“No ifs or buts” - Johnson promises Halloween Brexit
The new UK Prime Minister has insisted the UK will leave the EU with a ‘new, better deal’ on October 31st.
The Queen of England officially asked Boris Johnson to form a new UK Government this afternoon.
Speaking outside 10 Downing Street less than half-an-hour later, Mr Johnson warned that the UK was leaving the EU in 99 days with, “no ifs or buts.”
“We are going to fulfil the repeated promises of Parliament to the people and come out of the EU on October 31st, no ifs or buts,” he said.
Johnson appoints allies to key cabinet roles
A Conservative MP who once suggested food shortages in Ireland could be used as leverage in Brexit talks has been named the UK Home Secretary.
Priti Patel, who resigned as international development secretary in 2017, completed her return to grace this evening.
Her comments last December that a report suggesting Ireland could face food shortages under a no-deal Brexit should have been “pressed home during the negations” caused anger in Ireland and she later said they were taken out of context.
She was returned to cabinet by Boris Johnson after he was confirmed as the UK Prime Minister.
Planned industrial action by psychiatric nurses suspended
Planned industrial action by psychiatric nurses has been suspended at the last minute.
Some 6,000 nurses had been due to resume an overtime ban after talks between the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) and the HSE broke down on Monday evening.
The dispute over the recruitment and retention of mental health staff has been ongoing for over five months, with staff shortages at over 20% in the speciality.
There are 700 vacancies in mental health services nationally as qualified nurses continue to move abroad or into the private sector.
Mueller testifies before US Congress
The US special counsel says his report does not exonerate the US president when it comes to potential obstruction of justice.
Mr Mueller is appearing before two House committees to testify on his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
His report - published in redacted form in April - highlights 'ten episodes' relating to Donald Trump and potential obstruction of justice - although it makes no 'prosecutorial judgement' on the issue.
It "does not conclude that the President committed a crime", but also does not exonerate him.
Facebook to pay ‘unprecedented’ $5bn fine
Authorities in the US have announced Facebook will pay a record $5 billion fine and have to impose "sweeping" new privacy restrictions.
The settlement comes after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged the social network violated its rules "by deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information"
It is claimed the company shared users’ personal information with third-party apps that were downloaded by the user’s Facebook friends - with "many users" unaware that the data was being shared.
US officials said the $5 billion penalty is 20 times greater than the previous largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed anywhere in the world.
