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Duchess Meghan making her first public appearance since the birth of baby Archie

(CNN)Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, will make her first public appearance Saturday since the birth of her son, Archie Harrison Mountbattan-Windsor.

Although the Duchess is still on maternity leave, the royal source says this a family moment, where many members of the royal family will be in attendance. Archie will not be among them.

According to the palace’s source, this is a separate affair from the Duchess’ official duties of participating in a formal state visit.

Similarly, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, also attended a prior Trooping the Colour during her maternity leave, but did not carry out any official duties.

The duchess and her husband, Prince Harry, welcomed baby Archie into the world last month.

The duchess shared a photo of baby Archie on the couple’s Instagram account on her first Mother’s Day last month.

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Duchess Meghan making her first public appearance since the birth of baby Archie was originally posted by Latest News

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Biden Still Leads In 2020 Iowa Poll, Three Others Fight For Second

DES MOINES, Iowa, June 8 (Reuters) – Former Vice President Joe Biden still leads the Democratic pack of presidential contenders in a poll of Iowa voters released on Saturday, with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg in a tight battle for second place.

Biden is the first choice of 24% of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, the state that kicks off the presidential nominating race next February, in the Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll.

Sanders, a U.S. senator, is the first choice for 16% of respondents, while Warren, also a U.S. senator, and Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, are at 15% and 14%, respectively. No other candidate managed double-digits.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris registered 7%, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke are both at 2%. Seven candidates registered 1%.

“We’re starting to see the people who are planning to caucus start to solidify,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of Des Moines-based Selzer & Co, which conducted the poll. “There’s a lot more commitment than we normally see this early. And some of these candidates who’ve been under the radar start to surface and compete with Joe Biden.”

She said many candidates in the large field had failed to make a breakthrough. Nine did not register support in the poll.

“There’s always been a question mark as to how many can get any real traction,” Selzer said.

The Register’s Iowa poll has a long track record of relative accuracy in the state.

More than 20 Democrats are vying for the right to challenge Republican President Donald Trump, who will formally launch his re-election bid on June 18. Biden has been the consistent leader in most national and state polls since he first entered the race in late April. Sanders runs second to Biden in most polls.

The Register said the poll methodology changed from its last few surveys. As a result of new caucus rules, the poll this time included a blend of those who plan to attend a caucus in person and those who will participate in a virtual caucus online or by phone.

That makes the results of this poll not directly comparable to past polls of the presidential field, the Register said. Biden also led in the last poll in March, with Sanders in second. Warren and Harris were in third and fourth place in March, and Buttigieg was largely unknown.

The poll said Biden showed a sign of potential weakness, with only 29% of those who listed him as their first choice saying they were “extremely enthusiastic.” The number is substantially higher, 39%, among all those who list another candidate as their first choice.

The Iowa poll was released on the eve of the biggest gathering of the Democratic race so far, an Iowa state party dinner in Cedar Rapids that will feature 5-minute speeches by 19 Democratic candidates.

The poll was conducted between June 2 and 5, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

(Reporting by John Whitesides Editing by Leslie Adler)

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Biden Still Leads In 2020 Iowa Poll, Three Others Fight For Second was originally posted by Latest News

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The Average American Consumes More Than 74,000 Microplastics A Year

The average American consumes 1,314,000 calories, 152 pounds of sugar – and more than 74,000 microplastic particles every year.

This is according to Canadian researchers, who – writing in Environmental Science & Technology – have reviewed 26 studies analyzing the number of microplastics found in fish, shellfish, added sugars, salts, alcohol, tap or bottled water, and air. (Some foods were not included simply due to a lack of data.) The aim: to find out how much of the stuff we are, on average, consuming, using the recommended American dietary guidelines as a basis.

So, first things first. What is microplastic?

Microplastics are micro-sized pieces of plastic derived from the degradation of larger plastic products, among other sources. Their ubiquity is so widespread, they have been found everywhere from the remote plains of Antarctica to the deepest ocean trenches, not to mention in the guts of countless sea creatures. A previous study suggests seafood eaters may be unwittingly eating 11,000 microplastics a year. While another says we could be eating more than 100 pieces of plastic per meal.  

This time around, the researchers found that the number of microplastics in your diet will vary, depending on factors like age, sex, and, of course, personal food preferences and restrictions. But the general outcomes seemed to be somewhere in the region of 74,000 and 121,000 particles a year – plus an additional 90,000 if you like to drink all your water bottled.

Between 39,000 and 52,000 of this total is consumed through the food we eat. The rest via inhalation. What’s more, these figures are likely conservative estimates, the researchers say, accounting for just 15 percent of Americans’ calorific intake.

What this news means for our health, however, is less clear. Some microplastics are small enough to break into human tissue, which could potentially lead to the release of toxic substances and/or trigger an immune response but no negative health effects have been demonstrated as of yet.

“This report provides an alarming indication of the wider impacts of plastic pollution. It’s a crisis that is not only blighting our landscapes and oceans but affecting the food we eat and the water we drink,” Thavamani Palanisami, a senior research fellow at the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER) at the University of Newcastle, said in a statement.

But others point to some limitations to the study – specifically, the lack of studies examining the prevalence of microplastics in the human food chain and the impact of microplastics on human health.

“It is important to understand that the particle exposure numbers presented are a current best guess based on a narrow number of studies,” Kevin Thomas, director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS) at the University of Queensland, added.

“Plastics in the environment are a serious environmental issue. Wildlife is killed by ingesting plastic, usually due to (macro)plastic causing blockages in their stomachs,” said Lauren Roman, a CSIRO postdoctoral researcher at CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere.

“Regarding human health effects, to the best of my knowledge in the scientific literature, there is currently no credible scientific evidence linking human dietary exposure to microplastics in their diet (shellfish, plastic bottles etc) to negative health effects.”

“This doesn’t mean that there are no negative health effects, it’s possible there are and they just haven’t been found, but imminent danger is very unlikely.”

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The Average American Consumes More Than 74,000 Microplastics A Year was originally posted by Latest News

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‘Being mean is lucrative’: queer users condemn YouTube over homophobic content

Sites waffling over harassment during Pride month was not surprising, YouTuber says

YouTubes haphazard response to an anti-gay harassment controversy this week underscores thecompanys continuing failure to protect creators from hate speech, queer users say.

The platforms initial refusal to discipline Steven Crowder for years of sustained anti-gay and racist harassment of Carlos Maza, a video journalist for the US news site Vox, drew widespread criticism.

The companys response was not surprising, said Ash Hardell, a queer and non-binary YouTuber who said they had received little support from the company despite years of harassment. Watching YouTube send a series of conflicting messages regarding abuse from its official Twitter account, which is sporting a rainbow-emblazoned logo for Pride month, only added to the frustration.

It feels like a slap in the face when they use queer content in their promotional videos, they said. It feels like exploitation if you want to use us, you actually have to care about us.

Hardell posts LGBTQ educational and entertainment content, with videos like I Dyed My Armpits Rainbow … cause Gay and Hilarious Prank on my Wife. They have intimately documented their coming out process and top surgery procedure, sharing confessional videos with hundreds of thousands of followers.

They have also had content censored and comments disabled due to problems with YouTubes algorithm. In 2018, also during Pride month, YouTube was criticized after anti-LGBTQ ads were run alongside content made by queer creators.

This weeks controversy began when Maza made a video outlining the years of abuse he has endured from the rightwing video personality Steven Crowder. YouTube said Crowders attacks on Maza calling him a gay Mexican, a lispy queer and a token Vox gay atheist sprite did not violate its community guidelines against harassment.

After criticism, YouTube announced it would be re-evaluating harassment policies and update them in coming months. Google employees under the group moniker Googlers Against Hate called on the company, which is owned by Google, to remove its rainbow branding until it changed its policies.

Kat Blaque, a YouTuber and trans rights activist, said YouTubes revenue model inherently incentivized volatile behavior. Blaque has made videos about why liberals annoy me, defining anarchy, and topics related to dating, weight loss, and beauty.

When YouTube allowed monetization for all creators, it empowered a group of people to create content, not because they were passionate about it, but because it made them a lot of money, Blaque said. With that, you have people who inevitably find out that being mean to other people is lucrative.

Demonetizing hateful content is a step in the right direction, but the companys refusal to remove Crowders account suggests he is the kind of creator YouTube wants, Blaque said.

Kat Blaque: You have people who inevitably find out that being mean to other people is lucrative. Photograph: Screenshot/Kat Blaque/YouTube

YouTubes unclear terms of service make addressing harassment confusing and difficult, Hardell said, noting that the company appeared to have made them intentionally vague. As of now, YouTube bans abusive videos and comments on the site but doesnt clarify what constitutes abuse.

If harassment crosses the line into a malicious attack it can be reported and may be removed, the guidelines say. In other cases, users may be mildly annoying or petty and should be ignored.

Hardell said because of this wording, it was difficult to tell if Crowders videos violated YouTubes harassment policy. Indeed, YouTube itself seems to be unclear on whether the speech is allowed on the platform.

One particular challenge we face more and more these days is creator-on-creator harassment, a YouTube spokesman, Chris Dale, said in the companys post on Wednesday. Even if a creators content doesnt violate our community guidelines, we will take a look at the broader context and impact, and if their behavior is egregious and harms the broader community, we may take action.

As the target of a number of harassment campaigns, Hardell has not known where to turn in the past for help, relying on messaging YouTubes account on Twitter or publicly complaining, as Maza did.

Its not clear what to do its a crapshoot every time, Hardell said. Right now it feels like the only way to get help is to have a large following and make a big stink about it, which does not set a good relationship for YouTube and its creators.

Demonetizing users can sometimes backfire: as YouTube has attempted to tamp down on inappropriate content, whether adult videos, hate speech, or harassment, some LGBTQ creators have been misclassified. Hardell said their videos were deemed adult content by the same algorithms meant to protect them, bringing viewership and ad revenue down.

Other queer creators have also been affected: comedian Gaby Dunn said her LGBTQ content had been flagged as not suitable for all advertisers and the transgender vlogger Erin Armstrong said she watched her revenue plummet after advertising was removed from her videos.

Lindz Amer: There is no other place like YouTube to get an audience. Photograph: Courtesy Lindz Amer

Lindz Amer, a creator of social justice videos on YouTube who is queer and non-binary, said this kind of harassment had been an issue since YouTubes inception, and that despite a series of high-profile hate campaigns in recent years, nothing has been done.

The thing that is most striking about it is that this is a story I have heard from so many people its not a unique situation in any way, they said. This is pretty much the norm for social justice creators.

Despite these frustrations, switching platforms is not an option for many creators. Amer said they had received more than 2m views on their channel, with an average of 100,000 views per video on YouTube. When they tried to migrate content to Vimeo, they got an average of five views per video.

YouTube has a complete monopoly on video hosting, and they know it, Amer said. There is no other place like YouTube to get an audience where people can watch for free. They have that advantage and they can steer the conversation and do nothing.

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‘Being mean is lucrative’: queer users condemn YouTube over homophobic content was originally posted by Latest News

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Pauley Perrette will never return to ‘NCIS,’ claims she is ‘terrified’ of former co-star Mark Harmon

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Pauley Perrette will never return to ‘NCIS,’ claims she is ‘terrified’ of former co-star Mark Harmon was originally posted by Latest News

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Revisiting ‘Mona Lisa’: The Dark Song Britney Spears’ Label NEVER Wanted You To Hear! – Perez Hilton

Think you know all of Britney Spears’ best songs? What about the one her label never wanted you to hear?

Hardcore Britney stans might already know we’re talking about Mona Lisa, the late 2004 track that the Pop Princess recorded as a lead single for a potential album — tentatively titled The Original Doll — that was never released.

Brit wanted the world to hear Mona Lisa so badly, she delivered it herself to a Burbank, California radio station without the knowledge of her label. After a quick chat with the bare-footed then-23-year-old superstar, the KIIS-FM station played Mona Lisa for the first time on air that December.

It was never played again, and The Original Doll never saw the light of day.

Video: Britney Making Silly Faces Will Remind You It’s Okay To Feel Joy In Life!

Mona Lisa was eventually touched up and mastered for a quiet release as a B-side on the Britney & Kevin: Chaotic DVD in September 2005. The song, pretty much Britney’s dark sequel to 2000’s Lucky, is about a powerful woman who gets taken advantage of and ultimately self destructs because of it.

Take a listen to Mona Lisa (below):

It’s all very grim, especially now knowing what had happened to the pop icon in the years following the rogue airing of the track. We mean, just look at these lyrics:

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got a little story to tell About Mona Lisa and how she suddenly fell See everyone knew her, they knew her oh so well Now I am taking over to release her from her spell

She’s the original She’s unforgettable She wants you to know She’s been gone

Earlier that year, the paint chips of Britney’s public image had started to peel off: she got married to a childhood pal for a historic 55 hours and was forced to cancel her grueling 93-city tour halfway through its run. Mona Lisa was most definitely a reflection of what Britney was going through at that time.

In an age before social media, the star was itching to be honest with her fans in a way that pop stars can do with a single tweet today. But, as often the case with Spears, her label wouldn’t let her speak for herself. Which is likely why she felt the need to deliver the track herself to the station later that year.

“They want her to breakdown, be a legend of her fall”

It was a few days before New Year’s Eve when DJ Jesse Lozano, who was filling in for the regular host, found out that the world’s biggest pop star wanted to pop in the studio and play her new song. As he recalled to Buzzfeed in 2014, Lozano was told by a colleague:

“Britney Spears is on the phone. She says she wants to play her new song.”

Naturally, he thought it was a prank. But an hour later, Britney was outside the station’s Burbank studio with a bodyguard, her chihuahua, and, Lozano remembered, no shoes. He recalled:

“She had a CD with her and said, ‘Can we play it on the air?’”

He said of course, and invited the star in the studio for a quick on-air interview:

“Lozano: Britney Spears live in studio! Do you have to take a super-secret CIA mission-secure route to Burbank from your crib so you don’t get followed?

Britney: No!

Lozano: I didn’t see anybody outside.

Britney: I know! It’s awesome.

Lozano: I walked out there, there wasn’t one camera anywhere.

Britney: I know, it’s great!

Lozano: Well thanks for hanging tonight. Good luck with your album. It’s untitled.

Britney: It’s probably going to be called Original Doll, so…

Lozano: And it’s half done?

Britney: Yeah. It’s halfway done right now.

Lozano: Alright, so maybe by the summer? Maybe by the fall?

Britney: Yeah, yeah maybe a little bit earlier.”

Brit revealed that Mona Lisa was written and recorded with live instruments that year while she was on The Onyx Hotel Tour. She noted that it was a rough mix and hoped the track would lead a new album in the following year.

They came back from commercial break. Spears introduced Mona Lisa and an unfinished version of the song was played… one time and one time only.

“May we have a moment of silence right here?”

Mona Lisa may have never turned into one of Britney’s best known jams like she had hoped it would, but the character stayed with her as an alter-ego. “Mona Lisa” was the “Sasha Fierce” to Britney’s Beyoncé, if you will, as the star explained in 2005:

“Whenever I feel like being mean or possibly like bustin’ people around to get stuff right, it’s kinda easier to be called ‘Mona Lisa’ instead of Britney.”

Britney even credited herself under that pseudonym in the credits for Do Somethin’. As eagle-eyed fans would know, the words “Mona Lisa” popped up in the beginning of the 2008 music video for that song. See for yourself (below):

As we’ve been reporting, the pop legend is still struggling to fight for her own freedoms to this day. Mona Lisa continues to be an unsettling portrait of what the performer’s life has become: a powerful woman who fought for her liberties but was ultimately silenced.

It’s about damn time we start listening to her.

#FreeMonaLisa

[Image via WENN]

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M25 killer Kenneth Noye released

Image copyright PA

Image caption Kenneth Noye fled to Spain after he murdered Stephen Cameron in 1996

M25 road-rage killer Kenneth Noye has been released from prison.

Noye, 71, stabbed 21-year-old Stephen Cameron to death in an attack at the Swanley interchange of the M25 in Kent in 1996.

He later claimed he killed Mr Cameron in self-defence during a road-rage fight. He was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years in 2000.

The Ministry of Justice said it understands Noye’s release will be “distressing” for Mr Cameron’s family.

It follows a decision by the Parole Board last month, which said Noye no longer poses a risk to the public.

The BBC’s Danny Shaw said Noye was “freed on licence this morning” and it is thought he may go to his home address rather than an approved premises, known as a bail hostel or probation hostel.

Image copyright PA

Image caption Stephen Cameron was 21 when he was stabbed to death by Noye

Mr Cameron’s father Ken told the BBC last month that he was “gutted” about the decision to release Noye.

The electrician was stabbed in front of his fiancee Danielle Cable, who was given a new identity and has been living under a witness protection scheme ever since.

Noye went on the run after the killing, and was tracked down in Spain in 1998 and extradited back to the UK.

Profile: Kenneth Noye

The MoJ said: “Like all life sentence prisoners released by the independent Parole Board, Kenneth Noye will be on licence for the remainder of his life, subject to strict conditions and faces a return to prison should he fail to comply.”

Noye had been eligible to be considered for release since 21 April 2015 and his case was considered three times by the Parole Board.

The Parole Board said Noye “had demonstrated an ability to deal appropriately with potentially violent situations in prison and was clearly well motivated to avoid further offending in the community”.

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‘Mom, is it bad to be brown and Jewish?’: how to talk to your children about race

Since Trumps rise to power, writer Mira Jacob has faced increasingly difficult questions from her young son

It started with Michael Jackson. It was 2014, and Mira Jacobs six-year-old son Z had moved on from being obsessed with Freddie Mercury (He demanded fake moustaches for a solid year), to being obsessed with Jackson. He knew all the moves and was never without a fedora. So my husband and I, thinking we were geniuses, got him all the albums, Jacob explains. The problem is, when you give a mixed-race kid albums from the trajectory of Michael Jacksons career, he gets really puzzled. And so the questions started: What colour was Jackson? How did he turn white? Why did he want to turn white?

The funny part was that Z didnt even know at that point what colour he was himself, Jacob says. He would say things like, Youre brown! Daddys white!

Around the same time, Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was shot dead by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Z started connecting the dots and asking whether thats why someone would turn white so that what happened in Ferguson doesnt happen to them? I could see it forming in his head, says Jacob: Is it not OK to be a brown person?; What is this thats happening? Those questions are really hard to answer when Trump is rising and its clearly not OK to be a brown person.

Over the next few years, Zs questions, and Jacobs answers, turned into a graphic journal, Good Talk: A Memoir In Conversations. Zs questions growing up as a half-Jewish, half-Indian, all-American kid in Brooklyn are interspersed with Jacobs experience growing up in New Mexico, the daughter of Indian immigrants.

When Jacob first pitched the book to publishers in 2015, she imagined it would be a lot funnier (although it is still a funny book). I thought the clear arc was that things are getting very tense right now but we are going to come out of this moment. Of course, that didnt happen. Donald Trump was elected president. So when America changed, the book changed.

For years I had been telling myself that America was changing for the better, and that the pain and confusion Id felt growing up here would soon be a thing of the past, Jacob writes at the beginning of Good Talk. Now every question Z asked me made me realise the growing gap between the America Id been raised to believe in and the one rising fast all around us.

This isnt to say, of course, that America hasnt changed for the better in many ways. Its worth remembering that interracial marriage was still illegal as recently as 50 years ago. Now families like Jacobs are increasingly common. So Z doesnt feel singled out. But I think he thinks the president doesnt like kids who look like him. Thats a complicated thing to figure out.

Also complicated is trying to strike a balance between protecting your brown son from a world in which he wont always be welcome, and preparing him for it. That is the question of the decade and I dont have a great answer, other than I try to answer the question Im asked and not the pile of things I am anxious about in my head.

Plenty of our parent friends have teenage black and brown sons, and have had to prepare them for stop-and-frisk incidents. So when Z asked me about Ferguson, I started thinking about that. My brain wants to tell him, OK, heres the thing youre going to need to know for the next 10 years of your life. Then I have to stop myself and say, he doesnt need to know that yet.

Mira Jacob with her husband Jed Rothstein and son in 2015. Photograph: courtesy of Jed Rothstein

There are moments of brightness, however. Jacob remembers that one day, when Z was reeling from watching the news, she suggested they watch a Netflix special by the Indian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu. We watched it [and Z] was laughing so hard, and getting this idea which I never had growing up that Indians are cool. Look how cool this guy is! This guy is so funny! I was, like, Oh, thank you Hari Kondabolu you have saved us today.

How do you strike a balance between protecting a curious, news-loving child from what is happening in the world, while keeping them educated and informed? Its difficult. Jacob has resorted to turning off the news a lot lately, in an attempt to keep some of the ugliness out.

But its not always possible. In 2017, white nationalists marched on Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting, among other things: Jews will not replace us! Jacob remembers Z turning away from the TV and asking: Is it bad to be brown and Jewish because those are two things no one likes?

At that moment, my heart is pounding for my son, she says. Im furious and terrified. Whenever Im that scared, I feel like my parental reaction is to throw myself to a very calm place so Im not projecting the anxiety I feel.

Do people ever tell Z race doesnt matter? Of course. Yeah, the entire white side of the family would say that to him. Its always interesting when people who never experience something say it doesnt matter. Its sort of like saying: Your experience, whatever you might be feeling, just doesnt matter. The line that Ive kind of stuck to with him is: all of your white family, even when they say these baffling things, they do love you. They might not always know the right thing to say, and they might say things that upset you sometimes, and you should tell them.

In recent years, politics has become increasingly personal on both sides of the Atlantic. Jacobs in-laws supported Trump, but wouldnt broach the subject with her, thinking it was better not to talk about it. And I thought, well, thats very convenient for you, she says. But I feel like my skin is coming off every time I walk into this house.

Its hard, because of course Jacob loves her in-laws and they love her. [But] this isnt about love. I think thats the part thats hardest for them to understand. When they talk to me they say, We want you to know we love you. And Im like, I know that. You are wonderful to me on many levels. You are also ignoring this thing which is terrifying and true. You are making the country less safe for me and my son. Theres no amount of you loving me that changes that.

People sometimes tell Jacob that her in-laws wouldnt vote for Trump if they really loved her; she finds that idea deeply frustrating. Its an oversimplification. They are oversimplifying my life to console themselves to give themselves the idea that people who love each other dont hurt each other. That is a ridiculous lie. People who love each other hurt each other all the time. Now what?

Jacobs answer to that question is to talk. To try to have an honest and open conversation with her whole family, no matter how hard it may be. For me and I wouldnt prescribe this for anyone else having a conversation, despite this enormous hurt, feels like the single biggest act of resistance I can perform.

Good Talk: A Memoir In Conversations is out now, published by Bloomsbury, 16.99.

If you would like a comment on this piece to be considered for inclusion on Weekend magazines letters page in print, please email weekend@theguardian.com, including your name and address (not for publication).

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‘Mom, is it bad to be brown and Jewish?’: how to talk to your children about race was originally posted by Latest News

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Gutfeld on the 75th anniversary of D-Day

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Gutfeld on the 75th anniversary of D-Day was originally posted by Latest News

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US State On Track To Become First To Ban Declawing Of Cats

A piece of legislation that would make declawing cats illegal in New York has passed state legislature and now heads to the Governor’s desk to sign into law. Bill A01303 would make the state the first to ban the practice, prohibiting the procedure altogether and fining veterinarians up to $1,000 for performing it.

Onychectomy, more commonly known as declawing, is a surgical procedure used to remove a cat’s claws to stop it from scratching or killing birds. It is already illegal in parts of Europe and Canada, as well as a number of US cities including, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver, reports the Associated Press. However, no state has banned it in its entirety.

A number of organizations and animal welfare groups oppose the procedure, including the Humane Society of the US who notes that declawing a cat can make it less likely to use the litter box or result in lasting physical problems.  

“Declawing a cat is not like getting a mani/pedi, it’s a brutal surgical procedure that involves removing the first bone of the cat’s toe and part of the tendons and muscles,” the bill’s main sponsor, NY State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, said in a statement to CNN. “Now that New York is poised to become the first state in the nation to ban cat declawing, the days when this procedure is cavalierly offered for the convenience of the owners to protect couches and curtain are numbered.”

Opposition from the New York State Veterinary Medical Society (NYSVMS) says that declawing should be an available option when the alternative is an owner abandoning or euthanizing their feline, particularly as doctors will sometimes declaw a cat if its owner has a variety of medical conditions such as immuno-compromised systems or diabetes.  

“These cat owners should not need to face relinquishment or euthanasia of their pet because the option to declaw cats is unavailable,” wrote Tim Atkinson with NYSVMS in a position paper, adding that a trained veterinarian should be able to assess normal scratching behavior and provide alternatives to declawing and potential risks to the patient.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, in most cases declawing a cat is not a “medically necessary procedure” and owners should only get cats if they can provide toys that allow for normal scratching behavior and can care for their cat’s claws. Though scientific data does not indicate declawing leads to abnormal behaviors, it has shown that cats with destructive scratching behavior are more likely to be euthanized, released, abandoned, or relinquished.

Cats with destructive scratching behavior are more likely to be surrendered, abandoned, or euthanized. encierro/Shutterstock

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US State On Track To Become First To Ban Declawing Of Cats was originally posted by Latest News

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Secret footage exposes abuse of calves at Coca-Cola affiliated dairy farm

US attraction Fair Oaks Farms Dairy Adventure accused of animal rights violations

Undercover footage showing young dairy calves being kicked, violently thrown, having their heads stamped into the ground and suffering from heat exposure at a US farm known as the Disneyland of agricultural tourism was published this week.

Calves can be seen struggling to breathe and are observed suffering by themselves within their hutches, according to a report by Animal Recovery Mission (ARM), the campaigners behind the footage. With temperatures reaching to as high as 110F [43C] in summer, dehydration and malnutrition are also possible factors leading to calves suffering and slowly dying at Fair Oaks Farms.

Every year, more than 600,000 tourists visit the Fair Oaks Farms Dairy Adventure, a working dairy farm of 15,000 cows a few hours south of Chicago, Illinois. The farm, with its museum, restaurant and hotel deemed the Disneyland of agricultural tourism this year by Food & Wine sells a vision of quaint rural life: Its where families can view pastures dotted with dairy cattle and watch as a piglet is born before they top off this idyllic country day with a scoop of ice cream or a pork chop from Fair Oaks Farms restaurant.

Fair Oaks Farms, a working dairy farm that has its own museum, restaurant and hotel. Photograph: Courtesy of ARM Investigations

The farm is independently owned by veterinarian Mike McCloskey, but it is an affiliate of the Coca-Cola company, with which it produces a nutrient-dense milk product called Fairlife and other popular dairy products including Core Power Protein shakes. McCloskey, who co-founded the business with his wife, Sue, has stated that their farm provides in-depth training on humane care of animals.

ARMs undercover investigator got a job at Fair Oaks as a calf care employee in 2018. The investigator reported that they received no training other than where to put the calves dead bodies. Furthermore, violence towards the animals appeared to be commonplace, typically stemming from frustration over the calves unwillingness to feed from artificial nipples.

Video footage captured between August and November of 2018 appears to show workers beating, kicking, and throwing the bloodied and emaciated baby animals as their mothers go hoarse calling to them from separated barns.

Fair Oaks Dairy Adventure is really a smokescreen, said ARMs founder, Richard Couto, who added that a visit to the recreational site last year sparked his interest in launching the investigation. It makes people believe that the dairy industry is something that its not. I knew that I was being lied to.

In a statement posted on the companys website, McCloskey attributed the cruelty to four of his employees and a third party truck driver, whom he said would have their contracts with the farm terminated. Three of the four, he said, were let go before the video was made public. He also said he was unaware that the male calves were being sold for veal.

It is a shock and an eye-opener for us to discover that under our watch, we had employees who showed disregard for our animals, our processes and for the rule of law, he said. This ARM video shines a light on an area that despite our thorough training, employee on-boarding procedures and overall commitment to animal welfare needs improvement.

A still from the video, which appears to show workers beating and kicking calves. Photograph: Courtesy of ARM Investigations

Both the Coca-Cola company and Fairlife a company also founded by Mike and Sue McCloskey responded with online statements reaffirming their commitments to animal welfare and promising better oversight. Claiming that the farm featured in the video only produces 5% their milk supply, Fairlife has vowed to audit all of its producers and said that it will not accept milk from those found not in compliance with its standards.

Still, thats not enough for Chicago-based grocery chain Jewel-Osco, which announced on Wednesday that it would drop any product associated with Fair Oaks Farms.

Its also not enough for Couto, who wants consumers to stop supporting an industry that he sees as fundamentally broken. We want to see felony arrests and people go to jail, he said. But what will that do for the animals at Fair Oaks Farms? For the rest of the animals in the dairy industry? Absolutely nothing.

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Country Singer Granger Smith Reveals Death Of 3-Year-Old Son Following ‘Tragic Accident’ – Perez Hilton

Granger Smith is “devastated and heartbroken” to announce the death of his youngest son, River Kelly Smith.

The country star took to social media on Thursday to share the unthinkable news with his followers, explaining that the three-year-old suffered a “tragic accident” and was unfortunately “unable to be revived” by doctors.

Granger didn’t go into more detail, but he noted that he and his wife Amber Smith “made the decision to say our last goodbyes and donate his organs so that other children will be given a second chance at life.” 

He wrote:

“I have to deliver unthinkable news. We’ve lost our youngest son, River Kelly Smith. Following a tragic accident, and despite doctor’s best efforts, he was unable to be revived. Amber and I made the decision to say our last goodbyes and donate his organs so that other children will be given a second chance at life. 

Our family is devastated and heartbroken, but we take solace in knowing he is with his Heavenly Father. Riv was special. Everyone that met him knew that immediately. The joy he brought to our lives cannot be expressed and his light will be forever in our hearts.”

While the singer admitted he couldn’t say much more about the tragedy at that moment, he offered the following message to his fans:

“Love the ones close to you. There has never been a more difficult moment for us than this.”

Wow. We can’t even imagine the pain Granger and his family must be going through right now.

He concluded in his post:

“In lieu of flowers or gifts, please send donations to Dell Children’s Medical Center in River’s name. The doctors, nurses and staff have been incredible.”

The message received an outpouring of love and support from fans and friends — not to mention, fellow country stars like Maren Morris and Jason Aldean.

Amber also shared the devastating news on her social media page, writing alongside the family’s statement:

“Nothing can prepare a mother to deliver this kind of news…”

(c) Granger Smith/Facebook

River’s birth was announced by the couple, who are also parents to five-year-old son Lincoln and seven-year-old daughter London, in May 2016 on social media.

At the time, the Backroad Song crooner shared a photo of the family (above) on his Facebook page with the heartfelt caption:

“Heart and hands are full. We added one more boy to the clan. River Kelly Smith has joined his brother and sister!”

So immeasurably heartbreaking. Our thoughts are with Granger and his family at this difficult time.

[Image via Granger Smith/Instagram]

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This Woman Gets A Maternity Photo Shoot With Her Thesis And All Students Relate

It’s that time of year again when so many students around the world are handing in their graduation thesis. This important academic achievement tests the knowledge they gained during the years spent studying and allows students to finally reap the reward of their hard work. To commemorate this important milestone, students are getting creative. Recently, a 26-year-old grad student, Sarah Whelan Curtis, stole the spotlight online by doing a hilarious maternity photo shoot after finally ‘giving birth’ to her thesis.

(h/t: Yahoo)

Curtis, who is doing her Ph.D. at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia recently finished her thesis on epigenetics that took her 4 years to write. She broke the news by doing a maternity photo shoot with her work and sharing it on Twitter.

Her photos quickly went viral with many students relating to the idea of comparing writing a thesis to a very long labor.

Curtis told Yahoo Lifestyle that her family made remarks concerning her future plans, “I have a lot of nieces and nephews, and my mom told me, ‘Either get a Ph.D. or give me a grandchild. I got my doctorate,” she said.

After seeing so many people sharing their newborn photos, Curtis came up with a funny idea. When her thesis was due, she grabbed a baby blanket, wrapped her thesis in it, and had her husband take pictures of her ‘newborn’. So many people loved the idea that since the 4th of June, her tweet has gathered more than 252k likes and almost 50k retweets. Curtis received a lot of praise and prompted graduate students to share photos of their own ‘babies’

Here’s how people reacted

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[ericbraum]

Trump bids farewell and thank you to the greatest generation

(CNN)President Donald Trump met the moment, perfectly, with words that summoned poetry from their simplicity.

“You are the glory of our republic and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” Trump said.

“You are among the very greatest Americans who will ever live,” Trump said. “Today we express our undying gratitude.”

A group of now hollow-cheeked veterans, wearing medals proudly on their chests, and baseball caps bearing their battle honors, absorbed the applause. Three comrades directly behind Trump’s podium huddled under one blanket — as if in a long-ago fox hole.

Any visit to the killing grounds of Normandy is humbling and inspiring. When world leaders gather to mark historic anniversaries emotions become even more intense. The names, ages and home states of the fallen etched on their graves nearby encapsulates the random horror of a world war.

But there was something different, even more poignant, and final about the D-Day anniversary commemorations this year.

Trump, hitting rare emotional and unifying notes on behalf of Americans and what used to be called the free world, was effectively bidding farewell to the greatest generation.

For once, the divisive rhetoric and dislocation sparked by his approach to the presidency, and the reaction to it from his foes, was forgotten.

There was a sense that a wider cultural and political chapter — that has helped define life in the West for the last 75 years — was closing — leaving a questionable future.

The last of the old guard

97-year-old vet jumps into Normandy, 75 years after D-Day

France commemorates D-Day each June, but the biggest events have typically marked five-year intervals, drawing a parade of American presidents to the sacred battlefields and cemeteries.

Each time, the ranks of old soldiers thins considerably. This year, 173 US World War II veterans attended, 65 of those were here on D-Day.

Leaders and politicians who ordered their men into the cauldron of Nazi fire on the morning of June 6, 1944, are long gone. Those that are left to bear witness — somehow appropriately — are the foot soldiers who braved the worst of the carnage as they waded ashore in mass ranks to save liberty.

Any 20-year-old who struggled onto Omaha Beach or leapt out of a twin-engine Dakota into a sky boiling with flak that day will be 100 by the time of the next big gathering in Normandy.

A few veterans will likely survive to make the trip, but reality means Thursday’s group of nonagenarians represented the last, big pilgrimage to the place where so many of their comrades lie.

Their courage will still be remembered when they are gone — the gratitude shown by the French towards Americans for their liberation is the glue of the country’s relations.

But it will not be quite the same when old men, with their walking sticks and in wheel chairs no longer share their war stories as the trauma of their memories plays out in their eyes.

Trump — along with French President Emmanuel Macron at the American War Cemetery and other allied leaders at other landing beaches — were not just saying goodbye to a dwindling army of veterans on Thursday.

They were also marking the end of a pivotal passage in history that is giving way to an age when the institutions forged from the turmoil of World War II are under serious strain.

Trump’s speech was a well-judged tribute to veterans and America’s allies: The “nobility and fortitude” of the British, the “robust” Canadians, the “fighting Poles” the “gallant French” “intrepid Australians” and “tough Norwegians.”

But it offered no larger reflection on the fraught political questions raised by this moment in history — or about the lessons the D-Day generation may offer for today’s world.

The shadow of World War II

It is impossible to overestimate the shadow cast by World War II on the politics and culture of the subsequent age.

D-Day was an especially powerful moment — it marked the point when America formally succeeded war-ravaged Britain and its fraying empire as the world’s top power.

It was a day when a high-risk, logistically complicated multi-national operation with a higher purpose — the defeat of tyranny — actually worked against the odds in a show of human ingenuity. It summoned a unity of global purpose that is impossible to imagine in today’s fractured politics.

In the years since, some nations have built their entire national self-image around World War II, for better or worse.

“The UK as a nation still identifies itself on as the plucky defender that survived World War II … against a continental Europe that had been brought under a Nazi yoke,” Robin Niblett, director of Chatham House, said on CNN International on Tuesday.

The sense of Britain as a plucky outsider that can fight its own battles and stand alone has been at the center of the Brexit debate that has been replete with wartime references.

It also ignores that the tide was only turned against Nazism when the United States brought its might to bear and after staggering Russian sacrifice bled Hitler’s armies in the East.

In America, D-Day and its clear moral frame of a fight between good and evil is a less troublesome national memory than the social and emotional upheaval of the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

World War II in retrospect feels like a sepia moment resonating with national unity that seems impossible to imagine in the angry 21st century.

It is natural that as memories ebb, the lessons of history will also fade. This may explain the rise of right-wing populism in Europe in recent years — a political tide that was for decades quelled by memories of fascism.

US Presidents and European leaders have also for years been content to reach for easy, unifying narratives of common glory in World War II and the post-Cold War period rather than reboot the transatlantic alliance for the future. Now, they are going to have to try a lot harder since soon, there will be no one alive who remembers the pain and the glory of those wartime years.

For years, the institutions like the United Nations, NATO and the European Union, which the greatest generation sacrificed to build not only ensured prosperity but put a lid on continental conflict that twice in the 20th century drew the United States onto bloody European battlefields.

But now, with the rise of China, as Russia tries to regain lost influence and as an American President, of all people, seems more keen to tear down established structures than to strengthen or modernize them, everything seems fragile.

Macron, addressing US veterans, promised to fight to keep the values for which they fought alive — despite his own compromised political standing and rising challenges to his internationalist worldview.

“We need to be true to their memory and to do that we must never renounce what their sacrifice ignited,” said Macron, who was born 33 years after D-Day.

“The promise of Normandy will be supported by France with all its might. I promise that this will be the case, and this is at the heart of America’s destiny, too,” Macron said in his own valediction to the greatest generation.

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Trump bids farewell and thank you to the greatest generation was originally posted by Latest News

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Trump’s family holiday to UK Disneyland makes for painful viewing | John Crace

With sketch writers banned from his press conference with Theresa May, I was forced to endure it on TV

Monday

Sometimes I worry I am more psychically connected to Tottenham Hotspur than is healthy. Having done my two events at the Hay festival, I went back to the friends I was staying with to watch the Champions League final. Only to find they didnt have BT Sport and their internet connection was patchy at best. So I ended up viewing the game on my iPad with a screen that kept buffering and then freezing. Which of course was entirely appropriate, because buffering and freezing appeared to be Spurs main game plan. The biggest match in the clubs history, against a team playing well below its best, and Spurs also chose to have a complete off day. Even down to giving away a dodgy penalty inside the first minute. You cant get more Spursy than that. It almost made me proud. Still, there was one upside. The two friends, Matthew and Terry, who ended up using my tickets kept me updated with photos throughout their trip, from their arrival in Toulouse to their eight-hour car journey to Madrid to their picnic on the beach on the way back. What struck me most was that they were both smiling in every shot. Something I would never have managed. I would have been sick with anxiety before the game and acutely depressed after it. There was no avoiding it. The right two people went to the game. Though it was a little upsetting to realise all my friends almost certainly have a better time without me.

Tuesday

There were plenty of spare seats among the US press corps and there was masses of space for more chairs to be laid out for the British media in the cavernous Durbar Court in the Foreign Office. Yet neither I nor any of the other sketch writers managed to secure accreditation for the Theresa May and Donald Trump press conference. Instead, the night before, we all received a rather sniffy email from No 10 regretting that it was unable to squeeze us in. A cynic might wonder if two of the most powerful leaders in the western world arent totally in favour of a free press. So, like everyone else, I was obliged to follow this particular episode of the US presidents family holiday to UK Disneyland on television. It was painful viewing. Not because of the inevitable lies, distortions and embarrassments that have long been priced in to any Trump public appearance. But because of the effect it was clearly having on the prime minister. When May had invited Trump, she expected to have negotiated the UKs withdrawal from the EU by the time of his arrival and to use his visit to project an image of power. Shoulder to shoulder with the president, negotiating a new trade deal. Instead, she cut a forlorn, diminished figure as she was both patronised and ignored by Trump, who made no secret that he was far more interested in her successor. It was like watching the prime minister vanish before your eyes.

Wednesday

My mother was 20 in June 1944 and had served for two years as a Wren a member of the Womens Royal Naval Service – in Portsmouth. When I was growing up, she would frequently tell me how she observed the buildup of troops, ships and military hardware in the days leading up to D-day, and how she went back to her billet each night thinking it would only take one stray German plane to fly over and the whole element of surprise would be lost and the invasion force wiped out. That the secrecy was maintained was always the biggest miracle to her. Ive found the 75th anniversary commemorations profoundly moving, especially the handful of surviving veterans and letters from the dead. But theyve also generated some anger, because politicians may talk a good game about the importance of honouring the sacrifices of the wartime generation, but they dont follow up on it. My father was mentally scarred by his experiences in the war, but was merely told to get on and make the best of it. No one was interested. The war was over, just be grateful to be alive. The horror of what he had been through never left him and he struggled to express his feelings. My mother is now 95 and in a home. She often says she feels like an inconvenience. Remembrance seldom lasts more than a day. It should be an action, not a thought.

Thursday

Even though its been more than 30 years since I took any drugs, I still have dreams in which I am using heroin at least two or three times a year, and they never fail to leave me profoundly disturbed. Last night, I had one such dream. Though the characters and location vary each time, the set-up is always identical. I never actually take any heroin. Instead, I have always almost run out of the drug, terrified I am about to go cold turkey and engaged in an invariably futile search for a dealer. All the while trying to avoid meeting anyone I know and feeling a deep sense of guilt and failure that I have relapsed. Each time, I wake up with an acute sense of anxiety, as the dreams are so vivid Im not immediately sure whats real and whats not, and feel unsettled for most of the following day. Its as if my subconscious will never let me forgive myself or forget, and is determined to make me relive the shame at regular intervals. On Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of interviewing the bestselling US author Michael Pollan at a packed event in Westminster about his new book How to Change Your Mind, a study of the new science of psychedelics. It turns out that under controlled conditions LSD and psilocybin have proved beneficial in the treatment of conditions such as depression, OCD and addiction. Personally, I will be giving this a swerve my mental health is already rather too fragile and I took enough psychedelics in the late 1970s to put me off for a lifetime but the evidence Pollan put forward that LSD can help people who are stuck in their lives was compelling. I did wonder whether we should be feeding psychedelics to our politicians to resolve Brexit, an idea that was overwhelmingly endorsed by the audience. At best, it could effect a change of thinking. And if it gave some of them a bad trip, they would at least know how the rest of us are feeling.

Friday

Usually I like to binge-watch TV series, and my wife has to talk me down from squeezing in just one more episode before going to bed. Chernobyl has proved the exception. It is just so brilliant and so devastating that both of us can only take one episode at a time. After an hours viewing, we are both physically and mentally exhausted and need a break. I cant remember any other TV show that has ever had that effect on me, and the script and acting are every bit as superb as many other critics have said. I was 30 at the time of Chernobyl and I can clearly remember feeling first worried and then reassured it had been a minor incident, and that only only 40 or so people had died. Over time, I came to realise it had been much more serious, but its taken a TV drama to make me aware of the full scale of the disaster. Soviet secrecy somehow managed to survive the collapse of the Soviet Union. Talking of which, old-school communist bloc traditions appear to be back in fashion. In recent years, China has taken a rather commercial approach to its pandas, loaning them out to zoos for $1m (790,000) a year. But now, panda diplomacy has returned with the news that Chinas president, Xi Jinping, has handed over a couple to Moscow zoo as a personal gift to Vladimir Putin. Back to the future. Arguably Ted Heaths greatest achievement as prime minister was to secure a couple of pandas from Chairman Mao. If Theresa May could nab a pair before 5pm today, she may yet have a legacy.

Kellyanne Conway: What did you get all those medals for? Duke of Kent: Having dinner with your president. Photograph: Victoria Jones/AP

Digested week: Schrodingers NHS: Both on and off the table

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Trump’s family holiday to UK Disneyland makes for painful viewing | John Crace was originally posted by Latest News

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Two million people at risk of starvation as drought returns to Somalia

Agencies sound the alarm over climate crisis after devastation of crops and livestock

More than 2 million people could face starvation by the end of the summer, unless there are urgent efforts to respond to the drought in Somalia.

Mark Lowcock, the UNs humanitarian chief, said the country is facing one of the driest rainy seasons in more than three decades, and a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.

By September, 2.2 million people will face hunger so severe that it threatens their lives or livelihoods. A further 3.2 million people around one-fifth of Somalias population will be uncertain of their next meal.

If there isnt a rapid response, theres going to be a big problem, said Lowcock.

Last week, the UN warned that, rather than ramping up work, agencies had been forced to cut back in some areas because the humanitarian appeal for Somalia was so poorly funded.

The crisis comes as communities struggle to recover from a two-year drought that ended in 2017.

We were caught by surprise at just how quickly this drought has returned, said Nasra Ismail, director of the Somalia NGO Consortium. The time for people to recover has been halved and has been continuing to decrease every single season, she said. Ultimately, its climate crisis.

The April to June period, initially forecast as an average rainy season, is now thought to be one of the driest on record in more than 35 years.

The failed rainy season was partly caused by cyclones in the southern Indian Ocean, including Cyclone Idai in March, which stopped rains from moving north. This has come on top of abnormally hot and dry conditions between January and March, and a poor deyr season, between October and December last year.

While there has been some rainfall in recent weeks, it is still well below what is needed, leading to the devastation of crops and death of livestock.

Lowcock said agencies faced a severe lack of funding, but that intervening early would avert the worst human suffering and prove more cost-effective. The humanitarian response plan, which sought $1.08bn (848m) for the year, had received only a fifth of this amount by the end of May. The appeal has since been replaced by a drought response plan, for which $710m is being sought.

The UN has allocated $45m to offer support in Somalia, as well as parts of Ethiopia and Kenya. The majority of the funds, $30m, will go to Somalia.

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Two million people at risk of starvation as drought returns to Somalia was originally posted by Latest News

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Halting Parliament for no deal rejected by Bercow

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Media captionBercow: ‘Simply not going to happen’

The Speaker of the House, John Bercow, says ending the current session of Parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit is “simply not going to happen”.

Tory leadership candidate Dominic Raab has suggested he would be prepared to shut down Parliament to ensure the UK leaves the EU on 31 October.

But the suggestion of using the process – known as prorogation – has led to criticism from many MPs.

The SNP’s Pete Wishart called the proposal a “subversion of democracy”.

Leader of the House Mel Stride also said a new prime minister would “not necessarily” be in place before MPs take their summer recess.

Asked about it in the Commons, he said it would be down to an “interplay between when the contest within the Conservative Party for the new leader is due to conclude, and when the recess itself is announced”.

He added: “We certainly don’t know the answer to the latter, and I’m not sure that we entirely know the answer to the former.”

Can Parliament stop a no-deal Brexit?

Brexit: Where do Conservative leadership candidates stand?

Latest Brexit deadline ‘arbitrary’ – Gove

Notes from the first Tory hustings

The current session has been going for almost two years – since the 2017 election – as it was extended to tackle the legislation for Brexit.

Shadow leader of the House, Valerie Vaz, told the Commons it was the longest session in Parliament since the 1800 Acts of Union.

What is prorogation?

Every parliamentary session – which usually lasts around a year, starting with the State Opening of Parliament and a Queen’s Speech – is ended when it is “prorogued” by the Queen.

The process essentially closes Parliament and ends the progress of current legislation until a new session begins.

Although it is technically at the Queen’s “command”, in practice it is the government’s decision of when it happens.

How could it be used to push through no deal?

If a new prime minister is concerned about MPs blocking the UK’s exit from the EU, they could advise the Queen to prorogue Parliament.

This would send MPs away so that they cannot do anything in the Commons to hold up Brexit.

However, it would be an unprecedented move in modern times to use this power for political reasons, rather than to end a session in preparation for a new Queen’s Speech.

What have MPs said?

The possibility of prorogation has arisen as part of the Tory leadership contest – which will also choose the UK’s next prime minister – as the candidates battle over their vision for Brexit.

After Mr Raab made his comments to a leadership hustings on Wednesday, his fellow contender, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart, called the suggestion “unconstitutional” and “undemocratic”, adding: “It wouldn’t work.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has ruled out prorogation if he wins the contest, writing on Twitter that it “undermines parliamentary democracy and risks a general election”.

And former Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom told Sky News that such a plan “would not be something workable”.

Image copyright Reuters

Image caption Amber Rudd called the suggestion “outrageous”

Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd – who is not running – also condemned the proposal, saying: “I think it’s outrageous to consider proroguing Parliament. We are not Stuart kings.”

The comments also led to a number of impassioned speeches in the Commons on Thursday.

Labour’s Chris Bryant said it would be on “a Venezuelan scale of outrage” to carry it out “simply to force through a no-deal Brexit against the will of Parliament”.

Mr Wishart asked the Leader of the House to confirm that he had “no intention of suspending democracy in this country to facilitate that no-deal Brexit”.

Mr Stride said prorogation was “ultimately in the gift of the Queen”, adding: “What I would say is, that I do think Her Majesty should be kept out of the politics of our Parliament.

“I’m sure that will be a matter that will be at the forefront of those who toy with those decisions in the future.”

Mr Bercow said it was not going to happen and his conclusion was “so blindingly obvious it almost doesn’t need to be stated”.

Related Topics

House of Commons

UK Parliament

Queen Elizabeth II

John Bercow

Dominic Raab

Brexit

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Halting Parliament for no deal rejected by Bercow was originally posted by Latest News