News

General election: Nicola Sturgeon launches SNP campaign 'to escape Brexit' – live news SNP leader speaks in Edinburgh as election campaigns take shape, with cheaper visas for NHS staff and year-long maternity pay among parties’ promisesJohnson accused of misunderstanding own Brexit deal after NI remarksWho are the favourites to take over as Labour deputy leader?Sign up to the morning election briefing 11.48am GMTSturgeon said her party would not lend support to any party that would stand in the way of a new Scottish independence referendum. It will be intersting to see how this plegde will be compatible with her statement that the SNP MP’s “would seek to form progressive alliance to lock the Tories out of government”.This is the take of Sky’s Beth Rigby:Suggesting that she will pe...

'Greta Thunberg effect' driving growth in carbon offsetting NGOs report fourfold increases in investments in carbon-reducing projects in developing countriesGrowing concern about the climate crisis and the “Greta Thunberg effect” are driving huge increases in individuals and businesses choosing to offset their emissions by investing in carbon-reducing projects in developing countries.NGOs and organisations involved in carbon offsetting have seen as much as a fourfold increase in investment from people who want to try to mitigate their carbon footprints. Continue reading... Go to Source

UK flooding: people stranded overnight in Sheffield shopping centre after heavy rain hits Yorkshire and Midlands – live news Met Office says 117 flood warnings in place after downpours continued through the nightFloods force Sheffield shoppers to spend night in MeadowhallHave you been affected? Share your stories, pictures and videos 11.28am GMTDerbyshire was hit with more rainfall in 24 hours than it normally receives in a single month, the Guardian has confirmed.The Environment Agency’s gauge in Glossop, a market town on the edge of the Peak District, recorded 114mm of rain in the 24 hours up to 4am. Derbyshire receives an average of 90.7mm of rain for the month of November. 11.01am GMTGood news for those affected by the flooding as the Met Office says rainfall is due to ease of...

Anonymous tell-all book likens Trump to '12-year-old in air traffic control tower' – report Book by figure described as administration official says colleagues considered mass resignations to raise alarm, according to Washington PostThe anonymous author of a widely anticipated book on the Trump White House has described the US president as spiraling from crisis to crisis “like a 12-year-old in an air traffic control tower”, according to scathing extracts published by the Washington Post on Thursday.The unnamed author, identified only as “a senior official in the Trump administration”, also says that colleagues considered resigning en masse in order to raise alarm about the president’s conduct, but ultimately decided against it, according to the Post. Continue reading... Go to Sou...

Scores of bushfires burn out of control in NSW and Queensland as temperatures soar Hot and windy weather has created volatile conditions along parts of Australia’s east coastParts of Australia faced an unprecedented bushfire threat on Friday evening as more than 100 blazes burned across coastal New South Wales and Queensland.Communities on NSW’s mid-north coast and the far north coast were battling the worst of the conditions, which were described by authorities as “uncharted territory” and that led to a dramatic, orange-red glow descending on the fire-threatened city of Port Macquarie. Continue reading... Go to Source

Tories and Labour warned over ambitious spending promises Returning infrastructure investment to 1970s levels may be undeliverable, says IFSLabour and the Conservatives have triggered a public spending bidding war, promising massive programmes of borrowing that will return public investment to levels last seen in the 1970s, according to Britain’s leading experts on the public finances.The Institute for Fiscal Studies said plans unveiled by Sajid Javid, the chancellor, and John McDonnell, his Labour shadow, would represent a decisive break with the past, but warned that a future government might have trouble delivering projects on the scale envisaged. Continue reading... Go to Source

PM gives 'cast-iron' pledge to refuse second Scottish independence vote Boris Johnson described Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn as ‘yoke-mates of destruction’Boris Johnson has made a “cast iron” pledge that he will not grant Nicola Sturgeon the powers she needs to hold a second independence referendum, regardless of whether the Scottish National party (SNP) wins a majority of Scottish seats in December’s general election or if they win a pro-independence majority in the Holyrood elections of 2021.In his strongest rebuff yet to Sturgeon’s vow to hold a second vote on independence next year, Johnson used his first visit to Scotland of the election campaign to insist: “Absolutely, there is no case whatsoever [for a second referendum] because people were promised in 2014 that it wou...

Two teenagers found guilty of murdering student Jodie Chesney Jury heard girl, 17, was stabbed in east London park in possible case of mistaken identityTwo drug dealers have been found guilty of killing 17-year-old Jodie Chesney.The popular student and girl scout had been smoking cannabis and listening to music with friends in a park in Romford on the evening of 1 March when she was stabbed in the back. Continue reading... Go to Source

John Bolton fails to appear before Trump impeachment inquiry – live Former national security adviser reportedly objected to mixing US national security priorities in Ukraine with Trump’s political concerns – follow liveSign up for the US briefing and get a new perspective 5.58pm GMTAn entertaining outtake from last night’s Trump rally in Louisiana:The kid doing “the worm” behind @Acosta is the best thing I’ve seen today pic.twitter.com/SAIcupml1e 5.47pm GMTLaw prof and impeachment expert Ross Garber points out that Schiff’s statement of the parameters of the inquiry, mentioned earlier, read a lot like draft articles of impeachment:Notice the motive identified in the first two: advancing “personal political interests.” That’s where the debate will ultimately focus. Trump and defend...