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'Serious concerns' raised over integrity of Iran plane crash site Experts express shock at Iran’s conduct, amid fears Tehran is trying to destroy evidence Visual guide to the Iran plane crashAir crash experts have raised serious concerns over the handling of the crash site of a Ukrainian airliner suspected to have been accidentally shot down by Iranian missiles, as fears grow that Tehran has sought to eliminate evidence from the area.Graham Braithwaite, professor of safety and accident investigation at Cranfield University, said the Iranian handling of the crash site, including the apparent quick removal of evidence, raised “serious concerns over the integrity of the investigation”. Continue reading... Go to Source

Northern Ireland: parties back power-sharing deal Sinn Féin announces support for British-Irish plan while DUP signals that it will also sign upNorthern Ireland’s political parties have agreed to a deal that will lead to the restoration of the power-sharing government in the region following its collapse three years ago.On Friday evening, Sinn Féin confirmed it would back a deal promoted by the British and Irish governments which included plans to put Gaelic on a par with English, its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, announced. Continue reading... Go to Source

Meghan returns to Canada as Queen calls for 'workable solution' Fallout continues over royal couple’s decision to ‘step back’ from monarchyThe Duchess of Sussex has flown back to Canada, leaving senior royals to hammer out a way forward for her and Prince Harry to operate as “hybrid” royals.As Meghan returned to Vancouver, and the embrace of supportive friends, top royal aides were in unprecedented talks with government officials in the UK and Canada to seek a solution to end the latest crisis to engulf the monarchy. Continue reading... Go to Source

Iran plane crash: Ukraine's president calls on US and allies to share evidence – live Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss investigation with US secretary of state Mike Pompeo Plane shot down by accident, western officials believeA visual guide to the Iran plane crash 11.55am GMTUkraine’s foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, has said on Twitter that he and the Ukrainian president have met with US embassy officials and obtained “important data” about the plane crash.Prystaiko gave no further details but said the data would be “processed by our specialists”.Разом з Президентом Володимиром З ...

Skype audio graded by workers in China with 'no security measures' Exclusive: former Microsoft contractor says he was emailed login after minimal vettingA Microsoft programme to transcribe and vet audio from Skype and Cortana, its voice assistant, ran for years with “no security measures”, according to a former contractor who says he reviewed thousands of potentially sensitive recordings on his personal laptop from his home in Beijing over the two years he worked for the company.The recordings, both deliberate and accidentally invoked activations of the voice assistant, as well as some Skype phone calls, were simply accessed by Microsoft workers through a web app running in Google’s Chrome browser, on their personal laptops, over the Chinese internet, according to th...

Meghan returns to Canada as Queen calls for a 'workable solution' Fallout continues over royal couple’s decision to ‘step back’ from monarchyThe Duchess of Sussex has returned to Canada as the Queen and other senior royals took decisive action and ordered their teams to find a “workable solution” to Prince Harry and Meghan’s future roles.The couple had only recently arrived in the UK after spending an extended festive break in the Commonwealth country but she is now back with the couple’s baby son, Archie, who remained behind, reportedly looked after by a nanny and friends of the duchess. Continue reading... Go to Source

Woman posed as boy to sexually assault up to 50 girls, say police Gemma Watts, 21, faces jail after pleading guilty to seven sexual assault and grooming charges A woman posed as a teenage boy to sexually assault up to 50 girls as young as 14 after grooming them online, police have revealed.Gemma Watts, 21, travelled the country by train to meet the youngsters, who believed they were in a relationship with a boy close to their own age. Continue reading... Go to Source

Clive Lewis: Labour must push for proportional representation Leadership hopeful stresses need for radical change, saying party must act ‘or it will die’Labour must embrace proportional representation and learn to work with other parties among other radical changes, the leadership contender Clive Lewis has said, adding that the party “needs to modernise, or it will die”.In a speech formally launching his campaign, the Norwich South MP said Labour needed to become less centralised and more collaborative, warning that debate was being stifled by “sectarianism and tribalism”. Continue reading... Go to Source

Tehran crash: plane downed by Iranian missile, western officials believe UK officials say they have seen intelligence suggesting missile brought down plane The Ukrainian passenger jet that crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran on Wednesday was accidentally shot down by an Iranian anti-aircraft missile, western security officials believe.UK sources told the Guardian that British officials had seen intelligence that suggested that the plane was hit by an Iranian air defence missile. Continue reading... Go to Source

Hungary for Brexit: Orbán praises Johnson and Trump Far-right leader, known as conspiracy theorist, backs PM as ex-No 10 aide predicts close ties Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has given a ringing endorsement to Boris Johnson and Brexit, offering a pointer as to which European capitals are likely to be friendliest to post-Brexit Britain.Orbán said Johnson and Donald Trump were “the most courageous, the most dynamic and the most ready to effect change” of all the politicians in the world today. The admiration is mutual: it emerged this week that Tim Montgomerie, a former aide of Johnson, said he expected Britain and Hungary to forge a “special relationship” after Brexit, and praised Orbán’s thinking on the &ldq...

'Rogue royals'? Pundits furious over Harry and Meghan's step back Announcement by pair that they are stepping back from public life brings hysterical response The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision to step back from public life has provoked vitriolic attacks on the couple and hyperbolic predictions on what it could mean for the monarchy.The announcement came after Prince Harry and Meghan criticised media intrusion and launched legal action against the Mail on Sunday. This, along with reports that the couple’s decision has upset the Queen, appears to have fuelled the ferocity of the reaction. Continue reading... Go to Source

Arctic treasures exposed by melting ice to go on display Items made from 28,000-year-old mammoth tusks among artefacts at British MuseumRare 28,000-year-old archaeological finds excavated from rapidly thawing ground in Siberia are to go on display for the first time at the British Museum as part of an exhibition on the history of the Arctic and its people.Sewing needles and jewellery made from walrus ivory as well as carved mammoth ivory decorative objects are being lent by the Russian Academy of Science for a show that will be the biggest of its kind. Continue reading... Go to Source

Patients suffer record delays because of pressure at A&E units Ambulance crews in England having to look after more people for longer this winter Record numbers of patients are being forced to stay with ambulance crews for an hour or more this winter because overwhelmed A&E units are too busy to admit them.A total of 81,012 patients in England have had to remain with ambulance personnel for at least half an hour because of delays getting into an emergency department in the five weeks since winter began. That is the highest number since records began in 2017-18. Continue reading... Go to Source

Prince Harry and Meghan to step back from royal family Duke and Duchess of Sussex say they intend to ‘work to become financially independent’The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are to step back from senior roles in the royal family and work towards financial self-sufficiency after a period marked by open warfare with the media over claimed intrusion and bullying.It is understood that no other royal was consulted before the decision was announced on Wednesday evening, and Buckingham Palace was disappointed by the news. Continue reading... Go to Source

MPs vote to drop child refugee protections from Brexit bill Commitment to reunite children with family members in UK to be removed from withdrawal billThe Commons has rejected proposals to keep protections for child refugees in the redrafted EU withdrawal agreement bill, triggering dismay from campaigners.Alf Dubs, the Labour peer who successfully campaigned for this protection for refugee children in 2016, said it was a “very depressing” development. Continue reading... Go to Source

Trump backs away from further military confrontation with Iran ‘Iran appears to be standing down,’ Trump said, in an uncharacteristically sober speech following rising tensions between US and IranDonald Trump backed away from further military confrontation with Iran on Wednesday, saying Tehran appeared to be standing down following a missile attack on two Iraqi bases hosting US troops.Flanked by the vice-president, Mike Pence, defense secretary Mark Esper, and other high ranking military officials in uniform, Trump delivered remarks in the Grand Foyer of the White House on Wednesday morning, hours after Iran launched more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases, declaring the attack to be retaliation for the US drone strike last week that killed senior Iranian Gen Qassem Sule...

Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership bid wins backing of MPs and Unison Shadow Brexit secretary is first candidate to get more than 22 backers needed to make ballotPolitics latest - live updatesKeir Starmer’s Labour leadership campaign has received a boost after he won the backing of the UK’s biggest trade union, Unison, and became the first person to get more than the 22 MPs required to become a candidate.The shadow Brexit secretary is all but certain to be one of the names put to a vote of the Labour membership, after Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, declared the union would be endorsing him. Continue reading... Go to Source

Iran says it will not give black box from crashed airliner to Boeing Leaders of Ukraine and Canada vow to find cause of crash that killed dozens of their citizens Iran’s aviation authority will not hand over flight recorders from the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 jet that crashed moments after take-off from Tehran killing all 176 passengers and crew, either to the aircraft’s manufacturer or US aviation authorities.The Iranian statement came as leaders of both Ukraine and Canada, which lost dozens of its citizens in the crash, vowed to identify the cause of the disaster amid contradictory statements and swirling speculation. Continue reading... Go to Source

British girl who won life support legal battle is out of intensive care Mother of Tafida Raqeeb says British doctors who said she had no prospect of recovering have been proven wrongTafida Raqeeb, a five-year-old British girl treated in Italy for a serious brain injury after her parents won a high court battle to keep her on life support, is out of intensive care.Tafida was brought to Genoa’s Gaslini children’s hospital on 15 October after the high court ruled against the opinion of doctors at the Royal London hospital, where the child was on life support, who said it was in her best interests for treatment to be withdrawn because she had no awareness or prospect of recovering. Continue reading... Go to Source

Ursula von der Leyen: UK deadline makes full Brexit deal impossible EU commission chief questions Johnson’s timeframe as she arrives for Downing Street talks Follow all today’s political news – live updatesThe president of the European commission has said it will be “impossible” for the UK to negotiate a comprehensive deal covering all aspects of Brexit within the timeframe set by Boris Johnson.Ursula von der Leyen’s warning came just hours before her first face-to-face bilateral meeting with Johnson, who revealed that they had attended the same school while he lived in Belgium. Continue reading... Go to Source

Iran missile attack: Iraq says it received advance warning from Tehran – live updates Pentagon confirms missiles targeting at least two bases as Revolutionary Guards claim attack ‘in name of Suleimani’Full report: missiles launched against US airbases in IraqHelp us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution 11.52am GMTKuwait says its state-run Kuna news agency’s Twitter account was hacked and posted a false story about US troops withdrawing from the country. There are more than 13,000 US troops in Kuwait.KUNA advises subscribers, readers its Twitter account has been hacked, thus it reserves legal right to prosecute any party or person behind such false news#kuna #kuwaitS.A 11.29am GMTMajor airlines have cancelled Iran and Iraq flights and rero...

PMQS: Boris Johnson faces Jeremy Corbyn in first Commons clash of 2020 – live news The day’s political developments, including first PMQs of 2020 and Johnson’s meeting with new European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen 12.02pm GMTAndrew Lewer, a Conservative, asks for a review of the rules affecting benefit claimants with terminal illnesses.Johnson says the DWP is reviewing these rules. 12.01pm GMTBoris Johnson starts by condemning the Iranian attacks on US bases. He says Iran should not pursue these attacks. He offers condolences to those affected by the Australian bush fires, and by the crash of a Ukrainian airliner. Continue reading... Go to Source

Iran plane crash: Ukraine Boeing with at least 170 aboard comes down near Tehran Iran’s Red Crescent says there is no chance of survivors after Ukrainian plane crashes shortly after take-off A passenger plane carrying at least 170 people bound for the Ukrainian capital Kiev has crashed a few minutes after taking off from Tehran’s main international airport.Iran’s Red Crescent has said there was no chance of finding survivors, and Pir Hossein Kulivand, an Iranian emergency official, later told state TV all those on board were killed in the crash. Continue reading... Go to Source

HMRC catches only 13% of firms paying below minimum wage There are fears an inflation-busting rise in April will tempt more bosses to break the lawThousands of bosses who pay workers less than the minimum wage are getting away with breaking the law, with only one in eight caught by government inspectors, research shows.There has been a sharp rise in the number of low-paid workers cheated of wages. An estimated 11,000 firms failed to pay the minimum wage in 2018-19, according to analysis of official figures by the Resolution Foundation thinktank. However, HM Revenue and Customs inspectors identified only 1,456 of the lawbreakers and there are fears an inflation-busting rise in the minimum rate in April may tempt more employers to break the rules. Continue reading... Go to Source

Iran attacks two US airbases in Iraq in wake of Suleimani killing Iran says it has launched missile attacks on al-Asad and Erbil airbases ‘in the name of martyr General Qassem Suleimani’Iran crisis – latest updatesIran releases footage of missile attack on US basesIran has launched more than a dozen missiles at Iraqi bases hosting US and coalition troops, declaring the strikes to be retaliation for the killing last week of top general Qassem Suleimani.Al-Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province, which hosts a US contingent, was hit at least six times, the US military confirmed. The Pentagon said at least one other base in the northern city of Erbil was targeted in the attack which commenced around 1.30am local time on Wednesday (10.30pm GMT). Continue reading... ...

Iran crisis: missiles launched against US airbase in Iraq Al-Asad base comes under fire after Iranian official describes 13 ‘revenge scenarios’ following Suleimani assassinationIran crisis - latest updatesIran launched missile strikes aimed at US troops in Iraq in what it said was retaliation for the killing last week of top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani.Al-Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province, which hosts a US contingent, was hit at least six times, the US military confirmed. Continue reading... Go to Source

Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips tell Labour: we must change to survive Pair praised by colleagues at hustings event in front of parliamentary partyLabour leadership candidates Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips won applause from MPs at a hustings for warning that a serious change of course is needed for the party.The two hopefuls were praised by colleagues on Tuesday after the six candidates set out their pitches to the parliamentary Labour party, with MPs saying they had been the most honest about reasons for the party’s defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson. Continue reading... Go to Source

MEPs to express 'grave concern' about UK stance on EU citizens in Britain Exclusive: leaked resolution by main political groups follows threats of deportation made by British ministerThe European parliament will express its “grave concern” about the attitude of Boris Johnson’s government to the 3.3 million EU citizens living in the UK following threats of deportation made by a British minister.In a leaked resolution drafted by the main political groups and due to be backed by MEPs next Wednesday, Johnson’s administration is accused of creating “anxiety” in recent months. Continue reading... Go to Source

Elizabeth Wurtzel, journalist and author of Prozac Nation, dead at 52 Author of bestselling memoir about clinical depression, which made her ‘a hashtag before there was Twitter’, died from metastatic breast cancer Elizabeth Wurtzel, the journalist and author who chronicled her life with depression in the bestselling memoir Prozac Nation, has died at the age of 52.Writer David Samuels, Wurtzel’s friend since childhood, told the New York Times that Wurtzel had died in New York from metastatic breast cancer on Tuesday. Wurtzel, who tested positively for the BRCA genetic mutation, was an vocal advocate for BRCA testing in her journalism, while refusing pity for herself. Writing in the Guardian in 2018, she noted: “I hate it when people say that they are sorry about...

Reynhard Sinaga's life sentence for rapes 'fits his crimes', says father Police open hotline after Sinaga’s sentencing and believe he may have attacked 195 menThe father of the man described as the most prolific rapist in British legal history has said his son’s punishment of life in jail “fits his crimes”.The first comments from Reynhard Sinaga’s immediate family came as more of his potential victims approached police following his sentencing on Monday to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 30 years. Continue reading... Go to Source