Friday, 30 November 2018

The wild new passenger jet with no middle seats, ever

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Why a dad quit his high-paying job to build beds

A simple project to help a family in need stopped Luke Mickelson in his tracks.

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Helping immigrants settle in is her passion

Florence Phillips was born in New York to Jewish parents who fled Europe before the Holocaust.

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

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3 dead, 8 injured after high-speed chase at border

11/29/18 11:45 PM

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Deputy US marshal killed in Arizona shooting

11/29/18 8:55 PM

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President Trump cancels meeting at G20 with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine tensions

11/29/18 8:44 AM

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Ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress in Russia probe

11/29/18 6:34 AM

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Fox News Breaking News Alert

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith projected to defeat Democrat Mike Espy in Mississippi runoff election

11/27/18 7:29 PM

Russia-Ukraine crisis clouds G20 summit in Buenos Aires

Leaders gather in Argentina amid tension with Russia over Ukraine and a US trade row with China.

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Charlottesville driver Alex Fields Jr acted in anger, trial told

The trial opens of Alex Fields Jr, who drove a car into a crowd in Virginia in 2017, killing a woman.

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Berta Cáceres: Seven convicted of murdering anti-dam activist

A Honduran court finds seven men guilty of killing renowned environmental campaigner Berta Cáceres.

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South Korean train crosses DMZ into North Korea

A group of experts will travel around North Korea working out how to update its ageing train network.

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Whale stranding: Another 50 pilot whales die off NZ

The mass stranding on Chatham Island means more than 200 whales have died off NZ in the past week.

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MeToo founder Tarana Burke: Campaign now 'unrecognisable'

Tarana Burke first used the phrase 12 years ago before it became a global movement last year.

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Australian students in mass climate protest

Thousands skip school to urge action on climate change, despite criticism from Australia's PM.

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Michael Cohen in court: Trump ex-lawyer admits lying to Congress

Michael Cohen says he lied "out of loyalty" to Mr Trump, while the president says he is "weak".

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Merkel's plane makes unscheduled landing after technical hitch

The German chancellor will miss the start of the G20 in Argentina after her flight had to turn back.

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Southwest Airlines apologises for mocking girl's name

Southwest Airlines has offered its "sincere apology" after staff mocked five-year-old Abcde Redford.

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Georgia woman jailed as 'cops mistake candy floss for meth'

A Georgia woman was charged with meth trafficking due to a faulty police drug test, says a lawsuit.

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G20: So how does the summit work?

The G20 summit of the world's most powerful leaders begins in Buenos Aires on Friday.

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Michael Cohen: What Trump lashing out at his ex-lawyer reveals

Michael Cohen is a liar and a "weak person", according to the president. Anthony Zurcher analyses his response.

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How Disney's Wreck It Ralph is challenging Disney's stereotypes

Why Ralph Breaks The Internet is the Disney sequel that is not afraid of poking fun at a Disney stereotype.

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'Miss Environment': The 11-year-old girl 'saving Lagos'

Misimi Isimi is an 11-year-old environmentalist on a mission to clean up Lagos.

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Syrian on 'sound and smell of freedom' after months in airport

Syrian Hassan al-Kontar had not been outside for nine months - but now has a new home in Canada.

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How do you make a vinyl record?

Watch behind the scenes as a vinyl record is processed from start to finish.

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Like Ali v Frazier, how Magnus Carlsen kept his World Chess title after 50 hours and 12 draws

Norway's world number one Magnus Carlsen retains his World Chess Championship after 12 draws and more than 50 hours of play - eventually beating Fabiano Caruana in a tie-breaker.

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Starbucks to block porn on free wi-fi in US

The coffee chain says watching porn has always been banned, but it will now block access to content.

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Shenzhen Half Marathon: Traffic cameras catch cheats taking shortcut

Almost 250 runners in the Shenzhen Half Marathon are caught cheating by traffic cameras that show them taking a shortcut through bushes.

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China employees fined for walking fewer than 180,000 steps

Staff at a real estate firm had to walk 6,000 steps a day in order to avoid a fine.

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Sabarimala: India activist held for 'explicit' thigh photo

Rehana Fathima made an unsuccessful attempt last month to enter one of Hinduism's holiest temples.

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Plane Carrying Merkel To G-20 Makes Emergency Landing

BERLIN (AP) — A plane carrying German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Group of 20 meeting in Argentina was forced to make an unscheduled landing Thursday night in western Germany, reportedly due to technical problems.

The government Airbus, which was en route to Buenos Aires, turned around over the Netherlands about an hour into the flight, the German news agency dpa reported.

The aircraft landed safely in Cologne, with journalists on board reporting no injuries.

Several firefighting vehicles were on stand-by as the A340-300 VIP landed in Cologne at 9 p.m. (2000 GMT), because the plane had more fuel on board than is customary during landing, dpa reported.

A replacement German air force plane was being prepared to carry Merkel and her entourage to the G-20 meeting, which starts Friday in the Argentine capital.

Cologne-Bonn airport has a military base called Cologne-Wahn that is adjacent to the civilian airport.

According to German military blog Augengeradeaus.net, the aircraft was transmitting a 7600 transponder code, indicating a radio failure.

Merkel was told of the need to turn around while she was holding a background briefing for journalists accompanying her to Buenos Aires.

The G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires comes amid growing economic uncertainty and global displeasure with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy.

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Deutsche Bank Searched Under Suspicion Of Laundering Hundreds Of Millions

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities searched the headquarters of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt and other offices on Thursday on the suspicion bank employees helped clients set up offshore companies in tax havens to launder hundreds of millions of euros, in an investigation brought about from an analysis of online document leaks.

Frankfurt prosecutors’ spokeswoman Nadja Niesen said the investigation was focused on two Deutsche Bank employees, aged 50 and 46, and possibly other not-yet identified suspects.

Some 170 prosecutors, state police, national police and tax investigators were involved in the morning searches of six buildings in Frankfurt, and in nearby Eschborn and Gross-Umstadt, Niesen said.

The investigation was launched after evaluation of the explosive Panama Papers tax haven revelations and the previous Offshore Leaks report of offshore bank accounts, she said. The analysis “gave rise to suspicion that Deutsche Bank was helping clients set up so-called offshore companies in tax havens and the proceeds of crimes were transferred there from Deutsche Bank accounts” without the bank reporting it.

In 2016 alone, more than 900 customers are alleged to have transferred some 311 million euros to one such company set up in the British Virgin Islands, she said.

The suspects are accused of failing to report the suspicious transactions even though there was “sufficient evidence” to have been aware of it.

Deutsche Bank confirmed that authorities were “conducting an investigation at a number of our offices in Germany.”

“The investigation has to do with the Panama Papers case,” the bank said. “More details will be communicated as soon as these become known. We are cooperating fully with the authorities.”

Deutsche Bank shares slid sharply after the news broke, and were down 3.75 percent in midday trading in Frankfurt.

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Colossal Cow Too Beefy To Become Burgers

LAKE PRESTON, Australia (AP) — Knickers the steer is huge on the internet — for being huge.

The black-and-white Holstein Friesian won social media fame and many proclamations of “Holy Cow!” after photos surfaced of the 194-centimeter (6-foot-4-inch) steer standing head and shoulders above a herd of brown cattle in Western Australia state.

Owner Geoff Pearson said Knickers was too heavy to go to the slaughterhouse.
“We have a high turnover of cattle, and he was lucky enough to stay behind,” Pearson said.

Australian media say Knickers is believed to be the tallest steer in the country and weighs about 1.4 tons.

Instead of becoming steaks and burgers, 7-year-old Knickers will get to live out his life in Pearson’s fields in Lake Preston, southwest of Perth.

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World Faces ‘Impossible’ Task Of Finding Agreement At Post-Paris Climate Talks

KATOWICE, Poland (AP) — Three years after sealing a landmark global climate deal in Paris, world leaders are gathering again to agree on the fine print.

The euphoria of 2015 has given way to sober realization that getting an agreement among almost 200 countries, each with their own political and economic demands, will be challenging — as evidenced by President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, citing his “America First” mantra.

“Looking from the outside perspective, it’s an impossible task,” Poland’s deputy environment minister, Michal Kurtyka, said of the talks he will preside over in Katowice from Dec. 2-14.

Top of the agenda will be finalizing the so-called Paris rulebook, which determines how countries have to count their greenhouse gas emissions, transparently report them to the rest of the world and reveal what they are doing to reduce them.

Seasoned negotiators are calling the meeting, which is expected to draw 25,000 participants, “Paris 2.0” because of the high stakes at play in Katowice.

Forest fires from California to Greece, droughts in Germany and Australia, tropical cyclones Mangkhut in the Pacific and Michael in the Atlantic — scientists say this year’s extreme weather offers a glimpse of disasters to come if global warming continues unabated.

A recent report by the International Panel on Climate Change warned that time is running out if the world wants to achieve the most ambitious target in the Paris agreement — keeping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). The planet has already warmed by about 1 degree C since pre-industrial times and it’s on course for another 2-3 degrees of warming by the end of the century unless drastic action is taken.

The conference will have “quite significant consequences for humanity and for the way in which we take care of our planet,” Kurtyka told the Associated Press ahead of the talks.

Experts agree that the Paris goals can only be met by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050.

But the Paris agreement let countries set their own emissions targets. Some are on track, others aren’t. Overall, the world is heading the wrong way.

Last week, the World Meteorological Organization said globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide reached a new record in 2017, while the level of other heat-trapping gases such methane and nitrous oxide also rose.

This year is expected to see another 2 percent increase in human-made emissions, as construction of coal-fired power plants in Asia and Africa continue while carbon-absorbing forests are felled faster than they can regrow.

“Everyone recognized that the national plans, when you add everything up, will take us way beyond 3, potentially 4 degrees Celsius warming,” said Johan Rockstrom, the incoming director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

“We know that we’re moving in the wrong direction,” said Rockstrom. “We need to bend the global carbon emissions no later than 2020 — in two years’ time — to stand a chance to stay under 2 degrees Celsius.”

Convincing countries to set new, tougher targets for emissions reduction by 2020 is a key challenge in Katowice.

Doing so will entail a transformation of all sectors of their economies, including a complete end to burning fossil fuel.

Poor nations want rich countries to pledge the biggest cuts, on the grounds that they’re responsible for most of the carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Rich countries say they’re willing to lead the way, but only if poor nations play their part as well.

“Obviously not all countries are at the same stage of development,” said Lidia Wojtal, an associate with Berlin-based consultancy Climatekos and a former Polish climate negotiator. “So we need to also take that into account and differentiate between the responsibilities. And that’s a huge task.”

Among those likely to be pressing hardest for ambitious measures will be small island nations , which are already facing serious challenges from climate change.

The U.S., meanwhile, is far from being the driving force it was during the Paris talks under President Barack Obama. Brazil and Australia, previously staunch backers of the accord, appear to be following in Trump’s footsteps.

Some observers fear nationalist thinking on climate could scupper all hope of meaningful progress in Katowice. Others are more optimistic.

“We will soon see a large enough minority of significant economies moving decisively in the right direction,” said Rockstrom. “That can have spillover effects which can be positive.”

Poland could end up playing a crucial role in bringing opposing sides together. The country has already presided over three previous rounds of climate talks, and its heavy reliance on carbon-intensive coal for energy is forcing Warsaw to mull some tough measures in the years ahead.

The 24th Conference of the Parties, or COP24 as it’s known, is being held on the site of a Katowice mine that was closed in 1999 after 176 years of coal production. Five out of the city’s seven collieries have been closed since the 1990s, as Poland phased out communist-era subsidies and moved to a market economy.

Yet elsewhere in the city, 1,500 miners still extract thousands of tons of coal daily. Poland also still depends on coal for some 80 percent of its energy needs.
Poland intends to send a signal that the miners’ futures, and those of millions of others whose jobs are at risk from decarbonization, are not being forgotten. During the first week of talks, leaders are expected to sign a Polish-backed declaration calling for a ‘just transition’ that will “create quality jobs in regions affected by transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Then negotiators will get down to the gritty task of trimming a 300-page draft into a workable and meaningful agreement that governments can sign off on at the end of the second week.

“(I) hope that parties will be able to reach a compromise and that we will be able to say that Katowice contributed positively to this global effort,” Kurtyka said.
___
Frank Jordans reported from Berlin.
___
Follow Frank Jordans on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter

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Ukrainian Parliament Votes To Impose Martial Law In Wake Of Russian Attack

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukraine’s parliament voted Monday to impose martial law in the country to fight what its president called “growing aggression” from Moscow after a weekend naval confrontation off the disputed Crimean Peninsula in which Russia fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels amid renewed tensions between the neighbors.

Western leaders and diplomats urged both sides to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.S. blamed Russia for what it called “unlawful conduct” over Sunday’s incident in the Black Sea.

Russia and Ukraine blamed each other in the dispute that further ratcheted up tensions ever since Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and threw its weight behind separatists in eastern Ukraine with clandestine support, including troops and weapons.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked lawmakers in Kiev to institute martial law, something the country has not done even during the worst of the fighting in the east that killed about 10,000 people.

After a five-hour debate, parliament overwhelmingly approved his proposal, voting to impose martial law for 30 days.

Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about “a highly serious threat of a ground operation against Ukraine.” He did not elaborate.

“Martial law doesn’t mean declaring a war,” he said. “It is introduced with the sole purpose of boosting Ukraine’s defense in the light of a growing aggression from Russia.”

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry already announced earlier in the day that its troops were on full combat alert in the country.

The approved measures included a partial mobilization and strengthening the country’s air defense. It also contained vaguely worded steps such as “strengthening” anti-terrorism measures and “information security” that could curtail certain rights and freedoms.

Poroshenko’s critics reacted to his call for martial law with suspicion, wondering why Sunday’s incident merited such a response. Poroshenko’s approval ratings have been plunging, and there were concerns that he would postpone a presidential election scheduled for March.

Just before the parliament met to vote, Poroshenko sought to allay those fears by releasing a statement revising his original martial law proposal from 60 days to just 30 days, in order to “do away with the pretexts for political speculation.”

Oksana Syroid, a deputy speaker of parliament, noted that martial law was not introduced in 2014 or 2015 despite large-scale fighting in the east. A state of emergency “would present a wonderful chance to manipulate the presidential elections,” she said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Poroshenko assured him that martial law would not have a negative impact on the election.

Poroshenko’s call also outraged far-right groups in Ukraine that have advocated severing diplomatic ties with Russia. Hundreds of protesters from the National Corps party waved flares in the snowy streets of Kiev outside parliament and accused the president of using martial law to his own ends.

But Poroshenko insisted it was necessary because what happened in the Kerch Strait between Crimea and the Russian mainland “was no accident,” adding that “this was not the culmination of it yet.”

Russian coast guard ships fired on the Ukrainian navy vessels near the strait, which separates the Black Sea from the Sea of Azov, injuring six Ukrainian seamen and eventually seizing the vessels and their crews. It was the first open military confrontation between the two neighbors since the annexation of Crimea.

Ukraine said its vessels were heading to the Sea of Azov in line with international maritime rules, while Russia charged that they had failed to obtain permission to pass through the narrow strait that is spanned by a 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) bridge that Russia completed this year.

While a 2003 treaty designates the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov as shared territorial waters, Russia has sought to assert greater control over the passage since the annexation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted that the dispute was not an accident and that Russia had engaged in “deliberately planned hostilities,” while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed Kiev for what he described as a “provocation,” adding that “Ukraine had undoubtedly hoped to get additional benefits from the situation, expecting the U.S. and Europe to blindly take the provocateurs’ side.”

Klimkin told reporters in Kiev that the government is in talks with the Red Cross to make sure the captive seamen are treated as prisoners of war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether the Kremlin considers them prisoners of war.

At a U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley urged Russia to “immediately cease its unlawful conduct” in the Black Sea.

Anne Gueguen, the French deputy permanent representative at the U.N., urged the release of the sailors and the vessels.

But Russia called Ukraine’s actions “dangerous.” Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council the incident was another example of Ukrainian leaders trying to provoke Russia for political purposes.

The European Union and NATO called for restraint from both sides. NATO said Stoltenberg expressed the U.S.-led military alliance’s “full support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, including its full navigational rights in its territorial waters under international law.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also spoke by telephone with Poroshenko to express her concerns and emphasize the need for de-escalation and dialogue, her office said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman, James Slack, said the incident was “further evidence of Russia’s destabilizing behavior in the region and its ongoing violation of Ukrainian territorial integrity.”

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Soros-Founded Group Pulls Out Of Turkey Over Erdogan’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Open Society Foundations, which is funded by George Soros, is pulling out of Turkey days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the billionaire philanthropist of attempting to destabilize his country.

The foundation, which has backed projects to improve education, women’s rights and encourages democratic reforms, said “baseless” accusations had made it impossible for it to continue operating in Turkey.

The foundation’s Turkish chief was among 13 activists detained in Turkey this month, accused of supporting mass anti-government protests in 2013 and of links to jailed businessman, Osman Kavala.

Erdogan has accused Kavala of financing the protests and claimed the Hungarian-American Soros was behind him.

Erdogan said: “The famous Hungarian Jew Soros is behind (Kavala). This man has a lot of money that he uses to divide nations.”

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Ukraine: Seamen Captured By Russia Should Be Considered POWs

MOSCOW (AP) — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says the Ukrainian seamen captured by Russia in Sunday’s incident off Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea should be treated as prisoners of war.

Klimkin told reporters in Kiev that the government is in talks with the Red Cross to make sure the seamen are treated as prisoners of war.

Six Ukrainians were injured after Russian border guards opened fire on three Ukrainian military vessels in the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The vessels and the crews were captured by the Russians.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not say whether the Kremlin considers them prisoners of war.

Ukrainian protesters have burned a Russian flag and hurled flares at the Russian consulate in the eastern city of Kharkiv over the seizure of Ukrainian navy ships.

The Unian news agency reported that the protesters demanded Ukraine cut off diplomatic relations with Russia and nationalize Russian business on Ukrainian soil. They also said Ukraine should stop respecting a 2003 agreement with Russia on sharing the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and Azov Sea that is at the core of the standoff.

In Kiev, protesters from far right party National Corps waved flares outside the Ukrainian parliament. They brandished yellow-and-blue flags with the Ukrainian national symbol, the trident, and a huge white banner reading “Don’t Back Down!”

As Ukraine mulls imposing martial law, National Corps protester Rodion Kudryashov said the measure shouldn’t last more than 30 days because it shouldn’t disrupt elections planned for March. He also said it should be accompanied by a “termination of relations” with Russia.

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Mobile Phones Exposed to Growing Cyber Threats

WASHINGTON DC, Nov 29 (IPS) - Paul Makin is the head of mobile money at Consult HyperionMobile phones are helping millions of low-income customers to access financial services for the first time, but they are also exposing them to new cyber threats they could never have imagined.

Read the full story, “Mobile Phones Exposed to Growing Cyber Threats”, on globalissues.org →

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Combatting Climate Change with Bamboo

ROME, Nov 29 (IPS) - Did you know bamboo can help combat climate change? Fast growing and flexible, bamboo plants and products can store more carbon than certain types of tree. Bamboo is also used around the world as a source of renewable energy, and to make thousands of durable products - providing a lifeline for communities vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

Read the full story, “Combatting Climate Change with Bamboo”, on globalissues.org →

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Re-Defining Poverty in its Many Dimensions

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29 (IPS) - Carolina Rivera is a Research Analyst at the Human Development Report Office at UNDP and Monica Jahangir is a Policy and Advocacy Officer at the International Movement ATD Fourth World.

Poverty has many dimensions beyond a lack of money. The need for a better understanding of the multiple ways people experience poverty is gaining momentum, as is the importance of measuring the often - overlapping deprivations people face. Understanding both is vital for better decision making.

Read the full story, “Re-Defining Poverty in its Many Dimensions”, on globalissues.org →

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Boxer Floyd Mayweather and 'DJ Khaled' charged by SEC over token offerings

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a music producer known as "DJ Khaled" failed to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in initial coin offerings, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Thursday.

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Oscar winner Cuaron pays personal tribute in new film 'Roma'

After winning an Oscar for space film "Gravity", director Alfonso Cuaron chose to tell a touching personal story for his next movie, "Roma", looking back on his childhood memories growing up in Mexico City.

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Get Up, Stand Up! UNESCO declares reggae a global cultural treasure

UNESCO has declared reggae, the Jamaican music that spread across the world with its calls for social justice, peace and love, to be a global treasure that must be safe-guarded.

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Citing racial bias, Jay-Z seeks to halt arbitration against Iconix

Jay-Z on Wednesday sued to halt his private arbitration with clothing company Iconix Brand Group Inc, saying the company's inability to find an African-American arbitrator to hear the trademark dispute was unfair.

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May to raise Khashoggi killing with Saudi ruler at G20

PM says she wants to see ‘those responsible being held to account’ as she juggles fraught diplomacy with shoring up Brexit deal on world stage

Theresa May has said en route to the G20 summit that she plans to raise the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and the situation in Yemen with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“I am intending to speak with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The message that I give will be very clear ... on this issue of Jamal Khashoggi but also on the issue of Yemen,” the prime minister told reporters before touching down in Buenos Aires. “[On Khashoggi’s killing] we want to see a full and transparent investigation in relation to what happened and obviously those responsible being held to account.

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Berta Cáceres: seven men convicted of murdering Honduran environmentalist

Indigenous campaigner Cáceres, 44, was shot dead in 2016
Four also guilty of attempted murder of Mexican activist

Seven men have been found guilty of the murder of the Honduran indigenous environmentalist Berta Isabel Cáceres. An eighth defendant, Emerson Duarte Meza, was cleared and freed on Thursday.

Cáceres, a winner of the Goldman prize for environmental defenders, was shot dead late at night on 2 March 2016 – two days before her 45th birthday – after a long battle to stop construction of an internationally financed hydroelectric dam on the Gualcarque river, which the Lenca people consider sacred.

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Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress over Trump project in Russia

Former legal fixer said Trump continued trying to develop tower in Moscow months into presidential campaign

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One of Donald Trump’s closest advisers spoke with a Kremlin official about securing Russian government support for a planned Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential election campaign, he said on Thursday.

Michael Cohen, who served as Trump’s legal fixer for more than a decade, said in an explosive testimony that Trump continued trying to develop a tower in Russia’s capital months into his campaign for the presidency – contradicting Trump’s account.

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'Deeply shameful': 258 runners caught cheating in Shenzhen's half marathon

Fake race numbers, imposters and those cutting corners to face penalties, including lifetime bans

Organisers of the Shenzhen half-marathon have said the 258 participants caught cheating during Sunday’s race will not be able to run away from punishment for their actions.

As many as 18 runners were found to wearing fake bibs, and three were running on behalf of others. They face lifetime bans from the event, the Chinese Xinhua news agency reported.

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Theresa May rules out Norway-style Brexit compromise with Labour

En route to the G20, PM rejects plan B and accuses Labour of wanting to leave country with no deal

Theresa May has ruled out any plan B involving a Norway-style compromise deal with the Labour party in order to deliver a parliamentary consensus on Brexit, saying the opposition party’s refusal to accept the backstop arrangement put the UK on a course for no deal.

Influential backbenchers, including former Tory minister Nick Boles and Labour’s Stephen Kinnock, have been developing a compromise proposal based on membership of the European Economic Area plus a negotiated customs union, believing it is the only version of Brexit that could attract enough Labour and Tory votes to deliver a parliamentary majority.

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Railway diplomacy: South Korean trains venture north for first time in a decade

Engineers onboard will inspect 1,200km of North Korean tracks as part of future plan to modernise regime’s network

South Korea has sent trains across the world’s most heavily militarised border into North Korea for the first time in a decade. It’s part of a mission to eventually modernise the North’s dilapidated network and connect it with the South.

Six rail cars carrying dozens of South Korean officials and engineers will inspect 1,200km (745 miles) of track over 18 days, according to the South’s unification ministry.

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Grindr: app's president says marriage is 'between man and woman'

After backlash within gay dating app company, Scott Chen says he ‘supports gay marriage’ and was voicing his personal feelings

The president of Grindr wrote on Facebook that he believes “marriage is a holy matrimony between a man and a woman”, sparking backlash inside the gay dating app company.

Scott Chen, who became the president of Grindr after it was bought by a Chinese gaming corporation, wrote and later deleted a lengthy post on his personal page that criticized Christian groups fighting marriage equality, but also suggested that his personal beliefs clashed with gay marriage.

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Climate change strike: thousands of school students protest across Australia

‘Strike 4 Climate Action’ brings thousands of students together in defiance of prime minister’s warning

The best banners from the strike day

Thousands of schoolchildren across Australia walked out of class on Friday to demand action by the federal government on climate change.

The “Strike 4 Climate Action”, inspired by 15-year-old Swedish student Greta Thunberg, brought together children in capital cities and 20 regional centres such as Ballarat, Newcastle, Townsville and Cairns. A large protest was also held in Hobart on Thursday.

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CNN ends contract with contributor Mark Lamont Hill after speech on Israel

Move comes after Anti-Defamation League and other groups condemned Hill for advocating a boycott

CNN has parted ways with contributor Marc Lamont Hill after a speech the college professor made on Israel and Palestine at the United Nations.

A CNN spokesperson confirmed Hill was no longer under contract. The network did not give a reason, but the move came amid objections to Hill’s speech by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other groups.

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Indonesian city to fine LGBT residents for disturbing 'public order'

Pariaman on Sumatra island passes regulation banning ‘acts that are considered LGBT’, despite homosexuality being legal

An Indonesian city plans to fine its gay and transgender residents 1m rupiah ($70) for disturbing “public order”, reflecting a rise in discrimination against the Muslim-majority nation’s small LGBT community.

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Astronomers measure total starlight emitted over 13.7bn years

Stars have radiated 4x10⁸⁴ photons since the universe begun with formation peaking 11bn years ago

All the light from all the stars that have ever existed. It is a quantity of unimaginable magnitude, but now astronomers have put a number on it.

From the earliest, faintest stars, to the largest galaxies, an international team has managed to measure the total amount of starlight emitted over the entire 13.7bn-year history of the universe.

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The rise of the 'meanwhile space': how empty properties are finding second lives

Rather than let properties lie empty, Paris is learning to hand them over temporarily to community groups and startups

Hospitals are rarely places of cheer and creativity, but the former Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital in Paris’s 14th district is one of the most exciting places on the left bank. Former ambulance bays and car parks now house allotments, a boules court, a makeshift football pitch and an urban campsite, and up to 1,000 visitors a day come to browse its market, eat at its cafes or catch a free live performance.

Renamed Les Grands Voisins, or The Great Neighbours, the site is a magnet for Parisians and tourists alike, its former treatment rooms, A&E building and wards now a hub of social and commercial enterprise. Alongside a hostel providing 600 beds for the homeless are artisan studios, pop-up shops and startups.

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'It’s the only way forward': Madrid bans polluting vehicles from city centre

From Friday, only vehicles producing zero emissions will be allowed to drive freely in downtown Madrid – making it a pollution pioneer in Europe

By 10.15 on Wednesday morning, Enrique Pelagio had parked his lorry in the chic Madrid neighbourhood of Chueca and was stacking the trolley that would bring the local cafes, bars and restaurants their daily bread and pastries.

Across the road was the van from the fruit and veg shop, while near the craft beer place sat a red delivery truck from the ubiquitous Mahou brewery.

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Highland ghillie's story of Winston Churchill - archive, 30 November 1926

30 November 1926: Chancellor of the exchequer so busy with his argument that he fails to notice that he’s heading uphill

A Highland ghillie’s story of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was told to the annual gathering of the Cairngorm Club at Aberdeen by the Rev AE Robertson, of the Scottish Mountaineering Club. Mr. Churchill (said Mr. Robertson) had gone to visit the historic cave in the wild recesses of the Ceannacroc Forest, Glenmoriston, Inverness-shire, where Prince Charlie sought refuge when hard beset after Culloden. The Highland ghillie who accompanied Mr. Churchill on the expedition told his experience thus:

“Mr. Churchill was a very clever gentleman, a grand speaker, but rather heavy on his legs on the high hills. He was very anxious to see the cave, and I took him to the cave over the ram along the ridge and down into the corrie. I had a rifle with me, for I hoped the gentleman would be able to get a stag after he had seen the cave.

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People’s Vote complains over lack of second referendum voice in TV debate

Campaign says confining debate to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn would breach BBC guidelines

The People’s Vote campaign has formally complained to the BBC and Ofcom over plans to hold a televised Brexit debate without including a supporter of a second referendum.

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn have agreed to take part in a discussion of the prime minister’s Brexit plan on national television next Sunday evening, although there is disagreement between the two political parties over whether the BBC or ITV should host the debate.

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UK aid to Yemen is eclipsed by weapons sales to the Saudi coalition

UK aid to Yemen is eclipsed by the billions brought in through the bungling, deceitful sale of British weapons to Saudi Arabia

The war in Yemen has killed as many as 57,000 people since March 2015, left 8.4 million people surviving on food aid and created a cholera epidemic. The British government claims to have been at the forefront of international humanitarian assistance, giving more than £570 m to Yemen in bilateral aid since the war began.

Yet the financial value of aid is a drop in the ocean compared with the value of weapons sold to the Saudi-led coalition – licences worth at least £4.7bn of arms exports to Saudi Arabia and £860m to its coalition partners since the start of the war. Relatively speaking, aid has been little more than a sticking plaster on the death, injury, destruction, displacement, famine and disease inflicted on Yemen by an entirely man made disaster.

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Giulio Regeni: Italy names Egyptian agents as murder suspects

Members of national security agency listed as potentially responsible for killing student

Italian prosecutors have named several members of Egypt’s national security agency as suspects in the alleged murder of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni – the first Egyptians to be named by the Italian side in connection with the case after almost three years.

The move comes after a meeting, the 10th of its kind, between Rome’s deputy public prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco and Egyptian authorities in Cairo.

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Make my cabinet great again: Name every official Trump has fired?

The administration has been characterized by the turmoil of turnover in high-level jobs. Have you kept track of who’s who?

While the US unemployment rate recently hit a 48-year low, it has soared among White House staffers with Donald Trump in office. As his presidency approaches the two-year mark, it’s worth recapping its biggest departures so far.

Do you know the whos, whats, and whens of Trump’s White House firings?

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Calls for Labor to back out of Coalition deal to delay welfare for migrants

It’s feared the bill will lead to a rise in the number of people seeking emergency relief from charities and community groups

The peak body for social services has called for Labor to back out of a deal with the government to pass harsh welfare measures on skilled migrants.

It’s feared the bill, expected to pass next week, will lead to an increase in the number of people seeking emergency relief from charities and community groups, and a rise in child poverty.

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Women's rights take centre stage as murdered activists are remembered

As UN Women hails the bravery of women’s rights defenders, we pay tribute to some of those killed in the past year

Rising misogyny and an increase in the restrictions placed on women’s freedom worldwide mean the work of campaigners who defend their rights is more important than ever, the head of UN Women has said.

In a statement to mark International Women Human Rights Defenders’ Day, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said: “Those who defend our rights in turn need our defence. Their brave and important work has provoked reprisals and attacks against civil society actors in all parts of the globe. Humanitarian, development and peace-building organisations are also increasingly facing access and funding restrictions, making the task of human rights defenders all the more precarious.”

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G20 summit: can world leaders find unity – or is it simply showboating?

Now in its 10th year, a forum intended to secure global governance has become a stage for increasingly populist leaders

The leaders from the world’s 20 biggest economies converge on Buenos Aires on Friday looking for consensus on the global flows of trade and investment – at a time when such consensus has been increasingly difficult to come by.

Ten years on from the first G20 summit – convened in an effort to alleviate the global financial crisis – the Argentinian hosts are struggling to find common ground among the heads of state and government representing 19 of the biggest national economies and the EU – 85% of global economic output.

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Contact with the Kremlin and lies to 'be loyal': key points from Cohen's plea deal

Trump’s former lawyer admitted he had been in contact with a Russian official in 2016 and had lied to stay loyal to Trump

Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer has pleaded guilty to lying to congressional investigations into possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, and admitted that he had been involved in talks to build a Trump Tower in Moscow months into the 2016 US presidential campaign.

In Michael Cohen’s explosive testimony in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, he admitted he had been in contact with a Kremlin official in 2016, and had lied to be consistent with Trump’s “political messaging” and “to be loyal”.

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Michael Cohen deal a critical step for Mueller that exposes Trump to new risk

An agitated Trump tried to play down his ex-aide’s deal with prosecutors – but experts call it ‘potentially very significant’

A deal announced on Thursday between Michael Cohen, the longtime personal lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump, and federal prosecutors has left the president and his family vulnerable to new legal hazards and could represent one of the most significant advances so far in the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, legal analysts said.

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