Cameron: Trump deserves ‘respect’ – but his proposal to ban Muslims was still stupid
After saying he wouldn’t apologise for his comments regarding Donald Trump’s proposal for banning Muslims from the US – “stupid, divisive and wrong” – David Cameron has reached out with an olive branch. Sort of.
The prime minister said Thursday that he “respects” the US presidential candidate for making it through the primary process. However, he refused to retract his earlier statement, according to a
Guardian report.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Cameron said, “Knowing the gruelling nature of the primary process, what you have to go through to go on and represent your party in a general election – anyone who makes it through that deserves our respect.”
But Cameron was quick to add: “What I said about Muslims, I wouldn’t change that view. I’m very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong, it is wrong, and it will remain wrong.”
Cameron made his comments about Trump’s proposal last year, when many viewed the billionaire’s candidacy as a joke.
Heading to the US? Check your passport to make sure you won’t be turned away
Britons with old-style passports will be turned away from the United States after a security clampdown in that country, Sky News reported.
Under new US rules, visitors travelling from Visa Waiver Programme countries, including the UK, must have a passport with an embedded electronic chip.
The US started enforcing the change on April 1, but some Britons who were unaware of the new requirements have reportedly been refused entry into the country,
Sky News reported.
Electronic passports were introduced in October of 2006, so the change is thought only to affect passports issued between April and October of that year.
Without business overhaul, oil companies’ lives will be ‘nasty, brutish and short’ – expert
A thinktank fellow apparently believes that green energy is the power oil companies should live with to keep them all in awe.
Chatham House fellow Paul Stephens got downright Hobbesian contemplating the future of leviathan oil concerns in a research paper, saying that if they don’t change their business model they will face a “nasty, brutish and short” end within a decade.
Stephens said that oil “majors” were no longer viable in the wake of low crude prices, more stringent climate change regulations and their own poor business strategy, according to a
Guardian report.
Stephens said the only way for large oil companies to continue to survive was to diversify into green energy, make huge reductions in their operations or consolidate, the
Guardian reported.
Former BHS head demands ‘prejudiced’ investigative committee chair step down
The former owner of BHS is calling for the resignation of the chair of the committee charged with investigating the retailer’s collapse.
Sir Philip Green wants Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions committee, to resign from the inquiry into BHS, saying Field is “prejudiced” against him, according to a
Guardian report.
BHS collapsed last week, putting 11,000 jobs at risk and pensioners into the care of the government’s pension protection fund. On Thursday, Field told the
Financial Times that he would recommend stripping Green of his knighthood unless the billionaire put up the funds to pay off BHS’s £571 million pension fund deficit, the
Guardian reported.
Green hit back quickly. “Clearly he has made his decision as to what he feels the punishment should be without even hearing any evidence from anybody at BHS or the circumstances of the last 15 years,” he said.
Green hit back in a statement saying he was horrified by Field’s “outrageous outburst”. “Clearly he has made his decision as to what he feels the punishment should be without even hearing any evidence from anybody about BHS or the circumstances of the last 15 years,” Green said.
£10 joke bet on Leicester City nets £50,000
A woman has won £50,000 after her boss placed a £10 gift bet on Leicester City winning the Premier League as a joke.
“He bought it as a joke because he was taking the mickey out of my team because he's a bit of a closet Nottingham Forest fan,” Mandy Clarke told the BBC.
At the start of the season, bookmakers were giving 5,000-1 odds on Leicester City. Clarke, who’s held season tickets for 20 years, said the team’s success was even better than the money, according to the
BBC.
“The £50,000 is fabulous, I can’t take it in,” she said. “But the icing on the cake is Leicester City winning because that will live on and on and on.”
MPs want to Talky McTalk with NERC head about ‘Boaty McBoatface’
Was “Boaty McBoatface” a “triumph” or a “PR disaster?” That’s what MPs want to know.
MPs will be questioning the head of the National Environmental Research Council about the organisation’s wildly popular Name Our Ship competition, according to the
Guardian.
The competition asked Britons to suggest a name for NERC’s planned state-of-the-art polar research vessel. The winner, garnering 124,000 votes, was “Boaty McBoatface.” The name beat out more serious contenders like “Sir David Attenborough” and “Polar Dream.”
“My committee wants to explore this as an example of science communication. Was it a triumph of public engagement or a PR disaster?” said Commons science and technology committee chair Nicola Blackwood. “We’ll also want to know how NERC intends to build on the mass coverage they’ve attracted and engage people with the vital polar science that Boaty will be enabling.”
Despite the vote, it’s unlikely the RRS Boaty McBoatface will sail the seas anytime soon. The final naming decision rests with science minister Jo ohnson, according to the
Guardian – and Johnson is not a fan of the name.
Shop chopped by yob mob after grim trim
Perhaps it would have been better to just wear a hat for a couple of weeks.
Six men are in court for allegedly launching an armed attack on a barbershop because one of the, was given a bad haircut.
Prosecutors say the men, armed with baseball bats, machetes and a handgun caused £1,600 worth of damage to the Fresh Trimz barber shop before trashing an Alpha Romeo parked outside, according to the
Mirror.
According to the
Mirror, the three-minute attack, in which a barber shop customer was injured by flying glass, was the culmination of a yearlong campaign of harassment which began after one of the suspects got a haircut he didn’t like.
It should be noted that after a year, even the worst haircut will have grown back out.
