Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour’s
Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in response to
the Conservatives’ announcement on an energy price cap, said:

“This is desperate stuff from the Tories,
re-announcing something they tried to get a headline for just a fortnight ago.
But just as when they announced it last time, there’s still no proper detail
nor any real commitment to helping working people.

“When the Tories say they’ll ‘cap’ bills, the
question they need to answer is whether they can guarantee bills won’t go up
for people next year – that’s the real test. A cap suggests a maximum amount
that can be charged, not a promise that bills won’t go up year on year.

“The reality is that the Tories aren’t offering
anything for working people. Their record is one of failure and broken
promises, letting ordinary people down at every turn. Over and over they’ve
promised to get bills down but under them households are almost £900 worse off
due to increase energy bills since 2010.

"Only Labour can be trusted to deliver a country
for the many rather than just the few. All the Tories offer is broken promises
and a record which has seen working people worse off.”

Sixteen suspects have been detained in a recent crackdown on drugs in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and neighboring Guangdong Province, local police said Tuesday.

Police from the public security bureau of Laibin City received a report on April 27 that a gang of drug manufacturers from Huizhou City of Guangdong Province gathered in the city to produce ketamine and planned to transport raw materials for drug production from east China’s Shandong Province to Xiangzhou County in Laibin.

After investigation, police detained eight suspects at the drug manufacturing site in a tree farm in Xiangzhou County at 4 p.m. on Friday. They also seized about 250 kilograms of ketamine, 1,078 kilograms of semi-finished drugs, equipment for drug manufacturing and four vehicles at the site.

Police seized two other suspects and drug-related money totaling 1.4 million yuan (202,700 U.S. dollars) in a residential community in Laibin City on the same day.

After the drug manufacturing site in Guangxi was busted, the Huizhou police then detained another six suspects from the gang in Guangdong.

Further investigation is under way.

There is a lot of nonsense talked about how the election of Mr Macron will lead to a much tougher French stance over Brexit. Mr Macron, after all, was not so long ago a Minister serving the outgoing President, who has not been critical of the outgoing President’s stance on all this. Anyone leading France will of course be putting EU and French interests first, but this does not mean they will wish to punish the UK.

Recent press comment tells us that the EU itself has researched the legality of sending a leaving bill and realised there is no legal basis for any such payment. That is doubtless why they did not put the phrase leaving bill or equivalent into their statement of how they wish to handle the negotiations. They want the UK to settle the bills it owes, which the UK has always said it will. We are still paying our regular contributions even though we have told them we are leaving, and will doubtless do so up to departure.This implies Mr Macron will be unwilling to make a huge financial demand on the UK, knowing there is no legal back up to it.

Mr Macron has already stated his task – to bring greater unity to France by dealing with the economic hurts parts of the country feel. This will mean securing a good deal for French farmers and others to carry on selling produce into the UK market on favourable terms. IT is difficult to see how Mr Macron could keep faith with farmers if he insists on World Trade tariff levels on agricultural trade between our two countries.

His language of wishing to mellow the discourse and soothe tensions would also sit ill with stoking a wider trade war with the UK. People are affected by the emotions of the moment when they make decisions on what to buy. There are global alternatives to many well known French products, so it behoves the President to help woo the UK customers, just as the UK government wants to reassure and keep UK exports to France which we value.

I wish the new President every success in his stated aims after the election. I see no reason the UK cannot get on well with him in our mutual interest. I expect him to take a firm line in defence of French interests, but to see that it is in France’s interest to have a good deal with us. The French people will of course decide next month just how much power to give him ,when they decide on a Parliament to promote his ideas or to tame his reforms.

Promoted by Fraser Mc Farland on behalf of John Redwood, both at 30 Rose Street Wokingham RG40 1XU

Conjoined twin girls were successfully separated after an hour-long surgery at Children’s Hospital of Fudan University yesterday.

The twins were delivered by cesarean section in Shanghai on February 9 when their 26-year-old mother, from neighboring Jiangsu Province, was at 34 weeks of pregnancy.

They were then sent to the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for treatment.

CT scans showed that they were connected by the liver and stomach.

Doctors said the best time for surgery would be when the twins were 3 months old and had a combined weight of 10 kilograms.

By early May, the twins weighed a combined 11kg and were reported to have had a normal growth index.

With the help of three-dimensional imaging technology, the baby girls were separated at 11:16a.m. yesterday. Doctors took another hour to close the skin incision and umbilicus.

Conjoined twins are rare — with a global incidence of 1 in 200,000. Most of them are connected by the chest and belly.

Doctors said about half of conjoined babies die before birth. Some could not live for more than a day after birth, and only about 30 percent of conjoined infants had the chance to survive.

In this case, the deformity was detected in a Jiangsu hospital when the mother was 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Local doctors suggested an abortion, but the mother insisted on visiting a hospital in Shanghai.

After tests, doctors at the Children’s Hospital believed the twins would have a good chance of survival after liver separation surgery.