Tuesday, July 7

Featured

Brexit: Nobel Prize winners warn May
Featured, United Kingdom

Brexit: Nobel Prize winners warn May

    Twenty-nine Nobel Prize winners have warned Theresa May a hard Brexit could cripple science. The world leading scientists banded together in a letter to the Prime Minister, as well as European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, to say a hard Brexit could seriously damage research. The letter, also signed by six Fields Medal mathematicians, said creating new barriers would inhibit progress to the detriment of us all. It came after Ms May announced in the Commons that extending the Brexit transition beyond 2020 would be a last resort and that the deal is 95 per cent complete. Nobel winner and Crick director Sir Paul Nurse, one of the signatories to the letter said: Science and research matter for economic growth health and quality of life and the environment. ...
UN condemns French ban on full-face veils as violation of human rights
Europe, Featured

UN condemns French ban on full-face veils as violation of human rights

    The committee called for the women to be compensated and for a review of the 2010 law that forbids people from publicly wearing clothing that conceals their face. The French law disproportionately harmed the petitioners' right to manifest their religious beliefs, the committee said in a statement. It added that it was not convinced by France's claim that the ban was necessary for security and social reasons. The two French women were convicted in 2012 for wearing the niqab, a veil with an opening for the eyes. The ban, rather than protecting fully veiled women could have the opposite effect of confining them to their homes impeding their access to public services and marginalising them, the committee said. The UN Human Rights Committee, made up of independent exp...
Markle is now more popular than Prince Harry
Featured, United Kingdom

Markle is now more popular than Prince Harry

    Prince Harry used to be the most popular royal among the British clan, but his wife, Meghan Markle, has already taken his place. Kate Williams, a royal historian, told Channel 5 News (via Express) that Prince Harry needs to get used to his wife getting more attention from royal fans. Essentially, there is no rulebook saying you must do this you must not do this and I think the royal family is becoming more and more informal. Simply, the thing is that Harry has to recognize now that he is no longer number one, he is no longer number one, she is, she added. Prince Harry shouldn’t also follow in Prince Charles footsteps because the latter struggled with the shift in popularity from him to Princess Diana. I remember when Prince Charles and Princess Diana went on thei...
Why Saudi Crown Prince Wanted Khashoggi Dead
Arab world, Featured

Why Saudi Crown Prince Wanted Khashoggi Dead

    The mind plays strange tricks sometimes, especially after a tragedy. When I sat down to write this story about the Saudi regime’s homicidal obsession with the Muslim Brotherhood, the first person I thought I’d call was Jamal Khashoggi. For more than 20 years I phoned him or met with him, even smoked the occasional water pipe with him, as I looked for a better understanding of his country, its people, its leaders, and the Middle East. We often disagreed, but he almost always gave me fresh insights into the major figures of the region, starting with Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, and the political trends, especially the explosion of hope that was called the Arab Spring in 2011. He would be just the man to talk to about the Saudis and the Muslim Brotherhood, because h...
May has 72 hours to save her job
Featured, United Kingdom

May has 72 hours to save her job

    Prime Minister Theresa May has been told that she has just 72 hours to save her job. The warning comes from MPs frustrated by Mrs May's handling of Brexit negotiations after an unsuccessful summit last week. For a no confidence vote to be triggered, 48 letters from Conservative MPs must be submitted to the party's chairman and some have claimed that that threshold could soon be reached. Brexit supporter Andrew Bridgen told the Mail On Sunday that Mrs May must attend Wednesday's meeting of the Tory 1922 committee of backbenchers or risk mak(ing) the letters go in even faster. He said: This week Theresa May will find that she is drinking in the last chance saloon and the bad news for her is that the bar is already dry. David Davis, a possible successor to Mrs May, ...
17 dead after train flips in Taiwan
Asia, Featured

17 dead after train flips in Taiwan

    At least 17 people have died after an express train derailed and flipped over on a popular coastal route in Taiwan on Sunday. The Taiwan Railways Administration confirmed 17 people had been killed and said 132 people had also been injured in the accident in northeastern Yilan county. Authorities have not confirmed if any passengers remain trapped alive inside the train. An AFP reporter at the scene said that more bodies were being brought out of the wrecked carriages. Images from the site showed the Puyuma Express train completely derailed and lying zig-zagged across the track. All of the train's eight carriages had derailed and five had flipped onto their side at Xinma station, the railways administration said. One passenger told Apple Daily Taiwan that the trai...
Grooming gang jailed for abusing 15 girls
Featured, United Kingdom

Grooming gang jailed for abusing 15 girls

    One of the victims of a grooming gang jailed for abusing 15 girls believes there are more young people yet to speak out. Speaking anonymously to Sky News, the woman who was abused between the ages of 13 and 18 shared her story and urged others to get justice for themselves. The call comes after sixteen men were jailed for a total of 221 years as part of the grooming gang who abused 15 girls in and around Huddersfield between 2004 and 2011. Four more men were found guilty and are waiting to be sentenced for offences such as rape and trafficking for sexual exploitation. The victim said she became friends with the men at first before the abuse started. They used to buy you gifts, give you cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, she said. And then I was in a relationship with...
Missing journalist killed after fight
Arab world, Featured

Missing journalist killed after fight

    Saudi Arabia on Friday night admitted that the missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in its Istanbul consulate according to state media. The discussions between Jamal Khashoggi and those he met at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul devolved into a fistfight leading to his death the Saudi Press Agency said citing the public prosecutor. Details emerged in a flurry of statements from state-run media which announced a string of arrests an overhaul of the country's security apparatus and the dismissal of four senior figures. So far 18 Saudi nationals have been arrested and deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani a senior aide to Mohammed bin Salman the crown prince had been dismissed state TV reported. The Saudi government has been under ...
Anti-Brexit march to call for final say on deal
Featured, United Kingdom

Anti-Brexit march to call for final say on deal

    Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to march on the streets of London later demanding a people's vote on Brexit. It is expected to be the biggest protest to date as pressure builds on the prime minister over her negotiating strategy. Many believe the UK is heading for a no deal or a bad deal Brexit and want to have their say. Among the celebrities involved are actor Steve Coogan chef Delia Smith and Dragons Den star Deborah Meaden. Some have even contributed to buses bringing people to the capital from all over the country. It is thought that thousands of students will take part many of whom were too young to have their say in the 2016 referendum. Hilary Gyebi-Ababio a third year student at Bristol University told Sky News: I was three days shy of voting a...
Canadian pensioners swoop on £3bn Gatwick stake
Featured, United Kingdom

Canadian pensioners swoop on £3bn Gatwick stake

    Canada's biggest pension fund is preparing to swoop for part of a stake in London's Gatwick Airport that could be worth more than £3bn days after it unveiled a plan to use its emergency runway to boost capacity. Sky News has learnt that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is part of a group of investors which are proposing to buy out Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Gatwick's biggest shareholder since 2009. A deal is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks, with CPPIB participating in an agreement alongside other pension and infrastructure funds. If it proceeds with a transaction, the Canadian retirement scheme, which managed $356.1bn (£272bn) at the end of its financial year in March, would invest hundreds of millions of pounds in Britain's ...