Free Republic

Virgin Money and Skipton among those to suspend loans as wholesale rates whipsaw Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. https://www.ft.com/content/a549fabb-da75-4935-a567-7128b7b04b76 Some of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders, including Virgin Money and Skipton Building Society, have stopped offering new home loans in response to the market...

Acclaimed Nova Scotia battle rapper Pat Stay was the victim of a fatal stabbing in downtown Halifax early Sunday. Halifax Regional Police say an autopsy has determined he was the victim of a homicide. Police said they were called to the 1600 block of Lower Water Street around 12:36 a.m. AT. Stay was taken to hospital, where he later died. Halifax Regional Police spokesperson Const. John MacLeod did not have any information about what led up to the stabbing or whether there were any witnesses. The Dartmouth, N.S., man was revered for his work in rap battles, where two rappers...

Transportation Minister Lloyd Hines says 2021-22 will likely be another record year for road building in Nova Scotia. The annual government highways plan is usually out by December, but the document has been delayed by the pandemic, said Hines. "We are anticipating that we will match or eclipse the number from last year, which will be a cumulative amount of over $1 billion spent on improving our highway system in Nova Scotia in the last two fiscal years," the minister told reporters following a cabinet meeting on Thursday. Hines said the budget right now for roads and highways for the...

...the 1917 Halifax Explosion—the largest man-made blast of the preatomic age. On the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, the SS Mont-Blanc entered Halifax’s harbor carrying thousands of tons of explosives en route from New York to France for use in World War I. The Norwegian steamship SS Imo, traveling above the speed limit and in the wrong lane, was exiting the harbor. They collided. Unaware of the Mont-Blanc’s cargo, crowds gathered to see the fire. A sailor appraised train dispatcher Vince Coleman of the danger, and rather than flee, Coleman warned incoming trains: “Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire...

Bethany Smith, 23, started dating Christopher Ellam after falling out with friends In 2015 Ellam decided to become vegan and forced Bethany to follow his diet Ripped up her clothes and hit her with a vinegar bottle after accusing her of 'smelling of bacon' when she came home from work Ellam pled guilty to assault by beating, criminal damage and sending indecent or grossly offensive messages at Kirklees Magistrates Court Given community order of 10-day rehabilitation course and 200 hours of unpaid work

The SS Atlantic wrecked on the rocks of Lower Prospect in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1873. The story is nearly forgotten. We do our best to tell the story of the sinking, the worst disaster on the North Atlantic in the 1800's, and the first disaster for the White Star Line.

1 – Rob Goldstone, the English publicist and music manager, admitted that when he wrote Donald Trump Jr. to set up the meeting with a Russian attorney at Trump Tower he used deliberately hyperbolic language to ensure that the meeting took place. Goldstone further said that he believes the meeting was a “bait and switch” by a Russian lobbyist seeking a meeting on another matter by misleadingly claiming to be bringing the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton. 2 – All participants in the meeting who have spoken publicly say no Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton was discussed. 3 –...

HALIFAX -- The women's march in Halifax was roiled by divisions, as members of an offshoot event showed up to call for the recognition of marginalized groups after some people said they felt unsafe at last year's gathering. Throngs of people returned to Halifax's Grand Parade square on Saturday for a rally on the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president. People held up signs on issues ranging from worker's rights to the jailing of a Palestinian activist during an event that included a Mi'kmaq prayer, a Chinese lion dance, a traditional Indian dance and a drumming performance....

Byron York is reporting today that House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes has issued a subpoena to David Kramer (pictured left), the aid to John McCain who was used as an arms-length go-between -traveling to Surrey, England- to meet with Christopher Steele and retrieve the Steele “Russian Dossier” in November 2016. Kramer was not given the dossier in England; rather he was briefed in England, by Steele, and later given the dossier by Glenn Simpson (Fusion GPS) in the U.S. A back-story timeline refresher: Dossier author Christopher Steele reached out to Sir Andrew Wood, Britain’s former Ambassador to Russia (’95-’00) in...

According to the National Post, performer Lido Pimienta, who won the 2017 Polaris Prize, frequently asks all white members of her audience to move to the back and give up their seats to non-white audience members. They must do so regardless of whether they pay more for their seating.The Halifax Pop Explosion music festival is apologizing for the actions of a (white) photographer who refused to acquiesce to Pimienta’s request during her October 19 show. Her refusal to do so was considered an “interruption” and deemed an act of “overt racism,” according to the festival’s board of directors, who are...

A former British spy has vanished after being named as the author of a ‘dirty’ file smearing Donald Trump and fled his £1.5million mansion in fear telling his neighbour: ‘Look after my cat.’ Ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele has been named as the author of the salacious Russian dossier containing outlandish claims about Donald Trump’s sex life and bizarre footage allegedly held by the Kremlin’s blackmail unit. The 35-page briefing, which is littered with spelling mistakes, includes an unsubstantiated and far-fetched claim Trump watched prostitutes perform a ‘golden shower (urination) show’ in the Presidential Suite of a Moscow hotel. Mr Trump...

A Halifax-area restaurant owner has sparked a social media uproar by complaining that a “frustrating new generation” of employees with a poor work ethic has helped kill her business. A Facebook post Tuesday from Kim Stacey, owner of the now-defunct Emma’s Eatery, cites several reasons for the closure - but much of the online jousting is over her decision to highlight what she describes as the entitled attitude of young Nova Scotians. In her post, Stacey complains that during the nine years the Eastern Passage eatery was open, young employees demanded to be “paid dearly” for working shifts that did...

An Air Canada plane has reportedly crashed on the runway of the the Halifax International Airport on Sunday, but injuries have not yet been reported. The plane likely clipped power lines that led to the crash. The incident led to power outage at the airport, and reports suggest that passangers are safe. More details are awaited.

Canadian police say they have foiled a plot to carry out a mass shooting in the Halifax area on Saturday. Three suspects were arrested and a fourth reportedly shot himself dead after police surrounded his home. At least two suspects had intended "to go to a public venue... with a goal of opening fire to kill citizens, and then themselves", police said. excerpt- Brian Brennan, commanding officer of the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the plot had involved a 19-year-old man from the Halifax suburb of Timberlea and a 23-year-old woman from the US state of Illinois. When...

CBC News Posted: Feb 14, 2015 Halifax police, RCMP, CBSA and Homeland Security all involved in investigation Two people were arrested at Halifax Stanfield International Airport and have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder after an alleged plot was foiled to kill a large number of people at the Halifax Shopping Centre in the city's west end on Valentine's Day. Lindsay Kantha Souvannarath, a 23-year-old from Geneva, Ill., and Randall Steven Shepherd, 20, of Halifax have been charged.

Confusion about what constitutes halal meat sparked a blunder at a community barbecue in Fairview on Saturday. After failing to provide halal meat, event organizers tried to remedy the oversight by having a local politician bless regular hotdogs. Patricia Arab, Liberal MLA for Fairview-Clayton Park, said a prayer over the hotdogs, mistakenly thinking this would make the meat halal. Meat that is halal, which means “permissible” in Arabic, is prepared following precise instructions detailed in the Qur’an. A halal animal must be healthy and fed a natural diet that does not contain animal byproducts. When it’s slaughtered, it is blessed...

HALIFAX -- Politicians are scrambling to put a brave face on an ugly situation at a Halifax recreation centre. Sonja Power, 17, was on the cusp of earning her black belt in Aikido at a Halifax dojo when a new man joined the class. He refused to be in contact with women or to spar with any of the female students. Power and the other women were told to stay on one side of the room and not to approach the Muslim man to respect his faith. "I felt like a second class citizen, that I was so disgusting and...

Among the graves of Fairview Lawn Cemetery, there is one that was a magnet for bouquets and weeping girls in the 1990s. The name on the tombstone: J. Dawson. Jack Dawson, you will recall, is the name of the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 1997 film "Titanic." And this cemetery is the final resting place of more victims of the Titanic than any other.

A cat escape caused a four-hour delay for an Air Canada flight Thursday as airline staff in Halifax struggled to get the feline from its hiding place in cockpit wiring. (Jan. 27) [Associated Press]

<p>CNN) -- Passengers were reportedly taken hostage on a charter flight at a Jamaican airport.</p> <p>They were boarding the CanJet flight from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay to Halifax, Canada, late Sunday when the security breach occurred, said Elizabeth Scotton, a spokeswoman for the company that manages the airport.</p>