Brexit: Cabinet to consider ramping up no-deal plans
The cabinet will discuss whether the government should ramp up preparations for a no-deal Brexit when it meets later this morning.
It comes after Theresa May said MPs would not vote on her Brexit deal until the third week in January.
A Labour motion of no confidence in Mrs May was dismissed by No 10 as "silly political games" on Monday evening.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is under pressure to push for a further vote of no confidence - in the government.
With 101 days left until Brexit and many MPs still opposed to the government's withdrawal agreement, ministers are due to consider a paper on plans for leaving the EU without a deal.
'It's time for significant changes': civil rights groups call for Facebook leaders to step down
Dozens of groups demand a restructuring of the company’s board to improve accountability in wake of recent scandals
Dozens of civil rights groups are calling for Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to step down from Facebook’s board of directors following what they described as years of the company’s role in “generating bigotry and hatred towards vulnerable communities”.
In a letter sent to Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, on Monday night, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Muslim Advocates, Equality Labs, and MoveOn.org were among 29 groups demanding a restructuring of the board to improve accountability of senior leadership in the wake of recent scandals.
“It’s become abundantly clear that, as currently constituted, your leadership team is unable to adequately address the valid concerns of the civil rights community,” the letter states. “It is now time for significant changes in, not only your policies, but also your leadership structure.”
Kiev's children of the revolution: teens, drugs and HIV
The 2014 revolution gave Ukraine a new lease of life. But for many of its children, the upheaval came at a cost, introducing them to a dangerous world of drugs and even sex services
Oliver CarrollKiev
Finding the StreetPower youth club isn’t easy. Tucked away on an industrial estate in Kiev’s lugubrious northeastern suburbs – it was moved there after neighbours complained to the police – you need to know what you are looking for. But once you get near, the sounds of roaring laughter and dance music guide you to the door.
Alla Melnyk, the chatty project manager responsible for much of the noise, says the idea of providing a safe place for vulnerable teenagers came after outreach workers noticed more and more teenagers on Kiev’s streets.
Syrian refugees in Germany required to renew passports at pro-Assad embassies
Germany is forcing people displaced by the Syrian war to get documents and hand over money at Syrian consulates loyal to Bashar Assad. Refugee advocates say this is inhumane and supports the brutal Assad regime.
Of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians who have come to Germany since 2014, many enjoy only "subsidiary protection" and not full refugee status. Among other things, this means that they are dependent on embassies loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Under German law, people with various levels of political asylum or similar protection in Germany have to actively cooperate in procuring identity documentation, including passports. And more and more Syrians are being granted only subsidiary rather than full refugee status. Whereas 99.7 percent of Syrians coming to Germany in 2015 were classed as full refugees, last year only 38.2 percent were — with 61 percent enjoying only subsidiary protection.
The situation, say activists, is unacceptable.
Tearful S. Korean Olympic champion tells court of coach abuse
Double Olympic gold medallist Shim Suk-hee broke down in tears as she told a South Korean court of the years of abuse she suffered at the hands of her coach.
Aged 21, the short-track skater has four Olympic medals to her name, including relay golds at both Sochi 2014 and on home ice at this year's Pyeongchang Games.
But she told a court that her coach Cho Jae-beom had been beating her since she was seven -- on one occasion breaking her fingers -- leaving her "deeply traumatised".
His violence "kept escalating" as she grew older, she said at the hearing in Suwon, south of Seoul.
"He frequently beat me and verbally abused me since I was seven... at one point beating me with an ice hockey stick and breaking my fingers," she said.
Another time he hurled metal nuts at her, ripping open her forehead.
Japan to have first aircraft carriers since World War II
Updated 0546 GMT (1346 HKT) December 18, 2018
Japan is poised to put its first aircraft carriers to sea since World War II, refitting its Izumo-class warships to carry US-designed F-35B fighter jets, the government announced Tuesday.
In its 10-year Defense Program Guidelines, Tokyo said it will buy 42 of the stealthy F-35Bs, which are designed for short-run take offs and vertical landings.
Those planes will be available for deployment aboard two flat-top ships, the JS Izumo and JS Kaga, which at more than 800 feet long and displacing 27,000 tons are the largest ships in the Japanese fleet.
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