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LONDON — A middle-aged British woman, who somehow came into contact with the Soviet-era nerve agent known as Novichok, died Sunday evening at a hospital in south England where she was being treated for exposure to the military-grade chemical weapon. Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked by the death,” and announced that it is now being investigated as a murder. Dawn Sturgess, 44, was one of five people who became seriously ill after being exposed to the nerve agent in the Salisbury area. ... Sturgess lived in a supported-living facility that helps residents struggling with alcohol...

Donald Trump is making his first presidential visit to the UK next week, and the First Lady Melania is set to be the most crucial member of his entourage, amid planned meetings with the Queen and Theresa May. Huge protests are expected in London for Trump's first full day in the capital next Friday, but Melania, 48, could well be the key to ensuring the visit is still a success regardless, thanks to her positive effect on his public image. Branding expert Claire Shiels told Femail: 'There can be no doubt that Melania balances out her husband’s brash, in-your-face personality...

LONDON -- A giant 'Trump Baby' balloon is set to be flown close to the UK Parliament during US President Donald Trump's visit to London next week after the Mayor of London gave the go-ahead. And just recently, the organizers announced the blimp is going on a world tour. The organizers wrote on its Crowdfunder page that "people have been SO generous and supportive that we now have WAY more money than we can sensibly spend just on Trump's UK visit in July!" “So - Trump Baby is going on World Tour!” the organizers wrote. “All the details are still...

Following Sadiq Khan’s approval of a balloon mocking President Trump to be flown over Parliament during his visit to the UK, a counter-campaign has surged to over £10,000 out of nowhere for a balloon depicting the London Mayor to go up. The campaign’s appeal reads: “To have a giant size Sadiq Khan, ‘Baby Khan’ balloon fly over London to demonstrate our unhappiness with him as our Mayor of London.” (snip)

Britain’s spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told. GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added. Over the next six months, until summer 2016, a number of western agencies shared further information on contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russians,...

The U.K. government has reportedly told President Trump he must not meet Brexit architect and former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage when Trump visits the U.K. later this month. The U.K. Daily Telegraph, citing a source within the British government, reports that 10 Downing Street made it clear that Trump “must not meet Farage” during his working visit to the U.K. on July 13.

(Reuters) - British police declared a major incident late on Tuesday after it said a man and a woman in a critical condition may have been exposed to an unknown substance near the southern English town of Salisbury. “Wiltshire Police and partners have this evening declared a major incident after it is suspected that two people might have been exposed to an unknown substance in Amesbury,” the police said in a statement. {snip} Amesbury lies seven miles (11 kms) to the north of Salisbury, where in March Russian former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter ….

More than 95 per cent of deradicalisation programmes are ineffective, according to a study commissioned by the Home Office that raises questions about the government’s Prevent programme. *snip* BIT found that teachers in particular were afraid to bring up matters of race and religion with their students without appearing discriminatory, often causing them to refuse to talk about these topics entirely.

“Do you have a Chinese passport?” She stared at me with a cold, calm intensity, clutching my British passport. I took out my Chinese passport and handed it to her through the narrow window. She flipped through its pages. The way she handled it gave me a sudden stomach ache. I sensed something bad was coming. “You know it’s illegal to possess two passports as a Chinese citizen?” she remarked in her even-toned, slightly jarring voice. “Illegal?” I repeated. My surprise was totally genuine. It had never occurred to me that having two passports was against Chinese law. The woman...

Newcastle United’s latest signing Ki Sung-yueng may be one of the better known faces in his native South Korea – but that doesn’t make him immune from completing his national service for his country. Back in the summer of 2016, the 29-year-old had to ditch his luxury items and complete his mandatory military service which every male between the ages of 18-30 must do - and usually for 18 months. This is due to the volatile relations between South Korea and North Korea - although in April 2018, both countries signed the Panmunjom Declaration with the hope of ending the...

A speech by London Mayor Sadiq Khan at the State of London Debates on June 28 was abruptly interrupted several times by supporters of Tommy Robinson, the co-founder of the right-wing English Defence League (EDL), who reprimanded Khan over safety issues on the city's streets. One of the protesters shouted that terrorism is not "part of living in a big city" and that US President Donald Trump would be more welcome in London than Khan. He also started chanting Robinson's name with many attendees of the meeting joining in the chorus. Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpldJ2FZAFo Another man, wearing a "Trump" t-shirt accused...

Britain’s prison population is at its lowest in eight years thanks to new government rules which have boosted early releases by more than 50 percent in the last six months. Ministry of Justice figures show that the number of inmates put on home detention curfew (HDC) has risen to 3,304 from 2,196 in January when ministers told prison guards to increase their use in order to free up space in overcrowded jails. This increase was reported as the primary factor in the prison population falling more than 1,500 in six months to 82,694, which is the lowest figure since January...

Theresa May has “ample reasons” to cancel Donald Trump’s visit to the UK next month, Jeremy Corbyn has said. The Labour leader said the escalating trade dispute between US and the EU, as well as the US treatment of child migrant detainees separated from their parents, were reasons enough to rescind the invitation to the US president. His comments came as Trump threatened to impose tariffs on European cars after Brussels confirmed it would introduce retaliatory levies on American products including bourbon whiskey, Levi’s jeans and Harley-Davidson motorbikes as a response to the US steel and aluminium tariffs. “Donald Trump...

Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Moscow, April 19, 2018 On April 13, UK Ambassador to Russia Laurie Bristow said that “the Russian state has a record in state-sponsored assassinations including in the UK.” It is not the first Russophobic statement made by a UK official...but it’s not the main point... Maybe the UK Ambassador does not know his own country’s history, role and involvement in processes that took place in other countries over the past centuries... Let’s start with modern history...Britain was one of the most ruthless metropolises in terms of the repressive actions it took in its...

DEVON, England, June 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) -- Another royal wedding is about to dominate the media, albeit for a very different reason than Prince Harry and Meagan Markle’s recent nuptials. Lord Ivar Mountbatten, third cousin once removed to Queen Elizabeth, has announced he will be “marrying” James Coyle, marking the first same-sex “wedding” in the extended British royal family. Ivar came out as homosexual in 2016, several years after divorcing his wife Penny Mountbatten. The couple had three daughters, who are currently 15, 20, and 22 years old. But despite their divorce, Penny told the UK Daily Mail she’s so...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6jJekhX5Dw

A female suspect was arrested on Sunday after she ran after children with a knife while shouting “I want to kill all you Jews” in the Haringey area of London. The suspect was arrested ...

A British Muslim of Pakistani origin, known as a "master bomb maker" for the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, triggered the US laptop ban on flights last year, a former MI6 spy has revealed in a new autobiography. According to 'The Sunday Times', Aimen Dean a former al Qaeda explosives expert recruited by MI6 to infiltrate UK Islamist extremist circles writes in 'Nine Lives' that he first met 41-year-old Hamayun Tariq from the West Midlands region of England as an undercover agent in 2004. Tariq, who used the alias 'Abu Muslim', evaded the UK authorities twice to travel abroad where...

Supporters of Tommy Robinson have clashed with police at a Whitehall demonstration after hearing Dutch far right MP Geert Wilders call for the English Defence League founder to be freed. Wilders, 54, who was banned from Britain in 2009 only to get it overturned, has attended today's protest after the EDL founder was jailed for 13 months. Robinson pleaded guilty to contempt of court and breaching the terms of a suspended sentence he was handed last May for a similar offence. His supporters have gathered in huge numbers at a series of protests outside Downing Street, Leeds Crown Court and...

WWTCD? The colonel, most likely, would lose his mind over the recent news that KFC in Britain is experimenting with a vegetarian version of the founder’s famous fried chicken. You know, the top-secret Original Recipe chicken, the one with 11 herbs and spices that (reportedly) only two executives have access to at any one time. As part of a countrywide campaign to slim down, KFC UK is heeding the new guidelines issued by Public Health England, which recommends that British adults consume only 400 calories at breakfast and 600 apiece at lunch and dinner. KFC UK told the Daily Mirror,...