Category Archives: UK news

Brexit backstop: Theresa May to put new proposals to EU

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PM heads to Brussels as Philip Hammond declares ‘Malthouse compromise’ unviable

Theresa May will present the EU with new legal proposals to solve the Irish backstop issue on Wednesday, which Downing Street hopes will be enough to convince Eurosceptics to back her Brexit deal.

The chancellor, Philip Hammond, confirmed late on Tuesday that the government no longer intended to pursue alternative arrangements for the backstop in the withdrawal agreement, which had been championed by cross-factional MPs including Eurosceptic Steve Baker and soft Brexiter Nicky Morgan.

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Police search for missing UK and French tourists at beach near Port Macquarie

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Items belonging to Hugo Palmer and Erwan Ferrieux found at Shelley beach on NSW mid-north coast

A British tourist and a French tourist are missing at a beach on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

Personal items belonging to Hugo Palmer and Erwan Ferrieux were found by walkers on Shelley Beach, near Port Macquarie, 390km north of Sydney, at sunrise on Monday.

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Huawei founder: US cannot crush technology firm

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Ren Zhengfei hits back at criminal indictments he calls politically motivated

The US cannot crush Huawei, the company’s founder has insisted, as he hit back against criminal indictments levelled at the firm and allegations that it poses a security threat.

Washington has warned allies off using Huawei products in recent weeks. But Ren Zhengfei, whose daughter Meng Wanzhou – a fellow senior Huawei executive – is among those charged by US prosecutors, told the BBC on Monday that the firm would survive the pressure.

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Watson tells Corbyn he must change direction to stop Labour splitting

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Deputy leader urges shadow cabinet reshuffle, saying he no longer recognises his own party

Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has told Jeremy Corbyn that he must change direction or face a worsening Labour split after seven MPs quit to form a new movement in the party’s biggest schism in nearly 40 years.

Watson’s emotional intervention came as a number of Labour MPs were poised to follow the founders of the new Independent Group – and after reports on Monday night that some Conservatives were also ready to defect.

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Cabinet ministers tell May: stop using no-deal threat to negotiate

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MPs tell PM to rule option out, as Brexit secretary and attorney general hold talks with EU

Four cabinet ministers have demanded the prime minister stop using the threat of a no-deal Brexit as a negotiating tactic, telling Theresa May that businesses and manufacturers now needed to be given certainty.

The demand was made in a meeting with the prime minister on Monday by the justice secretary, David Gauke, the work and pensions secretary, Amber Rudd, the business secretary, Greg Clark, and the Scottish secretary, David Mundell.

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Hillsborough trial: ‘officer did not discuss consequences of opening gate’

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David Duckenfield gave no orders before or shortly after issuing command, court told

The South Yorkshire police officer in command of the 1989 FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough gave no orders before or for some time after he ordered a large exit gate to be opened to alleviate a crush outside, his trial for manslaughter heard.

David Duckenfield, the newly promoted chief superintendent in charge of the semi-final at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, did not discuss “what the consequences might be” of opening the gate, said Michael Goddard, a former sergeant, who was in the police control box.

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Labour split: seven MPs resign from the party – Politics live

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MPs will sit as independent group after resigning in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the party’s Brexit stance, and its handling of antisemitism

Today’s launch of “the Independent Group” – a group of seven former Labour MPs who will now sit as a separate entity in parliament – has run up against some technical difficulties. The group’s website doesn’t seem to have been working since this morning and now people are pointing out that Chuka Umunna’s website is down too.

What an overwhelming show of support already. Thank you. Challenging our website though - please bear with us while we bring it back up.

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Man who sparked VIP paedophile ring inquiry appears in court

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Carl Beech pleads not guilty to perverting course of justice after claiming he was abused by establishment figures

A man accused of making false allegations that sparked a multimillion pound police investigation into a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice and fraud.

Carl Beech, 51, told police as a child he was among victims of a group of establishment figures – including senior politicians and military figures – who he alleged raped and murdered boys in the 1970s and 1980s, triggering a £2.5m Scotland Yard inquiry, Operation Midland, which shut in 2016 without any arrests.

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Japan almost cancelled Brexit talks due to ‘high-handed’ letter – report

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Trade talks will go ahead despite reported dismay at language used by Liam Fox and Jeremy Hunt

Japanese officials have reportedly accused Jeremy Hunt and Liam Fox of taking a “high-handed” approach towards a post-Brexit free trade deal, and briefly considered cancelling bilateral talks due to take place this week.

The Financial Times cited unnamed officials in Tokyo who reacted with dismay to a letter sent on 8 February in which Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Fox, the international trade secretary, insisted that “time is of the essence” in securing a trade deal with Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy.

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Facebook needs regulation to combat fake news, say MPs

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Damian Collins warns of ‘deepfake films’ showing doctored footage of politicians

Online disinformation is only going to get more sophisticated, the chair of the committee investigating disinformation and fake news, Damian Collins, has warned.

Related: Facebook labelled 'digital gangsters' by report on fake news

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Spanish warship orders Gibraltar boats to leave British waters

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Royal Navy sends boats after threat to commercial vessels anchored off UK territory

A Spanish warship has ordered commercial vessels to leave British waters, Gibraltar’s government said.

The warship’s crew can be heard in an audio recording of a radio exchange on Sunday telling vessels anchored at the Rock to “leave Spanish territorial waters”. Royal Navy boats were deployed in response to the incident.

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Brexit: May risks fresh confrontation with ERG over backstop

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Eurosceptics react angrily to culture secretary’s suggestion backstop may not be removed

Theresa May is facing a fresh showdown with Eurosceptic Conservative MPs after a cabinet minister suggested she may put her Brexit deal to parliament again without having secured a change to the withdrawal text.

Before talks between May and EU leaders, the culture secretary, Jeremy Wright, said the prime minister’s aim was to solve the Northern Ireland backstop issue but the “mechanism” of the change did not matter.

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‘A shambles’: hundreds demand refunds from Fortnite Live festival

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Computer game-themed event near Norwich underwhelming and understaffed, visitors say

Hundreds of people have demanded refunds after a Fortnite computer game-themed festival was branded a shambles.

The two-day Fortnite Live event at Norfolk showground near Norwich had visitors queueing for hours to enter the site and collect wristbands on Saturday. Attendees complained that the attractions were underwhelming and understaffed.

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Russian flag hung on Salisbury Cathedral year after novichok attack

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Staff have since removed flag hung on scaffolding before anniversary of poisoning of Skripals

A Russian flag was hung briefly from scaffolding on Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday night, almost a year after the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with novichok in the city. The flag was taken down on Sunday after cathedral staff were made aware of it.

It is thought that someone climbed the scaffolding and put the flag there during the hours of darkness. The first anniversary of the nerve agent attack on Skripal, 67, and his daughter Yulia, 33, who were discovered collapsed on a park bench in the city centre, will fall on 4 March.

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Sharp rise in methane levels threatens world climate targets

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Experts warn that failure to act risks spike in global temperatures

Dramatic rises in atmospheric methane are threatening to derail plans to hold global temperature rises to 2C, scientists have warned.

In a paper published this month by the American Geophysical Union, researchers say sharp rises in levels of methane – which is a powerful greenhouse gas – have strengthened over the past four years. Urgent action is now required to halt further increases in methane in the atmosphere, to avoid triggering enhanced global warming and temperature rises well beyond 2C.

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Nan Goldin threatens London gallery boycott over £1m gift from Sackler fund

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Artist brands planned donation from pharmaceutical family to National Portrait Gallery unethical over OxyContin link

The National Portrait Gallery will be forced to turn down a gift of £1m from members of the multibillionaire Sackler family if it goes ahead with a prestigious new exhibition of the work of US artist Nan Goldin.

The photographer and activist is threatening to boycott the gallery if it accepts the donation from the owners of the American pharmaceutical company that makes the addictive painkiller OxyContin, the Observer has learned.

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Theresa May issues fresh plea to Tory MPs to unite over Brexit

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PM makes appeal in letter for unity and announces further talks with EU president

Theresa May has issued a fresh plea to Conservative MPs to unite and deliver on Brexit, urging her party to “move beyond what divides us” and sacrifice “personal preferences”.

The prime minister’s rallying cry follows another tumultuous week in Westminster that saw tensions in the Tory party reach boiling point, with one of her ministers accusing his Eurosceptic colleagues of “treachery”.

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Revealed: how Home Office hires out staff to hunt migrants

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Department criticised for ‘escalating hostile environment’ by selling officials’ services to firms

The Home Office is selling the services of its immigration officials to private companies in a move attacked as an escalation of the “hostile environment” strategy.

According to internal documents seen by the Observer, the department is attempting to embed immigration officers at a rate of almost £60 an hour as part of an “enhanced checking service” being offered to public services, understood to include NHS trusts and local authorities, as well as private firms.

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Williamson accused of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ over China warship threat

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Philip Hammond’s planned trip to Beijing reportedly scuppered by defence secretary’s remarks

Philip Hammond is not going to China this weekend for trade talks, following reports that Beijing scuppered advanced preparations for a meeting after the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, threatened to deploy a warship in the Pacific.

The UK chancellor was expected to meet the Chinese vice premier, Hu Chunhua, but Treasury sources said the trip was never confirmed. It is believed that there is an internal row brewing between the Treasury and the defence department over Williamson’s remarks, which the former chancellor George Osborne described as a throwback to an era of “gunboat diplomacy”.

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