Steel Crisis: Emergency Commons Debate

set for an emergency debate on the future of the UK's steel industry, as the Business Secretary raises the prospect of Government help.

MPs will have up to three hours on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, after shadow business secretary Angela Eagle secured an urgent slot in the chamber.

The UK steel industry as a whole, including the plant at Port Talbot in South Wales, is losing £1m a day, with significant losses over the past year.

Labour has warned the industry is "hanging by a thread" as the search begins for a buyer of Tata Steel's UK business, with "many tens" of firms to be contacted in the hope of saving thousands of jobs.

The group's executive director Koushik Chatterjee has already said they hope to sell the business as a whole, rather than splitting it into parts.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the Government is ready to help, including "looking at the possibility of co-investing with a buyer on commercial terms".

Labour MP for Aberavon Stephen Kinnock, who has been leading the battle to save British steel, said the Government needed to be clearer about what "co-investing" would involve.

He said: "Sajid Javid's out-of-the-blue reference to 'co-investment' in the chamber yesterday is further evidence of the fact that this shambolic Government is making policy on the hoof.

"It is high time that Mr Javid makes a clear and comprehensive written statement, explaining what the Government is or is not prepared to do, in terms of intervention.

"The continued speculation and uncertainty is not helpful to the sales process. It seems that Business Department officials were as bemused as we are by their Secretary of State's comments yesterday."

There has been good news for Tata's Scunthorpe plant, however, which is included in a sale of Tata's Long Products business.

Investment firm Greybull Capital has signed an agreement to buy the business, which also covers two mills in Teesside, a design consultancy in York and associated distribution facilities, an engineering workshop in Workington and a mill in France.

Scunthorpe's union members are voting on whether to accept a 3% pay cut and reduced pension contributions for a yearin order to get the deal through. The result is due next week.

accepted, the deal will safeguard thousands of jobs and will provide some hope that the other parts of Tata's steel business can be saved.

At least two firms are understood to have expressed interest in the other plants, including Liberty House.

Kanye West reps pay for Sydney mural to be destroyed

An artist in Sydney, Australia, has painted over his own mural of Kanye West kissing himself. 

Scott Marsh has destroyed the Kanye Loves Kanye artwork after reportedly being offered $100,000 by the rapper's representatives. 

The mural was based on an edited image of Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

In an earlier Instagram post, Scott Marsh had suggested that he'd also asked for a lifetime supply of Kanye's Yeezy Boosts.

Scott Marsh was selling prints of the mural for $40 before painting it over.

He claims someone from Yeezy's management team contacted him and offered to pay him to remove the painting.

He told Life Without Andy: "I was contacted by someone claiming to be his management offering me a five figure sum to paint over the mural. 

"I asked for six figures and a lifetime supply of Yeezy Boosts, they are yet to respond."

A mural of Kim Kardashian, which is on a wall opposite the Kanye West one, is due to be painted over as well. 

Sydney's city council ordered it to be removed because it says the owner of Zigi's art, wine and cheese bar - which it's painted on - didn't apply for development consent before it was put up. 

Another artist called Lushsux has created two similar Kim Kardashian murals in his home town of Melbourne, which are inspired by the reality star's naked selfies.

It might be gone, but Scott doesn't want members of the public to forget the mural.

He's left Kanye's finger on the wall as a tribute.

Panama Papers: UK's Cameron fights back in parliament

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has fought back after days of criticism over his finances, lashing out at what he called hurtful and untrue allegations about his late father's investments, sparked by the Panama Papers leaks

Trying to restore his government's shaken reputation, Cameron insisted on Monday that "aspiration and wealth creation are not somehow dirty words" and said the UK was acting to stop evasion in overseas tax havens.

Cameron has been under mounting pressure since his father, Ian Cameron, was identified as a client of a Panamanian law firm that specialises in helping the wealthy reduce their tax burdens.

The prime minister initially refused to say whether he had a stake in Blairmore Holdings, an offshore firm established by his father, before acknowledging he had sold his shares in it shortly before he was elected in 2010.

"I accept all of the criticisms for not responding more quickly to these issues last week," Cameron told MPs in parliament. "But as I said, I was angry about the way my father's memory was being traduced."

Revelations about the Cameron family finances - found among more than 11 million leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca - have cast a shadow on previous government statements that it is committed to closing tax loopholes.

Cameron has championed greater financial transparency, and is due to host an international anti-corruption summit in London next month. A law requiring UK companies to disclose who really benefits from their ownership comes into force in June.

His office initially insisted that his financial arrangements were private, before acknowledging that Cameron and his wife had sold about $44,000 in shares in the offshore fund shortly before he became prime minister in 2010, to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

The records appeared to show that Cameron paid his full share of tax - 75,898 pounds on taxable income of 200,307 pounds in the most recent tax year.

But the document also generated a new round of headlines over a 200,000 pound gift from his mother on which Cameron - legally - paid no tax.

Treasury chief George Osborne and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn both published details of their own tax returns on Monday. So did London Mayor Boris Johnson, revealed to have paid almost 1 million pounds in tax over the last four years.

The tax spat could have repercussions for Britain's June 23 referendum on EU membership. Cameron is the leading proponent staying in the EU, and anything that tarnishes his brand could undermine that campaign.

Labour leader Corbyn said Cameron did not "fully appreciate the anger that is out there" about tax evasion.

Conservative MP Alan Duncan, though, accused the prime minister's critics of hating "anyone who's even got a hint of wealth in their life."

Tainted Blood Victims May Have Support Cut By £7k

A "tainted blood" victim, who was among thousands infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s, says proposed health reforms are a "slap in the face".

Joe Peaty, 50, was given contaminated blood on the NHS when he was 15.

He is among thousands of haemophiliac sufferers affected by transfusions using imported blood infected with a range of viruses.

A parliamentary debate is being held later on the planned reforms to annual payments made to the victims.

Campaigners say the proposals would leave many with less money, even pushing them under the poverty line.

Some charities say haemophiliac victims would be up to £7,000 a year worse off.

Mr Peaty claims he would lose £5,000 a year and despite working with government officials on reviews in the past, feels angry at their latest response.

He said: "I've given them the opportunity they needed to sort this out and quite frankly as we sit here today it feels like a betrayal, a real slap in the face for all that trust.

"I'm angry but unfortunately all the anger in the world has been pushed out of many people who are just resigned to the fact that this government do not care.

"They would rather see us die and go away quietly than actually do the right thing."

Campaigners are comparing plans for England with those in Scotland, where they say benefits could be increased for victims

MP Diana Johnson, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood, agrees that it is not fair.

"Scotland has come up with its own suggestion about how to help these people which is very different to the English model," she said.

"So there are real problems now about people in different parts of the country who've been harmed by the NHS finding themselves faced with different amounts of support."

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "We want to help everyone affected by this tragedy which is why we have already committed to provide £100m of additional funding to the reformed scheme, on top of the current spend of around £22m per year."

MPs will discuss proposals which the Government says will see more hepatitis C sufferers receive regular support, while maintaining annual payments for those who already receive them.

Charities say the plans will mean many people will not be able to apply for discretionary payments that can top up low incomes, pay for dependent children, fuel allowance and grants to adapt homes.

The World's Most Terrifying Job Interview?

Imagine, if you can, the world's most terrifying job interview.

Now make it worse.

Worse still.

Now you're approaching something close to the interviewing process for the eight unlucky candidates vying to be the new United Nations Secretary General.

Over the next three days, each of them is to spend two hours being grilled by representatives from the UN's 193 member states, most of whom have competing and sometimes even opposing priorities.

Oh yes, and it's going to be broadcast live across the world.

The UN flag pictured in front of the organisation's headquarters

The candidates have also had to submit a 'Vision Statement' to their interviewers ahead of time, just so there's plenty of ammunition to clobber them with.

As if that wasn't hard enough, there will also be some wildcard questions submitted via video by ordinary people who aren't connected to the UN.

I understand this will include questions from UK school children and even indigenous groups who will want to know about a candidate's positions on issues important to them.

It's enough to bring you out in a cold sweat.

The current favourite for the top job is former New Zealand PM Helen Clark

This process has never happened before.

Previously the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - America, UK, France, Russia and China - have anointed a candidate and presented them to the rest of the UN as a done deal.

But this time current UN president Mogens Lykketoft has other ideas.

In a statement, his office said he has "committed to running his presidency in the most open and transparent manner possible.

"This also applies to the process of selecting and appointing the next United Nations Secretary-General."

The P5, as they are known, will still submit a name for general approval, but not until all the candidates have been through the new process of public and rigorous scrutiny.

The candidates are from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Republic of Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova and Portugal, but the current favourite is former prime minister of New Zealand Helen Clark.

If successful she would be the first woman to occupy the role, currently held by Ban Ki-Moon.

Trump's Kids Miss Voter Registration Deadline

Two of White House hopeful Donald Trump's children will not be voting for their father in next week's New York Republican primary.

Both Ivanka and Eric Trump failed to register with the Republican Party in time to cast their ballots in the 19 April contest, according to New York City voter registration records.

That leaves only Mr Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, available to vote for his billionaire dad in the family's home state.

The GOP front runner's youngest daughter, Tiffany, is a registered Republican in Philadelphia, where she is a student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr Trump told Fox News that Eric and Ivanka, who welcomed her third child in March, were unaware of New York's year-in-advance deadline.

He is poised to take a lion's share of the state's 95 Republican delegates, further distancing himself from rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich.

:: Road To Winning The Nomination

Mr Trump, who currently has over 740 delegates to his name, needs to reach 1,237 to secure the GOP nomination before the party's convention in late July.

After New York, some 172 delegates are in play from five states voting on 26 April, followed by another 57 delegates from Indiana on 3 May.

Mr Cruz sits closest to the front runner, with some 545 delegates under his belt.

Mr Kasich, meanwhile, remains a distant third with only 143 delegates.

US Navy officer charged with spying for China and Taiwan

A US Navy officer has been charged with espionage, accused of passing military secrets to China and Taiwan, according to US military officials.

The Associated Press news agency named him as Lt Cdr Edward Lin, a US citizen who was born in Taiwan.

He is being held in Navy brig in Virginia awaiting a court-martial.

Officials believe he passed information to a Chinese girlfriend, the New York Times reported. Lt Cdr Lin is also charged with lying about his travels. 

United States Naval Institute (USNI) News first reported the charges against Lt Cdr Lin. The website said that Lin worked as a signals intelligence specialist on the Navy's EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance planes.

He joined the Navy as an enlisted sailor in 1999 and became a US citizen in 2008.

"I always dreamt about coming to America, the 'promised land," Lt Cdr Lin said when he became citizen. "I grew up believing that all the roads in America lead to Disneyland."