Day: July 7, 2018

    When a video of the Duchess of Sussex greeting the public surfaced this week, America’s greatest fear was confirmed: the duchess has gained a British accent. It’s a subtle difference, but one can detect a hint of the Queen’s English in the duchess’s intonation. You can hear some sounds changing, yes, confirms speech and dialect coach John Fleming. Some examples can be heard in her R sounds at the end of syllables. In recent clips, those Rs are lighter than the typical general American accent. She is also using the British English vowel normally heard in the word thought in the phrase We all had a nice day, in the word all. People changing accents is often criticised as a sign of inauthenticity. Madonna, for example, was ridiculed when she started talking like her f...

    England fans will be sweating over the result of the  Saturday's World Cup match on what could be the hottest day of the year so far. Temperatures could soar over 33C (91.4F) in the afternoon, just as millions assemble to cheer on the Three Lions as they take on Sweden in the quarter finals - with many watching on outdoor screens. Porthmadog in Wales is the current record holder, reaching 33C exactly on June 28, but this weekend the thermometer could edge just above it. United Utilities - which serves the North West said it urgently needed help and support to stop a ban from coming into force, while a hosepipe ban is into its second week in Northern Ireland. Nicola Maxey, Met Office spokeswoman, said temperatures in London and south east were likely to reach 31C (...

    Theresa May has secured approval to negotiate a soft Brexit deal with the European Union, signing up her fractious cabinet at a Chequers away day to what had been a controversial plan to match EU standards on food and goods. The prime minister released a statement following the critical afternoon session of the long-awaited summit, in which she also confirmed she had won over the cabinet to new customs arrangements ending political deadlock on the issue. May said that the cabinet had agreed our collective position for the future of our negotiations with the EU. That included a proposal to create a UK-EU free trade area which establishes a common rule book for industrial goods and agricultural products after Brexit. On Thursday, when the common rule book proposal wa...