Theresa May visits Northern Ireland to talk about Brexit

Theresa May  Image Credit: Conservative Party website

The PM is on a two day visit to Northern Ireland to reassure people that she can secure a Brexit deal that avoids the return of customs checkpoints on the Irish border.

On Tuesday, Mrs May told business leaders she wanted changes to the controversial backstop plan to prevent this, but indicated she did not seek to scrap it.

Irish PM Leo Varadkar is meeting with EU leaders in Brussels.

These talks come before May is due to meet the European Commission President Jean- Claude Junker on Thursday in efforts to secure changes to her Brexit deal.

Number 10 sources suggested they did not expect a warm reception, but that it would signal the start of a new diplomatic process, involving proposals on the backstop worked on by MPs and ministers.

Windrush row over criminal deportation flight to Jamaica

Sajid Javid pointing – credit: Carl Court/Getty Images

This morning 35 people were deported from from Birmingham Airport to Jamaica, an act defended by Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

‘Every single one of them has been convicted of a serious crime,’ Javid said to the BBC.

Campaigner Karen Doyle, from the group Movement For Justice, argues that the government’s ‘hostile’ immigration policy fails to acknowledge that ‘These are people with British accents, Londoners, Mancs and Brummies – who are expected to return to a country they don’t know and if they return – their lives are truly at risk. These people are fathers, brothers, cousins and children – and most of them have never been back to Jamaica’.

The deportation came before the conclusion of ‘Windrush Lessons Learnt Review’, leaving campaigners shocked.

However, Javid defended his decision, stating that it is a legal requirement of the 2007 UK Borders Act.

Trump expected to visit the UK this December

US President Donald Trump is expected to visit the UK this December, Nato’s secretary general has said.

NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg has said that the ‘Allies have agreed’ a meeting to discuss Nato’s role in world security, and how the organisation can adapt to keep people safe in the future.

Prime Minister Theresa May said that this meeting would be an ‘important opportunity’ to modernise, and she is ‘very pleased that the secretary general has asked us to host a meeting of Nato leaders this year to mark its 70th anniversary’.

President Trump’s first trip to the UK last July was not without controversy, resulting in a series of angry protests, including a large-scale blimp depicting the President as a baby, being flown across the capital.

Trump blimp in London July 2018. Image credit: Andrew Aitchison/Getty Images

This announcement comes at a critical time for Nato, as it has just signed an agreement allowing Macedonia to become it’s 30^th member.

Shoreham air crash trial continues

Jurors at the Old Bailey today heard expert testimony regarding proper techniques for executing  aeroplane aerobatic maneuvers. The trial of Andrew Hill, the pilot accused of manslaughter after 11 people died during a disastrous crash at the 2015 Shoreham Air Show, continues.

Julia Webster reports:

200 firefighters called to Hampshire Ocado blaze

A warehouse staffed almost entirely by robots took a turn for the disastrous in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as a huge fire spread across the facility.

Nearby residents in Andover, Hampshire were advised to keep their windows and doors shut after the warehouse, owned by online grocer Ocado, was set ablaze.

Just passed this smoke on the train. I assume this is the @Ocado fire in Andover? I hope everyone got out safely. @AndoverAd @AndoverUK pic.twitter.com/cSdfN9pL04

— Alex Baker Photo (@alexbakerphoto) February 6, 2019

Of the 200 firefighters called to the scene at 2:44am, four have been treated for smoke inhalation.

Ocado were forced to cancel thousands of orders, and the company’s share price dropped by 6%.

When not on fire, the thousands of robots at the warehouse processes 65,000 orders every week.