Yahoo News Your morning briefing: What you should know for Thursday, November 21
Tories and Labour launch rival housing plans
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have launched rival plans to tackle England’s housing shortage.
The Prime Minister will say more than two million low-paid workers are to be lifted out of National Insurance under the Tory party’s plans.
Labour is pledging to embark on a council and social housing "revolution" by constructing up to 150,000 homes a year.
Mr Corbyn’s party's manifesto will include plans for the largest council house-building effort since the aftermath of the Second World War.
Queen puts on brave face at awards as Andrew announces he is stepping back from public duties
The Queen last night put on a brave face to present an award at Chatham House just moments after her son Prince Andrew announced he was stepping back from public life.
The monarch presented her old friend Sir David Attenborough with a top international award for his work to highlight ocean plastic pollution.
The Duke of York’s move to step back follows days of media scrutiny over his friendship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The storm surrounding Andrew comes amid the fallout from his “car crash” BBC television interview last weekend in which he tried to clear his name.
Andrew said it had become clear his friendship with the late convicted paedophile Epstein had caused "major disruption" to the Royal Family's work.
Grace Millane murder trial told: you can't consent to being killed
British backpacker Grace Millane did not die as a result of her practising BDSM because she would not have given consent for her own death, her murder trial has heard.
The prosecution said of the defence’s BDSM sex evidence: “you can't ask to be killed in this country, you can't consent to murder."
A 27-year-old man is on trial accused of murdering Miss Millane, from Essex, in his hotel room after a Tinder date in Auckland, New Zealand.
His defence alleges she died accidentally after being consensually choked during sex on the night of December 1, the day before her 22nd birthday.
The suspect spent five to 10 minutes strangling her before taking "trophy" photos of her body, the prosecution told the jury during its closing argument.
Sondland testifies in impeachment probe
A top US diplomat has said he followed Donald Trump's orders to put pressure on Ukraine to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Ambassador Gordon Sondland told the impeachment inquiry into the president that the instruction came from Mr Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
The inquiry centres on the allegation that Mr Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine as a precondition.
Cat reunited with owner after being found 1,200 miles away
A black cat that disappeared from his home five years ago has been reunited with his owner after being found on the streets 1,200 miles away.
The cat, named Sasha, was discovered in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, after going missing from Portland in the US state of Oregon.
The Santa Fe Animal Shelter scanned the Sasha’s microchip after he was found in the city and was able to contact his owner, Viktor Usov.
On this day...
1783: Man's first free-flight was made by Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes in the Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon. They flew above Paris and, after 25 minutes, landed a few miles south.
1843: Thomas Hancock patented vulcanised rubber.
1918: The German battle fleet surrendered to the Allies at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys.
1934: Cole Porter's Anything Goes opened in New York and made a star of Ethel Merman.
1936: The first television gardening programme was broadcast by the BBC - In Your Garden with Mr Middleton.
1953: The discovery of The Piltdown Man skull by Charles Dawson in Sussex in 1912 was finally revealed as a hoax.
1974: IRA bombs in two Birmingham public houses killed 19 people and left a further 180 injured.
