The VICE UK Morning News Bulletin

(Top photo: Gage Skidmore, via)

May May Reject Rejection
Theresa May has rejected Nicola Sturgeon's timetable for a second referendum on Scottish independence. The PM said the plan to hold a referendum between autumn of 2018 and spring of 2019 represented the "worst possible timing". Three opinion polls put support for independence at 50/50, after Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU. – Guardian

Trigger Warning
Theresa May is planning a tour of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in an attempt to build consensus before she triggers article 50 and embarks on the formal Brexit process. The article is expected to be triggered by the end of the month. – Guardian

Identity Crisis
Identity theft reached record levels in 2016, with young people a growing target. Almost 25,000 victims of fraud were aged under 30, with identity fraud levels rising steeply over the past year. – BBC

Riders on the Shitstorm
Police are speaking to a Tory MP over election expenses, amid a growing "shitstorm" over allegations relating to the party's 2015 general election spending. Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for South Thanet, won his seat after defeating Ukip leader Nigel Farage at the last election. – Independent

Tad Tax
Donald Trump's tax returns have finally been made public, with NBC's Rachel Maddow outlining the details of the returns on her programme. There was no notable smoking gun, with Trump reportedly paying $38 million in taxes in 2005. Some, including Maddow, suggested the returns may have been leaked by the White House in an attempted to distract the media from other headlines. – New York Times

Right vs the Extreme Right
Dutch voters will head to the polls today in an election widely seen as an indicator of populist sentiment across Europe. With the French and German elections still months away, eyes are on the Netherlands as Conservative Prime Minister Mark Rutte faces off against far-right candidate and anti-immigration agitator Geert Wilders. – CNN

Made in China
China has begun construction on a new artificial island in the highly-disputed South China Sea, satellite images show. It's a sign that Beijing is continuing to strengthen its military reach across a vital trade waterway. – Reuters

Aid Worker Abduction
Aid workers from a US-based Christian charity have been kidnapped in famine-hit South Sudan. Negotiations are underway to release the workers, who were taken from a village near Mayendit in the country's north. – Al Jazeera

Not Enough Red Cards in the World
Brazillian goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes de Souza had the mother of his child abducted, tortured, murdered and fed to a pack of dogs. After seven years in prison, he will return to the game after being signed by Boa Esporte, a second-division club. – Broadly

Astrobiologist Might Be the Coolest Job Title in the World, BTW
What happens when we find alien life? Astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild is engineering microorganisms in her NASA lab to understand the potential for life on other planets, and explains in a video why she believes there's something out there to be found. – Motherboard

Conloquium Interruptus
The family of Robert Kelly – the Korean expert whose children famously interrupted his interview with the BBC a few days ago – gave an interview in which all members of the family (deliberately) shared the screen to describe the circumstances and chaos behind their unexpected viral fame. – Wall Street Journal

Get In (To a Cinema ASAP)
Jordan Peele has made history as the first African American writer/director whose debut film made a cool $100 million at the box office. The horror film Get Out has received nothing but rave reviews, and will be released in the UK this weekend. Peele, best known as one half of the comedy duo Key & Peele, has said that he has many more films planned that explore "these innately human monsters that are woven into the fabric of how we think and how we interact". – i-D

Black Holes Matter
Astronomers have discovered something extraordinary: a black hole tearing off and eating matter from a white dwarf. The astronomical version of nightmare fuel features the white dwarf orbiting a black hole within half an hour, and the black hole stripping the oxygen-rich material from the dwarf and devouring it. – Bad Astronomy