Tuesday, September 1

Featured

Theresa May rules out City firms passporting after Brexit
Featured, United Kingdom

Theresa May rules out City firms passporting after Brexit

    Theresa May told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: We can’t just accept rules that are made elsewhere. Theresa May has said that signing up to passporting for the City of London after Brexit would leave the UK as just a rule-taker, insisting that financial services will instead be covered through a free trade deal. In an interview broadcast on Sunday morning, the prime minister also rebuffed the suggestion that the foreign secretary had raised the spectre of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in an internal government report. No. Boris is absolutely clear that there won’t be a hard border, she told the BBC’s Andrew Marr, amid reports of tensions between Johnson and Downing Street over claims that May’s chief of staff, Gavin Barwell, leaked the...
Pubs opening time will be relaxed on Royal Wedding time
Featured, United Kingdom

Pubs opening time will be relaxed on Royal Wedding time

    Pub licensing hours across England and Wales will be relaxed on the weekend of the Royal Wedding, the Home Office has announced. Pubs will be able to stay open until 1am on the nights of Friday 18 May and Saturday 19 May, the weekend when the FA Cup final will also take place. The Government made the decision after it won support from the general public and stakeholders, including the hospitality sector and residents’ groups, during a four week consultation. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the Royal Wedding was an opportunity for the country to join together and celebrate. As shown by the support for the proposal to extend licensing hours, it’s clear that the public back the idea of having more time to raise a glass to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on a day of nat...
German Social Democrats back coalition deal with Angela Merkel
Europe, Featured

German Social Democrats back coalition deal with Angela Merkel

    Members of Germany’s Social Democratic Party have voted in favour of joining a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc. The decision clears the last major hurdle to the formation of a new government and a fourth term for Ms Merkel. Sunday’s announcement by the party’s leadership ends almost six months of uncertainty in German politics, the longest the country has been without a government in its post-war history. The centre-left Social Democrats had furiously debated whether to extend the so-called grand coalition for another four years after suffering a slump in last year’s election. In the end, two-thirds of the party’s 464,000 members approved a coalition deal. Parliament is expected to meet next week to elect Ms Merkel as chancellor, confi...
Theresa May says her Brexit vision is credible
Featured, United Kingdom

Theresa May says her Brexit vision is credible

    Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a speech about her vision for Brexit, at Mansion House London on 2nd March 18. Theresa May has insisted her Brexit vision in which Britain will align with European Union rules to get frictionless trade but retain the freedom to diverge from them is ambitious and credible. The details of her Brexit strategy, laid out in her high-profile speech at London's Mansion House on Friday,  appeared to unite warring Remain and Leave factions of the Conservative Party. But cracks remained within the Tories, as former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine dismissed her latest speech as just more “phrases, generalisations and platitudes”. Downing Street and Boris Johnson also denied reports that Mrs May's chief of staff Gavin Barw...
Pure madness in the White House as Trump shocks and rages
America, Featured

Pure madness in the White House as Trump shocks and rages

    Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center. These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: We haven’t bottomed out. Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is unce...
How HMS Queen Elizabeth’s support ship is riding storm
Featured, United Kingdom

How HMS Queen Elizabeth’s support ship is riding storm

    The Tidespring, which provides key support to Britain's most This dramatic picture captures the moment a Royal Navy battleship was battered by the Beast From the East off the coast of Plymouth. In scenes reminiscent of disaster movie The Perfect Storm, Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tidespring was rocked from side-to-side as hurricane conditions smashed into it yesterday. The Tidespring, which provides key support to Britain's most powerful warship HMS Queen Elizabeth, powered through the thunderous waves and Baltic temperatures. Footprints in the snow can be seen on the ship as it powers through choppy waters on its way home to Devon. RFA Tidespring was not accompanying Queen Elizabeth when the photo was taken as she had already docked in Portsmouth. The tanker is one of...
Select members of public will be invited Royal wedding
Featured, United Kingdom

Select members of public will be invited Royal wedding

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will invite 2,640 members of the public to Windsor Castle on their wedding day, it has been announced. The couple want their special day to be shaped so as to allow members of the public to feel part of the celebrations too, Kensington Palace said. Nearly 180 Years of British Royal Engagement Photos The occasion will be a moment of fun and joy that will reflect the characters and values of the pair, a spokesperson added today. The selected members of the public will be invited to watch the arrivals of the 33-year-old prince, his US actress fiancée, 36, and their guests. They will also see the carriage procession as it departs from the castle. This wedding, like all weddings, will be a moment of fun and joy that will reflect the char...
Germany Paves Way for Diesel Ban: Dealing Blow to Auto Makers
Europe, Featured

Germany Paves Way for Diesel Ban: Dealing Blow to Auto Makers

    A German court rang the death knell for certain diesel cars on Tuesday, striking a blow to the country’s flagship auto industry that could now be forced to spend billions to upgrade or replace millions of cars. Rejecting an appeal of a lower court decision, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that German cities Stuttgart and Düsseldorf, which appealed local court rulings, could ban diesel vehicles from urban traffic as a way to reduce pollution. Ultimately, the ruling clears the way for other cities to issue bans, which could result in the hometowns of German auto icons Mercedes-Benz, BMW AG, and Audi banning some of those manufacturers’ flagship products. Germany’s blue chip DAX index fell sharply on the news as the stocks of auto makers Volkswagen A...
Protests planned as Saudi’s Crown Prince visit to UK
Featured, United Kingdom

Protests planned as Saudi’s Crown Prince visit to UK

    Protests outside Downing Street have been planned after the Prime Minister confirmed she will welcome Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Britain. Human rights campaigners will hold a demonstration next Wednesday as the designated successor to the Saudi throne jets into the UK. They are calling on Theresa May to tackle the Crown Prince over his country's human rights record, as well as to suspend UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia amid the kingdom's military action in Yemen. Groups such as Stop the War Coalition, which counts shadow home secretary Diane Abbott among their patrons, will join anti-arms trade campaigners in Westminster. It has been calculated Britain has licensed £4.6bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since it began its intervention in neighbouring Ye...
Harry and Meghan consider their charitable future
Featured, United Kingdom

Harry and Meghan consider their charitable future

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are looking closely at issues around youth violence as they decide what charitable interests they will focus on as a married couple. Representatives from The Royal Foundation confirmed they are now researching the work that's taking place in the UK to combat youth violence. It comes after Harry and Meghan visited Reprezent, a radio station in Brixton that was set up in 2008 following a rise in knife crime, and met with young people and mentors from the Full Effect project in Nottingham which helps to keep young people out of gangs. Later today Meghan will carry out her first official working engagement alongside her future in-laws. She will join Prince Harry, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the first annual event to celebrat...