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| | Explain why Partygate fine didn't breach code, PM told | |  | | | | | | | | | Boris Johnson is under growing pressure over Partygate. The police investigation is over, the damning report into lockdown parties at Downing Street has been published and the prime minister has said he takes "full responsibility". Despite this, more Tory MPs have called on the prime minister to quit, with most submitting letters of no confidence in his leadership. And now, Mr Johnson’s standards adviser is demanding an explanation from him too. Lord Geidt says there is a "legitimate question" over whether the prime minister, who received a fine along with his wife Carrie and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, broke the ministerial code. If found to be true, the convention in Westminster is that a minister resigns.
Lord Geidt is asking Mr Johnson to publicly explain if his actions were within the rules that ministers must follow when in office, including complying with the law. The prime minister, writing in a letter, claims a fine from police did not break ministerial code - "paying a fixed penalty notice is not a criminal conviction". The opposition has reacted to this, with Labour saying the prime minister’s "days are numbered" and Liberal Democrats pointing out his own ethics adviser "no longer trusts him to tell the truth". This is the latest development raising questions about Boris Johnson's conduct, at a time when almost 30 of his own MPs have publicly called on him to go, says our BBC political correspondent David Wallace Lockhart. | | | | | |
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| | Flights and holidays oversold - Shapps | | | | | | | | | This week has already seen flights being cancelled and people facing lengthy queues at airports as many try to make the most of the half-term school holidays and the forthcoming Jubilee weekend. With more people - up to two million - hoping to make a getaway over the next few days, it’s emerged that airlines and operators have "seriously oversold flights and holidays", according to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. While the vast majority of flights are operating as normal, it had been "very distressing" to see people facing more disruption at airports with "holidays cancelled and plans left in disarray", he said. He’s planning to meet airports, airlines and ground handlers about the issues and how to tackle the disruption, which also happened at Easter. | | | | | |
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| | Police release details of how Texas gunman entered school | | | | | | | | | How was the gunman who killed 21 people including 19 children at a school in Texas last week able to get into the building? That’s one of the questions being looked at by police as part of the investigation. Police have released further details about this, saying the shooter was able to get into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde through a door that was supposed to lock. A teacher had popped the door open, closed it once the gunman was on campus but for some reason the door didn’t lock. Read more here. | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | | | | | While his homemade borsch bubbles on the hob, Olexander Guz shows me pictures of his bruised body on his phone. The injuries, he says, were inflicted by the Russian authorities. "They put a bag on my head," Olexander tells me. "The Russians threatened that I would not have kidneys left." The BBC has gathered several graphic testimonies of residents in Kherson who say they were tortured.
Olexander used to live in Bilozerka, a small village in the Kherson region. He was one of the village's deputies. As a young man he was a conscript in the army, but now runs his own business. He and his wife were publicly anti-Russia: she attended pro-Ukrainian rallies, he tried to stop Russian troops entering their village. It wasn't long after Russia took over that soldiers came looking for him.
Warning: this report contains some graphic content that viewers may find distressing. | | | | | | | | | | | | Caroline Davies | | BBC News, Odesa | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | | | | | | The latest developments over Partygate once again make the front pages. News that ethics chief Lord Geidt has told Boris Johnson to explain Partygate leads the Daily Telegraph. Lord Geidt has threatened to quit following the scandal over lockdown parties in Downing Street, the Times report. The prime minister could face a vote on his future as early as Tuesday, according to the Metro, and he is "phoning MPs to save his job", reports the i newspaper. A warning about "reckless rebels" from Mr Johnson’s allies makes the Daily Mail's front page. Meanwhile, the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, travel chaos and Russian oil exports are some of the other stories making this morning's headlines. Read the newspaper review in full here. | | | | | |
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| | | | | Driving Test backlog sees exams sold for over £200 | | | | | | | GPs Violent incidents at surgeries double in five years | | | | | | | Labour Starmer and Rayner sent police questionnaires | | | | | | | Tennis Nadal beats Djokovic in late-night thriller | | | | | | |
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| | If you watch one thing today | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | If you listen to one thing today | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | If you read one thing today | | | | | | | | | | |
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| | Need something different? | | | | | | | | | How do you search for signs of life on Mars? From a kitchen in a flat on an island off the west coast of Scotland. Yes, you’ve read that right. Inside the property lives a geologist who has learnt to spot signs of life in rocks. Now he’s training scientists working on Europe's first Mars rover. Here’s the full story.
It isn't rocks but giant teeth from the largest shark that ever lived that have helped researchers in the next story. A study of megalodon fossil teeth may have finally uncovered why it became extinct, and its undoing points to a prehistoric food fight - here’s why.
And finally, this had the potential to be a food fight but instead the fox and badger in question decided to share a midnight snack of dog biscuits. They've been captured on camera. Take a look. | | | | | |
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| | On this day | | | | | | | 1985 Hundreds of people travelling to Stonehenge for an illegal festival are arrested following a violent clash with police. Watch our archive report following the Battle of the Beanfield. | | | | | | | | |
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| | | Let us know what you think of this newsletter by emailing bbcnewsdaily@bbc.co.uk. If you’d like to recommend it to a friend, forward this email. New subscribers can sign up here. | | | | | |
