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My idol turned out to be my sister - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Jennifer Bricker was born without legs but still became a gymnast, after watching an Olympic champion on TV. The two had more in common than they could ever have guessed.
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Magazine
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Aerial performer Jennifer Bricker was born without legs, but she never let it stop her. By the age of 11 she was a gymnastics champion - having fallen in love with the sport after watching Dominique Moceanu win a gold medal for the US at the 1996 Olympics. And it turned out the two had a lot more in common than athletic talent.
Wrapped in a loop of red silk suspended from the ceiling Jennifer Bricker climbs and twists to the music. Her head hangs down and her strong arms let go as she balances on her back, high above the ground - a move that's all the more daring because she has no legs.
Jennifer was a few months old when she was adopted by Sharon and Gerald Bricker. She had big brown eyes, a radiant smile, and huge amounts of energy. When a doctor advised her adoptive parents to carry her around in a kind of bucket, they refused.
Jennifer soon learned to walk - and run - on her hands and bottom, and grew up fearlessly climbing trees and bouncing on the trampoline with her three older brothers. "They encouraged all of that by having me jump off everything and scare everybody half to death," she says.
At the age of three she was fitted with prosthetic legs, but she never really took to them - she moved more freely without.
At school Jennifer loved competing in ball games. "I was right there with everyone else," she says. "My parents didn't treat me differently so I didn't grasp the concept that I was different. I knew I didn't have legs but that wasn't stopping me from doing the things I wanted to do."
The Brickers had always been open with her about her adoption. "I knew that I was Romanian and that probably a good reason why I was given up for adoption was because I didn't have legs," says Jennifer.
Sharon and Gerald even encouraged her to understand her birth parents - Romanian immigrants to the US who had given her up on the day she was born. "You didn't walk in their shoes so you really don't know what was going on in their life. They were from a different country. They had a different mindset," they would explain.
At the same time, they made sure she felt loved and wanted, telling her she was the answer to their prayers.
Jennifer grew up in a tiny community in Illinois. The first time she saw a fellow Romanian was on TV. It was 1996 and the Olympic Games were taking place in Atlanta. Jennifer loved to watch the women's gymnastics team, but there was one member of the team she especially idolised - 14-year-old Dominique Moceanu. She was only six years older, and, as Jennifer puts it, "very small" like her.
"I was drawn to her because we looked alike and that was so important to me," says Jennifer. "No-one looked like me growing up. I didn't know any other Romanian people. I just saw myself in her in so many ways and that was a big deal for me."
Dominique Moceanu during the Women's Beam event in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia
Moceanu and the women's team went on to win gold, and it was at that moment Jennifer decided she was going to be a gymnast, too. She took up power tumbling, which involves performing floor exercises down a runway. But Jennifer did not want any allowances to be made for her disability. "That way when I compete, I know that it's legit," she says.
She remembers spectators being surprised when they saw her: "Wow, this girl doesn't have legs - is she competing?"
"But the love, the support when I did compete was amazing," she says. "They would always applaud and cheer because I made sure that there were no exceptions made for me - nothing."
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At the age of 10 she took part in the Junior Olympics and by age 11 she was tumbling champion for the state of Illinois.
Jennifer continued to follow the ups and downs of her idol, who was now making headlines for different reasons. In 1998, when Dominique was 17, she took her parents to court, accusing them of mis-spending $1m of her post-Olympic earnings. During the court case, stories came out about her father's harsh treatment of her. She succeeded in legally breaking free from her parents and taking control of her own finances.
Dominique Moceanu takes an oath in court with her father in the background
When Jennifer was 16 she asked her mother if there was anything they hadn't told her about her birth family. She really wasn't expecting her to say, "Yes," because her parents had always been so open. But to her surprise, her mother did have something important to tell her. She sat her down and said: "Your biological last name would have been Moceanu."
There was no doubting what that meant. "Immediately when she said that I was like, 'Wow, that means Dominique's my sister,'" says Jennifer.
The Brickers had found out purely by accident. Jennifer's was meant to have been a closed adoption, but her birth parents' names appeared on some documents. Then, during the 1996 Olympics, the TV cameras had cut to Dominique's mother Camelia and father Dumitru in the crowd. As their names flashed up on the screen, the Brickers realised they were looking at Jennifer's parents. But they decided not to tell their daughter until she was older.
When she found out, Jennifer wanted to get in touch with Dominique, but she was determined to do it properly. "I couldn't just call her and say 'Hey, I'm your sister' - I didn't want her to think I was crazy." Her uncle happened to be a private investigator so she asked him to contact her biological parents. They didn't deny putting her up for adoption, but after that first phone call they no longer responded. "It was clear they wanted to continue keeping me a secret," she says.
Four years later, Jennifer wrote her sister a letter, explaining the situation and telling her how she had inspired her to take up gymnastics.
"I almost could not believe it myself, you had been my idol my whole life, and you turned out to be my sister!" she wrote.
She included copies of all the documentation she had and lots of photographs - all from the waist up. "I instinctively made the choice not to tell her I didn't have legs because I thought it might be a little bit much," explains Jennifer. "She's already finding out she has a sister she didn't know about. I'll just wait and tell her about the no legs afterwards."
By now, Dominique was 26 years old and no longer competing professionally. It was a busy time in her life. She had married a fellow athlete and they were expecting their first child. She was trying to finish her college exams before giving birth. On 10 December 2007, after finishing a statistics exam, Dominique drove to the post office to collect a package.
She tore open the envelope when she got back to the car - the first thing she saw were some court documents with her parents' signatures. That piqued her interest. Then she shifted her attention to the photographs of a girl who looked just like her younger sister, Christina. "The resemblance was unbelievable," she says. Finally she turned to the neatly-typed letter. One sentence leapt out at her: "My biological last name is Moceanu."
"That letter was the biggest shock of my life and I'll never forget it," says Dominique.
She needed to know if it was true. Still sitting in her car, she called her mother, who lived a few time zones away, and woke her up with the words: "Did you give up a baby girl for adoption in 1987?"
"She had the wake-up call of her life - it was just so blunt," she admits.
Her mother burst into tears. She said "Yes" but could barely say anything else.
"My heart broke for her because she had to keep this a secret for all these years and she could never have had the opportunity to deal with it," says Dominique.
The next few weeks were an emotional rollercoaster. Dominique wrote back to Jennifer, asking for time to process the news and explaining that she was about to have a baby.
"I needed to answer some of my own questions and figure out how this could have happened," says Dominique.
At the time her father was very ill so it was difficult to communicate with him, but Dominique found out that he had made the decision to give Jennifer up at the hospital out of fear that they would not be able to pay her medical bills. Her mother had not had a say in it, and had never even got the chance to hold her.
Dominique's own daughter was born on Christmas Day and a few weeks later, on 14 January, she felt ready to call her sister for the first time. She was nervous and had even prepared notes, but the conversation soon flowed.
Then Jennifer bit the bullet. "By the way, you know I don't have legs right?" she said.
Dominique was stunned into silence. How did this fit with what she knew?
"She told me that I was the reason she started gymnastics, and I thought that was a beautiful thing," says Dominique. "I never imagined she would do all of these sports without having legs."
That spring, Dominique, Jennifer and their younger sister Christina met for the first time in Ohio, where Dominique lived.
"On one hand it was surreal and a bit like a dream," says Jennifer. "But on the other hand it was very natural. The DNA was very clear at that point. When I met my younger sister it was like looking in a mirror."
The sisters marvelled at all the things they had in common - the way they laughed, even certain hand gestures - but when they spoke about their upbringing, their stories could not have been more different.
"They did not have the love and support that I had. They had some abuse and turmoil and secrets so it was not an easy childhood for them," says Jennifer.
The Moceanus, themselves former gymnasts, had come to the US in 1981, after fleeing the Ceausescu regime in Romania. Dominique was born shortly after they arrived, and they dreamed she would be the next Nadia Comaneci.
When she was six months old they hung her on the washing line to test her strength - she held on until the line broke. "That was a sign to them I'd be a great gymnast," says Dominique. It was a story her father loved to tell - unfortunately the training methods he and the coaches espoused were a hangover from the communist era.
Dominique says she was constantly humiliated and berated about her weight and any shortcomings in her performance. "People thought these measures were the way you had to succeed," she says. "But those kinds of things are really damaging to the self-esteem when you're a young, growing, pre-pubescent child." There was also the threat of physical punishment from her father if her performance was not up to scratch. He was an authoritarian figure who dominated the household.
"We all agree that it would not have been a great childhood environment for me to grow up in," says Jennifer.
"My parents had never been around many children with disabilities," says Dominique.
Their father died before Jennifer could meet him, but in January 2010, at the age of 22, she met her biological mother, Camelia, for the first time.
"I remember it in slow motion," says Jennifer.
"She was wearing a fur hat - it was such a stereotypical Eastern European thing.
"She couldn't believe how much I looked like my sisters and so she was instinctively speaking in Romanian." Dominique had to translate for her mother, who was too stunned to switch to English.
The women hugged, and Jennifer showed her videos of her performances, including a trampoline act she had performed on tour with Britney Spears. "She was so amazed and she knew that she could have never given me that life," she says.
Jennifer felt no anger towards her. She credits her adoptive parents for this. "They gave me the freedom not to be bitter," she says.
Jennifer with her parents, Sharon and Gerald Bricker
In fact, she says her heart went out to her mother.
"You know, my biological mother was very much a victim of an abusive marriage," she says. "She did not have an easy life - and that's not me making an excuse for her, that's just the truth."
The sisters live in separate states but try to see each other when they can, making up for lost time. Jennifer now travels the world as an inspirational speaker and performs as an aerial acrobat.
"She's wonderful, she's up there in the air and you can see her passion," says Dominique. "I'm proud of her as an older sister - she's really living her dreams."
Listen to Dominique and Jennifer speak to Outlook on the BBC World Service
Images of Jennifer Bricker taken from Everything is Possible by Jen Bricker with Sheryl Berk. Baker Books, © 2016. Used by permission
Dominique Moceanu has also written a book about her life, Off Balance
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38697627
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Dylan Hartley: England captain feared for international career following ban - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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England captain Dylan Hartley says he feared that his latest ban would cost him his international career.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Northampton hooker Dylan Hartley says he feared that his latest ban would cost him his international career.
The 30-year-old has been confirmed as England's captain for the Six Nations by coach Eddie Jones - two days after his six-week suspension for hitting Leinster's Sean O'Brien ended.
Hartley will not have played for nine weeks before England's opening game against France on 4 February.
"I did think that maybe that was it," Hartley told BBC Sport.
"But again, a conversation with Eddie - a very clear and direct conversation - and I know where I stand," he added.
Hartley, who led England to the Grand Slam last year, was banned in December after he caught the Irish flanker with a swinging arm during Northampton's 37-10 Champions Cup loss. It was the third red card of his career.
The subsequent suspension took the total number of weeks he has been unavailable during his career to 60.
"I obviously came back to Northampton and wanted to make a positive impact in a big game for the club," said Hartley. "It obviously went horribly wrong.
"Positive, dominant, hard tackle. That's what I was thinking. Obviously the outcome was different to what I intended.
"That walk off the field is never a quick moment. It seems to drag on for quite a while, but obviously gives you time to reflect and I understand I could have jeopardised a lot.
"I put myself and the team in a difficult position and since then I've had clear directives from the management of what they expect and here I am."
Hartley said that part of the directive from Jones was to improve his tackle technique.
"I've worked very hard with [England defence coach] Paul Gustard on that," added Hartley. "It's not something that just finishes now that I'm back playing. It's an ongoing thing."
Hartley was dropped from England's 2015 Rugby World Cup squad after he headbutted Saracens' Jamie George, but was recalled by the Australian after he replaced Stuart Lancaster.
The hooker went on to lead the side to a Six Nations Grand Slam as they embarked on a run of 14 consecutive Test match victories.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38751283
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Ant and Dec net trio of National Television Awards - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Ant and Dec won three prizes at the National Television Awards, including best TV presenter for the 16th year.
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This video is no longer available because rights have expired
Ant and Dec won three prizes at the National Television Awards, including best TV presenter for the 16th year.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38752785
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RAF Typhoons escort Russian ships - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Three RAF Typhoons and a British warship escort a Russian aircraft carrier and other ships up the English Channel.
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Three RAF Typhoons and a British warship escort a Russian aircraft carrier and other ships up the English Channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38750696
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Trump's 'control-alt-delete' on climate change policy - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Are the Trump team's actions on climate and energy the opening shots in a war on knowledge?
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Science & Environment
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Amid concerns over his attitude to climate change, the new President has signed orders to push forward with two major oil pipelines
Are the recent actions taken by the Trump team on the issues of climate and energy the opening shots in a war on knowledge?
Or are they simply what you'd expect from a new administration of a different political hue?
Let's examine what we know.
Just after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president, a range of information on the White House website related to climate change was moved to an Obama online archive.
The only references to rising temperatures on the new Trump White House site are a commitment to eliminate "harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan". This was President Obama's broad-based strategy to cut carbon emissions.
The brief White House document now contains a further indication of the green priorities of the new administration. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), should focus on its "essential mission of protecting our air and water".
The Twitter account of Badlands National Park has seen a number of tweets relating to climate change deleted
While the administration figures out how to achieve that re-focus, staff at the EPA have been told to freeze all grant making, and to be quiet about it. This means that no external press releases will be issued and no social media posts will be permitted. It is unclear when these restrictions will be lifted.
Reports from news agencies indicate that the roll-back will not stop there, with climate information pages hosted by the EPA expected to be shut down.
"My guess is the web pages will be taken down, but the links and information will be available," the prominent climate sceptic and adviser to the Trump transition team, Myron Ebell, told Reuters.
"If the website goes dark, years of work we have done on climate change will disappear," said an anonymous EPA staff member, according to reports.
The Trump team has also taken immediate steps to push forward with two controversial oil pipelines.
So are all these moves evidence of a malevolent mindset, determined to crush all this snowflake climate change chatter?
Definitely, according to Alden Meyer, a veteran climate campaigner with the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"President Trump and his team are pursuing what I call a 'control-alt-delete' strategy: control the scientists in the federal agencies, alter science-based policies to fit their narrow ideological agenda, and delete scientific information from government websites," told BBC News.
"This is an across-the-board strategy that we are seeing at multiple federal agencies on a range of issues, though climate denialism is clearly the point of the spear."
Not according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
"I don't think it's any surprise that when there's an administration turnover, that we're going to review the policy," he said.
However the disappearance of tweets of basic climate change information from the Badlands National Park Twitter account has raised serious concerns that the Trump team is not just seeking to roll back regulation, but is also taking an ideological stand against what they might see as "warmist" propaganda.
Protesters have maintained a long-term presence to stall progress on the Dakota Access Pipeline
Back in 2009, President Obama enacted rules that federal agencies should have scientific integrity policies, that guaranteed the rights of free speech of employees, following on from the gagging of some researchers and the altering of reports under the Bush administration.
While the current steps being taken by the Trump team may turn out to be less restrictive than feared, on this side of the pond there's a great deal of concern.
Scientists see the forthcoming visit of UK prime minister Theresa May to Washington as an opportunity to press the President to rein in his approach.
"We are beginning to see our fears realised less than a week after President Trump has taken office," said Bob Ward, from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
"I hope that the Prime Minister will challenge President Trump about this censorship and political interference in the process of gaining and sharing knowledge about climate change during their meeting on Friday."
Climate scientists in the US are also rallying to fight back.
A march on Washington by scientists is being proposed, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts have been created based on the the idea that "an American government that ignores science to pursue ideological agendas endangers the world".
Meanwhile, another national park - Golden Gate NPS - has started tweeting climate facts.
Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38746608
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'Thousands' of knife crime victims aged 18 or younger - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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A knife or blade was used in a crime every 16 minutes on average last year in the UK, according to figures.
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A BBC investigation has revealed the extent of knife crime across the UK.
Figures show that a knife or blade was used in a crime every 16 minutes on average last year.
The number of incidents involving machetes has risen by more than 60% over the last 3 years in England and Wales according to Freedom of Information request responses from just over half of police forces.
Knife crime across England and Wales is up 11% in the last year and nearing levels of five years ago.
The Home Office says knife crime remains below levels in 2010 but it recognises there is more to be done.
The BBC's Ed Thomas visited Liverpool to meet people who say they carry knives every day.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38752258
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Hull City 2-1 Manchester United (Agg: 2-3) - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Manchester United are beaten for the first time since November but reach the EFL Cup final with an aggregate win over Hull.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Manchester United set up an EFL Cup final against Southampton despite their 17-match unbeaten run ending with defeat at Hull City in the semi-final second leg on Thursday.
Jose Mourinho's side led 2-0 from the first leg but, making five changes, they struggled to impose themselves at the KCOM Stadium.
Tom Huddlestone put the hosts ahead from the penalty spot after four players had tangled in the area after a set-piece, Marcos Rojo's pull on Harry Maguire's shirt the most visible offence.
It gave Hull, 19th in the Premier League, poise and confidence, but their hopes of just a second domestic cup final in their 113-year history were dashed when Paul Pogba poked through the legs of Maguire and into the bottom corner from 10 yards.
Rojo headed against the bar for United and the Tigers' Oumar Niasse also struck the woodwork before he turned in David Meyler's cross to set up a tense finale.
But the visitors held on and former Chelsea boss Mourinho could move level with Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson on four League Cup wins at Wembley on 26 February.
• None 'It was 1-1' - Mourinho says Man Utd 'didn't lose'
Former boss Ferguson said earlier in the week that Mourinho had "got to grips" with the managerial role at Old Trafford - and a major final will surely only further build confidence as United remain in the hunt for a Champions League qualification berth and in three cup competitions.
The EFL Cup may not top the list of objectives for Red Devils fans, but their team have shown a hunger to beat three Premier League teams on the way to Wembley in Hull, West Ham and Manchester City.
On his 54th birthday, Mourinho shuffled his pack. Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard were preferred to Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and United were deservedly beaten.
There were contentious moments, notably the penalty award which BBC Radio 5 live pundit Ally McCoist deemed "soft" and United had calls for their own spot-kick when Chris Smalling went down under Tom Huddlestone's challenge after the break.
Mourinho seemed irked by officiating after the match, but on the night his side had less of the ball, fewer shots than their hosts and were probably asked to work far harder than he would have liked.
There were positives. Marcus Rashford's pace on times troubled the hosts, Zlatan Ibrahimovic showed touches of flair - notably when bringing a fine save from David Marshall - and most importantly, United will bid for a fifth League Cup win.
However, with progress comes dilemmas. Mourinho will now see the depth of his squad tested, with the final arriving on the same day United were scheduled to face Manchester City in the league and four days after the second leg of a Europa League tie at Saint-Etienne.
Hull, on paper at least, stood no chance before kick-off. On 26 of the 27 previous occasions a side had lost a League Cup semi-final first leg by two or more goals they have gone out.
But ploughing on through adversity is a necessary pre-requisite at the KCOM Stadium.
Robert Snodgrass - who has created 30 more chances than any other Hull player this season - was left out amid two bids for his services, midfielder Jake Livermore has been sold and recent acquisition Ryan Mason will likely face a long lay-off after fracturing his skull. All things considered, this was a display to be applauded.
The fact the starting line-up included four players who have each played less than five games this season in Shaun Maloney, Jarron Bowen, Niasse and Josh Tymon, perhaps underlined coach Marco Silva's priorities.
But Bowen was neat and tidy, while Everton-reject Niasse proved a constant nuisance. The experience of Tom Huddlestone was key as he picked intelligent passes in midfield and new recruit Lazar Markovic came off the bench to help craft the second goal.
With Hull's league position so precarious, would the distraction of a cup final proved a nuisance for Silva?
He has a bigger battle to fight but this win showed that even with key names out, he has a squad which may have the character needed for a successful scrap against the drop.
• None Listen: Spirit is being ripped from Hull - McCoist
For all the Hull vigour, semi-finals belong to winners and United will now compete in their ninth League Cup final.
Victory in this competition of course kick-started Ferguson's success in 1992, and a quarter of a century on Mourinho will bid to maintain his unbeaten run in League cup finals.
"Wembley is Wembley, it is for professionals with passion for football. It has a special meaning, a special feeling," said the United boss.
'I behaved on the bench' - what the managers said
Hull manager Marco Silva: "It was a good win but not enough for our goal. It is important to win the game but the result in the first leg caused problems for us. It was a good performance again, a good attitude and we controlled the game in large periods against a big team. It is impossible at this moment to feel really happy.
"The goal we conceded is not a normal goal, we lost control at the vital moment."
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho: "I just want to say congratulations to my players. It was a difficult road to be in the final and we are in the final. I don't want to say anything else. It is enough, I am calm, I behaved on the bench, no sending off, no punishment so no more words."
Home fortress - the stats you need to know
• None Manchester United have reached their ninth League Cup final - second only to Liverpool in the history of the competition (12).
• None Paul Pogba scored his seventh goal of the season in all competitions - only Zlatan Ibrahimovic has more for the Red Devils this season (19).
• None Tom Huddlestone's penalty was his first goal in 31 games in all competitions for the Tigers, while Oumar Niasse scored his first goal in English football (11th game).
• None This was Jose Mourinho's first ever defeat at the hands of the Tigers (W6 D0 L1).
• None Hull have won their last three home games in all competitions, having won just two of their previous 11 at the KCOM Stadium this season.
Manchester United host Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup on Sunday in a 16:00 GMT kick-off, after Hull travel to meet Fulham in the competition at 12:30.
• None Attempt blocked. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a headed pass.
• None Offside, Manchester United. Paul Pogba tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.
• None Attempt blocked. Harry Maguire (Hull City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lazar Markovic.
• None Marcos Rojo (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Goal! Hull City 2, Manchester United 1. Oumar Niasse (Hull City) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by David Meyler.
• None Offside, Manchester United. Ander Herrera tries a through ball, but Paul Pogba is caught offside.
• None Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38672990
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Usain Bolt: Jamaican Olympic Association considering appeal after Nesta Carter tests positive - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Jamaica may appeal against the decision to strip the rest of its Beijing 4x100m relay squad of their gold medals after Nesta Carter's failed drugs test.
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Last updated on .From the section Athletics
Jamaica may appeal against the decision to strip the rest of its Beijing 4x100m relay squad of their gold medals after Nesta Carter's failed drugs test.
Usain Bolt stands to lose one of his nine Olympic golds after a retest of Carter's sample from the 2008 Games was found to contain a banned stimulant.
"We have to decide what the best legal process is," Jamaican Olympic Association chief Mike Fennell said.
"It is a team and we are interested in ensuring they are properly protected and given a fair chance of clearing their names."
Nevertheless the association has written to the athletes requesting they return their medals, he said.
Carter's lawyer confirmed on Wednesday that the sprinter will lodge his own appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
• None An Olympic career in 325 seconds - Bolt in numbers
• None Bolt having to return gold 'is disgusting' - Darren Campbell
Bolt, 30, completed a 'triple triple' in Rio last summer. He won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay to add to his successes in the same events in 2008 and 2012.
Carter, 31, was also part of the squad that won the event in London five years ago and helped Jamaica win at the World Championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
He ran the first leg in Beijing for Jamaica's 4x100m relay team, which also included Bolt, Frater, Powell and Thomas, who ran in the heats.
The retesting process: where does it stand?
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is responsible for authorising the retests for both the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games, released updated statistics about the process on Wednesday.
• None The number of tests carried out during the event was 4,800
• None The number of samples subsequently selected for reanalysis was 1,053
• None And the resulting number of athletes sanctioned up to 25 January 2017 is 61
• None The number of tests carried out during the event was 5,000
• None The number of samples subsequently selected for reanalysis was 492 and that process remains ongoing
• None And the number of athletes sanctioned to date is 37
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/38757620
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Health inequality research offers UK wake-up call - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Research shows that health inequality is blighting children's lives, but the gap between rich and poor is making it hard to remedy the problem.
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Health
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Health inequality has been much discussed at learned seminars.
In 2010 a ground-breaking report for the government in England by Sir Michael Marmot set out the social factors governing health and pointed to the role of a child's early years in determining life chances.
Now, leading child health experts are saying that little progress has been made since then and that health inequality is still blighting the lives of young people.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is arguing that what it calls the wide gap between rich and poor is damaging infant health around the UK.
The college president, Professor Neena Modi, points out that in general the health of young people has improved dramatically over the last 30 years.
But she argues that a lot more needs to be done to improve child health and that it is "particularly troubling" that "stark inequalities" have widened in the last few years.
The report says that the UK ranks high amongst Western European countries on mortality rates for infants under the age of one.
The relative position, according to the report, has worsened since the UK sat around the average in 1970.
Deprivation, it says, is strongly linked to death rates among children.
The college believes that many of the causes of infant mortality are preventable and asserts that issues such as fetal growth restriction disproportionately affect the least advantaged families in society.
Reducing child poverty, with benefits and housing policy playing a part, are crucial for improving infant survival, according to the report.
Reducing child poverty - partly through benefits and housing policy - is crucial in improving infant survival, the report says
New mortality data have been published this week by the Office for National Statistics.
They underline again the scale of inequalities.
Within England, the West Midlands had double the infant mortality rate of the South East in 2015, at 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.
For the whole population (age-standardised), Blackpool, Glasgow, Belfast and Blaenau Gwent had considerably higher death rates than areas like Monmouthshire and City of London.
The ONS release accompanying the data notes: "The substantial variation in mortality rates between different local areas reflects underlying differences in factors such as income deprivation, socio-economic position and health behaviour."
The nation's statisticians are confirming the thrust of the Royal College report - that inequality is a key driver in health outcomes.
Income inequality on some measures has fallen in recent years in the UK.
But this followed a sharp decline in earnings and investment returns for the wealthiest households after the financial crisis at a time when benefits for the poorest were being protected by government policies.
Inequality is higher than it was in the 1970s and is still relatively high compared to other advanced economies.
Real wages for much of the population have stagnated since the start of the recession in 2008.
It has been described as a "lost decade" even by the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney.
A recent ONS report on household inequality, noting the relative generosity of pensioner benefit increases compared to other parts of the population, stated: "While retired households' incomes have soared in recent years, non-retired households still have less money, on average, than before the crash."
While most people close to or at average income levels remain financially stretched and there are no signs of a significant reduction in the gap between rich and poor, health disparities will be hard to shift.
The latest Royal College report and data are a wake-up call if one were needed.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38743574
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Two Premiership rugby union players test positive for cocaine use - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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The Rugby Football Union confirms two Premiership players tested positive for recreational drug use over the past two years.
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Two Premiership players tested positive for recreational drug use last season, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has confirmed.
However, the latest RFU annual anti-doping report revealed there were only four violations for performance-enhancing drugs - all at amateur level.
"It's an extremely low number of positive cases," said RFU anti-doping manager Stephen Watkins.
"That's not to say it's not there, but if you compare those stats with wider general society, it's an incredibly low number of players who have been detected."
The RFU insists it is "doing everything it can" to detect doping in the professional game.
Although only around a third of top-flight players were tested as part of the RFU programme, Watkins is confident in the process.
"We have tested a great deal in the Premiership consistently for over 10 years, with no violations," he said.
"In terms of the amateur game, there's certainly work to be done in terms of education, especially in terms of the lower levels."
What has the RFU done?
Watkins feels rugby union in England is at the cutting edge of anti-doping testing, despite fears some substances - such as the use of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) - are notoriously difficult to detect.
"We utilise all the latest techniques: we operate the biological passport, there is blood and urine testing, in and out of competition," he added.
"We go to players' homes regularly, we obviously have regular intelligence meetings with other sports, with World Rugby and UK Anti-Doping (Ukad).
"I would say we operate at the sharp end here. We obviously can't rest on our laurels, we can't allow ourselves to be complacent in this area. I would say we are doing everything we can. It's a very tough arena this, [and] given some of the other sports' issues with sophisticated doping it's not something we can take too lightly.
"Every sport out there will be looking to use the latest and most sophisticated techniques to detect drug use. But if you look at our stats and World Rugby stats, I think as a sport we stand up pretty well."
The illicit drugs programme was introduced following the Bath cocaine scandal in 2009, when four players were subsequently banned.
"We feel very confident those issues don't exist in the Premiership any longer. While we can never rule it out, we feel pretty confident we don't have some of the issues which maybe occurred in the past," Watkins said.
Phil Winstanley, rugby director at Premiership Rugby, added: "We had one big problem at Bath and that was a catalyst for this programme,"
"This is slightly different to the anti-doping programme. Unless it's being used in competition, cocaine isn't a performance-enhancing drug. Clearly we don't want it in our sport, and what's why we are doing the programme."
The players who have tested positive have been fined, but the RFU will not reveal their identity when it is a first offence. A second positive test will lead to a ban.
"All the violations have been one-off occasions, [the player] has received treatment and education, and that's followed up with monitoring tests," said Watkins.
A total of 386 illicit drugs tests were conducted across the Premiership last season.
"That would cover off around half of the players," Winstanley added. "So if we did have a problem we would be identifying drug-takers on a regular basis, and we are not."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38761246
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Usain Bolt loses one Olympic gold medal as Nesta Carter tests positive - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Usain Bolt has to hand back one of his nine Olympic gold medals after Jamaican team-mate Nesta Carter tests positive for a banned substance.
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Last updated on .From the section Athletics
Usain Bolt will have to hand back one of his nine Olympic gold medals after Jamaican team-mate Nesta Carter tested positive for a banned substance.
Carter was part of the Jamaican quartet that won the 4x100m in Beijing in 2008.
His was one of 454 selected doping samples retested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, and has been found to contain the banned stimulant methylhexaneamine.
Bolt, 30, completed an unprecedented 'triple triple' in Rio last summer.
He won gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay to add to his successes in the same events in 2008 and 2012.
Carter, 31, was also part of the squad that won the event in London five years ago and helped Jamaica win at the World Championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
He ran the first leg for Jamaica's 4x100m relay team in Beijing, which also included Michael Frater, Asafa Powell and Bolt.
• None An Olympic career in 325 seconds - Bolt in numbers
• None Usain Bolt having to return Olympic Gold 'is disgusting' - Darren Campbell
The team won in a then-world record of 37.10 seconds, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago and Japan, who could have their medals upgraded. Brazil would then receive bronze.
The head of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association, Dr Warren Blake, said he did not expect the whole team to be penalised: "I didn't rule out he'd be found guilty but my personal opinion is that I'm surprised they'd go that route."
Carter's lawyer has confirmed that the sprinter will lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The test and what happened next?
Carter was tested on the evening of the Beijing final in 2008 but that was found at the time to contain no "adverse analytical finding".
More than 4,500 tests were carried out at those Games, with nine athletes caught cheating.
An anomaly was discovered in Carter's submission following the IOC's decision to retest 454 samples from Beijing using the latest scientific analysis methods.
Carter and the Jamaican National Olympic Committee were told of the adverse finding in May - before the Rio Games - and told his B sample would be tested.
It was reported by Reuters in June that Carter's A sample had been found to contain methylhexanamine, which has been on the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) prohibited list since 2004.
It was reclassified in 2011 as a "specified substance", meaning one that is more susceptible to a "credible, non-doping explanation".
Sold as a nasal decongestant in the United States until 1983, methylhexanamine has been used more recently as an ingredient in dietary supplements.
Speaking in June, Bolt said the prospect of having to return the gold was "heartbreaking".
He told the Jamaica Gleaner: "For years you've worked hard to accumulate gold medals and you work hard to be a champion, but it's one of those things.
"I'm more concerned about the athlete and I hope he gets through it."
Analysis - 'It takes the shine off Bolt's achievement'
It takes the shine off Bolt's achievement. Eight doesn't have the same ring - 'double treble, plus two'.
It will be really frustrating for him. You can only account for yourself, you cannot account for your team-mates.
We know it has nothing to do with Usain Bolt - it will not damage his reputation - but it will affect it, take shine off it and he won't be a happy man.
When I hear stories like this, a part of me does celebrate. If athletes think they have got away with it, then with retrospective testing they can never sleep peacefully.
It has to be the strongest deterrent the sport now has. Even when athletes retire they can still have their medals taken away.
Marlon Devonish, 40, was part of the British 4x100m relay team which lost the silver medal at the World Championships in 2003 following Dwain Chambers' failed drugs test. He went on to win Olympic relay gold with Britain at Athens 2004.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, he said: "With relays you work together, you build a relationship, but you never know what goes on behind closed doors and clearly Carter was taking drugs.
"Carter has tarnished the team. It's a massively selfish act and I'm sure Bolt and the rest of the team are bitterly disappointed.
"The relationship between me and Dwain, we get on, we are cool. He apologised to me I and accepted it. Dwain has to live with it for the rest of his life, it was a sincere apology.
"I was devastated when I found out, but you have to move on."
Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva has also been stripped of her Beijing long jump and triple jump silver medals after dehydrochlormethyltestosterone was found in one of her samples.
The 40-year-old has told Russian news agency Tass that she plans to appeal against the decision to strip her of her medals, adding that she "will always fight to the end".
Lebedeva has resigned from the executive committee of the World Olympians Association (WOA), the umbrella organisation that represents 148 national associations of former Olympic athletes.
Now a Russian senator, she won gold in the long jump at the 2004 Athens Games and has two other Olympic medals, won in Sydney and Athens. She retired from competition in 2013.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/38744846
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Tim Peake's capsule goes on display at Science Museum - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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The capsule that carried Tim Peake to and from the International Space Station goes on display at London's Science Museum.
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Science & Environment
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Reunited: It was the first time Tim Peake had seen the capsule since stepping out of it in June
The spacecraft that carried Tim Peake to and from the International Space Station last year has gone on display at London's Science Museum.
The museum says the Russian capsule is an important part of UK space history and hopes it will inspire the public.
The Soyuz TMA-19M has been refurbished, but is still slightly singed from re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
Business Secretary Greg Clark has confirmed that Major Peake will make a second mission to the space station.
The timing will be decided by the European Space Agency (Esa).
Mr Clark said: "Tim Peake's Principia mission inspired a generation, and showed just how far science can take you."
The UK committed in December to continue to participate in Esa's space station programme.
And last week, Esa's director-general Jan Woerner set out his plans for human space flight at a news conference in Paris.
He announced that another mission was "foreseen" for Major Peake in the next wave of European manned missions. A second flight for the British astronaut would likely happen in the period 2019-2024.
Tim Peake's Soyuz capsule is shown on the Kazakh steppe shortly after it returned him and two other crew members to Earth
Major Peake's capsule sits atop a Soyuz rocket on the launch pad at Baikonur in 2015
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tim Peake's capsule goes on display at Science Museum
Tim Peake said he was delighted to see the capsule in the UK: "I hope that for everybody who gets to visit it will have a really great source of inspiration and maybe sow the seeds of future dreams for other people. "
Just over a year ago, Tim Peake set off for his mission to the International Space Station. Within a few weeks he became the first British astronaut to walk in space.
Executives at the Science Museum hope the spacecraft's connection to the British astronaut will prove a major draw.
Museum director, Ian Blatchford, told BBC News that the purchase of the spacecraft was almost like an "impulse buy". He explained that he made a casual enquiry while in Moscow over the summer whether the spacecraft was for sale and to his surprise the spacecraft owners agreed.
It was from within this 2m-high, bell-shaped vehicle that Major Peake witnessed the wonders of space.
The right-hand seat was Tim's and from it he looked out of the window and saw the curvature of the Earth for the first time. It was also from this window that he witnessed what it was like to re-enter the atmosphere at the end of his mission.
The spacecraft provides the UK with a link to its own astronauts and a reminder of its role in space exploration.
The Science Museum says that it wants the display to inspire those that see it, especially children - many of whom might wish to follow in Major Peake's footsteps.
Major Peake gives the thumbs up during his launch into orbit
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38744822
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Australian baby Brian Junior weighs in at 6.06kg - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Brian Junior was born in Melbourne and weighed in at 6.06kg (13.5lb) and was 57cm long.
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Brian Junior was born in Melbourne and weighed in at 6.06kg (13.5lb) and was 57cm long.
His mum, who always wanted "a little fat baby" says she was shocked to find out he was twice the size of an average baby.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38743296
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Steven Gerrard: Liverpool return makes ex-captain 'nervous and anxious' - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Ex-Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard tells BBC Sport he is "nervous and anxious" about his impending return to Anfield as a youth coach.
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Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says he is "excited" but also "nervous and anxious" about his impending return to Anfield as a youth coach.
Gerrard, who made his Reds debut in 1998 and retired from playing last year, will begin the job in February.
"Liverpool are prepared to help me an awful lot. They want to help me to become a better coach or a better manager," Gerrard, 36, told BBC Sport.
"But at the same time I've got to commit to it and put in the hard work."
• None said he is in no rush to take up a managerial role as he does not yet know if he'll be "good enough";
• None revealed Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has "gone out of his way" to welcome him back to the club;
• None backed Liverpool to overcome their current "blip" and said he was "absolutely delighted" to have Klopp as manager
Midfielder Gerrard left Anfield at the end of the 2014-15 season to join MLS side LA Galaxy before retiring in November after a 19-year playing career.
Jurgen does it his way and we all respect that and we're happy to have him
The former England captain said he was "really happy" to be "back at the club I love and being back home with my family" - but insisted his return was not down to sentiment.
"With me and Liverpool there will always be an emotional pull. But the decision to go back as a coach and what that entails, I couldn't really make that decision on sentiment or emotion because I'd have been doing it for the wrong reasons," he said.
"I'm very excited but at the same time a little bit nervous and a little bit anxious because it's a brand new role, one that I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into."
• None Listen: Lawrenson feels move is good for Gerrard and Liverpool
When will Gerrard move into management?
Gerrard was linked with the manager's job at League One side MK Dons soon after announcing he would leave LA Galaxy, but said at the time the opportunity had come "too soon" for him.
He is working towards his Uefa A coaching licence, which is required to manage in the Premier League, but he says it is still too early to predict the path his future career will take.
"There's no rush, no timescale," he said. "The silly thing for me would be to rush and go in when I'm not ready.
"I've got incredible people around me and hopefully in the future there'll be some exciting opportunities.
"I've a lot of dreams and aspirations to be the best I can be in terms of coaching and management - but we'll have to wait and see if I'm going to be good enough."
Gerrard was at Anfield on Wednesday to see his club knocked out of the EFL Cup after a 2-0 aggregate defeat by Southampton in the semi-finals.
That result continued a difficult start to 2017 for Klopp's side, who have managed just one win in seven games this year - a third-round FA Cup replay victory at League Two Plymouth Argyle.
"I hope it's just a blip," added Gerrard, who was speaking at a media event for Star Sixes, a new football tournament for former international players to be held at The O2, London, in July, in which he will be a team captain.
"I've experienced it myself and blips are difficult to play your way out of, but I believe we've got the talent and personnel to do it.
"We've been one of the most exciting teams to watch [during Klopp's time in charge].
"There's a bit of a sticky patch the past three or four weeks - but I'm absolutely delighted he's our manager."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38762265
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Trump starts a 'sanctuary city' war with liberal America - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Donald Trump takes aim at US jurisdictions that don't co-operate with immigration officials
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US & Canada
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Mr Trump's border wall announcement will make most of the headlines today, given that it was a central focus of his presidential campaign and has increased diplomatic tension with the Mexican government. His plan to target US "sanctuary cities", however, likely sets the stage for a much tougher, uglier domestic political fight.
More than 400 jurisdictions across the country, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Seattle - major cities in left-leaning states that did not vote for Mr Trump - have enacted policies protecting undocumented immigrants within their boundaries. Officials in these designated areas, including local law enforcement, are not allowed to enquire as to an individual's immigration status in the course of their duties.
Candidate Trump pledged to end this practice, and on Wednesday he put some teeth into his promise - authorising the federal government to withhold funds from cities that do not co-operate with immigration officials or comply with federal law.
His executive order frames the issue as one of national security.
"Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States wilfully violate Federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States," it reads. "These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our republic."
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The US government has often used the power of the purse to compel states and localities to bend to its will on matters like highway speed limits, educational policies and setting a minimum drinking age.
So far, however, some of the biggest cities are preparing to go toe-to-toe with the federal government over the issue. They assert that they need to be able to provide services to all their residents to avoid public health crises and encourage co-operation between undocumented immigrants and police.
"Building and maintaining trust between local law enforcement and the communities they bravely serve is vital to ensuring public safety," New York Attorney General Eric T Schneiderman said in a press statement. "Any attempt to bully local governments into abandoning policies that have proven to keep our cities safe is not only unconstitutional, but threatens the safety of our citizens."
According to estimates, New York City alone could risk losing more than $7bn in federal funds - although Mr Trump's executive order clarifies that funding for law enforcement won't be affected.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose city could lose $1bn in funding, took a similarly confrontational tone.
"There is no stranger among us," he said. "We welcome people, whether you're from Poland or Pakistan, whether you're from Ireland or India or Israel and whether you're from Mexico or Moldova, where my grandfather came from, you are welcome in Chicago as you pursue the American Dream."
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Larger cities may be willing to stand and fight the Trump administration, but they're not the only jurisdictions that could be in the crosshairs. Smaller towns, like Maywood, California, also have set themselves up as sanctuary cities, and they may be less able to survive the threatened federal cutbacks - unless they get help from their state governments.
"California is going to fight Trump all the way, and that's great to have the support from state leadership," Eduardo De La Riva, mayor pro tem of Maywood, told the Los Angeles Times. "I think we're sending a clear message when you have several of the largest cities also saying we're going to take a stance."
In 2004 then-Senator Barack Obama condemned those who tried to divide the US into red states and blue states - Republican and Democratic.
Mr Trump, in his inaugural address, took a more confrontational tone, and he appears ready to follow through with a policy that sets his conservative administration in a direct and highly visible confrontation with liberal cities.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38738423
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Raffaele Sollecito: Kercher murder case left me in debt - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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A man cleared of murdering a British student explains why he is claiming 516,000 euros compensation.
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Raffaele Sollecito has said he has been left in financial difficulty by the legal costs incurred while proving his innocence.
Mr Sollecito was arrested in 2007, along with his then-girlfriend Amanda Knox, for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy.
He was twice convicted, before Italy's highest court found him not guilty.
He has launched a compensation bid against the Italian government, and explained to the Victoria Derbyshire programme why.
You can find the full interview with Raffaele Sollecito here.
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38755232
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Prince Harry runs with homeless youngsters in London - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Prince Harry steps out for a jog on the streets of north London with youngsters and charity volunteers.
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London
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Residents were surprised to see the prince running down their street
Prince Harry has been turning heads in his running gear - as he went for a jog with a group of young homeless people.
He donned tights, shorts and trainers to pound the pavements in Willesden Green, north London, for a 17-minute run.
The royal drew double-takes from motorists as he stepped out with young people and volunteers from the Running Charity.
Prince Harry joined warm up before jogging with volunteers and young homeless people
Programme officer Claude Umuhire, 26, took the runners, including a Met Police protection officer, through a strenuous warm-up session then led the more gentle run.
He said about Harry: "He didn't find any of it hard, I think he's been training just for today.
"I tried to get him in the warm-up but he did pretty well, he kept giving me looks though every time I said five squats."
Despite apparently coping well with the run, the Prince suggested he might prefer a lighter form of exercise on future visits.
When he left, he referred to a pool table in the charity's HQ and joked: "Next time I will come and play pool maybe."
Prince Harry looked at a picture of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, after arriving at Depaul Trust Hostel
Mr Umuhire added: "There was a woman who was pulling out of her driveway then she realised who he was and she drove in front of us and started taking pictures of him.
"And as we were leaving, there was a guy at the traffic lights who looked across and did a double take - the joy in his face it was so funny, his eyes just opened up, he was so happy."
The charity is working with some of the residents from a hostel founded by the Depaul charity.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38763350
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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to accept FA charge at hearing on Friday - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will attend an FA hearing on Friday, where he will accept a misconduct charge.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says he will accept a Football Association misconduct charge for his behaviour during the 2-1 league win over Burnley.
Wenger, 67, was charged with verbally abusing and pushing fourth official Anthony Taylor after being sent off in the closing stages of the game.
He had been dismissed for reacting angrily to a 93rd-minute penalty given to Burnley, who trailed 1-0.
Wenger, who later apologised, has been called to an FA hearing on Friday.
The Frenchman will appear in person and is likely to learn his fate on the same day. Arsenal face Southampton in the FA Cup on Saturday.
"I've said what I have publicly and the rest will be more discreet," Wenger said. "I don't know if I will be punished and how I will be punished.
"The only thing I can say is that when I was sent off I was surprised and then I was in the tunnel which is where I thought I could be."
After being sent to the stands by referee Jon Moss, Wenger moved away from the pitch but stood at the tunnel entrance and refused to move as he tried to watch the remaining few minutes of Sunday's match.
As Taylor encouraged him to move away, Wenger was seen to push back against him.
When asked if he would accept the charge, Wenger said: "Yes. I am big enough to stand up for what I do.
"When I don't behave like I think I should behave, I am big enough to say I am not right. I'm a passionate guy and I believe that I am completely committed in my job and want to win football games."
In 2012, then-Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was fined £20,000 and given a two-match touchline ban for pushing an assistant referee during a match against Tottenham.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38755704
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India v England: Eoin Morgan, Joe Root and bowlers seal T20 win in Kanpur - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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An impressive England bowling display lays the foundation for a seven-wicket victory over India in the first Twenty20 international.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
An impressive England bowling display laid the foundation for a comfortable seven-wicket victory over India in the first Twenty20 international.
Expertly varying pace and length, England restricted India to 147-7, off-spinner Moeen Ali's 2-21 the standout.
Sam Billings took 20 from the second over of England's reply, with Eoin Morgan (51) and Joe Root (46 not out) completing the chase in 18.1 overs.
The second of the three T20 matches is in Nagpur on Sunday.
England will look to wrap up the series after putting in their best performance of a tour that saw them heavily beaten in the Tests and squeezed out in the one-day internationals.
The home side rested spin-bowling tormentors Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, but even their presence would have been unlikely to derail an England side that won their first T20 match in India since an agonising defeat in the final of the 2016 World T20.
It was England's bowling which was found wanting in what turned out to be the highest-scoring three-match ODI series of all time.
But in Kanpur they learned quickly after initially bowling too full, pace quartet Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes mixing back-of-a-length with changes of pace.
Moeen also went through his repertoire, conceding only one boundary and having the incredibly dangerous Virat Kohli superbly held at mid-wicket by Morgan from his first delivery.
KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh and Hardik Pandya fell to the short ball, the latter giving pacy left-arm T20 specialist Mills his first international wicket.
India found the boundary only three times between the 10th and 19th overs and it was left to former captain MS Dhoni, who took 12 from the final over, to add some respectability.
Still, the hosts seemed at least 20 below par on a good pitch, with England so in control that leg-spinner Adil Rashid was not called on to bowl.
Any suggestion that India would find a way back was snuffed out by Billings, opening in place of the injured Alex Hales.
Jasprit Bumrah was battered for three fours and a ramped six as England's chase began with a sprint.
A slight wobble came when Jason Roy, who himself hit two sixes, and Billings were both bowled in the same over by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
But, with the required rate under control, Root and Morgan were afforded time to rebuild with pressure-free accumulation.
In between taking the singles on offer, Morgan lofted four sixes over the leg side before holing out to long-off from off-spinner Parvez Rasool one ball after reaching an eighth T20 half-century.
That ended a stand of 83 with Root, who was joined by Stokes and survived being bowled off a Bumrah no-ball to accelerate England home.
'Our bowlers were outstanding' - what they said
England captain Eoin Morgan: "Our bowlers were outstanding. Everyone in the unit executed the plans we talked about. We showed a lot of experience.
"The opening batsmen got off to a flier and that releases any pressure on the guys coming in after them. Sam Billings hasn't played much this tour but he has taken his chances when he has had an opportunity."
India captain Virat Kohli: "England played better cricket - with the ball and the bat they were precise. They were deserving winners and we need to stand up and applaud them.
"This is a format you need to enjoy and play at your intense best. We need to address the things we want to and not take too much stress from this. We need to just enjoy and not put too much pressure on the youngsters."
Former England captain Michael Vaughan on Twitter: "Not many teams give India a T20 masterclass, especially not in their own back yard. England have to find a way of getting Sam Billings in the ODI team."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38760089
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Daily Politics coverage of PMQs - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Prime Minister's Questions on the BBC's Daily Politics.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27901933
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What would happen if Donald Trump tries to bring back torture? - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner asks what would happen if Mr Trump brought back torture.
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US & Canada
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President Trump has indicated that he is considering a return to the sort of harsh interrogation techniques of "enemy combatants" that have been widely condemned as torture, as well as a return to so-called CIA "black sites".
In his first interview since becoming US President, Mr Trump said intelligence officials had told him that "torture absolutely works", but that he would defer to advice from his new CIA director and his secretary of defence. The latter, retired Marine Corps officer Gen James Mattis, says torture does not work.
So what are the global implications if the president goes ahead, asks BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.
There is a South African proverb, dating from the apartheid era, that goes like this: "How do you catch an elephant? You catch a mouse and keep beating it up until it admits it's really an elephant."
Ridiculous as this may sound, there is an echo of truth here. Torture hurts. That's the whole point of it.
So if someone is tortured badly enough they will say anything to make it stop, including making things up that they think their tormentors will want to hear.
Prisons in certain Middle Eastern countries, especially Syria, are crammed full of people who are being abused so badly they will eventually sign any "confession" to make the treatment stop. In some countries forced confessions remain to this day the primary tool in the prosecutor's armoury.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 the US intelligence community, having failed to prevent the worst attack on the US since Pearl Harbor, became convinced that a second catastrophic attack was on its way.
As President George W Bush's "war on terror" got underway, the normal safeguards of respect for human rights and the rule of law were cast aside in a desperate hunt to find "the ticking bomb".
Top al-Qaeda planners like Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, Abu Zubaydah and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, all caught in Pakistan, were "rendered" (transported) to so-called "black sites" for extreme interrogation. These were secret, unacknowledged prisons, run by the CIA and scattered around the globe in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and other countries.
There they were subjected to repeated waterboarding, which makes the bound and helpless victim feel like they are drowning. Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded a staggering number of times, well over 100.
And yet years later, when in 2014 the US Senate's Intelligence and Security Select Committee issued its report on the use of torture under the Bush administration it concluded that torture was "not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees".
On Thursday, the US House Speaker, Paul Ryan, said torture was not legal and that the committee agreed it was not legal. Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, also opposes it.
"The president can sign whatever executive order he likes," he said, "but the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the USA."
There would be strong resistance too from both America's allies and from within the intelligence community itself.
There is a general acceptance now, in most of the world, that those practices carried out in the early years after the 9/11 attacks - extraordinary rendition, detention without trial, enhanced interrogation - were not only morally wrong, they were also counter-productive.
They very rarely produced useful, actionable intelligence. They traumatised not only the victims, some of whom were completely innocent, but also those who witnessed the shocking dehumanising of an individual. Undoubtedly this has given the green light to some unscrupulous practices by regimes who see America's earlier use of torture as a license to do what they like to their own citizens.
Unthinkable as it sounds now, the US even rendered one "high value detainee" to his own country - Syria - for interrogation, knowing that there would be few restraints on his treatment there.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. John McCain said he'd have Donald Trump in court in 'a New York minute' if he reinstated waterboarding
There is also the legal aspect. In 2010 David Cameron, who was then UK prime minister, set up a judge-led, independent inquiry into allegations of complicity by MI5 and MI6 officers in torture.
Career intelligence officers who had thought they were doing the right thing at the time - such as, hypothetically, being within earshot of the harsh interrogation of a suspect in a Pakistani jail - found themselves being questioned by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.
The inquiry was eventually scrapped but it has at least led to a widespread rethink on respect for human rights inside intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Senior intelligence officers who lived through this difficult period are likely to strongly resist turning the clock back and returning to those days.
It is also questionable whether the US would find willing partners to host black site prisons amongst those countries only too relieved to have closed that chapter in their national histories.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38763801
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I had an abortion when money made the difference between life and death - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Diane Munday, 80, had an abortion back at a time when gin and knitting needles could be used by backstreet abortionists - and were sometimes fatal.
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Magazine
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Diane Munday had an abortion in 1961, six years before the Abortion Act - now 50 years old - made abortion legal in Britain. While she could afford a Harley Street operation, she knew her neighbours were facing backstreet procedures with knitting needles. Here she explains how this inspired a life-long campaign for reform.
It wasn't until I was about 21 years old that I first heard the word "abortion."
In those days you had clothes made by a dressmaker and a local young married woman was making me a party dress; I went to her house for fittings. She had three young children and lived in a small post-war prefab house. I remember a very happy family. The father worked in a local factory and the children went to dancing lessons.
One day when I came home from work - I was a research assistant at Barts Hospital - my mother told me the dressmaker had died. I discovered she had had a backstreet abortion that went wrong. I hadn't heard of this before - probably because the word was considered unmentionable. At that time a pregnant woman having an abortion and anyone who helped her could go to prison for it.
I was so shocked by this that I mentioned it to colleagues at lunch the next day. The doctors I worked with said it was a common experience and invited me to "stay behind on Friday evening and we'll show you what the world is really like".
I discovered then that all the London teaching hospitals set a few wards aside each Friday for women who were septic, bleeding or dying from having backstreet abortions. There would be a spate of cases on Friday because it was payday.
They were often performed by people with some nursing experience using hot solutions and knitting needles or coat hanger hooks. A big problem was their inability to diagnose the stage of pregnancy accurately and the more advanced a pregnancy the more dangerous what they did became.
Diane joined the Abortion Law Reform Society following the thalidomide scandal
I put the incident to the back of my mind and over the next few years got married and then had three children of my own (in less than four years - there was no "pill" back then). During my third pregnancy the doctor gave me a prescription for thalidomide because I had problems sleeping. I left it on the mantelpiece and did not take the drug.
The thalidomide scandal broke shortly afterwards and I got to thinking that if I had been carrying a deformed foetus I would have wanted the option of ending the pregnancy. So I joined the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) but initially did no more than pay my membership fee. This organisation had been founded in the 1930s but it wasn't really active as, post war, people preferred more polite social causes such as housing and education.
Then I discovered I was pregnant again - my fourth in four years - and something in me just said: "I cannot, I will not have this child." My husband said he would much rather I continued the pregnancy but that it was my decision and he would support me whatever I decided.
After much asking around I found my way to Harley Street where there was a semi-legal procedure. The gynaecologist sent me to a friend who was a psychiatrist who said my mental health was so damaged by the pregnancy that my life was endangered. This was an accepted reason for an abortion because of a recent court case called the Bourne Case. It was only available to those who could afford to pay. I was quoted £150 - which was thousands in 1961 - but the doctor later halved it. He arranged for me to go to a private nursing home in north London
The procedure was done under general anaesthetic and I was in overnight. I found the nurses very unsympathetic - many of them disapproved because they were Roman Catholic. When I vomited due to the after effects of the anaesthetic, one nurse was extremely unpleasant.
Coming round from the anaesthetic, I remembered the young dressmaker who had died and realised how similar our situations were; we were both young women with three young children but where we differed was that , because I had a chequebook, I was alive and because she had no spare money she was dead. This seemed totally and unacceptably wrong. At that moment I vowed to myself that I would do everything I could to prevent women dying because they were poor.
So I went along to the next ALRA annual meeting, spoke to some people who had also joined because of the thalidomide scandal and within a year I was on the committee. That was when I started speaking out about abortion and that became my main role in the organisation.
A poster from the 1960s printed by the Abortion Law Reform Association
I gave talks to groups and, from the start, decided to be open about it and say, "I have had an abortion." I clearly remember an early Townswomen's Guild meeting when, in the tea interval, members came up to me one after the other and said words to the effect of "You know dear, I had an abortion in the 30s. My husband was out of work and we couldn't afford any more children." From then on this was a common experience and I realised abortion was an unmentionable but routine part of women's lives.
I became infamous. I was boycotted by the grocers in the village because they said my money was tainted - that I had been doing backstreet abortions on my kitchen table. My sons were affected by comments at school when I was on TV and I think my husband found it difficult.
But it needed to be done, the work was so important as women were desperate. They would try to self-induce by drinking gin, having scalding baths and moving heavy furniture around. Some travelled across the country and knocked on my front door as well as that of our secretary, Dilys Cossey, because her address was on the ALRA literature.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Two different perspectives on abortion from Woman's Hour
Despite being shunned by some in the village, women would come to me themselves or with their daughters when they were unmarried and pregnant. I'd drive them to a clinic and hold their hand while their daughter's pregnancy was ended but next time I saw them they'd cross the road.
Later when ALRA needed money for its campaigning (it was run by unpaid volunteers) I approached the doctor who performed my own abortion to ask for a donation. It seemed to me that many doctors had benefited over the years and they could put some money back to help women who couldn't afford fees. He agreed and also gave me names of other doctors who might contribute.
I asked him why he performed abortions and he told me that, when he was a young doctor, a patient said she would kill herself if she didn't get an abortion. He told her the usual tale about loving the baby when it was born: that night she drowned herself and he felt that he had killed her.
Diane is concerned that there is still a taboo about admitting to having had an abortion
After much lobbying of MPs and a number of Bills in the Commons and the Lords the 1967 Abortion Act was passed. This was a great victory and a big step forward for women. But, for me, even then, it was not enough. I always believed that the only person qualified to make a decision about a pregnancy was the woman herself. We had had to make the concession that every abortion would be approved by two doctors. It was the price we paid for legalising any abortions at all. Nevertheless the beneficial effect was almost immediate with the numbers of women admitted to London hospitals for "septic miscarriages" dropping hugely within a year of the Act coming into effect.
But still there were battles to fight. Particularly in areas of the country where medical opposition to legal abortion had been most ferocious, surgeons said they wouldn't perform abortions.
I helped set up the Birmingham (later British) Pregnancy Advisory Service to help women where NHS doctors refused to comply with the Act. Initially it opened as a counselling service in someone's house. Women who could afford it were charged two shillings a visit and counselled and referred on to sympathetic doctors who would help them. This ensured that there was equitable treatment wherever somebody lived. Later, for 17 years, I worked for Bpas which had become a national organisation ensuring women were sympathetically and professionally treated wherever they lived and whatever the beliefs of local doctors.
I'm proud of what I have done and of the benefits it has brought to so many women's lives. However, my concern now is the future. There's still a taboo around the subject making women reluctant to say: "I feel all right about having had an abortion." Half a century after reform we live in a very different world. Women's' rights have moved on. Medical technology has moved on. But we still require two doctors to sanction the termination of a pregnancy that the pregnant women herself has decided on. It's unbearable.
We were among the first in Europe to allow abortion and now are almost the last to have stringent laws controlling it. I would like to think that, before I die, the job I helped to start is finished by abortion being taken out of the criminal law and the decision as to whether or not a pregnancy is to be ended is firmly placed where it belongs - in the hands of the pregnant woman.
Diane Munday was interviewed by Claire Bates and Jane Garvey
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38722929
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Art Deco ceiling found at Khan's Bargains, Peckham - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Restoration work in Rye Lane, Peckham, has revealed its long-forgotten history as the Oxford Street of the south.
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Restoration work in Rye Lane, Peckham, has revealed its long-forgotten history as the Oxford Street of the south.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38763681
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The 19-year-old Dunkin' Donuts worker behind Ashley Judd's viral #NastyWoman poem - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Meet the 19-year-old Dunkin' Donuts worker behind Ashley Judd's viral #NastyWoman poem.
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Actress Ashley Judd's performance of the feminist slam poem #NastyWoman was one of the most shared videos of the Women's March in Washington DC.
But alongside the praise, many have condemned the poem - particularly the personal attacks it makes against President Trump.
Trending spoke to the unlikely author of the poem, 19-year-old Dunkin Donuts worker Nina Mariah Donovan from Tennessee.
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38738645
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Lovelorn red panda escapes from Virginia Zoo - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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The racoon-like creature may have become agitated because this is breeding season, officials say.
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US & Canada
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Sunny, a 19-month-old red panda, has been missing since Monday
Zoo officials say that a female red panda named Sunny has been missing from its enclosure since Monday afternoon.
Norfolk police are helping workers at the Virginia Zoo using a "geothermal camera" to search the grounds for her, officials said on Wednesday.
People living near the zoo have been asked to keep an eye out for the reddish-brown mammal.
Zoo director Greg Bockheim told the Virginian-Pilot newspaper love may have driven 19-month-old Sunny to run away.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Red pandas have a natural love for snow and cold weather
"This is panda breeding season, so the animals become a bit more agitated," Mr Bockheim said.
"We're super hopeful we'll find her today," he added.
Officials are hopeful that she may still be on zoo grounds.
"Red pandas are generally not considered aggressive animals, but like any wild animal its behavior can be unpredictable and you should not try to touch, feed, or capture Sunny yourself," zoo officials said in a statement.
The zoo asks that the public call their hotline if they spot Sunny.
One neighbour told local news that she plans to follow that advice.
"The panda's probably scared himself," Lazara Jorrin told CBS News. "This is new to him, so we don't know how he'll react."
Red pandas - which are native to China and the Himalayas - have been known to escape zoo enclosures in the past.
Rusty the red panda escaped from the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington DC in 2013 and was later found roaming the streets.
In 2007, the same Virginia Zoo lost sight of another red panda named Yin before discovering it in a nearby tree.
And in 2009 a red panda escaped from the London Zoo and was discovered on a park bench in Regent's Park in the early hours.
In 2013, an escaped Red Panda was rescued when Twitter users spotted him roaming the streets of Washington DC
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38749925
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Australian Open 2017: Venus & Serena Williams to meet in ninth Grand Slam final - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Venus and Serena Williams will meet in a Grand Slam final for the ninth time after winning their semi-finals in Melbourne.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online.
Venus and Serena Williams will meet in a Grand Slam final for the ninth time after the American sisters came through their semi-finals in Melbourne.
Thirteenth seed Venus, 36, beat fellow American Coco Vandeweghe 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 6-3 to reach her first major final since 2009.
World number two Serena, 35, saw off unseeded Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2 6-1 in the second semi-final.
Serena is attempting to win an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam singles title.
It would also be a seventh Australian Open victory for the younger Williams sister, while Venus hopes to win an eighth major title, first in Melbourne and first since Wimbledon in 2008.
Saturday will be their first Grand Slam final against each other since Wimbledon 2009 when Serena won in straight sets.
"It is unbelievable to watch Serena play tennis - the way she hits the ball and the competitor she is," Venus Williams said after the first semi-final.
"It would be a dream to see her on the opposite side of the net on Saturday."
Speaking after her win, Serena said: "I am really proud of Venus - she is a total inspiration. I am really happy for her and to be in the final together is a dream for us.
"She is my toughest opponent, no-one has ever beaten me as much as Venus.
"I feel no matter what that we have both won after all we have been through. I know a Williams is going to win this tournament."
Vandeweghe, 25, had played superbly in seeing off world number one Angelique Kerber and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza to reach the last four, but she could not maintain that level in the semi-final.
The world number 35 deservedly took the first set on a tie-break but it was the experience of Williams that eventually prevailed.
Williams converted four of five break points, but more importantly reduced Vandeweghe to just one from 13 as the younger American was reduced to throwing her racquet in frustration as the chances slipped by.
Two double faults handed Williams a decisive double break in the second set and the seven-time Grand Slam champion broke again at the start of the third.
Vandeweghe stayed close enough to keep the pressure on, saving three match points before finally cracking with an error on the fourth, prompting a jubilant twirl of celebration from Williams.
"Everyone has their moment in the sun. Maybe mine has gone on a little longer than other people, but I have nothing else to do," joked Williams.
Lucic-Baroni was playing her first Grand Slam semi-final for 18 years, but it only lasted 50 minutes as Serena Williams dominated in her 34th major semi-final.
It was their third meeting but their first since 1998, when the pair were teenagers.
The story of Lucic-Baroni's comeback from a series of personal issues that saw her career all but finished had captured the attention, and she ended the tournament by taking a selfie with the crowd on her way out of Rod Laver Arena.
"Mirjana is an inspiration and deserves all the credit today," said Williams. "To get so far after all she has been through inspires me and I wanted to give her all the congratulations.
"It is great to see her out here. I was rooting for her through the whole tournament."
Williams will return on Saturday to try to make history once again by surpassing Steffi Graf and winning a 23rd major singles title.
Once she broke Lucic-Baroni's serve in the third game there was only going to be one winner, runs of five straight games and six straight games bringing her each set.
"The serve was a little better today. I want it to be a little better. I knew it needed to be good because Mirjana is a great returner," added Williams.
Australia Day was graced by two remarkable achievements by two remarkable players in their mid-thirties. One, Roger Federer, has spent six months out of the game after knee surgery, and the other, Venus Williams, has lived for many years with an auto-immune disorder which causes fatigue and joint pain.
Venus Williams' defensive skills were also crucial as she resisted the firepower of Coco Vandeweghe to reach her first Australian Open final for 14 years. She is now the only person with the power to prevent her younger sister from making history.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38754239
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The economy - pain cancelled or delayed? - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Preliminary figures show the economy performed more strongly than expected in 2016, but the chancellor told me there are still uncertainties ahead.
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Business
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. EU no longer wants to "chastise" the UK, says Philip Hammond
It is the big question swirling around government.
After another set of economic figures stronger than expected, is this economic pain cancelled, or simply postponed?
On that central issue rests the fate of the government's economic policy.
If it is pain cancelled that means better real incomes for voters.
It means higher tax receipts for the government, lower levels of borrowing and more leeway to spend money on public services.
And, of course, confidence tends to beget confidence.
If consumers - the most important drivers of the UK economy - feel the world around them is feeling positive, they tend to spend.
For businesses, it is not a lot different.
Larry Fink, the head of the world's largest asset managers, BlackRock, made an interesting point at the World Economic Forum at Davos last week.
Asked why consumer confidence hadn't collapsed following the referendum - or at least had recovered strongly after some initial uncertainty - Mr Fink answered that for lots of people who voted for Brexit or who voted for Donald Trump, the victories were not a negative event.
"They won," he said, simply felt good and kept spending. "Car sales went up."
For the UK economy, it is worth considering two points.
The Bank of England increased financial support for businesses after the Brexit vote
First, the gloomy forecasts before the referendum about the possible effects of a vote to leave the European Union were based on Article 50, the mechanism for leaving the EU, being triggered immediately after the vote as David Cameron promised.
That could have led to a chaotic departure from the EU and certainly would have created greater economic dislocation.
Second, the Bank of England cut interest rates and increased financial support for businesses and banks, soothing market fears.
These two points are not enough to explain all of the resilience in the economy, but they go some of the way.
In my interview with the chancellor, he admitted that he was now "more optimistic" about the process of leaving the EU and the single market.
He said that European leaders were no longer in chastising mood over Brexit, that had now past.
A good deal is on, he said.
A weaker pound is set to push up the price of everyday goods
But, and of course there has to be a but when considering how an economy will perform - a judgement at its most basic on how a million different decisions by human beings will play out.
The rate of inflation is increasing as the value of sterling declines.
Jobs are being moved out of the UK and on to the continent in sectors such as banking and finance as businesses prepare for Brexit.
The UK has, of course, not actually left the EU yet and at the moment is enjoying the stimulus of being in the EU's huge single market with a considerably weaker currency.
That goldilocks situation will not last and the chancellor told me of his concerns about business investment.
It was the Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, who argued that shocks to an economy can boost growth.
"Creative destruction" may be a little strong to describe the Brexit vote, but innovation can flow when the demands of uncertainty rise.
After Britain fell out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, the precursor of the single currency, many predicted that inflation would rise and economic growth would stutter.
In fact, the UK economy bounced back, inflation remained in check and the pound rose - after an initial fall.
That is not to say that all "dynamic" shocks have such an effect.
The financial crisis of 2008-09 has negatively affected economic growth for far longer than most expected as the financial services sector contracted rapidly, liquidity disappeared and businesses and consumers paid down debt.
That is why it is still too early to say definitively whether the robust state of the UK economy today means the forecasts for economic pain made before the Brexit vote can now be safely ignored.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38754634
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Euro 'could fail', says man tipped as US ambassador to EU - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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The man tipped to be Donald Trump's ambassador to the EU has told the BBC the single currency "could collapse" in the next 18 months.
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Business
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Professor Ted Malloch is gloomy about the euro's future
The man tipped to be Donald Trump's ambassador to the European Union has told the BBC the single currency "could collapse" in the next 18 months.
Professor Ted Malloch said he would "short the euro" - taking a market position which bets on the value of the currency falling.
He also said Britain could agree a "mutually beneficial" free trade deal with America in as little as 90 days.
And that it was best for the US if Britain executed a "clean" Brexit.
Once outside the single market and the customs union, the UK could bypass "the bureaucrats in Brussels" and forge a free trade deal, he said.
Mr Malloch added that any attempt by the EU to block Britain beginning negotiations with the US would be "absurd" and like a husband "trying to stop his wife having an affair".
Theresa May will be the first foreign leader to meet the new president when she arrives in Washington at the end of the week.
The possibility of an early trade deal with America, once the UK has left the EU, will be on the agenda.
"I remind people that the largest merger and acquisition deals in history are often done in about that time frame [90 days]," Mr Malloch, a professor at Henley Business School, said.
"Some of us who have worked on Wall Street or in the City know that if you get the right people in the right room with the right data and the right energy, and Trump is certainly high energy, you can get things done.
"I think this will cut out the bureaucrats in effect and it won't take two years, it won't take seven years to actually come to an agreement."
He added: "Obviously there are things to iron out, certainly there are differences and compromises to make, but it can be done.
"So, there won't be a deal signed in the White House on Friday, but there could be an agreement for a framework going forward where people are empowered to have that kind of conversation behind closed doors and it could take as little as 90 days.
"That is very positive and it sends a signal that the United States is behind Great Britain in its hour of need."
Although not yet confirmed, Mr Malloch has been widely reported as being the president's choice for the Brussels role.
The economist and former deputy executive secretary to the United Nations in Geneva went for an interview with the president's team at Trump Tower earlier this month.
If successful, he will be officially nominated by the Secretary of State elect, Rex Tillerson.
The EU has made it clear that Britain cannot enter substantive free trade talks with countries outside the union until it has left the EU, a position Mr Malloch - a supporter of Mr Trump and the Brexit campaign - dismissed.
If successful, Mr Malloch will be officially nominated by the Secretary of State elect, Rex Tillerson
"I think it is an absurd proposition and may be a legalism," he said.
"There are going to be all kinds of things happening behind closed doors and you can call them what you like.
"The fact is that when your wife is having an affair with someone else, you tell her to stop it, but oftentimes that doesn't stop the relationship."
Many trade experts say the "90-day" proposition will be impossible to execute, as there will need to be detailed negotiations on controversial areas such as food imports between the UK and the US, as well as financial services and pharmaceuticals.
"Non-tariff" barriers such as health and safety regulations and the recognition of professional qualifications will also have to be hammered out.
There could also be a need for some form of immigration agreement.
Furthermore, Britain is not yet an autonomous member of the World Trade Organisation, which oversees the rules on free trade deals.
It negotiates as part of the EU's agreement with the global trade regulator.
Government sources insist that transferring full rights to the UK alone will be straightforward.
Mr Malloch said despite the obstacles, Britain would gain a free trade deal well ahead of the rest of the EU and the elections in the Netherlands, France and Germany could lead to a fundamental shake-up of the union.
"I personally am not certain that there will be a European Union with which to have [free trade] negotiations," he said.
"Will there be potentially numerous bilateral agreements with various countries?
"I think the prospect, in a changed political reality, is greater for that.
"I think Donald Trump is very opposed to supranational organisations, he believes in nation states, in bilateral relations and I think that he thinks the EU has overshot its mark.
"It seems to me as well that Trump believes that the European Union has in recent decades been tilted strongly and most favourably towards Germany."
Mr Malloch said that the present free trade negotiation between the US and the EU - called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - was "dead".
He also questioned the future of the single currency.
"The one thing I would do in 2017 is short the euro," Mr Malloch said.
"I think it is a currency that is not only in demise but has a real problem and could in fact collapse in the coming year, year and a half.
"I am not the only person or economist of that point of view.
"Someone as acclaimed as Joseph Stiglitz - the famous World Bank economist - has written an entire book on this subject."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38749884
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Australian Open 2017: Mirjana Lucic-Baroni reaches semi-finals - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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BBC Sport charts the return to form of 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who is into the last four of the Australian Open 18 years after her last Grand Slam semi-final appearance.
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BBC Sport charts the return to form of 34-year-old Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, who will face Serena Williams in the last four of the Australian Open, 18 years after her last Grand Slam semi-final appearance.
READ MORE: Lucic-Baroni 'in shock' at return to semis
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38751600
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In Pictures: National Television Awards 2017 - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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A look at the stars on the red carpet at this year's National Television Awards in London.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Cheeky chaps Ant & Dec went into the ceremony with three nominations - best entertainment programme, best TV presenter and best challenge show for I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! - and collected all three awards.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/38749226
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Roger Federer beats Stan Wawrinka to reach Australian Open final - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Roger Federer beats Stan Wawrinka in five sets to reach the Australian Open final and stay on course for an 18th Grand Slam title.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online.
Roger Federer beat fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka 7-5 6-3 1-6 4-6 6-3 to reach the Australian Open final and stay on course for an 18th Grand Slam title.
The 35-year-old will face Rafael Nadal on Sunday if the Spaniard beats Grigor Dimitrov in Friday's semi-final.
The Swiss, returning from a six-month lay-off to rest his left knee, last won a major at Wimbledon in 2012.
He is the oldest man to reach a Grand Slam final since Ken Rosewall did so at the 1974 US Open at the age of 39.
"I couldn't be happier right now," said Federer. "I felt like everything happened so quickly at the end, I had to check the score.
"I never ever in my wildest dreams thought I'd come this far in Australia. It's beautiful, I'm so happy."
Federer's extraordinary run in Melbourne had already seen him beat top-10 seeds Tomas Berdych and Kei Nishikori to reach the last four.
Seeded 17th following his injury, Federer had an 18-3 record against the fourth seed and reigning US Open champion coming into the semi-final, but the two had never played a five-set match.
Both players needed medical treatment during a match of high intensity but it was the 17-time Grand Slam winner who finally prevailed after three hours and five minutes.
Federer will now seek a fifth Australian Open title, and his first in Melbourne since 2010, when he plays in his 28th Grand Slam final and 100th Australian Open match on Sunday.
What makes Federer's run to the final remarkable is the combination of being in the twilight of his career and not having played competitively since his Wimbledon semi-final exit last year.
Federer missed the Olympic Games and the rest of the 2016 season to have "more extensive rehabilitation" on a knee injury suffered in February while he ran a bath for his twin daughters.
He played just seven tour events last year, leading to him dropping out of the world's top 10 for the first time in over 14 years.
After beginning his comeback with victories against Britain's Dan Evans and France's Richard Gasquet in the Hopman Cup - a non-ranked event played in the first week of January - Federer played down his chances of going far in the Australian Open.
But, after reaching his first Slam final since the 2015 US Open, he finally spoke about the prospect of winning in Melbourne.
"I can really actually talk about playing a final - I've been dodging that bullet for a few rounds," he said.
"I'll leave it all out here in Australia and if I can't walk for five months that's OK."
Wawrinka noted how the tour and the fans had missed Federer, saying: "Everyone wants even more to see him play, to see him win. He's flying on the court. He's playing amazing tennis. He's the best player ever."
Former world number one Federer started the match brightly and had three early break points before converting his first set point, on Wawrinka's serve, in the 12th game.
Wawrinka, the 2014 Australian Open champion, was broken for the second time at 2-3 in the second set as Federer maintained his impressive standards.
Clearly frustrated, the 31-year-old Wawrinka cracked his racquet in two over his left knee and, after the set, left the court with a trainer for treatment to his other knee.
But he came back superbly to win the third set in 26 minutes and break Federer in the ninth game of the fourth set to take the match to a decider.
Federer went off for a lengthy medical timeout for treatment to his leg as the physical nature of the match started to tell.
He also came back fighting and broke Wawrinka in the sixth game when the US Open champion double-faulted on break point.
There was no let-up as Federer completed a stunning victory to the delight of the majority of fans in Rod Laver Arena.
Federer explained why, after losing the fourth set, he left the arena to take his injury timeout.
"I have had a leg thing going on for a week and felt it from the second game on in the match," he said.
"If you go off the court, that means the treatment is further up the leg.
"I never take injury timeouts. Stan took his, so I thought people won't be mad - Stan won't be mad hopefully.
"You hope something works, and that the physio has some magic hands going on."
If 14-time major winner Nadal wins his semi-final the pair would contest their ninth Grand Slam final together and their first since the French Open in 2011, when Nadal won in four sets.
"Rafa has presented me with the biggest challenge in the game," Federer said when asked about the prospect.
"I'm his number one fan. His game is tremendous. He's an incredible competitor.
"I'm happy we had some epic battles over the years and of course it would be unreal to play here. I think both of us would never have thought we would be here playing in the finals."
Australia Day was graced by two remarkable achievements by two remarkable players in their mid-thirties.
One, Roger Federer, has spent six months out of the game after knee surgery, and the other, Venus Williams, has lived for many years with an auto-immune disorder which causes fatigue and joint pain.
Federer had to win a deciding set against one of the toughest men on the block. The extraordinary defence he produced when Wawrinka hammered a forehand towards him on break point early in the fifth set turned out to be worth its weight in gold.
Yes, Mischa Zverev did him a favour by taking out Andy Murray, but Federer has now beaten Wawrinka, Nishikori and Berdych - with two of those matches going the distance.
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38755188
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Doomsday Clock: Countdown to catastrophe? - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Here's how the Doomsday Clock changed from 1947 up to last year.
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The minute hand on the Doomsday Clock is a metaphor for how vulnerable the world is to catastrophe.
Amid concerns over climate change, the clock has been close to midnight for the past few years.
Here's how the Doomsday Clock changed from 1947 up to last year.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/38761562
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How tea-maker brewed a Brexit bonanza - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Tea-maker Andrew Gadsden explains how his business made a five-figure 'bonanza' from the Brexit vote.
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Tea-maker Andrew Gadsden explains how his business made a five-figure 'bonanza' from the Brexit vote.
He spoke with video journalist Dougal Shaw, who went to meet him at his store in Portsmouth, All About Tea.
You can learn more about the store in this video from the My Shop series.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38748296
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Egypt activist 'tortured for his T-shirt' - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Mahmoud Hussein, 21, describes how he came to be arrested in Egypt, and what happened to him in detention.
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It is six years since the outbreak of the 18-day revolution in Egypt which swept its leader, Hosni Mubarak, from power.
Human rights campaigners say the situation in the country is now far worse than before the uprising, and Mahmoud Hussein, 21, is one of thousands who have been detained in recent years under Egypt's latest strongman, President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi.
He told the BBC's Orla Guerin how his ordeal began.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38742237
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Liverpool 0-1 Southampton (Agg: 0-2) - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Southampton reach a first major final since 2003 with a determined display to beat Liverpool in the EFL Cup at Anfield.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Southampton reached the EFL Cup final at Wembley with a fully deserved victory over two legs against Liverpool - crowned by Shane Long's late winner at Anfield.
Claude Puel's side, defending a 1-0 lead from the first leg, should have put the tie out of Liverpool's reach inside the first 45 minutes but Dusan Tadic's close-range shot was blocked by keeper Loris Karius and captain Steve Davis blazed another great chance wildly over.
Liverpool raised the tempo in front of the Kop in the second half but Daniel Sturridge wasted their two best chances, Fraser Forster acrobatically hooked an Emre Can shot off the line and the hosts also had a late penalty appeal turned down when substitute Divock Origi tumbled under Jack Stephens' challenge.
But Southampton broke clear in the closing moments and Long finished convincingly from Josh Sims' pass to send them into the their first final in this competition since 1979, where they will meet either Manchester United or Hull City - a feat achieved without conceding a goal.
Southampton's date at Wembley on 26 February is a rich tribute to this brilliantly run club and their understated French manager Claude Puel.
Saints were vastly superior over two legs against Liverpool and, despite the home side's complaints about that late penalty claim, no-one could seriously begrudge them their victory.
And it was all done without their talisman and key defender Virgil van Dijk, out through injury. Southampton were dangerous on the break in the first half and then, when they needed to be, were superbly organised, disciplined and determined defensively before breaking for Republic of Ireland international Long to strike the killer blow.
Southampton have once more demonstrated their ability, as a club, to take the blows of key departures and still achieve.
They lost manager Ronald Koeman to Everton in the summer - as well as important components such as Victor Wanyama and Sadio Mane to Spurs and Liverpool respectively - and have carried on undisturbed with a Wembley appearance as their reward.
Liverpool lose their way - one win in seven matches
Liverpool's laboured performance was in stark contrast to the all-action attacking displays that briefly took them to the top of the Premier League earlier this season.
Jurgen Klopp's side looked jaded and have lost their way, with only one win in seven games this year, a third-round FA Cup replay victory at League Two Plymouth Argyle.
Liverpool look shorn of threat without £34m summer signing Mane, away at the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, and lacking an alternative plan when teams as disciplined as Swansea and Southampton have been in inflicting two successive home defeats.
Sturridge felt the frustration of Liverpool's supporters for a poor performance and two missed chances, while substitute Origi looks short of confidence.
Klopp's decision to play Can and Jordan Henderson together in midfield backfired badly and his decision to leave out Georginio Wijnaldum was questionable.
Southampton's players enjoyed every second of their celebrations with their fans in the Anfield Road end as they looked forward to the chance to win their second major trophy, following an FA Cup triumph over Manchester United at Wembley in 1976.
Saints had several anxious moments in the second half, especially when goalkeeper Forster dropped Can's shot behind him then recovered miraculously to claw it off the line as Sturridge closed in.
They also survived two penalty appeals - for handball against Long and that fall from Origi - but this was a glory night for Southampton and one they fully deserved.
BBC Radio 5 live pundit Mark Lawrenson: "Absolutely, totally and utterly deserved. They always, always carried that goal threat. They played with so much pace, so much directness. Over the two legs they have totally outplayed Liverpool. They thoroughly deserve the Wembley appearance."
A first for Klopp - the stats you need...
• None This is the first time Jurgen Klopp has lost a semi-final as a manager, progressing from the previous six.
• None Southampton have reached the final without conceding a single goal.
• None Liverpool have failed to score in all three games v Southampton this season in all competitions.
• None Claude Puel is unbeaten in six games against Liverpool as a manager (W3 D3).
• None This is just the second time Liverpool have been eliminated in six League Cup semi-finals (the other v Chelsea in 2014-15).
• None The last time Liverpool failed to score in either leg of a semi-final was in the 1970-71 Fairs Cup v Leeds.
'Seven good chances' - what the managers said
Southampton manager Claude Puel: "It is fantastic for all the squad and a good reward for their hard work. It was difficult to find this opportunity to play a final at Wembley. In the two legs we deserved the win. We were fantastic in the first leg at home and tonight we had chances in the first half.
"In the second half it was difficult but now we go to Wembley, not just to participate but to win this cup. I have been there once, just to watch France beat England."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: "They won both games, they deserved it. We did really well. We cannot create more chances than we did in the second half - we were dominant. It is difficult because you have to take risks but too many risks plays to their strengths.
"We had seven good chances. You have to score, and we didn't do, so we lost. I'm fine with the performance but not the result."
Liverpool host Championship side Wolves in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday at 12:30 GMT, while Southampton travel to Arsenal in the same competition at 17:30.
• None Goal! Liverpool 0, Southampton 1. Shane Long (Southampton) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Josh Sims following a fast break.
• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
• None Attempt missed. Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Adam Lallana.
• None Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Emre Can.
• None Attempt blocked. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (Southampton) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Nathan Redmond. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38659708
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Touring Tokyo with Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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Newsbeat's gaming reporter meets Hideo Kojima, the man behind Metal Gear Solid, who rarely gives interviews.
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Legendary game designer Hideo Kojima says games, novels and films will "merge into one type of entertainment".
Described as the Spielberg of gaming, he was speaking to Radio 1 Newsbeat during an exclusive tour of his new studio in Tokyo.
"We want to be there when that time comes, to help show people a new kind of experience.
"We're already preparing for that future, but first we're focusing on our next game."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/38754386
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Australian Open 2017: Rafael Nadal eyes Roger Federer final - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Rafael Nadal takes on Grigor Dimitrov in the Australian Open semi-finals on Friday with the aim of reaching a final against old rival Roger Federer.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online.
Rafael Nadal is hoping to meet old rival Roger Federer in the Australian Open final by beating in-form Grigor Dimitrov in their semi-final on Friday.
Spaniard Nadal, 30, has not reached a major final since winning his 14th Grand Slam at the 2014 French Open.
Federer, 35, is going for a record 18th major title after an epic semi-final win over fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.
"I have to play my best because Grigor is playing with high confidence," said ninth seed Nadal.
The pair meet at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne about 08:30 GMT on Friday.
• None Watch highlights of Thursday's matches on BBC Two from 17:00 GMT
• None 'Federer v Nadal final could be most important in Grand Slam history' - Roddick
Nadal has been troubled by injuries in recent years, but reached his first Grand Slam semi-final since 2014 with a superb quarter-final victory over Canadian third seed Milos Raonic.
If Nadal beats 25-year-old Dimitrov then all four singles finalists will be aged over 30, as 35-year-old Serena Williams meets older sister Venus, 36, in the women's final.
Dimitrov, who has never reached a Grand Slam final, is aiming to prevent Federer, Nadal and the Williams sisters contesting the two finals at a major for the first time since 2008 Wimbledon.
The Bulgarian 15th seed is playing some of the best tennis of his career having won the Brisbane International earlier this month and then carrying on his form in Melbourne.
He beat 11th seed David Goffin of Belgium in straight sets in the quarter-finals to record his 10th successive victory.
"I feel like I have all the tools to go further and my job isn't over yet," he said. "I'm looking forward to my match. I think I'm prepared.
"I'm ready to go the distance. I don't shy away from that. I'm confident enough to say that as I feel good physically, and overall on the court."
If Nadal wins his semi-final, he and Federer would contest their ninth Grand Slam final - and their first since the French Open in 2011, when the Spaniard won in four sets.
"Rafa has presented me with the biggest challenge in the game," said Federer, who is seeded 17th after returning from a six-month lay-off to rest his left knee.
"I'm his number one fan. His game is tremendous. He's an incredible competitor.
"I'm happy we had some epic battles over the years and of course it would be unreal to play here. I think both of us would never have thought we would be here playing in the final."
Federer has a perfect record against Dimitrov, winning all five of their previous meetings.
"He has got a very complete game. He can mix it up really well. He's very confident and you never want to play confident players, but it's him or Rafa," said Federer, who last won a Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2012.
"It's going to be tough either way."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38760568
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Don Hale: One man's fight for justice - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Celebrated justice campaigner Don Hale reveals the pressures he has faced in his years as a righter of legal wrongs.
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Derby
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Don Hale has helped to clear Barry George, Stephen Downing and Ched Evans
Fifteen years ago Stephen Downing was acquitted after spending 27 years in prison for murder, overturning one of Britain's most notorious miscarriages of justice and putting into the spotlight the local newspaper editor who helped to bring the police's case tumbling down.
Don Hale could hardly have foreseen that by championing the case he would go on to suffer police intimidation and receive death threats - there were even two apparent attempts on his life - forcing him to leave his Derbyshire home.
But the Downing case would eventually change the law, win Hale an OBE and make him a go-to journalist to investigate major miscarriages of justice.
In the years since the release of Mr Downing, Hale has also helped to free Barry George, the man who spent eight years in jail for the murder of Jill Dando, and to clear the name of footballer, Ched Evans, after a controversial rape retrial.
Don Hale was editor of weekly local newspaper, the Matlock Mercury, during his battle to free Stephen Downing
For Hale, the brutal trigger for his life of campaigning was the 1973 killing of 32-year-old Wendy Sewell.
She was found badly beaten but still alive in a Bakewell graveyard by Mr Downing, a council gardener.
He was arrested and questioned without a solicitor for several hours but, aged 17 and with a reading age of 11, officers pressured him into signing a confession to the attack, filled with words he did not understand.
When Mrs Sewell died two days later, the charge was upgraded to murder. Mr Downing immediately retracted his confession but was found guilty at a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
Legal secretary Wendy Sewell, dubbed "the Bakewell Tart" in the press, was left for dead in the cemetery
After their son had spent two decades in prison, Mr Downing's parents approached Hale, editor of the Matlock Mercury, for help.
He faced obstacles at every turn, with police telling him all the evidence had been "burnt, lost and destroyed".
A turning point came when Derby Museum staff informed him that the murder weapon - a pickaxe handle - was on display there.
With Hale's help, Mr Downing won £13,000 from the Legal Aid Board.
This paid for a modern forensic examination of the weapon, crucially revealing Mr Downing's fingerprints were not present - although there was a bloody palm print from an unknown person.
The clothes Mr Downing had been wearing, which had been returned to his parents, were flecked with spots of blood which Hale believed were consistent with him having tried to help Wendy Sewell as she lay dying.
Twenty years after the murder Hale reshot scene of crime photographs in Bakewell cemetery
"I reported developments through the Matlock Mercury - it became like The Archers, a bit of a saga," he joked.
But the articles prompted real-life drama in the form of anonymous death threats and what Hale claims was police harassment.
"They made my life absolute hell for five or six years," he said.
"I was pulled up for speeding, stopped and searched, victimised."
Letters were sent to his home and a brick was thrown through the newspaper's window.
Most seriously, on two occasions a vehicle was driven at him at speed, which he believes were attempts to kill him.
Police even gave him a mirror on a stick to check for bombs under his car.
"I was very worried for my family. There weren't threats against other journalists, it was simply against me. It turned into a rollercoaster," he said.
But all of this merely strengthened his resolve: "If Downing had done it, why should anyone want to threaten me?"
Mr Downing was ineligible for parole under the law at the time because he had refused to admit his guilt.
Hale believed this was unfair and took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, winning the case in 1996.
It was adopted into law that prisoners who maintained their innocence after conviction could apply for parole.
Derbyshire Dales MP Patrick McLoughlin became one of the Downing campaign's high-profile supporters
By now, the Downing case was attracting attention from far and wide: "I became a hero in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Argentina, because I had taken on the British government and won," Hale said.
Closer to home, Hale said then Prime Minister Tony Blair asked him for help in setting up an independent body to investigate miscarriages of justice, which became the Criminal Case Review Commission (CCRC).
Stephen Downing's was one of the first cases to be looked at by the CCRC.
It recommended his conviction should be overturned on the basis that the circumstances in which he gave his confession made it unreliable evidence that should not have gone before a jury.
The conviction was quashed in 2001 with Mr Downing finally walking free in January 2002.
Hale and Stephen Downing on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice in January, 2002, after his conviction was overturned
Hale was pleased but also disappointed: "He had got off on a technicality," he said.
"He didn't get his day in court because police were bang to rights. Somebody should have been called to account."
The legal challenge to Mr Downing's conviction focused on the way detectives had conducted the original investigation in 1973.
He had been questioned without a lawyer and there were serious doubts about whether he had been properly advised of his legal rights.
These facts were never made known to the jury that convicted him, but they were enough to overturn the conviction.
But Mr Downing, for his part, was not angry: "Who would I feel bitter against? The system? I think I would be punishing myself," he said.
With much more to say himself, Hale wrote the book, Town Without Pity, which was turned into BBC drama, In Denial of Murder, in 2004.
In Denial of Murder starred Stephen Tompkinson as Don Hale and Jason Watkins as Stephen Downing
Police reopened their investigation, interviewing 1,600 witnesses, at an estimated cost of £500,000, but failed to identify any alternative suspect - although Hale has previously said he believes he has a "very good idea" who killed Wendy Sewell.
Mr Downing was later awarded £900,000 in compensation.
The huge press attention the case attracted finally forced Hale to relocate to north Wales.
"One of the reasons I moved away from Derbyshire was to get relief," he said. "It wasn't fair on my family."
Jill Dando's killer has never been brought to justice
But he was soon called on to help with another miscarriage of justice.
BBC Crimewatch presenter Jill Dando was shot dead on her fiancé's west London doorstep in April 1999.
A year later, after interviewing over hundreds of people, the Met Police charged 41-year-old Barry George, a self-confessed stalker and loner, with her murder. He was tried, convicted and jailed for life.
But there were serious concerns about the police investigation, and in 2004 Hale was asked to get involved.
"Quite quickly, I found a lot of evidence that didn't match up," he said.
Barry George was "an oddball but not a killer", Hale said
He went to see Mr George in prison where he was "like a lion in a cage", pacing the floor.
"How could he do a clinical murder like that?" Hale said.
"Everyone that was dealing with him said he's a bit of an oddball but he's not a killer."
Gunpowder residue on Mr George's clothing had played a large part in convicting him.
But Hale said there was so little of it that it could have come from weapons armed police were carrying when he was arrested.
The CCRC referred Mr George's case to the Court of Appeal and a retrial took place at the Old Bailey in 2008, when he was cleared of murder and released.
Ched Evans was serving a five-year sentence for rape when his family approached Hale for help.
"I didn't want to touch it because it was so high profile," he said.
But Mr Evans' mother had serious doubts about the "rushed" investigation.
The then-Sheffield United striker had been convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman at a Premier Inn in Denbighshire in May 2011.
At the same trial, footballer Clayton McDonald was acquitted of the offence.
Hale believed the guilty verdict was an "emotional response" from the jury, owing to Mr Evans' "cockiness". "He thought he was God's gift to women," Hale said.
He spent six months working on the case, in which time Mr Evans was released having served half of his sentence.
"My knowledge and experience meant I could cut corners and had an important point that I knew the IPCC would look at."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A timeline of events leading to Ched Evans clearing his name
That point was the woman's sexual history and, after the CCRC agreed there was enough evidence to quash the conviction, this evidence controversially formed part of the retrial.
Unlike during the original trial, her previous sexual partners gave evidence recounting similar encounters to the one in the hotel room that night.
It led to plans to review the law protecting alleged rape victims from disclosing details of their sex lives.
Mr Evans was cleared in October 2016 but it left a bitter taste for Hale.
"In this case it was right - you have got to look at each case on its own merit," he said.
"But the whole thing was a bit unsavoury and not good for the girl herself."
Hale said at the time he hoped the case did not deter women from coming forward to report sexual offences.
But, had that evidence been used in the original trial, "Evans would have been cleared," he said.
The case took its toll on Hales, now 64, and he has decided not to investigate any more miscarriages of justice, focusing instead on writing books.
"I am proud of what I have done," he said.
"If it wasn't for people like me you'd have no-one to say, 'this isn't the way we should interview people, this is not the way we should treat people'."
Yet he still insists modestly that much of the credit for overturning the miscarriages of justice he has worked on belongs to others, seeing himself more as a catalyst for change.
"You have got to have somebody who gets the ball rolling."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-38581779
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Reality Check: Did millions vote illegally in the US? - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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President Trump claims that he would have won the popular vote had it not been for fraud. Is he right?
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US & Canada
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The claim: Donald Trump would have won the popular vote in last year's US presidential election had it not been for people voting illegally.
Reality Check verdict: There is no evidence to support the assertion that at least 2.86 million people voted illegally.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer confirmed on Tuesday that President Donald Trump stands by his concerns about illegal voting.
The disclosure came after the president was reported to have claimed in a closed meeting on Monday that between three and five million unauthorised immigrants had voted for Hillary Clinton.
At the end of November, Mr Trump tweeted: "I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally."
While the president won the election via the electoral college, he actually received 2.86 million fewer votes than his rival.
So his suggestion is that at least 2% of the people who voted did so illegally, assuming that they all voted for Mrs Clinton.
Non-citizens of the United States, including permanent legal residents, do not have the right to vote in presidential elections. Voter registration requires applicants to declare their citizenship status, and they could face criminal punishment if they falsely claim citizenship rights.
In addition to being registered voters, in two-thirds of states, voters are required to bring identification to the polls in order to be allowed to vote. In all states, first-time voters who register to vote by post must provide valid identification before voting.
Donald Trump and his team have referred to two studies they say show the threat posed by unauthorised voting; both have been challenged.
A 2014 study published in Electoral Studies found evidence that suggested non-citizens do vote and "can change the outcome of close races". Donald Trump referred to this study on the campaign trail in Wisconsin on 17 October.
The research has been roundly criticised by political scientists who said it misinterpreted the data. The team behind the research used data collected by the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES), which is a national survey taken before and after elections. The CCES published a newsletter that disputed the findings and said "the likely percent of non-citizen voters in recent US elections is 0".
During the campaign, Mr Trump also referred to a 2012 Pew Center on the States study that found 1.8 million dead Americans were still registered. The deceased, alleged Mr Trump, were still voting. The report, however, does not make any statements about this claim.
Although it is not impossible for non-citizens to break voting laws, there is no evidence that millions of immigrants without the right to vote influenced the outcome of the popular vote.
Election officials, including those from the Republican Party, have said there was no evidence of mass electoral fraud and senior Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan have distanced themselves from the claim.
But President Trump tweeted from his personal account on Wednesday to say that he would be asking for a major investigation into voter fraud.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38744612
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More national parks appear to defy Trump on Twitter - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Several parks tweet messages highlighting climate change fears or apparently opposing immigration plans.
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US & Canada
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Death Valley National Park's Twitter account joined in posting messages seen as critical of President Trump
A US national park's Twitter account has inspired an online movement protesting against President Donald Trump's policy on climate change.
The Badlands National Park account's tweets about global warming were swiftly deleted after they appeared to undermine Mr Trump's position.
But if President Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, hoped it would silence his critics, he was wrong.
Instead, it was the catalyst for a host of people and parks to follow suit.
Badlands National Park, in South Dakota, posted a series of tweets highlighting climate science data a few days after The National Park Service briefly shut its Twitter operation following an apparent clampdown.
It had retweeted photos about the turnout at President Trump's inauguration, suggesting numbers at the ceremony were lower those at President Obama's ceremony.
The national park accounts were eventually reactivated with an apology message.
It did not deter Badlands.
"Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years. #climate," one of its tweets said.
The posts were widely shared - including by the Democratic National Committee under the hashtag #Resist - but had all been removed by Tuesday evening.
Then on Wednesday Redwoods National Park tweeted about climate change and the role of trees as a carbon sink, adding: "More redwoods would mean less #climatechange".
Golden Gate National Recreation Area had earlier posted that "2016 was the hottest year on record for the 3rd year in a row", adding a link to a Nasa report on climate change.
Death Valley National Park's account, meanwhile, tweeted about Japanese-Americans interned at the park during World War Two.
While it made no mention of the president, other Twitter users interpreted the message as an objection to his pledge to ban Muslims from entering the country and to restrict the flow of refugees to the US.
An account called AltUSNatParkService, which describes itself as the "unofficial 'resistance' team" of the US Park Service, has also been set up to more directly protest against the president.
"We believe that today in Trump's America, science and the environment have a place at the forefront of society and policy," the account tweeted on Thursday.
It was quickly joined by Alt Nasa, described as "the unofficial #resist team of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration", while Rogue Nasa says it offers "real news" and "real facts".
The National Parks Service has refused to comment.
Meanwhile, a media blackout has been introduced at the US's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the Associated Press news agency.
Staff there have been banned from posting on any of the agency's social media accounts,
The main EPA account has not posted anything since 19 January, a day before Mr Trump's inauguration.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38745829
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Claude Puel: Southampton boss wants EFL Cup path to Europa League - BBC Sport
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2017-01-26
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Southampton manager Claude Puel hopes for a second shot at Europe if his side win the EFL Cup.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Southampton boss Claude Puel has stressed the importance of securing European football next season after his side reached the EFL Cup final.
Saints won at Liverpool and will face Manchester United or Hull, with the winners entering the Europa League.
Puel faced criticism when his side drew with Hapoel Be'er Sheva to exit the Europa League group stage this season.
"It's important to put this experience for next year in European games. It'll be important to qualify," said Puel.
"It will be important for the squad to continue the work, to improve, and know the possibilities to play European games."
Before the match, the Southampton manager, 55, faced questions on his style of play, with some supporters deeming his tactics negative.
Southampton had just 27% possession at Anfield but added to their first-leg lead in injury time when Shane Long struck to earn a 2-0 aggregate win and seal a place in the final on 26 February.
The result means former Lyon boss Puel has not lost in all six of his meetings with Liverpool and he has guided the south-coast club to a first major final since 2003 in his first season at St Mary's.
"Now we go to Wembley, not just to participate but to win this cup," he added.
Liverpool's main threat over two legs arrived as they chased the tie in the second half of the second leg, but wasted chances by Daniel Sturridge and a fine save from Saints' keeper Fraser Forster saw Klopp taste defeat in a cup semi-final for the first time.
Forster smartly hooked a ball off the line after spilling an Emre Can shot and Klopp was frustrated his side were not given a penalty when Long handled in the area.
"They won both games, they deserved it," said Klopp.
"We had big, big chances and no luck. A lucky save, a good save but a lucky save by Forster. The referee again didn't see the handball by Shane Long and that doesn't help in a game like this.
"I'm happy with the performance, I'm fine with a lot of things but of course it's a cup so no-one cares how you play - you have to win and get to the final."
Klopp, 49, guided Liverpool to the League Cup final last season but his side have now won just once in seven matches.
BBC Radio 5 live pundit Mark Lawrenson: "Absolutely, totally and utterly deserved. They always, always carried that goal threat. They played with so much pace, so much directness. Over the two legs they have totally outplayed Liverpool. They thoroughly deserve the Wembley appearance."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38753260
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Donald Trump: 'Waterboarding absolutely works' - BBC News
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2017-01-26
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US President Donald Trump backs waterboarding and says "we must fight fire with fire".
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In Donald Trump's first broadcast interview as US president, he defended his call to resume using waterboarding - a torture technique - to interrogate terror suspects.
"When Isis [so-called Islamic State] is doing things that nobody has ever heard of since medieval times, would I feel strongly about waterboarding? As far as I'm concerned, we have to fight fire with fire," he told ABC News.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38751516
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Why this Chinese New Year will be a digital money fest - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Chinese New Year will see billions of cash-filled "red envelopes" sent digitally to friends and family.
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Business
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Are the traditional red envelope gifts at Chinese New Year being replaced by digital versions?
Over this weekend's Chinese New Year celebrations, millions of people will give each other cash-filled red envelopes, called hongbao in Mandarin.
But this year, a record number of these red envelopes will be digital and sent online over social messaging services such as Tencent's WeChat, usually via smartphone.
Over the six-day Chinese Spring Festival period last year, 516 million people sent and received 32 billion digital red envelopes - 10 times the number as over the same period in 2015.
And this year forecasters are expecting up to 100 billion digital envelopes to be sent and received by Chinese well-wishers around the world.
It's a vivid illustration of how the world of money is changing, given that we can now send money to each other as easily as sending an email or text.
Global research firm Ovum thinks the value of these mobile peer-to-peer (P2P) payments could top $270bn (£214bn) worldwide in 2019.
2017 is the Chinese Year of the Rooster
So why is sending money this way proving so popular, particularly among younger people?
"Social messaging has become the defining app of the smartphone era," says Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of P2P payments app, Circle Pay.
"Social payments has been a natural extension of this phenomenon - it's going to be the locus of most communications activity."
Paying somebody by text is quick and easy, removing the hassle of having to go out to a cash machine and hand over money in person. All you usually need is their mobile phone number or email address.
Even if they haven't yet downloaded the app they receive a message telling them money is waiting for them once they've registered.
Whether you're splitting a dinner bill between friends, contributing to shared household costs, or simply sending a gift, payment apps offer convenience within an encrypted, secure environment.
And the fact that these payment apps can sit within messaging apps means you can settle bills without even interrupting your group chat.
Circle Pay's Jeremy Allaire thinks social messaging and payments are the future
The Chinese social media platforms operated by the tech giants Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu have spearheaded the social payments explosion in Asia.
While in the US, PayPal-owned Venmo has been growing at a phenomenal pace and looks set to reach about $20bn in annual transaction volume this year. In Africa, M-pesa has blazed a trail and is also now available in India.
Facebook Messenger, which now claims to have more than one billion users globally, has been offering in-app payments since 2015 in the US, but is now poised to expand the service throughout Europe after acquiring the relevant "e-money" banking licenses.
"There's an opportunity to create the WhatsApp of payments and to make this work globally," says Mr Allaire, whose payment service is also available within the Apple iMessage app.
He envisages a world in which there are no barriers to sending money anywhere.
Young people in particular are happy to use their phones as digital wallets
"I can send and receive content instantly for free, by text, email and video - so why can't I do the same with money? It's just data and software," he says.
Circle's service is built on crypto currency Bitcoin's blockchain system, which enables transactions to be verified and completed quickly and securely, even across borders.
And it is this crossborder facility that offers great potential, Mr Allaire believes, largely because banks tend to charge far more than P2P platforms.
"I can beam money to my kids wherever they happen to be in the world at a cost of 0.3%, whereas banks will typically charge 3%," he says.
But smartphones have been around for nearly a decade, so what has changed to explain this sudden surge in the popularity of social payments?
"The regulatory environment improved," says James Morton, head of UK and Netherlands for Mangopay, a P2P payments platform powering several other apps, such as Pumpkin.
Are we entering the era of low-cost borderless money transfers?
"To hold client money you have to be regulated, which was a big hurdle to overcome. And the payments infrastructure was quite archaic, working only from bank to bank with a complex structure of issuers, acquirers and processors - it was a very manual process."
Allowing firms to become "e-money issuers" opened the door to tech companies to automate a lot of these background processes, including the authentication, data protection and money laundering requirements imposed by regulators.
An international bank-to-bank money transfer can still take days to clear - despite efforts to introduce faster payments - whereas P2P payments can be completed in seconds.
And now that younger generations trust the security of their apps and phones - verifying transactions by fingerprint or even facial recognition - P2P service providers are interposing themselves between banks and acting as money repositories themselves.
For example, Venmo enables its 12 million users to load their Venmo accounts with money and use this fund to pay other people and make in-app purchases.
A Chinese student returning home for the Spring Festival pays her fare using the Alipay app
Chinese networks Alipay and WeChat allow users to pay utility bills from their accounts.
They can also transfer money back to their main bank account within a business day. It's the kind of service PayPal already offers for its customers through its PayPal.me service.
"If you look at how the gig and sharing economy is growing, I think payments infrastructure will remove the necessity for having your bank debit account for anything other than paying bills," says Mr Morton.
New P2P payment providers have sprung up all over the place: Square Cash, FaceCash Payfriendz, TransferWise, the relaunched Google Wallet, People Pay, Popmoney, Snapcash, Dwolla - the list goes on.
Not that the big banks are twiddling their thumbs while tech upstarts steal their business.
In the US, a company called Early Warning, which is owned by big names such as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, has set up a P2P payments business called ClearXchange with access to more than 100 million customers.
All you need to send money to someone else's bank account for free is their email address or mobile phone number, much like the UK's PayM system.
Card issuers Visa and Mastercard have joined up with ClearXchange to allow people to make P2P payments via their MasterCard Send and Visa Direct platforms.
These are exciting times in the world of P2P payments - more competition, more convenience, lower costs.
But in the Chinese Year of the Rooster, it remains to be seen whether a digital red envelope will bring as much luck and good fortune as the traditional paper one.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38746298
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Texas tornado lifts woman in bath outside - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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A woman describes her lucky escape after a tornado ripped through 12 homes in Madison County, Texas.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38765376
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Venus and Serena Williams set for Australian Open final - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Serena Williams says facing her elder sister Venus in Saturday's Australian Open final will be a great occasion.
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Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live and live text on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online at 13:15.
Serena Williams says facing elder sister Venus in Saturday's Australian Open final will be a great occasion.
Serena, 35, is bidding for an Open-era record 23rd Grand Slam, while Venus, 36, is targeting her eighth major, and first since Wimbledon in 2008.
"This probably is the moment of our careers so far," said Serena, who has beaten Venus in six of their eight Grand Slam finals.
"I never lost hope of us being able to play each other in a final."
Saturday will be their first Grand Slam final against each other since Wimbledon 2009, when Serena won in straight sets, and their 28th meeting in total.
"Nothing can break our family," added Serena. "If anything, this will definitely bring us closer together, knowing that I want to see her do the best that she can possibly do.
"I know that she definitely wants to see me do the best that I can do. This is a story. This is something that I couldn't write a better ending for. This is a great opportunity for us to start our new beginning.
"It's the one time that I really genuinely feel like no matter what happens, I can't lose, she can't lose. It's going to be a great situation."
Serena drew level with Germany's Steffi Graff on 22 Grand Slams when she claimed her seventh Wimbledon title last year, but lost in the US Open semi-finals to Czech Karolina Pliskova.
A seventh title at Melbourne Park would add further credit to her claim as the greatest of all time, despite being one short of Australia's Margaret Court, whose 24 major titles were split between the amateur and professional eras.
Venus failed to reach a single Grand Slam quarter-final between 2011 and 2014 as she battled injuries and Sjogren's syndrome, an auto-immune disease that causes fatigue and joint pain.
Now, however, Venus is enjoying a late resurgence, backing up her run to the last four at Wimbledon six months ago by going one step further here.
Serena would regain the world number one ranking from 2016 champion Angelique Kerber if she wins the title, while Venus would move back into the top 10 if she wins on Saturday.
Serena Williams says that she could not write a better ending to the sisters' remarkable story, but this may not be the final chapter. Venus is the oldest woman in the field, but has proven beyond doubt that she still has the power and the defensive skills to defeat younger challengers.
Whether that includes Serena remains to be seen. The 22-time Grand Slam champion is yet to drop a set in Melbourne: the tougher the opponent, the better she plays. And no-one has more respect for Venus Williams than Serena Williams.
'Serena is super-awesome but I can compete'
Venus, the oldest finalist at Melbourne Park in the Open era, knows her sister doesn't have many weaknesses in her game.
"When I'm playing on the court with her, I think I'm playing the best competitor in the game. I don't think I'm chump change either, you know," she said.
"I can compete against any odds. No matter what, I get out there and I compete.
"So it's like two players who really, really can compete, then also they can play tennis."
"OK, it won't be an easy match," she added. "You have to control yourself, then you also have to hopefully put your opponent in a box. This opponent is your sister, and she's super-awesome."
*Overall Serena has a 16-11 win-loss record against Venus
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38774498
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Madeleine Albright and Big Bang actress 'ready to join Muslim registry' - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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The US ex-secretary of state is joined in her pledge by Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik.
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US & Canada
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Madeleine Albright said she would declare herself Muslim if a registry was brought in by the Trump administration
A former US Secretary of State and a Big Bang Theory actress have both vowed to register as Muslim if Donald Trump creates a database of Muslim Americans.
Politician Madeleine Albright and Mayim Bialik said they "stand ready" to register, in defiance of the new President.
"I was raised Catholic, became Episcopalian & found out later my family was Jewish," Ms Albright - the first woman to be named Secretary of State - tweeted on Wednesday.
"I stand ready to register as Muslim in #solidarity." The tweet gained tens of thousands of likes.
Her comments come as rumours continue to circulate about an executive order which would announce extreme vetting, a refugee ban and a ban on arrivals from seven countries, said to include Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
But there has been no mention of a register of American Muslims in recent months - something Mr Trump said he would "certainly implement" in an interview in 2015, but later distanced himself from.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Which countries might be subject to Trump ban?
A number of people vowed to stand in solidarity with America's Muslim population after Mr Trump's election in November, but Ms Albright's tweet appears to have inspired others to speak out - including Ms Bialik, who stars as Amy Farrah Fowler in the hit series The Big Bang Theory, one of America's most popular sitcoms.
"I'm Jewish. I stand ready to register as a Muslim in #solidarity if it comes to that," she wrote.
Later, the outspoken Trump critic added: "If we're registering people who you think are a threat, register white males too, since most serial killers & mass shooters are white males."
Actress Mayim Bialik, who plays Amy Farrah Fowler in The Big Bang Theory, is an outspoken Trump critic
It has been reported that the President will be announcing his new executive order on Thursday.
"Look, the president has talked extensively about extreme vetting," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, promising "more action this week".
Many, including Ms Albright, a Czech immigrant, are highly critical of the move - which is rumoured to mean the US would accept no Syrian refugees.
"There is no fine print on the Statue of Liberty," she tweeted. "America must remain open to people of all faiths & backgrounds. #RefugeesWelcome."
Mr Trump previously spoke of banning any Muslim from entering the United States.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38755947
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What is going wrong with the prison system? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Levels of violence are up, staff numbers are down, and complaints about overcrowding are widespread. Why are prisons under pressure?
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UK
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Levels of violence are up, staff numbers are down and complaints about overcrowding are widespread. Why are prisons in England and Wales under pressure?
"There's an incident at height - the prison's in lockdown."
I was in the gate-lodge at High Down Prison in Surrey when a message came through from the governor.
The Ministry of Justice - which controls prisons in England and Wales - had, unusually, granted permission for me to visit a jail for a radio documentary about prison violence.
They had chosen High Down, a prison built on the site of an old mental hospital and now home to 1,100 male inmates.
I waited in the visitors centre worried my visit might be cancelled, but half an hour later the incident had been resolved.
Ian Bickers, the High Down governor at the time of my visit in December 2014, brushed aside what had happened. A prisoner had clambered on to the safety netting under a landing because he was unhappy with the regime and wanted to move to another jail.
Mr Bickers explained that prisoner protests were a common occurrence, but required adept handling.
At that stage, High Down was on the edge of instability. Since then, a number of jails in England and Wales have fallen over the edge.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The footage is understood to have been filmed by inmates of HMP Birmingham
The recent disturbances at Lewes, Bedford, Birmingham and Swaleside prisons; the fatal stabbing of an inmate at Pentonville, followed by the escape of two of its prisoners; and the record number of prisoner suicides and assaults on staff all provide concrete evidence of the turmoil behind bars.
In 2015, in his last annual report as Chief Inspector of Prisons, Nick Hardwick said jails were in their worst state for a decade.
Last year, David Cameron, in one of his final domestic policy speeches as prime minister, said reoffending rates and levels of prison violence, drug-taking and self-harm "should shame us all".
Even Liz Truss, who as justice secretary has overall responsibility for prisons, acknowledges that they're "not working" and are under "serious and sustained pressure".
There have always been problems. For many years, internal reports painted a picture of daily outbreaks of violence, cell fires and self-harm across the prisons estate.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The aftermath of the 1990 Strangeways Prison riot
The worst disorder in the history of the prison service came in 1990 when two people died and hundreds were injured during rioting at Strangeways, in Manchester. It evolved into a 25-day protest against the squalid conditions and was followed by disturbances at eight other prisons.
The report into Strangeways was meant to be a watershed. It did lead to some improvements, including the beginning of the end of the practice of slopping out, where prisoners used chamber pots in their cells, but it did not herald an end to prison overcrowding.
The principal reason is numbers. England and Wales went from almost 45,000 prisoners in 1991 to 85,000 two decades later - an increase of nearly 90%.
Justice and policing are devolved matters for Scotland and Northern Ireland. There has been nothing like the same rise in the jail population in Scotland, where the latest figure, around 7,200, is the lowest it has been for a decade. In Northern Ireland, there are some 1,500 people in custody, about 300 fewer than in the mid-1990s.
So why did numbers rise so steeply in England and Wales? Some lobby groups and criminologists point to a "moral panic" following the murder in 1993 of the toddler James Bulger.
Experts describe a sentencing "arms race" between political parties vying to be the strongest on law and order. Former Conservative leader Michael Howard's "prison works" versus former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair's "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".
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Whatever the reasons, average sentence lengths have crept up, more offenders have been jailed for life or indeterminate terms and growing numbers of released prisoners have had to return to custody for breaching their licence conditions.
New jails have been built, but have not kept up with demand. The Prison Reform Trust (PRT) calculates that an average of 20,000 prisoners, almost a quarter of the total, are held in overcrowded conditions. Many share cells designed for one.
At times, when Labour was in power, there was so little spare capacity that cells at police stations and in court buildings were used to hold inmates. To ease the pressure, a scheme was introduced to let prisoners out up to 18 days before their standard release date, halfway through their sentence. Eighty-thousand inmates were freed under the scheme - in addition to those released early under an existing programme which required them to wear electronic tags.
Overcrowding has a corrosive effect. It is, in the words of Strangeways report author Lord Woolf, "a cancer eating at the ability of the prison service" to deliver effective education, tackle offending behaviour and prepare prisoners for life on the outside.
When the Coalition Government came to power in 2010 it began to look for savings, as part of its effort to reduce overall public spending. Five years later the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which is responsible for prisons in England and Wales, had reduced its budget by nearly a quarter.
Wandsworth Prison is one of the country's most overcrowded
Old jails that were expensive to operate were shut - 18 have closed since 2011.
But the other tactic in the efficiency drive has been a programme of "benchmarking".
Publicly run jails are required to peg their costs to the same level as the most efficient prisons, including those in the private sector.
Fourteen jails in England and Wales, and two out of 15 prisons in Scotland, are operated by private firms - G4S, Serco and Sodexo. And benchmarking has certainly led to savings. The Ministry of Justice estimates that the average annual cost of a prison place fell by 20% between 2009-10 and 2015-16 to about £35,000.
Benchmarking has involved major changes to the regime in prisons and cuts to staffing. A standardised "core day" has been introduced in some jails, with the aim of making the most of prisoners' time out of their cells and giving them certainty about what activities they are doing.
But the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Peter Clarke, said jails which had brought in the new core days had not increased the amount of prisoners' time spent unlocked. Under half of jails were assessed as delivering "good" or "reasonably good" purposeful activities compared with more than two-thirds in 2009-10.
With the benchmarking programme and other cost-cutting, there was a dramatic reduction in staff numbers. Posts were cut in the Northern Ireland Prison Service as well, but in Scotland staff numbers have risen.
The overall number of staff employed across the public sector prison estate in England and Wales has fallen from 45,000 in 2010 to just under 31,000 in September 2016. Although a small part of the reduction has been because of employees switching to jails transferred to the private sector, the decline is substantial by any measure, with the number of prison officers working in key front-line roles down by more than 6,000.
The jobs market in areas such as London and south-east England has been so competitive that prisons have found it hard to attract and retain replacements on a £20,500 starting salary. Many experienced prison officers have taken voluntary redundancy - with their know-how and jail-craft sorely missed. About 200 staff each month are brought in from other jails to work at prisons where vacancies cannot be filled.
Last November, members of the Prison Officers Association took part in a 24-hour walkout in protest at what they said were the "chronic staff shortages and impoverished regimes" in jails which they claimed had resulted in staff no longer being safe.
As thousands of prison staff departed, a seemingly intractable drugs problem began to arrive in jails - "legal highs", also known as new psychoactive substances (NPS). Sold under names such as Spice and Black Mamba, by 2013 the synthetic cannabis compounds had become a major problem. In contrast, Scottish prisons have had no record of any seizures of the drug.
Synthetic drugs are becoming an increasing problem in England's prisons
The health dangers, bizarre behaviour and violence associated with NPS led to them being banned in the UK last year. In prisons, they have proved to be an unpredictable, and occasionally lethal, alternative to cannabis. Between June 2013 and April 2016, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman identified 64 deaths in jail where the prisoner was known or strongly suspected to have used or possessed NPS before they died.
Despite the dangers, these synthetic drugs are popular because they are hard to detect using conventional drug testing methods and they provide a diversion to the boredom and frustration of prison life. The drugs are a source of income for criminal gangs whose illicit use of phones and drones, combined with the help of a number of corrupt staff, has helped the trade thrive behind bars.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch a drone deliver drugs and mobile phones to London prisoners in April 2016
The destabilising impact of synthetic drugs, together with the loss of so many staff in such a short space of time, against a backdrop of overcrowding, has proved to be a dangerous cocktail for our prisons.
The government's policy document, entitled Prison Safety and Reform, published in November, acknowledges the scale of the challenge. An extra 2,500 prison officers are being recruited, there will be financial incentives for staff to stay in their jobs, while sniffer dogs and new methods of drug testing are being deployed.
Labour said the announcement was "too little, too late", saying earlier staff cuts had created a "crisis in safety".
And there are calls for far more radical measures.
Nick Clegg, deputy prime minister in the Coalition, together with the former Home Secretaries Jacqui Smith and Ken Clarke, said prisoner numbers must be steadily cut back to the levels of the early 90s, a reduction of some 40,000 inmates. "We believe that an escalating prison population has gone well beyond what is safe or sustainable," they wrote in a letter to the Times.
There are no signs, however, that Liz Truss, the justice secretary, has any intention of arbitrarily cutting the jail population. Sentencing changes and early release schemes are simply not on her agenda.
Justice Secretary Liz Truss wants to cut prisoner numbers by reducing reoffending
Michael Spurr, the chief executive of NOMS, has even gone as far as to say that he cannot see an end to prison overcrowding until at least after the next parliament - 2025, at the earliest.
Instead, Ms Truss believes that any drop in prisoner numbers should come through a reduction in reoffending - fewer people going through the revolving door of the criminal justice system.
She is hoping that extra staff and security improvements will steady the ship while longer-term changes to the management of prisons take effect. Governors will have greater autonomy, there will be closer monitoring of prison performance and education and investment in modern facilities.
HMP Berwyn in north Wales will be the UK's biggest prison
A new jail, HMP Berwyn, opens in north Wales next month. It has cost £250m to build and will house more than 2,000 male prisoners - making it the biggest prison in the UK.
The extra places will help relieve some of the pressure on a system that still relies heavily on jails constructed in the Victorian era. But more important, Berwyn sends a clear message that in spite of all the recent trouble, tensions and turmoil within prison walls, the government remains committed to the concept of imprisonment itself.
UPDATE: The graphs in this piece were updated on 2 August to reflect new figures published
• None How dangerous are our prisons?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38596034
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Celebrating Southampton fans turn post boxes into team shirts - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Two post boxes have been given white stripes to match the Saints' famous red-and-white shirts.
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Hampshire & Isle of Wight
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This post box in Bargate was one of two to be decorated with white paint
Southampton football fans have celebrated their team reaching the EFL Cup final by painting the city's post boxes in the club's famous stripes.
Two red post boxes have been given white stripes to match the Saints' colours since Wednesday's semi-final win over Liverpool at Anfield.
The makeovers have been met with support by local business owners and residents who called it a "fun" change.
But Royal Mail said it planned to remove the stripes as soon as possible.
Southampton beat Liverpool 2-0 across two legs to earn trip to Wembley for the cup final against Manchester United on 26 February.
But rather than painting the town red, some fans got out the white paint to celebrate and the post boxes in Queens Way and Bargate were adorned with the stripes.
Southampton wore their away kit in the win over Liverpool but usually play in red and white
Graeme McLeish, owner of Oceans Gift Shop, said: "It appeals to my sense of humour, I suppose technically it is vandalism but it's just a bit of fun and knowing how big Saints are becoming I think it's a celebration and patriotic."
Kerry Browne, a news agent shop assistant in Above Bar Street, added: "I just think why not, it's not harming anyone and it's a bit of fun. Maybe if they manage to win the cup we should get them re-painted and make it a proper tribute."
A Royal Mail spokesman said: "We congratulate Southampton FC on their success however will be returning the post boxes to their original colour as soon as it is reasonably possible."
A post box in Queens Way (pictured) was also given a makeover
Post boxes in the home towns of Team GB gold medallists were memorably painted gold as a permanent change after the London 2012 Olympics.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-38771036
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Manor F1: Team fold after administrator fails to find buyer - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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The Manor F1 team collapse after administrators fail to find a buyer for their stricken operating company.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
The Manor team have collapsed after administrators failed to find a buyer for the stricken business.
Manor's operating company Just Racing Services has been in administration since 6 January, and FRP Advisory has been unable to find a buyer.
Just Racing ceased trading on Friday, effectively ending the Manor team.
The staff were sent home on Friday and told they will be made redundant by the close of business on Tuesday after the payment of January salaries.
FRP said there was "no sustainable operational or financial structure in place to maintain the group as a going concern".
Joint administrator Geoff Rowley added the administration process "provided a moratorium" in the search for a buyer but "no solution could be achieved to allow for the business to continue in its current form".
What happens now?
It is not necessarily the end of Manor - a buyer could potentially still purchase the remnants of the team.
But even if that were to happen, the move makes it much harder for Manor to make it to the start of the season in Australia on 26 March.
The team's collapse leaves 10 teams - 20 cars - on the grid in Melbourne and comes just five days after the sport was taken over by US company Liberty Media and long-time commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone was removed as chief executive.
Manor started life as Virgin Racing in 2010 and has been through several guises in the intervening seven years.
It previously went into administration in October 2014, and was only saved by current owner Stephen Fitzpatrick, the boss of energy firm Ovo, on the eve of the 2015 season.
Fitzpatrick has said the decisive moment was the team's slip to 11th place in the constructors' championship as a result of Sauber's Felipe Nasr finishing ninth in the penultimate race of last season in Brazil. This cost the team in the region of $15m (£12m) in prize money.
Manor were one of three new teams to enter F1 in 2010 after they were promised by then FIA president Max Mosley that a £40m budget cap would be introduced.
But Mosley stood down as head of the governing body in 2009 after losing a fight with the teams over the plan and the cost limit was abandoned.
All three teams have now collapsed.
Formula 1 and the FIA 'should be investigated'
Anneliese Dodds MEP has called for a European Commission investigation into the FIA and F1 following Manor's collapse.
She said: "The collapse of Manor Racing could be the end of seven turbulent years for a team that brought highly skilled jobs to Oxfordshire. I am very concerned that this follows other job losses in small teams.
"Formula One Group, its owners and the FIA as a regulator really need to be investigated after this collapse.
"The unfair way in which prize money is allocated in the sport, permanently favouring the largest teams regardless of their finishing position, has seen many teams struggle to survive and ultimately reduced the number of cars on the grid.
"The European Commission must investigate the complaints it received last year from two F1 teams related to anti-competitive practices before even more highly skilled jobs are lost both in the South East and all around Europe.
"I will be writing to the Commission to call on them to take serious action on the way F1 is run, before a sport loved by 500 million fans is damaged beyond repair."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38772098
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Can Barrow stem flow of young Gambians heading for Europe? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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New President Adama Barrow must improve economic prospects for The Gambia's youth, if the number of migrants heading for Europe is to be cut.
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Africa
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The Gambia is one of the poorest countries in the world
Considering its population of less than two million, The Gambia accounts for a high proportion of those crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. The BBC's Alastair Leithead asks whether the new president can change this.
In a tiny shop unit along a dark corridor and through a narrow alleyway in The Gambia's biggest market, Samba Ceesay is sorting through the clothes he has for sale.
He arrived back last November - just before the election - after 15 months away from home following what everyone here calls "the back way".
It's the well-trodden migrant path to Europe through Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso to Niger, and then north through Libya to the coast, to risk a Mediterranean crossing.
Mr Ceesay, 26, got as far as Burkina Faso before he was captured by an organised crime syndicate.
"They said they would help me but they took everything I had - all my money and my things - and locked me up," he said.
"They threatened to kill me unless my family sent ransom money, but we have nothing. They held me for a month."
Eventually they released him, and despite having lost all his money he kept going.
Samba Ceesay had a terrible experience trying to reach Europe
He reached southern Libya, but with no job or chance of making the money needed to cross the Sahara or pay for passage across the Mediterranean, he gave up.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office in the migrant hub of Agadez in Niger, helped him return home to The Gambia.
Mr Ceesay's family were initially disappointed he hadn't made it - they'd supported his plan to head to Europe and try to earn money to send home.
Now Famara Njie from the IOM is helping him re-integrate through training to help improve his chances of getting a job.
"If you don't make your way to Europe and you come back empty-handed without any means to re-start your life, it makes things very, very difficult to re-integrate yourself back in the community," he said.
It's known as "irregular migration" - most people leaving The Gambia are economic migrants, and for the size of the country there are a lot of them.
There are less than two million Gambians, and by percentage of population more people head to Europe than any other nation.
"It is a growing problem, because we've seen people from all walks of life - policemen leaving their jobs, teachers leaving their jobs embarking on this way," said Mr Njie.
"Minors - those who should be in school to complete their basic education… we have seen them embarking on this journey, which is a really, really very troubling situation for the country."
Top women's football side, Red Scorpions, lost their goalkeeper, who drowned in the Mediterranean last year
Across The Gambia thousands of people are leaving their homes.
Less than an hour's drive from the capital, in the village of Kitty, many people have left using "the back way".
People here are poor and it's strikingly clear whose relatives have made it to Europe, because they are building fantastic new homes.
Money goes a long way here and so remittances are paying for gleaming tin roofs, houses with fancy pillars and large courtyards.
There are satellite TV dishes attached to the walls and plots of land cleared and pegged out waiting for construction to begin.
It's this obvious incentive which drives many people to risk everything.
In a dusty clearing in central Banjul, amid the beautiful, orange, late afternoon light, the Red Scorpions are training.
They're the country's top women's football team and many also play for the national side.
Their goalkeeper, Fatim Jawara, 20, went missing last year, and then word came that she and her friend had drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean.
"She was so friendly, humble, always laughing - we were like twins," said her brother Momodou Jawara, 36, sitting with a photograph of her wearing her football strip.
"Thousands and thousands of people have gone - I wish I knew why.
"I don't have that kind of mentality, but what we believe is people always talk about greener pastures, wanting to be out doing something for their family as most of them complain about a lack of jobs."
He thinks she might have gone to try and play football in Europe "but I'm not in her mind, and I'm not sure what put her in it".
Fatim Jawara: She was so friendly, humble, always laughing, says her brother
With the return of new President Adama Barrow, there are great expectations that life will improve after 22 years of Yahya Jammeh's rule.
Under Mr Jammeh, human rights and freedom of speech were not respected. While this might change with a new government, it will be more difficult to raise living standards in what is one of the poorest countries in the world.
"It will take time. What kind of factories are we going to build, what kind of industry are we going to provide for the youths?" asks Mr Jawara.
A huge deposit of oil was recently found off the coast of neighbouring Senegal.
It's believed that find may extend into Gambian territorial waters, which could provide a huge boost to the economy over the coming decades.
The new president will serve just three years and is barred from standing in the next election, so it's hoped he can focus on laying foundations for the economy to improve.
Big new houses built in poor villages show what reaching Europe means
But people have high expectations, which will be hindered by the complexities of coalition politics.
Seven different political parties joined forces, plucking Mr Barrow from relative obscurity to drive President Jammeh from power.
"This new government coming in will help the youths to have more job opportunities, schools will be available for them. I can see a bright future for the Gambian youth," said striker Adama Tamba, 18.
"This new government, it will help us a lot," agreed Fatou Fatty, 19, the captain of the national team.
But there's a lot of work to do to prevent people being lured to take "the back way" to bring money home and lift their families out of poverty.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38756060
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Theresa May's foreign policy speech is 'new and important' - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The PM's speech in Philadelphia is the biggest by a British leader in the US for almost 20 years, the BBC's James Robbins says.
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UK
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May: "We must renew the special relationship for this new age"
Theresa May's Philadelphia speech is hugely significant - arguably the biggest by a British prime minister in the US since Tony Blair's in Chicago.
Eighteen years ago - in 1999 - Mr Blair first advocated active military interventionism to overturn dictators and protect civilians.
Now, Mrs May has repudiated much of what he said then.
She talked of "the failed policies of the past", before making her crucial declaration of new foreign policy doctrine: "The days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over."
Of course, by saying that she was also overturning the approach of her predecessor, David Cameron. The current prime minister has also dismissed her predecessor's armed intervention in Libya.
Its aftermath - a failed state, far from recovery - haunts Britain still.
This declaration of an apparently radical shift in policy by the prime minister should be read in conjunction with what appears to be an extraordinary British U-turn over Syria, which was set out in colourful terms by her foreign secretary only a few hours earlier.
Boris Johnson conceded the most bitter and recent failure of British foreign policy when he openly acknowledged what amounts to a fundamental defeat over Syria.
He called Britain's stance "catastrophic", shifting from the pledge of support over many years to the non-jihadist opponents of President Assad, to a position where Britain - together with the United States - retreated from the field and left it open to Russian military dominance.
Mr Johnson told a committee in the House of Lords that President Assad should now be permitted to run for election as part of a "democratic resolution" of the civil war - although he did also make clear there could be no sustainable peace in Syria as long as he remains.
He admitted the downsides of doing "such a complete flip-flop", but said the UK had been unable at any stage to fulfil its mantra that the Syrian president should go.
Boris Johnson said the UK's stance on Syria had been "catastrophic"
Mr Johnson was accepting Russia's victory - and at the same time swallowing the bitter pill of defeat for London and for Washington.
He said that had flowed from the refusal of the House of Commons, in August 2013, to back punitive British military action against President Assad for his use of chemical weapons - something the Syrian leader still denies.
Within days, President Obama had followed Britain in retreat.
Public appetite in both countries for almost any military intervention overseas had drained away after the years of intervention in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Libya.
It is very difficult to see circumstances in which Britain or the US will send forces against a sovereign government in the future.
Extremists - non-state actors - are almost the only acceptable target now.
The Foreign Office does not believe their political master was as explicit as I suggest, and believe that the essentials of British policy on Syria have not fundamentally changed.
Certainly, the prime minister did leave herself some wriggle room.
She argued against the sort of increased isolationism which President Donald Trump has championed, and urged the maintenance of the "special relationship" as a way to provide joint leadership in the world.
She said the two nations should not "stand idly by when the threat is real".
Nevertheless, the political presentation of British foreign policy by the prime minister and foreign secretary has deployed a distinctly new and sometimes startling language.
The direction being set in response to past failures and disappointments is different.
It may be largely a public recognition of some brutal realities, which have been emerging over several years, but it is new and important.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38776377
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Donald Trump and Theresa May - Do opposites attract? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The prime minister has joked that 'opposites attract', but how will she get on with Donald Trump?
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UK Politics
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As she made her way across the Atlantic, Theresa May joked with the press pack on her flight that "sometimes opposites attract".
A wisecracking way of trying to cover the question about how she and Donald Trump can work together - the reality TV star billionaire and the self-described hard working vicar's daughter.
Voters will decide for themselves how funny they find it.
But Number 10 has already invested a lot in the early days of this relationship.
Perhaps, that is in part due to the early embarrassment of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage's adventures in Manhattan. However, it is also certainly due to her conviction that whoever the US president is, a British leader needs to, and should, cultivate their friendship.
Downing Street sources say they have had more contact with the Trump team since its victory than any other country has - and the conversations between the two leaders have focused on how to develop their personal relationship and the bond between the two countries.
But even before the two politicians meet tomorrow in the Oval Office, Mrs May is trying to put forward serious arguments about Britain and America's relationship as the world changes at warp speed around the two countries - making a major foreign policy speech at a gathering of the Republican Party in Philadelphia just hours after she touches down.
It is plain to see that while she is deadly serious about creating an extremely close relationship with the new president, she will continue to disagree with him on some issues.
When repeatedly questioned about his view that torture works, the prime minister told us: "We condemn torture, I have been very clear, I'm not going to change my position whether I'm talking to you or talking to the president."
And crucially, she said guidance stating that UK security services cannot share intelligence if it is obtained through torture will not change, telling me: "Our guidance is very clear about the position that the UK takes, and our position has not changed."
Despite President Trump's very public doubts about Nato, she says he has already assured her on the phone that he is committed to the alliance.
A public restatement of that in the next 24 hours would no doubt be a political boon for her.
While the prime minister is plainly uncomfortable with some of Mr Trump's positions, she also wants to emphasise some of the areas where they do agree - the "shared values" of looking out for "ordinary working class families".
In her speech to senators and congressmen tonight she will also emphasise how, in her view, Conservative values are Republican values.
The Republicans - the Tories' sister political party - are now in charge at all levels on Capitol Hill, as well as inside the White House. For the GOP and Mrs May's Conservative Party, patriotism, flag and family are not values to shy away from.
And despite the squeamishness, even in Tory ranks, about her eagerness to be seen alongside the president, the prime minister is unapologetic about her friendly stance.
When asked about appearing to be too close to the controversial new president, she said: "Donald Trump was elected president of the United States of America.
"The UK and the US have shared challenges, shared interests, that we can work together to deal with. We have a special relationship, it's long standing, it's existed through many different prime ministers and presidents."
A more different prime minister and president are hard to conceive. What they make of each other, and the relationship between our two countries, will affect us all.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38760718
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The deaf Iraqi boy facing deportation from UK - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Lawand Hamadamin's family fled Iraq, scared so-called Islamic State would kill him because he's deaf - now they could be deported from the UK.
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Lawand Hamadamin's family fled Iraq in 2015 because, they say, so-called Islamic State had threatened to kill disabled children.
They came to the UK after a year in a French refugee camp and he's now at a British school, learning sign language
But the family are facing deportation to Germany because they entered the UK illegally.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38767822
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The Spicer Doctrine: Holding the press to account - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Donald Trump's new press secretary plans to take a tough line with the press, says Amol Rajan.
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Entertainment & Arts
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sean Spicer: "We can disagree with the facts"
Some journalists are scum, many are incorrigible egoists, and yet the vast majority, in my experience, are decent coves with a high-minded view of the trade they belong to.
Whether they report on the courts, local football matches, or the latest film openings, part of the job is spreading knowledge and joy - or, as Lord Reith put it, to "inform, educate and entertain."
But there is a deeper attraction to the trade.
This is the principle of holding power to account.
Obviously many journalists fall short of achieving this.
Some become corrupted by power themselves.
But journalism at its best is the industrialisation of scrutiny.
The presence of mischievous, determined, nosy hacks stops people who have immense power - some of it unjustifiably, arbitrarily or illegally obtained - from getting away with misdeeds.
You might think that's pompous, but, frankly, I don't mind.
Nor, I'm sure, do the White House press corps who were assembled for the astonishing press conferences that Sean Spicer, new press secretary to President Trump, gave earlier this week.
I'm not interested, for the purposes of this blog, in whether or not the assertions made by Mr Spicer were true or false.
President Trump wants to take his message "directly to the American people"
I am interested in these words he uttered, the consequences of which are immense for politics, media and public life: "There's been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable.
"And I'm here to tell you it goes two ways.
"We're going to hold the press accountable, as well.
"And as long as he serves as the messenger for this incredible movement, he will take his message directly to the American people, where his focus will always be".
Put aside the almost biblical imagery and the clear indication that, through talk radio and social media, President Trump will cut out journalists and go straight to voters.
Those four words "it goes two ways" are doing a lot of work there.
Last night, Steve Bannon, the former chief of Breitbart News, went even further than Spicer in an interview with The New York Times. He said: "The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while."
As one of the most powerful voices in Trump's ear, clearly Bannon's view that the media should be subject to ferocious scrutiny now holds considerable sway in the White House.
I have decided to call this notion that it is the job of government to hold the press to account The Spicer Doctrine. Here are five thoughts about it:
One: Totalitarian states use propaganda to control public information, spread fear and rally support against external foes.
Donald Trump has a powerful democratic mandate: he is no totalitarian.
But he seems immensely frustrated at his inability to control public information - so much so that he uses Twitter to circumvent the media, and sent out his spokesman to lambast and threaten journalists.
President Trump and Mr Spicer will soon find out that, especially in the digital age, they have no hope of controlling public information.
There will always be stuff that annoy this administration and send them into a fury.
So expect more individual journalists to suffer the fate of the Time magazine journalist who got his facts wrong.
Two: There is a serious question of credibility and trust at stake here.
As promised, I won't pass judgement here on the veracity of the statements Mr Spicer is making.
But in just his first week as president, Mr Trump has obliterated the basic faith that many Americans had that what the White House says is true.
You might argue that this faith was decimated by the Iraq War.
It had, however, been rebuilt since.
And the issue isn't whether anyone believes Mr Spicer when he says Mr Trump's inauguration was better attended than Barack Obama's.
The problem will arise when he says something more substantial about a terror threat or America's next war.
Who will believe him then?
Does it matter if the press corps, who relay his message to millions of Americans, think he's not credible?
Three: The traditional media is caterwauling about Mr Trump's fondness for exaggeration.
Do his supporters care? Possibly not.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Where do Donald Trump supporters get their news from?
The fact is, with Fox News and various internet outlets supporting his cause, Mr Trump believes that the nationalist media who so helped him to win the presidency are also on board now.
Interestingly, as a president he seems to have made little effort to unify the country: instead, he seems intent on energising his base.
And that base cares less and less for the - as they see it - pompous bloviating of coastal correspondents and editors.
Four: While journalists at that same traditional media are outraged by The Spicer Doctrine, seeing it as an affront to natural justice, their colleagues in the commercial department are delighted.
Frankly, Mr Trump's relationship with the traditional media, while hateful, is a marriage of convenience.
Subscriptions to the Hillary-Clinton-endorsing New York Times have rocketed.
It turns out that the "two way" process Mr Spicer mentioned is a case of you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
This is a theme I shall be returning to.
Five: In one sense, democratic governments have always tried to regulate the media while paying lip service to media freedom and plurality.
After all, government designs the laws under which media operate.
But government is too hard, too complicated, and too relentless to accommodate a war against traditional media outlets.
Just as opponents of torture argue that co-operation is the better route to good intelligence, so a constructive and open relationship between government and media is better for both, so long as there is honesty about conflicting interests.
Right now, The Spicer Doctrine is a useful way of energising the roughly half of Americans who backed Mr Trump.
Soon enough, it could be bad for democracy, by wasting government time, preventing proper scrutiny, and filling cyberspace with sound and fury that signify nothing - of which there is no shortage of supply already.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38763232
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Trump 'will handle US-UK trade talks' - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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President Trump says he will handle UK trade talks himself, as he waits for Senate to approve his commerce secretary.
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US President Donald Trump has said he will handle trade discussions with the UK himself, ahead of a meeting with the British prime minister.
The president said he would have to deal with the talks because his chosen commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, has yet to be officially confirmed by the Senate.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38763689
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Special relationship gets a new lease on life - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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UK Prime Minister Theresa May visits US President Donald Trump, building a new friendship between the US and the UK.
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US & Canada
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President Trump invited Prime Minister Theresa May to the White House and has been trying to strengthen US-UK relations. Not everybody is happy about that.
President Trump loves the UK - and seems pleased with the way that Britons voted to leave the European Union (EU). As the Atlantic Council's Reginald Dale said, describing Trump's views: "He's very pro-British, and he doesn't like the EU."
For critics of the administration, Trump's invitation to May - she's the first foreign leader to meet with the new president - and his efforts to build a closer relationship with the UK are a troubling development.
These critics see Brexit, a term that's used to describe a country's process of leaving the European Union, as a disaster.
The detractors worry that Trump will try to leverage his friendship with May and her fellow Britons as a way to express support for Brexit - and in this way will encourage more countries to leave the European Union.
On Friday afternoon, Trump and May stood together in the White House's East Room, an open space with an oak floor.
The room was decorated with marble-topped fireplaces, white candles and heavy, gold curtains (a George Washington portrait, one that was first hung on a wall in the room in 1800, was not in its usual spot).
The two leaders were in a place that was steeped in tradition - as is the so-called special relationship, a friendship between the US and the UK that dates back generations. For Trump and May, though, it's all new.
They'd met only the day before in Philadelphia, where they were both attending a US congressional retreat. When White House officials first sent out a schedule for the president's meeting with May, they spelled her name wrong, inadvertently dropping the "h" in Theresa.
Still, they had good intentions - and big plans. At the White House, the two leaders discussed Russia, counterterrorism and defence issues.
They're open to the possibility of a trade deal between the US and the UK. It could only be signed once the UK leaves the European Union, a process that will take years. But on Friday they seemed eager to get started.
"Opposites attract," May has told reporters. Understated and reserved, she has a different style than Trump. Still, she said recently that she's "not afraid to speak frankly to a president of the United States".
On Friday - at least in the East Room - they got along well. It was an auspicious beginning for a "most special relationship", as he put it. They stood at identical lecterns - six to eight feet apart. She wore a paisley scarf, while he had on a bright-red, wide tie.
For most of the 18-minute press conference, they smiled at each other.
At one point she congratulated him on his "stunning" victory. He looked at people in the audience, a group made up of presidential aides and reporters, as if he wanted to make sure that they'd heard what she said.
"We're going to have a fantastic relationship," he told them. A moment later he spoke exuberantly about Brexit. Then the mood changed, slightly.
Up until that point, she'd been all smiles. As he spoke about Brexit, though, she looked sombre. She glanced at the people in the audience, as if she were trying to gauge their reaction to his remarks.
Afterwards she spoke briefly about the way that they both value "ordinary working people". Then he picked up his notes, which had been typed out on sheets of paper, and put them into the pocket in his jacket. They left the room together in a show of solidarity.
Their alliance rests on a solid foundation. In a speech on Thursday, May spoke about the friendship between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, two icons for conservatives in the US.
Conservatives at think-tanks in Washington have been quick to bring up this friendship when talking about the relationship between the current prime minister and the president. "Instinctively, Trump - you know - really likes Britain," said Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation.
So do Trump's aides. When Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, uses the phrase, "special relationship", he's not being snarky. "I think we've always had that special relationship," he told a reporter at a White House briefing on 23 January. "But we can always be closer."
Things were different with the Obama White House officials. They liked the Britons, too, but they gently mocked the phrase "special relationship". This reflected their views about foreign policy in Europe.
As Charles Kupchan, who was a senior adviser in the Obama White House, told me the relationship between the US and the UK was important. But the president was focused on Berlin, not London. "Diplomacy," Kupchan said, "tilted towards the Continent".
This became more pronounced after UK voters expressed their desire to leave the European Union.
Obama focused on the special relationship, but not to the exclusion of Europe
Trump administration officials supported the decision of UK voters to leave the European Union, and in the aftermath they've been hoping for a deeper friendship between Americans and Britons and their leaders.
The perception of a newfound closeness of the two leaders has rattled some Europeans.
Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgium prime minister, was visiting Washington this week to promote his book, Europe's Last Chance: Why the European States Must Form a More Perfect Union.
While speaking with reporters on Thursday, he described ways that Trump has tried to undermine the European alliance. Verhofstadt said he believes that Trump is "hoping" more countries will leave - and "disintegrate the European Union".
Gardiner knows that not everyone is happy about the renewed relationship between the US and the UK or about the developments in Europe. But he wishes they'd embrace the new order.
"Brexit is about sovereignty, self determination and freedom," Gardiner told me. "These are all great things." Anyway there's not much the detractors can do about it, he said, adding: "The winds of change are blowing through Europe."
• None Trump and May - Do opposites attract?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38773198
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Parris Goebel: The woman changing hip hop - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Parris Goebel has gone from suburban New Zealand girl to global dance and style icon.
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Most famous for her video for Justin Bieber, Parris Goebel has gone from suburban New Zealand girl to global dance and style icon.
It all began with polyswag - her unique take on hip hop inspired by her Polynesian heritage.
The BBC profiles her as part of a series on Asian women likely to make the news in 2017.
Video by Mauricio Olmedo-Perez and Saira Asher. Footage provided courtesy of Parris Goebel.
Deepika Bhardwaj: The woman who fights for men's rights
Leila de Lima: The woman who dares to defy a president
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38517597
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Top US diplomats leave State Department - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A number of senior US diplomats are leaving their posts during President Donald Trump's first week on the job.
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US & Canada
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The resignations put pressure on incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Top US diplomats in the State Department's senior management team are leaving their posts during President Donald Trump's first week on the job.
Their departure puts more pressure on the incoming Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is still awaiting confirmation by the Senate, to fill the crucial positions that keep the Department running smoothly.
They include the Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, two assistant secretaries, Joyce Barr and Michele Bond, and Gentry Smith, who directs the office of foreign missions.
This quartet were among a number of senior employees at the State Department who had submitted resignations for their current posts, which were limited-term appointments, as is standard practice during a transition.
These four were career foreign service officers who'd had years of experience managing both the department and foreign missions, and they leave a void.
"It's the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that's incredibly difficult to replicate," a chief of staff for former Secretary of State John Kerry, David Wade, told the Washington Post.
It is not uncommon for senior officials to stay on for a while to smooth the transition to a new administration, or to be given other jobs within the foreign service. But it appears Mr Tillerson will be assembling a new team.
None of the departing officers has linked his or her exit to President Trump's unorthodox positions on foreign policy issues.
Questions have been raised over how smoothly the department will be run in their absence
And some were of retirement age, having spent upwards of 40 years in the foreign service.
"To be honest, where else do you go when you've been an assistant or under secretary," said a senior US official.
The American Foreign Service Association, which represents the labour rights of foreign service officers, said there was nothing unusual about rotations and retirements during a change of administration.
But in a statement it noted that this "appears to be a large turnover in a short period of time."
"The skills needed for these positions are exceedingly rare outside the Foreign Service," it said.
"We expect that the new Secretary will have no trouble finding the right people at State to fill out senior leadership team," it added, a strong suggestion that he'd be well advised to do so.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38760560
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Tiger Woods struggles as Justin Rose leads in San Diego - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Tiger Woods struggles with a round of 76 at his first full-field event for almost 18 months, as Justin Rose leads the Farmers Insurance Open.
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Last updated on .From the section Golf
-7 -6 -5 B Fritsch (Can), B Hossler, C Howell III, T Mullinax, G Woodland (all US); -4 J Blixt (Swe), S Cink, B Snedeker, P Rodgers, R Streb, P Perez, B Stuard, B Harman, R Brehm (all US), G DeLaet (Can), W Kim (Kor)
Fourteen-time major champion Tiger Woods hit a four-over-par 76 in the opening round of his first full PGA Tour event for almost 18 months.
England's Justin Rose leads the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego on seven under after carding a first-round 65.
Woods, 41, dropped five shots in four holes on the back nine at Torrey Pines, where he won the 2008 US Open, the most recent of his major titles.
It is the American's second tournament since 15 months out with a back injury.
The former world number one's competitive return came at the Hero World Challenge in December, when he tied for 15th out of 17 at the invitational event.
In his first full-sanctioned PGA Tour event back, Woods again struggled, following up consecutive birdies at 10 and 11 with three straight bogeys and then a double bogey at 15.
A further bogey at 17 followed before Woods birdied the last on the South Course, leaving him in a tie for 133rd in a field of 155 competitors and in danger of missing the cut.
"I fought my tail off out there, I fought hard. But I didn't really hit it that good," Woods said. "I was in the rough most of the day and it was tough."
The competition sees players split the first 36 holes between the North and South Courses at Torrey Pines, before playing the final two rounds on the South Course at the weekend.
Playing on the North Course, Rose reached the turned at one under before surging up the leaderboard with a blistering back nine.
After a birdie on his 10th hole, the Olympic champion struck two eagles and two birdies in the final five holes, a bogey at the par-three eighth the only blemish.
Rose leads by one shot ahead of Canada's Adam Hadwin, who hit a six-under 66 on the South Course.
Defending champion Brandt Snedeker of the United States is tied for eighth place on four under.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/38766243
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FA Cup: Derby County 2-2 Leicester City highlights - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Wes Morgan salvages a replay for Leicester City in an FA Cup fourth-round tie with Derby County, which will be remembered for a remarkable Darren Bent own goal.
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Wes Morgan salvages a replay for Leicester City in an FA Cup fourth-round tie with Derby County, which will be remembered for a remarkable Darren Bent own goal.
Watch all the best action from the FA Cup fourth round here.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38778133
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David Weir: GB wheelchair coach Jenni Banks 'belittled' me at Rio Paralympics - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Paralympic champion David Weir accuses British Athletics coach Jenni Banks of making 'belittling' and 'hurtful' remarks.
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Last updated on .From the section Disability Sport
Six-time Paralympic champion David Weir has accused British Athletics wheelchair racing coach Jenni Banks of making remarks that were "belittling" and "hurtful", after confirming he will never race for Great Britain again.
Weir, 37, did not win a medal at the Rio Paralympics - his fifth Games.
He told BBC Sport he was "gobsmacked" by the way he was treated, and claimed Banks had told him he was a "disgrace to the country".
Banks said she did not want to comment.
"Not once did she come and see if I was OK that week," said Weir. "I felt it was a bit poor given the amount of medals I have won and because I had one bad week."
Weir, who will compete in April's London Marathon, also said Banks accused him of not performing to the best of his ability in the 4x400m T53/54 relay heats in Rio.
Britain finished a distant second behind China and failed to qualify for the final.
"She said 'I know you have done that on purpose'," Weir said. "I just felt why would I throw a race? To upset her? I was here to win medals for myself and my country."
Weir was, however, unable to confirm reports Banks had thrown his racing wheelchair during a row in Brazil.
"I don't really know about the chair because I didn't see it," he said. "It's only what I have heard from other people."
'There was a frank exchange of views'
She had previously worked with the Australian Paralympic Committee and at one stage coached Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
Banks is in her native country with a training group of British wheelchair racers including Hannah Cockroft, who she coaches.
British Athletics said in a statement officials had met with Weir to get his feedback on his experiences in Rio and are working to learn from them.
"We can confirm there was a frank exchange of views between an athlete and the relay coach following the race when the GB men's wheelchair team failed to qualify for the final," the statement read.
'I could never represent Britain with her on the team'
Weir, who won four gold medals at London 2012 to add to the two he claimed in Beijing four years earlier, was critical of Banks's appointment.
His long-time coach and mentor Jenny Archer was among those passed over for the role.
But he insists his decision to quit track racing and miss this summer's World Championships in London is final, even if Banks were to leave her role.
"I could never represent Great Britain if she was still on the team," he said. "It wouldn't be fair on the team. I don't want younger athletes to see there is an atmosphere.
"But this will not take anything away from what I did in London. Rio was Rio. No-one can take away the biggest sporting achievement of my life.
"I have put my heart and soul into racing for Great Britain. I've had a lot of pressure on me over the years to deliver medals."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/disability-sport/38770498
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Patrick van Aanholt: Crystal Palace 'very close' to signing Sunderland defender - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Crystal Palace have tried to sign "20 to 30 players" during the transfer window, says Eagles boss Sam Allardyce.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Crystal Palace have tried to sign "20 to 30 players" during the transfer window, says manager Sam Allardyce.
Sunderland defender Patrick van Aanholt is "very close" to joining the Eagles after the two clubs agreed a deal for the Netherlands international that could be worth as much as £14m.
Allardyce said he hoped to sign two players before the transfer window closes at 23:00 GMT on Tuesday.
Palace are 18th in the Premier League table, two points from safety.
Allardyce said Van Aanholt, who he managed at Sunderland, provided "great energy".
He added: "He will increase the speed and energy levels of the squad. If everything goes well, I look forward to him joining me again."
Van Aanholt, 26, started his career at Chelsea but was sent out on loan to five different clubs.
He agreed a permanent switch to the Stadium of Light in 2014 and has made 95 appearances for the Black Cats.
Allardyce, who said Palace had received no bids for any of their players, added there are further targets the club are "hopeful" of signing.
"There are several," he said, denying Norwich midfielder Robbie Brady and Lille defender Ibrahim Amadou are among them.
"But there are many deals we haven't got done, which we've tried to do. It's become very expensive to do business."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38769455
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Obituary: Tam Dalyell - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Veteran Labour MP who first articulated the West Lothian Question.
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UK Politics
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Tam Dalyell was a political contradiction, an aristocratic Old Etonian who became a socialist politician.
It was he who articulated what became known as the West Lothian Question, which festered at the heart of Scotland's relationship with Westminster.
A former Conservative activist, he became a thorn in the side of the Thatcher government.
But he won admiration from across the political spectrum as an honourable and principled member of parliament.
Thomas Dalyell Loch was born in Edinburgh on 9 August 1932.
His father Gordon Loch, a civil servant, adopted his wife Nora's maiden name in 1938.
It was through his mother that Dalyell later inherited the Dalyell baronetcy, although he never used the title.
The Suez crisis made him an opponent of British military intervention
He went to Eton before doing his National Service as a trooper with the Royal Scots Greys, having failed his officer training.
After he was demobbed, he went to Cambridge where he was chairman of the University Conservative Association.
It was while working as a teacher that he experienced a political conversion, brought about by the Suez Crisis in 1956.
The debacle, in which Britain, together with Israel and France, unsuccessfully attempted to gain control of the Suez Canal, made a deep impression on him
Not only did he join the Labour Party, but the aborted invasion made him a committed opponent of future British military involvement overseas.
In 1962, he won the seat of West Lothian in a by-election, fighting off a strong challenge from a future SNP leader, William Wolfe.
Less than two years after he entered parliament, Dalyell was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Dick Crossman, then Minister for Local Government.
Dalyell (r) arrived at Westminster in 1962 as the newly elected member for West Lothian
The position of PPS was seen as the first step to a ministerial career, but Dalyell's independent stance on issues irritated the party establishment.
That irritation turned to anger in 1967 when he was heavily censured for leaking minutes of a select committee meeting about the Porton Down biological and chemical warfare establishment to the Observer newspaper.
Dalyell claimed he thought the minutes were in the public domain but he did not escape a public dressing-down by the Speaker.
In a parliamentary debate on devolution in 1977, Dalyell first proposed what would become known as the West Lothian Question.
A vocal opponent of Scottish devolution, Dalyell contrasted the town of Blackburn in his own constituency, and Blackburn in Lancashire.
"For how long," he asked, "will English constituencies and English Honourable Members tolerate at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important and often decisive effect on English politics?"
It was Enoch Powell who coined the term West Lothian Question, in his response to Dalyell's speech.
He fought to uncover the truth about the Lockerbie bombing
When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979 she found Dalyell a persistent critic of her policies.
He supported the Troops Out movement in Northern Ireland and attacked the prime minister's proposed boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
But it was the Falklands War that raised his public profile. He described the conflict as "like two bald men fighting over a comb," quoting the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges.
He strongly condemned the decision to sink the Argentine cruiser, General Belgrano, insisting the vessel had been steering away from the conflict when torpedoed by a British submarine.
His political opponents called him Daft Tam, ignoring the methodical and painstaking preparation he put into sourcing the facts to back up his arguments.
He was no slave to parliamentary protocol and was suspended from the House on numerous occasions, twice for calling Mrs Thatcher "a liar" over the Falklands campaign.
"She is a bounder, a liar, a deceiver, a cheat, a crook and a disgrace to the House of Commons," was one notable contribution during a 1987 debate.
However, some felt that his intemperate language did nothing to win him support.
Former Conservative MP and later political commentator, Matthew Parris said that "this element of personal vendetta seriously weakens his case".
Dalyell was persistent in trying to uncover the truth about the Lockerbie bombing and consistently said he did not believe Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi was responsible for the outrage.
He was, predictably, bitterly opposed to the Gulf War, "Kuwait is the 19th bloody state of Iraq," and went to Baghdad in 1994 to negotiate with Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz.
The election of a Labour government under Tony Blair in 1997 failed to deter Dalyell from speaking his mind.
In 1999, he decided that he would no longer vote at Westminster on purely English issues, defying a number of three-line whips.
He was one of 25 MPs who opposed military action in Kosovo. "I am one of a dwindling number of MPs who have actually worn the Queen's uniform," he said.
He continued to live in the ancestral home
"Perhaps we are a bit less relaxed about unleashing war than those who have never been in a military situation."
He had little time for the New Labour project, describing Tony Blair as the worst of the eight prime ministers who had held power while he was a parliamentarian.
In 2001, he became Father of the House, the longest continuous serving MP, using his position to attack the US led invasion of Iraq.
"These are the thought processes of fantasist Americans who want to control the world," he said. "I am appalled that a British Labour prime minister should have got into bed with a crew which has this moral standing."
Dalyell stood down from the House of Commons in 2005, after serving 43 years as an MP, first for West Lothian, then, from 1983, the redrawn constituency of Linlithgow.
Behind Tam Dalyell's somewhat shambling and eccentric demeanour was a keen analytical brain and a passion for meticulous research.
Unrepentant about his dogged approach, he claimed that "you must not be afraid to be thought a bore".
He was that rare thing among politicians, a man who stuck to his principles, regardless of how unpopular it made him.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29367988
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Trump's voter fraud talk has liberals worried - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Donald Trump's concerns about widespread election fraud could lead to new voting restrictions.
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US & Canada
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During a television interview on Wednesday, Donald Trump made some of his most detailed allegations about the fraud he says was responsible for Hillary Clinton's popular vote victory in the recently concluded presidential election.
He said some Americans are registered and cast ballots in multiple states and that dead people and undocumented migrants are voting in droves. He added, confidently, that none of these illegal votes were for him.
"They would all be for the other side," he said, possibly forgetting that one of the few arrests for voting fraud in 2016 was of an Iowa woman who tried to vote for him twice.
When pressed for evidence to support his claims, Mr Trump cited a 2012 Pew study.
When ABC's David Muir noted that the author of that report had said he found no evidence of fraud, Mr Trump got personal.
Donald Trump continues to talk about voter fraud in an election he won
"He's grovelling again," he said of the report's author, David Becker. "You know, I always talk about the reporters that grovel when they want to write something that you want to hear but not necessarily millions of people want to hear or have to hear."
In fact, while the Pew report did find that many voting rolls contained outdated or inaccurate information, Becker said at the time and has since repeated that there was no evidence that these problems - often caused by voters moving or individuals dying without election registrars receiving updates - constituted evidence of fraud.
Mr Trump's comments have been accompanied by a raft of tweets over the course of the week. In one instance, he cited a conservative activist from Alabama, Gregg Phillips, who created a smart phone app that crowd-sources claims of voter fraud. (It is currently unavailable on the Apple app store and has fewer than 5,000 downloads on Google Play).
"Look forward to seeing final results of VoteStand," Mr M . "Gregg Phillips and crew say at least 3,000,000 votes were illegal. We must do better!"
Although Phillips has made these assertions since election day, he has yet to provide information on how he arrived at this number. Scientific studies conducted over the past decade have found scant evidence of any voter fraud.
Both Mr Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence have promised that the administration will conduct a "major investigation" into voter fraud. A formal executive action ordering such a inquiry could be issued in the coming days.
"Depending on the results, we will strengthen up voting procedures," Mr Trump tweeted.
That last line is likely painfully familiar to liberals. Although Mr Trump's comments were over the top and easily debunked, they mirror more nuanced justifications Republican politicians have offered at the state level to justify tightening voter registration procedures, imposing strict polling place identification rules and curtailing early voting opportunities.
They are part and parcel, critics say, of a comprehensive plan to limit turnout of Democratic-leaning voting groups that are less likely to have necessary identification, less able to take time off to vote on election day and less comfortable navigating through voter registration procedures.
"Donald Trump is lying to the American people about undocumented people voting because he wants to set the stage for more voter suppression," Congressman Keith Ellison, a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, told Washington's The Hill newspaper. "Expect Trump and his henchmen to push restrictive photo ID, limit early voting and make it harder to register."
A national version of the state-level laws in places like Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina - which Democrats attribute to causing lower turnout levels for Mrs Clinton in those key swing states - would be a worst-case scenario for liberals. But it's just part of the current battle over voting procedures.
Chief Justice John Roberts penned a Supreme Court opinion that opened the door to new voting regulations
The courts have been the site of some of the fiercest fights over voting rights in the past decade. There are multiple ongoing cases dealing with voter identification measures being considered by lower-level courts, including a challenge to a Texas law that had been supported by the Obama administration but could now be opposed by Trump lawyers.
Perhaps the most significant change in US voting law came from the Supreme Court in 2013, when it struck down a section of the Voting Rights Act that required the federal government to pre-authorise any changes in balloting procedures in certain states and jurisdictions, many in the South, that had a history of voting discrimination.
That decision made it significantly easier for previously covered areas to implement the aforementioned voting restrictions - identification laws and early voting curtailment, in addition to the closing or relocation of polling stations.
Conservatives have responded that such measures are necessary to ensure voting security - and, in any event, things like early voting are a recent development that have no constitutional protections. They argue that photo identification, required to board a plane or cash a cheque, are an everyday fact of life that present no significant burden to voters.
Make no mistake, however, this fight over voter fraud is - at its heart - a nakedly partisan battle. As Republican legislators North Carolina made clear when they studied voting demographics and photo ID possession while crafting their state's election laws, it's a way to cut into their opposition's base.
Civil rights activists in North Carolina protest to defend their voting rights
"Look, if African Americans voted overwhelmingly Republican, they would have kept early voting right where it was," long-time North Carolina Republican strategist Carter Wrenn told the Washington Post. "It wasn't about discriminating against African Americans. They just ended up in the middle of it because they vote Democrat."
Democrats, one the other hand, tend to exaggerate the impact of identification laws and dismiss studies that show little effect on turnout.
"Despite Republican legislators' best attempts to suppress minority voters, study after study has found that voter ID laws have little to no effect on voter turnout," writes Vox's German Lopez. "At worst, the effect is small - barely detectable even in studies that employ multiple controls. At best, there's no effect at all or even an increase."
Other voting changes, like polling place consolidation and early voting curtailment, could have a more pronounced impact, however - and while it's unlikely any move in that regard would come at the national level, Mr Trump's rhetoric could provide cover for further state efforts.
In particular, the Trump administration may be taking particular aim at Democratic states. During a recent briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said that the coming voting fraud investigation could take a closer look at California and New York - two traditionally Democratic states that overwhelmingly backed Mrs Clinton last year. '
Add that to the already released plans to put the squeeze on cities - primarily in liberal states - that offer "sanctuary" to undocumented workers, and it seems increasingly like the Trump administration has political payback on its mind.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38764653
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Hull City 2-1 Manchester United (Agg: 2-3) - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Manchester United are beaten for the first time since November but reach the EFL Cup final with an aggregate win over Hull.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Manchester United set up an EFL Cup final against Southampton despite their 17-match unbeaten run ending with defeat at Hull City in the semi-final second leg on Thursday.
Jose Mourinho's side led 2-0 from the first leg but, making five changes, they struggled to impose themselves at the KCOM Stadium.
Tom Huddlestone put the hosts ahead from the penalty spot after four players had tangled in the area after a set-piece, Marcos Rojo's pull on Harry Maguire's shirt the most visible offence.
It gave Hull, 19th in the Premier League, poise and confidence, but their hopes of just a second domestic cup final in their 113-year history were dashed when Paul Pogba poked through the legs of Maguire and into the bottom corner from 10 yards.
Rojo headed against the bar for United and the Tigers' Oumar Niasse also struck the woodwork before he turned in David Meyler's cross to set up a tense finale.
But the visitors held on and former Chelsea boss Mourinho could move level with Brian Clough and Sir Alex Ferguson on four League Cup wins at Wembley on 26 February.
• None 'It was 1-1' - Mourinho says Man Utd 'didn't lose'
Former boss Ferguson said earlier in the week that Mourinho had "got to grips" with the managerial role at Old Trafford - and a major final will surely only further build confidence as United remain in the hunt for a Champions League qualification berth and in three cup competitions.
The EFL Cup may not top the list of objectives for Red Devils fans, but their team have shown a hunger to beat three Premier League teams on the way to Wembley in Hull, West Ham and Manchester City.
On his 54th birthday, Mourinho shuffled his pack. Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard were preferred to Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and United were deservedly beaten.
There were contentious moments, notably the penalty award which BBC Radio 5 live pundit Ally McCoist deemed "soft" and United had calls for their own spot-kick when Chris Smalling went down under Tom Huddlestone's challenge after the break.
Mourinho seemed irked by officiating after the match, but on the night his side had less of the ball, fewer shots than their hosts and were probably asked to work far harder than he would have liked.
There were positives. Marcus Rashford's pace on times troubled the hosts, Zlatan Ibrahimovic showed touches of flair - notably when bringing a fine save from David Marshall - and most importantly, United will bid for a fifth League Cup win.
However, with progress comes dilemmas. Mourinho will now see the depth of his squad tested, with the final arriving on the same day United were scheduled to face Manchester City in the league and four days after the second leg of a Europa League tie at Saint-Etienne.
Hull, on paper at least, stood no chance before kick-off. On 26 of the 27 previous occasions a side had lost a League Cup semi-final first leg by two or more goals they have gone out.
But ploughing on through adversity is a necessary pre-requisite at the KCOM Stadium.
Robert Snodgrass - who has created 30 more chances than any other Hull player this season - was left out amid two bids for his services, midfielder Jake Livermore has been sold and recent acquisition Ryan Mason will likely face a long lay-off after fracturing his skull. All things considered, this was a display to be applauded.
The fact the starting line-up included four players who have each played less than five games this season in Shaun Maloney, Jarron Bowen, Niasse and Josh Tymon, perhaps underlined coach Marco Silva's priorities.
But Bowen was neat and tidy, while Everton-reject Niasse proved a constant nuisance. The experience of Tom Huddlestone was key as he picked intelligent passes in midfield and new recruit Lazar Markovic came off the bench to help craft the second goal.
With Hull's league position so precarious, would the distraction of a cup final proved a nuisance for Silva?
He has a bigger battle to fight but this win showed that even with key names out, he has a squad which may have the character needed for a successful scrap against the drop.
• None Listen: Spirit is being ripped from Hull - McCoist
For all the Hull vigour, semi-finals belong to winners and United will now compete in their ninth League Cup final.
Victory in this competition of course kick-started Ferguson's success in 1992, and a quarter of a century on Mourinho will bid to maintain his unbeaten run in League cup finals.
"Wembley is Wembley, it is for professionals with passion for football. It has a special meaning, a special feeling," said the United boss.
'I behaved on the bench' - what the managers said
Hull manager Marco Silva: "It was a good win but not enough for our goal. It is important to win the game but the result in the first leg caused problems for us. It was a good performance again, a good attitude and we controlled the game in large periods against a big team. It is impossible at this moment to feel really happy.
"The goal we conceded is not a normal goal, we lost control at the vital moment."
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho: "I just want to say congratulations to my players. It was a difficult road to be in the final and we are in the final. I don't want to say anything else. It is enough, I am calm, I behaved on the bench, no sending off, no punishment so no more words."
Home fortress - the stats you need to know
• None Manchester United have reached their ninth League Cup final - second only to Liverpool in the history of the competition (12).
• None Paul Pogba scored his seventh goal of the season in all competitions - only Zlatan Ibrahimovic has more for the Red Devils this season (19).
• None Tom Huddlestone's penalty was his first goal in 31 games in all competitions for the Tigers, while Oumar Niasse scored his first goal in English football (11th game).
• None This was Jose Mourinho's first ever defeat at the hands of the Tigers (W6 D0 L1).
• None Hull have won their last three home games in all competitions, having won just two of their previous 11 at the KCOM Stadium this season.
Manchester United host Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup on Sunday in a 16:00 GMT kick-off, after Hull travel to meet Fulham in the competition at 12:30.
• None Attempt blocked. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a headed pass.
• None Offside, Manchester United. Paul Pogba tries a through ball, but Marcus Rashford is caught offside.
• None Attempt blocked. Harry Maguire (Hull City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lazar Markovic.
• None Marcos Rojo (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Goal! Hull City 2, Manchester United 1. Oumar Niasse (Hull City) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by David Meyler.
• None Offside, Manchester United. Ander Herrera tries a through ball, but Paul Pogba is caught offside.
• None Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38672990
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Will the government take over Southern trains? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Would putting Southern rail back into public ownership solve the long-running dispute?
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Business
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Would putting Southern rail back into public ownership solve the long-running dispute?
"I would welcome this". It's something you wouldn't expect to hear - Tory MPs don't normally offer a warm greeting to the idea of renationalising part of the rail network.
That's how topsy-turvy the Southern situation has become.
Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South, has been calling for the government to strip the company of its contract since last May.
It would mean placing it back into public hands, at least for the time being, but it's a price Chris is willing to pay.
"The franchise is too big and the current finance structure doesn't incentivise the company to perform", he says.
"The unions must take their share of the blame, but the company has also been incompetent."
Unusually for a Conservative MP, Chris Philp would be in favour of a return to public ownership, for now
Labour is pushing to renationalise the entire rail network, but its Hove and Portslade MP, Peter Kyle, isn't convinced that a Department for Transport (DfT) takeover is the right move for Southern.
"I worry that passengers will believe, falsely, that all the problems can be solved with a quick wave of the wand. Public ownership might solve some of the problems, but not all."
Peter says he wants "muscular" government intervention, but not necessarily officials taking charge.
What other options might be on the table for ministers?
The DfT is currently crunching the numbers, trying to work out if Southern's parent company, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), has broken its contract promises on delays and cancellations.
If it has, (and they've been arguing about it for months. Does a big rise in sick days, for example, count as unofficial industrial action?) ministers have the option of ditching the deal.
But would that really help?
Not necessarily: don't get the impression that there is a team of rail super-sub bosses sitting on the sidelines poised to make the trains run on time.
The role of the guard is central to the dispute between workers and the company
If the government did take over, it would remove the top layer of executives, replacing them with yet more top executives, probably semi-retired former rail bosses. The rest of Southern's staff would stay the same.
And they'd be facing the same problems:
And I haven't even mentioned the debilitating upgrades to the Thameslink part of the franchise, including rebuilding London Bridge.
Experts had predicted it would cause 10,000 delay-minutes per year. In reality, it's caused 10,000 delay-minutes per week, and there's plenty more to come.
Then there's what happens afterwards. Any new team would only be caretakers until a new company was brought in and that process takes at least 18 months.
Talks between the unions and the company have so far failed to reach agreement
Talking to people at other train operating firms, they feel they dodged a bullet not winning the current GTR contract, so would they really bid for a new one? National Express has just pulled out of trains completely. It used to be Britain's biggest player in the sector.
The government is legally obliged to keep the trains running whatever happens. It's hardly surprising that officials have been kicking around options if GTR gets ditched.
They've a person in mind to be the temporary boss.
Pressure is mounting for the Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to take direct action, but renationalising part of the railway goes against every bone in his political body. It would be a humiliating loss in the government's effort to sell privatisation as a success story.
Chris Philp MP still thinks it's worth it, though.
"You can't point at this and say privatisation doesn't work", he says. "This situation isn't like anywhere else."
His belief is that they tried something different with this franchise and it didn't come off.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38771216
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'Pink girly toys don't deter women from engineering' - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Meet the Sellafield engineer who says playing with pink toys will not deter girls from science careers.
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Parents were warned against buying pink, gender-stereotyped Christmas presents for girls by the Institution of Engineering and Technology last month. It claimed such toys could deter girls from getting into science-based careers.
But a number of women who work in that field contacted the BBC's Family and Education News Facebook Page to say they disagree.
We went to meet Jade Leonard, a 30-year-old welding engineer for Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.
She told us: "Growing up I adored my Barbies, my dolls, dressing up, make up and all things girly. None of this influenced my decision to get a maths degree or my BEng.
"Love, encouragement and reassurance of what I was good at from my parents, sister and school teachers did. This gave me the confidence to go for what I wanted to do, whether I liked the colour pink or not!"
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38760602
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Newspaper headlines: No more wars like Iraq, May tells US - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Theresa May's speech to Republican politicians in the US dominates the front pages, as the PM seeks to renew ties between the two countries.
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The Papers
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Theresa May's upcoming meeting with Donald Trump features on many of the front pages
The Daily Telegraph focuses on Prime Minister Theresa May's promise that there will be - in the words of its headline - "no more wars like Iraq".
It says she was cheered by Republican politicians on Thursday night as she made what the paper sees as "the biggest shift in UK foreign policy for more than 20 years".
Mrs May, the paper's editorial argues, is "embracing realism" in a change that in many ways mirrors that outlined by Donald Trump.
"May buries Blair doctrine in nod to US," is the headline for the Financial Times.
It believes she was, in some respects, bowing to the inevitable, but notes what it sees as her "plea to the president" on the duty of both countries to provide world leadership.
It says she received rapturous applause after vowing "no more failed foreign wars" and welcomes what it calls "an end to the era of Blair follies".
"Let's stand together and halt eclipse of the West" is the headline for the Times, which believes the main message of the prime minister's speech was urging President Trump not to shirk his "obligation" to lead the world.
It says she also matched parts of Mr Trump's controversial foreign policy, including admitting it was time to engage Russia in the search for peace in Syria.
But, for the i, Mrs May invoked the "spirit of the Cold War", warning the president that the UK and the US needed to engage with the Kremlin from a position of strength.
The Sun believes her "radical change of course" was a "direct slap-down" to David Cameron on Libya, as well as to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for Iraq and Afghanistan.
There is also much coverage of the prime minister's comment about Mr Trump that "sometimes, opposites attract".
For the Times, Mrs May's response was "verging on the coquettish" - acknowledging there are few obvious connections but allowing, it says, for "the possibility of a spark".
The Guardian's editorial cautions it would be naive for her to treat the visit as "traditional statecraft" but says it is not impossible she may be able to steer the president towards more balanced approaches - "she must try", it says.
The Financial Times believes her upbeat comments did little to conceal the complexity of developing the special relationship when, it says, she disagrees with Mr Trump on many fundamental issues.
The Daily Mirror believes her remarks risk enraging millions of women.
It says it hopes she can secure the best outcome for Britain, without having to get too close to what it calls "this odious and increasingly offensive leader".
But the Sun argues it does not matter what anyone in Britain personally thinks of the new president, even Theresa May; "her sole duty", it says, is "to promote Britain's interests".
The Telegraph's cartoonist, Bob, captures "the special relationship", as Mr Trump looks into a mirror.
The i newspaper says the prime minister has "a superb chance to recast Britain's relationship with America" and advises that to command Mr Trump's respect she must "show the forceful confidence of a world leader".
The Telegraph reports that Mrs May is preparing to abandon plans for a British Bill of Rights after leaving the EU.
It quotes government sources as saying plans to scrap the Human Rights Act - already shelved until after Brexit - may now be abandoned entirely, because the sovereignty of British courts will already be significantly strengthened.
"Corbyn facing MPs' Brexodus" is the headline for the Daily Mirror, after Tulip Siddiq quit as shadow education minister in response to the Labour leader ordering his MPs to vote to trigger Article 50.
It says Mr Corbyn is facing a walkout by his frontbench team, while the Mail reports what it calls a "farcical development" - the party whip, Thangam Debbonaire, apparently telling MPs she will vote against the bill.
But, the i says, while the bill has reinforced Labour divisions, several shadow cabinet members known to be worried appear to have fallen in behind Mr Corbyn.
The lead for the Daily Express is what its headline describes as a "huge boost" for pensions.
It says payouts have surged to their highest level since the financial crisis in 2008, thanks to what the paper calls Britain's Brexit boom.
For the Daily Mail, the main story is what it calls the new pain threshold test designed to save the NHS millions: denying patients hip or knee replacements unless their pain is so severe they cannot sleep through the night.
It says three health trusts in the Midlands hope to slash operations by a fifth.
The Times says "the latest NHS rationing plans" come as the number of such operations is increasing by about 8% a year.
The Times reports that visitors to Britain face the prospect of a tourist tax to stay in popular cities, as councils "scramble to raise cash to pay for local services".
The paper says London Mayor Sadiq Khan will today back charging visitors a hotel levy in a move that could raise tens of millions of pounds for City Hall, and which, if successful, could be replicated up and down the country.
The British film industry is, according to the Guardian's headline, "flying high thanks to Superman and Star Wars".
They are among 200 movies that began shooting in the UK last year, 48 of which were funded overseas with a total spend of £1.6bn.
The i points out that the three most successful films in 2016 were made here: Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and Bridget Jones's Baby.
And finally, a study about canine musical tastes produces a panoply of puns.
"Pooch-ini? Bach?" asks the Mail, "no, your dog would rather listen to reggae."
The Telegraph says the research by the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Glasgow University suggests they prefer music "with a little more bite", with soft rock also said to make dogs calmer and more relaxed.
The i, which dubs them "Super woofers", says the charity now intends to install sound systems at all its kennels.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38766393
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Wayne Rooney: Man Utd striker eyeing future in management - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney says he would relish the opportunity to manage once he stops playing.
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Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney reflects on his record-breaking goals tally for the club and reveals he would relish the opportunity to manage once he stops playing.
READ MORE: Ferguson on signing Rooney & why goals record will never be surpassed
Watch more on Football Focus, Saturday from 12:00 GMT on BBC One and an extended version before BBC One's live coverage of Manchester United v Wigan, Sunday, 15:35 GMT
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38771516
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Robots and drones take over classrooms - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How drones, robots and mixed reality are making their way into the curriculum.
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Technology
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Robots are finding their way into the classroom
Classrooms are noticeably more hi-tech these days - interactive boards, laptops and online learning plans proliferate, but has the curriculum actually changed or are children simply learning the same thing on different devices?
Some argue that the education this generation of children is receiving is little different from that their parents or even their grandparents had.
But, in a world where artificial intelligence and robots threaten jobs, the skills that this generation of children need to learn are likely to be radically different to the three Rs that have for so long been the mainstay of education.
The BBC went along to the Bett conference in London in search of different ways of teaching and learning.
A stone's throw from the Excel, where Bett is held, stands a new school that is, according to its head Geoffrey Fowler, currently little more than a Portakabin.
Despite this, the London Design and Engineering university technical college - which caters for 14- to 19-year-olds - was massively oversubscribed when it opened its doors for the first time in September.
The 180 pupils lucky enough to have got a place have had a very different experience of the curriculum in the 12 weeks since they joined.
One group have designed from scratch a virtual reality environment that takes viewers on a journey around an Ethiopian village as part of a project to highlight the work of the charity Water Aid.
Another has spent the term teaching Pepper - the school has two of SoftBank's human-looking robots - how to make a variety of moves, including the dab currently beloved of children around the country.
Geoffrey Fowler (far right) showed off Pepper, with some of his pupils, teachers and industry partners at the Bett conference
A third group are heading off this weekend on an unusual skiing trip. Travelling with them will be 11 Nao robots, which the pupils plan to teach how to ski.
The school - which sets no homework, relying instead on pupils wanting to get on with their projects in their own time - is, according to Mr Fowler, "inspiring children to be part of a new type of learning".
While other schools may see the projects listed above as fun "add-ons" to the core curriculum, Mr Fowler thinks it has to be embedded within it.
Sixth-formers work on what is called an extended project qualification, which is the equivalent of half an A-level.
The school works with a range of industry sponsors, including the University of East London, Thames Water and Fujitsu, all of which offer input into the types of skills they would like to see children learn to equip them for the workplace as well as offering apprenticeships.
There are 48 university technical colleges (UTC) in England currently - and the scheme has proved controversial.
One set up in East London in 2012 closed after just two years, having failed to attract enough pupils, while another in Bedfordshire was branded inadequate by Ofsted.
Some head teachers seem to be resisting the idea of the vocational style of education, barring UTCs from recruiting pupils from their schools.
But statistics suggest that pupils attending UTCs have just as good results if not better than those in more conventional schools.
It is something James Culley, head of computer science at the school, sees for himself every day.
"I have never seen students learn so quickly," he told the BBC.
One group of children in an Indiana school are loving learning with drones
Lots of primary schools are now convinced of the importance of learning to code.
As well as lessons devoted to it, after-school code clubs proliferate as do DIY computers such as the BBC's Micro Bit and the Raspberry Pi.
Tynker, a company that has already brought its coding-through-games philosophy to 60,000 schools in the US, recently launched a new project - teaching coding through drone lessons.
Hundreds of schools in the US have taken up the idea and it is now preparing to launch in the UK.
Schools typically buy between six and 12 drones via Tynker's partnership with drone maker Parrot and can then download Tynker's free set of drone lessons.
The children at Towne Meadow turn up early for drone club, said their teacher
Children learn to make drones do back-flips, as well as more complex idea such as drones working together as a team.
It would take, you may think, a rather brave teacher to commit to flying drones in the classroom, but Josie McKay, a Fourth Grade teacher at Towne Meadow Elementary School in Indiana has no such qualms.
"Over the last month, I have seen their confidence build as they went from coding their drone to hover off of the floor to flying their drone around the room without crashing into any obstacles," she says.
"Each week these students develop new and more challenging goals for themselves, work together, and code their drone accordingly.
"The excitement on their faces when they achieve their goal, especially when it is completed in a short amount of time, is infectious."
The drones come with a range of safety features, including a "classroom mode" that means they take off extra slowly.
Children cannot take command of each other's drones, and there is an automatic stop button if inquisitive fingers come in proximity with the drone's blades.
Tynker founder and chief executive Krishna Vedati told the BBC: "Our goal is not to create programmers but to offer coding as a life skill."
Virtual reality and augmented reality could prove a huge boon to education
Picture a classroom where, instead of handouts or text books, all pupils learn from their own headset - entering a virtual reality world to learn about the French revolution, or interacting with a hologram of the solar system to learn about space.
According to Lenovo's global education specialist, Sam Morris, there are huge benefits from learning this way.
"We see AR and VR as the next frontier," he says.
"Early usage has suggested the devices engage pupils intently in tasks, improve group interactions and the ability to adapt to multiple disciplines."
Microsoft was at Bett showing off HoloLens - its recently released "mixed reality" headset.
It has worked in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University to develop a hologram of the human body that can be dissected and bones, organs and veins viewed in detail.
It is also working with education provider Pearson to develop other educational resources for the device.
The developer edition of HoloLens currently sells for £2,719 which makes even buying one headset out of the reach for most cash-strapped schools.
"The declining cost of VR and AR devices will be critical to driving mass adoption in education," says Mr Morris.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38758980
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Holocaust survivor Frank Bright saw mother led to gas chamber - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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A Holocaust survivor told of the moment he saw his mother led to a gas chamber in Auschwitz.
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A Holocaust survivor has told of his memories of being separated from his mother at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War Two.
Frank Bright, now 88 and living near Ipswich, was 16 years old when he lost his parents in the Nazi genocide against Europe's Jews.
His journey had taken him from the family home in Berlin to Auschwitz via Prague and a Jewish ghetto in Czechoslovakia.
His father had been transported to Auschwitz two weeks before he was sent there by train with his mother in 1944.
On arrival at Auschwitz, he was deemed fit for slave labour and put to work, while his mother was sent to the gas chambers.
"It was the stench of death," he says. "People had the power of life and death over you. It was hell on Earth."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-38764434
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Arsene Wenger: Arsenal boss gets four-match touchline ban - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger receives a four-match touchline ban after accepting a Football Association charge of misconduct.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been given a four-match touchline ban and £25,000 fine after accepting a Football Association charge of misconduct for his behaviour in the win over Burnley.
Wenger, 67, was charged with verbally abusing and pushing fourth official Anthony Taylor after being sent off.
His ban starts immediately so he misses Saturday's FA Cup game at Southampton.
If that tie needs a replay, Wenger will return for the Premier League game against Hull on 11 February.
However, if the match is settled on Saturday, the Hull game will be the fourth and final one for which the Frenchman is banned, following Premier League games against Watford and Chelsea.
Wenger reacted angrily to Burnley being awarded a 93rd-minute penalty at Emirates Stadium on Sunday, one they scored to level at 1-1.
After being sent to the stands by referee Jon Moss, Wenger moved away from the pitch but stood at the tunnel entrance and refused to move as he tried to watch the remaining few minutes of Sunday's match.
As Taylor encouraged him to move away, Wenger was seen to push back against him.
Arsenal were then given a penalty of their own, which was converted by Alexis Sanchez.
Immediately after the match, Wenger apologised, saying: "I should have shut up - I apologise for not having done that.
"It was nothing malicious. I should have kept my control, even if it was in a hectic time."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38777152
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Steven Gerrard: Liverpool return makes ex-captain 'nervous and anxious' - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Ex-Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard tells BBC Sport he is "nervous and anxious" about his impending return to Anfield as a youth coach.
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Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard says he is "excited" but also "nervous and anxious" about his impending return to Anfield as a youth coach.
Gerrard, who made his Reds debut in 1998 and retired from playing last year, will begin the job in February.
"Liverpool are prepared to help me an awful lot. They want to help me to become a better coach or a better manager," Gerrard, 36, told BBC Sport.
"But at the same time I've got to commit to it and put in the hard work."
• None said he is in no rush to take up a managerial role as he does not yet know if he'll be "good enough";
• None revealed Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has "gone out of his way" to welcome him back to the club;
• None backed Liverpool to overcome their current "blip" and said he was "absolutely delighted" to have Klopp as manager
Midfielder Gerrard left Anfield at the end of the 2014-15 season to join MLS side LA Galaxy before retiring in November after a 19-year playing career.
Jurgen does it his way and we all respect that and we're happy to have him
The former England captain said he was "really happy" to be "back at the club I love and being back home with my family" - but insisted his return was not down to sentiment.
"With me and Liverpool there will always be an emotional pull. But the decision to go back as a coach and what that entails, I couldn't really make that decision on sentiment or emotion because I'd have been doing it for the wrong reasons," he said.
"I'm very excited but at the same time a little bit nervous and a little bit anxious because it's a brand new role, one that I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into."
• None Listen: Lawrenson feels move is good for Gerrard and Liverpool
When will Gerrard move into management?
Gerrard was linked with the manager's job at League One side MK Dons soon after announcing he would leave LA Galaxy, but said at the time the opportunity had come "too soon" for him.
He is working towards his Uefa A coaching licence, which is required to manage in the Premier League, but he says it is still too early to predict the path his future career will take.
"There's no rush, no timescale," he said. "The silly thing for me would be to rush and go in when I'm not ready.
"I've got incredible people around me and hopefully in the future there'll be some exciting opportunities.
"I've a lot of dreams and aspirations to be the best I can be in terms of coaching and management - but we'll have to wait and see if I'm going to be good enough."
Gerrard was at Anfield on Wednesday to see his club knocked out of the EFL Cup after a 2-0 aggregate defeat by Southampton in the semi-finals.
That result continued a difficult start to 2017 for Klopp's side, who have managed just one win in seven games this year - a third-round FA Cup replay victory at League Two Plymouth Argyle.
"I hope it's just a blip," added Gerrard, who was speaking at a media event for Star Sixes, a new football tournament for former international players to be held at The O2, London, in July, in which he will be a team captain.
"I've experienced it myself and blips are difficult to play your way out of, but I believe we've got the talent and personnel to do it.
"We've been one of the most exciting teams to watch [during Klopp's time in charge].
"There's a bit of a sticky patch the past three or four weeks - but I'm absolutely delighted he's our manager."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38762265
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Ghent Library moves home via human chain - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Volunteers in Ghent, Belgium, have their local library move covered.
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Volunteers in Ghent, Belgium, have helped their local library move down the road.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38766326
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Labour's Brexit dilemma - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Why is Jeremy Corbyn ordering his MPs to back the Article 50 bill - when many of them oppose Brexit?
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UK Politics
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Labour's Brexit bind is not hard to grasp.
The vast majority of Labour MPs campaigned to keep Britain in the EU. But most now represent constituencies that voted to leave.
And as Parliament prepares to vote on triggering divorce talks with Brussels, Labour MPs are being ordered to approve the start of Brexit by a party leader who spent his backbench career ignoring similar demands for discipline.
These are agonising days for a parliamentary party struggling to maintain a coherent position on the biggest issue facing British politics for a generation.
Let's start with Jeremy Corbyn's decision to impose what, in parliamentary parlance, is called a three-line whip.
As far as the political parties in Westminster are concerned, MPs are not sent to Parliament to carefully weigh up each issue and vote according to their own judgement or conscience.
No, they are there to vote as their party leadership tells them to. Over the weekend, all MPs will receive a letter from their party's whips office telling them how to vote on various Bills before the Commons next week.
Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty sets out how countries can leave the EU.
The most important by far will be the Second Reading of the bill to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
It will not be the end of the parliamentary process for the Bill (a Committee stage will follow the week after and the Lords needs to approve it too) but it's a big moment.
And in the letter Labour MPs will receive, the name of the bill will be underlined three times. That means they must vote as their party managers instruct - no ifs, no buts.
In this case, they must vote to support the government's plan to trigger Article 50 by the end of March.
It's an instruction that gives Labour MPs no wiggle-room or freedom to vote according to their conscience. Of course, Labour MPs can choose to ignore the instruction but for backbenchers that would normally mean a big black mark against their name by the party whips and for front benchers such insubordination would mean resignation or the sack.
So why has Mr Corbyn decided to issue a three-line whip on Article 50?
First, he has made it clear Labour will respect the result of the referendum and not block the start of Brexit in Parliament. Mr Corbyn believes it is imperative his party has a clear position on the issue.
For him personally, triggering Article 50 may not cause too much discomfort. He campaigned for Remain but has been an EU sceptic most of his political life.
But there are obvious political considerations at play too. Roughly two thirds of parliamentary constituencies represented by Labour MPs voted to leave the EU.
UKIP leader Paul Nuttall hopes to gain from Labour's position on Brexit.
As the shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: "You have to remember how this looks to people in post-industrial Britain, former mining areas, the North, the Midlands, south Wales - it would look as if elites were refusing to listen to them".
Swathes of Labour's traditional working-class heartlands voted to leave the EU and the leadership believes the party must stand firmly behind their decision.
There are imminent electoral tests for Labour too: By-elections in Copeland and Stoke on Trent.
Stoke voted to leave the EU by 69.4% and UKIP's leader Paul Nuttall is running in the city he is describing as the "capital of Brexit".
If the Labour leadership was to look flaky on the question of triggering Brexit, the party could give up on holding Stoke Central now.
And as Labour MPs who represent similar seats look ahead to the next general election they will make the same calculation.
Bristol West MP Thangam Debbonaire is expected to defy her own whip.
I've spoken to former Labour ministers who passionately believe that leaving the EU will be bad for Britain, but feel they must respect the referendum result.
And if they want to keep their seats, they have little choice.
However, there is a second category of Labour MPs with a very different perspective.
According to BBC research, about 70 Labour MPs represent constituencies that voted to remain in the EU.
Just four of those MPs campaigned to leave (including Kate Hoey in Vauxhall and Gisela Stuart in Birmingham Edgbaston) which means dozens of Labour MPs who wanted to keep Britain in the EU represent seats that voted the same way.
And many of them look set to defy Jeremy Corbyn's orders on Article 50. Even two Labour whips - Jeff Smith and Thangam Debbonaire - have said they will refuse to vote in favour of the Article 50 Bill, in a bizarre show of parliamentary self-flagellation.
It seems likely a number of front bench and even shadow cabinet Labour MPs will do the same. The question is, whether Mr Corbyn sacks them or allows some tacit elasticity.
As one Labour MP said to me this week, party discipline on the issue is rapidly breaking down and MPs were going "feral".
Mr Corbyn rebelled against the Labour whip 428 times during Labour's years in power and it's clear many of his MPs aren't cowed by calls for party discipline now.
Remember too, polls conducted before the referendum showed a large majority of Labour Party members were strongly in favour of remaining in the EU. They will be making their views felt at constituency meetings.
In the end, the government will get its Article 50 Bill through Parliament with ease. Even if dozens of Labour MPs join other opposition parties and vote against the bill or abstain, the government seems certain to secure a hefty majority.
But the choice being weighed up by Labour MPs goes to the heart of what Members of Parliament are for.
In this case, is it to endorse the decision of a national referendum? Is it to reflect the wishes of their constituents? Is it support the position of their party in Parliament?
Or is to judge, individually, what they think is in the best interests of the country? Perhaps not since the Iraq vote in 2003 have Labour MPs faced such a testing decision.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38769838
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Robert Snodgrass: West Ham sign Hull City midfielder for £10.2m - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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West Ham complete the signing of Hull City midfielder Robert Snodgrass for a fee of £10.2m on a three-and-a-half-year deal.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
West Ham have completed the signing of Hull City midfielder Robert Snodgrass for a fee of £10.2m.
The Scotland player, 29, has signed a three-and-a-half-year deal at London Stadium.
"I'm delighted, this is a massive club with great tradition," said Snodgrass, who scored seven times in 20 Premier League games for Hull this season.
He becomes West Ham's second signing this month after the arrival of defender Jose Fonte from Southampton.
The Hammers saw off competition from Burnley and Middlesbrough to sign Snodgrass, and boss Slaven Bilic could hand him his debut in the home league match with Manchester City on Wednesday.
"The owners and the manager are trying to build something here and I just can't wait to get started," added Snodgrass, who joined Hull from Norwich in 2014 for a fee in excess of £6m.
"I feel this is a club with real ambition, with the new stadium, great players and a manager of his calibre at Premier League level.
"The club has had a few good weeks with results and if I can add to that, great. I'm just looking forward to meeting my new team-mates and getting started."
Snodgrass made just three outings after joining Hull before he suffered a career-threatening knee injury at QPR on the opening day of the 2014-15 season that kept him out of action for 16 months.
He recovered to play a significant role in the Tigers' promotion from the Championship last season before starting this season in superb form, hitting the winner in the opening-day victory over champions Leicester and rescuing a point with a last-minute free-kick at Burnley.
Hull then triggered a one-year contract extension to tie him to the club until the end of the 2017-18 season.
He is the second high-profile exit from the KCOM Stadium in January following Jake Livermore's £10m move to West Brom.
Hull boss Marco Silva had been reluctant to part with Snodgrass, with the club 19th in the Premier League, but has promised to bring in three or four more players before Tuesday's transfer deadline.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38775507
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Australian Open 2017: Rafael Nadal to meet Roger Federer in final after epic win - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Rafael Nadal sets up a much-anticipated Australian Open final against Roger Federer with an epic semi-final win over Grigor Dimitrov.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Live radio and text commentary on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Sport website; TV highlights from 13:00 GMT on BBC Two and online.
Rafael Nadal set up a much-anticipated Australian Open final against old rival Roger Federer with an epic, five-set semi-final win over Grigor Dimitrov.
The Spaniard won 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 in almost five hours to reach a first Grand Slam final since 2014.
Dimitrov's wait to reach a maiden Slam final continues after Nadal, 30, inflicted his first defeat of the year.
Nadal, who is attempting to win a 15th major title, will face Swiss rival Federer, 35, in Melbourne on Sunday.
"I never dreamed to be back in the final of the Australian Open," said Nadal.
"It is a very special thing for both of us to be playing again in a major final. Neither of us probably thought we would be here again."
• None Follow all the reaction to Nadal's win
• None Watch highlights at 17:00 GMT on BBC Two
He will meet Federer, who needed five sets to beat compatriot Stan Wawrinka in Thursday's first semi-final, in Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena at 08:30 GMT.
As well as an extra day's rest, 17-time Grand Slam winner Federer spent almost two hours less on court than Nadal during his semi-final, having beaten Wawrinka in a comparatively quick three hours and five minutes.
Twenty four hours later, both Nadal and Dimitrov showed incredible endurance in a match during which neither man looked like wilting.
That's right up there with the best matches I've ever seen
Eventually the 25-year-old Bulgarian buckled first - losing his serve at 4-4 in the deciding set - as Nadal wrapped up victory with his third match point at almost 00:45 local time.
Nadal dropped to his knees at the baseline in celebration, bringing a charged Rod Laver Arena to its feet, when Dimitrov sent a forehand long.
His victory means all four singles finalists are aged 30 or over, with 35-year-old Serena Williams meeting sister Venus, 36, in the women's final on Saturday.
Much of the talk before Friday's second semi-final centred around the prospect of Nadal meeting Federer for the ninth time in a Grand Slam final.
The pair dominated the men's game between 2004 and 2010, before Novak Djokovic's emergence, and have provided many memorable duels over the past 13 years.
However, few would have suggested a fortnight ago they would be reunited in the first major final of 2017.
Find out how to get into tennis in our special guide.
Federer is making his competitive return in Melbourne after six months out with a knee injury, while Nadal has also struggled with form and injury over the past couple of years.
But both men have disproved the notion the combination of ageing bodies and physical problems would prevent them from challenging again for major honours.
Nadal showed few signs of fatigue in his marathon win against Dimitrov, just as Federer did not when he overcame compatriot Wawrinka in Thursday's semi-final.
Now they have been rewarded with their first Slam showpiece since the French Open in 2011.
Many positives in defeat for Dimitrov
Dimitrov received a standing ovation as he left the Rod Laver Arena, though it was probably scant consolation after failing to become the first Bulgarian to reach a major final.
Once dubbed 'Baby Fed' for his similarity in playing style to Federer, he showed enough against Nadal to suggest he will end that unwanted record soon.
However, it is difficult to pinpoint what more he could have done.
Dimitrov showed he has the tools needed to compete with the best players - thumping down 20 aces to Nadal's eight, cracking 79 winners to Nadal's 45 and showing extraordinary defensive resilience.
It was still too little against an inspired Nadal.
The Spaniard showed remarkable physical and mental strength to overcome Dimitrov and is now one win away from becoming the first man to win the double career Grand Slam in the Open era.
American great John McEnroe said Nadal's win over Dimitrov was one of the best matches he had ever seen, while two-time Australian Open finalist Pat Cash described it as a "rollercoaster".
Breaks of serve, swings of momentum all over the place. Here's how the memorable match unfolded:
• None Nadal saving two break points in the first game is an indication of the drama ahead
• None He goes on to break Dimitrov in game four, one lapse of concentration proving costly as Nadal serves out to win the opener in 35 minutes
• None Nadal is given a time violation in game three after exceeding 20 seconds between service points
• None He then loses focus - and his serve - on the way to the pair twice exchanging breaks
• None Nadal saves four set points to level at 5-5, only for Dimitrov to pounce at the first opportunity in game 12
• None Dimitrov survives two break points - including a fortuitous double bounce off the net cord - to hold at 2-1, but breaks are exchanged in the fifth and sixth games
• None A five-minute delay at the start of the 12th game, after a member of the crowd receives medical attention, precedes Nadal holding for the tie-break
• None Dimitrov wrongly challenges an out call at 5-5 in the tie-break, Nadal serving out to win the set
• None Both players finally dominate their service games, each holding without having to face a single break point
• None Nadal's serve cracks as Dimitrov goes 3-2 up in the tie-break, the Bulgarian taking the second of two set points
• None Nadal cannot convert three break points in the opening game
• None Nadal saves two break points in the eighth game, breaking in the ninth - following 27 successive holds of serve - after help from a Dimitrov double fault for 0-30
• None Dimitrov takes Nadal to deuce in what turns out to be the final game, surviving two match points before hitting the third long
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38768642
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Prince Harry runs with homeless youngsters in London - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Prince Harry steps out for a jog on the streets of north London with youngsters and charity volunteers.
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London
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Residents were surprised to see the prince running down their street
Prince Harry has been turning heads in his running gear - as he went for a jog with a group of young homeless people.
He donned tights, shorts and trainers to pound the pavements in Willesden Green, north London, for a 17-minute run.
The royal drew double-takes from motorists as he stepped out with young people and volunteers from the Running Charity.
Prince Harry joined warm up before jogging with volunteers and young homeless people
Programme officer Claude Umuhire, 26, took the runners, including a Met Police protection officer, through a strenuous warm-up session then led the more gentle run.
He said about Harry: "He didn't find any of it hard, I think he's been training just for today.
"I tried to get him in the warm-up but he did pretty well, he kept giving me looks though every time I said five squats."
Despite apparently coping well with the run, the Prince suggested he might prefer a lighter form of exercise on future visits.
When he left, he referred to a pool table in the charity's HQ and joked: "Next time I will come and play pool maybe."
Prince Harry looked at a picture of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, after arriving at Depaul Trust Hostel
Mr Umuhire added: "There was a woman who was pulling out of her driveway then she realised who he was and she drove in front of us and started taking pictures of him.
"And as we were leaving, there was a guy at the traffic lights who looked across and did a double take - the joy in his face it was so funny, his eyes just opened up, he was so happy."
The charity is working with some of the residents from a hostel founded by the Depaul charity.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38763350
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Federer v Nadal's 2008 Wimbledon final: 8 magical moments - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Relive some memorable points from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's famous 2008 Wimbledon final.
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Relive some memorable points from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's famous 2008 Wimbledon final, regarded as one of the greatest tennis matches in history.
READ MORE: Nadal wins epic to set up Federer final
COVERAGE: Listen to live coverage of Sunday's Australian Open men's final from 08:30 GMT on BBC Radio 5 live/online, with highlights at 13:00 on BBC Two/online.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38772977
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India v England: Eoin Morgan, Joe Root and bowlers seal T20 win in Kanpur - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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An impressive England bowling display lays the foundation for a seven-wicket victory over India in the first Twenty20 international.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
An impressive England bowling display laid the foundation for a comfortable seven-wicket victory over India in the first Twenty20 international.
Expertly varying pace and length, England restricted India to 147-7, off-spinner Moeen Ali's 2-21 the standout.
Sam Billings took 20 from the second over of England's reply, with Eoin Morgan (51) and Joe Root (46 not out) completing the chase in 18.1 overs.
The second of the three T20 matches is in Nagpur on Sunday.
England will look to wrap up the series after putting in their best performance of a tour that saw them heavily beaten in the Tests and squeezed out in the one-day internationals.
The home side rested spin-bowling tormentors Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, but even their presence would have been unlikely to derail an England side that won their first T20 match in India since an agonising defeat in the final of the 2016 World T20.
It was England's bowling which was found wanting in what turned out to be the highest-scoring three-match ODI series of all time.
But in Kanpur they learned quickly after initially bowling too full, pace quartet Tymal Mills, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes mixing back-of-a-length with changes of pace.
Moeen also went through his repertoire, conceding only one boundary and having the incredibly dangerous Virat Kohli superbly held at mid-wicket by Morgan from his first delivery.
KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh and Hardik Pandya fell to the short ball, the latter giving pacy left-arm T20 specialist Mills his first international wicket.
India found the boundary only three times between the 10th and 19th overs and it was left to former captain MS Dhoni, who took 12 from the final over, to add some respectability.
Still, the hosts seemed at least 20 below par on a good pitch, with England so in control that leg-spinner Adil Rashid was not called on to bowl.
Any suggestion that India would find a way back was snuffed out by Billings, opening in place of the injured Alex Hales.
Jasprit Bumrah was battered for three fours and a ramped six as England's chase began with a sprint.
A slight wobble came when Jason Roy, who himself hit two sixes, and Billings were both bowled in the same over by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
But, with the required rate under control, Root and Morgan were afforded time to rebuild with pressure-free accumulation.
In between taking the singles on offer, Morgan lofted four sixes over the leg side before holing out to long-off from off-spinner Parvez Rasool one ball after reaching an eighth T20 half-century.
That ended a stand of 83 with Root, who was joined by Stokes and survived being bowled off a Bumrah no-ball to accelerate England home.
'Our bowlers were outstanding' - what they said
England captain Eoin Morgan: "Our bowlers were outstanding. Everyone in the unit executed the plans we talked about. We showed a lot of experience.
"The opening batsmen got off to a flier and that releases any pressure on the guys coming in after them. Sam Billings hasn't played much this tour but he has taken his chances when he has had an opportunity."
India captain Virat Kohli: "England played better cricket - with the ball and the bat they were precise. They were deserving winners and we need to stand up and applaud them.
"This is a format you need to enjoy and play at your intense best. We need to address the things we want to and not take too much stress from this. We need to just enjoy and not put too much pressure on the youngsters."
Former England captain Michael Vaughan on Twitter: "Not many teams give India a T20 masterclass, especially not in their own back yard. England have to find a way of getting Sam Billings in the ODI team."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38760089
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What would happen if Donald Trump tries to bring back torture? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner asks what would happen if Mr Trump brought back torture.
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US & Canada
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
President Trump has indicated that he is considering a return to the sort of harsh interrogation techniques of "enemy combatants" that have been widely condemned as torture, as well as a return to so-called CIA "black sites".
In his first interview since becoming US President, Mr Trump said intelligence officials had told him that "torture absolutely works", but that he would defer to advice from his new CIA director and his secretary of defence. The latter, retired Marine Corps officer Gen James Mattis, says torture does not work.
So what are the global implications if the president goes ahead, asks BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.
There is a South African proverb, dating from the apartheid era, that goes like this: "How do you catch an elephant? You catch a mouse and keep beating it up until it admits it's really an elephant."
Ridiculous as this may sound, there is an echo of truth here. Torture hurts. That's the whole point of it.
So if someone is tortured badly enough they will say anything to make it stop, including making things up that they think their tormentors will want to hear.
Prisons in certain Middle Eastern countries, especially Syria, are crammed full of people who are being abused so badly they will eventually sign any "confession" to make the treatment stop. In some countries forced confessions remain to this day the primary tool in the prosecutor's armoury.
In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 the US intelligence community, having failed to prevent the worst attack on the US since Pearl Harbor, became convinced that a second catastrophic attack was on its way.
As President George W Bush's "war on terror" got underway, the normal safeguards of respect for human rights and the rule of law were cast aside in a desperate hunt to find "the ticking bomb".
Top al-Qaeda planners like Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, Abu Zubaydah and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, all caught in Pakistan, were "rendered" (transported) to so-called "black sites" for extreme interrogation. These were secret, unacknowledged prisons, run by the CIA and scattered around the globe in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Romania and other countries.
There they were subjected to repeated waterboarding, which makes the bound and helpless victim feel like they are drowning. Khaled Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded a staggering number of times, well over 100.
And yet years later, when in 2014 the US Senate's Intelligence and Security Select Committee issued its report on the use of torture under the Bush administration it concluded that torture was "not an effective means of acquiring intelligence or gaining cooperation from detainees".
On Thursday, the US House Speaker, Paul Ryan, said torture was not legal and that the committee agreed it was not legal. Senator John McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, also opposes it.
"The president can sign whatever executive order he likes," he said, "but the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the USA."
There would be strong resistance too from both America's allies and from within the intelligence community itself.
There is a general acceptance now, in most of the world, that those practices carried out in the early years after the 9/11 attacks - extraordinary rendition, detention without trial, enhanced interrogation - were not only morally wrong, they were also counter-productive.
They very rarely produced useful, actionable intelligence. They traumatised not only the victims, some of whom were completely innocent, but also those who witnessed the shocking dehumanising of an individual. Undoubtedly this has given the green light to some unscrupulous practices by regimes who see America's earlier use of torture as a license to do what they like to their own citizens.
Unthinkable as it sounds now, the US even rendered one "high value detainee" to his own country - Syria - for interrogation, knowing that there would be few restraints on his treatment there.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. John McCain said he'd have Donald Trump in court in 'a New York minute' if he reinstated waterboarding
There is also the legal aspect. In 2010 David Cameron, who was then UK prime minister, set up a judge-led, independent inquiry into allegations of complicity by MI5 and MI6 officers in torture.
Career intelligence officers who had thought they were doing the right thing at the time - such as, hypothetically, being within earshot of the harsh interrogation of a suspect in a Pakistani jail - found themselves being questioned by detectives from the Metropolitan Police.
The inquiry was eventually scrapped but it has at least led to a widespread rethink on respect for human rights inside intelligence agencies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Senior intelligence officers who lived through this difficult period are likely to strongly resist turning the clock back and returning to those days.
It is also questionable whether the US would find willing partners to host black site prisons amongst those countries only too relieved to have closed that chapter in their national histories.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38763801
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I had an abortion when money made the difference between life and death - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Diane Munday, 80, had an abortion back at a time when gin and knitting needles could be used by backstreet abortionists - and were sometimes fatal.
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Magazine
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Diane Munday had an abortion in 1961, six years before the Abortion Act - now 50 years old - made abortion legal in Britain. While she could afford a Harley Street operation, she knew her neighbours were facing backstreet procedures with knitting needles. Here she explains how this inspired a life-long campaign for reform.
It wasn't until I was about 21 years old that I first heard the word "abortion."
In those days you had clothes made by a dressmaker and a local young married woman was making me a party dress; I went to her house for fittings. She had three young children and lived in a small post-war prefab house. I remember a very happy family. The father worked in a local factory and the children went to dancing lessons.
One day when I came home from work - I was a research assistant at Barts Hospital - my mother told me the dressmaker had died. I discovered she had had a backstreet abortion that went wrong. I hadn't heard of this before - probably because the word was considered unmentionable. At that time a pregnant woman having an abortion and anyone who helped her could go to prison for it.
I was so shocked by this that I mentioned it to colleagues at lunch the next day. The doctors I worked with said it was a common experience and invited me to "stay behind on Friday evening and we'll show you what the world is really like".
I discovered then that all the London teaching hospitals set a few wards aside each Friday for women who were septic, bleeding or dying from having backstreet abortions. There would be a spate of cases on Friday because it was payday.
They were often performed by people with some nursing experience using hot solutions and knitting needles or coat hanger hooks. A big problem was their inability to diagnose the stage of pregnancy accurately and the more advanced a pregnancy the more dangerous what they did became.
Diane joined the Abortion Law Reform Society following the thalidomide scandal
I put the incident to the back of my mind and over the next few years got married and then had three children of my own (in less than four years - there was no "pill" back then). During my third pregnancy the doctor gave me a prescription for thalidomide because I had problems sleeping. I left it on the mantelpiece and did not take the drug.
The thalidomide scandal broke shortly afterwards and I got to thinking that if I had been carrying a deformed foetus I would have wanted the option of ending the pregnancy. So I joined the Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) but initially did no more than pay my membership fee. This organisation had been founded in the 1930s but it wasn't really active as, post war, people preferred more polite social causes such as housing and education.
Then I discovered I was pregnant again - my fourth in four years - and something in me just said: "I cannot, I will not have this child." My husband said he would much rather I continued the pregnancy but that it was my decision and he would support me whatever I decided.
After much asking around I found my way to Harley Street where there was a semi-legal procedure. The gynaecologist sent me to a friend who was a psychiatrist who said my mental health was so damaged by the pregnancy that my life was endangered. This was an accepted reason for an abortion because of a recent court case called the Bourne Case. It was only available to those who could afford to pay. I was quoted £150 - which was thousands in 1961 - but the doctor later halved it. He arranged for me to go to a private nursing home in north London
The procedure was done under general anaesthetic and I was in overnight. I found the nurses very unsympathetic - many of them disapproved because they were Roman Catholic. When I vomited due to the after effects of the anaesthetic, one nurse was extremely unpleasant.
Coming round from the anaesthetic, I remembered the young dressmaker who had died and realised how similar our situations were; we were both young women with three young children but where we differed was that , because I had a chequebook, I was alive and because she had no spare money she was dead. This seemed totally and unacceptably wrong. At that moment I vowed to myself that I would do everything I could to prevent women dying because they were poor.
So I went along to the next ALRA annual meeting, spoke to some people who had also joined because of the thalidomide scandal and within a year I was on the committee. That was when I started speaking out about abortion and that became my main role in the organisation.
A poster from the 1960s printed by the Abortion Law Reform Association
I gave talks to groups and, from the start, decided to be open about it and say, "I have had an abortion." I clearly remember an early Townswomen's Guild meeting when, in the tea interval, members came up to me one after the other and said words to the effect of "You know dear, I had an abortion in the 30s. My husband was out of work and we couldn't afford any more children." From then on this was a common experience and I realised abortion was an unmentionable but routine part of women's lives.
I became infamous. I was boycotted by the grocers in the village because they said my money was tainted - that I had been doing backstreet abortions on my kitchen table. My sons were affected by comments at school when I was on TV and I think my husband found it difficult.
But it needed to be done, the work was so important as women were desperate. They would try to self-induce by drinking gin, having scalding baths and moving heavy furniture around. Some travelled across the country and knocked on my front door as well as that of our secretary, Dilys Cossey, because her address was on the ALRA literature.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Two different perspectives on abortion from Woman's Hour
Despite being shunned by some in the village, women would come to me themselves or with their daughters when they were unmarried and pregnant. I'd drive them to a clinic and hold their hand while their daughter's pregnancy was ended but next time I saw them they'd cross the road.
Later when ALRA needed money for its campaigning (it was run by unpaid volunteers) I approached the doctor who performed my own abortion to ask for a donation. It seemed to me that many doctors had benefited over the years and they could put some money back to help women who couldn't afford fees. He agreed and also gave me names of other doctors who might contribute.
I asked him why he performed abortions and he told me that, when he was a young doctor, a patient said she would kill herself if she didn't get an abortion. He told her the usual tale about loving the baby when it was born: that night she drowned herself and he felt that he had killed her.
Diane is concerned that there is still a taboo about admitting to having had an abortion
After much lobbying of MPs and a number of Bills in the Commons and the Lords the 1967 Abortion Act was passed. This was a great victory and a big step forward for women. But, for me, even then, it was not enough. I always believed that the only person qualified to make a decision about a pregnancy was the woman herself. We had had to make the concession that every abortion would be approved by two doctors. It was the price we paid for legalising any abortions at all. Nevertheless the beneficial effect was almost immediate with the numbers of women admitted to London hospitals for "septic miscarriages" dropping hugely within a year of the Act coming into effect.
But still there were battles to fight. Particularly in areas of the country where medical opposition to legal abortion had been most ferocious, surgeons said they wouldn't perform abortions.
I helped set up the Birmingham (later British) Pregnancy Advisory Service to help women where NHS doctors refused to comply with the Act. Initially it opened as a counselling service in someone's house. Women who could afford it were charged two shillings a visit and counselled and referred on to sympathetic doctors who would help them. This ensured that there was equitable treatment wherever somebody lived. Later, for 17 years, I worked for Bpas which had become a national organisation ensuring women were sympathetically and professionally treated wherever they lived and whatever the beliefs of local doctors.
I'm proud of what I have done and of the benefits it has brought to so many women's lives. However, my concern now is the future. There's still a taboo around the subject making women reluctant to say: "I feel all right about having had an abortion." Half a century after reform we live in a very different world. Women's' rights have moved on. Medical technology has moved on. But we still require two doctors to sanction the termination of a pregnancy that the pregnant women herself has decided on. It's unbearable.
We were among the first in Europe to allow abortion and now are almost the last to have stringent laws controlling it. I would like to think that, before I die, the job I helped to start is finished by abortion being taken out of the criminal law and the decision as to whether or not a pregnancy is to be ended is firmly placed where it belongs - in the hands of the pregnant woman.
Diane Munday was interviewed by Claire Bates and Jane Garvey
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38722929
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Art Deco ceiling found at Khan's Bargains, Peckham - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Restoration work in Rye Lane, Peckham, has revealed its long-forgotten history as the Oxford Street of the south.
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Restoration work in Rye Lane, Peckham, has revealed its long-forgotten history as the Oxford Street of the south.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38763681
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Ed Miliband: Trump presidency 'not normal times' - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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The former Labour leader Ed Miliband says Donald Trump's first week as president has been "dizzying".
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Donald Trump's first week as president has been "dizzying" and "not normal times", according to Ed Miliband.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight's Kirsty Wark, the former Labour leader criticised Prime Minister Theresa May for aligning herself too closely with Mr Trump's policies.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38766036
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The 19-year-old Dunkin' Donuts worker behind Ashley Judd's viral #NastyWoman poem - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Meet the 19-year-old Dunkin' Donuts worker behind Ashley Judd's viral #NastyWoman poem.
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Actress Ashley Judd's performance of the feminist slam poem #NastyWoman was one of the most shared videos of the Women's March in Washington DC.
But alongside the praise, many have condemned the poem - particularly the personal attacks it makes against President Trump.
Trending spoke to the unlikely author of the poem, 19-year-old Dunkin Donuts worker Nina Mariah Donovan from Tennessee.
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38738645
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Derby County 2-2 Leicester City - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Wes Morgan salvages an FA Cup replay for Leicester in a game with Derby which will be remembered for Darren Bent's own goal.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Wes Morgan salvaged a replay for Leicester City in an FA Cup fourth-round tie with Derby County which will be remembered for a remarkable Darren Bent own goal.
Rams striker Bent put the Premier League champions ahead when he scuffed a clearance into his own net while under no pressure trying to clear a corner.
However, the former England forward made up for that when he headed Will Hughes' cross into the right net to level the scores.
Craig Bryson put Championship side Derby ahead when he picked the ball up 25 yards out, surged past three Foxes defenders and fired the ball across Kasper Schmeichel with a slight deflection off Robert Huth.
Leicester, who hit the post through Demarai Gray, looked as if they were heading out of the cup before captain Morgan headed home Gray's corner.
Derby had a late penalty appeal turned down when Abdoul Camara's shot hit Huth's hand.
The replay at the King Power Stadium will be played on Wednesday, 8 February (19:45 GMT).
Bent has made a career from close-range tap-ins, but he has never 'scored' one like his opener before.
Marc Albrighton's corner was headed towards goal by Foxes defender Huth. The ball fell to Chris Baird, who tried to control the ball on his thigh but it went away from him back towards team-mate Bent.
The former Sunderland striker, standing just in front of the line, had plenty of time to control the ball or smash it to safety. But as he swung his foot to clear, the ball hit the side of his boot and flew behind him into the back of the net.
Match of the Day summariser Graeme Le Saux called it "just the most bizarre goal". The former England defender added: "It is just terrible. From an experienced player, he's got time, he sees the ball. How he fails to get decent contact on it, baffling. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. He almost kicks it backwards into the net."
BBC Radio 5 live's Andy Townsend said: "He could have taken a touch before clearing. He didn't need to slash at it."
"I don't know what happened," said Bent after the game. "I lost concentration and tried to hit the ball as hard as I could and it flew into the net. It wasn't the greatest start. Fair play to us to stick at it."
Bent made amends with a goal at the right end when Schmeichel punched a corner to Hughes, whose cross was met by Bent with a glancing header to turn the ball past the keeper into the corner of the net.
"It was playing on my mind, I thought 'what have I done here'? But I scored at the other end," he added.
The 32-year-old striker has now scored in 10 of his past 11 FA Cup games, including all five for Derby.
The Foxes rescue a replay they scarcely want
Leicester named a strong team, with nine of their regular starting 11 from last season's title-winning team starting - and a 10th, Riyad Mahrez, coming on midway through the second half.
But as has been the case for most of their title defence so far - they sit five points above the relegation zone - they looked nothing like the 2015-16 legends.
However, they did have enough chances to score before eventually equalising.
Half-time substitute Gray should have levelled when Albrighton's cross was punched away by Scott Carson to the winger, who fired the rebound straight at the former England keeper.
And then moments later, he went even closer when his low shot from the edge of the box hit the post. The ball fell to Shinji Okazaki, whose first effort was blocked and his second - like his team-mate had done a minute before - went straight at Carson, who was on the ground.
And, as if to sum up the difference between this season and last, Jamie Vardy - scorer of 24 goals last term and six this time around - headed straight at Carson from about six yards out.
But Morgan kept them in the cup with his late intervention, albeit in a replay neither side really wanted.
While Derby are challenging for the play-offs, Leicester now have to juggle a Premier League relegation battle, a campaign in the Champions League knockout stages and an FA Cup replay.
Derby boss Steve McClaren joked after the game that he would have brought on more strikers at the end to force a winner for either side if he could.
Man of the match - Will Hughes (Derby County)
Manager reaction - 'We have to concentrate'
Derby manager Steve McClaren: "We did everything we could, we came across a team who were at it tonight. Our character was fantastic, we dug in in the second half and Scott Carson made some saves when we needed him to.
"The penalty incident? It's hit his hand and it's on target. I've seen them given but we didn't get the luck. We fought to the end, neither of us wanted a draw but what a cup tie. It was a great game, great atmosphere and I am proud of the players."
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri: "It was a tough match. We started well and scored but slowly we lost our calm. They played well and scored twice. In the second half we again started well and created two or three chances. It was tough to score but thankfully Morgan got one for us.
"We have to concentrate. Too many times we concede. We can only work and be more focused."
The stats you need to know
• None Derby are unbeaten at Pride Park in all competitions since Steve McClaren took charge in October 2016 (W7 D3).
• None Bent became the first player to score at both ends in an FA Cup game since Aidan Hawtin (Brackley v Newport) in November 2015.
• None Tom Ince (nine) and Darren Bent (six) have scored 15 of Derby's past 22 goals.
• None Wes Morgan scored his first goal in 28 appearances in all competitions.
• None Leicester are unbeaten in all of their past eight FA Cup games against teams from a lower division (W6 D2).
Both sides have away trips on Tuesday. Derby, outside the Championship play-offs by two points, visit mid-table Ipswich Town, with Leicester going to Burnley in the Premier League (both 19:45 GMT kick-offs).
• None Attempt saved. Jacob Butterfield (Derby County) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Chris Baird.
• None Attempt saved. Daniel Drinkwater (Leicester City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Riyad Mahrez.
• None Attempt blocked. Abdoul Camara (Derby County) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Chris Baird.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Goal! Derby County 2, Leicester City 2. Wes Morgan (Leicester City) header from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Demarai Gray with a cross following a corner.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Tom Ince (Derby County) because of an injury.
• None Attempt missed. Ahmed Musa (Leicester City) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Andy King. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38686583
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Who's representing the UK at Eurovision? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Viewers at home and a jury of music professionals have decided who will represent the UK at Eurovision 2017.
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BBC TV viewers, and a jury of music professionals including Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli , have decided who will represent the UK at Eurovision 2017.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38774879
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England retain same squad for West Indies ODI series - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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England name an unchanged squad, minus the injured Alex Hales, for March's ODI series in the West Indies.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, Radio 4 LW, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app. Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website.
England have named an unchanged squad, minus the injured Alex Hales, for March's one-day international series in the West Indies.
Opener Hales fractured a hand as England lost 2-1 in their series in India earlier this month.
England will play two matches in Antigua with a third in Barbados before the teams face each other again in England in the summer.
The West Indies are ninth in the one-day standings, four below England.
Sam Billings replaced Hales for the final ODI in the three-match series in India, and also opened the batting in the first of the Twenty20 matches against the same opposition.
Asked about taking on the role, he told BBC Sport: "At the moment I am just focusing on these next two games if I get another opportunity.
"I've just got to keep working hard at all aspects of my game.
"It's about being able to adapt from one to seven and offering as much as I can to the side."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38769459
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The economy - pain cancelled or delayed? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Preliminary figures show the economy performed more strongly than expected in 2016, but the chancellor told me there are still uncertainties ahead.
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Business
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. EU no longer wants to "chastise" the UK, says Philip Hammond
It is the big question swirling around government.
After another set of economic figures stronger than expected, is this economic pain cancelled, or simply postponed?
On that central issue rests the fate of the government's economic policy.
If it is pain cancelled that means better real incomes for voters.
It means higher tax receipts for the government, lower levels of borrowing and more leeway to spend money on public services.
And, of course, confidence tends to beget confidence.
If consumers - the most important drivers of the UK economy - feel the world around them is feeling positive, they tend to spend.
For businesses, it is not a lot different.
Larry Fink, the head of the world's largest asset managers, BlackRock, made an interesting point at the World Economic Forum at Davos last week.
Asked why consumer confidence hadn't collapsed following the referendum - or at least had recovered strongly after some initial uncertainty - Mr Fink answered that for lots of people who voted for Brexit or who voted for Donald Trump, the victories were not a negative event.
"They won," he said, simply felt good and kept spending. "Car sales went up."
For the UK economy, it is worth considering two points.
The Bank of England increased financial support for businesses after the Brexit vote
First, the gloomy forecasts before the referendum about the possible effects of a vote to leave the European Union were based on Article 50, the mechanism for leaving the EU, being triggered immediately after the vote as David Cameron promised.
That could have led to a chaotic departure from the EU and certainly would have created greater economic dislocation.
Second, the Bank of England cut interest rates and increased financial support for businesses and banks, soothing market fears.
These two points are not enough to explain all of the resilience in the economy, but they go some of the way.
In my interview with the chancellor, he admitted that he was now "more optimistic" about the process of leaving the EU and the single market.
He said that European leaders were no longer in chastising mood over Brexit, that had now past.
A good deal is on, he said.
A weaker pound is set to push up the price of everyday goods
But, and of course there has to be a but when considering how an economy will perform - a judgement at its most basic on how a million different decisions by human beings will play out.
The rate of inflation is increasing as the value of sterling declines.
Jobs are being moved out of the UK and on to the continent in sectors such as banking and finance as businesses prepare for Brexit.
The UK has, of course, not actually left the EU yet and at the moment is enjoying the stimulus of being in the EU's huge single market with a considerably weaker currency.
That goldilocks situation will not last and the chancellor told me of his concerns about business investment.
It was the Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, who argued that shocks to an economy can boost growth.
"Creative destruction" may be a little strong to describe the Brexit vote, but innovation can flow when the demands of uncertainty rise.
After Britain fell out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, the precursor of the single currency, many predicted that inflation would rise and economic growth would stutter.
In fact, the UK economy bounced back, inflation remained in check and the pound rose - after an initial fall.
That is not to say that all "dynamic" shocks have such an effect.
The financial crisis of 2008-09 has negatively affected economic growth for far longer than most expected as the financial services sector contracted rapidly, liquidity disappeared and businesses and consumers paid down debt.
That is why it is still too early to say definitively whether the robust state of the UK economy today means the forecasts for economic pain made before the Brexit vote can now be safely ignored.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38754634
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Quiz of the week's news - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A weekly quiz of the news, 7 days 7 questions.
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Magazine
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It's the weekly news quiz - have you been paying attention to what's been going on in the world over the past seven days?
If you missed last week's 7 days quiz, try it here
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38760062
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Jose Mourinho: Man Utd boss says 'it was 1-1' at Hull, despite 2-1 scoreline - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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A tetchy Jose Mourinho says his Manchester United side "didn't lose" despite a 2-1 defeat at Hull in their EFL Cup semi-final second leg.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Manager Jose Mourinho said his Manchester United side "didn't lose" despite being beaten 2-1 by Hull in their EFL Cup semi-final second leg.
Having won the first leg 2-0, United joined Southampton in the final - to be played at Wembley on 26 February - with a 3-2 aggregate success.
But Mourinho refused to acknowledge Hull had scored a penalty during the second leg at the KCOM Stadium.
"I only saw two goals," said the Portuguese. "It was 1-1."
Hull went in front on the night through a penalty from Tom Huddlestone.
Replays showed two tussles in the area as the visitors defended a corner - Phil Jones tangling with Oumar Niasse, and Marcos Rojo briefly holding the shirt of Harry Maguire - and referee Jon Moss awarded the spot-kick.
United levelled through Paul Pogba, only for Niasse to give Hull victory.
Mourinho said: "I saw the Pogba goal and their goal was a fantastic goal - great action, great cross and the guy coming in at the far post. 1-1."
The defeat ended United's 17-match unbeaten run, and Mourinho's frustration was clear as he walked out of a television interview after about 30 seconds.
"I behaved on the bench, no sending-off, no punishment so no more words," Mourinho, on his 54th birthday, told Sky Sports.
"To speak about the performance, I have to speak about things I don't want to speak about because the game was totally under control - the game was dead.
"The game was totally under control and something happened to open the game."
Mourinho said he did not believe United would be favourites when they meet Southampton next month.
"It doesn't matter where we play," said Mourinho. "I don't think we are favourites against nobody."
Despite his frustration, Mourinho now has the chance to win the League Cup for a fourth time, equalling the record held by former United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and ex-Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough.
Southampton will be attempting to win just the second major trophy in their history, after beating Liverpool 2-0 on aggregate in the other semi-final.
Mourinho, who won the trophy in all three of his finals as Chelsea manager, added: "Wembley is Wembley. It is for professionals with passion for football.
"It has a special meaning, a special feeling. Of course I am happy to be there. Of course I am happy to bring many thousands of our fans because I think also for them it is something they will always remember."
'A close shave' - what the papers say
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38764869
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May meets Trump: Three key things - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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What should we take from Prime Minister Theresa May's first meeting with President Trump?
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What should we take from Prime Minister Theresa May's first meeting with President Donald Trump?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38778452
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Beware hate speech, says Auschwitz Holocaust survivor - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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On Holocaust Memorial Day, one concentration camp survivor warns that civilisation is "veneer-thin".
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Europe
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More than a million people, mostly Jews, were killed at Auschwitz
At the age of 13, Susan Pollack - now a retired grandmother living in north London - was taken from her home in rural Hungary, loaded into a cattle truck and transported by rail through German-occupied Poland.
She and her family were told they were going to be resettled. The journey took six days and some in the truck died on the way.
"There was some straw on the floor," she told me. "It was dark, it was cold, it was so hostile. And hardly any space for sitting down. There was a lot of crying, lots of children. And we were trapped. Doors were shut, we knew this was not going to be any resettlement but we had no imagination of course of what was to come."
Susan Pollack survived because she lied about her age
There, on the railway platform, Nazi officers separated those chosen to live and work from those sent immediately to die.
Susan lied about her age. A prisoner on the platform whispered to her that she should say she was 15. It saved her life, but her mother was sent immediately to the gas chamber.
"There were no hugs, no kisses, no embrace. My mum was just pushed away with the other women and children. The dehumanisation began immediately. I didn't cry, it was as though I'd lost all my emotions."
The Nazis had abandoned the camp days earlier, leaving much of it intact. More than a million people, mostly Jews - but Poles, Roma and political prisoners as well - had been murdered there.
Those railway lines - which can be still seen at Auschwitz-Birkenau today - extended to almost every corner of Europe.
The Holocaust was not a solely German enterprise. It required the active collaboration of Norwegian civil servants, French police and Ukrainian paramilitaries. Every occupied country in Europe had its enthusiastic participants.
After 1945, a great silence fell across the continent.
The Jews who survived found that the world beyond the perimeter wire of the camps did not much want to know their story.
These children were photographed by a Red Army soldier on the day the camp was liberated
It was only in the 1960s that popular consciousness began to catch up with the crime perpetrated against an entire people.
Holocaust denial persists. The internet is full of claims that the destruction of the Jews never happened.
"Sometimes they want to call themselves revisionist historians," says Pawel Sawicki, who works at the Auschwitz site, which now attracts two million visitors a year. "But they are not. They hate others. This is anti-Semitism."
At the Nuremberg trials after the war, leading Nazis were held accountable for the state-sponsored crimes that had been committed in Germany and German-occupied territories. For the first time, two new terms entered the grim lexicon of wartime atrocity - crimes against humanity and genocide.
This is the Nazis' judicial legacy - that from 1945, sovereign states no longer had legal carte blanche to treat their own citizens as they pleased.
"That's the amazing, revolutionary, remarkable change that happened in 1945," says Philippe Sands, an international human rights lawyer who has worked extensively on war crimes prosecutions.
"Before 1945, if a state wished to kill half its population, or torture or maim or disappear, there was no rule of international law that said you couldn't do that. The change that occurred in 1945 - as we know very sadly - has not prevented horrors from taking place.
Hermann Goering was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946
"But it does mean that when horrors occur, there is now at least an objective standard that says to governments, to individual states, that as a matter of international law: 'you cannot do what you are doing'."
Near the blockhouses where Auschwitz prisoners were housed, there is a large open trench about the size and shape of a swimming pool.
During the war it was filled with water. Why? It was required by the camp's fire insurance policy.
There is something grotesquely chilling about this - that a camp whose purpose was mass extermination would, at the same time, concern itself with sensible precaution and compliance with insurance law. And the company that insured the camp is still trading. There is a warning in this to posterity - to us, here today.
As the UK marks Holocaust Memorial Day, Mrs Pollack issues a stark warning about the importance of learning the lessons from history.
"We're not talking about barbarians," says Mrs Pollack. "We're not talking about primitive society.
"The Germans were well-advanced, educated, progressive. Maybe civilization is just veneer-thin. We all need to be very careful about any hate-propaganda.
"This is very important. It starts as a small stream, but then it has the potential to erupt - and when it does, it's too late to stop it."
Correction 28 January 2017: This article has been amended to remove a reference to Polish train drivers being among those who collaborated with Germany. They were in fact conscripted back into work by force after the German occupation.
• None BBC iWonder: Why did ordinary people commit atrocities in the Holocaust?
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38745115
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Artes Mundi: The 40-minute video that won £40,000 - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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A 40-minute video art installation inspired by migration and religious persecution wins a £40,000 prize.
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A video art installation inspired by migration and religious persecution has won a £40,000 prize.
London-based film-maker John Akomfrah won the Artes Mundi award for his "substantial body of outstanding work", including his latest video installation - the 40-minute film, Auto Da Fe.
Will Gompertz went to meet him.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38770326
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Growing up a prisoner in a cult - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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At exactly 11:15, the front door of a council flat in Brixton opened. Two women stepped out on to a quiet residential street.
The younger woman, Rosie, had an awkward gait. Her movement was stiff and clunky, as though she simply wasn't used to walking any distance. In fact, she had spent the past 30 years - her whole life - in captivity.
Now she was ill and needed urgent medical attention.
Born into a “collective”, she was not allowed to see a doctor, had never been allowed outside alone and had been told that if she tried to leave she would spontaneously combust and die.
Worried she might not survive her illness, on 25 October 2013, Rosie and another woman, Josie, sneaked out.
Waiting for them just round the corner were members of an organisation that helps people who have been abused, trafficked or enslaved. Along with the police, they had helped organise the escape.
It soon became apparent that Rosie and 57-year-old Josie weren't the only women who lived in the flat, and when police officers returned they met Aisha - a 69-year-old woman originally from Malaysia. At first she didn't want to leave, but as they talked, she changed her mind.
In the weeks that followed, it became clear how extraordinary their life had been.
All three women seemed extremely frightened, often referring to an all-powerful force called Jackie, which they believed might seek retribution or cause them terrible harm. They were terrified of electricity, which they called “eeee” and seemed anxious that household appliances might blow up or explode.
As they revealed details of their existence and Rosie gradually became more confident, she decided to change her name to Katy, inspired by the lyrics of Katy Perry's song, Roar, which is about a woman overcoming a difficult relationship and finding her voice.
Katy's own story, and everything she had managed to overcome, proved far stranger than anyone could have imagined.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-b0af7ef5-1031-4e1f-a3ac-b3c21ef0f932
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Stillbirth campaign: 'I want recognition baby existed' - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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Sarah Henderson's daughter was stillborn at 23 weeks and 4 days, but did not qualify for a birth certificate.
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Sarah Henderson's daughter was stillborn at 23 weeks and 4 days, but did not qualify for a birth certificate.
She has launched a petition to allow certificates for babies stillborn before 24 weeks.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38767821
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Theresa May's name misspelled in US memo - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A press note about Theresa May's meeting with Donald Trump misspells the Prime Minister's first name.
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UK Politics
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A White House schedule sent to journalists ahead of a press conference with US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May has misspelled her name.
The schedule referred to the prime minister three times as "Teresa May", leaving out the "h" in her first name.
The mistake happened after the prime minister addressed US politicians in Philadelphia on Thursday.
In her speech, Mrs May called for closer ties between the UK and US.
The press schedule, which was sent from the office of the new White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, originally said: "In the afternoon, the president will partake in a bilateral meeting with United Kingdom Prime Minister, Teresa May."
Part of the uncorrected White House schedule sent out on Friday.
It later repeated the mistake, saying: "The president participates in a working luncheon with Teresa May, Prime Minister of United Kingdom."
The same error was also made once in a guidance note from the office of Vice-President Mike Pence. The prime minister's name was, however, spelled correctly elsewhere in the same note.
The White House press office later sent out an updated guidance note with the correct spelling.
The White House press secretary later tweeted about the day, including Theresa May's Twitter handle
Mrs May's speech on Thursday mentioned the "special relationship" between the UK and US eight times. The phrase is an unofficial term for the close cultural, historical and political relationship between the United States and the UK.
It was first coined by Prime Minister Winston Churchill - a political hero of the new American president - during a 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri.
Mrs May's meeting on Friday will be the first between a foreign leader and President Trump.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38771176
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Australian Open 2017: Rafael Nadal eyes Roger Federer final - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Rafael Nadal takes on Grigor Dimitrov in the Australian Open semi-finals on Friday with the aim of reaching a final against old rival Roger Federer.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra; live text on selected matches on the BBC Sport website; TV highlights on BBC Two and online.
Rafael Nadal is hoping to meet old rival Roger Federer in the Australian Open final by beating in-form Grigor Dimitrov in their semi-final on Friday.
Spaniard Nadal, 30, has not reached a major final since winning his 14th Grand Slam at the 2014 French Open.
Federer, 35, is going for a record 18th major title after an epic semi-final win over fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.
"I have to play my best because Grigor is playing with high confidence," said ninth seed Nadal.
The pair meet at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne about 08:30 GMT on Friday.
• None Watch highlights of Thursday's matches on BBC Two from 17:00 GMT
• None 'Federer v Nadal final could be most important in Grand Slam history' - Roddick
Nadal has been troubled by injuries in recent years, but reached his first Grand Slam semi-final since 2014 with a superb quarter-final victory over Canadian third seed Milos Raonic.
If Nadal beats 25-year-old Dimitrov then all four singles finalists will be aged over 30, as 35-year-old Serena Williams meets older sister Venus, 36, in the women's final.
Dimitrov, who has never reached a Grand Slam final, is aiming to prevent Federer, Nadal and the Williams sisters contesting the two finals at a major for the first time since 2008 Wimbledon.
The Bulgarian 15th seed is playing some of the best tennis of his career having won the Brisbane International earlier this month and then carrying on his form in Melbourne.
He beat 11th seed David Goffin of Belgium in straight sets in the quarter-finals to record his 10th successive victory.
"I feel like I have all the tools to go further and my job isn't over yet," he said. "I'm looking forward to my match. I think I'm prepared.
"I'm ready to go the distance. I don't shy away from that. I'm confident enough to say that as I feel good physically, and overall on the court."
If Nadal wins his semi-final, he and Federer would contest their ninth Grand Slam final - and their first since the French Open in 2011, when the Spaniard won in four sets.
"Rafa has presented me with the biggest challenge in the game," said Federer, who is seeded 17th after returning from a six-month lay-off to rest his left knee.
"I'm his number one fan. His game is tremendous. He's an incredible competitor.
"I'm happy we had some epic battles over the years and of course it would be unreal to play here. I think both of us would never have thought we would be here playing in the final."
Federer has a perfect record against Dimitrov, winning all five of their previous meetings.
"He has got a very complete game. He can mix it up really well. He's very confident and you never want to play confident players, but it's him or Rafa," said Federer, who last won a Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2012.
"It's going to be tough either way."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38760568
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FA Cup: Derby's Darren Bent scores 'appalling' own goal against Leicester - BBC Sport
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2017-01-27
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Derby striker Darren Bent scores an embarrassing own goal to give visitors Leicester the lead in their FA Cup fourth-round tie at Pride Park.
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Derby striker Darren Bent scores an embarrassing own goal to give visitors Leicester the lead in their FA Cup fourth-round tie at Pride Park.
Watch all the best action from the FA Cup fourth round here.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38778139
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What does Booker Group do? - BBC News
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2017-01-27
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Tesco is buying food wholesaler Booker Group in a £3.7bn deal - but what does Booker Group do?
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Business
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Byron is one of the restaurant chains Booker supplies
Tesco took the retail world by surprise when it announced it was buying Britain's largest food wholesaler, Booker Group, in a £3.7bn deal.
But what exactly does Booker do and why has the country's largest supermarket snapped it up?
Booker may not be a household name but you may well have eaten in one of the restaurants it supplies or shopped at its stores.
Its sprawling empire includes the UK's largest cash and carry business and a raft of well known convenience brands including Londis and Budgens.
It racked up sales of some £5bn in the year to March 2016.
Booker makes most of its money supplying branded and private-label goods to independent convenience stores, grocers and leisure outlets.
It supplies thousands of product lines - from frozen food to tobacco - and claims more than 1.3 million customers.
The company also supplies catering services for pubs, restaurants and other clients.
Bookers' catering customers include the prison service in England and Wales
Customers include the prison service in England and Wales, restaurant chains such as Byron and Prezzo, and most of the cinema chains in the UK.
Neil Wilson, an analyst at ETX Capital, said Tesco's interest in the wholesale side of the business would have been driven by a desire to merge supply chains and cut costs.
"The UK supermarket scene is in a recovery phase and there are further growth opportunities.
"But it's also hugely competitive and store deflation is hitting margins, meaning anything that can be done to pare back costs in areas like procurement, supply chain, distribution and store footprint is a good thing."
A raft of well known convenience store brands operate under franchise agreements with Booker, buying in its goods and services.
These include more than 3,200 Premier branded stores, 47 discount stores operating under the Family Shopper brand, 1,500 Londis stores, and 120 Budgens shops.
Bruno Monteyne at Bernstein Research said that the quality of these shops was likely to improve through the Tesco deal.
Booker operates more than 1,500 Londis stores under franchise agreements
"Convenience stores are not known for their fresh food, but Tesco is," he told the BBC.
"So I expect Bookers' stores will improve their produce offerings which will be attractive to customers."
Booker also owns Makro, the cash-and-carry brand, with 30 outlets across the UK.
And it has taken its operations into India, where it claims to serve more than 21,000 customers through franchise convenience stores.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38767644
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