title
stringlengths 13
112
| published_date
stringlengths 10
10
| authors
stringclasses 3
values | description
stringlengths 0
382
⌀ | section
stringlengths 2
31
⌀ | content
stringlengths 0
81.9k
| link
stringlengths 21
189
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trump ban: 'Everyone matters to God,' religious groups say - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Christian and Jewish leaders are among those criticising President Trump's order restricting immigration.
|
US & Canada
|
Donald Trump's immigration order goes against the teachings of the bible, say church leaders
He may have secured the votes of four out of five white evangelical Christians and a majority of white Catholics, but President Donald Trump's decision to issue an executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries and blocking all refugees from Syria is attracting criticism from across the spectrum of religious belief.
The Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, who prayed at Mr Trump's inauguration and is president of the world's largest Hispanic Christian organisation, representing more than 100 million evangelicals, is signatory to a group letter asking Mr Trump to reconsider his suspension of refugee resettlement.
The letter, signed by eight other Christian leaders, says: "The Bible teaches us that each person - including each refugee, regardless of their country of origin, religious background, or any other qualifier - is made in the Image of God, with inherent dignity and potential.
"Their lives matter to God, and they matter to us."
Another clergyman who took part in the presidential inauguration, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, told reporters on Sunday that the executive order "at first blush causes us some apprehension".
Cardinal Dolan, who has been described as a friend of the president, said he needed time to hear the views of legal experts before consolidating a final opinion.
The United States' largest Muslim civil rights organisation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), denounced Mr Trump's order and has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of more than 20 individuals whom it believes have been unconstitutionally prevented from entering the United States.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a US District Court in Virginia, says the executive order is unconstitutional because "its apparent purpose and underlying motive is to ban people of the Islamic faith in Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States".
These criticisms are being echoed in Britain. At the annual dinner of charity World Jewish Relief, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis condemned Mr Trump's action.
"President Trump has signed an executive order that seeks to discriminate based totally on religion or nationality," he said. "We as Jews, perhaps more than any others, know what it's like to be the victims of discrimination."
He added: "There are so many millions of refugees who are receiving no hope from the United States of America, of all countries."
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, issued a statement expressing shock at the new immigration restrictions.
"It is extraordinary that any civilised country should stigmatise and ban citizens of other nations in the matter of providing humanitarian protection.
"In Christ, we are called to welcome the stranger especially when in desperate need."
On the same day as Mr Trump issued his order, he gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network in which he claimed that his actions were not designed to discriminate against Muslims but instead to offer support to Christians, whom he said had been "horribly treated".
Pope Francis has urged compassion towards refugees, including from Syria
"If you were a Christian in Syria," he went on, "it was impossible, at least very, very tough, to get in the United States".
"If you were a Muslim, you could come in. But if you were a Christian, it was almost impossible."
Figures from the Refugee Processing Center do show that as far as Syria is concerned, just a few dozen Christians entered the US in 2016 compared with 15,000 Muslims.
But Christians make up fewer than 10% of the Syrian population and the UNHCR notes that they are less likely to seek refuge via its programme.
However, when other countries are taken into account, the US admitted almost as many Christian refugees (37,521) as Muslim refugees (38,901) in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center.
In addition to referencing facts, several Church leaders are appealing to theology to defend their opposition to Mr Trump's order.
Dr Tim Keller, the minister of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York and the author of Generous Justice, argues that the parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament explains why offering assistance to those in need must be a bedrock of Christian faith and practice.
"By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew," he writes, "Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need - regardless of race, politics, class, and religion - is your neighbour.
"Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbour, and you must love your neighbour."
Correction 9 March 2017: This article has been updated to include specific figures for Syrian refugees going to the US.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38819813
|
How virtual reality is shaking up the music industry - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Virtual reality is opening up new revenue streams for the music industry and reviving the pop video.
|
Business
|
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was turned into a VR fantasy mixing real footage with animation
Imagine finding yourself on a futuristic stage with rock legends Queen as they blast out their greatest hit, Bohemian Rhapsody. A neon-rendered Freddie Mercury struts around you.
Well, now that fantasy experience can be a reality - albeit a virtual one.
Last year Queen collaborated with Google Play and Enosis VR to create a 360-degree virtual reality (VR) take on the groundbreaking video for the band's 1975 hit.
This video is often credited with fuelling the boom in pop videos that characterised the 1980s.
The interactive app uses 2D and 3D animations combined with motion-captured ballet dancers to immerse the viewer in the late Freddie Mercury's "subconscious mind".
VR wizardry transports fans on to a virtual stage with the late Freddie Mercury
The narrative changes based on where your gaze falls as you watch through your VR headset.
The original song was also remixed and mastered to create an interactive audio experience, the sound changing as the viewer turns their head.
So-called "immersive" technologies are transforming what used to be a marketing tool into a new revenue stream for an industry whose business model was decimated by digital 20 years ago.
"It's a powerful sensation to watch something in 360 degrees, far more so than to watch it on a flat, framed screen," says Dylan Southard, creative director at US design studio VR Playhouse.
His firm has worked on 360-degree VR videos with artists such as US R&B singer Dawn Richard.
"You're more present and so things are more heightened," says Mr Southard. "It can be emotionally intense. You can feel as if you're right inside the story."
Although it is still early days for the technology - affordable VR headsets have only recently come on to the market - experimentation is rife in the music industry.
Zach Fuller, paid content analyst at UK media and technology firm MIDiA Research, says VR is emerging in an increasingly "visual-centric" music landscape.
"Examples are the accompanying film for Beyonce's Lemonade [album] and Frank Ocean's 'visual album' Endless, suggesting a strong future for visual music experiences that bodes well for VR," he says.
In a world where consumers are able to stream songs anywhere at any time, standing out from the crowd is no mean feat.
"There's so much competition for attention, so anything that's new and potentially remarkable is going to get played with," says Ross Cairns, a UK-based creative director who worked on a VR video to accompany Biffy Clyro's single Flammable last summer.
As well as giving music fans more exciting, immersive videos to watch, VR has great potential in the live music space as well.
"The sense of presence we can achieve in VR is incomparable to any other medium," says Jacek Naglowski, chief executive of Circus Digitalis, a Polish publisher that worked on one of the first cinematic VR music videos in Europe.
"Experiencing the concert in VR is something that people would be willing to pay for," he says. "In future it may be one of the most important revenue streams for musicians and producers."
Live concert and festival specialist Live Nation announced last year that it would be teaming up with US bank Citi and NextVR to create a series of VR live events.
"The obvious thing is to use this technology to open up live concerts to a wider audience and give them a better experience than just watching video in flat screen," says Tom Szirtes, creative technologist at UK digital design studio Mybronic.
With arrays of cameras that can capture 360-degree images from a number of vantage points - including on stage - a VR live concert could be an even more thrilling experience than being there in person.
The technology also offers bands the opportunity to perform live in a shared VR space, freeing them from the need to hire expensive venues.
In 2014, UK indie rock band The Indelicates released a VR single, The Generation That Nobody Remembered. Vocalist Simon Clayton believes fans and other musicians could even play along. "[Technology] could let us form bands in chatrooms with musicians from all over the world," he says.
Mybronic is already experimenting in this space.
"Imagine a band projecting themselves into a computer-generated environment and allowing other people to connect," says Mr Szirtes. "It opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities for artists to connect to new audiences in new ways."
Tyler Hurd's VR video for Future Islands' track Old Friend is a fully immersive experience
The future will be about entering the musician's world, rather than simply engaging with an individual song.
Anthony Batt, co-founder of US-based VR creative studio Wevr, says: "The [VR experience] won't necessarily constantly entertain like a music video, but consumers will enter into the artist's space, into their gallery."
Wevr produced the VR video experience for the track Old Friend from the band Future Islands last year.
VR Playhouse's Dylan Southard agrees: "A pop star will be able to create a whole world that their fans can visit and interact with."
The challenge, as always, is making all this VR tech commercially viable.
Users pay $2.99 (£2.40) to enjoy Wevr's Old Friend VR experience, and Mr Batt says sales are "in the thousands".
"In turn, we recycle that money back to the artists and musicians," he says.
VR tech could give bands a virtual space in which to interact with their fans
US company Vrtify specialises in taking traditional music content and transforming it into an immersive experience, paying 70% of its income back to artists.
"Immersive technologies aren't mainstream, but we all see how quickly they're evolving," says Marcus Behrendt, Vrtify's chief marketing officer.
"It will soon represent a very important income for the music industry because it is changing how fans are consuming music."
New revenue streams from advertising, membership subscriptions and pay-per-view are possible once the audience grows, he believes.
But the tech needs to improve before this form of musical entertainment goes mainstream, Mybronic's Mr Szirtes argues.
"We need to have lighter, smaller, more comfortable headsets that are cheap to produce, combined with lots of great creative content that really understands the strengths of the medium."
Follow Technology of Business editor Matthew Wall on Twitter and Facebook
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38795190
|
How Peru is making children grow taller - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
| null |
It looks a bit like bribery at first...
| null |
It looks a bit like bribery at first...
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38815188
|
Transfer deadline day: Premier League clubs net January profit - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-01
| null |
Premier League clubs make a transfer window profit for the first time despite spending reaching a six-year January high of £215m.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Premier League clubs have recorded a transfer window profit for the first time - despite spending reaching a six-year January high of £215m.
Southampton and Burnley made late deadline-day deals, while Odion Ighalo moved from Watford to China for £20m.
Saints paid about £14m for Napoli's Manolo Gabbiadini, and the Clarets signed Robbie Brady for up to £13m
However, top-flight sides brought in £40m more than they paid out, according to finance analysts Deloitte.
• None All the deadline-day deal as they happened - plus the rest of January's transfers
Premier League teams have spent a record £1.38bn on transfers in the 2016-17 season, after a summer outlay of £1.165bn.
Spending in January 2017 is the second highest - behind the record mark of £225m six years ago - and dwarfs the £35m spent in the first January transfer window in 2003.
While the window is now closed for the major European leagues, there could still be departures as big-spending China has an official deadline of 28 February.
All figures based on transfers reported as at 00:30 GMT on 1 February
Deadline-day sales were led by Nigeria striker Ighalo, 27, moving to Chinese Super League club Changchun Yatai.
Burnley were one of the busier sides, recruiting 25-year-old Republic of Ireland international Brady from Norwich for a club-record fee having earlier snapped up another midfielder, Ashley Westwood, from Aston Villa.
Southampton bolstered their attacking options by bringing in Gabbiadini, 25, while Crystal Palace secured Liverpool centre-back Mamadou Sakho on loan and signed Serbia midfielder Luka Milivojevic from Greek side Olympiakos.
Swansea City signed Aston Villa forward Jordan Ayew in a swap deal that saw Wales defender Neil Taylor go the other way.
Several mooted moves did not go through on a relatively low-key day, with Celtic keeper Craig Gordon and striker Moussa Dembele staying with the Scottish champions despite reported interest from Chelsea.
Sunderland, thwarted in their attempts to sign forward Leonardo Ulloa from Premier League champions Leicester City, had a bid of about £12m rejected by Southampton for forward Jay Rodriguez.
Championship clubs spent a record £40m on deadline day, led by Aston Villa signing forward Scott Hogan from Brentford for a fee that could reach £12m.
Wigan sold winger Yanic Wildschut to Norwich for £7m, but they ended the day with eight new players.
Sheffield Wednesday have to wait until Wednesday to see if their £9.5m move for Middlesbrough striker Jordan Rhodes had gone through in time.
Midfielder Ravel Morrison returned to QPR on a late loan deal from Italian side Lazio, and highly rated West Ham defender Reece Oxford, 18, moved to Reading on loan for the rest of the season.
Striker Matty Taylor caused a stir by leaving Bristol Rovers, where he has scored 19 times this season, for local rivals Bristol City - the first time a player has done so since 1987.
Championship side City wasted no time in winding up their League One foes, with manager Lee Johnson saying: "It'll be a big step up in standard for him."
Meanwhile, Neil Danns' tour of the clubs of the north west beginning with a B saw him tick off Blackpool. The midfielder's loan deal from Bury follows spells at Bolton and Blackburn. He has also squeezed in Birmingham City and Bristol City along the way.
What were the major deals of the window?
Everton were the Premier League club to spend the most on a single player, paying Manchester United £22m for France midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin.
However, the biggest fee was the £60m paid to Chelsea by Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG for Brazil attacking midfielder Oscar.
Also departing the Premier League was Dimitri Payet - with West Ham accusing the France forward of lacking "commitment and respect" as he rejoined Marseille for £25m.
The top six sides did not shell out - the only new purchase among the leading sides being Arsenal's surprise signing of left-back Cohen Bramall from non-league Hednesford Town for £40,000. He had just been made redundant from his job in a car factory before a trial with the Gunners.
• None Premier League clubs spent £215m to buy new players in the January window, recording a net transfer profit of £40m compared with a net spend of £100m last year.
• None The bottom six clubs accounted for half of total expenditure, with sides in the bottom half of the table spending £145m (67% of total expenditure).
• None Deadline-day spending by top-flight clubs totalled £60m, up £20m on last year, and the second-highest ever after £135m in 2011.
• None Championship sides spent a total of £80m, a big increase on last year's total of £35m and a new record for a January transfer window for the division. The £40m spent on deadline day was the same amount spent by Premier League clubs on deadline day in January 2016.
• None The Premier League was once again the highest-spending league in European football. The next highest was France's Ligue 1, with total transfer expenditure of about £130m.
"The sales of Oscar, Dimitri Payet, Odion Ighalo and Memphis Depay, as well as around £20m worth of sales to Championship clubs, have helped Premier League clubs record net receipts for the first time in a transfer window," said Deloitte spokesman Dan Jones.
"As was the case last year, it is clubs in the bottom half of the table who have driven expenditure this January, investing in their squads in an attempt to secure survival."
Germany doesn't really get the last-minute English spirit of deadline day, with the Bundesliga wrapping things up at the civilised hour of 6pm local time as usual. Bayern Munich made a pair of big signings in Hoffenheim's Niklas Sule and Sebastian Rudy, but they won't arrive until summer.
Borussia Dortmund moved quickly to snap up 17-year-old Sweden striker Alexander Isak and Bayer Leverkusen also spent big on a youngster on deadline day, paying 12m euros (£10.3m) for Jamaican teenager Leon Bailey from Genk.
Thank goodness, then, for Turkey's taste for the grand gesture, with champions Besiktas and surprise title-chasers Baskasehir both going for striking experience in Demba Ba (on loan from Shanghai Shenhua) and Emmanuel Adebayor (free agent) respectively.
It was a quiet window for Serie A in Italy, with Juventus spending big on young talent but parking it for the future; for example, Mattia Caldara, a 15m euro (£12.9m) signing, is staying with his current club Atalanta on loan.
With Barcelona typically quiet and Real Madrid barred from involvement, it was similarly sedate in Spain. Villarreal's sale of Alexandre Pato to Tianjin Quanjian for 18m euros (£15.4m) was comfortably the biggest transfer in La Liga, though Jese's loan move to his hometown club of Las Palmas was a romantic subplot on deadline day.
France was busier than usual this winter, with Julian Draxler (36m euros/£30.8m) and Goncalo Guedes (30m euros/£25.7m) both joining Paris St-Germain for big fees, and Lyon splashing out on Memphis Depay (18m euros/£15m). On deadline day it was Lille, under new ownership, who were busiest, signing no less than six in a frenetic 24 hours, led by winger Anwar El Ghazi from Ajax for 8m euros (£6.9m).
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38817276
|
Shetland celebrates the Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
| null |
The annual Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival has been celebrated in Shetland, culminating in the traditional burning of a longboat.
| null |
The annual Up Helly Aa Viking fire festival has been celebrated in Shetland.
Some 60 "Vikings" paraded through Lerwick, trailed by more than 900 torchbearers known as "guizers".
The celebration culminated in the traditional burning of a galley. Mike Grundon reports from Lerwick.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-38821226
|
No, this isn't Trump's brother - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Who is the mystery VIP who's been memed as Trump's African half-brother?
|
BBC Trending
|
Okay, you've probably guessed it. This isn't Donald Trump's Kenyan half-brother.
But that hasn't stopped the internet having a good laugh at this man's uncannily Trump-esque locks. When the photo was shared on American comedian and radio host Ricky Smiley's Facebook page back in January, hundreds joined in on the comments, and thousands more shared the post.
And that's not the only comedy meme. Another makes the claim that the man in the photo is one 'Nyirongo Trump' of Malawi.
But who is the man in the memes? Well, we've had a dig round and we've deduced his identity. Are you ready?
It is in fact Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo.
A reverse image search on the meme led Trending to the original - un-Photoshopped - image, where he is seen greeting a celebrity supporter of his New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ghanaian actor Kofi Adu.
So how many have picked up on the man's true identity?
On the original Rickey Smiley show Facebook post, out of 311 comments, only two people seem to have noticed that the man is, in fact, the Ghanaian president.
Despite not being Trump's half-brother, President Addo has been nicknamed 'Nana Trump' by some of his supporters, mainly due to the fact that his campaign and inauguration happened in very close time-proximity to President Trump's.
And it seems that the meme traces its origin back to an image that was shared by some of his supporters back in December, with the text "Nana Trump: Make Ghana great again".
Next story: China's travel rumour that was too good to be true
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-38811605
|
Which foods can improve your gut bacteria? - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Can you change your gut bacteria for the better? Michael Mosley investigates for Trust Me I'm A Doctor.
|
Health
|
Can what you eat change the bacteria in your gut for the better? Dr Michael Mosley has been finding out which foods and drinks can make the most difference.
The gut microbiome - the diverse community of bacteria that inhabits our intestines - is a hot topic in science right now.
Almost every day we come across headlines claiming that it has the power to influence our health in new and surprising ways, whether it's our weight, our mood or our ability to resist infection.
Unsurprisingly, given this explosion of interest in our inner ecosystem, our supermarket shelves and pharmacies now stock an array of probiotic products - products containing live bacteria and yeasts - that claim to be able to influence our gut microbiome for the better. But is any of this actually possible?
To find out, Trust Me, I'm A Doctor set up an experiment in Inverness with the help of NHS Highland and 30 volunteers and scientists around the country. We split our volunteers into three groups and over four weeks asked each group to try a different approach that, it's claimed, can boost gut bacteria for the better.
Lactobacillus casei - a bacterium found in the intestines and mouth
Our first group tried an off-the-shelf probiotic drink of the type found in most supermarkets. These drinks usually contain one or two species of bacteria that can survive the journey through our powerful stomach acid to set up home in our intestines.
Our second group tried a traditional fermented drink called kefir which contains an array of bacteria and yeast.
Our third group was asked to eat foods rich in a prebiotic fibre called inulin. Prebiotics are substances that feed the good bacteria already living in our guts, and inulin can be found in Jerusalem artichokes, chicory root, onions, garlic and leeks.
What we found at the end of our study was fascinating. The group consuming the probiotic drink saw a small change in one bacteria type known to be good for weight management, bacteria called Lachnospiraceae. However this change wasn't statistically significant.
But our other two groups did see significant changes. The group eating foods rich in prebiotic fibre saw a rise in a type of bacteria known to be good for general gut health - something that is in line with other studies.
Our biggest change, however, was in the kefir group.
These volunteers saw a rise in a family of bacteria called Lactobacillales. We know that some of these bacteria are good for our overall gut health and that they can help conditions such as traveller's diarrhoea and lactose intolerance.
"Fermented foods by their very nature are quite acidic and so these microbes have had to evolve in order to cope with these sorts of environments so they're naturally able to survive in acid," says Dr Paul Cotter from the Teagasc Research Centre in Cork, who helped with our analysis. "That helps them to get through the stomach in order to then have an influence in the intestine below."
So we decided to investigate fermented foods and drinks further - we wanted to know what you should look for when selecting these products to get the best bacteria boost.
With the help of Dr Cotter and scientists at the University of Roehampton, we selected a range of homemade and shop-bought fermented foods and drinks and sent them off to the lab for testing.
Trust Me, I'm A Doctor is on BBC Two at 20:00 GMT, Wednesday 1 February - catch up on BBC iPlayer
There were some striking differences between the products. While the homemade foods and products made by traditional methods contained a wide array of bacteria, some of the commercial products contained barely any.
"Typically, with commercial varieties, they would be subjected to pasteurisation after preparation to ensure their safety and extend their shelf life, which can kill off the bacteria, whereas that wouldn't be the case for the homemade varieties," says Dr Cotter.
So if you want to try fermented foods to improve your gut health it's best to look for products that have been made using traditional preparation and processing, or make them yourself, to ensure you're getting the healthy bacteria you're after.
Join the conversation on our Facebook page
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38800977
|
'Down and anxious' - when loneliness hits - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
As a new national commission for loneliness is launched, two women share their experiences.
|
UK
|
Molly Forbes is a sociable person - but became very lonely when she had a baby
A commission started by murdered MP Jo Cox is investigating loneliness in the UK, which it says is an epidemic affecting people of all ages and backgrounds. Here, two young women share their stories.
In 2010 Molly Forbes had her first child, Freya. But after the birth she was confronted with something she had not prepared for: loneliness.
A "sociable person", Molly - then 26 - was one of the first of her friends to have a baby. Her husband was out at work all day and she did not have any close family living by.
"The loneliness of being a new mother was a real surprise for me. It just hit me," she said.
"You're suddenly at home with a baby. You feel safer there so you stay home - but it makes you more isolated.
"When you go out, you want to be seen to be doing a good job and being happy. If you admit you're lonely, you might be labelled as not coping."
"You want to be seen to be doing a good job and being happy", says Molly
The commission - planned by West Yorkshire Labour MP Jo Cox before she was murdered last June - says a fifth of the population privately admit they are "always or often lonely".
But two-thirds of those would never confess to having a problem in public, it says
Molly, from Devon, said that rather than being honest about how she was feeling, she had "put a brave face on - and that can make you more lonely".
"Looking back, I was definitely feeling quite anxious.
"I was worrying about money, about whether I'd go back to my job - and when you don't have someone to talk to, these worries can spiral out of control."
Molly had lots of friends, but found she couldn't talk to them about her post-baby concerns. That was when she started writing a blog.
"I made connections with other mums online, and from there I started meeting up with people and found friends that way."
The commission says three-quarters of people who are lonely on a regular basis do not know where to turn for support. It is looking for practical solutions to beat loneliness.
"Spend time making friends with other pregnant women, so you have a support network ready to go once the baby is born."
Find other mums to provide a support network, Molly says
Have you experienced loneliness? Do you have advice or tips about how to deal with feeling isolated? Email your comments to [email protected]
For Michelle Ornstein, who has a learning disability, there is nothing worse than being alone.
"When I'm here on my own, I feel really down and anxious," she said.
The 22-year-old, from Essex, said her anxieties had got worse in recent years, leading her to leave college.
There had been an incident on the school bus, where Michelle was wearing her hearing aids close to a group of people being loud.
"I just burst out in tears on the bus. I got myself so worked up and thought this is it. I can't do this," Michelle said.
"At one point I couldn't be left on my own at all, I wouldn't let [my parents] out the door."
Spending time out of the house and with friends can be key to countering loneliness but, Rossanna Trudgian, Head of Campaigns at Mencap explained, almost a third of youngsters with learning disabilities spend less than an hour outside their homes on a Saturday.
"Social isolation and fear of negative attitudes can remain huge barriers towards feeling welcome and included in society," she said.
But things have got better for Michelle. Talking things through with her family has helped - and this week, she starts a new course.
She said: "If you keep it to yourself, you will bottle it up and build up more anxieties and won't go out."
Michelle is by no means the only young person experiencing loneliness.
The Mix is an online support service for under-25s. This year, it has seen a 26% rise in the numbers of those accessing their loneliness support service, compared to the previous year.
Jo Cox had begun setting up the commission before she was murdered in her constituency last June
Community manager James Pickstone said loneliness was "an underlying issue" shared by many people who visit the service, even though it was "rarely discussed openly".
He said: "We see a lot of young people feeling isolated at college and university, living away from home and not having the social life expected and associated with the university experience."
And younger people can experience loneliness differently from how older adults do.
Prof Graham Davey from the University of Sussex explained: "Younger people appear to be focused on friendship networks - the number of relationships they have - and experience loneliness as a function of the fewer friends they have."
And in today's society, friendship networks are represented nowhere more obviously than on social media.
"Whether you perceive yourself to be a successful user of social media is likely to have an impact on feelings of loneliness, anxiety, paranoia and mental health generally," the psychology professor said.
But you won't find too many status updates about feeling lonely because ultimately - Prof Davey argued - loneliness has a stigma and "few people want to admit they're lonely".
• None Test : Am I lonelier than I think?
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38760612
|
Quebec mosque attack: Who were the victims? - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Profiles of the six worshippers who were killed by a gunman at a Quebec City mosque on 29 January.
|
US & Canada
|
From left to right: Khaled Belkacemi, Azzedine Soufiane, and Aboubaker Thabti
Canadian police have charged a 27-year-old man over the deadly shooting at a Quebec City mosque on Sunday. The six worshippers who died were immigrants who had moved to Quebec to seek a better life.
Mr Belkacemi studied chemical engineering in his native Algeria before moving to Canada in the 1980s. He taught food science at Quebec's Laval University and was married to a fellow professor there. His wife was also at the mosque when the shooting occurred during Sunday prayers, but she escaped unhurt.
The head of Laval's food science department, Jean-Claude Dufour, described Mr Belkacemi as "an extraordinary person" who was "always smiling" and "an outstanding teacher who loved his graduate students".
Mr Soufiane was born in Morocco and settled in Quebec three decades ago. He ran a halal shop in the suburb of Sainte-Foy and is described as a important member of the local Muslim community.
Karim Elabed, an imam in nearby Levis, said Mr Soufiane had helped many newcomers in Quebec City. "When I arrived here eight years ago, [his shop] was the first place I learned about and pretty much all of Quebec's Muslims did their groceries there," Mr Elabed told Canadian media.
Abdelkrim Hassane studied information technology in Algeria before emigrating. A colleague quoted by the Globe and Mail newspaper said Mr Hassane had lived in Paris and Montreal before settling in Quebec City.
Mr Hassane worked as a programmer for the Quebec government. The colleague, Abderrezak Redouane, said he was "a very peaceful, sensitive man". He had three children.
The two men, described as brothers by Radio Canada, were born in Guinea in West Africa. They are described as IT workers. Mamadou Tanou was a father of two and was reportedly sending money home to Guinea.
"Tanou lost his father three years ago, so it became his responsibility to support not only his family here but also his family in Africa. Now that's all been cut," a family friend told the Globe and Mail.
Ibrahima worked for the province's health-insurance agency and had four children.
Born in Tunisia, Mr Thabti is reported to have moved to Quebec a decade ago and worked in a pharmacy. He was married with two young children, his brother said on Facebook.
A friend, Abder Dhakkar, told the Globe and Mail: "He's so kind; everyone loves him - everyone."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38807775
|
Reality Check: The US and refugees - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Reality Check looks at some of the facts and figures behind refugee numbers in the US.
|
US & Canada
|
On 28 January, President Trump signed an executive order, which, among other things, indefinitely bans Syrian refugee arrivals as well as all other refugees for 120 days.
He also promised "to prioritise refugee claims made by individuals on the basis of religious-based persecution, provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion in the individual's country of nationality".
The executive order imposed a cap of 50,000 on the number of refugees for 2017, less than half of the 110,000 admissions that President Obama planned.
Has the number of refugees in the US and, in particular, those from Syria, risen in recent years?
The number of refugees admitted to the US over the past 10 years has fluctuated, from the low of 48,282 in 2007, to the high of 84,995 in 2016.
In the first three months of the new financial year, a total of 25,671 were admitted.
In 2016, of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted, the highest number - 16,370 - arrived from DR Congo, followed by Syria with 12,587 and Myanmar (Burma) with 12,347.
The number of Muslim refugees who entered the US in 2016 was 38,901, making up almost half (46%) of the total, according to this Pew Research report from October 2016.
The report says this is the highest number of Muslim refugees in any year since data on self-reported religious affiliations first became publicly available in 2002.
Between 2011, when the conflict in Syria started, and 2015, the US admitted a relatively small number of Syrian refugees - a total of 201. In 2015 the number increased to 1,682 and in 2016 to 12,587, bringing the total, since the start of the war, to 14,470.
By comparison, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' latest figures show that the highest number of refugees from Syria since the start of the crisis was taken by Turkey with 2.9 million, Lebanon with one million and Jordan, which took 655,000.
In the same period, the EU took 844,000 Syrians, according to Eurostat, with more than half of the total admitted by Germany.
There have been big differences in the number of refugees arriving year-on-year in the US over the past four decades: from the peak of 207,116 in 1980 to the lowest of 27,131 in 2002.
In total, since 1975, the US has admitted about 3.4 million refugees. Its current population is about 323 million.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38801829
|
Supreme Court Neil Gorsuch: Who is Trump's nominee? - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Mr Gorsuch has been likened to the late Justice Scalia based on his strict interpretation of law.
|
US & Canada
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Judge Gorsuch spoke of his "most solemn assignment"
President Trump's Supreme Court pick, Judge Neil Gorsuch, is the youngest such nominee in a quarter of a century.
The 49-year-old Colorado native, whose legal pedigree includes Harvard and Oxford, would succeed the late Justice Antonin Scalia if confirmed.
He is favoured by many conservatives who consider him to espouse a similarly strict interpretation of law as Scalia.
Judge Gorsuch was first nominated to the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals by former President George W Bush in 2006.
Judge Gorsuch began his law career clerking for Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy, the latter of whom he could now serve alongside.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Donald Trump: "Was that a surprise? Was it?"
He worked in a private law practice in Washington for a decade and served as the principal deputy assistant associate attorney general at the Justice Department under the Bush administration.
Judge Gorsuch graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where former President Barack Obama was a classmate, and earned a doctorate in legal philosophy at Oxford University.
Perhaps it was during his time in England that he accumulated what his former law partner, Mark Hansen, has said was "an inexhaustible store" of Winston Churchill quotes.
Judge Gorsuch - who reportedly likes to fly-fish and hunt - lives in Boulder with his wife Louise and two daughters, where he is also an adjunct law professor at the University of Colorado.
If confirmed by the Senate, he would become the only Protestant on the current bench. The other justices are Jewish and Catholic.
His family is well-connected in Republican establishment politics.
His mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford, was the first female director of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Reagan administration.
He is known for his clear and concise writing style, navigating the most complex legal issues as deftly as the double-black diamond slopes on which he is reputedly an expert skier in the snow-capped mountain state he calls home.
He argued against euthanasia in his 2006 book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia.
"All human beings are intrinsically valuable and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong," he wrote.
In a 2005 article in the National Review, Judge Gorsuch argued that "American liberals have become addicted to the courtroom".
He said they keep "relying on judges and lawyers rather than elected leaders and the ballot box, as the primary means of effecting their social agenda".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Supreme Court has been without a full bench for almost a full year.
Judge Gorsuch has never ruled on abortion, and he is not expected to call into question high-profile rulings on that issue or gay marriage.
His conservative outlook cements Mr Trump's campaign promise to nominate a judge "in the mould" of Justice Scalia, restoring the nine-seat high court's 5-4 conservative majority.
Much like the late Scalia, the Ivy-League educated judge is known to support textualism, or the interpretation of law according to its plain text.
He also maintains a strict interpretation of the US Constitution, or how it was originally understood by the Founding Fathers.
While sitting on the bench of the 10th Circuit, Judge Gorsuch sided with groups that successfully challenged the Obama administration's requirements for employers to provide health insurance that includes contraception in the Hobby Lobby Stores v Sebelius case.
Justice Scalia (front row, second from left) was one of five justices that made up the conservative majority on the court
Judge Gorsuch has also expressed concern about "executive overreach", a criticism that was often directed at the Obama administration's use of presidential orders to overcome congressional gridlock.
He has sharply questioned a landmark Supreme Court ruling determining that courts should defer to government agencies when it comes to interpretations of ambiguous federal laws.
Conservatives blame the 1984 decision involving the Chevron oil company for handing too much power to the regulatory state.
In an August 2016 concurring opinion, Judge Gorsuch wrote that "executive bureaucracies [were being allowed] to swallow huge amounts of core judicial and legislative power and concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers' design".
In a 2013 case, he upheld a lower court's ruling that a police officer was protected under qualified-immunity law after he used a stun gun on a 22-year-old student, who died from the incident.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38818482
|
Antarctica's missing iron meteorites: Mystery solved? - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
| null |
A team from Manchester University is travelling to Antarctica to search for rare iron meteorites they believed may be buried in the ice.
| null |
A team from Manchester University is travelling to Antarctica to search for rare iron meteorites they believed may be buried in the ice.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38818542
|
Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-01
| null |
Chelsea stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League to nine points despite Diego Costa missing a penalty in a draw at Liverpool.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Chelsea had to settle for a draw against a much-improved Liverpool at Anfield after Diego Costa's late penalty was saved by Simon Mignolet - but still extended their lead at top of the Premier League to nine points.
Liverpool keeper Mignolet made amends for his first-half embarrassment when he had been caught off guard by David Luiz's superb free-kick from 25 yards.
Georginio Wijnaldum's close-range header 11 minutes after the break gave Liverpool a draw they fully deserved, ending a run of three successive home losses, two of which knocked them out of the EFL Cup and the FA Cup.
However, it could have been much better for Chelsea and worse for Liverpool when Costa went to ground under challenge from Joel Matip 14 minutes from the end. Referee Mark Clattenburg pointed to the spot but Mignolet dived low to his right to save the Spain striker's spot-kick.
Roberto Firmino wasted Liverpool's two best chances, shooting high over an open goal and heading straight at Thibaut Courtois in the closing seconds.
• None Costa 'not the nicest guy', says Klopp
• None Reaction from Anfield and the rest of Tuesday's Premier League games
• None Football Daily podcast: Reaction to the draw at Anfield & the rest of the Premier League action
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte disguised his disappointment about Costa's late penalty being saved by Mignolet with his reaction at the final whistle.
The Italian knew Chelsea would be facing a wounded Liverpool after those three damaging defeats - and he clearly saw this as one point won rather than two lost as he went straight to the visiting fans and pumped his fists in delight.
The Blues were not at their best and yet showed the resilience and compactness of old as they were dominated in possession but kept Liverpool at arm's length for most of the game.
And in N'Golo Kante they had the game's outstanding performer, perpetual motion and first to every loose ball in midfield and at both ends of the pitch.
Costa had an off night, including squandering the penalty, but Chelsea found answers elsewhere and carried a threat of their own after Pedro came on as a late substitute.
Chelsea may only return to London with a point, but results elsewhere for Arsenal and Tottenham made this a good night for the Premier League leaders.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had endured his worst week since arriving at Anfield in October 2015 with the Premier League defeat by Swansea City, the EFL Cup semi-final loss to Southampton and the FA Cup fourth-round humiliation against Championship side Wolves.
The German, however, has proved his mettle against his closest Premier League rivals - and once again he emerged unbeaten to maintain his excellent record against Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham since his appointment.
This draw means that he has played 15 league games against that group, winning six, drawing eight and losing only one, a home defeat by United last season.
Liverpool's hopes of a first title since 1990 are receding as they are 10 points behind Chelsea - but there was plenty for Klopp to be happy about.
This was more like the high-intensity Liverpool of the early months of the season, although their play lacks subtlety at times as they seem to get carried away by the emotion of the crowd, as well as their animated manager in his technical area.
And further good news was the sight of leading scorer Sadio Mane, who has nine league goals, coming on as a substitute after his return from Africa Cup Of Nations duty with Senegal.
'Outstanding in attitude' - what they said
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp: "I said before the game - and people didn't like it - but this wonderful, powerful club needs to keep its nerves.
"Not everything is bad because we lose. This team is outstanding in attitude so let's do the best we can and see where we end up at the end of the season. The results tonight were good for us, but we must continue to fight."
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte: "It was a very tough game. Both teams tried to play with intensity. I'm pleased. We saw a different game to when we played Liverpool and lost at home.
"It's pity Diego Costa missed the penalty because he played very well. We had different chances to score goals, but we must be happy with the result and the performance because it is not easy to play away at Liverpool."
Luiz's first Chelsea goal for almost four years - the stats
• None David Luiz scored his first Premier League goal for Chelsea since April 2013 - 1,386 days ago.
• None All 14 of Georginio Wijnaldum's Premier League goals have been scored in home games (11 for Newcastle, three for Liverpool).
• None Simon Mignolet has saved six of the 14 penalties he has faced in the Premier League as a Liverpool player, more than any other keeper for the Reds.
• None Chelsea are unbeaten in their past five Premier League trips to Anfield, last losing there in May 2012.
• None The Reds have gone five games without a home win in all competitions for the first time since October 2012.
Chelsea have another huge Premier League game coming up - they entertain Arsenal (12:30 GMT) in the early kick-off on Saturday. On the same day, Liverpool are away to struggling Hull City (15:00).
How the papers saw it
• None Attempt blocked. Marcos Alonso (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Pedro.
• None Attempt saved. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Sadio Mané.
• None Attempt missed. Pedro (Chelsea) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by N'Golo Kanté.
• None Cesc Fàbregas (Chelsea) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38727326
|
Australia sharks: Campaigners call for end to nets - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
| null |
Conservationists say the nets are killing too many dolphins and turtles.
| null |
In Australia, campaigners are calling for an end to the use of shark nets at beaches, because they are killing dolphins and turtles.
More have been installed after a recent spate of shark attacks on the east coast - but some nets have been cut deliberately by those who oppose them.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38810462
|
Manchester United 0-0 Hull City: Jose Mourinho walks out of interview - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-01
| null |
Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho walks out of his BBC interview after the draw with Hull, telling Martin Fisher: "If you don't know football, you shouldn't have a microphone."
| null |
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho walks out of his BBC interview after the 0-0 draw with Hull City, telling reporter Martin Fisher: "If you don't know football, you shouldn't have a microphone."
READ MORE: Hull hold Manchester United at Old Trafford
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38835923
|
NHS staff trigger Google cyber-defences - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
NHS staff using Google's search engine triggers one of its cybersecurity defences.
|
Technology
|
NHS staff using Google's search engine has triggered one of its cybersecurity defences.
NHS Digital confirmed so many NHS staff use the search engine that it had started asking them to take a quiz to verify they were "not a robot".
News site the Register reported one NHS Trust had told staff to "use Bing" instead.
Google indicated its systems were designed to spot unusual traffic and were working as intended.
Detecting suspicious traffic from one network can help defeat potential cyber-attacks, such as attempts to try to overwhelm a website.
The BBC understands Google is not deliberately singling out NHS traffic.
A Google spokeswoman said: "Our systems are simply checking that searches are being carried out by humans and not by robots in order to keep web users safe. Once a user has filled out the Captcha [security check], they can continue to use Google as normal."
The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the world, with more than a million members of staff.
An email sent by an NHS system administrator suggested the number of staff using the search engine was "causing Google to think it is suffering from a cyber-attack".
NHS Digital told the Register: "We are aware of the current issue concerning NHS IP addresses which occasionally results in users being directed to a simple verification form when accessing Google.
"We are currently in discussion with Google as to how we can help them to resolve the issue."
NHS Digital was unable to suggest what NHS staff may be searching for using Google.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38826821
|
Entrepreneurs Nick Jenkins and Sarah Willingham are leaving Dragons' Den - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The final Dragons' Den episode featuring Nick Jenkins and Sarah Willingham will air on 26 February.
|
Newsbeat
|
The entrepreneurs will step down at the end of the current series on BBC Two, with their last episode on 26 February.
Nick Jenkins, who founded greeting card website Moonpig.com, and Sarah Willingham, who made her money investing in restaurant chain The Bombay Bicycle Club, joined the show in 2015 with Touker Suleyman.
Touker, Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones are understood to be staying.
Sarah Willingham, 43, said: "Being part of Dragons' Den has been one of the best experiences of my life.
"At the end of last year my husband Michael and I decided to finally put into action our long-held dream to spend a year travelling the world with our young children.
Peter Jones is still the only original entrepreneur to be taking part in the show
"Sadly this means that I've had to step down from my role as a Dragon.
"It's been a great privilege to be part of such a fantastic show and I wish everyone on it continued success."
Nick Jenkins, 49, said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed making Dragons' Den but I want to focus more on my portfolio of educational technology businesses and that would make it difficult to take on any more investments from the Den."
Patrick Holland, channel editor at BBC Two, said: "Nick and Sarah have both been terrific Dragons, using their nous and insight to make some great investments and produce some compelling entertainment in the process.
"As they step down from the show I want to thank them and wish them all the very best for the future."
Sarah Willingham's husband paid tribute to his wife in an Instagram post.
During her time on the show, Sarah Willingham invested in a craft gin subscription business, a coconut product firm (with Nick Jenkins), a beauty product subscription service (with Nick Jenkins), a coffee-based body scrub, science-themed children's birthday parties and workshops (with Nick Jenkins) and a skin foundation for vitiligo sufferers.
Nick Jenkins put money into a home appliances retailer (with Deborah Meaden), a magnetic dog and equine lead connector, an online double-dating app, freshly cooked baked beans, "slap-on" wrist watches and a gourmet pork scratching snack company.
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/38824698
|
Germany's rising tide of populism - BBC News
|
2017-02-01
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Just how big a threat are Germany's populist parties to the country's political establishment?
|
Europe
|
Germany's Baltic coastline can be a bleak place out of season. In the small fishing village of Freest, boats creak idly against their moorings. A lone fisherman, stark in his yellow overalls, stands on deck, scraping the scales from yesterday's catch.
It feels a long way from Berlin. And inside the quayside smokehouse, as she carefully threads sprats on to long metal skewers, fish factory worker Ines tells me she feels forgotten by Angela Merkel's government.
"They just look after the big cities," she says. "But these small communities up here - no. Nothing is being done for us. Nothing gets through to us."
It can be hard to make a good living here, especially in the winter. The workers in the smokehouse worry about unemployment. This is not a rich community and they feel it's time for political change.
Fertile ground then for Germany's right wing, anti-Islam party Alternative for Germany (AfD). A regular poll for the national broadcaster suggests it would take 15% of the vote if the general election was held tomorrow.
Ines. who works in a smoked fish factory, says she feels forgotten by the German government
The party may well complicate coalition building come the autumn. Angela Merkel's CDU party still leads those polls at 37%, but her junior coalition partner, the SPD, is at 20%
Roland delivers another load of slippery, silvery fish to the smokehouse. He pushes his woolly cap off and tells me AfD will be getting his vote.
"The other parties avoid the real problems," he explains. "Merkel just sticks to her views, even though she sees what she's got us into - like the terror attacks. If she hadn't brought those people into the country," he insists, "the victims of the Berlin Christmas markets would still be alive."
Freest is in the northern state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern. It is also home to Mrs Merkel's constituency. Last year AfD beat her Conservatives into third place in the regional election and now, they want to compound that humiliation by putting up a candidate - Leif-Erik Holm - directly against her.
Mr Holm, a smartly-dressed former radio presenter who believes a large proportion of Europe's Muslims hold radical views and want to establish a global caliphate, is, in reality, unlikely to take the chancellor's seat. But it's not impossible.
"We have a big problem with radical Islam and we need to talk about it," he tells me. "It's been taboo in Germany. The AfD broke that taboo and thank heavens people now talk about their fears. Just look at who's carrying out terror attacks in Europe, they're all extreme Islamists."
"We don't create fear. We talk about it," says the AfD's Leif-Erik Holm
It is AfD's vociferous anti-Islam, anti-migrant position which, critics argue, is key to its success. Certainly, support for what originally began as an anti-euro party surged during the latter part of the refugee crisis, as party leaders began to campaign against Mrs Merkel's asylum policy.
But Mr Holm rejects the notion that AfD is a one issue party, seeking political gain by whipping up fear of Muslim immigrants.
"During the regional election hustings we spoke with people in small towns and villages and realised fear was the most prominent theme. We don't create fear, we talk about it - the everyday fear that people have of terrorism, of uncontrolled mass immigration.
"That's what we work with as politicians. We make politics for the people."
Geert Wilders, Frauke Petry and Marine Le Pen recently shared a platform in the German city of Koblenz
AfD's anti-EU rhetoric is also growing louder as it seeks to emulate the success of the giants of Europe's far right.
It recently hosted a rally of the right in the German city of Koblenz, sharing a stage - and a platform - with the French presidential candidate Marine le Pen and Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party leads the polls ahead of the Dutch general election.
Both Ms Le Pen and Mr Wilders have pledged referendums on EU membership. AfD's manifesto now promises to pull Germany out if significant structural reforms are not implemented.
During the rally (from which the mainstream German broadcasters and press were banned) its leader Frauke Petry likened the EU to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union and joined Ms Le Pen and Mr Wilders in their calls for a revolution in Europe.
This was a show of solidarity, a display of unity from Europe's right. Emboldened by Brexit and Donald Trump's victory, the leaders are keen to focus on the threefold message which unites them; a visceral dislike of Islam, a loathing of Mrs Merkel's refugee policy and that contempt for the EU.
And they believe 2017 will be their year.
Angela Merkel is to stand for a fourth term as chancellor
It's hard to say whether they create, reflect or exploit social division, but an interesting recent German survey gave a fascinating glimpse into what might motivate AfD supporters.
The poll found, for example, that despite last year's terror attack in Berlin, 73% of those polled felt safe in Germany. But when the researchers asked AfD supporters, they found that only 34% felt secure.
Similarly, when asked whether life is better or worse than 50 years ago, 17% of Germans said it is worse, but this figure rises to 40% among AfD supporters.
In 2017, Europe's real election battles will take place in communities like Freest, where people feel forgotten by their national governments and left behind by establishment parties. If Europe's leaders want to halt the rise of the right, they must reconnect with those voters and regain their trust.
Because in this windblown harbour on the German coast, those who feel left out in the cold are warming to what Europe's right already refer to (prematurely perhaps) as the "patriotic spring".
This article is part of the 100 Days season, presented by Katty Kay and Christian Fraser, Monday - Thursday at 19:00 GMT on BBC News Channel, BBC Four and BBC World News.
• None How do Germans see another Merkel term?
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38776251
|
FA Cup fifth round: Sutton v Arsenal & Fulham v Tottenham ties live on BBC TV - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-01
| null |
The FA Cup fifth-round ties between Sutton United and Arsenal, and Fulham and Tottenham will be broadcast live on BBC One.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Non-league Sutton United's FA Cup fifth-round tie at home to Arsenal will be broadcast live on BBC One.
Sutton, the lowest-ranked team left in the competition, beat Championship side Leeds United in round four.
The game with Arsenal will take place at Gander Green Lane on Monday, 20 February, with kick-off at 19:55 GMT.
BBC One will also have live coverage of the London derby between Fulham and Tottenham at Craven Cottage on Sunday, 19 February (kick-off 14:00).
South London side Sutton are 16th in the National League and have played seven games to get this far in the competition, including wins over league sides Cheltenham Town, AFC Wimbledon and Leeds.
Arsenal, 12-time FA Cup winners and currently third in the Premier League, are 104 places above them in the English football pyramid.
• None Sutton chairman says Arsenal tie will not be switched
• None What can Arsenal expect when they visit Sutton?
Sunday 19 February: Fulham v Tottenham - 14.00, BBC One; Blackburn Rovers v Manchester United - 16.15, BT Sport (followed by sixth-round draw)
Other BBC coverage across the weekend includes Football Focus on the road, FA Cup Final Score, fifth-round highlights programmes on Saturday and Sunday night, and the sixth-round draw on Sunday evening.
There will also be comprehensive coverage of all the weekend's fixtures across BBC Radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website.
BBC TV coverage of the FA Cup this season has so far reached 22 million viewers, with a peak of 5.3 million tuning in to watch Manchester United beat Wigan in round four.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38832573
|
Six Nations heavy artillery: Picamoles, Hughes, Furlong, O'Brien, Te'o, Roberts - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Who are the most destructive ball carriers in the Six Nations? Jeremy Guscott picks his top six - but do you agree?
| null |
These are the players who punch holes in defences no matter how solid they are.
They are the big men who carry hard into the guts of the opposition, the powerhouses who make metres virtually every time they carry the ball, the forces of nature who burst through flailing limbs as though they were dried twigs.
Jerry has picked his Six Nations heavy artillery top six - but do you agree? Join the debate below, and use our interactive tool to rank Jerry's selection yourself.
The slab-thighed France number eight has a long-standing reputation for being an incredibly destructive runner, and he demonstrated that once more at the weekend.
Despite standing 6ft 4in he has a low centre of gravity and uses that, combined with impeccable timing and excellent balance, to power through the most tightly packed opposition defences.
Though he was on the losing team against England, he was my man of the week, with 16 carries, 131 metres made, two clean breaks and seven defenders beaten, and is the number one pick overall when it comes to asking someone to make the hard yards. Tres bon, Louis, tres bon.
In the enforced absence through injury of defence-demolishing England number eight Billy Vunipola, Nathan Hughes has big shoes to fill and, judging by his performance at the weekend, the 18st 1lb Wasps behemoth is up to the task.
He is less nuggety and carries slightly wider than Vunipola but is always eager to get that ball in his hands - he made a team high 15 carries against France - and take on players. He loves the contact.
On one of his 15 carries against France on Saturday, he ran full tilt at captain Guilhem Guirado and sat him down on his backside - and not many do that to the ferociously competitive hooker.
We're getting hefty now and, after two number eights, my choice for number three is rumbustious Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong. At knocking on 19 stone he's got plenty of power and he runs around at a fair old clip as well.
The 24-year-old is a baby in prop terms, both in age and experience - he has only started five Tests - but he has done so well he'd be my starting prop for the Lions this summer if he keeps playing as he has.
He's very good at hitting into defenders, pumping his legs and maintaining a good body position, which allows him to keep going forward while allowing time for support to get with him. He has not yet had time to make his mark on the Six Nations - don't worry, he will - but anyone who saw him swat aside three New Zealand forwards in one run in the autumn knows this man is a monster with ball in hand.
As befits someone who bought a tractor with his first big rugby pay cheque, Sean O'Brien possesses true "farm strength" and is an out-and-out bruising runner.
Nicknamed the 'Tullow Tank' for good reason, he will trample all over you if you don't get the tackle technically correct.
Now aged 29, he has struggled with hamstring injuries but looks somewhere near back to his best and made two clean breaks against Scotland. The first one saw Stuart Hogg attempt the tackle, but he was too low and square into O'Brien and the Ireland flanker just brushed him aside, all from a standing start.
England's Ben Te'o is going to have a big impact every time he gets on the field - as befits someone who used to play in Australia's NRL, he's not afraid to carry the ball hard into traffic.
At 6ft 2in and not far off 17 stone he's a three-quarter wrecking ball and one we will see more of as the Six Nations progresses, because he gives England a different option in midfield to the footballing combination of George Ford and Owen Farrell.
He came off the bench with just over 10 minutes remaining in the win over France and soon scored the winning try, his powerful charge an indication of what lies ahead.
From a man whose best may lie in the future to one who, at the age of 30, may find his previous feats tough to match.
That is not to write off the blockbusting Wales centre, the doctor hewn from granite who has been smashing it up the middle for Wales for nigh on a decade. But the 6ft 4in centre has been dropped to the bench for the past two Tests as Scott Williams has taken the 12 shirt, something that was unthinkable a year or two ago.
Jutting of jaw and never happier than when taking crash ball on a hard line into the heart of the opposition midfield, Roberts has been hammering away at the coalface for Wales - gouging out yards of hard-earned front foot ball - for 90 caps, and although he may have slipped down the heavy artillery rankings this season, I would not be at all surprised to see him make England suffer on Saturday.
What? No Mathieu Bastareaud (although he can't get into the French team)? No Ross Moriarty? No Taulupe Faletau? No Cian Healy? No Kyle Sinckler (give it a few weeks...)? Let us know who else Jerry should have included and join the debate below!
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38758410
|
How firms should best react to a crisis - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A number of companies and experts explore how businesses should best react to a disaster, be it a cyber-attack, financial scandal or other series issue.
|
Business
|
Ashley Madison was fined for not sufficiently protecting customers' data
When infidelity website Ashley Madison was the victim of a hacking attack in 2015, the affected 36 million global users were suddenly very worried indeed.
The business, a dating site for married people who wish to cheat on their spouse, had the data of its customers stolen and released on to the internet. All their names, passwords, phone numbers and addresses.
While it was a very bleak time for Ashley Madison's users, the company itself faced a major crisis, and it was found to be lacking.
As customer numbers and revenues plummeted, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - the US agency tasked with protecting consumers - ruled that the business had not done enough to protect people's information, both before and after the attack.
The FTC fined Ashley Madison $1.6m (£1.3m), and said that the financial penalty was only that low because it didn't think that the business could afford to pay any more, such was the impact of the hack on its earnings.
Where Ashley Madison failed was its insufficient crisis management - it hadn't prepared enough for something bad happening, and how it would react.
All companies need to prepare for how they would react to a hack of their IT systems
While the company tells the BBC it has subsequently overhauled all its systems, how should all firms best plan for and then respond to a crisis, be it a cyber-attack, financial scandal or other serious issue?
With the UK government confirming last year that two-thirds of large British companies had experienced a cyber-attack in the previous 12 months alone, businesses who have an online presence anywhere in the world simply have to prepare for how they would react to a hack that breaches their system.
A business can make its website as secure as possible, but being 100% protected is just not achievable, say IT experts.
Page Group was ready to deal with the breach of its IT system
Thankfully for UK employment agency Page Group it knew exactly how to react when it suffered a data breach of its cloud computing system in October last year.
"We have senior staff in place from across different parts of our organisation that form an issues management team who are well equipped to deal with a crisis, should it arise," says Eamon Collins, Page's group marketing manager.
"That is why when we were alerted to a data breach by our IT vendor Capgemini, this team was able to act fast, review the issue, and provide counsel on the best course of action.
"The most important part of the process is putting your customers' interests first."
He adds: "Once we had sufficient information around what had happened, and the impact, we could undertake a transparent and open dialogue with the customer."
At former US mining group National Coal, the crisis it faced was repeated protests in the early 2000s by environmentalists who objected to its opencast mining in east Tennessee.
Its then chief executive, Daniel Roling, said the company had plans in place for how it responded to everything it faced - from trespassers, to staff being threatened, entry roads being blockaded, and bomb threats.
"We held a number of run-throughs to test the effectiveness of both communications and operation responses," he says.
"The plan should, at a minimum, include an acceptable and effective means of communication, as well as an outline of who can and should provide direction."
Daniel Roling says National Coal had crisis management plans in place
Mr Roling, who left National Coal before it was sold to Ranger Energy Investments in 2010, adds: "We had everything planned right down to where we would hold a press conference, and how we would set it up.
"In crisis planning, you are looking to create an effective auto-response, so that everyone heads in the right direction, without too much deliberation."
At UK tourist attraction, the Jorvik Viking Centre, in York, its crisis was a major flood in December 2015 that caused significant damage.
Director of attractions Sarah Maltby says the team worked hard to remove precious artefacts before they were damaged.
"Every company needs solid staff to assist, offer advice, and manage elements of disaster recovery," she says.
Sarah Maltby says the Jorvik Viking Centre was saved by staff working together
The centre is now due to finally reopen in April this year.
Crisis management expert Jonathan Bernstein says it is vital that a company responds quickly to a crisis. "The crisis moves at its own pace, but you need to be faster."
He adds that firms should be honest about the crisis at hand, especially if it is something they are to blame for, such as a financial scandal.
"Be honest about how you screwed up, and illustrate how you are going to ensure this doesn't happen again," says Mr Bernstein.
"Provide clear information to customers on what happened exactly, and what new protocols will be in place."
Damon Coppola, founder of Shoreline Risk, a company that assists businesses with their risk management, says that when it comes to a firm preparing for a possible crisis "the public might not necessarily expect perfection".
But he adds: "[The public's] judgement will be hard if it is perceived that the company failed to act on an obligation to limit or prepare for a known risk, if they were dishonest in their communication, and perhaps in the worst case, if profits came before people."
These are views echoed by UK public relations expert Benjamin Webb, founder of media relations firm Deliberate PR, which specialises in Swedish start-ups.
He says: "At a time of fast-moving crisis, particularly when people's well-being is at stake, transparency to customers and their family members must exceed any responsibility to shareholders."
Rob Segal says that Ashley Madison has improved its systems since the hack
At Toronto-based Ruby Corporation, the owner of Ashley Madison, chief executive Rob Segal, says the company has worked hard to rebuild trust since the 2015 hack.
Mr Segal, who joined the firm after the attack, says: "We partnered with Deloitte's world-leading security team following the breach, and they've been helping the company with privacy and security enhancements and 24/7 monitoring.
"The go-forward lessons for chief executives is to always stay vigilant about cybersecurity, and to continually invest in privacy and security safeguards."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38894813
|
Trump presidency: Opponents boosted by 'rage donation' - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Civil rights campaigns, charities, parodies, and the media are all seeing a surge in support.
|
US & Canada
|
Since his first day in office, Mr Trump has faced angry opposition - and it's making his opponents money
Donald Trump's adversarial style during the election divided American voters like few campaigns in recent years.
The president himself has referred to "my many enemies" - but it seems they're getting a substantial boost from the new president.
Organisations that investigate, oppose, or lampoon the commander-in-chief are seeing a surge in support, in what's been dubbed "rage donation".
From civil rights to media types, the effect is widespread.
Planned Parenthood advocates for women's reproductive rights, including abortion - to which Mr Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence are both opposed.
Cecile Richards, who leads the family-planning group, told the BBC more than 400,000 people had donated since the election - "an unprecedented outpouring of support" - some of which has been given jokily in Mike Pence's name.
But, she said, no level of donations would be able to match the federal funding the group receives - something which may now be under threat.
"We will never back down, and we will never stop providing the care our patients need. These doors stay open, no matter what," she said.
Pro-life supporters in the March for Life received open messages of support from both the president and vice president
The Centre for Reproductive Rights, meanwhile, is trying to raise $1m in Mr Trump's first 100 days
"We've had thousands of new donors in the last three months, many of whom have signed on to be monthly sustainers - donors who will be with us for the long haul," a spokeswoman said.
One of American's biggest environmental protection groups, the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), was singled out by popular comedian John Oliver late last year when he called on his viewers to donate following the election.
Since then, "we have seen an incredible response from the public," a spokeswoman said.
The "huge spike" continued through November and December, she said, slowing slightly in early January - before picking right back up at the inauguration.
"It's definitely driven by concern over President Trump's anti-environmental rhetoric and actions," the NRDC said.
The Sierra Club, another major environmental group, reported 11,000 new monthly donors in the days following the election - nine times its previous record.
It's not just charities and fundraising that are seeing a positive bump from Trump. This week, it emerged that the long-running satire show Saturday Night Live was celebrating its highest ratings in decades.
Its numbers have grown by 22% overall - to 10 million viewers, the highest since 1995, according to Variety.
Alec Baldwin's parody of Trump has become a weekly fixture on the revived SNL
Alec Baldwin's portrayal of Mr Trump, which became wildly popular during the campaign, is now a weekly staple.
Strident Trump critic Stephen Colbert also beat his late-night rival, Jimmy Fallon, for the first time in years in recent ratings - though there's not yet enough evidence to link late-night show ratings to politics.
Perhaps the biggest success story comes from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
In a single weekend - as they fought a legal battle against the president's controversial immigration order - the group clocked up $24m (£19.1m) in donations, six times what it usually receives in an entire year. The huge amount prompted the rights group to turn to Silicon Valley for help managing the funds.
The ACLU was inundated with record donations after it blocked part of Mr Trump's executive order, days into his term
Groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the National Immigration Law Center have also benefited from social media campaigns.
Comedian Josh Gondelman, for example, felt uncomfortable with Mr Trump's close ties to the Patriots American football team. So he came up with the idea of donating $100 to the NAACP every time his team scored a touchdown during the Super Bowl.
Coupled with a social-friendly hashtag (#AGoodGame), the idea took off, and brought in thousands of dollars in donations for civil rights groups across the US.
President Trump likes to tweet about the ("dishonest, lying") media. Most news outlets would say they don't oppose the president - but by nature, question and hold authority to account.
But amid outcry over "alternative facts" and talk of non-existent massacres, many are reporting more readers and subscriptions.
Non-profit public interest news organisation ProPublica said it had seen "a dramatic increase in donations, beginning late on election night".
Donor numbers swelled from 3,400 in all of 2015 to more than 26,000 in 2016, the organisation's president Dick Tofel said.
And recurring monthly donations jumped from $4,500 in October, just before the election, to $104,000 in January.
ProPublica adopted a new slogan after White House strategist Stephen Bannon suggested the press "keep its mouth shut"
"It seems that the election has caused a large number of people to want to take various forms of civic action. We're very flattered that many of them think of ProPublica - and investigative journalism in the public interest generally - in that connection," Mr Tofel said.
He stressed it was not clear that this was tied to "particular steps" taken by Mr Trump, but noted that donations picked up in January from inauguration day.
But the same bump was seen in private newspapers too.
The ("failing, wrong, so false") New York Times, which the president said should fix its "dwindling" numbers, actually added 276,000 digital subscriptions in the last quarter - the biggest jump since it brought in a paywall.
And the ("angry, boring") Washington Post reported almost 100 million users on its website in both October and November last year, "greatly exceeding previous traffic records".
Meanwhile, subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal jumped 300% on the day after the election, and it reported 70% growth in new digital subscriptions year on year.
US voters chose Mr Trump - he won by a large margin in the electoral college system although he did not win the popular vote. Despite a slip in approval ratings, he appears to retain plenty of popular support.
It's still too early to know if his policies have had a positive impact, but his supporters remain steadfast.
Conservative news outlets such as Breitbart have surged in popularity, and Mr Trump's supporters have boycotted brands such as Kellogg's or Budweiser which are perceived to have taken a political stance against the president.
The president has directly criticised both people and companies through his Twitter account
Mr Trump's unique style of Twitter diplomacy, however, has had a direct negative impact on some companies.
Shortly after taking office, the new president tweeted that Boeing's costs for Air Force One were "out of control", dropping their stock value. A similar tongue-lashing on fighter jets dropped Lockheed Martin's stock by more than 4%.
Now, that effect already seems to be waning - as Fortune magazine pointed out, when the president struck out at retailer Nordstrom for dropping his daughter's fashion line, its stock actually rallied.
It may be that Mr Trump's rhetoric is no longer having the effect it once did, and is becoming a normal part of politics.
But with those opposed to the president's policies vowing they won't accept the new status quo, it remains to be seen if the "rage" effect will end up a steady revenue stream for the next four years.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38909322
|
Trump travel ban: What did we learn from the ruling? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Anthony Zurcher explains three things we learned (and two we didn't) from the court ruling.
|
US & Canada
|
Demonstrators spell out "No Muslim Ban" at a protest in Boston
Federal circuit courts usually toil in anonymity. They are a legal rest stop for landmark cases on the way to the Supreme Court.
But this week it was different. All eyes were on three judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, who, for a brief moment, had the fate of Donald Trump's immigration order in their hands.
They were considering whether to sustain a temporary injunction preventing implementation of Mr Trump's sweeping travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim nations.
On Thursday night they gave their ruling. Mr Trump's order stayed on ice.
Here are three things we learned from the ruling - and two questions that remain unanswered.
1. The immigration ban is going nowhere fast
The Ninth Circuit was the Trump administration's best chance to get the president's immigration order up and running again quickly.
The three judges could have re-instated the order and closed the borders as early as Thursday night.
Instead, the order remains in limbo and it's likely to take time to resolve. The Supreme Court could hear an appeal, but the chances of more than four justices agreeing to reverse the Ninth Circuit ruling seem slim.
Is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer or Elena Kagan going to side with Mr Trump? Not likely.
If this goes back down to the district court in Seattle, where it began, the gears of justice will grind even more slowly. A trial on the merits - which is slated to happen next, pending Supreme Court action - is a slow process. Briefs need to be filed. Evidence has to be submitted. Oral arguments will be scheduled. These things can take months or even years.
That's a painful lesson Barack Obama learned in 2015, when a district court judge blocked implementation of some of his immigration reforms and the Supreme Court didn't hear the case for more than a year.
2. The case will be no slam-dunk for Trump
This may seem obvious now, but on Thursday the president was fairly certain that his case was open-and-shut when he read what he viewed as the governing immigration statute to a gathering of law enforcement officers.
"You can be a lawyer, or you don't have to be a lawyer; if you were a good student in high school or a bad student in high school, you can understand this," he said. "And it's really incredible to me that we have a court case that's going on so long."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Bob Ferguson: Travel ban was adopted with "little thought, little planning, little oversight"
Some conservatives, as well, wrote that the governing laws were clear that the president has broad powers when dealing with immigration issues.
"For all except the most partisan, it is likely impossible to read the Washington state lawsuit... and not come away with the conclusion that the Trump order is on sound legal and constitutional ground."
In the end, however, the three justices - two appointed by Democrats and one nominated by Republican George W Bush - saw things differently. While they acknowledged the president's authority on immigration matters, they said the statute Mr Trump cited was not the final word on the matter.
"Although our jurisprudence has long counselled deference to the political branches on matters of immigration and national security, neither the Supreme Court nor our court has ever held that courts lack the authority to review executive action in those arenas for compliance with the Constitution," the judges wrote.
In other words, federal immigration law may have been on Mr Trump's side, but the Constitution wasn't.
At the heart of the Ninth Circuit's decision to uphold the injunction against Mr Trump's order was that it violated the constitutional due process rights of all persons in the US, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. And time and time again the judges pointed to how the order was initially implemented as reason for keeping it on hold.
They wrote that permanent residents and lawful visa holders were not given "constitutionally sufficient notice and an opportunity to respond". While they noted that the Trump administration had since interpreted the order as allowing all permanent residents into the US, they were unconvinced that this new interpretation would be uniformly followed or safe from reversal.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
They said that the travel ban caused considerable harm, including the separation of families, stranding of US residents abroad and prevention of students and employees from travelling to American universities.
A more measured, orchestrated rollout of the immigration order may have avoided these complications, weakening the case against it.
Mr Trump said on Wednesday that speed was necessary in implementing the ban because otherwise a "whole pile of bad people, perhaps with very evil intentions" would enter the country before border restrictions tightened.
Here, however, haste may have killed his legal case.
Shortly after the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion, Nevada Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto released a statement saying that the court "reaffirms that President Trump's hateful and divisive executive order amounts to religious discrimination against Muslims".
While the decision was certainly a blow for the Trump administration, the judges were notably restrained in discussing the religious issue.
"The states' claims raise serious allegations and present significant constitutional questions," the judges wrote. Then they said they wouldn't consider the question further, since they had already decided the case on due process grounds.
They did offer one clue as to how they might eventually rule, however. The Trump administration had insisted that the order must be judged on its own, without taking into consideration past remarks made by Mr Trump and his supporters touting a "Muslim ban". The judges disagreed.
"It is well established that evidence of purpose beyond the face of the challenged law may be considered in evaluating Establishment and Equal Protection Clause claims."
In other words, when it comes time to consider whether the order amounted to a de facto Muslim ban, everything is on the table - Trump tweets, Rudy Giuliani diatribes and all.
Now that the Ninth Circuit has rendered its decision, the ball is firmly in the Trump administration's court. They could appeal to the US Supreme Court, where the eight justices - four liberal, four conservative - can consider as much, or as little, of the ruling as they see fit.
Mr Trump certainly seemed to hint that this was the next step, tweeting: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!" shortly after the ruling.
The administration could also decide to let the circuit court's decision stand and fight out the case in a full trial back in the Seattle district court. This would buy the president time to get his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, confirmed by the Republican-held Senate. Then, when the case eventually made its way to the high court, his chances of victory could be markedly improved.
Whatever happens, it's clear that this case will be a political football. The fight will be personal, and it will be ugly.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38927778
|
Trump's America: Are things as bad as he says? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Trump decries urban violence, terrorism and police shootings. Is his image of 'American carnage' fair?
|
US & Canada
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'This American carnage stops right here,' Donald Trump said at his inauguration
During his presidential campaign, and since taking office, Donald Trump has repeatedly warned of the dangers facing the United States.
"I have learned a lot in the past two weeks," he told a meeting of police officers in Washington DC on Wednesday.
"Terrorism is a far greater threat than the people of our country understand. I'm going to take care of it."
His comments came as the legal battle continued over his travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations. Not putting the ban in place would mean the US "can never have the security and safety to which we are entitled", he said on Twitter.
On Wednesday, he also lamented inner-city violence, as well as the killing of police officers.
It is a vision of an America full of danger, with multiple threats on many fronts, encapsulated by the new president's inaugural address referencing "American carnage". But is it correct?
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In July 2016, the BBC's More or Less programme investigated the unreliable numbers around police shootings in the USA.
"The number of officers shot and killed in the line of duty last year increased by 56% from the year before," President Trump said on Wednesday. And the statistic is accurate, unlike some others he has quoted in the past.
The number of officers shot and killed in the line of duty did indeed jump 56%, from 41 in 2015 to 64 last year - that's according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
It is a stark statistic. Starker still is the fact that 21 of those officers were killed in ambush-style shootings, a 163% increase on the previous year.
However, it would be incorrect to read from this that a wave of police shootings has swept the country. Eight of those killings were in two assaults in 10 days in July 2016, in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and occurred in the context of protests against police killings of African-Americans.
"Last year in Dallas, police officers were targeted for execution - think of this, whoever heard of this?" President Trump told the meeting of police officers.
But the targeting of police officers is not in itself a new phenomenon - it is only that 2016 had higher numbers than before. And statistics show that officers are still more likely to be shot dead responding to a domestic disturbance than any other incident.
In fact, if you look at the bigger picture, police deaths on duty have been dropping for some time.
The worst year for police deaths was 1930, when 307 died. More recently, there was a peak of 241 in 2001, largely due to the 11 September attacks.
But between 2011 and 2013, there was an almost 40% drop in police fatalities - from 177 to 109. The numbers have crept up again in the years since - up 10% in 2016 to 135 - but there is an overall pattern of decline, with the numbers now down to the levels of the 1950s.
Having said that, the likelihood of a police officer being shot dead is far higher than that of a member of the public being killed by the police.
Read more: How many police die every year?
"Right now, many communities in America are facing a public safety crisis," President Trump told police in Washington on Wednesday. "Murders in 2015 experienced their largest single-year increase in nearly half a century.
His statement is factually correct (though he has often, wrongly, said that the murder rate was the highest it has been in nearly half a century, and even attacked the press on Tuesday for not reporting this falsehood.)
There was a 10.8% jump in nationwide murder rates from 2014 to 2015, and that represents the biggest year-to-year increase since 1970-71, according to the fact-checking website Politifact.
But it is again important to look at the longer-term trend.
The number of reported murders and rapes across the country did indeed increase from 2014 to 2015, as did robberies.
But all are still below the levels they were at 10 years ago - and are respectively 13%, 6% and 34% lower than 20 years ago (even though the population of the US has increased by 55 million in that time).
The picture is more mixed in large cities, however.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In September 2016, Donald Trump said some US inner cities were more dangerous than Afghanistan - the BBC's More or Less programme investigated his claim.
Last month, The Economist magazine, having obtained an early look at the 2016 FBI data for violence in 50 US cities, showed that there were four broad trends in play.
Murder rates are stable in 13 of the 50 cities, including Los Angeles and New York, which saw 11 days without a murder in 2015.
In 15 other cities, including Houston and Las Vegas, murder rates are low but increasing. In another nine, including Philadelphia and Detroit, they are high but stable. And in 13, including Indianapolis and Chicago, they are high and rising. (You can read The Economist's analysis here).
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Life and death on the lost streets of Chicago
In Chicago, murders rose sharply last year, with more than 760 last year compared with 473 the year before. Up to then, there had been a steady fall in the number of murders since a peak of the early 70s.
Mr Trump has repeatedly used the city as an example. "In Chicago, more than 4,000 people were shot last year alone and the rate so far this year has been even higher. What is going on in Chicago?" he said on Wednesday.
Last month, he even threatened to send federal agents into the city if the violence did not subside.
But again, worrying though recent increases in violence in some cities may be, it is critical to look at how those increases fit in to a longer-term trend.
Ames Grawert, of the Brennan Center for Justice, co-authored a report into crime rates in US cities, and spoke to the BBC's More or Less programme. "If you look at crime rates in American cities in the past 30 years, even with the recent uptick in murders in some cities, we are very far below where we used to be with murder rates in big cities like New York and Los Angeles."
Read more (from 2015): Why have cities' murder rates increased?
President Trump, when he announced the travel restrictions last month, said it was to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the US". The restrictions, now in legal limbo, affected citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen - the measures also blocked Syrian refugees from arriving in the US.
So how big a problem is terrorism in the US? First of all, Mr Trump, like other presidents before him, measures the danger of terrorism to the US according to what could happen, rather than what has happened. His comment "I have learned a lot in the past two weeks" indicated he had specific information on the threat to the US.
And secondly, it all depends on what your definition of what terrorism is (more on that later on).
Read more: Trump says terror attacks 'under-reported': Is that true?
One study, by the libertarian Cato Institute, details 3,432 murders committed on US soil between 1975 and late 2015 that it says can be classified as terrorist attacks. Of those, 88% were committed by foreign-born terrorists who entered the country (the 2,977 deaths in the 11 September attacks make up a large chunk of these fatalities).
But does this mean Americans should be worried about being caught up in a terror attack caused by a foreign-born national? Take a look at the numbers the Cato Institute came up with to provide context:
The report's author, Alex Nowrasteh, concluded the number of Americans killed in a terror attack by someone from one of the seven countries on Mr Trump's list, between 1975 and 2015, was zero.
(He does point out that six Iranians, six Sudanese, two Somalis, two Iraqis, and one Yemeni were convicted of attempting or carrying out terrorist attacks on US soil in that time).
Only three deaths were attributed to refugees in the 40 years spanned by the report - and those were caused by three Cuban terrorists in the 1970s.
For some perspective, here are some other causes of death in the US in 2015 alone:
Far more dangerous than terrorism to Americans are painkillers.
The leading cause of accidental death in the United States is now overdoses from painkillers - opioid medicines kill 60 people a day, or 22,000 a year, according to the National Safety Council.
But it is impossible to discuss the threat from terrorism without looking at how the US defines terrorism itself - and therein lies the problem. Even the FBI says there is "no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism". The State Department defines terrorism as "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents".
In that case, there is an argument that shootings should be defined as terrorism: those such as the racially-motivated killing of nine black worshippers in South Carolina by a self-avowed white supremacist, the murder of 26 people including children in Newtown, Connecticut, and the murder of 12 people in a Colorado cinema.
If the number of people killed in shootings in the US were considered terrorism - at least 15,055 people were shot dead last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive - then the likelihood of an American being killed in an act of terrorism would increase substantially.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38911708
|
Mariya Savinova: Russian London 2012 gold medallist stripped of title - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Russia's Mariya Savinova is stripped of her Olympic 800m gold and 2011 world title but has 45 days to appeal against the decision.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Athletics
London 2012 gold medallist Mariya Savinova has been stripped of her 800m title and banned until 2019 after being found guilty of doping.
She has had her results from July 2010 to August 2013 annulled but has 45 days to appeal against the decision.
The Russian beat South Africa's Caster Semenya into second at the London Olympics and the 2011 Worlds in Daegu.
Savinova, 31, also beat Britain's Jenny Meadows into to bronze at the 2010 European Championships.
Both Semenya and Meadows could now have their medals upgraded.
Savinova has also lost her 800m silver from the 2013 Worlds and her four-year suspension will be backdated to 2015.
The case against Savinova was brought by the IAAF based upon her biological passport, which the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has used to make its decision.
A Cas statement read: "On the basis of clear evidence, including the evidence derived from her biological passport (ABP), Mariya Savinova is found to have been engaged in using doping from 26 July 2010 (the eve of the European Championship in Barcelona) through to 19 August 2013 (the day after the World Championship in Moscow).
"As a consequence, a four-year period of ineligibility, beginning on 24 August 2015, has been imposed and all results achieved between 26 July 2010 and 19 August 2013, are disqualified and any prizes, medals, prize and appearance money forfeited."
Savinova was one of five Russian athletes named in a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report into doping.
She has not raced since 2013 after being suspended during an investigation sparked by the release of undercover footage filmed by whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova.
Should the International Olympic Committee decide to reallocate the medals from the London 2012 final, Semenya would be awarded a second gold after she claimed the 800m title in Rio last summer.
Savinova is now the second Russian finalist from that race to have been retrospectively banned - after Yelena Arzhakova - while a third - bronze medallist Ekaterina Poistogova - is also under investigation for doping.
Savinova is one of Russia's best known middle-distance athletes - she is now one of Russia's best known drugs cheats.
It means in effect Savinova loses her London 2012 gold medal and Caster Semenya will likely be promoted from silver to gold.
So while there are consequences for Savinova, the world of sporting detection is once again showing it will catch up with athletes if they have cheated even if it is some years after the event.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/38931007
|
The health service taking a holistic approach to patients - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
"It's about 3% of our population that use about 50% of the resources."
|
Health
|
Moor Park Health and Leisure Centre where you can swim and also see a doctor
"My colleagues think I'm mad," says Dr Andrew Weatherburn.
As a consultant in geriatric medicine, he is an unlikely addition to the Moor Park Health and Leisure Centre, where schoolchildren queue for swimming lessons and people grab coffees between Zumba lessons.
"Moving out of the hospital and into the community is the best thing I've done as a consultant."
Dr Weatherburn works on the Fylde Coast, an NHS Vanguard area. The local health service here is pioneering a new model of working, which could become a blueprint for the rest of the NHS.
Blackpool and Fylde suffer from many of the problems that plague the NHS nationally. With constantly increasing demand and a shortfall in supply, the local services have been under considerable strain for years.
Add to that a higher than average elderly population, which is set to double by 2030, and the local health service begins to look unsustainable.
"It's about 3% of our population that use about 50% of the resources," says Dr Tony Naughton, the head of the clinical commissioning group in Fylde.
As a part-time GP, he understands the need for an accurate diagnosis so their first innovation was to use patient data to work out who was actually using the services.
They were predominantly elderly and tended to suffer from more than one long-term condition. Rather than waiting for these patients to arrive at A&E, the Fylde Coast district set up the Extensive Care system, targeting resources on actively trying to keep them healthier.
Rather than providing temporary fixes every time a patient is in hospital, this model takes a more holistic approach.
The Extensive Care clinic allows patients to have all their health needs addressed together
"These patients were going off to see a kidney specialist and then a diabetic specialist and then a heart specialist. They had a career in attending hospital, whereas this service wraps all of those outpatients appointments together and looks at each person as an individual, rather than as a heart or as a kidney."
Dr Naughton explains that to make this more joined up system work, it was taken out of the rigid departmental structure of the hospital and placed firmly in the community.
Dr Weatherburn, at his clinic in the leisure centre, believes the benefits are obvious. "I definitely know my patients much better now."
While in hospital, he would have had about 10 minutes to assess a patient's most urgent needs. Now every patient who is referred to them receives a thorough two-hour assessment with a group of medics, who then hold a meeting to come up with a co-ordinated treatment plan for each one.
This system uses welfare workers as well as medics to manage each patients needs.
"Somebody may come in with a chest infection, but that maybe because they're not eating properly or they have a damp house. Now, I can't write a prescription for a dry house, but I can put them in touch with someone who can help with their housing problem," explains Dr Naughton.
The welfare workers spend more time with the patients, helping them with broader social issues and finding ways of managing their illnesses at home. Their job is really to empower patients to take control of their own health.
A thorough assessment means the team can come up with a co-ordinated treatment plan
Dr Weatherburn says it is working. "It's often the little things that made the big difference. It's not the big medical interventions and fancy tests, it's helping with loneliness, and helping the carers and families as well."
This may sound expensive, but the scheme should pay for itself. The new welfare workers are not medically trained so employment costs are lower, but their intervention can solve underlying problems which keep people coming back to A&E.
The results are certainly impressive. After a year-and-a-half of trialling the scheme, the Fylde Coast has already seen 13% fewer attendances at A&E, and 23-24% fewer outpatient attendances.
When Lily Greenwood's husband, Peter, left hospital after suffering from a stroke, they were referred to the Extensive Care service.
"The doctor sent us here. We didn't want to come, but it's been the best thing ever."
Although Lily wasn't the patient, the team's approach of looking at every aspect of the patient's well-being, meant that attention turned to 80-year-old Lily too, as Peter's sole carer. The team helped her to take control.
"It took its toll on me at the beginning, but now, I just feel that with coming here, we can cope with it."
The Extensive Care system helped look after Lily Greenwood's needs as well as those of her husband
The team filled in all the forms that Lily had been baffled by, they helped her to apply for the extra benefits she was entitled to and, most importantly, they helped her to manage her husband's condition.
They even introduced her to local support groups for carers so that she no longer feels alone or overwhelmed.
"The nurses to me are friends. They have time for you. We're a lot happier now. I feel I can cope with Peter now."
A week of coverage by BBC News examining the state of the NHS across the UK as it comes under intense pressure during its busiest time of the year.
Given their success in reducing pressure on A&E departments, Blackpool and Fylde applied a similarly local, holistic model of care to a broader section of the population.
Every neighbourhood received its own dedicated team of therapists, nurses and welfare workers who could treat patients at home in order to reduce the pressures on GP surgeries.
"It's a cultural change. We don't just do the therapy and rush to the next appointment, we think about a patient's overall well-being."
Lucy Leonard is part of a neighbourhood team in Blackpool. Having been an occupational therapist for 17 years, she knows the NHS is notoriously resistant to change. Yet, she insists, this system is being embraced by patients and practitioners alike.
"Sometimes people can feel a bit frightened and threatened by change, especially when they worry about their professional identity and being asked to do new roles, but really, it's just about putting the patient at the heart of what we do."
This system has been a success on the Fylde Coast, and the principles could be replicated across the country. By investing in a more holistic approach, not only has the pressure on hospitals and GP surgeries been eased but, vitally, people are healthier and better able to manage their health too.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38911008
|
Germany warns the City over Brexit risk - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A Bundesbank executive says London is likely to stop being the “gateway to Europe” and warns the UK against a post-Brexit “regulatory race to the bottom”.
|
Business
|
One of Germany's most senior banking regulators has warned London that it is likely to lose its role as "the gateway to Europe" for vital financial services.
Dr Andreas Dombret, executive board member for the German central bank, the Bundesbank, said that even if banking rules were "equivalent" between the UK and the rest of the European Union, that was "miles away from access to the single market".
Mr Dombret's comments were made at a private meeting of German businesses and banks organised by Boston Consulting Group in Frankfurt earlier this week.
They give a clear - and rare - insight into Germany's approach as Britain starts the process of leaving the European Union.
And that approach is hawkish.
"The current model of using London as a gateway to Europe is likely to end," Mr Dombret said at the closed-door event.
Mr Dombret made it clear that he did not support a "confrontational approach" to future relations between the UK's substantial financial services sector and the EU.
But he argued there was "intense uncertainty" about how the Brexit negotiations would progress and significant hurdles to overcome.
The Bundesbank executive, who is responsible for banking and financial supervision, said he was concerned that the trend towards internationally agreed standards was under pressure.
And that Britain might try to become the "Singapore of Europe" following Brexit, by cutting taxes and relaxing financial regulations to encourage banks and businesses to invest in the UK.
"Brexit fits into a certain trend we are seeing towards renationalisation," he said.
"I strongly believe that this negatively affects the well-being of us all.
"We should therefore invest all our efforts in containing these trends.
"This holds for the private sector as well as for supervisors and policymakers in the EU and the UK.
"Some voices are calling for deregulation after Brexit," he continued.
"One such example is the 'financial centre strategy' that is being discussed as a fallback option for the City of London.
"Parts of this recipe are low corporate taxes and loose financial regulation.
"We should not forget that strictly supervised and well-capitalised financial systems are the most successful ones in the long run.
"The EU will not engage in a regulatory race to the bottom."
At present, London operates as the financial services capital for the EU.
More than a third of all wholesale banking between larger businesses, governments and pension funds takes place in Britain.
Nearly 80% of all foreign exchange transactions in the EU are carried out in the UK.
The business is valued in trillions of pounds, with billions of pounds being traded every day to insure companies, for example, against interest rate changes, currency fluctuations and inflation risk.
If there were significant changes to the present free-trading relationship between Britain and the EU, that could have a major impact on the value of the financial services to the UK and on the one million people employed in the sector.
Mr Dombret said it would also have an impact on German businesses which use London as a source of funding.
Some banks are hoping that, with the government looking to fully leave the single market, an "equivalence regime" can be agreed where the UK and the EU recognise each other's regulatory standards.
That would allow cross-border transactions to continue with few regulatory hurdles.
But Mr Dombret said that equivalence had "major drawbacks" and was not an "ideal substitute".
"I am very sceptical about whether equivalence decisions offer a sound footing for banks' long-term location decisions," he said.
"Equivalence is miles away from single market access.
"Equivalence decisions are reversible, so banks would be forced to adjust to a new environment in the event that supervisory frameworks are no longer deemed equivalent.
"These lead to the overall conclusion that equivalence decisions are no ideal substitute for passporting [which allows banks in one EU country to operate in another as part of the single market]."
Whatever the arrangements, Mr Dombret said that a "transition period" would ease the pressure of change and reduce what he described as the "earnings risk".
"Let me say that I expect London to remain an important financial centre," Mr Dombret told the audience.
"Nevertheless, I also expect many UK-based market participants to move at least some business units to the EU in order to hedge against all possible outcomes of the negotiations."
One of the biggest EU-focused businesses in the UK is euro-denominated clearing - insurance products called derivatives, which allow companies to protect themselves from movements in currencies, interest rates and inflation.
Three-quarters of the multi-trillion-pounds-a-day market is executed in London and a recent report from the accountancy firm EY estimated that nearly 83,000 jobs could be lost in Britain over the next seven years if clearing has to move to an EU member state following Brexit.
Mr Dombret said it was difficult to see how euro-clearing could remain in London, as it depended on the "acceptance of the European Court of Justice" as the arbiter of the thousands of legal contracts signed between counter-parties, many of which last for years.
Britain has made it clear that it does not want to be bound by ECJ judgements once it has left the EU.
"I see strong arguments for having the bulk of the clearing business inside the euro area," Mr Dombret said.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38925440
|
Six Nations 2017: George North - I'll be fit to face Scotland - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Wales wing George North says he will be fit to face Scotland on 25 February in the Six Nations after being "gutted" to miss out on facing England.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Coverage: Live on BBC One, Radio 5 live, S4C, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app, plus live text commentary
Wales wing George North says he will be fit to face Scotland in round three of the Six Nations after being "gutted" to miss out their defeat by England.
Alex Cuthbert's return for North was confirmed an hour before kick-off. North had a dead leg suffered in Wales' win against Italy six days earlier.
"A six-day turnaround with a pretty decent dead leg was always going to be tough," said North.
"Two weeks time, Scotland in mind. I'll be fit to go again."
North had been named on the team sheet handed out to the media before kick-off, but told the Welsh Rugby Union's television service he had been ruled out on the morning of the game.
However, Dan Biggar was passed fit to start the match after picking up a rib injury in Rome.
Props Rob Evans and Tomas Francis were the other two changes from the 33-7 win over Italy in Rome.
• None Sign up for rugby union news alerts and get Six Nations news the moment it breaks
• None How to follow the Six Nations across the BBC
• None Bright lights and big hitters - take our rugby quiz
Bath number eight Taulupe Faletau, who had not played since Christmas Eve, was on Wales' bench for Wales, taking the place of Ospreys forward James King.
It meant a vote of confidence for the starting back-row of Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric and Ross Moriarty.
The roof at the Principality Stadium was open for the match at the request of England coach Eddie Jones, who said he was ready for Welsh 'shenanigans' after he named his team to face Wales.
Howley wanted the roof closed on the other hand and said he thought that would be the case on Thursday lunchtime, before England confirmed it would remain open.
Both teams have to agree for the roof to be closed.
Wales in the 2017 Six Nations
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38919198
|
Prince's music is coming to streaming services this Sunday - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
After months of rumour, it's been confirmed Prince's music will become available to stream this weekend.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
The star's music is currently withheld from most major streaming services
After months of rumour, it has been confirmed Prince's music will become available to stream this weekend.
Songs like Purple Rain, Kiss and Little Red Corvette, currently only available on Tidal, will appear on Sunday, ahead of the Grammy Awards.
Spotify, the world's biggest streaming platform, told the BBC that all of Prince's albums from 1978 to 1996 would be part of the deal.
The BBC understands the music will also arrive on Apple Music and Napster.
Prince was the ninth-most successful recording artist of 2016, despite his most famous recordings being withheld from those services,
Prince, one of the biggest stars of the 1980s, was both a pioneer and a sceptic when it came to putting his music online.
In 2001 he began a monthly online subscription service, the NPG Music Club, that earned him a Webby lifetime achievement award in 2006.
Organisers said the star "forever altered the landscape of online musical distribution" and "reshaped the relationship between artist and fan".
A day later, he shut the website down.
Albums becoming available for streaming include 1999, Purple Rain and Sign O The Times
In later years, he aggressively pursued people who put unauthorised clips of his music and performances on YouTube and pulled his music from all streaming sites except Tidal.
He wasn't being capricious. Prince was a life-long advocate of artists' rights and would simply pick up his ball and go home when he felt business terms were unfavourable.
If he were alive today, it is unlikely his catalogue would be appearing on streaming services.
However, his estate potentially owes $100 million (£80 million) in taxes, making new business deals a matter of urgency.
As well as the streaming announcement, which will be made official on Sunday, Prince's team have arranged to license his unreleased recordings to Universal Music.
The company will be able to exploit his vast archives of live recordings, alternate takes and unheard songs.
They also gain the rights to the 25 albums he released after parting ways with Warner Bros in 1996, which include hits like Musicology, 3121 and Emancipation.
Paisley Park - Prince's home and recording complex - contains a "vault" of unreleased recordings
Speaking to Billboard magazine, Charles Koppelman and L Londell McMillan - special advisers to Prince's estate - said they had been inundated with requests from people who wanted to honour the star's legacy.
"Whether it's a motion picture, documentaries, Broadway, Cirque du Soleil - all of those are opportunities that I think are in the future for Londell and me and the estate to work on," said Koppelman.
"Prince has amazing content beyond the music," added McMillan. "There are [filmed recordings of] the most amazing performances that we haven't even begun to discuss."
McMillan, a music industry lawyer who worked with Prince for 12 years and acted as his manager for some of that time, said he had no intent to disrespect the musician's memory.
"Some people may say. 'Why are you making all these deals? Prince wouldn't make these deals,'" he said.
"Prince never wanted to lose ownership and control of his creations, so we place ownership and control over dealmaking [in order to] preserve the assets and stay within Prince's brand values.
"As I have told everybody, there's not gonna be a big IRS truck backing up to Paisley Park saying 'I'll take those assets!'"
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38922167
|
UK child refugee effort challenge: The background - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
The UK government is being challenged over its handling of child refugees - here's the background to the row.
| null |
Campaigners are challenging the government's handling of the arrival of unaccompanied child refugees from Europe, at a High Court hearing.
We look at the background to the row, with the help of BBC correspondent Dominic Casciani.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38929118
|
NHS Health Check: How Germany's healthcare system works - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Branwen Jeffreys asks if more spending on healthcare in Germany improves the system.
|
Health
|
The day after his hip replacement, Georg Thoma was cheerfully sitting up in bed.
Like most Germans, the businessman pays into compulsory health insurance.
He contributes 7% of his salary before tax and his employers match that amount.
In return, patients get access to care which is so rapid that national waiting data is not collected.
"The doctor said to me that I have to decide when I get the operation. Normally it takes three or four weeks."
Georg travels for work to the UK and tells me he was astonished to hear that patients can sometimes wait months for a similar routine operation.
Germany's spending on health care is relatively high, just over 11% of its wealth, compared to 9.8% in the UK and it has more doctors and hospital beds per patient than the UK.
Georg's operation was carried out in an 80-bed hospital in one of the Black Forest towns in the south-west region Baden Wurttemberg.
But even in Germany's well-funded system, the financial viability of a hospital this small is not guaranteed.
A group of doctors in this area is trying to manage costs in an experiment that has attracted interest from the UK.
Martin Wetzel, a GP for 25 years, explains they have done a deal with big insurance funds to make prevention a priority.
"I have more time - and it needs more time to explain to patients what I'm doing and why. So my consultations changed from an eye wink to an average of 15 minutes," he says.
During that time patients might be offered a range of interventions to improve their health provided locally, which frees up time for the GP.
These include subsidised gym sessions, access to different sports and nutrition advice as well as screening programmes to reduce loneliness as well as increasing healthiness.
It is being run by a company called Gesundes Kinzigtal in which the doctors are majority shareholders.
Already a couple of years into their 10-year project, they say healthcare is costing 6% less than you would expect for the population.
They are trying to improve data sharing and believe hospital treatment can be reduced further.
Much of the vision comes from its chief executive Helmut Hildebrandt, a pharmacist and public health expert.
He says the health insurance funds have tended to concentrate on short-term cost control measures, rather than improving the health of their patients.
"At the moment the economy in Germany runs so well they don't have a problem. But in the long run every politician or administrator knows in the next 10 or 20 years the system will run into a crisis."
He fears that could undermine the commitment to the health insurance covering most Germans, with a risk of richer people opting out of it.
What Gesundes Kinzigtal is trying to do is similar to some integrated care projects in the NHS.
There is more money in the German system, but arguably more waste too.
The Caesarean rate is higher, so is the use of MRI for diagnosis and the length of hospital stay.
Patients waiting to see a GP in Thuringia
And in many ways there has been little incentive for change in a system where doctors still have a high degree of influence and life expectancy in Germany is not higher than the UK.
Bernadette Klapper heads the health section of the Robert Bosch Foundation, which funds social policy innovation.
"I think we should get more for the money we spend inside healthcare. While we see other countries spending less, but having the same results as us, there's something wrong."
Germany is ageing very rapidly, only just behind Japan in forecast for its population profile.
But the health system is changing slowly and the Bosch foundation is trying to encourage more small health centres.
Many doctors in Germany set up in practice on their own, as GPs or out-of-hospital specialists, but as cities are more popular that leaves rural areas with a shortage.
Travel east to the wide open rolling countryside of Thuringia and you get a glimpse of the challenge.
Five years ago they were 200 GPs short of what was needed in this region.
It has taken grants, and offers of help with housing and arranging childcare, to reduce that to 60.
Annette Rommel is head of the doctors' association in the village of Mechterstadt and says: "A few years ago we arranged for specially-trained nurses to make home visits and for more teamwork with nurses and doctors together."
It is similar to the way many community nurses work in the UK, but in Germany this is a recent development.
Nurses have a much more restricted role.
On a visit I saw a nurse and a carer, who is paid for out of the long-term care insurance that Germany introduced 20 years ago, check up on an elderly couple.
It has reduced the amount families have to pay, although social care can still be a financial worry.
There is enough money in the German system to make trying new approaches to healthcare a little easier.
Most patients feel they can see a doctor easily, so for example the number of visits to the equivalent of A&E is very low compared to the UK.
While out of hours care has been reorganised, GPs and other out of hospital doctors are often still involved in helping provide cover on a rotation.
None of this removes the long-term worry about whether providing such rapid and easy access to care is affordable in the long term.
A debate that German politicians are unlikely to begin publicly in this election year or any time soon.
The lessons for the UK are that money on its own is not the only solution, although it does ease pressure in the system considerably.
Finding better co-ordinated ways of looking after patients, often elderly, with the highest health needs is a priority.
And in Germany, despite the long-term care insurance, families still have to contribute a significant amount to looking after older people.
However, there is a mechanism for sustainable funding for social care that is very different from the significant reductions in care budgets seen in the UK.
A week of coverage by BBC News examining the state of the NHS across the UK as it comes under intense pressure during its busiest time of the year.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38899811
|
Raymond Briggs: Lifetime award for The Snowman creator - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Author and illustrator Raymond Brigg is recognised with a lifetime achievement award by BookTrust.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Raymond Briggs also created When The Wind Blows and Fungus the Bogeyman
Author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, the creator of The Snowman, has been recognised with a lifetime achievement award by the charity BookTrust.
A panel of six judges said the award recognised his "outstanding contribution" to children's literature.
BookTrust paid tribute to the impact his "captivating and inspiring work" has had on children and adults alike.
Briggs, who also created When The Wind Blows and Fungus the Bogeyman, said it was "an incredible honour".
"It's lovely to be given an award for all my life achievements," he said.
"Drawing, telling stories and sharing these adventures is something I've always been passionate about.
Raymond Briggs designed six Christmas stamps for the Royal Mail in 2004
"Being awarded the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award is an incredible honour and I'm so glad I've been able to make such an impression on people."
In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he added: "It's a bit funny, it being called a lifetime achievement because it implies that you're at the end, you've had your lifetime, we want it tidied up, here's your award, get out."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Raymond Briggs discusses publishing more work and his feelings about Christmas on the Today programme
He also said he is not a fan of Christmas, despite being so heavily associated with The Snowman.
"I don't like Christmas at all, I don't think anybody does," he said.
"It's full of anxiety, 'Have I got enough, have I spent enough, have I spent so much, we had so and so last year so we have to have so and so this year,' I can't bear it really. I get letters from people all the time saying 'We agree with you'."
Ethel and Ernest was screened on the BBC at Christmas
Raymond Briggs has that gift only relatively few artists possess, which is an ability to produce work that touches people of all ages and backgrounds.
Be it The Snowman - now a Christmas perennial - or Ethel and Ernest - the graphic novel charting his parent's life - the characters he portrays are invariably imbued with a soulfulness that makes you, the reader, care deeply about their story.
His style as an illustrator and storyteller is understated in tone but bold in approach.
Difficult subjects are not ducked; the shade accentuates the light.
For each new generation introduced to his Fungus the Bogeyman, or Father Christmas, there lies in store a lifetime of literary and artistic discoveries produced by the unsentimental, but sympathetic hand of Raymond Briggs.
Briggs' other most noted works include Father Christmas, Ug, The Bear, Gentleman Jim, and Ethel and Ernest.
The panel of judges included children's laureate Chris Riddell, How to Train Your Dragon creator Cressida Cowell and ex-director of the human rights group Liberty, Baroness Chakrabarti.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38927247
|
Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins on losing legal case - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins says they're very likely to appeal after losing a significant court case.
| null |
Pimlico Plumbers boss Charlie Mullins says his firm is "very likely" to appeal after losing a significant court case.
It comes after the Court of Appeal agreed with a tribunal that Garry Smith was entitled to basic workers' rights, following a heart attack, even though he'd been technically self-employed.
Charlie Mullins told the BBC that Mr Smith had chosen to be self-employed, meaning he was paid twice as much, but then would not receive worker benefits.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38929117
|
Arsene Wenger: Arsenal manager 'coming to the end', says Ian Wright - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Arsene Wenger has given Ian Wright "the impression" that he will leave as Arsenal boss, claims the Gunners legend.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsene Wenger has told Ian Wright his time as Arsenal boss is "coming to the end", claims the Gunners legend.
Wenger has managed Arsenal since October 1996 and won the last of his three Premier League titles in 2004.
The 67-year-old's contract expires at the end of the season.
"I get the impression that that's it," ex-Arsenal striker Wright told BBC Radio 5 live. "He looks tired. You just feel that he looks winded. I feel that he will go at the end of the season."
Arsenal's hopes of winning the championship this season took a huge blow when Saturday's 3-1 loss at league leaders Chelsea left them 12 points behind the Blues.
Wright says he spoke with Wenger on Thursday night.
"He actually mentioned that he is coming to the end. I have never heard him say that before," said the 53-year-old.
"I was with him for a few hours. He didn't say to me, 'I'm leaving at the end of the season', but I get the impression, looking at him, that that's it."
Wright added: "The players have let him down badly.
"If he does leave at the end of the season, there will be a lot of changes. They should have a long, hard look at themselves. He has been so faithful to his team, it has been misplaced."
Some fans have called for Wenger to leave, with one holding up a poster at Stamford Bridge telling the Frenchman: "Enough is enough. Time to go."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38939129
|
Football Association of Wales to appeal against Fifa poppy fine - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
The Football Association of Wales will appeal against sanctions imposed by Fifa for displaying poppies during a World Cup qualifier.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
The Football Association of Wales will be appealing against sanctions imposed by Fifa for displaying poppies during a World Cup qualifier.
The FAW were fined 20,000 Sfr (£15,694) following commemorations prior to Wales' World Cup qualifier against Serbia in November.
Football's governing body took action against because fans wore poppies in the stands and the armed forces held bunches of poppies at the side of the pitch.
"The Football Association of Wales can confirm that it has received written reasons from Fifa's disciplinary committee relating to sanctions imposed during our World Cup qualifier against Serbia on 12 November, 2016," the FAW said in a statement.
"Following this, the FAW have now informed FIFA of our intention to appeal the decision."
Fifa also fined the national associations of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland for displaying poppies.
The Scottish FA confirmed they will be appealing against Fifa sanctions that followed Scotland players wearing poppies at Wembley.
England's Football Association have also indicated they will appeal against the fine of 45,000 Swiss francs (£35,311).
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38931469
|
What is the 'gig' economy? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
What is the so-called "gig" economy, a phrase increasingly associated with employment disputes?
|
Business
|
A tribunal found courier Maggie Dewhurst should be classed as a worker
What is the so-called "gig" economy, a phrase increasingly in use, and seemingly so in connection with employment disputes?
According to one definition, it is "a labour market characterised by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work, as opposed to permanent jobs".
And - taking opposing partisan viewpoints - it is either a working environment that offers flexibility with regard to employment hours, or... it is a form of exploitation with very little workplace protection.
The latest attempt to bring a degree of legal clarity to the employment status of people in the gig economy has been playing out in the Court of Appeal.
A London firm, Pimlico Plumbers, on Friday lost its appeal against a previous ruling that said one of its long-serving plumbers was a worker - entitled to basic rights, including holiday pay - rather than an independent contractor.
Like other cases of a similar nature, such as those involving Uber and Deliveroo, the outcome will now be closely scrutinised for what it means regarding the workplace rights of the millions of people employed in the gig economy in the UK.
In the gig economy, instead of a regular wage, workers get paid for the "gigs" they do, such as a food delivery or a car journey.
In the UK it's estimated that five million people are employed in this type of capacity.
Proponents of the gig economy claim that people can benefit from flexible hours, with control over how much time they can work as they juggle other priorities in their lives.
Workers in the gig economy may be delivering meals
In addition, the flexible nature often offers benefits to employers, as they only pay when the work is available, and don't incur staff costs when the demand is not there.
Meanwhile, workers in the gig economy are classed as independent contractors.
That means they have no protection against unfair dismissal, no right to redundancy payments, and no right to receive the national minimum wage, paid holiday or sickness pay.
It is these aspects that are proving contentious.
In the past few months two tribunal hearings have gone against employers looking to classify staff as independent contractors.
Last October Uber drivers in the UK won the right to be classed as workers rather than independent contractors.
The ruling by a London employment tribunal meant drivers for the ride-hailing app would be entitled to holiday pay, paid rest breaks and the national minimum wage.
Uber is appealing against the tribunal finding against it
The GMB union described the decision as a "monumental victory" for some 40,000 drivers in England and Wales. In December, Uber launched an appeal against the ruling that it had acted unlawfully.
And in January this year, a tribunal found that Maggie Dewhurst, a courier with logistics firm City Sprint, should be classed as a worker rather than independent contractor, entitling her to basic rights.
And, also towards the end of last year, a group of food takeaway couriers working for Deliveroo said they were taking legal steps in the UK to gain union recognition and workers' rights.
One difference worth noting is that workers in the gig economy differ slightly from those on zero-hours contracts.
Those are the - also controversial - arrangements used by companies such as Sports Direct, JD Wetherspoons and Cineworld.
Like workers in the gig economy, zero-hours contractors - or casual contractors - don't get guaranteed hours or much job security from their employer.
Chancellor Philip Hammond is looking for effective ways to tax workers
But people on zero-hours contracts are seen as employees in some sense, as they are entitled to holiday pay. But, like those in the gig economy, they are not entitled to sick pay.
Meanwhile, the Department for Business is holding an inquiry into a range of working practices - including the gig economy.
The department says it wants to ensure its employment rules are up to date to reflect "new ways of working".
The status of gig economy workers is of importance to the government, as last November's Autumn Statement showed for the first time how it is cutting into the government's tax take.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimated that in 2020-21 it will cost the Treasury £3.5bn.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said then he would look to find more effective ways to tax workers in the UK's current shifting labour environment.
For more on the gig economy listen to In The Balance: Precarious Future on BBC World Service at 09:30 GMT on Saturday, 11 February.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38930048
|
Musicals come last in sexy music poll - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Want to get lucky this Valentine's? Then you'd better leave show tunes off your shuffle queue.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
La La Land? More Na Na Land according to this survey
Want to get lucky this Valentine's Day? Then you had better leave show tunes off your shuffle queue.
According to a new poll, songs from musicals are the least likely to get played in the British bedroom.
Musicals came dead last in a list of the 19 genres of music that couples listen to as the lights go down.
Even chamber music, thrash metal and hymns ranked higher in a survey of more than 2,000 people conducted by Birmingham's Symphony Hall.
Musicals like Chicago and Cabaret are not sexy - apparently
So what musical genre was judged to have the most sex appeal? Well, it's no surprise to find it's good ol' R&B.
Sixteen percent of respondents chose it as their favourite bedroom music - proving once and for all that there is indeed nothing wrong with a little bump and grind.
Twelve percent chose chart music, while just over one in 10 chose classic pop from the 1980s and '90s. Heaven, it seems, really is a place on earth.
The survey found that 43% of people play music while making love - though the percentage skews much higher with younger people.
Sixty percent of 18-24 year olds said they liked listening to music while getting intimate, as opposed to 38% of over-55s.
It also makes a difference whether you've tied the knot - or not.
Sixty-two percent of unmarried couples like to have something playing in the background, compared with 28% of married ones.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38918963
|
The health workers that help patients stay at home - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Wakefield is seen as a pioneer in helping more patients stay at home and saving the NHS money.
|
Health
|
June Lord, 82, is one of those helped home from hospital under the Wakefield project
Every Monday morning, in a meeting room within earshot of the bells of Wakefield cathedral, a group of healthcare workers help to stage a mini-revolution.
Nothing that you read in the next few minutes may strike you as particularly surprising.
Yet the experimental manner in which they are working together in this corner of Yorkshire is being seen as a possible way to improve healthcare across the country, and save the NHS money.
At the table is a healthcare assistant, called Kay, Karen the physiotherapist, then Jane the occupational therapist.
On the other side sit two mental health nurses both called Rachel, and finally Sue Robson - another mental health nurse who's been with the NHS for 37 years.
"I've seen many, many changes, and this is one of the most exciting," smiles Sue.
Each Monday, they sit together and plan the care that will be offered to the mostly elderly people they are working with in a number of care homes in the Wakefield district.
Because each here brings a different specialism to the table, they can, as a group, build up a complete picture of how best to help each patient.
There is one woman they are especially worried about this week. She has fallen quite a few times, but as they talk it begins to look less like a purely physical problem.
"I carried out a physio session last week," says Karen.
She was "very anxious. It was difficult to engage with her," adds Kay.
"So today if things don't seem to be improving we may look at discussing with the psychiatrist whether she needs a review," concludes Sue.
"As professionals we are linking up," Sue continues. "We're discussing the case between ourselves. We have links to the GP. We have links to the mental health services and we are all working together rather than in isolation."
Mental health nurse Sue Robson says they have seen good results in Wakefield
Across the board this project in Wakefield - which at its most basic aims to get the different parts of the health service and the care system working together - is easing the pressures on the NHS and on care homes.
They have seen a sizable reduction in the number of patients who've had to go to hospital from the care homes they work in. A reduction in the use of ambulances. A reduction in the number of days patients who do go to hospital end up spending in a hospital bed.
It's both about keeping patients out of hospital in the first place, and getting them home as quickly as possible if they do need to go.
In the first nine months of 2016-17, phase one of the Wakefield Vanguard Care Homes scheme recorded:
The project has involved NHS workers training up care home staff beyond the basic first aid most already have. That gives care homes the skills they need to better diagnose what is wrong with a resident who falls ill. It is resulting in better care for patients and fewer 999 calls for an ambulance.
There are also efforts to improve people's health in the first place. A lot of work is going into making the men and women who live in care homes and "independent living" flats (they used to be known as sheltered accommodation) feel less isolated.
Sharon Carter runs one project that aims to stop the elderly feeling lonely. It's called Portrait of a Life. Essentially it's a photo and memory book that residents like 91-year-old Marjorie Smith receive.
Marjorie Smith is a resident at the Croftlands independent living scheme
It helps them reminisce, it helps other older people living in the same accommodation get to know their neighbours, and it helps care staff learn about what makes the people in their care tick.
"We're finding they have a better sense of well-being as opposed to ill-being," says Sharon.
Along with everything else the project is doing, she says it's led to fewer people going into hospital and residential care.
Many of course still do end up in hospital. And when they do Louise Lumley works at the "getting them home" end of the process.
She's part of Age UK's Wakefield District team, and outside Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield she's securing 82-year-old June Lord's wheelchair in the back of an adapted car. It will be a 20-minute journey home.
When they arrive, Louise goes through a list of questions. Does June have someone who can help her in the coming days? Does she have the medicine she needs? Is there anything at home that's particularly dangerous that might need to be made safe, to prevent future injuries?
The answers will go into a database that can help tailor June's care in the coming months.
A week of coverage by BBC News examining the state of the NHS across the UK as it comes under intense pressure during its busiest time of the year.
There is plenty of other work besides. A local not-for-profit Housing Association sits in meetings with health staff to work out how best to improve the lives of the elderly people who rent flats from them.
They're trying to join up all the parts of the system as much as they can.
Everyone here stresses it's about improving patient care. But there are savings to be made. They estimate that if they roll this project out across the whole district, by 2021 they will make a net saving of £5.3m a year.
You can download the podcast containing Matthew Price's full report for BBC Radio 4's Today programme here.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38897257
|
River Wear's new bridge in Sunderland is lifted into place - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The new river crossing in Sunderland weighs more than 125 double decker buses and will open by 2018.
|
Tyne & Wear
|
It will take two days to lift the bridge into place
The 330ft (100m) centrepiece of Sunderland's new River Wear road bridge has begun its two-day journey being lifted in to place.
The structure, between Castletown and Pallion, weighs the equivalent of 125 double decker buses and will be supported by a 379ft (115m) pylon.
David Abdy, project director for Sunderland City Council, said the £117m bridge was essential for the city.
The bridge and its approach roads are due to be open by 2018.
It is the first bridge to be built in the city for more than 40 years.
The bridge's pylon is twice as high as the Millennium Bridge in Gateshead and taller than Big Ben's clock tower.
It will have two lanes of traffic in each direction, plus dedicated cycle paths and footpaths along its full length.
The structure weighs the equivalent of 125 double decker buses
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-38932231
|
Why did Turkey hold a referendum? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The BBC's Mark Lowen explains why a draft new constitution for Turkey had such fierce opposition.
|
Europe
|
The changes give sweeping new to powers Mr Erdogan
A new draft constitution that significantly increases the powers of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been approved by voters in a referendum. Here, the BBC's Turkey correspondent, Mark Lowen, explains why this was such a bitterly-contested process.
In one brawl, a government MP alleged an opponent bit into his leg. In another, a plant pot was hurled across parliament. A microphone was stolen and used as a weapon. An independent MP handcuffed herself to a lectern, sparking another scuffle. The parliamentary debate on changing Turkey's constitution wasn't a mild affair.
On the surface, it might seem a proposal that would enjoy cross-party consensus: modernising Turkey's constitution that was drawn up at the behest of the once-omnipotent military after the coup of 1980.
But instead it's arguably the most controversial political change in a generation, giving sweeping powers to the country's powerful but divisive President Erdogan.
The plan turns Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential republic. Among the numerous changes:
The government - and, principally, President Erdogan - argue that the reforms streamline decision-making and avoid the unwieldy parliamentary coalitions that have hamstrung Turkey in the past.
Since the president is no longer chosen by parliament but now elected directly by the people, goes the argument, he or she should not have to contend with another elected leader (the prime minister) to enact laws.
The current system, they say, is holding back Turkey's progress. They even argue that the change could somehow end the extremist attacks that have killed more than 500 people in the past 18 months.
Hundreds of people have been killed in attacks in Turkey in the past 18 months
A presidential system is all very well in a country with proper checks and balances like the United States, retort critics, where an independent judiciary has shown itself willing to stand up to Donald Trump and a rigorous free press calls him out on contentious policies.
But in Turkey, where judicial independence has plummeted and which now ranks 151 of 180 countries in the press freedom index of the watchdog Reporters Without Borders, an all-powerful president would spell the death knell of democracy, they say.
Mr Erdogan's opponents already decry his slide to authoritarianism, presiding over the world's biggest jailer of journalists and a country where some 140,000 people have been arrested, dismissed or suspended since the failed coup last year.
Granting him virtually unfettered powers, said the main opposition CHP, would "entrench dictatorship".
Since the failed coup 140,000 people have been arrested, dismissed or suspended from their jobs
Ahmet Kasim Han, a political scientist from Kadir Has University, said before the vote: "It doesn't look as bad as the opposition paints it and it's definitely not as benevolent as the government depicts it.
"The real weakness is that in its hurry to pass the reform, the government hasn't really explained the 2,000 laws that would change. So it doesn't look bright, especially with this government's track record."
How did the referendum come to happen? The governing AK Party had to rely on parliamentary votes from the far-right MHP to lead the country to a referendum.
Opposition to the reform was led by the centre-left CHP and the pro-Kurdish HDP parties, the latter of which had been portrayed by the government as linked to terrorism. Several of its MPs and the party leaders are now in prison.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of the far right MHP, now supports the proposed constitutional changes
AKP and MHP voters who opposed the reform might have felt pressured into voting in favour, so as not to be tarnished as supporting "terrorists", especially since the referendum took place under the state of emergency imposed after the attempted coup.
"Holding the vote under this state of emergency makes it susceptible to allegations that people don't feel free to say no," says Dr Kasim Han. "It casts a shadow over the outcome."
With the detail of the constitutional reform impenetrable to many, the referendum became focused around Mr Erdogan himself: a president who elicits utmost reverence from one side of the country and intense hatred from the other.
The result will now determine the political fate of this deeply troubled but hugely important country.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38883556
|
FA reform: MPs pass 'no confidence' motion after House of Commons debate - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
A motion of "no confidence" in the Football Association is passed by MPs debating the organisation's ability to reform itself.
| null |
A motion of "no confidence" in the Football Association has been passed by MPs debating the organisation's ability to reform itself.
While the motion is largely symbolic, MPs have warned legislation will be brought in if changes are not made.
Sports Minister Tracey Crouch has said the FA could lose £30m-£40m of public funding if it does not modernise.
Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Select Committee chairman Damian Collins said: "No change is no option."
• None Timeline: Calls for changes at the FA
He added: "The FA, to use a football analogy, are not only in extra time, they are at the end of extra time, in 'Fergie time'. They are 1-0 down and if they don't pick up fairly quickly, reform will be delivered to them."
I would have thought with the state of the NHS, the lack of building, not enough cash for defence, that [MPs] would put energy into that not the organisation of football
FA chairman Greg Clarke has said he will quit if the organisation cannot win government support for its reform plans.
"I watched the debate and respect the opinions of the MPs," he said.
"As previously stated, we remain committed to reforming governance at the FA to the agreed timescale of the minister."
Collins suggested ministers should intervene to overhaul English football's governing body because "turkeys won't vote for Christmas" and it will not reform itself.
Crouch warned the FA that if it played "Russian roulette" with public money it will lose.
The minister also said the government would be prepared to consider legislation if the FA fails to present plans for required reforms before April. However she felt the debate - which was sparsely attended by MPs - was premature given her desire to see the FA's proposals.
How have we got here?
The committee has published two reports since 2010 recommending greater representation at the FA for fans and the grassroots game, as well as more diversity in positions of authority. It also wants to dilute the perceived dominance of the Premier League.
Collins has said the FA was given six months to meet the government guidance on best practice for sports governance but had failed to do so. That guidance called for things such as a move towards gender equality on boards, more independent oversight, more accountability and term limits for office bearers.
He was joined by fellow Tories and Labour MPs - keen to ensure the "national game" is run correctly - in bemoaning the current state of the FA.
The cross-party motion stated that MPs have no confidence in the FA's ability to comply fully with its duties as its existing governance structures make it "impossible for the organisation to reform itself".
It was approved unopposed at the end of a backbench business debate, which was attended by fewer than 30 MPs.
The FA is effectively run by its own parliament, the FA Council, which has 122 members - just eight are women and only four from ethnic minorities. More than 90 of the 122 members are aged over 60.
Shadow sports minister Rosena Allin-Khan said: "Not only is diversity not in the heart of the FA ,it isn't in its body, or even its soul."
Labour MP Keith Vaz, whose constituency of Leicester East is home to the Premier League champions Leicester City, added: "A quarter of all professional footballers are black, however only 17 of the 92 top clubs have an ethnic minority person in a senior coaching role."
However, Keith Compton - one of 25 FA life vice-presidents and a director of Derbyshire FA - questioned why the FA was being discussed in Parliament.
"It is pity that the MPs have got nothing better to do," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I would have thought with the state of the NHS, the lack of building, too many people living in boxes, not enough cash for defence, that some people would put energy into that not the organisation of football.
"Football is reforming all of the time."
Asked whether there should be more female and ethnic minority involvement in FA decisions, he said: "That's not really the responsibility of the council. If those people were interested enough, and we had enough people, we would have enough women and other people on the FA.
"I have heard people say supporters aren't represented but that is not true. They have one representative. People want the council to be reduced and now I am hearing it should be increased."
• None FA Council member: 'Old, grey-haired men still have a lot to offer'
Responding to the interview, former FA chairman David Bernstein said: "I think if you want an argument for change, you've just heard it."
And Yunus Lunat, the first Muslim to get a seat on the FA Council before leaving three years ago, said new recruits were needed.
"No-one is disputing the contribution the previous generation has made but there comes a time when you have got to recognise that you are not the most suitable people for the role," he said.
The debate may have been attended by fewer MPs than is needed for a full football match, but the fact a motion of no confidence in the FA was passed still gives it an embarrassing bloody nose, ramping up the pressure on the governing body.
The few MPs who spoke seemed to mostly agree with each other, demanding greater diversity on the council, independent directors and fan representation on the board, and raising concerns over the clout and money of the professional clubs, especially the Premier League.
But the people who really matter here are the government.
The sports minister said the debate was "premature" and reiterated that she may consider the nuclear option of legislation to force through reforms - but only if a threat to cut funding does not work. That however, remains some way off and the FA is confident it can comply with a new code of governance. If it fails, chairman Greg Clarke has vowed to step down and then it really will be in the last-chance saloon.
What do fans think?
Football Supporters' Federation chairman Malcolm Clarke: "We're very pleased to see so many MPs back our proposals for a minimum of five fan representatives on the FA Council, representation on the FA board, and increased diversity.
"Supporters are integral to the health of our national sport yet are still shockingly under-represented in the FA hierarchy - the FA Council has only one supporter representative, yet the Armed Forces and Oxbridge have five.
"It is also important to acknowledge that the FA Council has stood up to rampant commercialism within the game and protected fans' interests - such as when the FA Council stopped the 'Hull Tigers' name change."
What the MPs said - key quotes
Sports minister Tracey Crouch: "The FA's current model does not, in my opinion, and clearly that of other colleagues, stand up to scrutiny. Reform is therefore required."
Judith Cummins (Labour, Bradford South): "At best they're dragging their feet, at worst they're wilfully failing to act."
Andrew Bingham, CMS Select Committee member: "The issues of Sam Allardyce, who manages the (England) team for 67 days, one game, walks away with allegedly around £1m, it is destroying people's faith in football."
Nigel Huddleston (Conservative, Mid Worcestershire): "I have a great deal of respect for Greg Clarke but I sense his hands are tied and a sense of institutional inertia pervades the governance of football in this country."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38920489
|
Leicester City: What has changed at the Premier League champions? - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Eight months after leading Leicester to the title, Claudio Ranieri is battling to prevent his side being relegated. So what has changed?
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Leicester
Eight months after celebrating a Premier League title win that ranks among the greatest of all sporting achievements, Leicester find themselves firmly mired in a relegation battle.
Manager Claudio Ranieri this week received a vote of confidence, the club insisting he retains their "unwavering support".
But Leicester's fall has been a dramatic one, leaving them one point and two places above the bottom three.
So what has changed for the champions, and why are things going wrong for a manager who only two months ago was named coach of the year at the Best Fifa Football Awards?
In a BBC Sport poll, 62% of voters think that Leicester will not be relegated this season.
How bad have Leicester been?
It is 79 years since the top-flight title winners have dropped into the second tier 12 months after winning the league, but that is the prospect facing Leicester after the worst title defence ever seen.
The Foxes have yet to win away in the league all season and have started 2017 with a run of five league games without a goal. No other top-flight team has endured such a miserable run since Tottenham, 31 years ago.
It is a staggering contrast to their results in 2015-16, when they lost only three league matches throughout the campaign. In fact, at the start of this season, they had lost only three times in their previous 47 Premier League games.
And don't forget - they did not just win the league last season, they ended up walking it by 10 points.
But since August things have unravelled fast and they have lost 13 out of 24 matches, winning just five times.
What has happened to Jamie Vardy?
Would you be surprised to find out Jamie Vardy's conversion rate is actually better this season than it was during the title campaign?
Vardy scored 24 Premier League goals in 2015-16, form that saw him named Football Writers' Footballer of the Year and shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or and Fifa's own player of the year award.
This season he has only five league goals, three of which came in one game against Manchester City, and has scored in only one league game since 10 September - a run of 17 matches.
But he is actually more clinical this year.
The problem, it seems, is he is simply not getting the chances. This season, on average, he gets one opportunity every two matches, whereas last season it was more than one per game.
Vardy after 24 games of last season and this season
While the evidence points to the lack of a supply line (fewer shots, fewer chances), there has also been the suggestion Vardy is not making the runs that proved so successful last season.
Ian Stringer, who covers the Foxes for BBC Radio Leicester, said: "Jamie Vardy haring around is a sight to behold, but it seems rare this season.
"I think that's due to his chances being few and far between; he can't run in behind if he's not being slotted in."
The stats actually show that Vardy is working as hard as last season - covering exactly the same average distance per game - and he is even making more sprints than last year. The ball is simply not finding him when he does. And certainly not in dangerous areas.
And what about Riyad Mahrez?
Riyad Mahrez's attacking excellence in 2015-16 earned him the PFA Player of the Year award, as well as seeing him named BBC African Footballer of the Year.
That recognition came after a season in which he scored 17 goals and provided assists for a further 11.
This year, his return from 22 matches is three goals - all penalties - and two assists.
So what is he doing differently?
Last season, many of his goals and assists came from trickery and mazy dribbling. This season, he is simply not showing those same skills.
Mins per pass into final third
And, of course, there is the collapse of his previously lethal link-up play with Vardy, a combination that led to seven goals last season (ie one player directly assisting the other).
In October, the pair famously went on a run of eight game in which they passed to each other only twice.
That has improved since then - but to no great effect.
In the six Premier League games they have played together since the start of December, Mahrez has found Vardy 16 times (including five times against Manchester United on Sunday).
But it is not leading to goals and, remarkably, the pair have combined for just one goal in the past 12 months.
It always seemed likely Leicester would lose one, two or maybe all of their three star performers last season.
They kept hold of Vardy after he turned down the chance to move to Arsenal, but the Foxes were powerless to prevent N'Golo Kante leaving for Chelsea for around £30m, as he reportedly had a release clause in his contract.
For a team so reliant on playing on the counter-attack, Kante's ability to break up opposition attacks and protect the back four was a cornerstone of their success.
The Foxes have tried to fill that void, using Daniel Amartey and new signings Nampalys Mendy and Wilfred Ndidi in his central midfield position.
And while Kante has long been noted for his energetic style and ability to cover so much ground, his replacements have more or less matched - and in Mendy's case bettered - his workrate.
But it is Kante's ability to disrupt the opposition's play that they simply have not been able to replace.
As Watford striker Troy Deeney said earlier this season: "You can get through their midfield and get at their back four a little bit easier now.
"Whenever we broke on them last season, I always had the fear factor that Kante was coming back and I knew we didn't have much time before he got there.
"Even if I actually did have time, I always thought he might be there, so I would rush things a bit.
"I always felt Kante did the work of two players."
Perhaps the biggest impact of Kante's departure has been on Leicester's defensive solidity.
While last season they kept 15 clean sheets in their 38 games and became notorious for eking out 1-0 wins - they managed seven in total - this term they have been conceding far more regularly and have won 1-0 only once.
Number of times conceded two or more Number of times conceded three or more
Their backline is an ageing one - centre-backs Wes Morgan and Robert Huth are 33 and 32 respectively - and they are frequently finding themselves exposed.
And it does not help that the team appear to be working less hard as a unit.
"Leicester in recent years have been a team built on effort, going back to their League One days," said Stringer. "All that seems to have disappeared.
"While I'm not questioning the desire or effort, it's the physical exertion which seems less - understandable when you've lost a player like Kante who's dominating the tackles and distances-made charts."
And the stats back up the argument that their workrate has dipped.
They are collectively running an average of 2.1km less per game than they were last season.
The return of the Tinkerman
Leicester used fewer playerslast season - 23 - than any other Premier League team, with Ranieri making a total of 33 changes to his starting line-up over the course of 38 games, the fewest in the division.
This season, with things going wrong from the outset (an opening-day defeat against a Hull side in disarray), the Italian has reverted to being the 'Tinkerman', a nickname picked up while in charge at Chelsea.
There are, of course, mitigating factors. This season, the Foxes have played five more games in all competitions than at the same stage 12 months ago, with Ranieri having to consider the demands of Champions League football on his squad.
He also lost Amartey, Mahrez and Islam Slimani to Africa Cup of Nations duty, making changes inevitable.
But it is not just the players who have changed regularly - Ranieri has also started tinkering with his formation.
The 4-4-2 set-up that brought them so much success last season has been replaced in recent weeks, and Leicester have started with a different formation in each of their past four games.
That has widely been perceived as a failing of Ranieri's, confusing his players and sending mixed messages - the Italian himself conceding they were struggling to adapt after a 3-0 defeat at Southampton in January.
"Maybe my players didn't understand my idea very well," he reflected.
But perhaps Ranieri was actually too slow to identify his side's problems, and too reluctant to move away from 4-4-2.
While many teams adapt their formation depending on the opposition (Tottenham and Manchester City are just two of the sides to have played three at the back against Chelsea's system this season), Ranieri had avoided doing that.
In fact, of the 18 Premier League teams to have used more than one formation in 2016-17 (Arsenal and Liverpool have not altered theirs), Leicester were the last to change.
Which teams were the slowest to try a new formation this season?
Ranieri is making up for lost time though. Since his first instance of tinkering - a 1-0 win against West Ham on 31 December - he has yet to choose the same formation in back-to-back fixtures.
So after their dismal start to 2017, will Leicester be able to reproduce the kind of end to the season that saved them in 2014-15, when they recovered from being bottom and seven points adrift with nine games to play?
They are not in quite such serious trouble yet this time around, and Stringer expects them to do enough to stay in the Premier League.
"I think this will be a watershed for them," he says. "Many of the current crop have experience of escaping relegation, and experience of doing it with this team. They'll survive."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38879315
|
Australian man stuck in a pond for hours recounts ordeal - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
An Australian farmer tells how he survived for hours trapped in a pond with only his nose above water.
| null |
An Australian man has survived spending hours struggling to keep his nose above water after his excavator rolled into a waterhole. Daniel Miller, 45, had been riding the machine at his remote property 300km (180 miles) north of Sydney.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-38916464
|
Rangers: Mark Warburton replaced as manager ahead of Scottish Cup tie - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Rangers say they have replaced Mark Warburton as manager after his resignation, but the Englishman says he has not stood down at Ibrox.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Rangers have replaced Mark Warburton as manager with under-20 coach Graeme Murty before Sunday's Scottish Cup tie with Greenock Morton.
The Scottish Premiership club say they have accepted the resignations of Warburton, assistant David Weir and head of recruitment, Frank McParland.
But Warburton, who took charge in 2015, told BBC Scotland he has not stood down and was unaware of the statement.
And the 54-year-old Englishman is consulting his legal team.
The BBC has learned that Warburton had contact with Nottingham Forest around 10 days ago and was high on the English Championship club's list of possible managers.
However, he was not offered the job and they decided to retain their interim team of Gary Brazil and Jack Lester until the end of the season.
Warburton, who had a contract at Ibrox until 2018, had taken Rangers' training on Friday as normal before Sunday's fifth-round tie.
He had earlier in the morning defended McParland's record of signings after media criticism of the Glasgow club's recruitment.
"At a meeting with the management team's representative earlier this week, the club were advised that Mr Warburton, Mr Weir and Mr McParland wished to resign their positions and leave the club on condition that Rangers agreed to waive its rights to substantial compensation," said Rangers' statement.
Although born in England, Graeme Murty qualified to play for Scotland and won four caps between 2004 and 2007 The 42-year-old played for York, Reading, Charlton Athletic and Southampton in a career lasting 17 years and 437 games He won the Football League Championship with Reading in 2005/06. He has coached at Southampton and Norwich City, both at youth level
"Rangers' agreement to waive compensation would assist the management team to join another club.
"This compensation amount was agreed when Rangers significantly improved Mr Warburton and Mr Weir's financial arrangements before the start of this season.
"The board urgently convened to consider the offer made on behalf of the management team and its ramifications and agreed to accept it and release the trio from the burden of compensation, despite the potential financial cost to the club."
Rangers claim that Warburton's representative attempted to alter the the terms.
"A further board meeting was held this afternoon to discuss this and it was decided not to agree to this additional request but to hold with the original agreement," he said.
"Mr Warburton, Mr Weir, and Mr McParland have therefore been notified in writing that their notices of termination have been accepted."
Rangers lie third in the Scottish top flight, but they are a distant 27 points behind city rivals and reigning champions Celtic and their statement went on to suggest that the management team have not reached the targets set.
"The board is very appreciative of the good work previously done by the management team but believes it had no alternative," it added.
"Our club must come first and absolute commitment is essential.
"It is important that Rangers has a football management team that wants to be at the club and that the board believes can take the club forward to meet our stated ambition to return to being the number one club in Scotland.
"We are clearly short of where we expected to be at this time."
Relations between Mark Warburton and the Rangers board have been strained for some time. The manner of the departure could never have been predicted, but the departure itself had been coming. Recent results have been poor, but the former Brentford boss was unhappy with the financial backing he received from owner Dave King - a man who he hasn't spoken to in person, on a one to one basis, for months. For his part, King had grown disillusioned by Warburton's signings and what he perceived to be a lack of progress. It was a relationship well beyond repair. Some will believe Warburton was agitating to get out, others will say the board turned on him. Whatever the truth, it's another mess this club could well do without.
Warburton's reign at Ibrox suffered a blow in November, when high-profile summer signing Joey Barton was sacked after a training ground disagreement with team-mate Andy Halliday and the manager following a 5-1 defeat by Celtic.
It called into question his signing policy, but Warburton gave another ringing endorsement to McParland, who was with him at Brentford, before Sunday's game.
"I've said time and again - his track record is outstanding," he said. "There would be no shortage of takers for someone of his quality."
Warburton also quoted a former Rangers manager in pointing out the pressures that come with the post.
"Walter Smith said to me that you are never more than two or three games away from a major crisis," he said. "That is life at Rangers.
"That is the nature of it. You just get on with it."
Warburton was in charge of Rangers for 82 games, winning 55, drawing 14 and suffering 13 losses.
His 67% win rate was more than Stuart McCall, who took charge at the end of the 2014-15 season, and had a 41% win rate, but less than his predecessor, Ally McCoist, with 72%.
Mark Warburton attempted to explain away his team's - or former team's - dreary draw against Ross County by saying a series of random events conspired against his players.
It was, he said, football's strange ways that denied them on the day, as if some cosmic force was to blame for the failings rather than his own players and his own management.
Warburton's comments were bizarre but nowhere near as surreal as the nonsense that took hold of Rangers on Friday evening as the club said that Warburton was leaving and Warburton said that he wasn't.
Rangers have known dysfunction in recent years, but those times are not as distant as some chose to believe.
They're just dysfunctional in a different way now. Rudderless, leaking like a sieve and now embarrassed in a way that surely took their supporters back to the dog days of Charles Green and chums.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38939432
|
Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Birmingham City - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Sheffield Wednesday beat Birmingham City 3-0 in the Championship to strengthen their place in the top six.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Jordan Rhodes and Sam Winnall's first goals for Sheffield Wednesday saw them boost their play-off hopes with a 3-0 victory over mid-table Birmingham City.
Rhodes met Ross Wallace's early free-kick to give the hosts the lead.
Birmingham then hit the woodwork three times as they searched for a leveller.
Winnall's close-range, diving header from an inch-perfect Jack Hunt cross put the game beyond the Blues' reach, before Adam Reach showed good pace and composure to add a late third goal.
The defeat was Gianfranco Zola's seventh in 12 games in all competitions in charge of Birmingham, who have now lost five of their past seven away games, while the in-form Owls have won five of their past six at home.
The hosts could have gone ahead as early as the second minute when Tomasz Kuszczak denied Sam Winnall from close range, before Rhodes rose to nod home Wallace's expert right-wing set-piece delivery soon afterwards.
But after a disjointed start, the visitors then settled into the game and struck the woodwork twice in quick succession, firstly when Wednesday's Sam Hutchinson inadvertently diverted Craig Gardner's cross onto his own post, before Blues right-back Emilio Nsue struck the other upright with a crisp half-volley.
After the break, Birmingham midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld was fortunate to only receive a yellow card for a rash challenge on Morgan Fox, but Zola's side began to control possession and cause problems with Gardner's set-pieces.
The game's decisive twist then came when Gardner's fierce strike hit the crossbar moments before Winnall - against the run of play - got in between two Birmingham defenders to head in Hunt's outstanding cross for his fourth goal of this season against the Blues, having netted three times in two games against them for Barnsley before his January move to Hillsborough.
Birmingham, who were in seventh place and level on points with Wednesday when former manager Gary Rowett was surprisingly sacked on 14 December, are now 12 points below the Owls, who remain sixth.
"We know that was not perfect, but there are a lot of things that I like.
"Even in the first minute, we could have achieved a goal, and after that we had three or more clear chances.
"I think the score was very heavy to Birmingham, but I think with the opportunities that we created and the goals that we scored, I think we deserved to win this game."
"The second goal was a fantastic cross and a good piece of football. The disappointing bit for me was the beginning, the first 10 minutes.
"After that I saw only one team on the pitch. We played good football and created chances. But that is not enough. We have to be stronger and more hungry.
"We controlled the midfield and controlled the game so, other than the result, I thought it was one of the best performances, after the first few minutes.
"The bottom line is that we play good football but we don't score enough."
• None Attempt blocked. Greg Stewart (Birmingham City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lukas Jutkiewicz.
• None Paul Robinson (Birmingham City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 3, Birmingham City 0. Adam Reach (Sheffield Wednesday) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Sam Winnall.
• None Attempt blocked. Nsue (Birmingham City) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Craig Gardner.
• None Attempt blocked. Che Adams (Birmingham City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
• None Attempt missed. Adam Reach (Sheffield Wednesday) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Almen Abdi.
• None Goal! Sheffield Wednesday 2, Birmingham City 0. Sam Winnall (Sheffield Wednesday) header from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jack Hunt with a cross.
• None Craig Gardner (Birmingham City) hits the bar with a right footed shot from outside the box. Assisted by Kerim Frei. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38850950
|
Window fall killed Shergar jockey Walter Swinburn - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Walter Swinburn was found by his father in the courtyard of his house in Belgravia, London.
|
London
|
Walter Swinburn was found in the courtyard of his home by his father
Former jockey Walter Swinburn fell to his death from his bathroom window, an inquest heard.
The three-time Derby winner and Shergar rider was found by his father in the courtyard of his London home.
It was not possible to establish whether his epilepsy - the result of a riding accident in 1996 - contributed to the fall, Westminster Coroner's Court was told.
Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe ruled his death on 12 December was an accident.
The court heard he suffered a fatal head injury after falling 12 feet (3.5m) from the window at his home in Belgravia.
Walter Swinburn was known for his victories riding Shergar including winning the Derby by 10 lengths at Epsom in 1981, aged just 19.
Mr Swinburn was nicknamed the 'Choirboy' and picked up numerous successes around the world before his retirement in 2000.
The 55-year-old was best known for his partnership with Shergar, which had at one time an estimated worth of £10m as the most famous and valuable racehorse in the world.
He had suffered from post-traumatic epilepsy after falling from a racehorse in Hong Kong in 1996, which left him prone to seizures.
He took over a training licence from his father-in-law, Peter Harris, in 2004 and went on to send out over 260 winners from his yard in Tring, Hertfordshire, before quitting in 2011.
He claimed one of the biggest victories of his training career in 2011 when Julienas won the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38919223
|
Kellyanne Conway criticised for Ivanka Trump product promotion - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
President Donald Trump's senior aide Kellyanne Conway is being criticised for promoting Ivanka Trump's products live on air from the White House press briefing room.
| null |
President Donald Trump's senior aide Kellyanne Conway is under fire for promoting Ivanka Trump's products live on air from the White House press briefing room.
Her comments followed a tweet by the president which criticised retailer Nordstrom for dropping the US first daughter's clothing line.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38927665
|
Domestic abuse victim's hands severed by ex-partner - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Simonne Butler recounts her ex attacking her with a sword and having her hands reattached, in New Zealand in 2003.
| null |
On January 21st 2003, Antoine Dixon attacked his ex-partner Simonne Butler with a samurai sword, severing both of her hands.
After dozens of operations, Simonne's hands were reattached. Her friend Renee Gunbie, who was with her at the time, lost one of her hands.
Dixon then stole a vehicle and drove to Auckland, where he shot dead a man called James Te Aute. Two years later, he was given a life sentence for murder, wounding, kidnapping and using a firearm against a police officer.
He killed himself in jail. Simonne told 5 live's Nihal Arthanayake what happened on that day in 2003.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-38925101
|
The archaeological legacy of the Crossrail excavations - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
What will be the archaeological legacy of the Crossrail excavations?
|
London
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The skeletons of plague victims, a Tudor bowling ball and medieval ice skates fashioned from animal bones are among hundreds of artefacts on display at a new exhibition showcasing the most interesting finds made during the Crossrail excavations.
What's been unearthed undoubtedly offers a fascinating insight into London life over the centuries - but what will be the archaeological legacy of what is Europe's largest infrastructure project?
Tens of thousands of artefacts have been dug up during work to create the 42km (26-mile) Elizabeth Line, which runs from the east to the west of the capital.
With careful planning, 20 sites were excavated by archaeologists at locations where ventilation shafts were put in, where railways entered tunnels and where new ticket halls were to be built.
"We've managed to take a slice down through London but also across London," said Jackie Keily, the curator of the exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands.
One of Ms Keily's favourite exhibits is a bowling ball discovered at the site of a Tudor manor house in Stepney Green.
"It's amazing it survived," she said.
This Tudor bowling ball was found preserved in the boggy moat of a manor in Stepney Green
These objects, found near Liverpool Street station, have been identified as ice skates with the help of the writings of a 12th Century monk, who described young men skating on bones tied to their shoes
"It had been in a moat which was boggy. Henry VIII brought in a ban banning commoners from bowling. It was only for the aristocracy.
"Stepney Green is now part of Greater London but it would have been a weekend retreat in the countryside."
A chamber pot found beneath 19th Century terraced housing, also in Stepney Green, ranks as another highlight for Ms Keily.
"It dates back to when there were no indoor toilets or bathrooms," she said. "This one is fabulous because it has a shocked-looking man saying: 'What I see I will not tell'."
This chamber pot gives an insight into modesty in Victorian times
The discoveries made were by no means restricted to those from Victorian, Tudor or medieval times though, with considerably older items being unearthed, including bison bone fragments in the part of the capital we now call Royal Oak.
Asked if there had been previous evidence of bison roaming there, Ms Keily said: "We kind of knew but it's incredible to find the remains.
"There were three fragments of bison bone and one of reindeer from an antler. They were dated back to about 68,000 years ago.
"Some of the bones had traces of gnawing, possibly from wolves."
Scientific analysis of skeletons identified the DNA of the bacteria that caused the 1665 Great Plague
Two finds from the Crossrail project have ended up among the 80 million specimens at the Natural History Museum: a piece of 55-million-year-old amber and two parts of a woolly mammoth jawbone. Both were discovered beneath Canary Wharf.
The bone find could prove to be important, as Jessica Simpson from the museum explains: "They can date the woolly mammoth specimen once it is off display and they might be able to determine when they became extinct in our region.
"The last known woolly mammoths were roaming a small part of northern Siberia about 4,000 years ago."
For Ms Keily, the discovery that will perhaps provide the most significant element of Crossrail's archaeological legacy is the human remains found at Liverpool Street.
DNA testing on teeth found in the 17th Century Bedlam cemetery confirmed the identity of the bacteria behind London's Great Plague for the first time.
"That's an important discovery," she said.
And it's not the only one.
Don Walker, senior human osteologist at the Museum of London Archaeology, analysed some skeletons found at Charterhouse Square in Farringdon.
This leather shoe is believed to date from the 15th or 16th Century
He said of the discovery: "It was important because we found documented evidence of a Black Death cemetery dating to 1348 or 1349."
Isotope, radiocarbon and DNA analysis was performed in an effort to reveal details such as how a person's diet had changed during their lifetime and where they were likely to have lived.
Mr Walker said: "We don't know much about how infectious diseases interacted with people in the past.
"If we can understand the evolution of infectious diseases such as the plague that will help us understand how diseases will behave in the future."
Asked what the impact of the Crossrail excavations would be, he said: "I think it goes beyond archaeology and I'm certain there will be some benefits for future medical work as well."
Curator Jackie Keily: "We've managed to take a slice down through London"
Dr Piers Mitchell from Cambridge University is president of the Paleopathology Association and was part of the team that found Richard III's skull in a Leicester car park.
Asked if Crossrail would go on to be viewed as a significant project in British archaeology, he said: "The problem with Crossrail is you only get a little vertical shaft, a little box to excavate.
"That gives you a little vignette of life in the past. It's a little bit frustrating.
"They've got lots of little circles and they are trying to interpret London from that."
But he added: "Only time will tell. If interesting papers are published and we learn more about diseases of the past and how they are changing, it's going to be a good resource to teach students with."
Some of the finds as they were reported
Jay Carver, lead Crossrail archaeologist, believes the project will be held up as an example of how developers, engineers and archaeologists can work together and share finds with the community.
He said: "Every 10 years there's a mega-project that involves a lot of archaeology; previously there was the Eurostar tunnel and then Terminal 5 at Heathrow.
"With each project we are developing the way we work with construction and engineering. In the past archaeologists and engineers have been at loggerheads.
"I think it's been a really successful project."
And it's a project that is set to continue, with plans in place for Crossrail 2, the proposed north-south line from Epsom in Surrey to Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.
Curzon Soho cinema campaigner Stephen Fry has said he is not being a "numby" - not under my backyard - but objects to plans to tear down the building
But wherever there are huge infrastructure projects of this kind, there are difficult decisions to be taken, such as the possibility the Curzon cinema in Soho might have to make way for a new ticket hall.
Stephen Fry has said he does not want to be a "numby" - not under my backyard - but, as a supporter of the Curzon Soho, objects to the plans as they stand.
And the Victorian Society warns Wimbledon is among the areas that face losing important architecture to Crossrail 2's bulldozers - although a Transport for London spokesperson said: "Demolition is always our last resort."
Back in east London at the Museum of London Docklands - a stone's throw away from where engineers are putting the finishing touches to the Canary Wharf Crossrail station - Jackie Keily reflects happily on the impact of the several years of excavations.
"It's been an amazing project," she said.
"To be able to archaeologically take a slice through London east to west is pretty amazing."
Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail runs from Friday 10 February to 3 September at the Museum of London Docklands.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38919314
|
Mason Foulkes: Darts wonderkid, aged 4 - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
He's only four, but Mason Foulkes is probably better at darts than you.
| null |
He's only four but Mason Foulkes is probably better at darts than you.
If you'd like to find out about how to get into darts, read the special BBC Get Inspired guide.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38933245
|
Newspaper headlines: NHS 'returns to 1950s' and tax bills to rise - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Friday's papers feature stories about pressures on the NHS and claims council tax bills are to increase for many.
|
The Papers
|
The costs of school meals could rise in some areas, according to a report
The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph both lead on a survey by the think tank, the Local Government Information Unit, suggesting millions of households are facing above-inflation rises in council tax.
Almost all of England's town halls are said to be planning to increase bills by up to 5% to pay for social care.
Many are also planning higher charges for parking, school meals and even burials and cremations.
According to the Mail, critics say councils could avoid the rises if they stopped hoarding cash and dipped into their huge reserves.
Others say they could employ fewer chief executives earning more than the prime minister.
There is a continued focus on problems besetting the health service.
"With the NHS collapsing around her ears, brazen Theresa May yesterday insisted the Tories have lavished record sums of cash on the service," the paper says.
However, it quotes figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies which the paper says "shatter" that claim.
And it says the IFS has warned that "a shocking funding crisis gripping the NHS" means it'll be unable to cope with a growing and ageing population.
The Guardian quotes a government health adviser, Patrick Carter, warning that hospitals are under such extreme pressure that they're "in a state of war".
The Times quotes Sir Robert Francis QC, who led the public inquiry into the Mid Staffordshire scandal, warning that the NHS faces an "existential crisis".
It's manifestly failing, he says, and he dismisses plans for savings as "unrealistic".
Several papers report that doctors will not have to reveal their income from private work, after a U-turn by health chiefs.
A revolt by doctors is said to have forced NHS England to abandon plans to make them publish their outside earnings.
Instead, they'll be expected to publish on NHS websites how much time they spend on private work.
"What are they hiding?" asks the Daily Mail.
The Times castigates Wikipedia's volunteer editors in the UK for deciding that the Daily Mail can no longer be cited as a reliable source.
It suggests there's been an extension of the phrase "fake news" to cover publications that people merely dislike.
The paper also rejects Jeremy Corbyn's claim that reports suggesting he's close to stepping down as Labour leader are "fake news".
Mr Miller was pinned down by a bar on the excavator
It says he's a liability for his party - and that colleagues are appalled by what it calls his ineptitude.
A cartoon in the Telegraph likens the plight of Mr Corbyn to the misfortune of an Australian man who was trapped in a muddy ditch for six hours and survived by just about keeping his nose above the murky water.
The photograph is published in a number of the papers.
The Daily Express says migrants were caught trying to enter Britain illegally at the rate of 200 a day in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.
Figures apparently show that 24,800 people were stopped in the first six months of last year.
But as the historic vote on 23 June approached, the paper says, the rate of detection increased - with 5,900 being caught in June.
The Express says the scale of illegal immigration through northern France can be revealed for the first time after the paper won a long battle with the Home Office to publish the figures.
Several papers feature a former maths student from the University of Liverpool who is believed to be the first British woman to join the fight against so-called Islamic State in Syria.
Kimberley Taylor, who is 27, travelled to the war zone without telling her family in Merseyside after becoming shocked by the plight of refugees.
She is quoted saying: "I'm prepared to give my life for this."
The Mail says women fighters are greatly feared by the jihadis who believe it's a disgrace to be killed by a woman in battle, prohibiting them from entering paradise.
Finally, there is more bad news for healthy eaters already struggling to find iceberg lettuces and courgettes.
The Times warns that Britons will soon have to be a little less generous drizzling their olive oil.
Apparently erratic weather in the Mediterranean has sent wholesale prices soaring.
Italian olive groves have been particularly badly hit because fruit flies have been attracted by the humid weather, while a heatwave in Greece last spring is said to have cut the supply there by a quarter.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38926938
|
NHS Health Check: 'Most staff have been attacked', doctor says - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The body which advises hospitals on keeping their staff safe is to stop its work in March.
|
Health
|
Dr Brittain-George said most staff had been attacked or felt unsafe
The body set up to advise hospitals on staff safety is to end that work at the end of March, the BBC has discovered.
This is despite figures showing almost 200 assaults on doctors, nurses and other NHS staff in England every day.
One A&E doctor said "most NHS staff" could say they had been attacked or felt unsafe at work.
NHS Protect said it could not comment before a staff consultation ended but the government said it believed a new approach was needed to protect staff.
The body was tasked with overseeing the measures that trusts were taking to stop physical attacks on doctors and nurses.
It has co-ordinated safety standards and held trusts to account since 2003.
Dr Jess Brittain-George, who works in accident and emergency, said: "Most NHS staff can say they've been attacked or felt unsafe at work, especially those of us on the front line.
"Everyone is on alert and looking out for the patient who is going to kick off.
"When I joined as a student in 2008 it was never mentioned. I did an A&E placement and no-one talked about it.
"Now it's a running joke in the staffroom - 'What's happened to you today? I've been hit again', or something like that."
Kim Sunley was shocked by the number of assaults on NHS staff
Dr Brittain-George works in a hospital that takes staff security seriously and has seen attacks decline, but she says elsewhere in the health service security "isn't stellar" and has been frustrated by the unwillingness of police officers to investigate.
She says a man told an A&E receptionist that he intended to wait outside to kill her when she left work.
"The police didn't care. They said, 'It's just a threat and it isn't important.' But everyone knows that a threat to your life is an offence and it is prosecutable."
Nurses' leaders say the intense pressure on the health service has fuelled attacks on staff.
In total, 70,555 NHS staff were assaulted in 2015-16, according to NHS Protect figures - up 4% on the previous year.
Kim Sunley, of the Royal College of Nursing, described it as "an absolutely shocking figure".
"You see some horrible physical assaults - people being punched in the face, grabbed by the throat, limbs being broken, chairs being thrown at people.
"There's the physical impact of the injury, but also the psychological impact, the long-term effect. People are traumatised.
"Where people are frustrated and are having to wait a long time, an environment that isn't fit for purpose so you have trolleys in corridors, it's going to increase tension, it's going to increase frustration and it's a tinderbox atmosphere."
Many assaults are carried out by people who lack mental capacity, but it is thought some claim mental disability as a way of dissuading the police from investigating.
NHS Protect has stepped in to secure convictions in cases when the police have decided not to act.
On the issue of ending security work, NHS Protect said in a statement that it was "not appropriate for us to comment in detail" before the consultation with staff ended on 1 March.
But it confirmed that it was consulting staff about plans under which "our organisation would not be tasked with security management work".
It added: "Work continues on the potential of identifying who might be best placed to take the lead on guiding this work, if it is felt appropriate that another body should take it forward".
A Department of Health said its proposals come amid a "persistently high numbers of these unacceptable incidents".
A spokesperson added: "NHS staff work incredibly hard in a high-pressure environment, and it is completely unacceptable for them to be subject to aggression or violence.
"Trusts should have no hesitation in involving the police and pressing for the strongest penalties against offenders."
A week of coverage by BBC News examining the state of the NHS across the UK as it comes under intense pressure during its busiest time of the year.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38917156
|
The Republican women learning to love Trump - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Not everyone was won round by Donald Trump when he became the Republican presidential nominee last year - even members of his own party had their doubts. Not any more.
| null |
Not everyone was won round by Donald Trump when he became the Republican presidential nominee last year - even members of his own party had their doubts.
We spoke to a group of Republican women in New Hampshire who were among those initially sceptical of the current president, but who have since had a change of heart.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38926818
|
Orphaned dik-dik raised by keepers - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
He's only 19cm (7.4 in) tall and has been named Thanos.
| null |
He's only 19cm (7.4 in) tall and has been named Thanos.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38925011
|
The NHS v German healthcare - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
How does healthcare compare in these two European countries?
| null |
The NHS is under huge pressure. But how does being a patient in the UK compare with being a patient in Germany?
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38925528
|
Tiger Woods withdraws from two tournaments with 'ongoing back spasms' - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Back spasms force 14-time major winner Tiger Woods to pull out of next week's Genesis Open and the Honda Classic.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Golf
Fourteen-time major winner Tiger Woods has withdrawn from next week's Genesis Open and the Honda Classic on 23 February with "ongoing back spasms".
The American, 41, pulled out of this month's Dubai Desert Classic before the second round with the injury.
The former world number one, who returned in December after two back operations, has said his playing schedule will now be reassessed.
The Masters, the first major of the year, takes place from 6-9 April.
"My doctors have advised me not to play the next two weeks, to continue my treatment and to let my back calm down," said the four-time Masters winner.
"This is not what I was hoping for or expecting. I am extremely disappointed."
Woods' first return to competitive action after his lengthy lay-off came at the Hero World Challenge - an 18-man tournament in the Bahamas - in December and he finished 15th at the PGA Tour event.
Afterwards, he expressed concerns over the physical challenge of being scheduled to play four full-field tournaments over five weeks.
His next outing came at the PGA Tour's Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines where a first-round 76 and level-par second round of 72 meant he missed the cut.
He struggled in the first round in Dubai as he shot a five-over 77, before ending the tournament prematurely.
Once again Tiger Woods is under doctor's orders, the advice is not to play for the next two weeks. During the Dubai Desert Classic week he said he felt good, but admitted he would never again feel great, such is the legacy of his recent back surgeries.
The 41-year-old is becoming an increasingly frail figure and there is no word on his chances of being fit for April's Masters.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/38935967
|
George and Amal Clooney 'expecting twins', Matt Damon confirms - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Matt Damon says he "almost started crying" when the actor told him the news.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
George and Amal Clooney married in Venice in 2014
Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and her husband, award-winning actor George, are expecting twins, Matt Damon has confirmed.
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight Canada, the actor explained Clooney had told him the news while they were working together last autumn.
Damon said: "They're going to be awesome parents. Those kids are lucky."
He was speaking after the news of the couple's pregnancy was revealed by CBS's The Talk host Julie Chen.
Explaining how Clooney revealed the news, Damon said: "I was working with him last fall and he pulled me aside on set and I almost started crying.
"I was so happy for him. And I was like, 'How far along is she?' And he goes, 'Eight weeks'.
"I said, 'Are you out of your mind? Don't tell anybody else! Don't you know the 12-week rule?' Of course he doesn't. I was like, 'just shut up, man'."
Another source close to the couple, quoted by People, said they were "very happy". The Clooneys' representatives have not yet commented.
George and Amal Clooney married in Venice in 2014 with a star-studded list of guests who included Damon and Bill Murray.
Rumours that they might be expecting began to circulate last month when Amal was spotted wearing a loose-fitting dress.
George, 55, has starred in numerous Hollywood films and has won two Academy Awards.
Amal, 39, has represented a number of high profile figures, including former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Australian Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38926056
|
Hunt not in the mood to make excuses - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The health secretary appears to be crossing his fingers for more money in the Budget.
|
Health
|
The health secretary said he didn't want to make excuses about very long waiting times in A&E
My interview with the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt struck an interesting note after a day of bleak news from NHS England.
Official figures showed the worst performance in A&E units in December since records began in 2004.
The number of patients waiting on trolleys for more than four hours because beds were not free rose nearly 50% year on year.
Rather than hitting back with a raft of statistics on extra investment by the government, Jeremy Hunt acknowledged that progress had not always lived up to expectations.
Mr Hunt accepted the reality of the situation in some of England's hospitals, highlighted by images of patients waiting more than 13 hours for beds and a six-month delay discharging an elderly woman because of care shortcomings.
These were "unacceptable", he said, and "bad for the NHS".
He volunteered that "it's incredibly frustrating for me" and he "didn't want to make excuses".
This sounded like a health secretary who knew only too well that the NHS was under immense strain and there was no denying the real challenges facing staff and patients every day.
I repeatedly asked Mr Hunt what he was doing about it. He emphasised the government's long-term moves to get health and social care working together and the "big transformation programme" aiming to treat more people in their local community rather than in hospitals.
But on the pressures right now in hospitals, Mr Hunt had little new to say apart from noting that some were a lot better than others at managing the flow of patients.
So what can the government do? Ministers are now focused on social care, where successive spending cuts have made it harder to look after the frail elderly at home. Mr Hunt told me the government recognised there was a problem and it was being addressed.
All roads for a move on social care now lead to the Budget on 8 March. Rumours that the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, will announce a new financial package on social care have been rife in Whitehall.
The sudden scrapping of Surrey County Council's referendum on a 15% council tax rise fuelled suspicions that its leader had been quietly tipped off about an impending announcement on social care funding.
Intriguingly, when I asked the health secretary about what might happen in the Budget he said that was up to the prime minister and the chancellor. It sounded like a plea to Downing Street to come up with new money for social care.
Mr Hunt added, though, that a quick fix on its own was not enough and that a long-term answer was needed as well.
There is a danger in building up expectations which cannot be met on Budget Day.
But it feels like the health secretary and other ministers are resting their hopes on the chancellor. There is not much they can do about this winter's A&E pressures except to wait and hope.
Most worryingly for the health secretary is the knowledge that this was supposed to be the "year of plenty" for NHS England with a "frontloaded" financial settlement. Even with a relatively generous allocation for this year, the hospital system is in trouble.
Mr Hunt knows that funding in the next couple of years will tail off. He will hope that promised and planned efficiency savings start to materialise soon.
An intervention by his former adviser, the American health guru Don Berwick, has lent weight to calls for more funding for the NHS.
In a BBC interview, Mr Berwick, commenting on the government's current financial plans for health, said: "I have serious doubts whether you can have a healthcare which is universal, not rationed and responsive to needs at that target level - I am concerned."
He may also be alarmed that even with intense winter preparations in each area of England between local health and local care chiefs, some A&E units have struggled under the weight of patient numbers.
There were orders from on high for routine operations to be cancelled for four weeks but, even so, many hospitals had very few spare beds.
Understandably, Mr Hunt stressed that the NHS was not alone in experiencing pressures of rising patient numbers and that French and German hospitals were under strain this winter.
But he knows he will be judged only on the performance of the NHS. He will hope the chancellor has something to offer.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38921013
|
Ghana presidential fleet 'missing 200 cars' - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Ghana's new government counts its presidential fleet only to find more than 200 cars are unaccounted for.
|
Africa
|
More than 50 of the government's Toyota Prados could not be found
Ghana's new government is trying to track down more than 200 cars missing from the president's office, a government spokesman has said.
The ruling party counted the cars a month after taking power following victory in December's elections.
After previous transfers of power, state-owned cars have been seized from officials who did not return them.
A minister in the former government said the implied allegation of wrongdoing by his colleagues was false.
Former Communication Minister Omane Boamah told the BBC's Thomas Naadi that this was "a convenient way for the new government to justify the purchase of new vehicles".
Presidential spokesman Eugene Arhin told the press that officials could only find:
Ghanaian radio station Citi FM reported that the president has been "forced to use a 10-year-old BMW" as a result.
In making the statement Mr Arhin revealed the president's office was meant to have more than 300 cars but he did not divulge the purpose of these vehicles.
Nana Akufo-Addo from the the New Patriotic Party won the Ghanaian presidential election at the beginning of December, taking power from John Mahama, of the National Democratic Congress.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-38920928
|
Reality Check: Did government go back on its word on child refugees? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The government says it has met the "intention and spirit" of the Dubs Amendment, but Lord Dubs disagrees.
|
UK Politics
|
The claim: The government had committed to taking 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children from Europe, but it will now close the programme after taking in just 350.
Reality Check verdict: The government previously referred to a goal to bring 3,000 unaccompanied children to the UK but eventually passed an amendment that did not commit to a specific figure. Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill says the 350 figure meets the "intention and spirit" of the Dubs Amendment, but Lord Dubs disagrees.
Speaking on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, Labour peer Lord Dubs spoke of his disappointment that the government had "gone back on their word" on how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children would be brought to the UK from Europe.
The 3,000 figure was originally put forward in a campaign run by charity Save the Children.
And in January 2016, the then Immigration Minister, James Brokenshire, said the government would commit to resettling increasing numbers of refugees, most of whom would be children, mentioning the 3,000 figure as a goal but without giving any figure as a commitment.
Then, in March 2016, Lord Dubs, who came to the UK himself as a child refugee fleeing the Nazis, tabled an amendment to the Immigration Bill, which would require the UK to take in 3,000 children who had been separated from their families.
This had strong support from all opposition parties and a number of Conservative MPs.
And it passed in the House of Lords by a significant margin at the end of March.
But when it went to the Commons in April, the Conservative government's position was to vote against the amendment, and it was rejected by a narrow margin.
It then went back to the House of Lords, where Lord Dubs reworded the amendment to read that the UK should take a "specified number" of unaccompanied children from Europe and that this number would be agreed later in discussion with local authorities.
This again passed in the Lords with a significant majority.
It then went back to the Commons and was expected to go to a vote on 9 May.
But, on 4 May, ahead of the vote, Mr Cameron accepted the revised version of the amendment.
Nearly a year later, on Wednesday, 8 February 2017, Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill announced that the government would transfer 350 unaccompanied children - about a 10th of the original figure - from refugee camps in Europe, which, he said, would meet the "intention and spirit" of Lord Dubs's amendment.
Mr Goodwill said this would include about 200 children already brought to the UK under the terms of Lord Dubs's amendment and another 150 still to come.
He said that more than 900 children had been brought here from Calais in total in 2016.
The 700 brought to the UK but not under the terms of Lord Dubs's amendment were brought here under a different regulation, which allows unaccompanied minors to come to the UK if they already have immediate family here.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38919873
|
'Record numbers' of dolphins detected off west Scotland - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Record numbers of three dolphin species found off Scotland's west coast are detected during a conservation trust's survey.
|
Highlands & Islands
|
Record numbers of common dolphins were recorded last year
Record numbers of three dolphin species found off Scotland's west coast were found during a survey by the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT).
HWDT said its scientists and volunteers last year recorded 2,303 individual common dolphins, 42 bottlenose dolphins and 94 Risso's dolphins.
The figures for all three species were the highest ever recorded in the Mull-based trust's annual survey seasons.
The conservation charity has been carrying out the surveys since 1994.
Dr Lauren Hartny-Mills, HWDT science officer, said: "The reasons for the high number of sightings of these charismatic dolphin species - and the broader effects on the marine environment and other species - remain unclear.
"But the intriguing findings highlight the importance of on-going monitoring and research."
Frazer Coomber, a scientist from HWDT, told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland radio programme: "It's been fantastic. We've had massive groups of 200 and 300 individuals at a time.
"The nice thing about dolphins is that often they come over to the vessel to come and have a look. They swim along at the front of the vessel and you get really close and get to see their beautiful yellow colouration.
"Dolphins are known as indicator species. They are a top predator, and if your top predator in an eco-system is doing well then that's a good sign that everything else in the eco-system is going well."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-38920305
|
Kaziranga: The park that shoots people to protect rhinos - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
National park guards shoot suspected poachers dead. But has the war against poaching gone too far?
|
India
|
The authorities at a national park in India protect the wildlife by shooting suspected poachers dead. But has the war against poaching gone too far?
Kaziranga National Park is an incredible story of conservation success.
There were just a handful of Indian one-horned rhinoceros left when the park was set up a century ago in Assam, in India's far east. Now there are more than 2,400 - two-thirds of the entire world population.
This is where David Attenborough's team came to film for Planet Earth II. William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, came here last year.
But the way the park protects the animals is controversial. Its rangers have been given the kind of powers to shoot and kill normally only conferred on armed forces policing civil unrest.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Entire villages are being destroyed to make way for extended national parks
At one stage the park rangers were killing an average of two people every month - more than 20 people a year. Indeed, in 2015 more people were shot dead by park guards than rhinos were killed by poachers.
Innocent villagers, mostly tribal people, have been caught up in the conflict.
Rhinos need protection. Rhino horn can fetch very high prices in Vietnam and China where it is sold as a miracle cure for everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction. Street vendors charge as much as $6,000 for 100g - making it considerably more expensive than gold.
Indian rhinos have smaller horns than those of African rhinos, but reportedly they are marketed as being far more potent.
But how far should we go to protect these endangered animals?
I ask two guards what they were told to do if they encountered poachers in the park.
"The instruction is whenever you see the poachers or hunters, we should start our guns and hunt them," Avdesh explains without hesitation.
"Yah, yah. Fully ordered to shoot them. Whenever you see the poachers or any people during night-time we are ordered to shoot them."
Avdesh says he has shot at people twice in the four years he has been a guard, but has never killed anybody. He knows, however, there are unlikely to be any consequences for him if he did.
The government has granted the guards at Kaziranga extraordinary powers that give them considerable protection against prosecution if they shoot and kill people in the park.
Critics say guards like Avdesh and Jibeshwar are effectively being told to carry out "extrajudicial executions".
Getting figures for how many people are killed in the park is surprisingly difficult.
"We don't keep each and every account," says a senior official in India's Forest Department, which oversees the country's national parks.
Guards like Avdesh and Jibeshwar have considerable powers
The director of the park, Dr Satyendra Singh, is based at the park's impressive colonial-era headquarters.
He talks about the difficulties of tackling poachers in the park, explaining that the poaching gangs recruit local people to help them get into the park but that the actual "shooters" - the men who kill the rhinos - tend to come from neighbouring states.
He says the term "shoot-on-sight" does not accurately describe how he orders the forest rangers to deal with suspected poachers.
Our World: Killing for Conservation is broadcast at 21:30 GMT on Saturday 11 February on the BBC News Channel and this weekend on BBC World News
"First we warn them - who are you? But if they resort to firing we have to kill them. First we try to arrest them, so that we get the information, what are the linkages, who are others in the gang?"
Dr Singh reveals that just in the past three years, 50 poachers have been killed. He says it reflects how many people in the local community have been lured into the trade as rhino horn prices have risen. As many as 300 locals are involved in poaching, he believes.
For the people who live around Kaziranga the rising death toll has become a major issue.
Kaziranga is densely populated, like the rest of India. Many of the communities here are tribal groups that have lived in or alongside the forest for centuries, collecting firewood as well as herbs and other plants from it. They say increasing numbers of innocent villagers are being shot.
In one of the villages that borders the park live Kachu Kealing and his wife. Their son, Goanburah, was shot by forest guards in December 2013.
The only picture they have of him is a fuzzy reproduction of the young man's face.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kaziranga National Park in India is home to rhinos, elephants and tigers
Goanburah had been looking after the family's two cows. His father believes they strayed into the park and his son - who had severe learning difficulties - went in to try and find them. It is an easy mistake to make. There are no fences or signs marking the edge of the park, it just merges seamlessly into the surrounding countryside and fields.
The park authorities say guards shot Goanburah inside the forest reserve when he did not respond to a warning.
"He could barely do up his own trousers or his shoes," his father says, "everyone knew him in the area because he was so disabled."
Kachu Kealing does not believe there is any action he can take now, especially given the unusual protection park guards have from prosecution. "I haven't filed a court case. I'm a poor man, I can't afford to take them on."
Kachu Kealing says his disabled son was only looking after the family's cows
Conservation efforts in India tend to focus on protecting a few emblematic species. The fight to preserve them is stacked high with patriotic sentiment. Rhinos and tigers have become potent national symbols.
Add to this the fact that Kaziranga is the region's principal tourist attraction - its 170,000 or more annual visitors spend good money here - and it is easy to see why the park feels political pressure to tackle its poaching problem head on.
In 2013, when the number of rhinos killed by poachers more than doubled to 27, local politicians demanded action. The then head of the park was happy to oblige.
MK Yadava wrote a report which detailed his strategy for tackling poaching in Kaziranga. He proposed there should be no unauthorised entry whatsoever. Anyone found within the park, he said, "must obey or be killed".
"Kill the unwanted," should be the guiding principle for the guards, he recommended.
He explained his belief that environmental crimes, including poaching, are more serious that murder. "They erode," he said, "the very root of existence of all civilizations on this earth silently."
And he backed up his tough words with action, putting this uncompromising doctrine into practice in the park.
The numbers of people killed rose dramatically. From 2013 to 2014 the number of alleged poachers shot dead in the park leapt from five to 22. In 2015 Kaziranga killed more people in the park than poachers killed rhinos - 23 people lost their lives compared to just 17 rhinos.
And, as the park's battle against poaching gathered in intensity, there were to be other casualties.
In July last year, seven-year-old Akash Orang was making his way home along the main track through the village, which borders the park.
His voice falters as he recounts what happened next. "I was coming back from the shop. The forest guards were shouting, 'Rhinoceros! Rhinoceros!'" He pauses. "Then they suddenly shot me."
The gunshot blasted away most of the calf muscle on his right leg. The injuries were so serious he had to be rushed to Assam's main hospital five hours away.
He was there for five months and had dozens of operations but, despite the hospital's efforts, Akash can still barely walk.
His father, Dilip Orang, bends down and removes the bandage from the boy's leg to display the wound. His leg appears to be stripped of its skin - the calf muscle is bunched into tight ball. It doesn't flex. "They took the muscle from here and grafted it here," he says. "But it hasn't worked very well. Just look at it."
Akash has not fully recovered and has to be carried to the shop by his brother
It is clear just how terrible his injuries are when Akash gets up to move out of the sun. He can barely limp the few feet into the shade. His older brother now has to carry him to the local shop.
"He has changed," Dilip says. "He used to be cheerful. He isn't any more. In the night he wakes up in pain and cries for his mother."
The park admits it made a terrible mistake. It paid all his medical expenses and gave the family almost 200,000 rupees ($3,000; £2,400) in compensation. Not much given the scale of Akash's injuries, says his father, who worries whether his son will ever make a living.
The crippling of Akash led to a huge outcry from villagers. It was the culmination of long-simmering disquiet over the mounting death toll in the park. Hundreds marched on the park headquarters.
In a house a short walk from the park HQ, human rights campaigner Pranab Doley, himself a member of a local tribe, pulls out a bag stuffed with paperwork. He has made a series of requests under India's Right to Information Act and says the replies show that many cases aren't followed up properly.
"In most cases you don't have things like the magisterial inquiry, the forensic report, the post mortem reports," he says, rifling through the stacks of paper.
The park says that it's not responsible for investigating the killings, and whatever action it does take follows the law. Even so, some of Mr Doley's documents reveal a surprising lack of information. He pulls out a table listing deaths in one of the park's four districts. It shows nine suspected poachers killed in one year, six of whom are recorded as unidentified.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have visited the park
And there are other indications that careful investigation is not a priority when it comes to wildlife crime in Assam. The park says that in the last three years just two people have been prosecuted for poaching - a striking contrast to the 50 people who were shot dead in the park in the same period.
The park justifies the number of deaths, saying the figures are so high because the heavily armed poaching gangs engage guards in deadly shoot-outs. However, the statistics indicate that these "encounters" are more one-sided than the park suggests. Once again, firm figures are hard to come by, but according to the reports we can find just one park guard has been killed by poachers in the past 20 years, compared with 106 people shot dead by guards over the same period.
Mr Doley argues the high number of deaths is because, at least in part, of the legal protection the park and its guards enjoy. "This kind of impunity is dangerous," he says. "It is creating animosity between the park and people living in the periphery of the park."
That animosity is deepened because so many of the local community are tribal people who claim they and their ancient way of life are - like the animals the park is trying to protect - also endangered.
Their cause has been taken up by Survival International, a London-based charity. It argues that the rights of tribal people around the park are being sacrificed in the name of wildlife protection.
"The park is being run with utmost brutality," says Sophie Grig, the lead campaigner. "There is no jury, there's no judge, there's no questioning. And the terrifying thing is that there are plans to roll [out] the shoot at sight policy across [the] whole of India."
Her strong language is testimony perhaps to the concern felt by activists like her that traditional communities might be sacrificed in the name of wildlife protection.
She says some of the biggest animal conservation charities in the world, including the World Wildlife Fund, have turned a blind eye to the activities of the park.
"WWF describes itself as a close partner of the Assam Forest Department," says Ms Grig. "They've been providing equipment and funds to the forest department. Survival has repeatedly asked them to speak out against this shoot-on-sight policy and extrajudicial executions which they have so far failed to do."
According to the WWF India website, it has funded combat and ambush training for Kaziranga's guards and has provided specialist equipment including night vision goggles for the park's anti-poaching effort.
"Nobody is comfortable with killing people," says Dr Dipankar Ghose, who helps run much of WWF's conservation programme in India. "What is needed is on the ground protection. The poaching has to stop."
The bulk of WWF's funding comes from individual donations. So how would the WWF's donors feel about the organisation's involvement with a park facing allegations of killing, maiming and torturing? Dr Ghose does not answer the question directly.
"Well, as I said, we are working towards it. We want the whole thing to reduce - we don't want poaching to happen, and the idea is to reduce it involving all our partners. It is not just the Kaziranga authorities but also the enforcement agencies, also the local people. So I think the main thing is to work with the local people."
The park is popular with both Indian and foreign visitors
And there are plenty of conservationists that accept that, in some circumstances, there must be a tough response to poachers. "No park would exist in India without having regular anti-poaching operations," says naturalist and writer Valmik Thapar. "Anti-poaching is an essential element of conservation."
"There are some that do it well. There are some that fail miserably… and they don't have any tigers. So there are some tiger reserves in India, that actually don't have any tigers at all because they have all been poached.
"In some exceptional cases you can use the gun against the gun, but in other places in India you need to use community intelligence, because the local community are the eyes and ears of the forest."
Three months after Akash was shot and villagers marched on park headquarters once again - this time to protest allegations of torture.
Mono Bora was sitting at a roadside cafe when he was picked up by forest guards. He claims he was punched in the face repeatedly as he was driven to park headquarters. Once inside the offices the questioning became even more violent.
"They gave me electric shocks here on my knees, and here on my elbows. And here on my groin too." Mr Bora describes how he was tied in a stress position to bamboo staves.
"They kept on hitting me," he says. The ordeal lasted for three hours until finally his assailants became convinced they had the wrong man.
Kaziranga confirmed it did bring Mono Bora in for questioning but categorically denies any harm came to him, adding that it "never uses electric shock during interrogation".
The chief of Mono Bora's village picked him up from the park headquarters. Biren Kotch says he did not believe Mr Bora had any involvement in poaching. "How can they justify torture?"
But it isn't just the anti-poaching effort that threatens local people. Big wild animals like tigers and rhinos need lots of space.
To accommodate them India is planning a massive expansion of its network of national of parks. It is great news for conservation, but the plans involve relocating 900 villages. More than 200,000 people will have to leave their homes, it is estimated.
Kaziranga will double in size and an eviction order has been issued. State police recently evicted two villages amid chaotic scenes in which stone-throwing villagers were beaten with batons and fired on by police. Two people - a father of two and a young female student - were killed.
Sophia Khatum’s husband was shot dead by police in the demonstration against the evictions
Diggers were brought in and the national park provided a team of elephants to help raze every home to the ground.
In the wreckage of the village critics might see more evidence of a brutal approach to conservation. The problem is the park's tactics appear to have worked. Since the crackdown in the park began in 2013 the numbers of rhinos poached has fallen back. Last year just 18 rhinos were killed.
But the important question is what the long term cost will be, says Pranab Doley, the tribal rights campaigner. He believes the park's behaviour betrays a misguided attitude to conservation. "That's what their policy and philosophy is - move the people out of here and create pure pristine forest."
He says the park is on a collision course with local tribal people. If it gets its way, he says, it will destroy the ancient culture of tribal people like him, but could also end up frustrating its own efforts to protect its animals.
"Without the people taking care of the forest, no forest department will be able to protect Kaziranga. It's the human shield which is protecting Kaziranga."
Of course, there's no arguing that endangered species must be protected and preserved, but the costs on the human community need to be taken into account too.
Our World: Killing for Conservation is at 21:30 GMT on Saturday 11 February on the BBC News Channel and this weekend on BBC World News
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-38909512
|
Russian choir celebrates Diplomats' Day in song - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
It was Diplomats' Day in Russia on Friday and the country's Diplomacy For Peace choir, made up of newly qualified diplomats, has been singing the praises of their diplomacy.
| null |
It was Diplomats' Day in Russia on Friday and the country's Diplomacy For Peace choir, made up of newly qualified diplomats, has been singing the praises of their diplomacy.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38939955
|
Quiz of the week's news - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A weekly quiz of the news, 7 days 7 questions.
|
Magazine
|
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 quiz, try it here
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38920176
|
Six Nations 2017: Wales-England is highlight of second weekend - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Wales host champions England in the highlight of the second weekend of the Six Nations as Ireland travel to Italy and France host Scotland.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Six Nations 2017 on the BBC Coverage: Live across BBC TV, radio and online, with live text commentary and scores from every game on the BBC Sport website and app (
Wales welcome England to Cardiff in the Six Nations on Saturday with visiting coach Eddie Jones warning his team to expect all manner of "shenanigans" from the hosts.
In Saturday's earlier game Ireland travel to Italy determined to bounce back after their opening defeat by Scotland, while on Sunday Vern Cotter's buoyant Scots travel to Paris, where they have not won since 1999.
But the undoubted highlight of the weekend is the 130th edition of Wales and England, a fixture that was first played in 1881.
Wales v England, Sat 11 Feb, 16:50 GMT - live on BBC One, connected TV and online France v Scotland, Sun 12 Feb, 15:00 GMT - live on BBC One, connected TV and online
"You go to the hotel and unless you take steps, players get rung incessantly through the night. Those things happen," Jones said.
"You go to the ground and the traffic controller drives slower than the traffic's going to make sure you're late.
"You get to the ground and there's something wrong with your dressing room - there's lights off or the heater's switched off.
"You can't check because they traditionally tell you one thing and something else happens. It happens regularly in South Africa and it happens regularly in Wales."
Even before Jones aired his concerns the occasion was always likely to be a high-octane affair as, given their long-standing history and neighbourly rivalry, Wales playing England in Cardiff is among the most emotive occasions in world sport.
• None Wales v England is make or break for Howley
• None Follow the Six Nations across the BBC
• None News alerts put you at the centre of the Six Nations
• None "It's not different water or different air" - Jones
Wales' assistant coach Robin McBryde believes that the fierce rivalry is an inevitable consequence of the shared history and proximity of the two nations.
"We are neighbours, aren't we? I have got two English brothers-in-law," he said
"It is that English-Welsh rivalry, and wanting to get the better of your neighbour. It's as simple as that."
England have 60 victories to Wales' 57 in the teams' 129 matches with nine draws. However, Wales have a 60% winning record against England in Cardiff.
Jones, whose side have won a national record 15 Tests in a row, has been merrily making mischief since the narrow opening win over France last weekend, suggesting earlier this week that the Welsh are "a cunning lot".
Saturday's match is the sort of occasion which prompts week-long debates about whether the roof on the Principality Stadium will be open or closed.
Wales wanted it closed, to ramp up the noise inside the 72,000-capacity stadium which is renowned for its vertiginous stands and electric atmosphere.
England, as the away side, had the final say under Six Nations rules and - having said he was not bothered one way or the other earlier in the week - Jones has opted for it to be left open.
While the Australian has been stoking the flames, the hosts have been more circumspect - although Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards was moved to compare Jones to legendary former Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough.
And despite his barbs the England head coach has not been short of compliments, praising the Principality Stadium's "amazing atmosphere".
He added: "How could you not want to play rugby there?
"It is one of the greatest rugby countries in the world, so to play Wales in Cardiff with that sort of atmosphere is one of the great delights of rugby."
Wales have injury worries about winger George North - who is chasing a new record of scoring a try in six championship games in a row - and fly-half Dan Biggar and both will have fitness tests on matchday.
But there is some good news for them, with world class number eight Taulupe Faletau back in action, although he only makes it as far as the bench after injury.
England have made two changes from the team that edged past France, with winger Jack Nowell recalled and back rower Jack Clifford handed just his second England start as Jones searches for more ball carrying options.
Scotland looking for first Paris win of the millennium
Scotland have lost nine successive games on French soil since they won 36-22 at the Stade de France in 1999 on the final weekend of their triumph in the last Five Nations championship.
How their forwards match up against a formidably physical French pack could be key to halting that losing run.
Scotland flanker Hamish Watson, who weighs in at a relatively lightweight 15st 12lb, says he is confident that he and his team-mates can meet the challenge.
"They are a big pack and will pose us a different threat to Ireland, We know they are going to scrum well and have been concentrating on that," he said.
"But it's nothing we can't deal with, so I think it will go well."
France coach Guy Noves believes that counterpart Vern Cotter's work is bearing fruit as he approaches the end of his stint with Scotland. Gregor Townsend will take over in June.
"We will mainly adapt to the Scottish rugby that you have seen evolve for four years - a game based on commitment, speed, aggression, with players who have gained confidence in a highly organised collective," he said.
Scotland have made one change with the starting line-up that beat Ireland with John Barclay coming in at blind-side flanker to replace Ryan Wilson, who is out with an elbow infection.
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt will make sure his side are at Rome's Stadio Olimpico in plenty of time for the weekend's opening fixture as he feels that their late arrival at Murrayfield last week contributed to their lacklustre start to the match.
Ireland, whose team bus turned up about 15 minutes late after its police escort reportedly guided it away from an agreed route, conceded three tries in the first half hour to trail by 16 points.
"I don't think it was apathy, there was a bit of anxiety at not having had the full period to warm up," said Schmidt.
"Players get anxious, they get very routine-based and I do think it's a challenge for a professional player that they can be adaptable in different circumstances, so they can still start well and cope."
Schmidt has kept faith with fly-half Paddy Jackson at 10 with Johnny Sexton still returning to fitness after a calf injury picked up playing for Leinster in January.
Italy, led by former Ireland international Conor O'Shea, have beaten Ireland four times in 26 meetings, with their latest success coming in 2013.
Sign up for rugby union news alerts and get Six Nations news the moment it breaks
• None How to follow the Six Nations across the BBC
• None Bright lights and big hitters - take our rugby quiz
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38926153
|
Has Tom Hiddleston damaged his brand? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Two media commentators discuss whether recent headlines about the British actor have dented his image.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Hiddleston was nominated for the Bafta Rising Star award in 2011
The last few months haven't been too easy for Tom Hiddleston.
In September, he and girlfriend Taylor Swift broke up after three months together amid accusations their relationship was a publicity stunt.
Then, in January, he apologised for an "inelegantly expressed" winner's speech at the Golden Globes in which he referred to aid workers in South Sudan "binge-watching" The Night Manager.
This time last year, the actor was riding the crest of a wave.
After starring in hugely successful BBC drama The Night Manager as well as the big-screen adaption of JG Ballard's High-Rise, he was a hot favourite to be the next James Bond.
But have his off-screen actions since done damage to his brand?
"Some of the recent headlines have been unhelpful," admits Mark Borkowski, a strategic PR consultant.
"There are events that happen and they're not thought through properly, and the nature of being caught up with Taylor Swift's gang and not thinking it through strategically has undone him.
Swift and Hiddleston dated for three months last year
"Sometimes people don't recognise the power of their brand, and often you can't conduct yourself in the way you think you can."
But Steven Gaydos, vice-president and executive editor of Variety, thinks Hiddleston is still a hot property, despite his recent PR mishaps.
"I don't think anything he's done to date has put any serious dent into his career," he told the BBC.
"He's a fantastic actor doing fantastic work. He has a fanbase and he's delivering the goods.
"These are just missteps - somebody doing something that causes chatter. In this case Tom Hiddleston made a speech and people thought it was silly, or he dated a woman and people thought it was a little bogus.
"He's not going to be hauled in front of the courts for any of this."
Hiddleston starred in BBC One's adaption of The Night Manager
Nonetheless, it's fair to say HiddleSwift brought Tom a great deal of negative attention.
Some fans thought the couple were being suspiciously open about their relationship, leading to accusations that all was not what it seemed.
Hiddleston has now defended his relationship with Swift in an interview with GQ, saying: "Of course it was real."
He also said the 'I ♥ T.S. [Taylor Swift]' tank top he was photographed wearing was "a joke", explaining he was lent it by a friend to protect a graze from the sun.
The actor said the pictures of him wearing the shirt were taken "without consent or permission", and that fans and the media had "no context".
"I was just surprised that it got so much attention," he said. "The tank top became an emblem of this thing."
The series was directed by Susanne Bier (right) and adapted from a John le Carre novel
So is this latest interview simply damage limitation? "Absolutely," says Mark Borkowski.
"I don't think Tom Hiddleston knew at the time just how big a brand he was. Now he does know that and has to think carefully.
"This GQ interview is an example of putting the record straight and trying to get a narrative together to try and recover from some poorly judged moments."
Borkowski adds: "There's a beautiful naivety about Tom Hiddleston that is projected through this interview where he's trying to talk directly to his fans. This is material you put there for them."
Hiddleston's acceptance speech at last month's Golden Globes was criticised
Hiddleston himself admits in the interview: "A relationship in the limelight takes work. And it's not just the limelight. It's everything else.
"And I'm still trying to work out a way of having a personal life and protecting it, but also without hiding."
Gaydos has a lot of sympathy for the 36-year-old on the Taylor Swift front.
"Imagine you just met someone and you're having a relationship and the whole world is watching. It's like snakes all around you," he says.
"I'd hate to to live in a fish bowl and have every move analysed, with people saying you're a fraud, your relationship is a fraud, everything you're doing is insincere and fake."
Hiddleston said his relationship with Taylor Swift wasn't a publicity stunt
Hiddleston has two films coming out later this year - Thor: Ragnarok and Kong: Skull Island. Gaydos says the film studios won't be particularly worried about Hiddleston's off-screen actions.
"They're worrying about the tracking. If the trailer goes out for Kong and the response isn't strong or the awareness of the movie isn't high, that's what they're really concerned about," he says.
"Tom has not ventured anywhere near the space where we've seen stars screw up their careers and really damage their star wattage."
Hiddleston will be seen in the new Kong and Thor films later this year
Borkowski adds: "Anything is recoverable in this day and age.
"Last week we were hearing about the death of the David Beckham brand, but we'd forgotten about it by Thursday.
"Things move so quickly now, so it is always about recovery."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38917456
|
Storm Desmond: Back home a year after floods - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
One year on from devastating flood damage, Mike Stubbs has finally been able to move back home.
| null |
Mike Stubbs had to leave his house in Keswick after Storm Desmond caused severe floods.
One year later he's finally been able to move back home.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38912879
|
NHS Health Check: What's causing hospital delays? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
The NHS is under unprecedented pressure. But how do patients flow round the system and what happens to hospitals when they cannot cope?
| null |
The NHS is under unprecedented pressure. Demand is rising and hospitals, in particular, are struggling to cope.
But how exactly do patients flow round the system and what happens to hospitals when they cannot cope?
The BBC has produced an animated video to help you understand more about the health service and the strain it is under.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38863681
|
Bradley Lowery: Sunderland players visit terminally ill boy in hospital - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Terminally ill Sunderland fan Bradley Lowery visited in hospital by the club's players on Thursday.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Terminally ill Sunderland fan Bradley Lowery was visited in hospital by the club's players on Thursday.
Bradley was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2013 and his mother says he has only months to live.
Last year £700,000 was raised for him and treatment has now begun in hospital in a bid to prolong his life.
Everton pledged £200,000 to the cause in September, when Bradley was mascot for Sunderland's home fixture with the Toffees at the Stadium of Light.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38926406
|
Will Brexit bill face trouble in the Lords? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Despite the sabre-rattling it's more likely to be skirmishes than apocalyptic battling over this historic legislation.
|
UK Politics
|
Sharpen your pencils. Now Theresa May has her prize from the Commons, getting the Article 50 bill (she never wanted) through with no major changes, it makes its way to the red and gold end of the Palace of Westminster, to the Lords.
The first debate is set for 20 February. More than 140 Peers have already put their names down to speak. But at that stage there probably won't be a vote. A week later the thornier more detailed committee stage begins. Then the last certain stage, the third reading and report is scheduled for 7 March.
If it all goes according to the government's plan, which sources say is "hugely unpredictable", it would allow Theresa May to stick to her timetable and push the button for exit talks to start the next week, once the Bill has been rubber-stamped by the other Palace. (It's daft in this business to make too many predictions, but I'd put a fiver on that happening on Wednesday 15 March.)
The government will have a bumpier ride in the Lords after a grumpy process in the Commons. The Lords is dramatically different because the government most certainly does not have a majority among peers. And, it is the Lords' express purpose to scrutinise and if needed, improve draft laws before sending them back along the corridor to the Commons.
Overnight a government source suggested that the Lords had better jolly well let the Brexit bill go through, or else. Despite the sabre-rattling though, the atmosphere in the Lords is less febrile than that language might suggest.
Downing Street this morning tried to dampen down the aggressive briefing. And one source in the Lords described the threat as "total BS" - I'll leave you to work that out.
The main opposition leader, Baroness Smith, has made it plain on several occasions that although the Lords may try to tweak the Bill, Labour, broadly, has no intention of trying to block it. Her modus operandi is to "hold to account, not hold to ransom".
The Liberal Democrats are more intent on making changes in the Lords, for it is there they can wield power, rather than in the Commons. But unless they have the support of Labour too, there is a limit to how much trouble they can cause.
The chatter suggests the Lords will push for concessions from the government over the rights of EU citizens to stay here, reporting the progress of negotiations regularly to Parliament and maybe on a final "meaningful vote" for both Houses on the deal.
It will be up to the government to decide whether to tweak the bill slightly as they did in the Commons or risk some defeats. Insiders predict it is likely the Lords may end up sending back the bill to the Commons once, as "ping pong" to force the government to make a change or two. But even senior Lib Dem sources don't expect hostile stand-offs for weeks on end.
The Lords will make their voices heard, there is no question about that and the Article 50 bill could run into trouble.
It would be wrong to suggest that ministers don't anticipate a tricky time. But today at least, whatever the sabre-rattling from some parts of government, this historic piece of legislation looks likely to be the subject of a few skirmishes in the Lords, rather than an apocalyptic battle.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38918526
|
Jeremy Hunt responds to BBC's NHS Health Check - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
The health secretary says there's no silver bullet to ease pressure on the NHS but that he has a plan.
| null |
The health secretary says there's no silver bullet to ease pressure on the NHS but that he has a plan.
Jeremy Hunt has been speaking exclusively to the BBC's Hugh Pym.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38926557
|
How do fake news sites make money? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
The issue of fake news on social media has been grabbing headlines, but how do these sites make money?
| null |
The issue of fake news on social media has grabbed headlines since the 2016 US presidential election. But how do fake news sites make money?
Find out more on Talking Business on Friday, 10 February at 15:30 GMT on BBC World, and on Saturday, 11 February at 20:30 GMT on the BBC News Channel in the UK.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38919403
|
Six Nations 2017: Scotland flanker John Barclay replaces Ryan Wilson for France match - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Scarlets flanker John Barclay is promoted from the bench to replace Ryan Wilson as Vern Cotter makes only one change for the match against France.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Scottish Rugby
Coverage: Watch live on BBC television, BBC Sport website & app. Commentary on Radio Scotland, Radio 5 live Sports Extra; Live text commentary on BBC Sport website.
Flanker John Barclay comes in to the back-row for the injured Ryan Wilson as Scotland seek their first win over France in Paris since 1999.
Full-back Stuart Hogg will earn his 50th cap and, at 24, becomes the youngest Scotland player to do so.
Hooker Fraser Brown retains his place despite an eye injury against Ireland.
Guy Noves makes one change to the France team that lost to England last week, with flanker Loann Goujon coming into the back-row for Damien Chouly.
While Glasgow Warriors back-rower Wilson misses out with an elbow infection, his Scotstoun team-mate Hogg becomes the seventh-youngest player in world rugby to make the landmark half century of international appearances.
The previous record for a Scot was held by lock Richie Gray, who made his 50th appearance during the 2015 Rugby World Cup, aged 26.
Wilson's absence has resulted in open-side flanker John Hardie being called up to the bench. He was due to play for Edinburgh against Ulster on Friday evening, and only made his comeback after three months out with an ankle injury in last Friday's game against Munster.
• None Scots 'need subtlety to win in Paris'
Scotland are in buoyant mood thanks to their opening-day 27-22 home win over Ireland in this year's Six Nations, while France, despite pushing England close at Twickenham, lost 19-16.
Goujon, 27, will win his 15th cap as he replaces veteran Chouly, 31, who drops to the bench.
It is Goujon's first start since he was injured in France's 52-8 win over Samoa at the beginning of November.
Young Bordeaux-Begles scrum-half Baptiste Serin, who only made his France debut in June, retains his place ahead of Maxime Machenaud.
Scotland head coach Vern Cotter: "France in Paris is a monumental challenge. They have improved markedly since Guy Noves took charge and will be smarting since their narrow defeat to England at Twickenham last weekend.
"We're their next opportunity to get their campaign up and running and they'll be intent on throwing every part of their considerable fire power at us this Sunday.
"We'll have to match their ferocity while ensuring we take that, and all the other battles we can expect in this game, on our terms, whether that's in collisions, in set-piece, at the breakdown or in the air.
"This will be an excellent test for this group of players: mentally, physically, tactically and of our skillsets under pressure.
"We will need to be at our relentless best once again."
France head coach Guy Noves: "It's normal (not to make many changes) if changing everything means that we're not satisfied with what happened, when you lose a match by three points in England in the last nine minutes.
"For the most part the lads delivered, even though once again we need to develop more character to finish matches in the right way.
(On Goujon) "We wanted a little more density in the pack, although they're two very similar players.
"Gaining in power is an objective, but it's not a guarantee for getting past defences.
"We're going to adapt to the way Scotland have been playing. Their game is based on combat, speed and aggression with players who have gained in belief at the service of a well-organised side."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38931930
|
Shopkeeper fights off gunman in Walsall - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
CCTV shows gunman biting off more than he can chew at shop run by former special forces soldier.
| null |
A man armed with a handgun failed to intimidate the shopkeeper he threatened - a former Kurdish special forces soldier.
With the weapon pointing at him, and another man bundled into the premises at gunpoint, shopkeeper Shikha Mahsum grabbed animal repellent spray and squirted it in the gunman's eyes, forcing him to flee.
CCTV released on Thursday shows the events unfolding at Kobani Stores in West Bromwich Street, Walsall, just before midnight on 9 January - after which Mr Mahsum, 39, said the gunman had picked on "100% the wrong shop".
Police, who are searching for the gunman and two suspected accomplices at the door, have commended his bravery.
This video has no sound.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38917150
|
Does by-election pain await Labour in its heartlands? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
UKIP and nuclear power should be making Labour nervous in Stoke and Copeland, says John Pienaar.
|
UK Politics
|
Two parliamentary by-elections, two weeks away.
Is Labour a sitting duck in its own heartland territory?
A quick road-trip to the West Midlands and the Lake District was enough to conclude that Labour can look forward to a sweaty, and quite possibly a painful night on 23 February.
Both seats would normally be considered "safe" for Labour.
But "normal" now seems a long time ago. Stoke voted 70% to 30% to leave the EU. In Copeland the margin was 60% to 40%. That would be enough to give Remain-supporting Labour sleepless nights.
But add to that the fact that, in 2015, UKIP came second in Stoke - 5,000 odd votes behind Labour.
Throw in Labour's long term deficit in the polls, which suggests former Labour voters have turned away from Jeremy Corbyn.
Then, chat to people in Hanley town centre - in the Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency - before travelling north and doing the same in Whitehaven, the large coastal town in the sprawling, and beautiful, Copeland constituency in the Lake District.
If you don't hear enough cause for Labour to fear losing one or both of these seats, you're not listening.
In Copeland, the biggest employer by far is the Sellafield nuclear power plant.
In Whitehaven, where Sellafield has a large office block, Jeremy Corbyn's past opposition to nuclear power - which has since softened - comes up in almost every conversation.
The local grocer - whose family have run Kinsella's since the turn of the last century - told me customer after customer was switching allegiance away from Labour for that reason.
Could UKIP leader Paul Nuttall win the party's second seat?
That, and the doubts about Mr Corbyn's fitness to lead which have handed him a quite dismal personal rating of minus 40.
That's 46 points behind Theresa May who was the only national leader with a positive rating in the survey conducted by Yougov last week.
In Stoke, the UK Independence Party's new leader, Paul Nuttall, is standing as a candidate. UKIP has a great deal invested in this fight.
It's not clear whether the perception of an outsider parachuting into the seat - a charismatic Scouser seizing his chance in an area with a strong identity of its own - will count against Mr Nuttall and his party.
If UKIP fails it will hurt, and suggests the party lost its way when it lost Nigel Farage as leader.
So Labour will throw everything into both campaigns. Jeremy Corbyn's visited both, and will visit again.
Victory in both seats will buy time and space to try to regain ground, to try to recover from the visible splits which opened up so glaringly during debate and voting on the bill to begin Brexit.
But if Labour loses in either or both seats - each of which has been held by the party since 1935 - it means talk of existential crisis for the party.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38935789
|
Fed Cup: GB through to play-off after beating Turkey to top Group C - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
A third-straight win in Group C sees Great Britain qualify for the Fed Cup play-off.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Great Britain will face second seeds Croatia in the Fed Cup promotion play-off on Saturday.
Heather Watson and Johanna Konta won their singles matches against Turkey to take an unassailable lead in their final best-of-three group match.
Jocelyn Rae and Laura Robson completed a 3-0 sweep in the doubles, with Anne Keothavong's team topping Group C.
Their play-off place was already sealed after Latvia earlier beat Portugal in Britain's group.
British number one Konta then overcame an early wobble to beat world number 86 Cagla Buyukakcay 5-7 6-4 6-3 in the second singles match.
"I didn't get the chance to play Fed Cup last year, but from the very beginning of the season I was clear that I wanted it to be part of my schedule," Konta told British Tennis.
"I think whenever I get an opportunity to represent Great Britain in a team environment, I look to take it."
Rae and Robson then breezed to a 6-2 6-2 victory over Ayla Aksu and Pemra Ozgen in 58 minutes to ensure Great Britain ended the group stages unbeaten.
Unlike the men's team competition, the Davis Cup, which has a World Group of 16 nations, the Fed Cup divides its top teams into two groups of eight - World Group I and World Group II.
The 91 nations outside the top tiers are divided into three regional zones and Britain have one chance per year to escape - a format that hugely frustrated former captain Judy Murray.
The Europe/Africa Group I event, which this year takes place in Estonia, has 14 teams divided into groups, with Poland, Croatia, Britain and Serbia the seeded nations.
Four group winners will progress to promotion play-offs on Saturday, and two nations will then qualify for World Group II play-offs in April - which could see Britain given a home Fed Cup tie for the first time since 1993.
They fell at the same stage in 2012 and 2013 - away ties in Sweden and Argentina - under the captaincy of Judy Murray.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38928360
|
England: Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad meet with Strauss - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad meet with Andrew Strauss to discuss the England Test captaincy.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad have met with Andrew Strauss to discuss the England Test captaincy.
Alastair Cook, England's highest Test run scorer, stepped down on Monday after a record 59 Tests in charge.
Root, vice-captain to Cook, is the favourite to take over but director of cricket Strauss previously refused to "rule anyone in or out" of the role.
A new captain will be appointed before England's limited-overs tour of the Caribbean in March.
The trio met Strauss and his team on Thursday, although it is understood that the discussions were not considered as interviews for the position.
Strauss previously stated that he would be speaking to senior squad members in leadership roles about who should succeed Cook.
Bowler Broad previously captained the Twenty20 side between 2011 and 2014 and all-rounder Stokes was vice-captain on the recent limited-overs tour of Bangladesh.
Batsman Root was described as the "obvious candidate" for the captaincy by England's leading Test wicket-taker James Anderson on Tuesday.
Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who is the limited-overs vice-captain but not a Test regular, was also spoken to over the phone by Strauss and his team.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38929267
|
Should I worry about arsenic in my rice? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Does rice really contain harmful quantities of arsenic? Dr Michael Mosley of Trust Me, I'm A Doctor investigates.
|
Health
|
Does rice really contain harmful quantities of arsenic? Dr Michael Mosley of Trust Me, I'm A Doctor investigates.
Many of us are regular consumers of rice - UK consumption is on the rise, and in 2015 we ate 150m kg of the stuff. But there have been reports about rice containing inorganic arsenic - a known poison - so should we be worried?
Arsenic occurs naturally in soil, and inorganic arsenic is classified as a category one carcinogen by the EU, meaning that it's known to cause cancer in humans.
Click here for detailed information about arsenic levels in rice and what experts say is safe to eat .
Trust Me, I'm A Doctor is on BBC Two on Wednesdays at 20:00 GMT - catch up on BBC iPlayer
The consequences of arsenic poisoning have been seen most dramatically in Bangladesh, where populations have been exposed to contaminated drinking water.
The result has been described as a "slow burning epidemic" of cancers, heart disease and developmental problems.
Because arsenic exists in soil, small amounts can get into food, though in general these levels are so low that they're not a cause for concern.
Rice is grown under flooded conditions, which contributes to arsenic content
Rice however, is different from other crops, because it's grown under flooded conditions. This makes the arsenic locked in the soil more readily available, meaning that more can be absorbed into the rice grains.
This is why rice contains about 10-20 times more arsenic than other cereal crops. But are these levels high enough to do us any real harm?
"The only thing I can really equate it to is smoking," says Prof Andy Meharg of Queen's University Belfast, who has been studying arsenic for decades. "If you take one or two cigarettes per day, your risks are going to be a lot less than if you're smoking 30 or 40 cigarettes a day. It's dose-dependent - the more you eat, the higher your risk is."
He believes that the current legislation isn't strict enough, and that more needs to be done to protect those who eat a lot of rice.
Eating a couple of portions of rice a week isn't putting an adult like me at high risk, but Prof Meharg is concerned about children and babies.
"We know that low levels of arsenic impact immune development, they impact growth development, they impact IQ development," he says.
Because of this, the legislation is stricter around products specifically marketed at children - but many other rice products that they may also eat, such as puffed rice cereals, can contain adult levels of arsenic.
It sounds quite scary, even if you don't eat lots of rice, but there's an easy solution - a way to cook rice that dramatically reduces the arsenic content.
Now, some ways of cooking rice reduce arsenic levels more than others. We carried out some tests with Prof Meharg and found the best technique is to soak the rice overnight before cooking it in a 5:1 water-to-rice ratio.
That cuts arsenic levels by 80%, compared to the common approach of using two parts water to one part rice and letting all the water soak in. Using lots of water - the 5:1 ratio - without pre-soaking also reduced arsenic levels, but not by as much as the pre-soaking levels.
So, while I would now think twice about feeding young children too much rice or rice products, I'm not going to stop eating rice myself. I will, however, be cooking it in more water and, when I remember, leave it to soak overnight.
Join the conversation on our Facebook page
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38910848
|
Press rewind: Trump, Tokyo and a welcome back to the 1980s - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Drawing comparisons between then and now, Karishma Vaswani takes a look at how a Trump-led America is akin to life and politics in the 1980s.
|
Business
|
It was the decade of The Empire Strikes Back and Michael Jackson's song Beat It.
A time when Madonna introduced legions of teenage girls to scrunchies and Jane Fonda made lycra and leg warmers cool.
And if you were listening to cassette tapes - there's a good chance it was on the revolutionary Walkman - made by Japanese electronics firm Sony.
But not everyone was a fan of this Asian influence.
Books like "Japan as Number One" made the bestseller list, underscoring the antagonism many Americans felt about the then rising Asian superpower.
And US President Ronald Reagan was slamming Japan for not opening its markets enough to US products.
"We sell a car into Japan, and they do things to us that make it impossible to sell cars in Japan, and yet they sell cars into us," is the kind of rhetoric you might hear.
Except that's not Reagan in 1982. It's Donald Trump in 2017.
So are we rewinding back to the 1980s?
It's a pertinent question to ask, especially as Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits the US to meet newly elected President for some leisurely golf and tough talking.
Currency will be a talking point on the tee. Like in the 1980s, the US dollar is stronger than the Japanese yen - making Japanese goods cheaper for American consumers.
Japanese car giant Toyota says will invest $10bn in the US over the next five years
Then, like now, the industries that were the main sticking points were the auto sector and agriculture.
Cars, cows and citrus fruit led to a soaring US trade deficit with Japan, worth almost a fifth of the US's GDP at the time.
Today the deficit between the two nations has halved, but when the two leaders meet over the next few days, it is these same three subjects that will likely be the focus of their talks.
In the 1980s, Japanese car-makers built factories in the US to ward off criticism that they were unfairly dumping products in American markets.
Most recently, Toyota has become a target of Mr Trump's trade rage for building a car plant in Mexico
As a result, these days more than six million Japanese cars are sold in the US, with only around one million of them made in Japan.
But apparently, that isn't enough.
Toyota became a target of Mr Trump's trade rage recently for building a car plant in Mexico.
In response, Toyota said it would invest $10bn in the US over the next five years.
But analysts say the tough talk on cars won't end until Tokyo offers up some major concessions elsewhere, in particular on agriculture.
To protect its farmers, Japan places an average 14% tariff on all agricultural goods imported into the country. By comparison, the US has a much lower tariff of 5%.
If the Trans-Pacific Partnership had gone through, many of Japan's tariffs would have been eliminated.
To protect its farmers, Japan places an average 14% tariff on all agricultural goods imported into the country
Tariffs on beef for example - the US's top agricultural export to Japan - would have been slashed by 74% within 16 years.
Mr Trump effectively killed the TPP by removing the US from it. He will argue that if Tokyo wants to trade with the US and sell its cars to American consumers, it's going to have to cut tariffs even more aggressively.
Mr Trump says that Japan is using monetary policy and intervention to keep the yen weaker against the US dollar, making its goods cheaper in the US.
Tokyo has heard this before. In 1985, Japan signed the Plaza Accord - an agreement that eventually saw the yen rise by 46% against the US dollar.
Some economists argue that this brought about the "Lost Decades" of Japan - an era of low wages and low growth that Japan is still trying to get out of.
Tokyo will be wary of any arrangement that will see the yen's value strengthen.
Prime Minister Abe may be forced to make some concessions to get the new US president to see his point of view
That's especially true at a time when every controversial tweet by President Trump sends investors flocking to the safe-haven yen, making it even harder for Japan to stick to its export-led recovery path.
Prime Minister Abe will be under great pains to emphasise to President Trump that Japan today is very different from the 1980s - and that Tokyo shouldn't be a target of his trade rage.
There is one thing though that has stayed pretty much the same since then, and that's Japan's dependence on the US.
Many of the trade concessions Tokyo made in the 1980s to appease the US were based on geopolitical considerations. Japan wanted continued US military and political support in its backyard.
The same, to some extent, is true today.
Prime Minister Abe may be forced to make some concessions to get the new US president to see his point of view, even if there's a possibility that Japan Inc gets hurt in the bargain.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38891210
|
A sarcastic response to Syria's militants - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
It takes a special kind of person to run a radio station in an area controlled by Islamist militants in northern Syria. Raed Fares, who has never lost his sense of humour despite being gunned down by IS.
|
Magazine
|
It takes a special kind of person to run a radio station in an area controlled by Islamist militants in northern Syria. Music is forbidden, so are women presenters. But Raed Fares - manager of Radio Fresh FM - has come up with a creative response to the militants' demands.
It is mid-day and almost time for the latest news from Radio Fresh FM in the rebel-held province of Idlib, in north west Syria.
Suddenly the airwaves are filled with assorted sounds of tweeting birds, clucking chickens and bleating goats. As the newsreader gets under way, the cacophony continues beneath his voice.
You might be forgiven for thinking that this is some sort of farming bulletin. It's not. It's simply that the station's manager, Raed Fares, has had enough of being told what to do by the powerful jihadist group, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham or JFS - which until last July was linked to al-Qaeda and known as the al-Nusra Front.
"They tried to force us to stop playing music on air," says Fares. "So we started to play animals in the background as a kind of sarcastic gesture against them."
In what appear to be further acts of sarcastic sabotage aimed at JFS's ban on music, Radio Fresh FM has introduced long sequences of bongs from London's Big Ben clock, endless ticking sounds, ringing explosions and the whistle of shells flying through the air.
And instead of songs with melodies, the station now plays recordings of tuneless chanting football fans.
Fares has been getting involved in confrontations of one kind or another for years now.
He took part in hundreds of demonstrations against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime at the beginning of the uprising in 2011 and continues to see it as the biggest enemy. Many of his friends were killed or imprisoned, as the authorities responded with increasing violence.
Raed Fares was one of many demonstrators in the town of Kafranbel in the early days of the Syrian uprising
Then came the threats from fighters of the so called Islamic State. Like JFS, they said the station's music was haram, or offensive to Islam. Believing this to be totally wrong, Fares ignored the threats and carried on as before, but nearly paid with his life.
Just over three years ago, when the 44-year-old former estate agent arrived home in the early hours of the morning, after finishing work at the radio station, two IS gunmen with Kalashnikovs were waiting for him. They fired a barrage of shots, leaving more than a dozen holes in his car, even more in the wall behind, and two in the right side of his body. These shattered several bones in his shoulder and ribs, as well as puncturing his right lung.
Fares was left lying in a pool of blood and only narrowly survived after being rushed to hospital by his brother.
"I still have trouble breathing," he later said, "but my doctor says my lungs should be no problem because of the size of my nose."
It's not that surprising that IS doesn't like Fares. After all, he did once design a poster depicting Syria as an alien with a monster called ISIS exploding out of its chest. The group has since been pushed out of Idlib province.
President Assad, though, is his favourite target. He once got his friends to drape themselves in shrouds and then filmed them staggering out of graves calling for Assad to step down, as if even the dead want him gone. He posted it online and it was played on a number of Arabic television stations.
Humour, it seems, is never far from the surface with Raed Fares. Take his response to another of JFS's demands, to get rid of women news readers - who are also haram, they say.
Has he, I ask him, agreed to swap them for men?
"No, I have another solution for that issue. We simply put their voices through a computer software program which makes them sound like men."
Though having heard the resulting broadcasts, I would say the women now sound closer to Daleks or robots than men.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The feisty 6ft 2in station manager has also refused JFS's demands to allow their members into the radio station to monitor the behaviour of his staff.
"We said 'No,'" he says. "You have to monitor the transmissions, not what people are doing inside the radio station."
JFS are not the only extremist rebels in the area. There are about a dozen others, and even though some of the biggest factions have recently been forming new alliances, this still makes the area chaotic to govern.
There is little more than two hours of mains electricity a day, water supplies are limited and food increasingly expensive in a region flooded with 700,000 refugees from elsewhere in the country.
The fact that Fares's dispute with JFS has continued for so long is evidence that the group is a little more tolerant than IS. But as a family man with three children is he not worried that sooner or later one of these jihadist groups will kill him?
"They've tried that five times already," he says. "If it happens, it happens. But they haven't succeeded yet. I try to survive, but if I can't, it's OK."
He tells me that the lowest point in his life came when one of his closest friends was killed and another severely injured by a bomb last summer. Fares admits that he nearly took his own life in the days that followed. But now, he says, he is more determined than ever to carry on.
"We started the revolution together and were all aware that we faced the same risks," he says. "That means that my life isn't more expensive than my friends who lost their lives."
Mike Thomson's report about radio Fresh FM ran on the Today programme on 9 February.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38912958
|
The cannabis-growing colonel of Italy - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
| null |
Colonel Medica grows 100kg of cannabis a year for Italy's army to provide for medical use.
| null |
In most countries, the authorities arrest anyone growing large quantities of cannabis.
But in Italy, the army does something different: it grows the plant itself – for medical use.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38923890
|
Sound of crickets 'could become a thing of the past' - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A quarter of Europe's cricket and grasshopper species are being driven to extinction, say experts.
|
Science & Environment
|
The Crau plain grasshopper is confined to a small area of the South of France
The first comprehensive assessment of Europe's crickets and grasshoppers has found that more than a quarter of species are being driven to extinction.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the insect group is the most threatened of those assessed so far in Europe.
Europe harbours more than 1,000 species of grasshopper and cricket.
If we don't act now the sound of crickets could become a thing of the past, said the IUCN.
Crickets, bush crickets and grasshoppers - a group known as Orthoptera - live on grassland.
They are an important food source for birds and reptiles, and their decline could affect entire ecosystems.
Their habitat is being lost due to wildfires, intensive agriculture and tourism development.
The knotty sand grasshopper is threatened by tourist development
Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy director, IUCN Global Species Programme, said to bring these species back from the brink of extinction, more needs to be done to protect and restore their habitats.
"This can be done through sustainable grassland management using traditional agricultural practices, for example," he said.
"If we do not act now, the sound of crickets in European grasslands could soon become a thing of the past."
The assessment took place over two years and involved more than 150 scientists.
Axel Hochkirch is chair of the IUCN invertebrate conservation sub-committee and lead author of the report.
"If we lose grasshoppers and other Orthoptera like crickets and bush crickets, we will lose diversity," he told BBC News. "They are very good indicators of biodiversity in open ecosystems."
The Adriatic marbled bush cricket is classed as endangered
The experts are particularly concerned about species that occupy small ranges, such as the Crau plain grasshopper, which lives only on the Crau plain in the South of France.
Some populations are also being lost through wildfires, particularly in Greece and on the Canary Islands.
"The results from this IUCN Red List are deeply worrying," said Luc Bas, director of the IUCN European Regional Office.
The report recommends the setting up of a monitoring programme across Europe to obtain information on population trends.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38920199
|
Super League: St Helens 6-4 Leeds Rhinos - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-10
| null |
St Helens earn a narrow win in a low-scoring but enthralling Super League season opener against Leeds Rhinos.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Rugby League
St Helens earned a narrow win in a low-scoring but enthralling Super League season opener against Leeds Rhinos.
Joel Moon scored the first try of the new season in the corner as Rhinos went into the break 4-0 ahead.
Theo Fages crashed over early in the second before Mark Percival's conversion gave the lead to Saints, who had two tries ruled out by the video referee in the match.
Leeds pressed for another, but Saints stood firm in an energy-sapping game.
As the game came to a close, both sides needed last-ditch defending to save them, including from Rhinos' Ashton Golding, a stand-out performer to deny Saints getting more scores on the board throughout.
The Rhinos, who had to secure their Super League place through The Qualifiers last campaign, looked a totally different side to the one that found itself bottom of the table during last season.
Rob Burrow, playing his 500th Leeds Rhinos match, and Carl Ablett put Moon in for the first try, and Golding held up Tommy Makinson to ensure the visitors kept their advantage going into the second half.
Saints were without the injured Matty Smith, but Danny Richardson was impressive throughout, and his half-back partner Fages broke through the defence to help put Saints ahead.
Makinson then superbly saved a certain try himself, taking Liam Sutcliffle out of play when the Leeds man looked to be heading for the line.
Leeds had the majority of play towards the end of the match, but Saints' long-kicking game made it difficult for Rhinos to gain ground and the hosts held out for victory.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/38896656
|
The Body Shop: What went wrong? - BBC News
|
2017-02-10
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
With French owner L'Oreal wanting to put The Body Shop up for sale, BBC News asks what's gone wrong at the UK cosmetics chain?
|
Business
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"A confused shop with a mish-mash of products with no emphasis on the fact that this is supposed to be a shop specialising in cruelty-free, fair trade toiletries and make-up," is Suzy Bourke's damning verdict on The Body Shop.
The 42-year-old stage manager used to be a regular shopper at the High Street chain, but now she tends to go to Boots instead.
And she's not alone. Its owner, cosmetics giant L'Oreal, wants to offload the High Street chain, which has been suffering slowing sales.
The Body Shop, founded by Dame Anita Roddick in 1976, was a pioneer using natural ingredients for its beauty products when it started out. It initially thrived, expanding rapidly, and by the 1980s was one of the most well-known brands on the High Street.
I remember the chain fondly from my youth, when it seemed to be an exciting shop full of affordable, fun and exciting products. Coloured animal soaps, banana shampoo, white musk perfume and strawberry shower gel were the height of 1980s beauty chic as far as I was concerned.
But by the early 2000s, rivals had caught up, with firms such as Boots, for example, developing similar natural beauty ranges. New challengers such as Lush also emerged, encroaching on The Body Shop's market share.
"You never see a Body Shop busy any more, they always used to be packed," says Suzy Bourke
The chain is still a sizeable High Street presence with more than 3,000 stores in 66 countries and employs 22,000 people, according to its website.
The Body Shop's results for 2016 show total sales were 920.8m euros (£783.8m), down from 967.2m euros in 2015, which L'Oreal blamed on market slowdowns in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia.
The sales were a tiny proportion of L'Oreal's overall 25.8bn euros of sales for the same period.
And arguably the chain - which L'Oreal bought for £652m ($1.14bn) in 2006 - remains a lower-end and insignificant part of its huge portfolio of brands, which include skincare specialists Kiehl's, Lancome and Garnier, as well as fragrance brands Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani.
Veteran retail analyst Richard Hyman argues that L'Oreal overpaid for the chain and has failed to add any value to it.
"Frankly it's a bit of mystery them buying it in the first place.
"What they bought is a retailer and what they're good at is brands," he says.
The Body Shop's use of natural ingredients made it a pioneer when it started out in 1976
He thinks The Body Shop's struggles are down to the same issues facing the retail sector as a whole:
"Retailing in shops is becoming an increasingly challenging business. You've got to have a very compelling retail proposition as opposed to a brand or product proposition.
"Everyone that shops in The Body Shop spends most of their personal care budget somewhere else. They're constantly chasing their tail, having to work hard to attract people into a store," he says.
When the 2006 deal was struck, founder Dame Anita - who died just a year later - was forced to reject claims that The Body Shop, known for its ethically sourced goods, was joining with "the enemy".
There were concerns that some of the ingredients L'Oreal then used in its products had been tested on animals, while The Body Shop was publicly opposed to animal testing.
The French firm insisted the brand would complement its existing offering, giving it increased presence in the "masstige" sector - mass market combined with prestige.
But Charlotte Pearce, an analyst at consultancy GlobalData Retail, believes the firm has "slightly lost its way" under L'Oreal's ownership.
"While The Body Shop's heritage is strong, it needs to work on its brand perception. It's not known as a brand which is innovative and new, and it's failed to keep up with market trends - contour sticks, kits and palettes were a strong trend in 2016, and these are nowhere to be seen in The Body Shop's range," she says.
Analysts say The Body Shop has lost its cachet as a fashionable brand
These days the firm is not seen as "a trendy brand", but mostly as a shop for gifting and low-value items, such as its body butters and body lotions, she says.
"With premium retailers such as Jo Malone and Liz Earle offering in-store treatments, there is more that The Body Shop could be doing to raise its profile and improve the customer experience," she adds.
Nonetheless, Prof John Colley from Warwick Business School believes there will still be plenty of interest from private equity funds.
He expects the firm to be sold with its current separate management team, who he says are likely to have their own ideas for how to improve it.
"When a major corporate has decided it doesn't want a business, it will sell it, probably, whatever the price.
"They [L'Oreal] are trying to get rid of it because it's underperforming. But anyone bidding will see a clear turnaround. Independent ownership would probably serve the firm well. A refreshed image would almost certainly work," he says.
Mr Hyman, too, believes a new owner could improve The Body Shop, particularly by selling the chain's products outside its own shops. But he says trying to offload the large store estate with long committed leases will be a hindrance to any buyer.
"That's not to say it isn't a business with potential, but it could perform much more strongly," he says.
Dame Anita Roddick, who founded the firm in 1976 at the age of 34, said her original motivation for the firm was simply to make a living for herself and her two daughters while her husband was away travelling.
But as someone who had travelled widely, she set out to do things differently, relying on natural ingredients and her customers' interest in the environment.
"Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she [my mother] did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could.
"The foundation of The Body Shop's environmental activism was born out of ideas like these," she wrote.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38905530
|
'Well-behaved' pupils get to leave school earlier - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Pupils who behave well during the day can go home 10 minutes before those who do not.
|
Essex
|
Castle View on Canvey Island hit the headlines in 2013 for banning triangular flapjacks after a student was injured by one
A school is letting pupils who behave well during the day go home before those who do not, it has emerged.
Castle View School on Canvey Island, Essex, said some pupils could finish at 14:50 if they had made "the right decisions, every lesson of the day".
Others finish 10 minutes later in what the school calls a "second dismissal".
An NUT official said he had not heard of a school doing this before, but that it was "not that innovative" if it was just another way of giving detentions.
The academy trust school, which hit the headlines in 2013 after banning triangular flapjacks, has about 1,100 students aged 11 to 16.
Pupils at the school begin their day at 08:30 with first lessons starting by 08:50.
In a letter to parents explaining the system, the school, rated "good" by Ofsted, said: "Our second dismissal system is designed to ensure students have an instant consequence that can be put right at the end of the day and start afresh the next day."
The BBC has asked the school whether the introduction of the new system had caused any issues for parents, but the school has yet to respond.
Jerry Glazier, general secretary of the Essex branch of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) said he had not heard of schools having split-time endings before.
"Then again, perhaps it is not that innovative if most pupils are leaving at the normal time and the rest are getting detentions," he said.
"It is up to schools to determine what rewards or sanctions they want to use to motivate pupils."
Michelle Doyle Wildman, policy and communications director at PTA UK, which represents parents and teacher associations, said: "PTA UK's position would be that its really important that parents are fully informed and preferably consulted on any changes to arrangements to the beginning and end of the school day.
"The best schools do see parents as key partners and will consider how they approach things from a parent and family perspective.
"This is especially relevant to parents juggling work and additional caring responsibilities."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-38898841
|
Government adviser walks away from child protection plans - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A former government adviser attacks plans to allow councils to set aside child protection duties.
|
Education & Family
|
Plans to allow councils to opt out of key legal duties to vulnerable children have been labelled a "serious danger" by a former government adviser.
Prof Eileen Munro, whose social work review inspired the Children and Social Work Bill, said the opt-outs create "more dangers than benefits".
Under the bill, children's rights and checks on care could be set aside by councils trying new ways of working.
Ministers said it was wrong to say that children would be at risk as a result.
Instead they argue the Bill is a bold approach to removing red tape and allowing innovative ways of working.
The Bill, which is going through Parliament, has been described as "a bonfire of child protection rights", with many campaigners arguing that to allow councils to opt out of these long-standing duties would be risky and unnecessary.
If it becomes law, local authorities would be able to apply to the secretary of state to be exempted from one or more legal duties for a period of three years so it could try out new ways of working.
This could then be extended for a further three years.
Ministers have regularly cited Prof Munro as a supporter of what the government refers to as "innovation powers", referring to a statement issued last year in which she supported the plans.
However, the professor of social policy has now signalled her opposition to the Bill in an email to children's rights campaign group Article 39.
"I have reached the conclusion that the power to have exemption from primary and secondary legislation creates more dangers than the benefits it might produce," she said.
"While I understand and respect the motivation of the current government, there is a serious danger in having such wide-reaching powers in statute.
"Some future secretary of state might use them in ways that are completely contrary to the current intentions and consequently subvert the will of Parliament."
The legal duties affected by the Bill relate to nearly all the social care services children receive from local authorities, which have been laid down in numerous acts of Parliament.
These include statutory rights on child protection, family support, children's homes and fostering, support to care leavers and services for disabled children.
About 50 organisations publicly oppose the proposed exemptions, including the British Association of Social Workers, the Care Leavers' Association, Women's Aid, Liberty and the National Association of People Abused in Childhood.
Article 39 director Carolyne Willow said: "The death knell has finally sounded for this appalling attack on children's law and parliamentary sovereignty.
"From the start, ministers claimed their dangerous plan to test out the removal of legal protection from vulnerable children and young people had the backing of Prof Munro. Well now she has walked away.
"Peers rejected these clauses, more than 50 organisations oppose them, social workers and others with long careers helping children reject them and more than 107,000 members of the public have signed a petition against them.
"Nobody wants our child protection and welfare system to lose its legal infrastructure.
"Ministers must do the decent thing for children and young people and withdraw these hated clauses."
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: "We know that over-regulation can get in the way of good social work practice, and the power to innovate will allow local authorities to test new approaches in a carefully controlled and monitored way.
"We have amended these clauses to strengthen the safeguards - to suggest the power to innovate would place children at risk is simply wrong."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38933234
|
Mariya Savinova: Russian London 2012 gold medallist stripped of title - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Russia's Mariya Savinova is stripped of her Olympic 800m gold and 2011 world title but has 45 days to appeal against the decision.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Athletics
London 2012 gold medallist Mariya Savinova has been stripped of her 800m title and banned until 2019 after being found guilty of doping.
She has had her results from July 2010 to August 2013 annulled but has 45 days to appeal against the decision.
The Russian beat South Africa's Caster Semenya into second at the London Olympics and the 2011 Worlds in Daegu.
Savinova, 31, also beat Britain's Jenny Meadows into to bronze at the 2010 European Championships.
Both Semenya and Meadows could now have their medals upgraded.
Savinova has also lost her 800m silver from the 2013 Worlds and her four-year suspension will be backdated to 2015.
The case against Savinova was brought by the IAAF based upon her biological passport, which the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has used to make its decision.
A Cas statement read: "On the basis of clear evidence, including the evidence derived from her biological passport (ABP), Mariya Savinova is found to have been engaged in using doping from 26 July 2010 (the eve of the European Championship in Barcelona) through to 19 August 2013 (the day after the World Championship in Moscow).
"As a consequence, a four-year period of ineligibility, beginning on 24 August 2015, has been imposed and all results achieved between 26 July 2010 and 19 August 2013, are disqualified and any prizes, medals, prize and appearance money forfeited."
Savinova was one of five Russian athletes named in a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report into doping.
She has not raced since 2013 after being suspended during an investigation sparked by the release of undercover footage filmed by whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova.
Should the International Olympic Committee decide to reallocate the medals from the London 2012 final, Semenya would be awarded a second gold after she claimed the 800m title in Rio last summer.
Savinova is now the second Russian finalist from that race to have been retrospectively banned - after Yelena Arzhakova - while a third - bronze medallist Ekaterina Poistogova - is also under investigation for doping.
Savinova is one of Russia's best known middle-distance athletes - she is now one of Russia's best known drugs cheats.
It means in effect Savinova loses her London 2012 gold medal and Caster Semenya will likely be promoted from silver to gold.
So while there are consequences for Savinova, the world of sporting detection is once again showing it will catch up with athletes if they have cheated even if it is some years after the event.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/38931007
|
Egypt's '500kg' woman arrives at India hospital for surgery - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
| null |
She is believed to be the world's heaviest woman and will undergo weight reduction surgery.
| null |
An Egyptian woman, believed to be the world's heaviest woman at 500kg (78.5 stone), has arrived in Mumbai, India, for weight reduction surgery.
The family of 36-year-old Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty said it was the first time she had left home for 25 years.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38944711
|
Super League: Castleford Tigers 44-16 Leigh Centurions - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Castleford highlight their Super League title ambitions with a seven-try victory over new-boys Leigh Centurions.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Rugby League
Castleford highlighted their Super League title ambitions with a convincing seven-try victory over new-boys Leigh Centurions.
Leigh, in their first top-flight game since 2005, were blown away by four first-half scores and a Luke Gale penalty to trail 26-0 at the break.
Gale and Greg Minikin both picked up two tries apiece as the Tigers continued to exert their dominance.
Leigh rallied with three scores, but it came too late to challenge Cas.
Daryl Powell's Tigers are among the contenders in 2017 despite the loss of Denny Solomona, who scored 42 tries last season, in a high-profile defection to rugby union.
They showed they can cope without him with plenty of strike options - notably from Minikin, Jake Webster and Greg Eden.
The Centurions had dominated the second tier Championship over the past three seasons and were impressive in the Qualifiers with three wins against Super League opposition to book their top-flight place last term.
However, having survived a tight opening quarter, they could not live with Cas' movement, fluid handling and pace - particularly after Gale had crossed for the opening try.
Captain Gale kicked eight goals to add to his two tries, while there were debut scores for Jesse Sene-Lefao and boyhood fan Eden.
Leigh coach Neil Jukes will have been heartened by his side's refusal to give in on a tough introduction to Super League life, characterised by tries from former Tigers Ryan Hampshire and Danny Tickle as well as Matty Dawson.
Castleford head coach Daryl Powell told BBC Radio 5 live extra: "Once we got to grips with the game we were excellent, I was really happy with large parts of our attack and defence.
"It was always going to be a dangerous game, it was 0-0 for a while and it took a bit to break them down, the conditions are difficult. It's not summer rugby.
"We scored some smart tries, we looked dangerous and inventive and there were a lot of things to admire about our defence."
Leigh head coach Neil Jukes told BBC Radio 5 live extra: "We didn't get ourselves a chance to win the game, our kicking game was poor and three or four times we had seven tackle restarts, soft penalties with poor errors and some individual ones.
"If you defend your tryline as much as we did, certainly after 21 to 63 minutes, as good as you think your defence is, Cas are going to score points.
"Ultimately, we gave them too many opportunities. Across the board some individuals did some really good stuff and we did some poor stuff from 1-17. It's about getting the deficiencies out of us."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/38896799
|
Arsene Wenger: Arsenal manager 'coming to the end', says Ian Wright - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Arsene Wenger has given Ian Wright "the impression" that he will leave as Arsenal boss, claims the Gunners legend.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsene Wenger has told Ian Wright his time as Arsenal boss is "coming to the end", claims the Gunners legend.
Wenger has managed Arsenal since October 1996 and won the last of his three Premier League titles in 2004.
The 67-year-old's contract expires at the end of the season.
"I get the impression that that's it," ex-Arsenal striker Wright told BBC Radio 5 live. "He looks tired. You just feel that he looks winded. I feel that he will go at the end of the season."
Arsenal's hopes of winning the championship this season took a huge blow when Saturday's 3-1 loss at league leaders Chelsea left them 12 points behind the Blues.
Wright says he spoke with Wenger on Thursday night.
"He actually mentioned that he is coming to the end. I have never heard him say that before," said the 53-year-old.
"I was with him for a few hours. He didn't say to me, 'I'm leaving at the end of the season', but I get the impression, looking at him, that that's it."
Wright added: "The players have let him down badly.
"If he does leave at the end of the season, there will be a lot of changes. They should have a long, hard look at themselves. He has been so faithful to his team, it has been misplaced."
Some fans have called for Wenger to leave, with one holding up a poster at Stamford Bridge telling the Frenchman: "Enough is enough. Time to go."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38939129
|
The bounty hunter from Brechin - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
Christian Matlock, from Brechin, is a bounty hunter who spends his days and nights tracking down fugitives who have skipped bail in the US state of Virginia.
|
Tayside and Central Scotland
|
Christian Matlock grew up in Brechin in Angus but is now a bounty hunter in Virginia
Christian Matlock is a bounty hunter who spends his days and nights tracking down fugitives who have skipped bail in the US state of Virginia.
With his dark sunglasses, his gun and his tattoos, he looks every inch the movie stereotype of the maverick American law enforcement officer, but until seven years ago Christian lived in Brechin.
He swapped the east coast of Scotland for the eastern seaboard of the US when he was 21.
He worked briefly as a bouncer in Washington DC before obtaining a licence as a bail enforcement agent, often referred to as bounty hunters.
They are contracted by bondsmen, money lenders who offer to cover bail money for those who can't afford it in exchange for a 10% commission.
If the accused fails to show in court the bondsman loses the entire sum unless a bounty hunter can track down the fugitive.
In Virginia, like most US states, it is not only police who get to carry guns and chase criminals.
Christian says: "Every boy, every man wants to have the gun and go kicking in doors.
"It's exciting being like that but I prefer being the undercover detective kind of guy."
He says he is not a typical bounty hunter and has a low opinion of some others who seem to delight in the macho violence of the job.
Christian moved to the US seven years ago to track down his American father.
He had been getting into a lot of trouble at home and could not get a job.
"Plus I thought Americans always looked a lot cooler in movies so I thought I'd give it a try," he says.
In the BBC documentary - The Scottish Bounty Hunter - Christian tells how he felt the need to escape his home town because he was taking "a lot of ecstasy" during "week-long parties".
"There was bugger all else to do," he says.
"I feel like in Scotland I was supposed to die there."
His mother tells the programme she is pleased he left.
She says: "They were getting into trouble with the police and drinking and hanging around with the wrong people.
"Brechin doesn't have anything going for it really. There's not a lot of work in the area. It's like some place to sleep now.
"There's no potential here for young people."
About 80% of the jobs he gets as a bounty hunter are drugs related.
He says he wants to help offenders and their families get back to a normal life but he gets paid for finding and putting people back in jail.
He says: "I can't feel sorry for anyone or I'd just end up taking handcuffs off everybody.
"I've thought about taking them off many times and letting folk go but I can't do that. This is what I signed up for."
Christian can use lots of different methods to track people down but his first port of call is Facebook, which can give him clues to where people like to go and who they might be with.
He says he caught a woman in Maryland because she used Facebook "check in".
Christian says he knew she was going to a beauty school but didn't know which one.
"She would 'check in' at this coffee shop every single morning," he says.
"Every morning she was there at the same time 'Getting coffee on my way to school' - on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
"On the Thursday - no check in. Because I checked her into Winchester jail."
As well as getting paid to put people in jail, Christian makes money getting people out.
Four years ago he started lending bail money as a bondsman himself.
In an average week he'll track down five or six people and bail even more out of jail.
He says the job is stressful, dangerous and exhausting.
"Bounty hunters don't last very long," he says.
"I only know of three or four who have been in it as long as I have.
"They either can't handle the hours or can't handle the stress."
But Christian says he keeps doing it because it is a chance to help people turn their life around.
He says: "I've got a lot of relationships with people who might end up going off the rails if I left.
"This is a job you can't do half-arsed.
"You are either going to be a bounty hunter full time or you are not going to be one at all.
"I've tried to get out of it two or three times but I just can't seem to stop doing it."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-38905520
|
Liverpool 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Sadio Mane lifts Liverpool's recent gloom by scoring twice in two first-half minutes to see off top-four rivals Tottenham.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Football
Sadio Mane lifted Liverpool's recent gloom by scoring twice in two first-half minutes to see off top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield.
The forward put the Reds ahead when he ran onto Georginio Wijnaldum's pass, holding off Ben Davies to fire in.
He doubled the lead 138 seconds later, pouncing on a loose ball from close range after keeper Hugo Lloris denied Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino.
The visitors' best chance fell to forward Son Heung-min, whose fierce, angled shot was blocked by Reds keeper Simon Mignolet shortly after Mane's second.
Spurs remain nine points behind leaders Chelsea ahead of the Blues' trip to Burnley on Sunday.
Liverpool, who had not won in their five previous matches, move back up to fourth.
Liverpool's downturn in form since New Year coincided with the absence of Senegal forward Mane, who missed seven matches when he represented his country at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Reds managed just one win in his absence, slipping from Chelsea's nearest title challengers to fifth place and going out of both domestic cup competitions.
Here Mane, who failed to shine in last weekend's defeat at Hull City, showed just why Liverpool lamented his loss.
Mane impressed in the first half of the season following his £34m arrival from Southampton - his pace, energy and clinical finishing contributing heavily to Liverpool's success.
Without him, they struggled to break down opponents. With him, they tore apart Tottenham in the opening quarter.
Spurs could not handle the speed of thought, or the speed of movement, of the home side.
Mane - who scored the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history in two minutes and 56 seconds in May 2015 - almost came close to another quickfire treble, only to be denied again by the over-exposed Lloris.
While Spurs stemmed the tide after the break, the damage was already done.
Former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright on Match of the Day
"They couldn't win without him. Mane is the one with that bit of pace to get in behind and I didn't think they were doing that recently and that's because he wasn't there.
"He is phenomenal. He senses the danger. Spurs couldn't deal with him."
Spurs' struggles continue away from the Lane
While Liverpool had not won in five games, Tottenham were playing with confidence and fluency in a 15-match streak which had seen them beaten just once.
The formbook was torn up at Anfield.
Spurs had conceded just twice in their previous five league games, but were uncharacteristically porous without injured pair Danny Rose and Jan Vertonghen.
Harry Kane was isolated up front, while midfielders Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen were virtually anonymous in the opposition half.
Spurs managed just two shots on target as Reds keeper Simon Mignolet was largely untroubled, their frustration becoming evident after the break as four players picked up yellow cards.
Worryingly for boss Mauricio Pochettino, his side failed to turn up again in a potentially-pivotal trip to one of their top four rivals.
Spurs have won just twice on the road since 24 September, including defeats at Chelsea and Manchester United in addition to draws at Arsenal and Manchester City.
"We were poor. They were better. No complaints," said Pochettino.
"It was how we have to play against Tottenham. We had to show a reaction and it was perfect. It was an outstanding performance offensively in the first half, and defensively in the second half.
"We could have scored again. It was difficult to defend against us in the first half, we had four or five players in the area, it was like the early part of the season."
"We started the game very sloppy. It is difficult to understand, I am very disappointed in our first-half display. Second half we reached their level but it is really late.
"We are in a position that is up to us. But if you show like today that you cannot cope with the pressure to play to win the league than it is difficult to challenge and fight for the Premier League.
"In the first 45 minutes you saw a team that is not ready to fight for the Premier League."
• None Liverpool have won more Premier League games at Anfield against Tottenham than any other current top-flight side they have faced (16 wins)
• None The Reds are unbeaten in their last nine Premier League encounters with Spurs, winning six and drawing three
• None Tottenham have conceded eight goals from open play in their last 13 Premier League games after conceding just one in their opening 12 matches of the season
• None Spurs conceded eight shots on target; their most in a first half since 2003-04
• None Spurs have failed to score in successive Premier League away games for the first time since April 2015
• None Toby Alderweireld received his first Premier League yellow card since March 2016, after a run of 26 games without a booking
A two-week break from the Premier League for Tottenham. Pochettino's side turn their attentions back to the Europa League when they face Belgian side Gent in a two-legged tie either side of a FA Cup fifth-round trip to Fulham on Sunday, 19 February.
They return to top-flight action when Stoke City visit on Sunday, 26 February (13:30 GMT), while Liverpool have a 16-day break before they visit champions Leicester City on Monday, 27 February (20:00).
• None Attempt missed. Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Adam Lallana (Liverpool) because of an injury.
• None Attempt missed. Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool) left footed shot from more than 40 yards on the left wing misses to the right.
• None Attempt blocked. James Milner (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
• None Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham Hotspur) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Substitution, Liverpool. Ragnar Klavan replaces Lucas Leiva because of an injury.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Lucas Leiva (Liverpool) because of an injury.
• None Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38865320
|
Quiz of the week's news - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A weekly quiz of the news, 7 days 7 questions.
|
Magazine
|
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 quiz, try it here
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38920176
|
Six Nations - Italy v Ireland: Garry Ringrose scores blistering try - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Ireland's Garry Ringrose scores a blistering try in the 63-10 victory over Italy in the Six Nations.
| null |
Ireland's Garry Ringrose scores a blistering try in the 63-10 victory over Italy in the Six Nations.
Available to UK users only.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38945293
|
BBC News - The NHS in Winter
|
2017-02-11
| null | null | null |
Winter pressures: A detailed look at how the NHS is coping Winter is the busiest time of year for the health service. The BBC looks at how hospitals are coping across the UK.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34905806
|
Six Nations: England boss Eddie Jones says 'no more get-out-of-jail-free cards' - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Coach Eddie Jones says England "don't want to be in that position again" after a dramatic late Six Nations win over Wales.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Head coach Eddie Jones said England had used up all of their "get-out-of-jail-free cards", after Elliot Daly's 76th-minute try secured a 21-16 Six Nations victory over Wales in Cardiff.
That followed a 19-16 win over France in their opening match, when the winning try came in the 71st minute.
"We don't want to be in that position again," said Jones.
"We are a gritty team with characters in there that don't know how to get beaten, and that was evident here."
England, who have won a national record 16 Tests in a row, play Italy next.
The defending champions are yet to secure a bonus point in their first two games, and Jones said he wanted to "put Italy to the cleaners" at Twickenham in a fortnight's time.
After Ben Youngs' early try for England, Liam Williams' slicing first-half try and 11 points from the boot of Leigh Halfpenny looked to have given Wales a deserved victory.
But Owen Farrell's penalties had kept them within two points, and with time running out his long flat pass put Daly away down the left to score.
Jones said the match-winner - who features in the centres for Wasps - was being deployed in a position that suited the team rather than the player.
"The boy's got gas and he's got that X-factor about him and that's what we like about him," Jones said.
"I don't necessarily think wing is his best position, but it suits us at the moment."
• None 5 live In Short: England's backs 'more talented than Wilkinson era'
The Australian also returned to a topic that had featured heavily in the build-up to the match - the Principality Stadium roof.
Jones used the away team's veto to frustrate Wales' wishes and keep the match open to the elements.
England have now won five out of six matches at the ground with the roof open, and lost four out of five when it has been closed.
"They can close the roof now," he said. "The roof should be open unless the conditions are going to be absolutely terrible. That's how rugby should be played because it's a winter sport, so you play the conditions."
Captain Dylan Hartley, who was replaced by Saracens' Jamie George after 47 minutes, paid tribute to the influence of England's bench.
"I would have preferred to wrap it up a bit earlier. The finishers came on for us and showed great composure," he said.
How did the pundits view it?
Former England hooker Brian Moore: "It shows again that if you do not put this England side away when you are on top they will make you pay.
"They were outplayed for long periods but when it came down to taking the opportunity from a poor Welsh kick, they found a way to win."
Former Wales fly-half Jonathan Davies: "I felt that England looked far more threatening with ball in hand. When the opportunity came, they took it.
"They were so clinical in the opportunities they had. Wales had a lot of possession, a lot of territory and scored a great try in the first half, but unfortunately they couldn't turn that pressure into points."
Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson: "I've never watched an England side with only 40-60% territory, under that much pressure, win a game. They didn't even nick it, they worked it.
"That game was absolutely superb. On that evidence, there is no gap now between the southern hemisphere teams."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38946869
|
Boy, 16, dies after Harehills street stabbing - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
|
Leeds & West Yorkshire
|
The injured boy was taken to hospital for urgent treatment but later died
A 16-year-old boy has died after he was stabbed in a busy Leeds street, prompting a murder inquiry.
Police were alerted to the stabbing in Harehills Lane, Harehills, at about 15:40 GMT.
The wounded teenager was taken to hospital for treatment, but died a short time later.
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder, West Yorkshire Police said. He remains in custody for questioning.
Police have appealed for witnesses to come forward
Det Supt Pat Twiggs, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "This tragic incident happened in a busy area at a busy time of day with large numbers of people going about their daily business.
"I am appealing directly to anyone who witnessed the incident or has information that could help our inquiries to come forward."
The force is hoping to speak to anyone who saw a person running in the area or those who have mobile phone footage.
The scene remains cordoned off, with police forensic examinations expected to continue over the weekend.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-38932692
|
Public parks in danger of falling into neglect, warn MPs - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
A funding squeeze is seeing amenities closed and an increase in litter and vandalism, MPs warn.
|
UK Politics
|
Parks are seeing playgrounds removed in a spending squeeze, MPs say
Public parks are at risk of falling into neglect as funding to maintain them comes under pressure, says a report by a committee of MPs.
The squeeze has resulted in reduced opening hours, the removal of play equipment, toilets closing and more litter, vandalism and rats, MPs said.
They urged councils to find new ways to fund and manage parks.
The Local Government Association said councils have to balance spending on parks against other priorities.
The report by the Commons Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee argued housing demand was also putting parks at risk, with new homes "nibbling away" at green spaces in some areas.
Unless parks were recognised as "much more than just grass and tulips", there was a risk of turning the clock back to an era of neglect of 20 to 30 years ago, the MPs warned.
Local authorities have no statutory duty to fund and maintain public parks, and a 2014 report by the Heritage Lottery Fund found 86% of park managers had seen cuts to their budgets since 2010.
The UK has about 27,000 public parks attracting 2.6 billion visits a year.
The MPs argued that parks play an important role by:
Councils should publish strategic plans that recognise parks' wider value and consider a range of alternative models for looking after parks, they said.
However, the MPs added, they should remain owned by local authorities and be freely available to everyone.
Parks needed recognising as more than just tulips and grass, the MPs said
The MPs also entered the debate over the free use of parks by organisations such as Parkrun, which hit the headlines when a parish council tried to charge for its weekly runs in a Bristol park last year.
Community organisations, such as Parkrun, which do not charge for participation or raise revenue, could be encouraged to contribute volunteer time to help maintain parks or undertake fundraising, the report said.
Helen Griffiths, chief executive of Fields in Trust, a charity that seeks better statutory protection for recreational spaces, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that parks can help to get more people active, tackle obesity and address anti-social behaviour.
"I think it is really important that we shouldn't see parks as a drain on our services, not as a budget just for cutting the grass, but as an area that can make a real contribution to tackling some of those very important issues," she said.
Peter Fleming, deputy chairman of the Local Government Association, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Many councils are saying actually the park is an asset that can help things around public health, but also around how we bring open spaces for families who live in urban areas as well.
"But we have to try and balance that spending against those other priorities that councils have, so it is a difficult thing."
Parkruns, such as this one in Sheffield joined by Jessica Ennis-Hill, take place across the country
Clive Betts, Labour chairman of the Commons committee, said: "Parks are treasured public assets, as the overwhelming response to our inquiry demonstrates, but they are at a tipping point and, if we are to prevent a period of decline with potentially severe consequences, then action must be taken."
He said the government had a leadership role to play and volunteers did "fantastic work" but the primary responsibility lay with local authorities.
The vast majority of councils have cut budgets for parks and were likely to cut further, with Newcastle City Council's parks management budget slashed from £2.589m in 2011/12 to £0.253m in 2016/17, the report found.
The government should help councils find innovative ways of managing public parks and green spaces should also be at the heart of planning, the report added.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38935787
|
Donald Trump considers issuing new travel ban - BBC News
|
2017-02-11
|
https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
|
The US president tells reporters on Air Force One that a "brand new order" may be issued next week.
|
US & Canada
|
Mr Trump's travel ban caused chaos at US airports and sparked protests across the country
Donald Trump is considering a new executive order to ban citizens of certain countries from travelling to the US after his initial attempt was overturned in the courts.
Mr Trump told reporters on Air Force One that a "brand new order" could be issued as early as Monday or Tuesday.
It comes after an appeals court in San Francisco upheld a court ruling to suspend his original order.
It barred entry from citizens from seven mainly Muslim countries.
It is unclear what a new US immigration order might look like.
Mr Trump said that it would change "very little", but he did not provide details of any new ban under consideration.
Despite his suggestion on Friday, Mr Trump's administration may still pursue its case in the courts over the original order, which was halted a week ago by a Seattle judge.
"We'll win that battle," Mr Trump told reporters, adding: "The unfortunate part is it takes time. We'll win that battle. But we also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Trump speaking on Air Force One: "We need speed for reasons of security"
An unnamed judge from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, which on Thursday upheld the stay on the original order, has called on all 25 judges of that court to vote on whether to hear the appeal again.
Technically known as an en banc review, a second hearing of the case would involve an 11-judge panel, rather than the three who initially heard the appeal.
Mr Trump's travel ban, which was hastily unveiled at the end of his first week in office, caused chaos at US airports and sparked protests across the country.
On Thursday, the appeals court said the administration failed to offer "any evidence" to justify the ban, which the president said was necessary to keep the US safe from terror attacks.
However Mr Trump insisted that the executive order was crucial for national security and promised to take action "very rapidly" to introduce "additional security" steps in the wake of the court's decision.
He spoke as Virginia state lawyers argued in court that his policy "resulted from animus toward Muslims".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The US state with a deep fear of refugees
Their challenge focuses on the travel restrictions imposed by the ban, rather than the four-month suspension of refugee admissions.
But lawyers for the US government in Virginia wrote that "judicial second-guessing" amounted to "an impermissible intrusion" on Mr Trump's constitutional authority.
The appeals court ruling means that visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen can continue to enter the US, and refugees from around the world, who were also subject to a temporary ban, are no longer blocked either.
But the ruling does not affect one part of Mr Trump's controversial executive order: a cap of 50,000 refugees to be admitted in the current fiscal year, down from the ceiling of 110,000 established under his predecessor, Barack Obama.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38941016
|
Arsene Wenger: I gave no indication on Arsenal future - BBC Sport
|
2017-02-11
| null |
Arsene Wenger says he gave no indication on his future as Arsenal manager to club legend Ian Wright.
| null |
Arsene Wenger says he did not give any indication on his future as Arsenal manager to Ian Wright, after the Gunners legend claimed the Frenchman was "coming to the end".
Wenger, 67, was appointed as Arsenal manager in September 1996.
Wright told BBC Radio 5 live on Friday: "He looks tired. I feel he will go at the end of the season."
But Wenger said: "We had a little dinner, not the two of us. I appreciate you want me to rest but I'm not ready."
He added he could look tired because "I get up early in the morning".
Wright, who played under Wenger for two seasons between 1996 and 1998, reiterated during his analysis on Saturday's Match of the Day that he believes Wenger will go.
"We were at a question and answer session and the way he was speaking and his demeanour... it's my opinion. I could be wrong," said the 53-year-old.
"I still think he has some massive decisions to make and think it could be his last season."
'My job is to make these people happy'
Wenger is the Premier League's longest-serving manager and his contract expires at the end of the season.
The Frenchman last won the Premier League title in 2004 and has been under pressure at the Emirates following league defeats by Watford and Chelsea.
However, after his side's 2-0 win against Hull, he added: "I focus on what is important: winning football games and getting the team to perform. The rest, I cannot influence.
"I have big respect for this country and this club, and I am grateful because I have worked here for 20 years. My job is to make these people happy and when I don't do that I feel guilty - that's why it's important for us to win."
'It's too soon for Wenger to leave'
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown on Match of the Day 2 Extra:
"What Wenger has to decide is, 'has he come to end of road in terms of his managerial qualities?'. I do feel if he was to go now, without a success plan, it would be too soon.
"I don't think the board and the club are ready for him to go.
"That end is coming but maybe it needs another one or two years. Wenger should be part of the decision around the next manager who comes in - who should be in the same mould.
"Everyone is thinking that the grass is greener but will it be any better under another manager? While you have got such a good man there I believe they will hang on to him.
"I am disappointed in what has been done on the pitch but also, we are realistic.
"Chelsea came in with their millions, Manchester City did it and they both changed the landscape.
"Leicester showed that to win the league you don't need money and that will hurt Wenger. He can't quite get the recipe right and that is the biggest mystery for me."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38943962
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.