who won the general election?...portugal won the 2017 eurovision song contest, a singing competition...

Who won the General Election?

June 2017 / Issue 27

Easy News, June 2017

On Tuesday 18th April, Prime Minister Theresa May said she wanted to hold a general election on Thursday 8th June. This is called a snap election.

Lots of people voted on Thursday 8th June. They picked the Member of Parliament (MP) they wanted from the political parties. A political party is a group of people who join together because they have similar ideas about things.

The winner of the general election is the political party that wins the most MP seats in parliament. This is called a majority government. You need 326 MPs to win a majority.

The results of the general election ended in a hung parliament. This is when no political party wins enough MP seats to make a majority government.

The General Election results

Seats needed for majority

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The Conservative Party received the most votes but they did not have enough to form a majority government. They got 318 MPs.

Prime Minister Theresa May needs to work with a small political party to make a majority government. They are asking for help from a political party called the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). They have 10 MPs.

500,000 people have signed an online petition against the Conservative Party and DUP majority deal. They do not like the things the DUP have done in Northern Ireland.

Jeremy Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party. The Labour Party came 2nd with 262 MPs.

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Jeremy Corbyn has said that Theresa May should leave her job as Prime Minster, as the Conservatives did not win a majority of seats.

The Liberal Democratic Party won 12 MP seats. A week after the election, Tim Farron left his job as leader of the party.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) remain the largest party in Scotland with 35 seats. They did lose some seats to the Scottish Conservatives and the Labour Party.

On Friday 9th June, Paul Nuttall left his job as the UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader as they did not win any seats in the general election.


Quick news

Portugal wins Eurovision Song Contest

Portugal won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, a singing competition for people from different countries.

Salvador Sobral won with the song “Amar Pelos Dois” (Love for the both of us). The song was written by his sister.

Sir Roger Moore dies

The actor Sir Roger Moore, who played James Bond, died aged 89. He had cancer.

He played the character the British Spy 007, James Bond, in 7 films. Moore was also known for TV shows The Saint and The Persuaders.

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Manchester terror attack

On Monday, 22nd May 2017 at 10.33 in the evening, a bomb exploded at the Manchester Arena as people were leaving a music concert. Pop star, Ariana Grande had been performing.

The bomb was worn by a man. This is called a suicide vest. He blew himself up in the entrance to the Manchester Arena, killing 22 people and injuring 64. 7 of those killed were children.

There were lots of children and young people at the concert. An 8-year-old girl called Saffie Rose Roussos was the youngest person killed.

There were 22,000 people at the concert. Ambulances, police, taxi drivers, hotels and people in Manchester helped to get them to safety and to hospitals.

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In the week after the attack the police arrested some people in Manchester and the Government placed the country on critical threat level. This means they thought another terror attack could happen.

People around Manchester were coming together to show their respect to all the people hurt and killed. People felt very sad.

The Queen went to visit some of the injured children in the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. Ariana Grande and some football players also visited children in hospital.

Ariana Grande and lots of pop stars held a concert called “One Love” in Manchester in honour of those hurt and killed. The concert raised over £10 million to help those affected by the terror attack.

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On Saturday, 3rd June at 9.58 in the evening, a terrorist attack started on London Bridge when the people of London were enjoying a warm Saturday night.

A van with 3 men inside drove over London Bridge driving at people walking over the bridge and trying to hit them. Lots of people were hurt.

The attackers then crashed the van and got out with knives in the Borough Market area of London.

The 3 attackers started stabbing people in the street, in pubs and in restaurants. People tried to fight back and protect each other.

London Bridge terror attack

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8 people died and 48 were injured and were treated in 5 London hospitals. People from different countries were killed and hurt.

The attackers were wearing fake bomb belts. Armed police arrived very quickly after the attack started and shot the 3 men dead.

The police know who the attackers are and have been investigating to see if other people are involved.

This was the 3rd attack in the UK in 3 months. Other terror attacks have happened around the world killing many people.

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National Health Service (NHS) cyber-attack

On Friday,12th May 2017 an unknown group took control of some of NHS computer systems. This is called a cyber-attack.

The cyber-attack stopped many hospitals and NHS staff seeing their patients’ files and information.

The people who got into the computer systems for the cyber-attack are also called computer hackers. The hackers wanted to be paid money to give back the patient information. This is called a ransom.

The ransom money was asked for in Bitcoin. This is money that only exists on the internet and in computers.

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The hackers set a trap on computer programmes, tricking NHS staff into clicking on an attachment. This started the attack on their important documents.

Some non-emergency medical operations could not take place as planned. Medical appointments had to be changed.

Medical staff had to go back to basic ways of recording information and giving prescriptions. This is because they could not use their computers.

Many other organisations across the world have been affected. Police are finding it very hard to find out who the hackers are.


British Airways (BA) computer crisis

On Saturday 27th May, during the Bank Holiday weekend, British Airways (BA) computer system stopped working. It caused over 2 days of chaos and disruption at airports across the world.

Many passengers who were flying out of London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports had their flights delayed or cancelled.

75,000 passengers were affected across 170 airports in 70 countries as a result of the BA systems failure.

The Bank Holiday weekend is a busy time for people to fly and hundreds of people had to sleep at airports waiting for flights.

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British Airways’ Chief Executive Alex Cruz said that there was an electrical power cut that made the computer systems fail.

A technology expert said that a power cut should not have caused the crisis. He said it was because British Airways had been cutting costs in their computer staff. The Chief Executive has refused to leave his job but has said he is sorry.

Thousands of passengers’ suitcases and bags were sent to the wrong airport or did not travel. Passengers were contacting British Airways on social media to complain.

The computer system failure could cost British Airways over £30 million in new flights for passengers, their accommodation and food during the crisis and paying people for their time and the hassle. This is called compensation money.


Tower block fire

On Wednesday 14th June, in the early hours of the morning a fire started in a building called Grenfell Tower in London. The building is 24 floors high and has 120 flats where over 500 people lived. This is called a tower block.

The fire spread very quickly across all floors of the building from the 2nd floor up. Lots of people were trapped in their homes.

It took 40 fire engines and 200 firefighters to try and stop the fire. They rescued 65 people from the building. It took over 24 hours to control the flames.

74 people were injured and taken to 6 hospitals across London. It has been announced that lots of people were killed. The Fire Brigade are looking for bodies in the building.

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Some people had to jump out of windows to escape from the fire. One mother threw her baby out of a window and a man caught the baby.

Lots of people in the local community have joined together to support the people affected by the fire. Over £1 million has been raised to help people.

A lot of people are angry because the local council and the company that managed the building were told before the fire that the building was not safe.

Prime Minister Theresa May said there will be a public inquiry into the fire. This means the Government will try and find out exactly what happened and what they could have done to stop the disaster from happening.

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New French President

Mr Emmanuel Macron was elected as the new President of France. He is the youngest ever President at 39 years old.

Macron beat Marine Le Pen. She used to be the leader of the National Front organisation. It was a clear win by 65.5% of the votes against her 35%.

The new President wants to have a strong relationship with the European Union.

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Translated into Easy Read by UR Consultants, mailed by UR Sorted and produced by United Response. Registered charity no. 365249, a company by guarantee, registered in England no. 1133776. With thanks to Kaliya Franklin and Photosymbols. Care has been taken to present this information factually. Content does not necessarily reflect the views of United Response

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who won the general election?...portugal won the 2017 eurovision song contest, a singing competition...

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