Seals shot to save Waitrose salmon
Waitrose, which has long proclaimed the ethical origins of the food it sells, has made a rather un-green admission: it sells Scottish salmon from farms that shoot dozens of seals each year. The farms, run by independent companies, employ licensed marksmen to kill the common and grey seals they say threaten their caged stock. Marine Harvest, which supplies Waitrose, admitted it killed 21 animals last year. The figures emerged in new statistics from the Scottish government, which licenses seal culling. However, scientists warn that the UK population of common seals, estimated at…
Source:The Times
June 24, 2017 23:00 UTC
Oracle takes first win against Team New Zealand in America's Cup
Jimmy Spithill skippered two-time defending champion Oracle Team USA to its first victory of the America’s Cup regatta, taking a thriller in race six to earn a split Saturday and slow the momentum of Emirates Team New Zealand. Team New Zealand has won five races but began with a negative point because Oracle won the qualifiers. In 2013, Oracle trailed Team New Zealand 8-1 on San Francisco Bay before winning eight straight races to complete one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history. Oracle came back and won race six by 11 seconds, the closest margin so far. Team New Zealand gained during a wind shift on leg four of the sixth race and passed Oracle.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 22:30 UTC
Police release transcripts of interviews with officers in Charleena Lyles shooting
Seattle woman killed by police while children were home after reporting theft Read moreLate on Friday, the Seattle police department released transcripts of interviews with the officers involved in the 18 June shooting of Charleena Lyles, the Seattle Times reported. The officers responded to the apartment on 18 June after Lyles reported a burglary. Anderson told investigators they were talking to Lyles and he was looking at his notebook when Lyles pulled a knife from about 3ft away. Along with the transcripts, police also released images of what appear to be kitchen knives as well as a diagram of Lyles’ apartment. Anderson told investigators he was not carrying a Taser because the battery had died two weeks earlier.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 22:18 UTC
'Rewilding' Australia: not only do we need the outback, the outback needs us
Across vast areas, there are fewer land managers now than at any time in the past 50,000 years. Many of these species, such as foxes and cane toads, have spread across vast areas and taken a substantial toll on native species. To understand the effects of feral animal species and control them successfully, land managers need to adopt integrated whole-of-landscape approaches. This is one of the most difficult outback land management issues to resolve. These programs have nurtured land, communities and culture and have contributed to far better governance across large areas of the outback.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 21:56 UTC
What lies beneath the brave new world of feminist dystopian sci-fi?
Much of the established political order has come under exceptional scrutiny, from the future of Europe to Trump’s America. Feminist dystopias, long established in a shady nook of the publishing industry, are now out there shaping the zeitgeist. Like Alderman, Tricia Sullivan has created a future in which her heroine uses a special power to alter the lives of others. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Naomi Alderman wins the Bailey’s prize for women’s fiction for The Power. The Left Hand of Darkness: Ursula K Le Guin’s 1969 dystopian novel was a central text for feminists and tells of a man from Earth who travels to another planet, Gethen, with people of no ascribed gender.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 21:45 UTC
England to face Germany in semi after Federico Bernardeschi strikes for Italy
England will face their old foes Germany in the semi-finals of the European Under-21 Championship after a Federico Bernardeschi goal also sent Italy through to the last four. Aidy Boothroyd’s side will now be quietly confident of adding to their success at the Under-20 World Cup when they reconvene on Tuesday night, having enjoyed two extra days to prepare. Germany came into the game having scored five goals without reply in victories over both the Czechs and Denmark. In contrast, Italy fielded five full internationals in their starting lineup, with Milan’s teenage sensation Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal. Their surprise defeat to the Czech Republic in their second match meant Luigi Di Biagio’s team were more in need of the result.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 21:26 UTC
Andrew Rawnsley’s A to Z of Brexit
The signs from the Labour leadership are that they aren’t interested in any collaboration and would rather try to hang “Tory Brexit” around the government’s neck. In this soft version of Brexit, Britain repatriates some powersfrom Brussels, but retains membership of the European Economic Area and remains within the single market for most intents and purposes. Just as Clean Brexit is really just another way of saying Hard Brexit. See also A Red, White and Blue Brexit (T May), A Workers’ Brexit (J Corbyn) and A Dog’s Brexit (I’ve just made that up). Many businesses say it would mean a nightmare as tariffs and non-tariff barriers were erected between UK and EU trade.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 21:11 UTC
Jean-Luc Mélenchon ready to lead France’s new resistance
Mélenchon declared they were there as “opposition MPs in the service of the people”. He had begun as he means to go on for the next five years – going head-to-head with president Emmanuel Macron’s La République en Marche (La REM) majority government. It is a battle that will be fought in parliament and – as Mélenchon has made it clear – out on the streets if necessary. Pierre Gattaz, head of the French business leaders’ organisation Medef, dismissed the idea of Mélenchon leading any kind of credible opposition to Macron. If not, “we will be looking at Mélenchon and Le Pen in the second round in 2022,” he said.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 20:26 UTC
‘Back soft Brexit,’ unions urge Labour
The unions’ intervention followed a call from Hilary Benn, the Labour chair of the Brexit select committee, who wants the party leadership to shift position and support staying in the customs union rather than rejecting the possibility outright. Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC ,is known to back single market membership. She tweeted earlier this year: “If we leave the single market, working people will end up paying the price. “The simplest way to do that is to remain in the customs union,” he said. She said there was a growing view across parliament that membership of the customs union, at least, had to be kept on the table in Brexit negotiations.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 20:00 UTC
'Hi, Dad': California father buries wrong man after coroner says his son is dead
“When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them,” Kerrigan said. It’s horrific Carole Meikle“We thought we were burying our brother,” Meikle said. Eleven days later, Frank Kerrigan got a call from a friend. Easton said the coroner’s office provided the Kerrigan family with a name of that person, but the identification had not been independently confirmed. The mistaken death identification led the federal government to stop disability payments for her brother, Meikle said.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 19:52 UTC
Ministers in abrupt U-turn over fire safety in schools
The prime minister said the government was working with councils, including Camden, “making sure that the resources are there to ensure that what is needed to keep people safe is done”. Across government, ministers have been ordered to look again at fire safety policies in their departments. It also said it “no longer includes an expectation that most new school buildings will be fitted with them”. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Last October, schools minister Nick Gibb said the inclusion of sprinklers in new school buildings would add 2%-6% to the cost of works. He said the number of fires in schools had declined and pointed out that “including sprinklers in new school buildings would add between 2% and 6% to the cost of works”.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 19:30 UTC
Heather Knight the first of four run-outs as India shock England in opener
After all the meticulous planning that has gone into this World Cup, it was on the field that things went awry. England opened their campaign with defeat to India by 35 runs, put to the sword by expansive batting but put to bed by their own mistakes. England need 282 to beat India in Women's Cricket World Cup – live! Despite England’s record since the 2013 World Cup of winning 11 and losing three after batting first, they opted to bowl in overcast yet, ultimately, benign conditions. Smriti Mandhana’s 90 in her first World Cup match set the tone, while Mithali Raj’s 71 finished it with style, but it was Punam Raut’s 86 that smarted the most.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 19:08 UTC
Trump CIA director blames 'worship of Edward Snowden' for rise in leaks
“In some ways, I do think [leaking has] accelerated,” Pompeo told MSNBC in an interview broadcast on Saturday. In March 2017, WikiLeaks revealed information on CIA activities, releasing nearly 8,000 documents that it said showed how the agency accesses computers. The CIA director said Trump was an “avid consumer” of intelligence material. Pompeo said that while Islamic State remains an “enormous” threat to the US, he considered Iran a greater menace. He also identified North Korea as a “very real danger” and said Trump asks him about the communist dictatorship almost every day.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 18:45 UTC
Warrington give Steve McNamara harsh introduction to life as Catalans coach
This dispiriting defeat, against a Warrington side in a similar predicament, illustrated that. “It’s out of our hands,” McNamara said when quizzed on his side’s chances of escaping trouble. “We’re picking the games off and we picked today off,” said the Warrington coach, Tony Smith. Warrington Dagger; Johnson, Hughes, Atkins, Penny; Patton, Gidley; Hill, Dwyer, Cooper, Jullien, Philbin, Westerman Interchange Clark, Sims, Savelio, Wilde. Tries Jullien, Atkins (2), Savelio Goals Gidley (4)Catalans Gigot; Broughton, Thornley, Duport, Yaha; Walsh, Myler; Moa, Aiton, Casty, Anderson, Garcia, Baiter Interchange Margalet, Bousquet, Simon, Da Costa.
Source:The Guardian
June 24, 2017 17:15 UTC
Heavy police presence in London as Football Lads Alliance and EDL march
A man gestures at a woman wearing a headscarf at a demonstration organised by the EDL in central London today TOLGA AKMEN/GettyLondon Bridge was momentarily closed today as hundreds of football fans descended on the site of the recent terror attack in a protest against extremism. The group under the name Football Lads Alliance triggered a major security operation, with police stopping all traffic and patrolling the Thames as protesters marched from St Paul’s Cathedral to Borough Market, where eight people were killed in a van and knife attack last month. The rally took place on a day of tension for police in the capital as a separate far-right English Defence League and counter demonstration took place less than a mile away. One speaker at an EDL rally in Trafalgar Square threatened to become England’s first “white suicide bomber” if terror attacks continue, in an apparent…
Source:The Times
June 24, 2017 17:03 UTC