Russia threatens expulsion action
Worboys, 60, who now goes by the name John Radford, watched via a video link from prison yesterday as his barrister said the serial sex offender has had his freedom “taken away from him”. THE head of NHS England has called on the Government to introduce tougher food labelling post-Brexit in a bid to tackle the UK’s obesity crisis.
Speaking at the Diabetes UK Conference in London, Simon Stevens said that after Britain quits the EU, the Government could no longer claim its “hands are tied” by EU regulations. Mr Stevens said much more action would be needed if the Government was going to meet its target of cutting 20% of added sugar in children’s diets by 2020. A BOOK OF condolence at Stephen Hawking’s former college in Cambridge has been signed by people from around the world following his death in the early hours of yesterday.
The flag was flying at halfmast at Gonville and Caius College yesterday in honour of the professor, who was a fellow of the college for more than 50 years. A queue of people wanting to pay their respects stretched outside the chapel, where a book of condolence has been opened.
Stephanie De Kremer, 23, who studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, brought a bouquet of flowers and queued to sign the book of condolence.
“A lot of my friends who read mathematics went to lectures RUSSIA has threatened retaliatory action after Theresa May announced that 23 suspected spies at its London embassy were being kicked out of the UK in the largest mass expulsion of diplomats since the Cold War.
Announcing the action in the House of Commons, Mrs May said the nerve agent attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury amounted to “an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom”.
She announced the suspension of highlevel contacts with Russia, including a boycott of this summer’s World Cup by Government ministers and members of the royal family.
And she said Russian state assets will be frozen “wherever we have the evidence that they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents”.
Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the moves as an “unprecedentedly crude provocation” and warned: “Our response will not be long in coming.”
In a statement, the ministry said: “We consider it categorically unacceptable and unworthy that the British Government, in with Professor Stephen Hawking, and he was always really involved,” she said.
A noticeboard at the college read: “Gonville and Caius College mourns the passing of Professor Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist and Fellow of the College for over 50 years. His contribution to science, and to Caius, will never be forgotten.” its unseemly political aims, further seriously aggravated relations, announcing a whole set of hostile measures, including the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats from the country.”
But Mrs May said Russia had failed to provide a “credible” explanation for how the Novichok nerve agent which it had developed came to be used in the attack on the Skripals, who remain in hospital after being found slumped on a bench on March 4.
She told MPs: “There is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter – and for threatening the lives of other British citizens in Salisbury, including Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey.
“This represents an unlawful use of force by the Russian state against the United Kingdom.”
Mrs May addressed MPs yesterday after being briefed by senior military and intelligence chiefs at a meeting of the National Security Council at which it was agreed to take “immediate actions to dismantle Russia’s spy network in the UK”.
The Russian diplomats identified as undeclared intelligence officers have been given a week to leave, in the largest mass expulsion since 31 were ordered out in 1985 following the defection of double agent Oleg Gordievsky.
The expulsions will “fundamentally degrade Russian intelligence capability in the UK for years to come”, said Mrs May, adding: “If they seek to rebuild it, we will prevent them from doing so.”
Mrs May told MPs the Government will also develop new powers “to harden our defences against all forms of hostile state activity”, including by tightening checks on cross-border movements of those who may endanger UK security.