United Kingdom

    Donald Trump says he had “automatic chemistry” with the Queen, following his three-day state visit to the UK earlier this week. The US president, 72, made the boast to Fox News’ talk show host Laura Ingraham, while he was at the Normandy American cemetery to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Mr Trump said: “The meeting with the Queen was incredible. I think I can say I really got to know her because I sat with her many times and we had automatic chemistry.” He described the 93-year-old monarch as a “spectacular woman”. The former businessman also denied claims he fist bumped the Queen as they greeted one another at Buckingham Palace on Monday. “I did not, but I had a great relationship, we had a really great time,” he says. “There are those...

    Sajid Javid has hit out at two of his rivals for the Tory leadership, claiming Dominic Raab's position on Brexit is complete nonsense and condemning Boris Johnson's previous comments about Muslim women. The home secretary, one of 11 candidates vying to succeed Theresa May, said suggestions that parliament could be suspended if it tries to block a no-deal Brexit were anti-British and rubbish. Mr Raab said on Wednesday that he would not rule out such a move. As the gloves came off in the Conservative leadership contest, Mr Javid attacked Mr Johnson over his previous claim that women who wear the Muslim niqab look like letterboxes or a bank robber. Asked by The Independent about the remarks, which led to the former foreign secretary being investigated by the Conservative P...

    Passengers will be able to carry liquids and laptops through security at Heathrow inside their hand luggage after new security scanners are installed. The technology, costing £50 million over the next few years, is expected to slash queue times at Britain’s biggest airport. The plans are also expected to save on plastic as passengers will no longer have to decant small bottles of liquid into transparent bags to pass security. Scanners, which use the same technology as CT scanners in hospitals, will replace the traditional x-rays used to check bags and produce a clearer picture of their contents. It will be the first time the technology has been used in the UK, but they are already in place across the US and Europe. Other airports including Luton are also triallin...

    Commentators often describe me as ‘a man in a hurry’. It’s true that in every job I’ve done in government, I’ve driven change and been determined to deliver the benefits of new policies as quickly as possible. I have used the Whitehall machine to get things done and force through dynamic reforms. I have directed civil servants rather than letting them direct me. That’s what I did as education secretary – with 1.9million more children now in good and outstanding schools. That’s how I approached reform of the criminal justice system – modernising our courts and making punishments fit the crime. Also, it’s how I’ve approached my current job as Environment Secretary – with swift action on reducing single-use plastic, on animal welfare, farming and fisheries. And it’s ...

    A woman has sparked a debate on tube etiquette after giving up her seat on the London Underground for a young boy. The woman involved said the boy's mother asked her to let her son sit down because he was just a child. She later questioned whether she made the right decision. The post led to some debating in what circumstance an adult should give up a seat for a child, while others shared their experiences of being asked to stand. Describing the incident on Reddit, the woman said: On the busy tube and managed to get a seat when a woman tells me give my seat to her son because ‘he’s just a child. He looked 10 years old and she didn’t say he needed a seat for any particular reason. I stared at her in disbelief and didn’t even know what to say and then she raised h...

    Donald Trump branded Britain's NHS hospitals a sea of blood after the recent spate of knife crime. The brutal US President made the scathing remarks during a remarkable interview with Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain which aired this morning. The world leader said: In London you have stabbings all over. I read an article where everybody is being stabbed. They said your hospital is a sea of blood, all over the floors. But his comments come days after 13 people were killed when a crazed gunman went on a rampage in Virginia Beach in the latest mass shooting in the US. The killer stormed a government building with a rifle and a .45 caliber handgun, police say. There have been more than 140 'mass shootings' in the US this year, which a crowdsourced database define...

    An investigation has revealed the risk of food poisoning because of dangerous practices at a US chicken factory, ahead of trade talks which could force the UK to accept the meat after Brexit. The undercover probe by Channel 4 laid bare the danger of cross-contamination with the deadly bacteria salmonella and campylobacter, because of poor standards outlawed by the EU. As normal in the US, the chicken is washed in chemicals a practice banned in the UK under EU law because scientists fear it does not remove bacteria and simply masks safety failures. Nevertheless, the US has made clear it will demand the UK accept chemical-washed poultry in any trade deal – and Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has suggested a ban will be impossible. The expose by the Disp...

    Six MPs have split from Change UK just four months after the party was founded. Among those to quit were interim leader Heidi Allen and party spokesperson Chuka Umunna. They were joined by Luciana Berger, Sarah Wollaston, Gavin Shuker and Angela Smith. In a statement, the six said they would return to parliament as Independent MPs. “We believe that our priority right now must be to provide collegiate leadership to bring people together in the national interest,” the group said. “We know the landscape will continue to shift within the political environment and have concluded that by returning to sit as independents, we will be best placed to work cross party and respond flexibly”. The move has left Change UK with less than half the MPs it once had, with just five ...

    Donald Trump should think on about fuelling far right hate and create a better and more peaceful world, Jeremy Corbyn has said as the US president met with the prime minister. Addressing a mass rally against the US president in central London, the Labour leader lambasted Trump, claiming he has no answers to the world’s crises, including 65 million refugees, climate change and poverty. Corbyn, who faced criticism for boycotting the state banquet attended by Trump, he was willing to meet the president hoping to have that dialogue about politics but said he was very disappointed by the president’s “attack” on London’s muslim mayor Sadiq Khan. Looking out at a sea of ‘Dump Trump’ placards on Whitehall, Corbyn thanked everyone for being there, adding: “Look around this...

    Donald Trump’s state visit this week to the UK is being promoted as a celebration of a close alliance tempered through war. It could be more accurately described as a personal lap of victory for the US president, performed largely at the expense of his hosts. Trump arrives in London having survived Robert Mueller’s last blow, a verbal recap of the special counsel’s finding that the president could neither be charged with crimes nor exonerated. The president is now on the counter-attack and may well use his visit to repeat his claim called utterly ridiculous by GCHQ that UK intelligence helped spy on his election campaign. The rich pageantry that the British monarchy supplies will not only distract from the lingering clouds of suspicion, but send a bright red, whit...