A Chinese journalist who launched her country’s MeToo movement and was arrested the day before she was due to fly to Britain to study has been jailed for five years. Sophia Huang Xueqin was sentenced by a court in Guangzhou on Friday. According to documents obtained by a group of activists campaigning for her release,...
Tag: Standard
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Watch: Meloni gives Macron a withering look after they clash over abortion
The centrist and pro-EU Mr Macron was humiliated by the Eurosceptic National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s European Parliament elections. He then called the snap parliamentary election in France in a bid to stop the French flirting with the hard-Right but risks losing control of the National Assembly and becoming a lame-duck...
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British kayaker killed in France as snow swells river to ‘dangerous’ water levels
A British kayaker has died in a river in the French Alps after heavy snow swelled the water to dangerous levels. The man is the second to die in two days after an Irish pensioner capsized in the same area. It comes amid warnings by local guides that a winter of heavy snow has caused...
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The world’s most expensive visas for UK holidaymakers
Each year, the Henley Passport Index measures the number of countries travellers can visit visa-free. The UK usually ranks reasonably highly: in 2024, with 192 countries visitable visa-free, it came third, level with Denmark and Belgium. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain are all, collectively, the most powerful, with their passport-holders able to visit...
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The difference between the world’s best airport and Britain’s ‘worst’? Everything works
There are reading rooms (where no one is reading because they’re all playing with their phones), there are art installations (same), there are children’s play areas (where parents are paying attention, because the climby stuff is, perhaps unwisely, made of hard, bruise-inducing bronze). And, of course, there are shops. Hermès and the rest, it turns...
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Why Britain’s biggest economic problem is proving near-impossible to fix
This is particularly worrying for economic growth. Almost all of the economy’s expansion has been driven by the rising number of people in work in recent years, according to Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies. “For the last 20 years or more, economic growth has been driven by employment growth rather than...
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Labour has no vision for how UK deals with dangerous world, says Cameron
Labour has rebutted criticism of its defence approach, pointing out that under the Tories the Army has shrunk to its smallest size since the Napoleonic era. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has also said he would press the nuclear button in office if needed, and insisted his shadow cabinet supports his pro-Trident stance. Lord...
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‘Spitfires belong in the skies’: The engineers keeping the Second World War fighters flying
In a far corner of the room, Dave Brock, 60, has two tasks on the go. He is making an engine bearer – the frame the Merlin rests on – for one of the planes they are restoring, alternating between working on that and restoring a Hurricane fuel tank which has been damaged. Like Hurst,...
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Italian energy company targets Britain for fleet of 20 mini-nukes
An Italian energy start-up is pursuing plans to build 20 mini reactors across the UK, as it seeks to capitalise on the country’s nuclear power expansion. Newcleo is aiming to build a fleet of so-called mini-nukes on up to six sites in Britain, all of which will be situated near energy-intensive industries. Controversially, the reactors...
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Macron: West can’t have ‘dual standards’ over Gaza and Ukraine
Mr Biden was welcomed to Paris by a parade from the Arc de Triomphe, along the Champs-Élysées to the Élysée Palace.He met military veterans and watched pipers and mounted cavalry process towards the palace. It is unusual for an American leader to spend so long outside of the country in the months leading up to...
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British tech tycoon Mike Lynch cleared in $11bn US fraud trial
Autonomy, founded in Cambridge in 1996, was a member of the FTSE 100 and one of Britain’s most valuable software companies before its sale. Mr Lynch made £500m from the deal, using the funds to set up companies including the British cybersecurity company Darktrace. HP wrote down almost all of the deal’s value a year...
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Putin threatens deployment of missiles to strike the West
‘Russia doesn’t have imperial ambitions – it’s bol—cks’ In the press conference with the heads of major Western news agencies Putin denied that he had “imperial ambitions” to expand Russia’s borders. ”They’ve come up with this idea that Russia wants to attack Nato,” he said, banging his fist on the table. “Have you lost your...