- U.S.The Independent
Sir Paul McCartney describes 'lucky' first meeting with John Lennon
Songwriter was interviewed for a new radio special to mark what would have been Lennon’s 80th birthday
- WorldThe Telegraph
Rishi Sunak eyes wage 'top-up' scheme as furlough ends
The Treasury is working on plans for a successor to the furlough scheme to fend off a wave of unemployment in the autumn. The fresh restrictions announced by Boris Johnson on Tuesday - which could last as long as six months - were greeted with shock by sectors like hospitality still dependent on the £47bn scheme due to the lack of details on future support. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has warned of a “disaster” if the scheme comes to an abrupt halt at the end of October while Mr Johnson has said Chancellor Rishi Sunak will show “imagination” and “creativity” in protecting jobs. But work in the Treasury is under way looking at the possibility of the state subsidising the wages of workers able to work 50-60pc of their normal hours, according to the Financial Times.
- BusinessEvening Standard
UK government to look into Nvidia's £31 billon deal for ARM
The UK government is to look into the sale of chip designer ARM to US giant Nvidia.Digital minister Caroline Dinenage said the government would access the impact of the deal, including commitments to keep its head office and staff in Cambridge.
- WorldThe Telegraph
France rebuffs UK's drone offer to stop Channel migrants leaving beaches in first place
France is rebuffing Britain’s offer of a hi-tech surveillance drone to help stop Channel migrants leaving its beaches despite the craft’s success in smashing a people smuggling gang. Dan O'Mahoney, the Home Office’s new migrants commander, met with French ambassador Catherine Colonna yesterday to urge her Government to step up its surveillance effort by using the UK’s Tekever AR5 drone which can stay in the air for 20 hours. The Home Office believes preventing the migrants leaving the coast is critical and follows British criticism of France’s refusal to turn back migrants at sea and instead shepherd them into British waters. Yesterday (Tues) saw at least 300 more migrants in 27 boats cross the Channel, the second biggest one-day total on record. The current record for small boat arrivals is 416, set on September 2. “We can see these boats coming across every day. Maybe they should get into a position of accepting extra help. Although they have not refused, they have still not accepted,” said a source. The Tekever AR5 fixed wing drone can cruise at 60 mph at heights of hundreds of metres with cameras and radar, and is understood to have played a key role in helping track and arrest a Channel migrant trafficking gang. It has been deployed by the coastguard alongside the Ministry of Defence’s Watchkeeper drone, which can reach 16,000 feet with a range of 100 miles and was used by the Army in Afghanistan. During yesterday’s meeting Mr O’Mahoney and Ms Colonna discussed French and UK co-operation including a further operational plan which is nearing agreement. Mr O’Mahoney reiterated the urgency to deploy new, sophisticated technology, surveillance and aerial support to stop the boats leaving French shores in the first place. Yesterday the Home Office deported six Channel migrants on a flight to Germany and six foreign offenders to Lithuania after two previous attempts to return failed Channel asylum seekers were thwarted by human rights lawyers. More than 6,400 people have crossed the Channel in this way in 2020, more than three times as many as last year.
- U.S.Evening Standard
Diversity's Jordan Banjo reveals members of dance group received threats over Black Lives Matter dance
Diversity star Jordan Banjo has said members of the group and their children have received threats and been called names since their performance on Britain’s Got Talent, but he has still been overwhelmed by the positive support the group has received.The dance routine on the ITV show, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, sparked more than 24,500 complaints to Ofcom as of last week.
- LifestyleThe Telegraph
Blueberry, lemon and passion fruit pavlova recipe
Prep time: 20 minutes | Cooking time: 5-6 hours SERVES 10 INGREDIENTS For the meringue 8 egg whites 400g caster sugar For the topping 400ml double cream 4 tbsp good-quality lemon curd 1 punnet blueberries 3 passion fruits METHOD Preheat the oven to 90C/70C fan/lowest gas. Whip the egg whites in a very clean bowl to the soft peak stage. Keeping the whisk running, start to add the sugar one tablespoon at a time (don’t even try rushing). Continue to whisk until, when you place a little of the meringue between your thumb and forefinger, it doesn’t feel gritty. If your meringues “bleed”, it is because you are adding the sugar too quickly or not blending the sugar and egg whites properly. Draw round a large dinner plate on a piece of parchment and place this on a large flat baking sheet. Pipe or spoon small blobs within the circle until it is full, then transfer the remaining meringue mixture into a piping bag and pipe small meringue kisses (teardrop shapes) on to another lined baking tray. Place in the oven and leave for five to six hours (or even longer – keeping it low and slow will ensure really white meringues). The meringue should lift away from the paper; if there is any resistance, leave it for longer. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely before carefully lifting the meringue circle and separate kisses from the parchment. For the filling, whip the cream to very soft peaks (the lemon curd will thicken it, so don’t over-whip). Fold in the lemon curd and spoon this over the meringue, piling it up, and tumble over the blueberries. Cut the passion fruits in half, taking care to save the juice, and spoon the flesh over the blueberries. Finish with the meringue kisses dotted on top.
- WorldThe Telegraph
China 'expands mass labour programme in Tibet' mirroring moves in Xinjiang
China has deployed a mass labour transfer programme in Tibet, pushing rural workers into factories after putting them through centralised “military-style” vocational training to reform their “backward thinking,” a new report claims. The programme mirrors a similar one in Xinjiang, another region in China home to ethnic minorities suppressed by the government, that human rights groups say forces people to work against their will. More than half a million rural workers – 15 per cent of Tibet’s population – have been trained via this programme in the first seven months of the year, according to findings by independent researcher Adrian Zenz, who published a report Tuesday with the Jamestown Foundation, a DC-based research institute. Rural workers have also been encouraged to transfer their animal herds and land to state-controlled collectives, cutting Tibetans off from their traditional forms of livelihood – nomadism and farming – and instead turning them into wage labourers. “This is now, in my opinion, the strongest, most clear and targeted attack on traditional Tibetan livelihoods that we have seen almost since the Cultural Revolution,” Mr Zenz told Reuters, which corroborated his findings and found additional policy documents and state media reports that described the program.
