Day: June 7, 2018

    Vladimir Putin on Thursday demanded that Russian officials be given consular access to Yulia Skripal and that Russian law enforcement take part in the investigation into her poisoning with a military-grade nerve agent. Skripal and her father, a former double agent who was released from Russian prison in a spy swap with the UK in 2010, were poisoned with a novichok nerve agent in the British city of Salisbury in March. British officials have blamed Russia for the attack, calling it the first use of a military-grade nerve agent in Europe since the second world war. We would very much like to be given access to our citizens, to Yulia in this case, and to be given the opportunity to take part in the investigation, Putin said during a nationally televised question-and-a...

    The baby would not legally have a mother if the transgender man wins the case. A baby could become the first person born in England or Wales who will not legally have a mother if a transgender man wins a historic human rights battle. The youngster is the child of a single parent who was born a woman but now lives as a man after undergoing surgery. Lawyers have told a judge that he had been biologically able to get pregnant and give birth but had legally become a man when the child was born. They say the man wants to be identified as the child’s father or parent on a birth certificate. But they said a birth registrar has told the man the law requires people who give birth to children to be registered as mothers. The man has taken legal action against the body set...

    The government expects a Brexit backstop solution to the Irish border issue to end before 2022, after Theresa May acted to ease the concerns of her Leave-supporting ministers. The prime minister appeared to have avoided a full-blown Brexit crisis and an explosive cabinet resignation after a constructive discussion with David Davis on Thursday morning. It followed speculation her Brexit secretary was ready to quit the government over the details of the backstop proposal. Mrs May also held separate face-to-face meetings in her parliamentary office with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox. The government later published its proposal for a backstop plan to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, with an ambition for it to e...