United Kingdom

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Facebook to Pay Each UK Worker $1.1M Bonus

Not for purely altruistic reasons, though—it's to save big on its tax bill overseas

(Newser) - Facebook has found a creative way to drastically bring down its tax bill in the UK: Pay each employee who works there a million bucks, NBC News reports. As first noted in the Sunday Times , the company will pay out nearly $397 million in bonuses to UK staffers, which comes...

Company to Female Workers: Take Time Off for Your Period

UK firm hopes its menstrual policy erases stigma about women's natural cycles

(Newser) - When Bex Baxter started seeing women in her office "bent over double" with pain—not from indigestion or appendicitis, but from their monthly menstrual cycles—she knew she had to act, per the Guardian . So the director of Coexist, based in Bristol, England, has decided to implement a "...

Clever Bike Thieves Using This New Trick

They're cutting racks, then hiding the gap with tape

(Newser) - London's bike thieves are getting extra crafty. On Friday, a police officer tweeted photos of a bike rack that had been sliced through and then taped back together to hide the cuts from the city's unsuspecting cyclists, per Boing Boing . Sarah King, a councilor for South Camberwell, tells...

Ex-Zookeeper Cleared of Love-Triangle Assault

A meerkat handler, monkey expert, and llama-keeper, oh my!

(Newser) - Finally, legal closure in a tumultuous zookeeper love triangle across the pond—and perhaps the best lead-in sentence you'll read all week: "A former meerkat expert at London Zoo was cleared Tuesday of assaulting a monkey handler in a love spat over a llama-keeper" is how the AP...

Cops: Girls Fatally Beat Woman, Post Snapchat Pics

Grisly trial is under way in the UK

(Newser) - At around 7:15pm on Dec. 8, 2014, prosecutors say two girls who were then 13 and 14 let themselves into the unlocked home of a woman in the UK, a woman known as an alcoholic who sometimes bought liquor and cigarettes for underage teens. At 7:30pm, the woman,...

Lost Tolkien Poems Found in School Annual

Christmas poem, love poem from 1936 'overwhelmed' UK principal who found them

(Newser) - In August, a previously unseen JRR Tolkien retelling of a 19th-century Finnish epic was published. Now the world will get to experience two other lost Tolkien gems: a pair of poems the Lord of the Rings author penned for an English student publication in 1936, the New York Times reports....

Hot Drinks May Have 3 Times the Sugar of a Coke

UK health group finds chains' hot flavored beverages are loaded with sugar

(Newser) - Have some hot beverage with your sugar. That's the roundabout finding of a UK health advocacy organization that discovered hot flavored drinks served by chains like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Dunkin' Donuts can contain a "shocking" amount of sugar—sometimes up to 25 teaspoons per serving, or more...

Mouse Found Dead in 155-Year-Old Trap

 Mouse Found Dead 
 in 155-Year-Old Trap 
in case you missed it
Feb 13, 2016 7:47 AM CST

Mouse Found Dead in 155-Year-Old Trap

Rodent got caught in Victorian mousetrap on display in museum

(Newser) - When Colin Pullinger & Sons patented its "Perpetual Mouse Trap" in 1861, the company boasted the device would "last a lifetime"—and it wasn't kidding. One of the antiquated models on display at the University of Reading's Museum of English Rural Life ended up trapping...

Tech's 'Unluckiest Guy' Loses Big in Startup Sale

Chris Hill-Scott traded SwiftKey share for a bike in 2008

(Newser) - Somewhere out there, there's a bicycle that was traded for what turned out to be a multi-million dollar stake in a tech startup. The crazy tale involves the company SwiftKey and one of its founders, Chris Hill-Scott. Before the Swiftkey app tallied 300 million downloads and became a favorite...

UK Gives Controversial OK for Editing Human Genes

It could help fight inherited diseases—but critics say there's an ethical 'slippery slope'

(Newser) - Britain's fertility regulator has approved a scientist's request to edit the human genetic code in an effort to fight inherited diseases—but critics fear the new technique crosses too many ethical boundaries, reports the AP . The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority announced Monday it has granted a research...

Guy Makes Film Censors Watch Paint Dry for 10 Hours

 Guy Makes 
 Film Censors 
 Watch Paint Dry 
 for 10 Hours 
in case you missed it
Jan 30, 2016 4:15 PM CST

Guy Makes Film Censors Watch Paint Dry for 10 Hours

It was the ultimate revenge for classification fees, says filmmaker

(Newser) - The British Board of Film Classification describes Charlie Lyne's Paint Drying as "a film showing paint drying on a wall. It contains no material likely to offend or harm" and "should be suitable for audiences aged 4 years and over." The cost of that classification: more...

Straight Couple Loses Court Fight for Civil Union

They think marriage is 'patriarchal,' but UK judge rejects challenge

(Newser) - A heterosexual couple in the UK has lost the first legal battle in an unusual equality fight. Rebecca Steinfeld, 34, and Charles Keidan, 39—who've been together since 2010 and have an 8-month-old baby—petitioned the High Court to grant them a civil partnership because they see marriage as...

Child's Spelling Error Leads to Police Questioning

'Terraced house' ended up 'terrorist house'

(Newser) - A 10-year-old Muslim boy made a truly unfortunate spelling error at his UK school and ended up getting interviewed by police. The boy meant to write, as part of an English lesson, that he lived in a "terraced house," but accidentally wrote instead that he lived in a...

UK May Deport Muslim Migrants Who Don't Learn English

'People coming to our country have responsibilities too'

(Newser) - If migrants—for example, Muslim women on spousal visas—haven't learned at least some English within two-and-a-half years of moving to the UK, they could face deportation, the Guardian reports. It's part of a plan backed by prime minister David Cameron, who says the segregation and isolation of...

England May Finally Get Its Own National Anthem

God save ' God Save the Queen'?

(Newser) - God may save the Queen, but who will save "God Save the Queen"? A bill introduced Wednesday in British parliament means England will consider replacing "God Save the Queen" as its de facto national anthem for the first time in 200 years, the New York Times reports....

Teen Fatally Overdoses on Deodorant Spray

'Succumbed to the effects of the gas,' says coroner

(Newser) - A British teen who was found collapsed on the landing outside his room at a children's home last August died from using too much spray-on deodorant, the Telegraph reports. "He sprayed it all over himself and succumbed to the effects of the gas," Kent Online quotes the...

Burglars Confess to Save Innocent Man

'It was a case of honor among thieves,' says lawyer

(Newser) - Most burglars would be thrilled to know they got away with their crime. Not this pair: Police say Michael Dehal, 28, and Stephen Monaghan, 50, stole $87,500 worth of beauty products and equipment from a UK salon in June 2014. Though Monaghan was initially suspected, police eventually charged another...

Donald Trump Ban to Be Debated by UK Parliament

Is Trump 'non-conducive to the public good?'

(Newser) - Mark your calendars: On Jan. 18, the UK will officially decide whether it—as a country—is a loser. That's when Parliament is officially scheduled to debate an immensely popular petition calling for Donald Trump to be banned from entering the country, Time reports. According to the BBC , the...

US Bans UK Muslim Family From Disneyland Visit

Man says US authorities 'think every Muslim poses a threat'

(Newser) - A Muslim family of 11 had a major hiccup in their Disneyland vacation plans last week when US authorities barred them from boarding a flight from London to Los Angeles without explanation. The British family had been given travel authorization online prior to the Dec. 15 flight, but Homeland Security...

Rebel Weather Reporter Sneaks in 12 Star Wars Puns

It's not a trap—she really does it, all in under 40 seconds

(Newser) - She didn't detail the climate patterns on Tatooine, but Sian Welby did the next best thing. The UK Channel 5 forecaster (or, for the purposes of this story, Channel 5 "Stormscooper") gave a quick weather update this week, and the Force was strong with this one, per...

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