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Rory Stewart has overtaken Jeremy Hunt into second favourite for leadership after a widely praised performance on last night’s Channel 4 debate. Bookies price Stewart at 12/1 with Hunt now languishing in third place at 21/1. Michael Gove is seemingly out of the running to make the top two with odds of 45/1, although Boris Johnson’s odds have shortened over the weekend from 2/7 to 1/6 despite his no-show last night. Betfair Spokesperson Katie Baylis said: “Failing a dramatic turn...

Animal welfare charities have called for greyhound racing to be banned after official figures show there were almost 1,000 deaths last year. Hundreds of dogs were “put to sleep” in 2018 for reasons including the high cost of medical treatment and the absence of a “viable option away from the racecourse”, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) revealed. The governing body said they recognise there were “avoidable and unnecessary deaths” and pledged to eradicate them from the sport, but...

Tens of thousands of British businesses could find themselves in trouble with the taxman by failing to follow new rules on keeping digital records. More than one million firms with an annual taxable income of in excess of £85,000 are now legally required to submit VAT returns online. But a survey of 500 SME senior decision makers revealed 11 per cent of those polled aren’t aware of the new requirement. There also appears to be confusion from businesses about whether...

But Dominic Raab says he isn't so sure about the leadership hopeful.

Beijing has found its villain in its multi-fronted conflict with the United States: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The former CIA chief has been singled out for scorn, in Chinese state media and even at the foreign ministry, over his criticism of everything from Chinese tech giant Huawei to its record on human rights. During a regular media briefing on Monday, China's Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo by name of telling lies, a striking departure from its usual practice of referring...

Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to be Britain's prime minister, promised he would take the United Kingdom out of the European Union by Oct. 31, saying that only by preparing to leave without an agreement could a no-deal Brexit be prevented. Johnson, a former foreign minister and London mayor, is the clear favourite to replace Theresa May. He won the backing of 114 of 313 Conservative lawmakers in a first round of voting on Thursday, almost three times as many as...

Women across Switzerland held a strike on Friday to highlight their wealthy nation's poor record on female rights, recreating the passion of the first such walkout 28 years ago. In Lausanne, chanting protesters gathered at midnight outside the cathedral tower, whose bell was illuminated in purple, the official colour of the protest. Blowing whistles and banging pots and pans, hundreds of demonstrators - mostly women but also men - carried placards reading "no means no", "I am not a princess...

Britain’s businesses are being advised to prepare for no-deal Brexit after hard-line Brexiteers took the lead in the latest Conservative leadership vote. The Institute of Directors – one of the UK’s employers’ groups – said companies should not put faith in politicians to produce an agreement as the October 31st deadline looms. Less than half of businesses have Brexit plans, according to its figures, and only 4 per cent of those questioned said they would be using the extension period...

Pope Francis said on Friday that carbon pricing was "essential" to stem global warming, his clearest statement to date in support of the practice. In an address to energy executives at the end of a two-day meeting, he also called for "open, transparent, science-based and standardised" reporting of climate risk and a "radical energy transition" away from carbon to save the planet. Carbon pricing, via taxes or emissions trading schemes, is used by many governments to make energy consumers pay...