Shadow minister crashes and burns as Yvette Copper makes statement on new Channel crossing arrangements
It was all a bit of a mystery. Just where were the Tories? Had they just got their dates confused? Thought that recess started this week rather than next? Or had they all bunked off to Lord’s to see England beat India in a tight finish? Or maybe some – caught up in the entente amicale aftermath of Emmanuel Macron’s state visit – had taken the Eurostar to Paris to enjoy steak frites on Bastille Day?
You’d have thought the Conservative backbenchers would have wanted to be out in force to hear Yvette Cooper’s statement on the new arrangements for dealing with small boats. After all, this is the stuff that Kemi Badenoch and Chris Philp live and breathe. The reason they get up in the morning. To wage a two-person war on those making the Channel crossing. So surely Tory MPs would be desperate to have their say. A show of strength. But weirdly there were only five and most of them were to scuttle off long before the end.
Continue reading...Family of Paul St Hilaire Sr to take council to high court next month to reinstate van on King William Walk
When he was growing up, Paul St Hilaire Jr thought his dad was the next best thing to Willy Wonka: no one else’s dad sold ice-cream for a living.
“I remember sitting in the van, eating my Mr Whippy and feeling superior to children queueing up outside,” St Hilaire Jr remembered.
Continue reading...Montse Tomé’s side remain the favourites after a superb group-stage showing but Iceland go home with a whimper
Spain were favourites coming into the Euros and, based on their form in Group B, they still are. They matched England’s Euro 2022 record of 14 goals in the group stage. Alexia Putellas is continuing her charge for the Ballon d’Or with three goals and four assists and has lit up their midfield while the 18-year-old Vicky López has impressed in her first major tournament. While in sensational form going forward, their defence does leave opportunities for their opposition. Montse Tomé’s side will be favourites to win the quarter-final against hosts Switzerland but it will be a mouth-watering occasion in Bern.
Continue reading...Politics of carmaker’s owner has soured sentiments in Grünheide, south-east of Berlin, where the factory promised jobs and revitalisation
When Elon Musk advised Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in elections last year, Manu Hoyer – who lives in the small town where the billionaire had built Tesla’s European production hub – wrote to the state premier to complain.
“How can you do business with someone who supports rightwing extremism?” she asked Dietmar Woidke, the Social Democrat leader of the eastern state of Brandenburg, who had backed the setting up of the Tesla Giga factory in Grünheide.
Continue reading...For over a decade, John Knuth has created art using the regurgitation of flies and after he lost his home in the California wildfires, his work has a new perspective
One morning in Denver as artist John Knuth was getting his exhibition ready at the David B Smith Gallery, the police knocked on the door to check he wasn’t housing a dead body. “They said, ‘We’ve got a report of a lot of flies in here. Is there a dead body or anything rotting?’” Knuth recalls to the Guardian over Zoom.
The hundreds of flies emerging from Knuth’s gallery were actually his collaborators. For over a decade, Knuth has been creating paintings using the regurgitation of tens of thousands of flies. “When flies eat they digest externally,” explains Knuth. “They’re in a constant state of regurgitation. They land on a surface, puke up, suck it back in. Puke up, suck it back in.” After feeding the insects a mixture of acrylic colored paint and sugar water, the flies spend several weeks expelling the mixtures on to his canvases. “From that I get these really transcendent color connections.”
Continue reading...Pair found guilty of manslaughter of newborn baby, who died after they went on run to evade social services
Two parents have been found guilty of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died after they took her to live in a tent in freezing wintry conditions to evade social services.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, who had had their first four children taken into care, went on the run with their fifth, a baby girl named Victoria, shortly after her birth in December 2022.
Continue reading...US president says he will supply Kyiv with billions of dollars of military equipment paid for by European allies
Donald Trump said he has sealed an agreement with Nato allies that will lead to large-scale arms deliveries to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles, and warned Russia that it will face severe sanctions if Moscow does not make peace within 50 days.
After a meeting with the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, Trump said they had agreed “a very big deal”, in which “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States, going to Nato … And that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Continue reading...Military opposed to Gaza ‘humanitarian city’ plan, which a former Israeli PM has likened to a concentration camp
A feud has broken between the Israeli government and the military over the cost and impact of a planned camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza, as politicians criticised the former prime minister Ehud Olmert for warning that the project would create a “concentration camp” if it goes ahead.
The “humanitarian city” project has become a sticking point in ceasefire talks with Hamas. Israel wants to keep troops stationed across significant parts of Gaza, including the ruins of Rafah city in the south, where the defence minister, Israel Katz, says the camp will be built.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Labour fighting for survival of NHS, health secretary tells MPs as he prepares to meet BMA
Wes Streeting has said resident doctors’ strikes would be “a gift to Nigel Farage” before a meeting with the British Medical Association this week where he will seek to avert industrial action.
The health secretary told a meeting of Labour MPs on Monday that ministers were “in the fight for the survival of the NHS” and if Labour failed, Farage would argue for it to be replaced by an insurance-style system.
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