News Daily: Brexit bill finally passes and Trump backs down
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Parliamentary ping-pong ends
The EU withdrawal bill - the key piece of legislation that will actually make Brexit happen - has finally passed. It's a crucial step towards achieving a "smooth and orderly" Brexit, says Theresa May - even if the bill's journey through Parliament has been anything but. The government has been at odds with the Lords and some of its own MPs in a long-running row over what happens if the UK cannot reach a deal with the EU - or if MPs reject whatever deal is agreed. In the end though, the rebellion in the Commons was quashed and the Lords accepted the amendment passed to them, so the bill can now become law.
Who really backed down though? BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says it might be a concession that only parliamentary lawyers really understand, but the prime minister did have to budge again, despite not wanting to, in order to avoid defeat. For their part, Laura adds, the rebels weren't willing to take dramatic action in enough numbers to humiliate the PM.
Theresa May says more detail on the future relationship between the UK and EU will be published in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you need a hand with some of the Brexit jargon, check out our decoder.
'We'll keep families together'
Faced with growing fury at home and condemnation from around the world, Donald Trump has backed down and reversed his policy of separating parents and children who enter the US illegally. The president signed an executive order on Wednesday promising to "keep families together" in migrant detention centres, saying he "did not like the sight" of them pulled apart.
For days, officials have insisted they were simply following the law as written by previous administrations. But the BBC's Anthony Zurcher, in Washington, says by taking executive action, the president is effectively acknowledging he alone created the situation and he had the power to fix it.
Attention now turns to what happens to those families already separated, because the order does nothing to address their plight.
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TV and real life come together
EastEnders is to broadcast an episode featuring accounts from relatives of real-life victims of knife crime. It's part of the soap's ongoing knife crime storyline, which saw character Shakil Kazemi stabbed and killed by a gang. "We've tried to find a way to do justice to an incredibly difficult, tragic and emotive subject," says the show's executive consultant John Yorke. According to police, at least 46 people have been fatally stabbed in London this year.
Sex, drugs and A&E: How under-30s use the NHS
By Ben Butcher, BBC News
Most of us make greatest use of the NHS at the beginning and end of our lives. But although the 18-30s have youth on their side, their relationship with the NHS is still significant. Young adults are one of only two adult groups in England whose use of A&E is proportionately higher than their population, the other being over-65s. But, given that young adults tend to have more short-term health problems, they are relatively inexpensive to treat.
Read the full article
What the papers say
Many front pages carry photographs of some of those who died at Gosport War Memorial Hospital. "Condemned to die by their hospital" is the headline in the i. The Daily Mirror calls Gosport a "hospital of horrors". In its editorial, the Times says the case has put "the entire system in the dock" and prompted serious questions about how widespread such practices may be. The Daily Mail offers a similar warning, arguing the Gosport case is evidence of an "institutional contempt for the elderly" which should prompt "deep soul-searching" within the NHS. Elsewhere, several papers report that the chief inspector of schools is to back calls for mobile phones to be banned in schools. The Daily Express says she will also signal her support for a return to "old-school punishments" such as writing out lines.
Daily digest
Aid workers Medecins Sans Frontieres staff "used local prostitutes"
Mobile phones Ofsted chief backs school ban
Upskirting Fresh attempt to make it a criminal offence begins
England injury 'blow' But don't panic...
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The war in the desert
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Lookahead
10:00 Firefighters called to tackle the blaze at Grenfell Tower are expected to start giving evidence to the inquiry
Evening The chancellor and the Bank of England governor speak at the annual Mansion House dinner
On this day
1945 The Japanese island of Okinawa finally falls to the Americans after a long and bloody battle
From elsewhere
How Salah's achievements remind us that class divides us most (Independent)
Why is the West Midlands so much bluer than England's other metropolitan counties? (City Metric)
1,600 degrees and mass destruction: Explore a town a volcano made a tomb (New York Times)
The shocking truth about England, the World Cup and domestic violence (Refinery 29)
