulnerable women at UK clinics as they ramp up demonstrations for Lent and are giving out leaflets suggesting that having a termination is harder to deal with than being raped, it has been claimed.

Hardline religious activists, some of whom are part of a so-called “40 Days for Life” campaign, have been targeting women in increasing numbers at 10 clinics across the country in the run-up to Easter, the Guardian has been told.

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The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back

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Jody Williams and Mary Wareham were leading lights in the campaign to ban landmines. Now they have autonomous weapons in their sights

It sounds like something from the outer reaches of science fiction: battlefield robots waging constant war, algorithms that determine who to kill, face-recognition fighting machines that can ID a target and take it out before you have time to say “Geneva conventions”.

This is no film script, however, but an ominous picture of future warfare that is moving ever closer. “Killer robots” is shorthand for a range of tech that has generals salivating and peace campaigners terrified at the ethical ramifications of warfare waged via digital proxies.

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British woman faces jail in Dubai for ‘insulting’ ex-husband’s new wife on Facebook

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Laleh Shahravesh was arrested in March and faces up to two years in jail, according to campaign group

A British woman is facing two years in jail in Dubai for allegedly using disparaging language about her ex-husband’s new wife on Facebook, campaigners have claimed.

Laleh Shahravesh, 55, of Richmond, south-west London, was arrested together with her teenage daughter at Dubai airport in March. She faces up to two years in jail and a fine of £50,000 for two Facebook posts she made while living in the UK in 2016, according to the Detained In Dubai campaign group.

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Man arrested on suspicion of murder after young woman dies in London

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Police say a woman in her 20s was found dead on a street in Enfield on Sunday afternoon

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a young woman died on a north London street.

The London ambulance service called police to the Brookbank building on Turkey Street in Enfield at around 5.50pm on Sunday, where they found a woman with serious injuries.

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Cabinet ‘in the dark’ over Theresa May’s plans for Brexit

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Cabinet source says PM negotiating with one hand behind her back, amid warnings long delay would cause ‘tremendous angst’

Theresa May is facing intense cabinet pressure to avoid the prospect of a long Brexit delay, amid increasing expectations that last ditch cross-party talks on a compromise departure plan will not produce anything concrete.

Before a crucial EU summit later this week, the prime minister is facing a fast-diminishing range of options that could split the Conservative party and prompt a mass cabinet walkout, or could result in the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal on Friday.

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