The UK's video game legacy is being honored with a new set of commemorative stamps from the Royal Mail. The collection, which will set you back £14.25 (nearly $19), features iconic designs from the likes of Wipeout, Lemmings, Micro Machines, Worms and, of course, Tomb Raider.
The set has been designed to showcase the important work UK games developers did in the 80s and 90s, creating games that went on to have a major impact on the global gaming industry -- each game featured comes with its own important UK-centric back story. Elite, for example, was the first genuine 3D game, while Populouswas the first civilization building game and one of the most popular PC games ever released.
Tomb Raider, meanwhile, has been honored in the collection with a mini-set of four separate stamps, depicting the game's graphics evolution from pointy-pony tails to slick 4K definition. As the Royal Mail's Philip Parker explained to Wireframe, "The UK has been at the forefront of the video games industry for decades," noting that "in the 1980s and 90s young designers grappled with coding on the new microcomputers and set the template for the industry with iconic games." The collection will be available on January 21st, can be pre-ordered now.
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A British teenager has been given a four-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of lying about gang-rape in Cyprus.
The 19-year-old hugged her family and left court weeping after she was sentenced for public mischief.
Her sentence was suspended for three years, and she has been ordered to pay €148 (£125) in legal fees. The teenager now plans to return to the UK.
Women's rights groups protested outside court ahead of the sentencing.
BBC correspondent Anna Holligan said the puffy-eyed teenager embraced her mother as chants of "we believe you" and "no means no" filtered into the courtroom from the protest outside.
Supporters from Cyprus and a group of 50 women who travelled from Israel gathered outside the Famagusta District Court on Tuesday holding placards.
The teenager's mother shouted "she's coming home" to the group following sentencing, and told reporters she felt "relieved".
Addressing the crowd outside court, the teenager's mother said: "I just want to thank each and every one of you for turning up today, having belief, having faith and making sure we get justice."
In court, Judge Michalis Papathanasiou told her he was giving her a "second chance".
The woman has said Cypriot police made her falsely confess to lying about the incident at a hotel - something police have denied.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson was "pleased" that she can now return to the UK, his spokesman said.
A statement added that the UK would work with Cyprus and other countries to ensure that such a case could not happen again.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told reporters at RAF Northolt that he would be following up "some of the issues" in relation to the case.
The woman's lawyer, Lewis Power QC, said she would be returning to the UK on Tuesday.
Speaking to BBC News, he said the case was "not finished by any means" and that he would be appealing the conviction.
He said: "We will be seeking an expedited appeal to the Supreme Court of Cyprus and we will also be considering going to the European Court of Human Rights.
"We do not feel we have had justice in terms of how the trial progressed, the manner in which it was conducted, the initial police investigation and the fact that we feel she did not receive a fair trial."
During sentencing, the judge said he was "troubled" about the case.
"All the evidence shows that she had lied and prevented the police from doing other serious jobs," he said.
"Twelve people were arrested and seven of them were there for at least 10 days. That was also a serious offence.
"Her psychological state, her youth, that she has been away from her family, her friends and academic studies this year.
"This has led me to decide to give her a second chance and suspend the sentence for three years."
Israeli lawyer Nir Islovich, who represented four of the 12 men in the case, welcomed the decision. "What was important to us was that she would be convicted of the charges brought against her," he said.
"That happened with full adoption of the facts as presented by my clients."
'Backward thinking'
Protesters outside court insisted that the woman should never have been convicted.
Orit Sulitzeanu, head of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, told BBC News the conviction was "unbelievable" and that she and others had travelled to Cyprus from Israel to lend their support to the teenager.
"She is not to blame at all," Ms Sulitzeanu said. "This sentence reflects backward thinking and not understanding the dynamics of rape. The judge here must learn what happens to the victim of sexual abuse."
She added: "This is a young lady, she will go to university, she will go to have a job and she has a criminal offence. It will influence her life. This four-months suspended sentence is bad from the beginning."
Susana Pavlou, director at the Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies in Cyprus, said the case had sparked a "culture of protest" in the country.
"This year it has been revealed how broken our criminal justice system is - broadly in terms of police and social services response to violence against women, and the lack of specialist services.
"It's heartening to see how this has ignited women's rights campaigners and a women's rights movement focusing on this issue.
"This is not going to go away, we will not be silenced."
The teenager had contacted police hours after claiming to have been raped on 17 July at the Pambos Napa Rocks Hotel.
Twelve men were arrested in connection with the allegations but were later freed and returned home, after the woman retracted her claims.
She was later charged and spent about a month in prison before being granted bail in August.
The women then appeared in court facing charges of public mischief by falsely accusing the group of raping her, to which she pleaded not guilty.
The trial began at the start of October - with the verdict delayed until December.
Former UK Parliament member John Browne discusses that 'the will of the people' was clear in wanting freedom and prosperity outside of the European Union.
LONDON (AP) — The British economy appears to set to pick up in the early months of 2020 as more clarity over Brexit emerged in the wake of the convincing election win by Boris Johnson's Conservatives, a closely watched survey showed Monday.
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In their monthly gauge of business conditions, financial information firm IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply found that the services sector stabilized in December as order books picked up and optimism rose to its highest level in 15 months. The services sector is particularly important as it accounts for around 80 percent of the British economy.
The survey's headline purchasing managers' index - a broad measure of activity in the sector - rose to 50.0 points in December from 49.3 during November. Though the index is not showing any growth - the 50 mark separates growth from contraction - the rise in optimism augurs well for the immediate future.
“The modest rebound in new work provides another signal that business conditions should begin to improve in the coming months, helped by a boost to business sentiment from greater Brexit clarity and a more predictable political landscape,” said Tim Moore, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit.
Greater Brexit clarity emerged after the election of Dec. 12, which saw the Conservatives win an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons. That means Johnson has the numbers to drive through his Brexit withdrawal deal with the European Union so the country leaves the bloc as scheduled on Jan. 31. Britain will remain within the EU's economic arrangements, including the tariff-free single market and the customs union, until the end of 2020, during which time Johnson hopes to conclude a wide-ranging trade agreement for the EU.
Though that ambition is considered by many experts to be optimistic, the election result at least provided clarity about the immediate future. There had been concerns that Brexit uncertainty would persist or worsen if the election was inconclusive.
Brexit uncertainty has weighed on the British economy since the country voted to leave the EU in June 2016. Business investment has taken a particularly big hit as executives voiced concerns over a potential no-deal Brexit that would have seen Britain crash out of the EU without a withdrawal agreement and would have seen tariffs and other impediments imposed on trade.
Further signs of economic improvement emerged in new car sales figures, which showed a 3.4 percent year-on-year improvement in December. The lingering effect of the Brexit uncertainty was evident in the overall 2019 figures, which showed a 2.4 percent decline to 2.31 million. That was the weakest level since 2013 and 14.2 percent below the 2016 peak, the year the country voted to leave the EU.
“The car sector will be hoping that in 2020 the uncertainties surrounding the economy will be diminished,” said Howard Archer, chief economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club. “However, car manufacturers may be concerned about exactly what form the U.K.’s longer-term relationship with the EU will take and the possibility that a transition arrangement could expire at the end of 2020 without the U.K. and EU coming to agreement on the way forward.”
Once a bastion of English and History departments, the British studies discipline is waning as American students increasingly put career goals over their love of Charles Dickens, writes James Jeffrey.
It's Friday afternoon at the University of Texas at Austin, which means it's time for sherry and a weekly lecture on British studies. The complimentary libation is served on a silver tray next to a large stuffed lion, a jovial nod to England's national animal and the country's lionised literary past.
Recent talks have included Revisiting Brideshead Revisited, Churchill's Most Difficult Decisions and The Novels of Benjamin Disraeli and Oscar Wilde.
The audience leans toward the mature end of the spectrum - one ex-faculty member who attends is 97 years old. A few undergraduate and graduate students are dotted around but they are definitely in the minority.
British studies is up against shifting trends in American universities as history and English departments focus less on Western Europe and more on other parts of the world.
America quit being a British colony almost 250 years ago but until recently the UK loomed large culturally.
"As a field, British Studies was inflated in relation to other parts of the world during the 20th Century," says Jason Kelly, director of the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Arts and Humanities Institute.
"Folks have become more concerned about other places and interests around the globe, which I have to say is increasingly productive for thinking about the world, and more in tune with the challenges we face as a global community."
This has led to a dramatic decline in the number of British studies courses over the past few decades.
Nowadays, the report laments, the discipline is considered by many "to be old-fashioned, hide bound, conservative and boring - a discipline of old men in tweed coats who still hanker after the stuffy and sexist atmosphere of the senior common room."
Those within British studies, however, note the decreasing numbers reflect a wider trend within the humanities as it struggles in the face of changing expectations among students. Since the late 1990s the number of English degrees has fallen by nearly half, according to the US Department of Education. History in general is down about 45% from its 2007 peak.
"The cost of college is exploding, there's this complete inflation in US higher education," says Professor James Vaughn, a historian specialising in Britain at Ohio University.
"If one has to attend for four years at great cost, you want some remuneration, so the STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] subjects are seen as having massive pay-offs compared to the humanities and the social sciences."
This has been compounded since the financial crash of 2008, with students increasingly fearful that a humanities degree won't lead to gainful employment, says Paul Halliday, president of NACBS.
Nevertheless, all may not be lost for British studies.
"As the balloon of British studies has deflated, we've seen it redefining itself in terms of what it means and does," Kelly says. "What we have been seeing, especially in the last decade, is British studies reorienting itself to increasingly focus on the British Empire and its lasting impact and influence around the world."
This is particularly relevant for those wanting to better understand how the US got to where it has, especially on the global stage.
"Our laws and national institutions, but also character, are so shaped by being part of the British Empire and breaking away from it," says Erika Rappaport, the American author of A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World.
"We can't understand the history of US global influence without understanding that Great Britain laid the groundwork, infrastructure and ideologies of globalisation while building and losing their empire in the 19th and 20th Centuries."
Rappaport became interested in British history and empire studies through a love of reading Victorian literature as a teenager that left her "dying to find out more about the culture that produced such amazing literature".
She says the history of the US being a former colony of the UK has created "a love-hate relationship".
"We share so much in terms of our consumer culture and education, but at times our tastes are very different," says Rappaport, citing how the US fondness for coffee stemmed from Americans turning away from British food stuffs - such as tea - because these reminded them of their colonial status.
The UT Austin British Studies programme - it is not a degree in itself - began in 1975 based on weekly lectures about English literature, history and government.
Since then it has hosted many eminent speakers - CP Snow, the British novelist and scientist, spoke in 1976 on Elite Education in England; Iris Murdoch in 1985 spoke on Themes in English Literature and Philosophy; and the historian Michael Howard spoke in 1993 on Strategic Deception in the Second World War.
"I like the interdisciplinary ethos, how you get to meet people from other departments," says 34-year-old Trevor Simmons during a break in the carol singing at the recent British Studies Christmas Party. He completed a PhD in British Economic History in 2015 and still attends the weekly talks.
"It's also done in a fun way. You've got the sherry, the stuffed lion, the oak panels - it's a little bit of Oxford."
Programme director and founder Roger Louis says the programme strives to include a multitude of perspectives from different nations caught up in the British historical experience, ranging from Scots and Irish to Jamaicans, Indians, Australians and Nigerians.
"Ongoing discussions in British studies are engaging because of the clash of different perspectives as well as the nuance of cultural interpretation," Louis says.
This global aspect of British studies, Halliday says, is its greatest strength in remaining valid and competitive as the humanities try to appeal to students.
"In the last ten years there has been an explosion of interest in the field in the types of problems that are affecting everyone, such as how the consumer society was predicated on slave labour and the destruction of indigenous people," Halliday says. "This re-orientation has expanded the reach of British studies."
Kelly says he saw this reflected in the impressive breadth of views on display when he attended this year's annual NACBS conference in Vancouver, Canada.
"The younger faculty entering the discipline are able to research more broadly, synthesise new information and challenge the presumptions of the older faculty members," Kelly says. "It's refreshing and makes you realise that British Studies isn't going anywhere soon."
"I view myself as a global citizen, and my dream job would be with the UN," 20-year-old Lucas Peralta remarked at the Christmas party, after taking British Imperialism in the Middle East as part of his International relations and global studies degree.
"So understanding the influence of the UK there and also with the likes of Nato is extremely important."
The ongoing impact of colonialism was on the mind of 22-year-old history undergraduate Ana Chan at the Christmas Party. She has been following the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, explaining how Britain has always been on the periphery of her life because her family came to American from Hong Kong.
"My family have mixed feelings," Chan says. "They remember places they couldn't go under British colonial rule because of affordability. I've heard family friends discussing whether it was a good thing for Hong Kong to be separated from mainland China for so long given the trouble happening now. At the same time, I was raised to view Britain as a close ally of the US."
Halliday, who teaches history, says Brexit has put Britain back on the minds of many of his students.
"Both the UK and the US have always been deeply tied to the rest of the world," he says. "That's why Brexit interests my students: it reads like a reversal of centuries of British interconnection with Europe and beyond."
History professor Vaughan says his students have also been drawing comparisons between the shock of Brexit and Donald Trump's unexpected election and want to discuss what "it's all about".
UT Austin programme director Louis recalls the words of Oliver Franks, the British Ambassador to the US from 1948 to 1952, when he discussed the special relationship between the UK and US during a British Studies lecture given in 1989.
"He said that we are a people who have a lot in common and are trying to solve common problems," Louis says.
World War 3 is currently trending on Twitter, as millions of people fear the worst after a US drone strike killed Iran’s top general. The prospect of all-out war in the 21st century comes with some terrifying implications, among them the military draft.
What is the military draft?
The military draft, otherwise known as conscription, is an age-old practice of compulsory enlistment into a country’s military.
The draft originates in antiquity and sees people bound to serve in the military unless they have extenuating circumstances.
Draft age varies, but traditionally starts at 18, and few countries still make use of the practice.
While there is no forced conscription currently active in the UK, Parliament could pass a law reestablishing it during a time of national crisis.
The same goes for the US, which abandoned the draft in 1973.
However, while the US abolished the draft after the Vietnam War, its remnants became the Selective Service System.
The system requires all men to register within 30 days of their 18th birthday and lists all those who would be potentially subject to the draft.
If the US Congress one day approved a bill which reestablishes forced conscription, the Selective Service System lists who is available.
Selective Service is expected to deliver the first draftees within 193 days of a national crisis.
Other countries never disposed of the military draft, among them the US’ feared opponents Iran and their strategic ally Russia.
Austria, Greece and a selection of other European countries also make use of the practice.
Concerns about the draft hit the Selective Service System particularly hard, as the organisation noted its website crashed this weekend.
Speaking via Twitter, the service revealed it was experiencing "unusually high traffic volumes" due to the spread of "misinformation".
The service said: "Due to the spread of misinformation, our website is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time.
"If you are attempting to register or verify registration, please check back later today as we are working to resolve this issue. We appreciate your patience."
London(CNN) A UK lawmaker has revealed that she is pansexual and in a relationship with a woman.
"About six months ago I started a relationship with a woman, and that was quite surprising, because before that I'd only ever had boyfriends," Layla Moran, a Member of Parliament for the opposition Liberal Democrats, told the PinkNews LGBT website.
Someone who is pansexual is attracted to people of any gender. According to Stonewall, Britain's leading LGBT charity, the term "pan" refers to "a person whose romantic and/or sexual attraction towards others is not limited by sex or gender."
The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, who is her party's spokesperson on education and culture, told PinkNews: "We're in a really committed, loving, supportive, relationship, and I feel now is the time to talk about it, because as an MP I spend a lot of my time defending our community and talking about our community. I want people to know I am part of our community as well," she said.
"2020 is a new decade and a new path in my journey. Last year I fell in love with a wonderful woman. Something I'd never even considered before. Now I am just happy #Pansexual #OutAndProud," Moran posted to Twitter on Thursday.
According to the LGBT Foundation charity, Moran is the first openly pansexual MP.
"Thank you for sharing this with the world Layla," the foundation said on Twitter. "Visibility is crucial in creating a fairer and more equal society. Your decision to come out will inspire and give courage to many," it added.
When asked to explain pansexuality to someone who might not be familiar with it, Moran told PinkNews: "Pansexuality, to me, means it doesn't matter about the physical attributions of the person you fall in love with, it's about the person themselves."
The MP added that she worried about what colleagues in Parliament would think, describing Parliament as a "weird, backwards place," but she said there were some lawmakers in lesbian relationships who acted as role models.
A spokesperson for Moran told CNN that she would not be commenting further.
According to the LGBT Foundation, pansexuality is different from bisexuality, although the two aren't mutually exclusive. "Being bisexual means being attracted to more than one gender, while being pansexual means being attracted to people regardless of gender," the foundation wrote on its website.
The UK warns Trump against outright war with Iran.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says further conflict is 'in none of our interests.'
Iran and the US are on the brink of war after President Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
An adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US had crossed a 'red line,' and the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that 'harsh retaliation is waiting.'
The UK government has urged Donald Trump to step back from outright war with Iran, warning that further conflict in the region is "in none of our interests."
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement on Friday that while the UK "recognised the aggressive threat posed by the Iranian Quds force led by Qasem Soleimani... we urge all parties to de-escalate."
He added that "further conflict is in none of our interests."
The UK, along with the rest of the European Union, was active in championing the multilateral nuclear deal with the Iran government and has previously criticised Trump's decision to withdraw from it.
Raab's warning against further conflict came after Iran on Friday threatened "harsh retaliation" for the killing of Iran's elite Quds force commander, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, on Thursday, in an airstrike directed by Trump.
In a statement on state television, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared a three-day mourning period for the commander, while threatening imminent retaliation against the US.
The US government believes that Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US service members and insist he was planning additional attacks that threatened US personnel and interests in the region.
"This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans," a representative said.
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