Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Far from promising an economic miracle, the UK has missed the boat on a continent on the brink of a painful debt crisis
Tony Blair’s cheerleading for the UK-Africa investment summit is of a piece with much of the former prime minister’s recent career. Trading in grand-sounding ideas, often very short on detail, he brings the pitch of an evangelist crossed with a lobbyist to the world’s biggest problems.
Report calls for work on second phase of high-speed rail project to be put on hold for six months
The political battle over HS2 has intensified following the leak of a government review that found the costs of the high-speed rail link could reach £106bn, leaving supporters in the north fearing the government may scale back or axe the project.
The draft report said there is a “considerable risk” that costs could rise by another 20% from the last estimate in September, which priced the scheme at £81bn-£88bn. The original budget was £34bn.
Shadow Brexit secretary assured of place on final ballot after nomination by Usdaw
Sir Keir Starmer has guaranteed himself a place on the final ballot to become Labour’s next leader after becoming the first candidate to be backed by a second major trade union.
Usdaw, the retail union and Labour’s fourth largest affiliate, on Monday nominated the shadow Brexit secretary for leader and Angela Rayner for deputy leader.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen
Boris Johnson is due to speak shortly at the UK-Africa investment summit in London. According to a press release from Downing Street overnight, he will announce that the UK is going to stop using overseas aid to support coal mining or coal power plants overseas. No 10 says:
At the Summit, the prime minister will announce an end to UK support for thermal coal mining or coal power plants overseas, ending direct Official Development Assistance, investment and export credit.
This announcement forms part of the UK’s wider commitment to use its expertise and experience to help Africa transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable, sustainable forms of clean energy. In 2019 the UK went a record 83 days without generating electricity from coal. The UK was also the first major economy to set a legally binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and Glasgow will host the COP UN Climate Change Summit later this year.
During the general election Boris Johnson told a radio presenter that HS2 would cost more than £100bn. The presenter expressed surprise, because the official budget for the project at that point was just £88bn. but Johnson stuck to his guns. He said he thought the final bill would be “north of £1oobn”.
Perhaps Johnson knew more than he was letting on. Today’s Financial Times says a leak of the review of HS2 by Doug Oakervee says it could cost up to £106bn. The FT story is here (paywall) and our own follow-up is here.
I’m worried by the suggestion that there might be a delay in the north, or even that we might get some kind of second-class option, a mix of high-speed and conventional lines that it’s talking about.
And to me that would be the same old story. London to Birmingham, money is no object, and then all the penny pinching is done in the North of England.
This isn’t just about north-south rail. The point about HS2 is it lays the enabling infrastructure for the east-west links that we crucially need and most people here would say that those are even more important.
This is about building a railway for the north, right across the north, for the rest of the century.
Exclusive: Report on Russian interference depends on prime minister appointing committee
The SNP’s leader at Westminster has written to Boris Johnson demanding that he take immediate steps to allow the suppressed report into Russia’s interference in the British political system to be published.
Ian Blackford, the leader of the third-largest party in the Commons, called on the prime minister to begin appointing members of parliament’s intelligence and security committee, necessary to allow the controversial document to be released.
Poll finds 90% of EU citizens in UK fear discrimination without evidence of rights after Brexit
The government is facing fresh calls to issue EU citizens with a physical document to prove they have the right to stay in the country after Brexit.
A report found nine out of 10 EU citizens in the UK would prefer a card over the digital evidence they have now to demonstrate their rights in future to employers, banks or landlords.
Johnson says international peacekeeping force could monitor the proposed ceasefire
World leaders seeking an enduring ceasefire in Libya have agreed at a summit to impose sanctions on those breaking an arms embargo and are considering whether to send a multinational force to the country.
The conference in Berlin of 11 countries is aimed at bringing an end to the fighting between the UN-recognised government in Tripoli led by the prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the Libyan National Army in the country’s east led by Gen Khalifa Haftar.
Drone Wars says UK and US has developed ‘easy narrative’ for targeted assassinations
Targeted assassinations via drone strikes, such as the killing of Iran’s Qassem Suleimani, have become progressively normalised with the help of official secrecy, government propaganda and some uncritical press coverage, according to a report.
In The Frame, published by pressure group Drone Wars, concludes that “an easy narrative for targeted killing” had been constructed by the UK and the US during the conflict with Islamic State, where several high-profile individuals were killed by drones and the existence of a British “kill list” emerged.
Boris Johnson says during talks in Berlin there will be no normalisation of UK-Russia ties
Boris Johnson has told Vladimir Putin there will be no normalisation of the relationship between the UK and Russia, almost two years on from the Salisbury attack.
The pair met in Berlin on the sidelines of an international summit about the future of Libya. According to an account of the conversation released by Downing Street, Johnson stuck closely to the robust stance taken by Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May.
Families feel they have fallen down agenda amid row over inquiry panel member
Grenfell survivors have accused Boris Johnson of downgrading the government’s interest in the disaster and said he is out of touch with what they are going through.
As pressure rose on the prime minister to rescind his appointment of a public inquiry panel member revealed to have links to the combustible cladding company involved in the tower’s refurbishment, community leaders said: “Grenfell families have dropped down the agenda for Downing Street.”
Top ministers are warned to stay off TV with reshuffle alert part of plan by Dominic Cummings
Boris Johnson is to tell cabinet ministers that they must focus all their energy on developing policies for post-Brexit Britain – or face the sack in a wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle within weeks.
Chancellor’s remarks represent ‘death knell for frictionless trade’, experts warn
Businesses have predicted price rises after the UK chancellor, Sajid Javid, said there would be no alignment with EU regulations once Britain’s exit from the European Union was made official.
In what is being seen as an opening salvo in the next stage of negotiations, Javid said the Treasury would not lend support to manufacturers that favour EU rules as the sector had had three years to prepare for Britain’s transition.
Political activist Joshua Wong was 20 when he was sentenced in 2017 to six months for his role in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy ‘umbrella movement’
The last words I said before I was taken away from the courtroom were: “Hong Kong people, carry on!” That sums up how I feel about our political struggle. Since Occupy Central – and the umbrella movement that succeeded it – ended without achieving its stated goal, Hong Kong has entered one of its most challenging chapters. Protesters coming out of a failed movement are overcome with disillusionment and powerlessness.
Speaking at the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington, Kristalina Georgieva said new IMF research, which compares the current economy to the “roaring 1920s” that culminated in the great market crash of 1929, revealed that a similar trend was already under way.
For all the reassurances about their status, the risk of being kicked out still haunts those without a British passport
A few weeks ago, an old friend posted something on Facebook that stopped me in my tracks. He’s a GP, married to a teacher he met decades ago at university, with three children. They’re the sort of energetic, adventurous, public-spirited family who pitch in wherever help is needed and make me feel vaguely embarrassed about my own civic shortcomings. I have never known him be anything but laid-back, and although he’s originally Dutch, in theory he should have nothing to fear from Brexit: he has settled status, confirming the right to live and work here with his English wife and family after 31 January, just as before. But now he’s fearful. What if, the next time he needs to renew his passport for a family holiday, the computer says no? How can he be sure his life won’t unravel in some faceless official’s hands?
‘The despair is truly palpable now, and in some cases goes as far as suicidal thoughts'
Former home secretary accused of botched reforms that led to failures over foreign criminals
Theresa May has been blamed by chief constables for botched police reforms that led to tens of thousands of alerts on foreign criminals being kept from their home countries.
The former home secretary is accused of “starving” the crucial police national computer (PNC) of money against advice from forces and instead pushing ahead with an ambitious and costly super-database to replace it that is now years behind schedule and millions of pounds over budget.
European parliament says mixed messages have caused ‘unhelpful uncertainty’
The European parliament has said EU citizens living in the UK after it leaves the bloc risk discrimination in jobs and housing, because the government will not issue physical documents under the settled-status scheme.
In a resolution backed by a resounding majority of MEPs in Strasbourg, the parliament said the British government’s “conflicting announcements” about special status had caused “unhelpful uncertainty and anxiety” for EU nationals who had made the UK their home.
Hassan Rouhani’s threat to western allies comes amid fears of reimposition of sanctions
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani has warned that European soldiers in the Middle East could be in danger after the UK, France and Germany triggered a dispute mechanism in the nuclear agreement that could lead to the reimposition of international sanctions on the country.
Rouhani’s remarks on Wednesday were the first direct threat he has made against European powers as tensions have grown between Tehran and Washington since Donald Trump unilaterally abandoned the nuclear deal more than 18 months ago.
Crown Prosecution Service asks attorney general to review 30-year term for student who raped up to 195 men
A man described as Britain’s most prolific rapist could have his sentence increased after the Crown Prosecution Service wrote to the attorney general saying Reynhard Sinaga should serve longer than 30 years in prison.
Sinaga, a 36-year-old mature student from Indonesia, was given a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 30 years by a judge at Manchester crown court last week. Suzanne Goddard QC told him it was “borderline” whether he should be given a whole-life term but decided that he should not be considered for release until he was 66, having been unanimously convicted by four juries of drugging and abusing 48 men while they lay comatose in his Manchester flat.