thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Arson Misinformation Undermines Link Between Australia Fires And Climate Change

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Multiple Australian state police agencies have found limited evidence to suggest the major destructive bushfires in their states were ignited by arsonists, contradicting the international onslaught of misinformation suggesting otherwise.
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The Australian newspaper first reported 180 alleged arsonists were arrested “since the start of the bushfire season” in September but subsequently updated the story to reflect that these statistics were, in fact, covering the entirety of 2019. Trump Jr and Hannity, among others, spread the initial inaccurate statistic.
Truly Disgusting that people would do this! God Bless Australia.
More than 180 alleged arsonists have been arrested since the start of the bushfire season, with 29 blazes deliberately lit in the Shoalhaven region of southeast NSW in just three months. https://t.co/xP0PtMQbuD — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 7, 2020
Though a handful of fires have been ignited by arsonists, authorities including the Victorian fire chief have confirmed that the majority of the largest blazes were ignited by dry lightning, not arson.
Dale Dominey-Howes, a professor of hazard and disaster risk sciences at the University of Sydney, told HuffPost there was a link between climate change and both the ignition and exacerbation of the bushfires.
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“The majority of these bushfires have been generated by lightning strikes associated with weather and climate effects. Weather and climate are dominated by processes that are affected by climate change. So there is a link between climate change and the triggering or the starting of these fires,” Dominey-Howes said.
And even when a fire is ignited by human activity, climate still plays a major role in how much fuel is available for the fire and the conditions that worsen the blazes.
“And then they’ve been much worse because we’re in a particularly bad period of drought,” said Dominey-Howes. “Very dry, hot weather, all of which are the conditions that favor the spread of bushfires.”
New South Wales firefighters drag their water hose after putting out a spot fire on the state's south coast. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police in the states most affected by the fires ― New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia ― provided HuffPost with clarification on the misleading statistics that are making the rounds.
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A South Australia police spokesperson said there is “nothing to immediately suggest that the significant recent fires in the Adelaide Hills and Kangaroo Island were deliberately lit.” Since September 2019, 10 people in the state have been arrested for intentionally or recklessly causing a bushfire.
In the state of Victoria, police confirmed in a statement that “there is currently no intelligence to indicate that the fires in East Gippsland and the North East regions have been caused by arson or any other suspicious behaviour.” One blaze, which started Saturday morning but was contained by that evening, is being treated as suspicious. Victoria Police have not yet released data on crime statistics from September to December 2019 and were unable to provide the number of arson-related arrests.
In the hardest-hit state of New South Wales, police released a statement saying that 183 people had been charged with “bushfire-related offences since late last year.” Of this number, only 24 people were charged with deliberately lighting a bushfire. Other offenses listed included failing to comply with a total fire ban or discarding a lighted cigarette on land ― offenses that may not necessarily result in a fire.
NSW Police clarified in a statement to HuffPost: “The breach of the total fire ban or discarding of a lit cigarette is not an arson offense as these actions may not result in a fire. A breach of the total fire ban may be as simple as having an open flamed BBQ in your backyard.”
Queensland Police provided a statement saying that of 1,068 reported bushfires, 114 were ignited through human involvement subject to police enforcement. Queensland ― which unlike other states has had a relatively normal fire season ― saw 109 people dealt with by police for offenses that included unauthorised lighting of fires. However, this figure included people who violated local fire bans and endangered property.
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Though arson certainly does play a role in the fires, the misleading numbers first reported highly exaggerate its contribution, and the misinformation spread rapidly in Australia and the US.
Washington State GOP gubernatorial candidate pic.twitter.com/9ovXUnsKiu — Jason Wilson (@jason_a_w) January 7, 2020
Some outlets are reporting this responsibly but the distorted version is all over garbage-tier rightwing media. pic.twitter.com/U9XxmzuKHl — Jason Wilson (@jason_a_w) January 7, 2020
Timothy Graham, a senior lecturer on social network analysis at the Queensland University of Technology, conducted preliminary research that found what he believes to be an orchestrated “disinformation campaign” led by bot-like and troll-like accounts spreading the hashtag #ArsonEmergency in an attempt to shift blame for the wildfires away from climate change.
Many accounts using this hashtag also latched on to the misleading “nearly 200” figure.
“The conspiracy theories going around (including arson as the main cause of the fires) reflect an increased distrust in scientific expertise, skepticism of the media, and rejection of liberal democratic authority,” Graham told The Guardian.
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Other misinformation about the fires includes theories about “greenies” preventing hazard reduction burns that led to a build-up of fuel for bushfires, a claim pushed by Barnaby Joyce, a former federal leader of the Nationals Party, and was splashed across social media.
Shane Fitzsimmons, commissioner of the NSW Rural Fire Service, bluntly addressed these claims on an Australian Broadcasting Corp account, saying that longer and hotter fire seasons ― contributed to by climate change ― left a shrinking window of opportunity to complete these prophylactic burns. The Greens party issued a statement clarifying that they, in fact, support hazard reduction burns.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Ukrainian Plane Was On Fire And Trying To Turn Back When It Crashed In Iran, Investigators Say

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The Ukrainian passenger plane that crashed In Iran on Wednesday was on fire and trying to turn back to Tehran airport when it went down, but made no calls for help, investigators have said.
Iran’s civil aviation authority made the comments in a preliminary report a day after the disaster that killed all 176 people on board, including three Brits.
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The crash caused a massive explosion when the plane hit the ground, likely because the aircraft had been fully loaded with fuel for the flight to Kyiv, Ukraine, the report said.
It also confirmed that both of the black boxes that contain data and cockpit communications from the plane had been recovered, though they had been damaged and some parts of their memory was lost, Reuters reports.
Bodies of the victims of a Ukrainian plane crash are collected by rescue team at the scene of the crash in Shahedshahr, southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran. ASSOCIATED PRESS
The report by Iran’s civil aviation organisation cited witnesses on the ground and in a passing aircraft flying at high altitude as saying the jet was on fire while still aloft.
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The three-year-old jet, which had its last scheduled maintenance on Monday, encountered a technical problem shortly after take-off and started to head toward a nearby airport before it crashed, the report said.
The technical problem was not specified in the report, which also said that there was no radio communication from the pilot and that the aircraft disappeared from radar at 8,000 feet (2,440 m).
Among the victims were 82 Iranians, 63 Canadians, 11 Ukrainians, 10 Swedes, three Germans and three Britons, PA Media reports.
BP has confirmed one of those killed in the Tehran plane crash as 42-year-old reservoir engineer Sam Zokaei, who has worked at the oil company for more than 14 years.
The two other British victims have been named as engineer and researcher at Imperial College London, Saeed Tahmasebi Khademasadi, and Mohammed Reza Kadkhoda Zadeh from West Sussex.
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Meanwhile Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said crash investigators from his country had arrived in Iran to assist in the probe.
He also said he planned to call President Hassan Rouhani about the crash and the investigation.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--All Of The Wild Reactions To Meghan Markle And Prince Harry Stepping Down

“After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution,” the royals wrote on Instagram, in the caption of a photo from their engagement announcement in November 2016.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,” the Duke and Duchess of Sussex added, noting that they will now split their time between the UK and North America.
People on Twitter, naturally, lost it over the news and had all kinds of reactions to the “Meg-xit” on their hands.
“Good for Meghan and Harry opting out of the UK tabloids staggering racism and the lack of support from the royal family,” author Roxane Gay tweeted. “They will be fine.”
Most people were rooting for the couple’s decision — and for Meghan, of course:


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Ovarian Cancer Patients Face A 'Postcode Lottery' That Needs To Be Fixed

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Being diagnosed with ovarian cancer is a postcode lottery, new research reveals, with “significant variation” across England for how quickly the disease is caught and treated.
Women in some parts of the country are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer than others, the NHS data shows.
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There is also variation in the number of women diagnosed with early stage cancer, when the disease is most treatable. At the moment, just 33% of women with ovarian cancer are diagnosed at stage I or II.
The report, released by Public Health England, in partnership with a number of cancer charities, also paints a damming picture of survival rates across England.
When looking at the data from 19 different areas, 62.9% of patients survived for at least one year in some areas, compared to 75.2% in others. Shockingly, five-year survival rate varied from 28.6% to 49.6%.
PHE
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HuffPost UK previously spoke to women in their thirties who say they had to fight to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, because their symptoms were dismissed as “women’s problems” by GPs. Two of the women were also told they were “too young” to have ovarian cancer, which was incorrect: although the disease is most common in women over 50, it does affect younger women, too.
Ali Coates, from Gloucestershire, was diagnosed aged 36 after repeated GP visits before she was finally referred to a specialist.
“I went to to my GP and they said they thought it was either IBS or indigestion, but I kept saying that it was really painful,” she said. “One doctor, who was a locum, said: ‘This is just something that happens to women as they get older.’”
Claire Thompson, from Conway, was also diagnosed aged 36, but says she was repeatedly told her symptoms (including heavy bleeding that soaked through incontinence pads) were a result of giving birth.
“No matter how many times I went back they kept saying ‘you’ve just had a baby, your body has changed.’” she said.
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Meanwhile Lauren Ridgard, from Manchester, was diagnosed aged 31 and had a good experience with her GP, who swiftly referred her for more testing. However, an admin mix-up with her referral meant her ultrasound scan and treatment were delayed.
HuffPost UK Ali Coates, Claire Thompson and Lauren Ridgard.
The latest PHE report suggests a number of potential reasons why diagnosis rate, diagnosis time and survival rate varies by region.
Those cited include “differences in diagnostic pathways between regions, varying patterns of the time taken for patients to seek to consult their GP after first experiencing symptoms, inequality in ease of access in primary care to consult a GP for assessment of symptoms, variations in referral practices amongst GPs, and regional differences in primary care access to investigations such as ultrasound”.
The data has been analysed taking age into account, factoring in that there will be higher rates of ovarian cancer in areas with an older population. But the data is not adjusted for ethnicity or prescription rates of the contraceptive pill, so more research is needed to see how these variables might impact rates.
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Commenting on the report, chief executive of Ovarian Cancer Action, Cary Wakefield, said: “Diagnosing ovarian cancer at the earliest stages is crucial, but sadly as we gather data it is clear that a postcode lottery exists around the country, with some areas diagnosing significantly more patients early than others. We want to see all patients diagnosed early enough to get treatment and survive this disease, no matter where they live.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--10 Simple Ways To Reconnect With Your Partner In 2020

HuffPost UK Louise/HuffPost UK
The festive period is full of wonderful food, games and company, but sometimes, days can go by before you realise that even though you’ve been around your partner 24/7, you haven’t had much quality time alone together. Not with all those family members you’ve been hosting.
Now it’s January, though, and your living room finally resembles an actual living room once more, you have the mental space to reconnect. It might be easier said than done, of course, even with the best will in the world, but there are things you can buy to inject fun, romance and intimacy back into your relationship.
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From cards to spark honest conversations that don’t feel intimidating, to the perfect recipe for a cosy night in, these are simple ways to focus on one another. Plus, they’re a whole lot cheaper than therapy as a first port of call.
So, finish those Christmas leftovers and make space for a renewed sense of connection.
Amazon Amazon Prime Subscription, Amazon
Amazon Prime Subscription, Amazon, £7.99 per month
Watching boxsets with your partner can bring you closer, a study concluded a few years back – and I wholeheartedly believe this. Making time to snuggle up together, to discuss and debate what you’re watching and to look forward to the same thing, can be powerful in a relationship. An Amazon Prime membership means your next series is just a few clicks away. (Psst: Modern Love is a good one to start with).
Red Letter Days Bateaux London Thames Sunday Lunch Jazz Cruise for Two, Red Letter Days
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Getting out and doing something fun together is a brilliant way to create new memories. And what better way to do it than floating down the river with delicious food and live music? The relaxed atmosphere will help offset the intensity of the festive period.
The School Of Life Connect, The School Of Life
We chat all the time with our partners, but not always about what really matters – those topics that can reintroduce the spirit of fun, foster intimacy and spark memories about your unique bond. This pack of cards contains 100 questions designed to invite connection and closeness. In short, it’s magic in a box.
Amazon Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High, Amazon
When stakes are high, emotions intensify and conversations can easily spiral out of control. Understanding how to communicate what you really feel without destroying your relationship is a skill you’ll be able to use time and time again, both inside and outside of your relationship. Everyone should read this book – twice.
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Amazon Date Your Spouse From Your House, Amazon
Just because Christmas has taken a toll on your bank account and the weather is cold and grey, that doesn’t mean you can’t go on some brilliant dates – just do them indoors. This brilliant book offers up 52 budget-friendly ways to ‘get out while staying in’. Ever gone on a date in your pyjamas? Bliss.
On Buy Disney Pixar Collection, On Buy
Need to keep the kids busy so you and your partner can have a bit of downtime? After Christmas, where the younger members of the clan come first, it’s time to shift the balance. Relax the screentime rules and let them chill out in front of the telly with these Disney classics.
John Lewis Exploding Kittens Game, John Lewis & Partners
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The words ‘exploding kittens’ don’t immediately conjure up the idea of romance, but this game of strategy is a brilliant way to inject humour into your relationship. Think of it as a kitty-powered version of Russian roulette. Not only is it fun, it stops us watching TV and gets us chatting – even if it is about kittens.
Not On The High Street Three Month Food Truck Recipe Kit Subscription, Not On The High Street
Staying in and cooking a new meal together is an opportunity to try something new together. This food truck subscription combines recipes that are a mix of influences, both traditional and modern, to recreate world-class cuisine at home. Plus, it means no fights in the supermarket.
The Body Shop Spa Of The World™ French Lavender Massage Oil, The Body Shop
When we think of going to bed with our partner, we think of two things: sleep or sex. But what about having a massage session? It’s an intimate way of exploring each other’s bodies, relaxing and looking after one another. Plus, it’s a dream if you’ve spent the day hunched over your desk in an office.
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Love Honey Roll Play Foreplay Dice, Love Honey
There had to be something sex-related in a feature about reconnecting, didn’t there? This is a fun way of spicing things up in the bedroom, while also adding spontaneity. Sometimes it can be hard to get out of a rut, but these handy dice do all the hard work for you… well, sort of.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--How To Change Careers: Four Women On The Relief Of Switching Jobs

HuffPost UK
There’s nothing like returning to work in January to get you daydreaming about a new career, especially if you’re on the brink of a quarter-life crisis.
As we move through our 20s and 30s – when retirement still feels like a lifetime away – we start to wonder whether our jobs will satisfy us long-term, and it’s enough to cause many to consider a change. In fact, two-thirds of workers say they’d like to switch to a more meaningful career before they turn 40, according to a recent survey.
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But making the leap, rather than simply pondering what could have been, takes guts and a lot of hard work. We asked four women what finally pushed them to turn that dream into a reality, plus how they did it.
Banker to Psychotherapist
“Making the change felt like more of a relief than a worry.”
Rakhi Chand, 36, London
Rakhi Chand Rakhi Chand
Having studied economics and economic history at university, Rakhi Chand, 36, from London, almost fell into banking, saying simply: “I had been travelling and I needed a job.”
Her first contract was at Goldman Sachs and, although she made friends and had fun, she knew almost instantly the job wasn’t for her long-term. But early on, she realised it could financially facilitate therapy training, something she felt more passionate about. While still working as a banker, Rakhi volunteered at the Samaritans. “I remember negotiating leaving early once a week to get to volunteering,” she recalls. “It didn’t go down that well, but I managed it.”
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Five years into her career, Rakhi left and retrained as a psychotherapist, using the money she had built up. She also lived with her mum for a year to save cash. “It was a sacrifice and hard for us both at times,” she says. “But I was ready to make the change and it felt like more of a relief than a worry.”
Rakhi has since launched Chand Counselling is glad she changed careers when she did, acknowledging it can be harder later in life. And, from listening to her clients in the past decade, she has understood that a lack of fulfilment at work “can be a bugger for mental health”.
Her advice for anyone considering switching jobs? “Think about it, play with it, talk to people.”
Police Officer to Teaching Assistant to Horror Writer
“You will be surprised how many transferable skills you have.”
Janine Pipe, 40, from Swindon
Janine Pipe
Janine Pipe, 40, from Swindon, worked as a response officer for Wiltshire Police for five years before considering a change. She loved the job, but the shifts were hard on her relationship – her husband works 9-5 as a lawyer, so they were like “ships passing in the night”.
Becoming a mum at the age of 31 cemented her decision to leave. “I couldn’t return to that type of work,” she says. “Never knowing when your shift would end, dealing with child abuse... it was no longer for me.” So, she left.
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Janine and her husband managed mainly on his salary by being “very frugal” for a few years, with Janine blogging for a travel company to bring in extra cash. When her daughter started school, she took shifts there at lunchtimes, and volunteered to listen to readers some afternoons. And when a teaching assistant job came up, she applied. “It was demanding but extremely rewarding and children are just amazing,” she says. “There was never a dull day.”
Sadly, Janine lost the job due to staff redundancies, but she decided “fate had intervened”. She’d been writing horror stories as a hobby, and her redundancy encouraged her to contact her favourite horror podcasts to share her stories, in return for payment. They were an instant hit, and she has since had several short stories audio-published.
Janine now runs her own horror blog. Most of her writing is supernatural-based, but she’s currently penning a couple of serial killer shorts. “My knowledge of crime scenes and police procedure will be extremely useful for that,” she says.
Her advice for anyone considering a career change is, simply, to do it. “You will be surprised how many transferable skills you have – my knowledge of crowd control from policing was a God-send on the playground,” she jokes. “If there is a career you’ve always wanted to get into, and you’re financially able to, do it.”
NHS Nurse to Baker
“I was completely burnt out and had nothing left to give.”
Lynsey Bleakley, 43, from Northern Ireland
Lynsey Bleakley
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Lynsey Bleakley, 43, from County Down, Northern Ireland, worked in the NHS for almost 18 years – first as a nurse, then as a health visitor supporting new mums and babies in their homes. But after she and her partner suffered four miscarriages, her job became impossible.
“I was in a very dark place, crippled with anxiety as well as overwhelming grief,” she says. “I went back to work as a health visitor after each miscarriage, but it became harder to manage the anxiety and give myself to the families I worked with. I was completely burnt out and had nothing left to give.”
To cope with the stresses of work, Lynsey found herself baking in the kitchen more. “There are only so many brownies and cakes you can give to your family and friends though,” she jokes. “So it seemed like a natural progression to turn it into a business.”
Bumble & Goose Bespoke Bakehouse was born and Lynsey soon left her job as a health visitor to work on it full-time, using savings to cover her lost income. She now supplies bakes for events and has three part-time staff working for her.
Lynsey has mixed feelings about leaving the NHS: relief, but also a loss of a sense of identity. Still, she’s glad she made the leap. “If you’d said to me two years ago I’d give up my career and start up a small baking business I wouldn’t have believed you,” she says. “Life circumstances pushed me to make big decisions and prioritise my health and wellbeing – it didn’t feel like a choice, more of a necessity, but it was the best thing I ever did.”
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Her mantra for anyone considering the jump? “Sometimes, the reward is worth the risk.”
Corporate Consultant to Owning A Book Subscription Service
“I was worried about how I would define myself.”
Keisha Ehigie, 36 from Essex
Keisha Ehigie
Keisha Ehigie, 36 from Essex, worked in the city as a Corporate Governance Consultant, providing advice to boards of directors at private and public sector organisations.
During this time, the mum noticed a lack of representation in children’s books. When her daughter turned two, she started asking questions about her hair and skin colour. “She was observing physical differences between her and her friends, so I decided to get her books which had characters that looked like her,” she explains. “I soon realised it was a struggle to find such books.”
Through her research, Keisha discovered that kids’ books are far more likely to feature an animal character than a person of colour – so she decided to do something about it. She launched Imagine Me Stories, a subscription box service which delivers kids’ books that feature characters of colour.
The business was initially funded through personal savings, as Keisha was nervous about leaving her job – “I was also worried about how I would define myself and how I would be viewed,” she says – but she soon realised that if you have a dream that’s important to you, you should pursue it. In 2018, she left her well-paid job to work on the business full-time.
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Two years on, she’s says her career feels incredibly fulfilled. “It’s so rewarding when I receive feedback from children and their parents about how empowering the subscription box is for them,” she says. “I also get amazing feedback from schools who’ve struggled to find diverse books for their school libraries.”
Her advice for prospective career changers is to transition alongside your current career, and to find a mentor who may be able to guide you.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Intuitive Eating: What It Is, And Why It Could Work For You

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This month, millions of us will kick off 2020 with a diet reset. The healthier — and leaner — version of ourselves will be achieved only by controlling our eating habits, especially around carbs and sugar. Or so we believe.
But a radical new approach to health has also been gaining traction. It’s called intuitive eating. Hang on to your green smoothie, because it contradicts everything we’ve learned about health and weight loss. And it’s the antithesis of wellness programs from keto to intermittent fasting to “eating clean.”
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Intuitive eating posits that the very best diet is no diet at all. Instead of strict food rules, we should tune into our natural-born urges to eat what we want, when we want. While it sounds like a crazy fad diet, research is mounting to support its merits.
For one thing, diets definitively do not work: 95 percent of people who lose weight on a diet regain it within five years. An exhaustive study of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey published in November 2019 found that although more Americans are trying to lose weight mainly by controlling food consumption, body mass indexes and obesity rates continue to climb.
But the problems go beyond traditional weight loss programs. Chasing the “perfect diet” is, itself, a potential health risk. Clean eating, for example, emphasises local, organic, non-GMO, unprocessed and plant-based food. But fixating on avocados, coconut oil and quinoa while demonising processed foods takes eating healthy to a dangerous extreme. According to a June 2019 study in the Journal of Eating Disorders, the popularity of clean eating among college students belies its potential for disordered eating, or orthorexia nervosa.
As a food magazine editor in the mid-2000s, Christy Harrison wrote about the gluten-free and low-carb lifestyle, believing she was promoting healthy food choices. But at home, she binged. “I’d have an ungodly number of rice cakes to try to get the satisfaction I would have gotten if I had just allowed myself to have a sandwich on bread,” she told HuffPost.
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Now a registered dietitian with the popular Food Psych podcast, Harrison is leading a counter-revolution against diet culture. Her new book, “Anti-Diet,” is a takedown of the $60 billion weight loss industry along with celebrity-endorsed detoxes and well-intentioned environmental food rules she calls “sneaky forms of dieting.”
Based on deprivation, diets not only lead to food obsessions and binging but take a bigger toll. “You start to see that it’s not actually giving you what you want,” she said, “and is taking away a lot of important aspects of your life — your time and money, your well-being, your happiness.”
According to Harrison and a growing chorus of holistic health practitioners, the antidote is intuitive eating.
lacaosa via Getty Images Intervallfasten, 16:8, Diät
The brainchild of registered dietitians Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch in the mid-1990s, the 10 principles of intuitive eating are designed to heal our relationship with food and our bodies. “The journey to intuitive eating is like taking a cross-country hiking trip,” the authors write in “Intuitive Eating.” Unlike dieting, the process is nonlinear and personalised with a nonjudgmental focus on wellness, not weight loss.
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The concept has resonated with the body positivity movement, including the movement Health at Every Size, and lately has sparked a new brand of Instagrammers like @erinliveswhole and @olive.eeeats showcasing the anti-diet way of life.
But let’s back up. If intuitive eating is based on internal eating cues, can we really trust ourselves?
“Eating is fundamental to human survival,” journalist Virginia Sole-Smith told HuffPost. The author of “The Eating Instinct” found convincing evidence that we are all born with a set of instincts to eat and self-regulate our food intake. Even toddlers do it. The trouble starts when we grow up in a culture that replaces comfort and pleasure around food with guilt, shame and fear. “We’re so convinced that eating the wrong things will make us fat,” she said.
You can blame the diet industry, but Sole-Smith, along with Harrison, lays equal blame on the natural food movement. For 20 years, the efforts to call out environmental, social and racial injustices in the food system have also demonised industrialised food as “bad” and “dirty.” And if we choose to eat them, we are unhealthy by association.
While living on chia yogurt bowls and turmeric chickpea curry sounds good, it’s not sustainable for most people. “I think the pressure to eat as clean and whole and natural as possible is wearing people out,” Sole-Smith said.
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Sure, it’s a scary idea to trust our own eating instincts. We’re afraid of losing control, but Sole-Smith said, “You’re not going to want to eat doughnuts day in, day out because after a while your body will crave something different.”
The research backs her up. Ohio State University body image and eating behaviour researcher Tracy L. Tylka has conducted large-scale studies to assess three main elements of intuitive eating: eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, unconditional permission to eat, and reliance on hunger and satiety cues. She concludes that intuitive eaters “are aware of and trust their body’s internal hunger and satiety cues and use these cues to determine when and how much to eat.”
Current research indicates that intuitive eaters are less prone to binge, have lower BMIs and have less disordered eating. They also experience more body appreciation, self-compassion and optimism as well as higher self-esteem.
It appears, after all, that you are not what you eat. For people like me who have lived by clean eating, it’s hard to let go of long-held ideas of good and bad food. But has all the food shaming benefited anyone?
For everyone ready for dramatic change in the next decade, Sole-Smith offers a simple anti-diet challenge: Dare to enjoy your food.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-08--Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Plan To 'Step Back' As Senior Royals

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Buckingham Palace has insisted discussions with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are at an “early stage” after the couple dramatically announced they plan to “step back” as senior members of the royal family.
In a bombshell move on Wednesday night, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed plans to split their time between the UK and the US.
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Harry and Meghan said in a personal statement they will work to become “financially independent”, while continuing to “fully support” the Queen.
But Buckingham Palace warned the couple their decision to “step back” from the royal family will be “complicated”.
The sequence of events led to speculation that a rift has developed at the heart of the monarchy - and that the couple did not consult the Queen or the Prince of Wales about the contents of their statement.
The pair said: “After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.
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“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.”
But a Buckingham Palace spokesperson later said discussions were “at an early stage”, adding: “We understand their desire to take a different approach, but these are complicated issues that will take time to work through.”
The BBC’s royal correspondent reported that no other member of the royal family was consulted before the statement, and the palace is understood to be “disappointed” and “hurt”.
The PA Media news agency also claimed Harry and Meghan had just begun talks with the Queen and Charles about their future roles when they made their decision to go public.
The head of state and her son were only recently informed of the Sussexes intention to explore their public positions as members of the monarchy, and were not aware the statement was due to be issued.
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The proposed move would see them balance their time between the UK and North America, while “continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages”.
Harry and Meghan said it would allow them to raise their son Archie “with an appreciation for the royal tradition” while also giving them “space to focus on the next chapter”.
The couple’s plans include the launch of a new charity.
“We look forward to sharing the full details of this exciting next step in due course, as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty The Queen, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge and all relevant parties,” the statement added.
“Until then, please accept our deepest thanks for your continued support.”
The Sussex’s financial aims have been outlined on their official website which states the couple “…value the ability to earn a professional income, which in the current structure they are prohibited from doing. For this reason they have made the choice to become members of the royal family with financial independence.”
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Any future role which the couple take on for financial gain will have to be scrutinised to ensure they are not seen as profiteering from their position as members of the monarchy.
Royal commentators are likely to interpret the couple’s decision – and the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal that has engulfed the Duke of York – as a full-blown crisis for the monarchy.
Harry – one of the most popular members of the royal family with the public – and Andrew will now have a far lower public profile at a time of potentially great change for the country as Britain leaves the EU.
The couple’s move follows weeks of speculation about their future after they took an extended break from royal duties over the festive period.
In an ITV documentary they spoke about the pressures they have been facing and family rifts, and in a separate move Harry issued a damning statement against the media accusing sections of the press of bullying his wife.
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Graham Smith from the organisation Republic, which campaigns for an elected head of state, said about Harry and Meghan’s decision: “This really is wanting to have your cake and eat it. They have said they will dip in and out of royal duties as it suits them but won’t stop taking public money until they find other sources of income.”
Harry and Meghan have only recently returned from their six-week break spent in the Canadian province of British Columbia with their eight-month-old son Archie.
Their first royal engagement of the new decade was to visit Canada’s High Commission in central London to thank Canadians in person for the warmth of the welcome they received.
It is likely they will be spending their time in the Commonwealth country when not in the UK and may travel to America, Meghan’s homeland and where her mother lives.
Any move to Canada, even for a period of the year, would throw up important questions about Meghan and Harry’s long-term future within the royal family.
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Meghan, a former actress, lived and worked in Toronto during her time starring in the popular US drama Suits, and the couple were famously pictured together when Meghan joined her then-boyfriend Harry at the 2017 Invictus Games in the city.
The cost of security for the couple would also be an issue, and as Canada is a realm, a country where the Queen is head of state, it may have to pay for keeping the couple and their son Archie safe.
The couple’s aim to be “financially independent” may point towards them seeking a job, or a paid role with an organisation whose aims complement their own beliefs.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-10--Come Dine With Me's Most Memorable Moments

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In the 16 (SIXTEEN!) years that Come Dine With Me has been distracting us from our hangovers, there have been plenty of jaw-dropping moments to keep us entertained.
As well as the (often inedible) food, we’ve been treated to blazing rows, sore losers and a host who thought it was acceptable to serve up his main course dressed in nothing but a mankini (it’s not).
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Here are our favourite and totally unforgettable moments from the past 45 (!!) series...
There’s been dodgy food
Channel 4
Channel 4
Dodgy kitchen hygiene
People have fallen out
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And fallen over
This host made one of her guests wear a bag over his head because he was “the most unattractive man she’d ever seen”
Come Dine Wit Me Channel 4
No wonder there have been walk-outs
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And strops
But in amongst the drama there has still been space for plenty of innuendo
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As well as toe-curling scenes
If you can make it through the whole of this Come Dine With Me clip I will personally give you £345,897 pic.twitter.com/wmWX4tfvrS — Big Payno (@GaryBlogden) May 10, 2018
Not to mention some questionable table manners
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HIGHLY questionable (and in front of Julie Goodyear, too)
And speaking of questionable, there’s also been some dodgy attire...
Channel 4
Come Dine With Me Twitter
...and even questionable tables
And boy, have there been some seriously bad losers...
I just realised it's the 1 yr anniversary of the greatest Come Dine With Me moment of all time - if you've never seen it, watch it now pic.twitter.com/j99nAgyCNV — Luke Bailey (@imbadatlife) January 4, 2017
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But most people had a good time


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-10--Love Island’s Paige Turley Speaks Out On Ex Lewis Capaldi: ‘He’ll Be Voting For Me’

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Love Island contestant Paige Turley has opened up about her famous ex-boyfriend Lewis Capaldi, revealing he will be joking about her appearance on the show.
The 22-year-old was in a relationship with the Scottish singer when the pair were in their teens, with it rumoured his smash single Someone You Loved was written about her.
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With Paige now looking for love on the ITV2 reality series, she revealed how Lewis will be supportive, having remained close to the star since their split.
Love Island's Paige Turley ITV
Speaking to HuffPost UK and other journalists in Cape Town, South Africa, ahead of entering the villa on Sunday, Paige said: “Lewis is quite funny so I think he will definitely make a joke of it. He might even vote for me!
“I would love to be a fly on the wall, not just for Lewis, but to see all my friends reactions, like what the hell is she doing on my television.”
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Lewis has gone on to become a star across the globe since his romance with Paige, and while he is regularly away from their homes in Scotland, Paige said the pair still find the time to meet up when his schedule permits.
Lewis Capaldi SIPA USA/PA Images
She said: “Obviously he’s travelling a lot of the time so we never really get to see each other. He never really gets to see a lot of his friends. Time differences and stuff, but we see each other when we can.”
Paige, who appeared as a singer herself on Britain’s Got Talent at the age of 14 in 2012, also said she was not shocked to see how successful Lewis has become.
“Even through college before we got together and even when we did get together, I always kept saying to him, ‘It’s a matter of time’.
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“Everyone that’s seen Lewis perform or heard his music, it was just a case of when.
“I can always remember in college when we had any songwriting units, it didn’t matter what the subject was about, give Lewis half an hour and he would come out with an amazing song. He’s such a talented writer. So it was no surprise.”
Paige also played down the speculation she is the girl that inspired Lewis’ breakout hit, Someone You Loved, saying: “Lewis has actually never said to me those songs are about you.
“People can relate to his music, but I don’t actually know. You’d have to ask Lewis.”
Paige on Britain's Got Talent in 2012 ITV
And while she has dated one of the most famous men in the country, Paige insists she’s open about any potential relationship in the villa – but they must make her laugh, much like ex Lewis.
“If you line any of my exes up not one of them looks the same, so it’s like anything’s a goer,” she said.
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“They’ve got to have a sense of humour. I like someone who’s ambitious, not even career wise, just like someone who wants to travel and see a bit of the world.”
Love Island begins on Sunday at 9pm on ITV2.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-10--This Man’s Blood Donations May Have Saved The Lives Of 450 Tiny Babies

NHS Blood and Transplant Bob Downes
When Bob Downes spies parents cradling tiny newborns, he feels a warm glow.
Downes, 63, who lives near Hull, has been named by NHS Blood and Transplant as the most prolific ‘neonatal-eligible’ donor this century. The married father-of-two has just made his 75th donation in 20 years. No other donor whose blood can be transfused to newborn babies has given more in that time.
Blood used for lifesaving exchange transfusions to babies in neonatal units needs to come from male donors who are O negative and CMV negative – meaning their blood has tested negative for antibodies for a flu-like virus most adults are exposed to during their lives.
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This virus can be fatal for babies and by the age of 40, around 85% of adults have been exposed to it, which is why CMV negative donors are so important.
The exact number of babies Downes has helped is unknown, as each donation used for newborns is split into six small units, but NHS Blood and Transplant estimate his blood may have been transfused into 450 babies.
“That’s a really staggering thing to be told,” Downes admits to HuffPost UK. “Babies are so tiny and fragile and knowing I have helped give them a start in life makes me feel warm inside.”
NHS Blood and Transplant Bob Downes with donor carer Rebecca Morton and senior sister Susan Baker
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Downes, a retired geography teacher, first began donating in the late 1990s when his mother-in-law needed a large number of blood transfusions during treatment for leukaemia. “My wife and I were staggered by how much blood she needed so we felt we should become blood donors to help others.”
He then discovered he had O negative blood, part of the 8% of the population who do, often referred to as “universal donors” as anyone can receive their blood and it is vital in emergencies when a patient’s blood type is unknown. It is also the safest blood for transfusions for immune-deficient newborns.
Figures show that during 2019, for every 100 women who began donating blood, only 70 men did the same – just 41% of new donors last year were men. This is a cause for concern because not only because men have higher iron levels but because women produce antibodies during pregnancy that are part of the body’s defence system and make some transfusions more difficult.
Bob Downes Bob Downes
Only men’s blood can be used for some specialist transfusions, including neonatal exchange tranfusions, and blood products – such as fresh frozen plasma, which contains clotting proteins used for patients with massive blood loss and those with rare diseases. Male blood is also preferred for tranfusions where the baby is still in the womb.
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Men also provide 93% of platelets – part of the body’s clotting system – and more than 50% of these platelets go to people with cancer to reduce internal bleeding.
This is why NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is urging more young men to start donating in 2020. Mike Shredder, head of donor recruitment, told HuffPost UK: “All our donors are amazing. But we need more than 68,000 men to start donating blood this year. Men’s blood can be used in extraordinary, lifesaving ways, but we don’t have enough new male donors coming forward.”
It’s a cause that Downes actively supports. “It’s a lovely feeling knowing your blood is going to babies,” he says. “But to be honest, knowing your donation is helping anyone, whether they are nine days old or 90, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is it is helping someone.”
HuffPost UK spoke to three different people who have had their lives changed by blood donors who appreciate the importance of people giving blood.
‘Until you are personally affected, you don’t fully appreciate how valuable blood is’
When 11-year-old Tai Carter started getting nosebleeds, his parents weren’t unduly concerned. But one weekend in September 2018, Tai had a bleed that wouldn’t stop and the family, who live in Rayne, Essex, ended up in hospital.
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Doctors carried out tests and found Tai’s blood levels were very low. He had his first blood and platelet transfusion that night. The family were warned it was something serious – leukaemia was suspected – and Tai was referred to a specialist hospital for further tests where he was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia, a form of bone marrow failure. Over the next three months, Tai received 15 units of red blood and 20 units of platelets.
His mum Amy is clear: “Blood and platelet transfusions kept Tai alive.”
Amy Carter Tai Carter, 11
Tai received even more of them, when in January 2019, he underwent a bone marrow transplant. His younger brother Jayden, eight, was tested, but wasn’t a match but a German donor was found on the British Bone Marrow Registry.
After a period in isolation and a year’s recovery, Tai is now doing well and has just returned to school. In the same year he became ill, his 61-year-old grandad James completed his 100th blood donation. “I’ve always admired my dad for giving blood,” says Amy Carter. “But it’s not until you are personally affected that you fully appreciate how valuable blood is to everyone. It’s the generosity of people like my dad, the silent heroes, that kept my child alive.”
Amy Carter Tai Carter with his family
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‘Blood donors have no idea they are superheroes’
Kaitlyn Davis was three when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and given a 30% chance of survival. Her mum Kate Holgate, from Hertfordshire, first spotted the signs when her daughter started school at an earlier age. “She absolutely loved school and was ready for it. But then I noticed she was getting very tired and the school told me she wasn’t playing.”
Holgate thought the longer days were to blame but when Kaitlyn developed a limp and high temperature, her daughter was referred for a MRI scan and doctors found tumours in her brain and throughout her body, including her legs.
She was diagnosed with a neuroblastoma in her stomach – the most common cancer under the age of five, affecting around 100 children each year in the UK.
Kate Holgate Kaityln Davis at the age of three after eight hours of surgery to remove a brain tumour
“I was devastated and torn to bits,” Holgate tells HuffPost UK. Kaitlyn’s intensive treatment included radiotherapy and high dose chemotherapy and immunotherapy. She had 20 blood and 50 platelet transfusions because her bone marrow was damaged by both the cancer and the immunotherapy.
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“You could always tell when she needed the transfusions,” recalls Holgate. “My little princess would turn pale, her energy would go down and life would just sap out of her. Once she had a transfusion, she had a whole new lease of life.”
That was late 2014. Kaitlyn has now been free from cancer for four years, but Holgate says her daughter is only here today because of people she will never meet: “Blood donors are lifesavers – complete strangers who are not affiliated with your family or situation and have no idea who their blood is going to. They are superheroes who have no idea they are heroes.”
When Kaitlyn finished treatment, Holgate was inspired to become a donor herself, and learned she has a Ro blood subtype, seen in only 2% of donors and crucial in helping Black people with the life-threatening sickle cell disease.
“When I discovered I had this rare blood type, it gave me a sense of responsibility,” said Holgate. “I knew I wanted to return the favour that people who didn’t know my family did for my daughter.”
Kate Holgate Kate Holgate with her eight-year-old daughter Kaitlyn Davis
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‘You take it granted – at no point did I question there wouldn’t be blood for my baby’
Primary school teacher Steph Davis from Hampshire gave birth to Aiden in April. It was a normal birth and everything seemed fine, but when Aiden had his usual blood tests, doctors discovered he was at high risk of jaundice.
His skin quickly turned yellow and further investigations revealed that his mum’s cells had crossed the placenta and reacted against his own blood, destroying his red cells. He needed a lifesaving transfusion.
“Aiden was born with these battles going on in his blood,” explains Davis, who is married to Brendon and also has a four-year-old daughter. “I have rhesus negative blood and somewhere along the line, my blood had crossed the placenta causing my blood to create antibodies fighting Aiden’s blood.”
Steph Davis Baby Aiden Davis who had to have a lifesaving blood exchange as a newborn
The only way Aiden could survive was with a full blood exchange, a long process involving a tiny bit of blood going in and out of the baby at a time.
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“I felt shocked, panicked, worried, numb and helpless,” says Davis of the day-long process. “Aiden was newborn and I’d only held him a couple of times and suddenly, I was told this was the only way to save him. It was extremely traumatic. All you can do is put your trust in the experts’ hands.”
The treatment included phototherapy and Aiden also had a top up transfusion a few weeks later. “You take it for granted there will be blood there and that it will be compatible for your needs,” says his mum. Her son is now nine-months-old and doing well, although he is being monitored with regular tests to check his development.
“At no point did I question there wouldn’t be blood for my baby. And if it hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have Aiden now. We will forever be grateful to the complete strangers who donated blood and saved our baby’s life.”
• Find out more information about being a blood donor at www.blood.co.uk


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Why Labour’s Leadership Steeplechase Has Plenty Of Hurdles Left Yet

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May the four be with you
And then there were four. Rebecca Long Bailey, Jess Phillips and Lisa Nandy have joined Keir Starmer in clearing the first hurdle in the Labour leadership race. Getting over the threshold of 22 MPs/MEPs needed is a big relief for Philips and Nandy, but Emily Thornberry (on 9) and Clive Lewis (on 4) are still way off that figure.
The two stragglers will hope that because their rivals are now safe, MPs can afford to ‘lend’ them their nominations to ensure a wider debate. That may be a forlorn hope. Barry Gardiner (whose possible shock entry to the race caused much interest) has even less chance of hitting the target, given he is not even in the country to press the flesh.
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Thornberry, who a year ago looked like a very strong contender (Len McCluskey was a fan), has in particular proved just how fast things can change in politics. One problem that the shadow foreign secretary has had is her shift from early uber-loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn (don’t forget the abuse she got when she was first appointed shadow defence secretary before her current role) to latter-day critic.
In her SkyNews interview today she certainly got noticed by awarding the Labour leader ‘0 out of 10’ for his election performance and ‘2 out of 10’ for combating anti-semitism. Thornberry fans think she’s been unfairly treated, not least as her own outspoken outbursts urging a more pro-Remain stance were no more vociferous than Starmer’s.
The way she was dropped from PMQs, and her battle to ensure the manifesto criticised Hamas rockets fired at Israel, underscore that behind the scenes Corbyn’s advisers really were never on the same page. Yet maybe the biggest difficulty of all for Thornberry is that the ‘soft left’ territory she occupies has been crowded out by Starmer and Nandy. Long Bailey is clearly the Corbyn Left candidate and Phillips at least has the definition of the most ‘centrist’ contender.
Still, for Nandy and Phillips the race has only just begun. This is a steeplechase that fittingly ends with an announcement on Grand National day and the great big Becher’s Brook facing the candidates is the new, extra requirement to get either 5% of constituency party nominations or 5% of affiliates. Starmer already has Unison and may well get USDAW, Long Bailey must surely get Unite (despite its boss apparently looking for other contenders), the CWU and TSSA.
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Nandy will be hoping the GMB effectively gets her onto the ballot paper, but the union is keeping its cards close to its chest for now. If she fails to do that, she and Phillips really will have to rely on local constituency Labour parties (CLPs) to progress. And this is where the real Corbyn legacy lies: by changing the rules to insist on union or membership nominations, MPs can no longer rely on colleagues in parliament to get them on the ballot paper.
In theory, just 33 CLPs are needed. But it’s worth recalling that in 2015 Liz Kendall managed just 18, and that was before the days when Momentum was even a twinkle in Jon Lansman’s eye. CLPs must hold an all-member meeting that will ensure Momentum’s clout is felt. It’s possible that Starmer and Long Bailey could mop up the bulk of local party nominations, and that many CLPs won’t nominate at all given how difficult it is to pick one contender above others.
Nandy is winning the online game so far (though as Corbyn found out that ain’t enough). I can reveal her cult-like status among some admirers has led someone to buy the addresses ‘rebeccaforleader.com’, ‘longbaileyforleader.com’ and ‘rebeccalongbaileyforleader.com’ - and redirect them automatically to Nandy’s official website, ‘LisaNandy.org’. Team Nandy tell me it’s nowt to do with them and urge whoever’s responsible to pack it in.
There’s also an extra hurdle that looms for Nandy and Phillips. So far, the party has not said when it will hold its national series of hustings, but if they take place only after CLP nominations close (on 14 February) that could make life even more difficult for them. Nandy and Phillips may need those hustings to prove to local parties how good they are, but may not get the chance to do so. We really could be down to a straight run-off between Starmer and Long Bailey.
Starmer is undeniably in a strong position, though one MP muttered to me this week that “he could be our Theresa May”. Both his strength and his weakness is that he had a life before politics. His time at the DPP is certainly an asset, yet it means he has to work harder to find political definition.
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In the Commons today, Starmer said: “We may not win many votes in Parliament just now, but we can win the moral argument.” He was talking specifically about child refugees, but to some critics it felt like his wider pitch in a nutshell - and one that echoes Corbyn’s claim to have ‘won the argument’, while losing votes (in elections, not just parliament).
After a slow and shaky start, Long Bailey now has a formidable team around her. But there are plenty of MPs who think even the pro-Corbyn membership will be swayed most of all by the scale of that defeat on December 12. In our Commons People podcast this week, Rachel Reeves warns that Labour could go down to a rump of just 100 MPs if it fails to change course.
Reeves, who admits she’s a fan of Phillips, is however one of those backbenchers whom many Labour MPs want to see back on the front line (shadow business or shadow chancellor are possible). Few could argue that recent shadow cabinets have been stacked with talent, but there may now be a place for figures like Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper and others forced to chair select committees while exiled from the frontbench.
And even if the leadership race ends up with two or even four contenders (and the deputy race may end up with a similar number), the one big benefit for Labour is that each of the losing candidates can boost the shadow cabinet of the eventual winner. An Opposition frontbench with Nandy (Communities?), Phillips (Work and Pensions?), Ian Murray (Scotland) and Rosena Allin-Khan (Health?) would look much stronger. If there’s one real positive out of the leadership races, that may be it.
Commons People
We are joined this week by Rachel Reeves, chair of the business select committee and former frontbencher. Click here to listen as she gives a full and frank assessment of where Labour now stands.
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Search for Commons People wherever you listen to podcasts and subscribe.
Quote Of The Day
“Will he make representations to the House of Commons Commission whose decision this is...that Big Ben should bong for Brexit!”
Mark Francois presses Brexit secretary Steve Barclay on the bell end of the UK’s EU membership.
Thursday Cheat Sheet
Boris Johnson has spoken to President Zelensky of Ukraine, saying he wants to see a “full, credible and transparent investigation” into the crash of the Ukrainian airliner in Iran. Johnson said tonight there is “a body of information the flight was shot down by an Iranian surface to air missile”, probably unintentionally.
MPs have voted to give a third reading to the EU Withdrawal Agreement bill, by a majority of 99, to loud cheers from Tory benches.
NHS hospitals suffered huge pressure in December, with one in five A&E patients waiting over four hours, the lowest figure for years (as this shocking HSJ graphic shows). Nearly 100,000 of the sickest patients were forced to spend over four hours on trolleys and in corridors.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard is considering backing a second independence referendum at a special meeting this weekend, the Guardian revealed.
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Transport secretary Grant Shapps warned Northern Rail could be stripped of its franchise as he revealed its private operator Arriva only has the finances to continue “for a number of months”. But the Northern Powerhouse group said the real issue was badly needed engineering works to allow operators to run services more effectively.
SNP MP Hannah Bardell is to report Ulster unionist peer Lord Maginnis to the police for hate crime, after he described her to HuffPost UK as a “queer”.
EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned that if the UK wants “zero tariffs, zero quotas” with Brussels “we need to be careful about zero dumping at the same time”.
What I’m Reading
Does Malcolm Gladwell Still Have Something To Say? - Ian Leslie, New Statesman
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Harry And Meghan: Royal Family Locked In Crisis Talks As Queen Demands 'Workable Solution' For Coupl

Harry And Meghan: Royal Family Locked In Crisis Talks As Queen Demands 'Workable Solution' For Couple 'Within Days'

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The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge have ordered their teams to find a “workable solution” over the future role of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex within the royal family.
A Buckingham Palace source said the senior royals have asked aides to work “at pace” with governments and The Sussex Household and an outcome was expected to take “days, not weeks”.
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It comes after Harry and Meghan released a bombshell statement on Wednesday saying they would be “stepping back” as senior royals.
The Queen and other members of the family were said to be left “hurt” by Harry and Meghan’s decision to issue a personal statement, which outlined their future lives as financially independent royals who will divide their time between the UK and North America.
The PA news agency understands the royal family will talk to multiple governments which suggests US and Canadian officials may be involved.
If they were to meet in person, the royals seem to have the next five days free of any public engagements.
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The Duke of Cambridge is due to be in Yorkshire for a number of appearances next Wednesday, alongside the Duchess of Cambridge.
Meanwhile, Harry is not expected to be seen in public again until next Thursday, when he will do the draw for the Rugby League World Cup in 2021.
Doug Peters/EMPICS Entertainment
Given the Queen’s timetable of “days” it is likely they will want any talks concluded before the Prince of Wales travels to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories at the end of the month, to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It appears the head of state tried to forestall any announcements after her grandson asked to meet at her private Sandringham estate, the Evening Standard newspaper reported, only to be “ignored” by the couple.
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The latest developments reveal the divisions within the heart of the British monarchy which has already been rocked by the Duke of York’s disastrous television interview about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Harry and Meghan went ahead and released their personal statement on Wednesday evening which was a “bolt from the blue” for Buckingham Palace, sources told PA.
The statement – and a new official Sussexroyal.com website – have thrown up important questions about funding for the couple’s round-the-clock security, media access to their royal events and how they will pay for their future lifestyles.
The Duke and Duchess, who have only recently returned from a six-week stay in Canada with eight-month-old son Archie, said in their statement: “After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the royal family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty the Queen.”
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Meghan received a public boost from her close friend Jessica Mulroney, a Canadian stylist and TV star, who posted a quote attributed to Gina Carey, which said: “A strong woman looks a challenge in the eye and gives it a wink.”
But a series of commentators have strongly criticised their decision with public relations and crisis consultant Mark Borkowski saying about the Sussexes “It does feel like a royal couple in exile”.
It is already known the Queen, Prince of Wales and other senior royals were not consulted about the content of the couple’s statement or knew it was to be issued.
But the Standard said Charles and the Duke of Cambridge only received it 10 minutes before it was released.
Over the festive period the newspaper stated Charles told his son to come up with a thought out plan for his wish to spend more time in Canada and America, and when he put forward a draft proposal was told time was needed to consider its implications, particularly funding.
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The Queen agreed to Harry’s request to meet when he returned from Canada but the duke was told his grandmother would not discuss his proposals before he had talked them through with his father.
Despite the request not to make any announcements the Sussexes published their statement.
Buckingham Palace would not comment on the latest developments in the Harry and Meghan saga, but it is likely royal aides are organising the duke’s showdown meeting with his father and the Queen.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Barry Gardiner Says He Will Not Run To Be Labour Leader

Barry Gardiner: "I am now clear that at this late stage I cannot secure sufficient nominations to proceed to the next round." Victoria Jones - PA Images via Getty Images
Barry Gardiner has announced he will not run to be Labour leader less than 24 hours after HuffPost UK revealed he was weighing up a bid.
Earlier the shadow cabinet minister insisted he could win a general election as he confirmed he was considering a run.
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But after phoning Labour colleagues on Thursday, the Brent North MP admitted he did not command enough support.
In a statement, he said: “I want to thank all my colleagues as well as the party activists and members of the public who encouraged me to stand for the Labour leadership.
“I am now clear that at this late stage I cannot secure sufficient nominations to proceed to the next round. I have therefore decided not to stand for the leadership at this time.
“I will continue to serve the party loyally under whichever of my colleagues has the honour of leading our party forward to win the next general election.”
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On Thursday, three more candidates reached the number of nominations from MPs and MEPs required to pass through the first round of the contest.
Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips all secured the 22 backers required to continue in the competition.
They join shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer, who was the first this week to bank the required number of supporters.
The numbers, published by Labour, puts Long-Bailey – branded leader Jeremy Corbyn’s “continuity candidate” – into second place with 26 nominations, and Nandy and Phillips are joint third with 22.
Starmer stretched his lead over the course of 24 hours by securing 59 signatories – up from 41 on Wednesday.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Labour 'Will Be Reduced To 100 Seat Rump If It Fails To Change Direction', Rachel Reeves Says

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Labour will be reduced to a rump of just 100 seats after the next election if it continues on the path set by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, a senior MP has said.
Rachel Reeves told HuffPost UK she was likely to back Jess Phillips to take over as Corbyn’s successor because she can “best communicate with the people who we need to win back” and can “cut through and be bold”.
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She also revealed she was “ready to serve” under any new leader, preferably in an economic role such as shadow chancellor or shadow business secretary, given her experience as business committee chair and shadow Treasury chief secretary.
But she warned Labour must change if it is to survive as a potential party of government, in what will be seen as a coded attack on so-called ‘continuity Corbyn’ candidate Rebecca Long Bailey.
Reeves, who launched a withering attack on Corbyn following December’s election defeat, told the Commons People podcast: “We can’t achieve anything unless we are in power and frankly we have let down the people we came into politics to serve by losing four elections.
“This one by the worst margin since 1931 and if we’re not going to take this opportunity to ask ourselves some deep questions about whether we want to be a protest group or a party of government we are not going to govern again.
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“This is a moment really for the Labour party to decide what sort of political party we are.”
Long Bailey this week rated Corbyn’s leadership as “10 out of 10” and bemoaned the press for “savaging” the outgoing leader.
Reeves said: “If we sort of say all was fine, just one more heave and everything, we’ll be back in government, if only we had a better media, if only the electorate properly understood that everything would be okay - we can carry on down that route, fine, well next time we’ll have 100 of us.
“And I’m not willing to let that happen.
“So you’ve got to speak out the truth as you see it and what you’ve heard.
“I’m not repeating what I said to myself, I’m repeating what people said to me time and time again on the doorstep - that they had voted Labour all their life, that their father and grandfather would turn in their graves, but they just couldn’t vote Labour this time.”
Reeves is a senior figure who has served in the shadow cabinet and chaired a select committee. PA Wire/PA Images
Turning to the candidates, Reeves praised Lisa Nandy’s analysis of why Labour lost in northern towns, and said Keir Starmer was “very clear and very credible” and would “clearly” be able to settle quickly into the top job.
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But she said she was likely to back Phillips for the leadership.
“She does have that ability to connect with people and connect with people who might not always have engaged in politics and might not always vote Labour,” she said.
Reeves also urged Labour’s new leader to “bring back some of the talent” on the backbenches, naming the likes of Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper, who have served in government and are “incredibly intelligent and well respected people”.
“We need that talent on the frontbench because a leader is just one person,” she said.
The MP, a senior figure once seen as a potential leader, was frozen out under Corbyn.
Asked if she would take a job as shadow business secretary or shadow chancellor, Reeves said: “I’d be back, yeah.
“I’m ready to serve, I would like to serve and I have said that to the leadership candidates.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Why Black People Think Racism Drove Meghan And Harry To Quit The Royal Family

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“I left the UK because I was so tired of the racism. I can relate to Meghan – North America holds promise for the Duchess like it did for me.”
Mutale Nkonde, a fellow of Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, told HuffPost UK she could relate to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s decision step back from “senior royal” duties in favour of splitting their time between Britain and the US.
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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed these plans in a bombshell statement in January.
Mutale Nkonde Mutale Nkonde
The news came after the couple had endured years of relentless scrutiny from parts of the mainstream media – and frequent racist abuse from the public, especially online.
Nkonde, a race and tech expert, continued: “The UK expect members of the establishment to be complicit with British racism and sexism and as a Black woman she faced both.
“Why stay there when Oprah and Gayle are in your circle?”
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Anti-racism campaigner Patrick Vernon OBE said he is not surprised that the royal couple decided to step back and also believes the media played a part in that decision.
“I think the media is a key factor,” he said. “You just have to look at the recent treatment of Stomzy – which again raised concerns about racism, despite the fact that he was misquoted.
“The media and other mainstream institutions still have an issue of our visibility and success. When you call racism out you are punished with little support.”
Vernon, who has co-authored a book called 100 Great Black Britons to be published later this year, added: “The impact of racism on our mental wellbeing is still not acknowledged and I guess Meghan and Harry are developing their own solutions: self-care and charitable venture.
“The experience of Meghan clearly reminds us we are millions of lights years from a post-racial Britain.”
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I'm no royalist but the racist, bullying and misogynist treatment Meghan has received from the British media, commentators and online trolls is absolutely abhorrent. It also reflects treatment dished out to Black women and woc in public life. Racism fuels even more misogyny. — Shaista Aziz (@shaistaAziz) January 9, 2020
In November 2016, Harry took the unprecedented step of issuing a statement about the harassment being experienced by the duchess – his girlfriend at the time – and her relatives.
Calling for privacy, the statement condemned the “wave of abuse and harassment” aimed at Markle, calling out “the racial undertones of comment pieces and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments”.
Reacting to news of the couple’s decision on Wednesday, Marcus Ryder, a media executive producer and diversity champion, tweeted: “My Twitter time-line (full of black journalists) talks about the importance of race in this story. The BBC’s main online story currently does not mention race once.”
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BBC reports on Duke & Duchess of Sussex statement to "step back as 'senior' royals". My Twitter time-line (full of black journalists) talks about the importance of race in this story. The BBC's main online story currently does not mention race once https://t.co/pqXiPwkSTU — Marcus Ryder (@marcusryder) January 9, 2020
He added: “I cannot think of any major UK broadcaster or newspaper who has a royal correspondent who is a person of colour or any who report to a person of colour. (I may be wrong & happy to be corrected). This fact alone influences how this story is reported”
Richard Palmer, royal correspondent at the Daily Express, swiftly replied: “Because it’s not about race and never was. You’re wrong about the ethnic background of journalists certainly in the wider royal press pack. The UK’s black population is 3.3 per cent of the total and, although we could always do better, there is a fairly diverse group.”
But the wider consensus is that this is about race.
Author Bernardine Evaristo echoed the notion that the couple’s decision was fuelled by racist treatment by parts of the British press, writing: “Dear Meghan, my sister, you go and do your thing with your family and get away from the race hate you’ve been subjected to in my country.”
Dear Meghan, my sister, you go and do your thing with your family and get away from the race hate you've been subjected to in my country. Your cover for September's #VOGUE shows us who you are and what we stand for. #CHANGE #Meghan #MeghanMarkle #MeghanAndHarry #KensingtonPalace pic.twitter.com/dJWLCcDwhL — Bernardine Evaristo (@BernardineEvari) January 9, 2020
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Evaristo, who last year became the first Black woman to win the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction, added: “Your cover for September’s #VOGUE shows us who you are and what we stand for.”
Many hailed the couple’s wedding as seminal moment for diversity in Britain – a white prince had married a mixed-raced woman.
But that status presented challenges for the duke and duchess.
In July 2019, at the European premiere of The Lion King, US recording artist Pharrell Williams told Harry and Meghan that their union as a high-profile mixed race couple was “significant for many of us” in “today’s climate”.
The duke and duchess reportedly nodded at Williams’ warm comments.
“Thank you so much. That’s so nice of you to say. [...] They don’t make it easy,” Markle replied. Harry echoed her words in the September issue of Vogue magazine.
Andrea Bruce Andrea Bruce
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Andrea Bruce was never optimistic about Meghan and Harry’s marriage changing the establishment’s stance on race.
“If you value assimilation then their marriage was an important moment for diversity,” she said. “But I don’t feel that an institution that was built literally on the backs of colonised people should be expected to be truly diverse or to care about being diverse.
“What went wrong was that some people maybe expected her entry in to signal a shift in the UK’s historic racism and that just didn’t happen. Instead, she exposed what was already there – racism and bias.”
Harry and Meghan and their son Archie visit Cape Town, South Africa. KGC-178/STAR MAX/IPx
The 35-year-old account director feels the couple’s decision had a lot to do with racism and hostility from the press and public.
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“I think that the monarchy should pay back everything they stole from commonwealth countries and they should provide reparations,” she said. “We can’t look to them to lead diversity or anti-racism.
“Harry has defended his wife and that’s nice to see but the overall premise of the royal family is built on violence and oppression against non-white people.”
Meghan’s experience of racism is only being discussed because of her status as a duchess, added Bruce. “If she was a random woman living in the country, her experience wouldn’t be discussed – but all experiences are worth discussing.”
Yvonne Witter Yvonne Witter
Yvonne Witter was full of praise for the couple, describing Harry particularly as progressive.
“He has set his priorities above materialism, pomp and ceremony and is creating a future for his family which will circumvent his mum’s fate,” she told HuffPost UK.
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The international business consultant and writer said the UK’s political climate has helped legitimise bigotry to the point where racism is “no longer in the closet”.
“I find that people struggle to articulate to me their reasons for hating Meghan. They regurgitate press reports – and when interrogated further about a personal experience, of course, there is no knowledge of who Meghan actually is.
“Political leadership has made it OK to be openly racist – in addition to rhetoric from Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, the Brexit campaign and press reporting on immigration.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Brexit Latest: MPs Finally Approve Law To Leave The EU On January 31

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MPs have approved legislation to allow the UK to leave the European Union on January 31.
They voted 330 to 231 in favour of the Brexit withdrawal agreement bill, which implements an exit deal agreed with Brussels last year.
The majority of 99 is in stark contrast to repeated defeats inflicted on an agreement thrashed out with the EU by Theresa May.
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Quitting the EU was facing an impasse until Boris Johnson called a snap election late last year and then won an 80-seat majority after promising to ‘get Brexit done’.
The bill faces one more hurdle. It will now go to the Lords – where it could face a more difficult passage as Johnson does not have a majority in the upper chamber.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--The Cyprus Rape Case Shows Just How Dangerous Victim-Blaming Is For Women

Cyprus rape case AP
A 19-year-old British woman who says she was gang raped in Cyprus has been sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for three years, and fined £125. The woman was 18 and about to start university when she claimed she was attacked on holiday. Now, she is crippled by post-traumatic stress disorder, is taking antidepressants and is a shell of her former self, according her lawyer.
The alleged perpetrators, on the other hand, have barely spent a day behind bars or a minute in front of a judge or jury. The group of Israeli men, aged between 15 and 22, were permitted to fly home and return to their lives just days after the allegation was made.
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Meanwhile, the woman – the victim – was questioned by police for eight hours straight and by the end of the interview, she had retracted the claim under extreme duress and fearing for her life.
She was then swiftly prosecuted for lying to police. Only now, months later, she is finally allowed to walk away from this nightmare as she returns to the UK, albeit as the guilty party.
This woman is not the first to be prosecuted and punished for male violence. Another British woman, Shana Grice, was fined £90 for “wasting police time” when she reported to police that she was being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. Shortly afterwards, the ex-boyfriend broke into her house and murdered her.
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At least 200 women have been prosecuted in the UK for lying about rape in the last ten years, according to media reports.
How can it be that in a world that now pretends to be alive to the injustices facing sexual assault victims that a woman can be so brazenly victim-blamed by the full force and weight of the law?
Our culture is so committed to ignoring rampant sexual abuse that it will go to any lengths to avoid investigating it or otherwise confronting it. Victim-blaming, in all its cascading forms, is the last refuge of those determined to make sure the reality of sexual assault goes unexamined.
The idea of a judge handing a prison sentence to a rape victim while her attackers go free is just the logical end-point of an exercise we practice every day: our commitment to the belief that women are not to be trusted and, by extension, that male violence is not as common as we claim it is.
It’s the only way to explain the fact that authorities prosecute women they think have made false rape accusations more aggressively than other offences, despite the fact that genuine false rape accusations make up between 2% and 10% of all allegations – the exact same rate as most other crimes.
It’s the only way to explain why when women speak up outside the criminal justice system – as with many #MeToo allegations – they are accused of lying because they did not go to the police. Speak up, don’t speak up. They get us either way.
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These prejudiced ideas about women and victims of male violence need to be consciously corrected for by the legal system.
To me, that should mean a higher burden of proof for police to meet when accusing a woman of lying about rape. It should mean stricter rules around the circumstances under which a confession of a false accusation should be accepted by a court.
It should mean rules about police questioning of rape suspects that take into account the fact that our culture encourages the officers interviewing her to feel more comfortable treating her as a suspect than a victim.
I desperately hope the European Court of Human Rights hears this case and sets us on a path towards reform. Until the law recognises the debilitating disadvantage that rape culture imposes on victims, women will continue to be punished and their attackers will continue to walk free.
Lucia Osborne-Crowley is an author and freelance journalist.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--BBC Doubles Down On Defence Of Gavin & Stacey's Use Of Uncensored Fairytale Of New York Lyric

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The BBC has once again defended its inclusion of the homophobic slur “f****t” during a performance of Fairytale Of New York in the recent Gavin & Stacey Christmas special.
Last month, the hit sitcom’s reunion episode faced a backlash over the choice to include an uncensored version of the festive song, as performed by Rob Brydon’s character, Uncle Bryn.
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It’s now been revealed that the BBC has responded to those who made an official complaint, insisting that the song does not “link [the slur] to homosexuality”.
In their response, which has been posted by more than one recipient on Twitter, they said: “Fairytale Of New York is a well-established, much-loved Christmas song which tells the story of a troubled couple in 1940s New York.
“The descent of their relationship is reflected in the increasingly abusive and offensive terms they use to address each other; insults which are intended to reflect the language that such characters might have used in that era.”
Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones as Uncle Bryn and Nessa BBC
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They continued: “The descent of their relationship is reflected in the increasingly abusive and offensive terms they use to address each other; insults which are intended to reflect the language that such characters might have used in that era.
“While the word ‘f****t’ is now widely acknowledged as having the potential to offend, the song never suggests or implies that this is, or was ever, an appropriate way to address another person, nor does it link it to homosexuality.
“Nessa and Bryn were seen singing the original lines and we can assure you there was no intention to offend viewers. We understand that some people will find it offensive in any context but we also recognise that the song is widely played and enjoyed in its original form.”
They also cited media regulator Ofcom’s past assertion that it’s “unlikely that audiences would widely perceive [the use of the slur] as a serious attempt to denigrate the homosexual community”.
What trash 🚮🚮🚮 pic.twitter.com/5Sjo9L6LSR — Dr Alex Bond 🏳🌈🇨🇦 (@TheLabAndField) January 9, 2020
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Here’s how the BBC are replying to Gavin and Stacey complaints, fyi: pic.twitter.com/vFuYRdc5Zt — Shaun Kitchener (@ShaunKitchener) January 9, 2020
Before the episode aired, it was revealed that an uncensored version of the song would be included in the episode, to which the BBC said: “Fairytale of New York is a very popular, much-loved Christmas song played widely throughout the festive season, and the lyrics are well-established with the audience.”
Back in December, The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan – who wrote the song – admitted he “didn’t understand” the backlash to his song, or how the term “f****t” could be “insulting to gays”.
Shane MacGowan Tristan Fewings via Getty Images
“Fuck that,” he said, during an appearance on Ireland’s Late Late Show. “Nobody in the band thinks that’s worth a second’s thought.”
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He then went on to perform the song on the show, with Shane and singer Philomena Begley singing the whole thing uncensored.
When asked about the controversy a year earlier, Shane claimed: “She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history and she is down on her luck and desperate. Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it but she is not intended to offend.
“She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable, sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.
“If people don’t understand that I was trying to accurately portray the character as authentically as possible, then I am absolutely fine with them bleeping the word, but I don’t want to get into an argument.”
Kirsty MacColl – who is also credited on Fairytale Of New York – changed the lyric in question in later performances from “you cheap lousy f****t” to “you’re cheap and you’re haggard”.
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Last month, HuffPost UK contacted representatives for both James Corden and Rob Brydon, but did not receive a response.
Ruth Jones and James Corden co-wrote Gavin & Stacey, including its recent Christmas special BBC/GS TV Productions Ltd/Tom Jackson
Ruth Jones – who co-wrote the show, and whose character also appeared in the performance of Fairytale Of New York – previously told The Sun: “It is a different climate. But we have to remain true to the characters, to who they were.
“Characters in Gavin & Stacey are kind and big-hearted, I believe. So I think no one is going to be intentionally hurtful.
“But by the same token, they’re not necessarily going to be completely politically correct or be aware of political correctness.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Tehran Plane Crash: Boris Johnson Says ‘Body Of Information’ Indicates Iran Missile Shot Down Ukrain

Tehran Plane Crash: Boris Johnson Says ‘Body Of Information’ Indicates Iran Missile Shot Down Ukrainian Jet

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Boris Johnson has said “a body of information” suggests the Ukraine airliner that crashed in Tehran was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile and “may well have been unintentional”.
The UK prime minister made the announcement after US officials and the Canadian leader Justin Trudeau said Iran looked to have been involved in the downing of the Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752.
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But the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation denied the “illogical rumours” that the airliner had been hit by a missile. It initially blamed a technical issue.
In a statement, Johnson said: “There is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an Iranian surface to air missile. This may well have been unintentional.
“We are working closely with Canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full, transparent investigation.”
Johnson also confirmed four Britons died in the plane crash, up from the earlier reports of three.
The three known British victims included engineer Sam Zokaei, from Surrey, Saeed Tahmasebi Khademasadi, from west London, and Mohammad Reza Kadkhoda Zadeh, from near Brighton.
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Johnson’s words were echoed by Canadian prime minister Trudeau, who said at a press conference that evidence indicates an Iranian missile downed the jetliner and that the strike “may have been unintentional”.
Trudeau said Canadian and allied intelligence supports that. At least 63 Canadians were on the plane.
Earlier, it was claimed the plane was accidentally brought down by an Iranian missile, according to two Pentagon officials and an Iraqi intelligence official.
Rescuers search the debris at the crash site. picture alliance via Getty Images
Newsweek reported the flight that crashed just outside Tehran late on Tuesday was struck by the Russia-built Tor-M1 system also known as Gauntlet.
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The two Pentagon officials told the magazine that the tragedy was accidental.
Reuters also cited US officials as it reported the plane was most likely brought down accidentally by Iranian air defences.
One US official said US satellites had detected the launch of two missiles shortly before the plane crashed, followed by evidence of an explosion.
Two officials said Washington believed the downing of the plane was accidental.
The Associated Press quoted two US officials saying it is “highly likely” an Iranian anti-aircraft missile brought down the passenger plane.
The crash occurred soon after Iran launched missiles at military bases housing US troops in neighbouring Iraq amid a confrontation with Washington over the drone strike that killed an Iranian general last week.
The Ukrainian International Airlines Boeing 737-800, flying to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport, killing all 176 people on board.
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On Thursday, a Downing Street spokesperson said prime minister Johnson pushed for the facts to be established in a phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The spokesperson said: “The prime minister said that there needed to be a full, credible and transparent investigation into what happened.”
US president Donald Trump suggested he believes Iran was responsible and would not directly lay the blame on Iran, but dismissed their claims that it was a mechanical issue – and denied any US responsibility.
“Somebody could have made a mistake on the other side,” Trump said, noting the plane was flying in a “pretty rough neighbourhood”.
“Some people say it was mechanical,” Trump added. “I personally don’t think that’s even a question.”
The semi-official news agency ISNA reported the head of Iran’s of Civil Aviation Organisation, Ali Abedzadeh, saying: “Scientifically, it is impossible that a missile hit the Ukrainian plane, and such rumors are illogical.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-01-09--Who Can Take On Boris Johnson?

Who Can Take On Boris Johnson?

Who Can Take On Boris Johnson?
Labour MP Rachel Reeves joins the HuffPost UK politics team to adjust to the new year and the new order of British politics. With Labour searching for a new leader, Reeves gives her thoughts on what the party needs to do to win the next election.And the team digest Boris Johnson’s response to a week in which the US and Iran reached the brink of war.