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
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harvey Weinstein: Film producer says 'I have caused a lot of pain' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Film producer Harvey Weinstein disputes allegations he sexually harassed women. | US & Canada | Film producer Harvey Weinstein has issued an apology as a newspaper reported a number of sexual harassment allegations against him.
"I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologise for it," said the movie mogul's statement.
But he later disputed a New York Times report that claimed he harassed female employees over nearly three decades.
The newspaper reported he had reached at least eight settlements with women.
Mr Weinstein, a married father-of-five, said he planned to take a leave of absence from his company and had hired therapists to deal with his issue.
"My journey now will be to learn about myself and conquer my demons," the 65-year-old's statement on Thursday said.
"I so respect all women and regret what happened," he added in the statement initially given to the New York Times, and later sent to the BBC.
It continued: "I cannot be more remorseful about the people I hurt and I plan to do right by all of them."
The Miramax and Weinstein Company co-founder has produced a number of Oscar-winning blockbusters, including Shakespeare in Love, The King's Speech and The Artist.
Mr Weinstein's lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said in another statement that he denies many of the allegations against him as "patently false".
She also said that as a women's rights advocate she had been blunt with him that some of his conduct "can be perceived as inappropriate, even intimidating".
"He has acknowledged mistakes he has made," said Ms Bloom. "He is reading books and going to therapy. He is an old dinosaur learning new ways."
But another Weinstein lawyer, Charles Harder, said in a separate statement to the Hollywood Reporter that his client was preparing to sue the New York Times.
The attorney said the newspaper's report was "saturated with false and defamatory statements".
The statement also said the report "relies on mostly hearsay accounts and a faulty report, apparently stolen from an employee personnel file, which has been debunked by 9 different eyewitnesses". It did not specify which particular parts of the Times article were disputed.
Mr Harder's statement said the New York Times had ignored the "facts and evidence" and any proceeds from the lawsuit would be donated to women's organisations.
Mr Weinstein has been married since 2007 to London-born fashion designer Georgina Rose Chapman, and they have two children. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41520007 |
Las Vegas shooting: Republicans open to ban on 'bump-stocks' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | "Clearly that's something we need to look into," says House Speaker Paul Ryan of the rapid fire tool. | US & Canada | Congress' most powerful Republican says lawmakers should examine "bump-stocks", a rapid-fire accessory used by the gunman in Sunday's Las Vegas massacre.
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told a radio talk show: "Clearly that's something we need to look into."
Texas Senator John Cornyn - the number two Republican in the Senate - has called for hearings into the devices.
A bump-stock attaches to the butt of a rifle, allowing the weapon to fire close to the rate of a machine gun.
Stephen Paddock, the gunman in Las Vegas, had fixed the accessories to 12 rifles.
It appears a move to ban bump-stock devices is picking up steam in Congress. Some normally staunch gun-control opponents seem willing to consider new legislation. The NRA, which opposes just about any new regulations, has gone silent.
That's going to change soon.
The challenge for gun rights supporters is a bump-stock ban opens the door for a new debate about where to draw the line over limiting a firearm's lethality. For decades it's been at how many bullets can be fired with one trigger pull.
Bump-stocks blur that line. Can you outlaw a device that helps squeeze off rounds more quickly but not think about prohibiting quick-change magazines or limiting their sizes? Or banning pistol grips, which make firing easier?
It won't take many Republicans, with the NRA looking over their shoulder, to grind the process to a halt.
"I didn't even know what they were until this week," Mr Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, said on Thursday of bump-stocks.
He told talk show host Hugh Hewitt: "I think we're quickly coming up to speed with what this is."
For years Republicans in Congress, as well as conservative Democrats, have blocked gun control efforts in the wake of violent tragedies.
But now a liberal Democratic gun control measure appears to have found a receptive audience across the aisle.
Senator Cornyn said on Wednesday: "It strikes me as odd that it's illegal to convert a semi-automatic weapon to an automatic weapon, but apparently these bump-stocks are not illegal under the current law.
"I own a lot of guns. As a hunter and sportsman, I think that's our right as Americans.
"But I don't understand the use of this bump-stock."
He said his colleagues should hold hearings to discuss the legality of the devices.
Congressman Mark Meadows, who leads the hardline conservative Freedom Caucus, also said that he would be open to a hearing.
Since Congress passed the Firearm Owners' Protection Act in 1986, it has been relatively difficult for civilians to buy new, fully automatic weapons, which reload automatically and fire continuously as long as the trigger is pulled.
Bump-fire stocks, also called bump-stocks and slide-fire adapters, allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a high rate, similar to a machine gun.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. After the Las Vegas attack in October 2017 the BBC looked at how US mass shootings are getting worse
But the accessories can be obtained without the extensive background checks required of automatic weapons.
They typically cost less than $200 (£150) and allow nearly 100 high-velocity bullets to be fired in just seven seconds, according to one company advert.
One of the most popular manufacturers of bump-stocks, Slide Fire, said they had sold out "due to extreme high demands" since the Las Vegas shooting.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sen Dianne Feinstein This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
"I think they should be banned," Republican Texas congressman Bill Flores told The Hill newspaper, adding that he had never heard of bump-stocks before.
"There's no reason for a typical gun owner to own anything that converts a semi-automatic to something that behaves like an automatic," he said.
Democratic California congressman Mike Thompson, who chairs the congressional Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, said Congress must address the "loophole".
"We don't know how many lives could have been spared in Las Vegas had the shooter not had bump-stocks," he said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41506613 |
100 Women: Can we wire our brains for confidence? - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | When we choose confidence, we are rewiring our brains and are able to change ourselves for the better, says neuroscientist Dr Stacie Grossman Bloom. | World | When we think about ourselves positively, we stimulate parts of our brains involved in reward, motivation, and pleasure, says Dr Stacie Grossman Bloom
Dr Stacie Grossman Bloom is a neuroscientist who has three daughters. She also has a successful career at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. She has examined the role that neuroscience can play in boosting confidence. This is particularly useful to many women who need exactly that, she writes as part of this year's 100 Women Challenge.
Confidence is something that many women want, but don't know how to get. Yet, we need to embrace our abilities and our value and have self-esteem to be successful. Without it, we are less likely to seek promotion, speak up in meetings, and rise into leadership positions.
This ultimately has an enormous impact, as study after study shows that having women at work in positions of power correlates with profitability, more collaborative environments, and improved problem solving.
With some practice, we can use neuroscience to be more confident.
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we're challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today - the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport.
With your help, they'll be coming up with real-life solutions and we want you to get involved with your ideas. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women
We know that self-confidence, like all of our personality traits, resides within our brains. And while a large part of the architecture of our brains is predetermined, our experiences and the choices we make continue to shape us.
Over the course of our lives, we acquire new knowledge and abilities by modulating the intricate and malleable connections between the cells and circuits in our brains. We can utilise neuroscience to silence our negative inner voices and boost our confidence.
These strategies work by engaging the "value areas" of the brain.
When we think about ourselves positively, we are able to stimulate the parts of our brains that are involved in reward, motivation, and pleasure. One output of this pattern of neurological activation is that we literally feel good when we are confident, we hold our heads high.
Dr. Bloom with her three daughters
That feeling is contagious in that it also promotes those around us to be more engaged with us, whether that is our colleagues, our friends, or our troops. The reinforcing reactions we see and feel in response to our confidence also feed back to our brains to encourage more activity.
The first step is to push back against the obstacles we know stand in our way by being mindful of the situation, and deciding to be confident. Making that complex decision is a multi-step process that taps into our emotions and engages many other parts of the brain.
Once we have made the decision to be confident, we have to start training our brains.
The orange structure here is one of billions of neurons. It is stretching out to make all the connections (synapses) you see in yellow (more than 75,000). Those connections are what we are tweaking when we learn to choose confidence
Just like mastering any other talent, gaining self-assurance requires repetition and time. Every time we do or learn something new, our brains adjust to store our new skill or bit of knowledge.
This happens because parts of our brains are plastic, and the synapses that connect our brain cells, called neurons, to each other can be modified, strengthened, and even newly created to store what we have acquired - in this case our confidence boost.
From a scientific perspective, women can blame both nature and nurture for stacking the odds against us when it comes to how we value ourselves compared to men. It is a biological reality that women secrete different levels of hormones than men, causing us to react differently to the same world around us.
The areas of the brain in these images that are coloured to show they are activated are so-called “value areas” of the brain
Women tend to have a desire to please others, to seek acceptance and inclusion, and to avoid conflict. The way we respond to stressful situations is also different.
While men tend to take more risk under pressure, women look for surer successes and reach out to connect with others to manage stress.
Our genetic differences are compounded by the fact that we are socialised differently from the moment we are born and a pink hat is placed upon our heads.
As we grow up, young women are not necessarily taught to exhibit self-confidence, and if we do, we are often criticized for being "snobby" or "stuck-up" or "bitchy" - words seldom associated with men.
We hear damaging terms like "women's intuition" suggesting that we aren't making strategic analyses, but basing our decisions on some ethereal gut feeling when study after study shows that women and men are equally data-driven.
And the relentless emphasis placed on how we look erodes our self-image and for most of us, gets worse over time.
As a mother of three young girls, this resonates with me every time my daughters receive yet another impossibly-proportioned doll designed for dress up, caregiving, or primping.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Are women hitting a glass ceiling, or are they also climbing a broken ladder?
It is well-documented that we way we raise our girls and women has a lasting impact on the way they view themselves and their abilities. Negative messages will engender self-doubt and lead us to underestimate ourselves.
The result is not only a nearly universal feeling of imposter syndrome, but a fear of making mistakes, a suspicion that we are underperforming, and an unattainable quest for perfection.
This is what we are shutting down when we make the decision to be confident.
It doesn't matter what level of self-assurance you start at, the more time and effort you dedicate to practicing being more confident, the faster your brain will change and the faster you'll master it.
To start, it's important to remove ourselves from situations and people that make us feel bad because confidence largely comes from being in a supportive environment.
That environment comprises the people and environment around us and what we choose to focus our attention on.
It is beneficial to concentrate on things that are empowering and to steer clear of exposure to images and content that make us feel bad about ourselves.
The way we choose to hold and conduct ourselves is another factor.
Mental simulations also help - envisioning ourselves finishing a race, speaking in public to a standing ovation, mastering a job, getting a degree - can all help build ourselves up. Just as a coach gives an encouraging pep talk to the team before taking the field, we can give ourselves a confidence lift.
Notably, these practices have an impact on our overall health and wellbeing, serving as a buffer to stress and depression, and fostering good mental and physical health.
When we choose confidence, we are rewiring our brains and we are able to change ourselves, and maybe even the world, for the better.
Dr Stacie Grossman Bloom is Assistant Vice-President for Policy & Administration, and Associate Professor at the Department of Neuroscience & Physiology, NYU Langone Health. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41097043 |
Noel Conway: Terminally ill man loses right-to-die case - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Motor neurone disease patient fails to persuade the High Court to change the law on assisted dying. | Health | Noel Conway was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2014
A terminally ill man has lost his High Court challenge against the law on assisted dying.
Noel Conway, 67, from Shrewsbury, who has motor neurone disease, wanted a doctor to be allowed to prescribe a lethal dose when his health deteriorates.
Currently any doctor helping him to die would face up to 14 years in prison.
His lawyers had argued he faced a stark choice, which was unfair and the law needed to change.
They said he could either bring about his own death while still physically able to do so, or await death with no control over how and when it came.
He had previously said he wanted to say goodbye to loved ones "at the right time, not to be in a zombie-like condition suffering both physically and psychologically".
He argued that when he had less than six months to live and retained the mental capacity to make the decision, he wished to be able to enlist assistance from the medical profession to bring about a "peaceful and dignified" death.
Mr Conway, who was not at London's High Court on Thursday, wanted a declaration that the Suicide Act 1961, which lays out the law on assisted dying, is incompatible with Article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights.
This relates to respect for private and family life, and Article 14, which protects from discrimination.
But Lord Justice Sales, Mrs Justice Whipple and Mr Justice Garnham rejected his case.
Before his illness Noel Conway was a keen skier, climber and cyclist
Mr Conway, who has been supported by campaign group Dignity in Dying, said he was "deeply disappointed" by the judgement and intends to appeal it.
"The experiences of those who are terminally ill need to be heard.
"As I approach the end of my life, I face unbearable suffering and the possibility of a traumatic, drawn-out death."
But Peter Saunders, from the Care Not Killing Alliance, said the decision was right "because of the concern that vulnerable people might be exploited or abused by those who have a financial or emotional interest".
It is not the first time the law has been challenged.
A case brought by Tony Nicklinson - who was paralysed after a stroke - was dismissed in 2014 by the Supreme Court, which stated it was important that Parliament debated the issues before any decision was made by the courts.
In 2015 MPs rejected proposals to allow assisted dying in England and Wales, in their first vote on the issue in almost 20 years.
Supporters of the current legislation say it exists to protect the weak and vulnerable from being exploited or coerced.
Mr Conway's case is different from Mr Nicklinson's in that he has a terminal illness and his legal team set out strict criteria and clear potential safeguards to protect vulnerable people from any abuse of the system. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41506155 |
Zameer Ghumra guilty of showing beheading video to child - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The trial heard Zameer Ghumra believed in a "very, very, very extreme" form of Islam. | Leicester | Zameer Ghumra denied disseminating "terrorist propaganda" in the form of a graphic Twitter video
A man who showed a beheading video to a child has been convicted of disseminating "terrorist propaganda".
Pharmacist Zameer Ghumra, of Leicester, showed the boy a graphic Twitter video on his mobile phone.
Nottingham Crown Court heard the 38-year-old also told two primary school-age youngsters "you had to kill" anyone who insulted Islam.
Ghumra, who will be sentenced on Friday, had claimed the two boys were making "a false allegation".
He was convicted of disseminating "terrorist propaganda" in the form of a graphic Twitter video on his mobile phone, between January 2013 and September 2014.
During the trial, prosecutor Simon Davis said Ghumra believed in a "very, very, very extreme" form of Islam.
Ghumra, of Haringworth Road, stood emotionless as the verdict was read out after two hours of jury deliberation.
The court heard he had been working as a pharmacist in Oundle, Northamptonshire and told a customer members of the so-called Islamic State were "not bad people, they're only defending themselves".
He "brainwashed" the two children, instructing them to not have non-Muslim friends and asking if they wanted to join the terrorist group or help recruit others to its ranks, the jury was told.
The older boy described being shown "horrible and disgusting" beheading videos, and asked Ghumra "how can you behead people?".
He said Ghumra replied: "If you truly believe in Allah, you can do it."
Ghumra was arrested in September 2015 but the beheading video was not found
In a police interview played to the court, the younger child said: "He put us on Twitter. He told us to follow whoever he followed. He was following ISIS and really bad people."
He also said Ghumra gave them business cards - which were shown to the jury - with the boy's names and email addresses alongside a picture of a rifle.
The jury heard he used a rented house to teach children about jihad and the boys were not allowed non-Muslim friends.
The boy said Mr Ghumra asked him to choose between going to Iraq or Syria, or staying in the UK and "manipulating" other people into supporting IS.
After Ghumra's arrest at Birmingham Airport in September 2015, a computer was seized showing 1,600 search results for terms including "survival knives" and "bushcraft".
But when police searched his home, neither the phone containing the beheading video or the video itself were recovered.
Sue Hemming, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Zameer Ghumra tried to brainwash impressionable children with this violent ideology by making one watch beheading videos and urging them both to adopt a hard-line religious outlook.
"The children were brave to give evidence and we would like to thank them for helping to secure this conviction of a dangerous man."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-41516693 |
'I didn't say no, but I regret that' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A 24-year-old teacher's account of teenage sexual activity prompts many to share their concerns. | Family & Education | A 24-year-old secondary school teacher told the BBC she was shocked by the stories she heard from teenage pupils about their sexual activity.
Her frank account prompted many readers to share their concerns.
Catherine: I'm shocked by what I read. The exact thing happened to my 15-year-old daughter two years ago. The teacher could be talking about her experience. It was devastating.
At the time she didn't realise what was happening to her. Two years on she does understand and she's very angry, but the damage is done.
I'd like you to thank the teacher for speaking so boldly about a serious problem that needs addressing.
Jayne: Wow. I'm in my 40s but so much of what you wrote hit home with me. No one taught me any of the things your teacher spoke about.
My mum worked late nights in a factory. I didn't know I could and should say no. I did think it made me feel special. But it was crumby and lousy and I'm left years later thinking an otherwise idyllic childhood was shadowed and scarred somehow by crappy encounters with crappy boys.
I feel shame for it - until I read your item - maybe I can be/should be kinder to my younger self. If only girls were taught their self worth. It's ok to say no.
Shaun: Interesting article. I've just found out that my 14-year-old daughter has gone on the pill and is having sex with a boy one year older than her. I've tried talking to her and asking whether she has been pressurised into having sex but she says she's not.
Kids (certainly my one) just want to be an adult but she's not, she's 14 and the media/friends/social network is dictating that she has to be sexually active. This is a con and she's now on the pill pumping hormones into her body unnecessarily.
As a father all I can do (and have done) is ask her whether she is being pressured, is this what she wants to do and is she happy. Explaining that I cannot condone it, but I accept it, and that I am present and here if/when she wants to talk to me.
Too many parents lose it with their daughters and push them away. Better to accept and be ready for the inevitable "cry on my shoulders" that I'll get when she realises she has made a mistake.
Jade: I was in the same position and I understand where she is coming from but I still went with it. I regretted it once I got home and told my parents so I could get it off my shoulders.
My parents helped me a lot. It is always good to tell someone if you regret something after. If it's going to be a weight on your shoulders, tell someone.
I didn't say no, but I regret that because I haven't seen or heard from him since it happened and I know why. He didn't love me, he was only using me.
Rachel: This teacher is three years younger than me and believes that 14-year-olds did not exhibit the behaviours she discusses in the article, when she was in school. This seems absolutely ridiculous to me.
When I was 14, there were boys saying these things, and worse, every day. There was a ridiculous amount of pressure to be clean-shaven in school - and I didn't even have any sexual partners.
Boys were always commenting on how girls looked; to the point where I was often ridiculed for having hair on my arms.
Porn definitely shaped boys' opinions then, and it shapes boys' opinions now. But the blame can't all go to porn. Girls "beauty" magazines are to blame as well for these absurd expectations.
Rachel, mother to two teenage boys: The article gives the impression that boys are predatory and incapable of understanding and regulating their own urges. I have found the opposite to be the case.
I talk to my boys about respect, the pressure young women are under and that their desires are normal and healthy, but they should not expect these young women to meet those desires.
They suffer the occasional feminist rant with good grace. I also leave a few art photography books, maybe a not too sexy underwear catalogue lying around. Images of happy healthy smiling girls, with pubic hair (of course).
It might appear a little creepy, but in my opinion, as parents it would be foolish to bury our heads in the sand. Things are definitely not like when we were growing up and porn has a lot to do with that.
Caitlin: This is so true and I cannot express how grateful I am to the teacher who wrote this article for starting this conversation.
I'm 25 now. However, this article reflects exactly how the situation was when I was 14, 15, 16 and clearly nothing has changed. The sad thing is that these feelings and attitudes stay with you well past your early teen years.
The quote "almost like a validation of their appearance and attractiveness - or they think it is" really rings true for me - not just at school but throughout my university life, and even in my early 20s I feel this has always been a huge reason I have felt the desire to sleep with men.
Never for my own pleasure, but to boost my self-esteem and to validate that I was attractive to the opposite sex. An incredibly sad truth and one that I was only able to admit to myself very recently and, after speaking with friends about it, one which seems to be true among many bright and attractive young women.
There really needs to be some radical reform in the way young people are taught about sex and what sex education is focused on. Otherwise I fear that this is something that we will see more and more within society.
Holly: I was particularly struck by the topic of coercion among teenagers.
I am very interested in this topic as I believe it is a monumental issue that exploded with the introduction of the internet, and actually massively affected me - among thousands of other girls - through my teenage years and even to this day.
I currently work in a school and I am thinking about how we can help the current generation of young girls so they are as protected as possible from negative situations as outlined in your article.
I believe so much more needs to be done in schools to educate girls about self-respect and empowerment and would like to develop a course that could be implemented in PSHE [personal, social, health and economic].
• None Girls go along with sex acts, says teacher | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41512300 |
Brazil nursery attack: Children set on fire in Minas Gerais - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A security guard sets fire to a childcare centre, killing four children and a teacher. | Latin America & Caribbean | Police said the security guard appears to have locked the door of the room before starting the fire
Four children and a teacher have been killed in Brazil after a security guard threw flammable liquid on them and set them on fire, officials say.
The man also set himself alight at the childcare centre in the remote town of Janauba in Minas Gerais state.
Video footage showed chaotic scenes outside, as parents cried and panicked as the news broke.
Twenty-five people, mostly children aged four and five, are being treated for burns in local hospitals.
Some of the patients may still need to be airlifted to a specialised burns unit in the state capital, Belo Horizonte.
Relatives and residents have gathered outside the local hospital in Janauba
The mother of one of the victims, four-year-old Juan Miguel Soares Silva, told O Globo newspaper that she had been considering enrolling him in another nursery prior to the attack.
"We are about to move to a different neighbourhood," Jane Kelly da Silva Soares said.
"I woke up early to drop him at the nursery. When I saw him again he was already dead in hospital."
The security guard has been identified by police as Damiao Soares dos Santos, 50. He died in hospital of his wounds.
The reasons for the attack are still being investigated.
Local media has reported that he was dismissed after returning from annual leave last month with an alleged health condition.
He went to the Gente Inocente childcare centre to hand in his medical certificate and then started the fire, O Globo newspaper reported.
President Michel Temer tweeted: "I'm very sorry about this tragedy involving children in Janauba. I want to express my sympathy to the families."
"This must be a very, very painful loss," he added.
The mayor of Janauba has declared seven days of mourning. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41515503 |
Las Vegas shooting: NRA urges new rules for gun 'bump-stocks' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US pro-gun group calls for a review of the legality of the devices after the Las Vegas massacre. | US & Canada | The National Rifle Association has called for "additional regulations" on bump-stocks, a rapid fire device used by the Las Vegas massacre gunman.
The group said: "Devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations."
Republicans have said they would consider banning the tool, despite years of resisting any gun control.
Lawmakers plan to hold hearings and consider a bill to outlaw the device.
The NRA called on Thursday for regulators to "immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law".
President Donald Trump later told reporters his administration would be looking into whether to ban them "in the next short period of time".
"In the aftermath of the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas, the American people are looking for answers as to how future tragedies can be prevented," NRA chiefs Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox wrote in the statement.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'It was the scariest moment in my life'
They criticised politicians who are calling for gun control, writing that "banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks".
The statement, the organisation's first since Sunday's attack in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and nearly 500 injured, noted that bump-stocks were approved by the Obama administration's Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
The NRA's strategy for responding to the Las Vegas mass-shooting is now coming into focus.
By recommending that an executive branch agency conduct a review of the legality of bump stock devices, the extremely influential gun rights lobby is seeking to direct efforts towards administrative, not legislative, solutions.
If Congress were to start drafting new laws, the process may be more difficult for the NRA to control. Democrats, who have been clamouring for the opportunity to debate new gun-control laws, could have their chance. Republican congressional leadership may try to clamp down on the proceedings, but there's a chance other proposals -like limits on magazine capacity, military-style rifle features and new background check requirements - could come up for consideration.
These types of provisions are popular with the public at large but vigorously opposed by the NRA and their supporters in Congress. It could make for difficult votes for some conservative legislators.
The White House and many congressional Republicans are pledging to have a "conversation" about the issue and "look into" the details. That, for the moment, is a far cry from action.
The NRA is now suggesting an alternative route.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, who spoke to reporters moments after the NRA statement was issued, said: "Members of both parties and multiple organisations are planning to take a look at bump-stocks. We welcome that and would like to be part of that conversation."
In the same statement the NRA urged Congress to pass their longstanding pet proposal to expand gun rights nationwide, so-called right-to-carry reciprocity.
The lobby group wants gun-owners with concealed-carry permits from one state to be allowed to take their weapons into any other US state, even if it has stricter firearms limits.
Another NRA policy priority, the deregulation of silencer attachments, appears to have stalled in Congress in the wake of the Las Vegas attack, after Republican sponsors withdrew their bill.
A bill to ban bump-stocks was submitted to the US Senate on Wednesday by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. After the Las Vegas attack in October 2017 the BBC looked at how US mass shootings are getting worse
A Republican-led version of the bill may be submitted for debate as early as Thursday, Florida Republican Carlos Curbelo told reporters.
He said there was growing bipartisan consensus and that his office had been "flooded" with calls from other lawmakers interested in the bill.
"I think we are on the verge of a breakthrough when it comes to sensible gun policy," he told reporters.
Bump-fire stocks, also called bump-stocks and slide-fire adapters, allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a high rate, similar to a machine gun.
But they can be obtained without the extensive background checks required of automatic weapons.
Ask survivors of the Las Vegas massacre about gun control and you may well hear the sound of silence.
The cultures of country music and shooting overlap and many concert-goers remain strong supporters of the right to bear arms.
"It's obviously kind of a touchy subject," singer and performer Krystal Goddard, 35, told me after recounting the horror of her escape from the gig.
"I think that guns are just a symptom of other things going on," she said, although she added that she did not understand why anyone needed to own an assault rifle.
There is some support among survivors for banning bump-stocks but there is also a realisation that doing so does not amount to serious gun control.
And all the while the killing continues. Fifty-nine people died here on Sunday.
By Thursday afternoon at least 87 more people had been shot and killed across the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That's a Las Vegas massacre every three days.
Stephen Paddock, the gunman in Las Vegas, had fixed the accessories to 12 rifles used in his attack.
Bump-stocks typically cost less than $200 (£150) and allow nearly 100 high-velocity bullets to be fired in just seven seconds, according to one company advert.
One of the most popular manufacturers of bump-stocks, Slide Fire, said they had sold out "due to extreme high demands" since the Las Vegas shooting. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41519815 |
Iraq forces retake town of Hawija from IS - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Troops are close to clearing one of the last two enclaves of so-called Islamic State in Iraq. | Middle East | Iraqi pro-government forces have made swift progress against IS in recent months
Iraq's prime minister says its military has retaken Hawija, the main town in one of the last two enclaves of so-called Islamic State in the country.
Haider al-Abadi told reporters that Hawija had been "liberated" as part of an operation launched two weeks ago.
A few villages east of the town are believed to still be under IS control.
Once they fall, IS will be left with only a stretch of the Euphrates river valley around al-Qaim, in the western desert near the border with Syria.
The jihadist group still controls large parts of the valley in the neighbouring Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, but it is under pressure there from Syrian pro-government forces and a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters.
Hawija, which lies 215km (135 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has been a bastion of Sunni Arab insurgents since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The town fell to IS in June 2014, when the jihadist group seized control of much of northern and western Iraq and proclaimed the creation of a "caliphate".
But it was surrounded and cut off from other IS-held territory more than a year ago, when government forces advanced north towards the second city of Mosul.
The offensive on Hawija began on 21 September and has involved army, police and special forces units, as well as the Shia-led paramilitary Popular Mobilisation.
With the help of US-led coalition air strikes and military advisers, they recaptured the town of Shirqat on the second day and then moved steadily south-eastwards.
On Wednesday, the operation's commander announced that troops had begun a major operation to "liberate" Hawija itself. They quickly breached jihadist defences in the north-western outskirts and stormed the town centre as night fell.
Troops used a bulldozer to push over an IS sign outside Hawija
Speaking at a press conference in Paris on Thursday morning after holding talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Mr Abadi called the recapture of Hawija a "victory not just of Iraq, but of the whole world".
But he said the victory had been achieved "despite the crises that some people have tried to drag us into" - an apparent reference to the referendum on independence held by the autonomous Kurdistan Region last week despite opposition from the government in Baghdad and the international community.
Mr Abadi wants the Kurdistan Regional Government to annul the result - more than 90% voted in favour of secession - or face punitive sanctions, international isolation and possible military intervention.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he did not want an armed confrontation with Kurds
He banned direct international flights to the region last week and on Tuesday called for a "joint administration" in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas that have been controlled by the Kurds since 2014 but claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
"We do not want an armed confrontation, we don't want clashes, but the federal authority must prevail and nobody can infringe on the federal authority," Mr Abadi said on Thursday.
"I call on the Peshmerga to remain an integral part of the Iraqi forces under the authority of the federal authorities, to guarantee the security of citizens so that we can rebuild these zones."
Mr Macron said France wanted "stability in Iraq" and called for Kurdish rights to be recognised "in the framework of the constitution". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41509085 |
Ashraf Ghani: Afghan president has 'worst job on Earth' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ashraf Ghani tells the BBC that Nato troops will be able to leave Afghanistan "within four years". | Asia | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ashraf Ghani: "Now in terms of management and leadership things are really falling into place"
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan makes no bones about the challenges facing his country when we sit down for an exclusive BBC interview in his palace in Kabul.
"This is the worst job on Earth," he tells me.
And it is true there are no shortage of tough issues facing Afghanistan. The most obvious is security. His country has been at war for almost 16 years now. Yet the Afghan president is surprisingly bullish about how long the country will continue to require the support of Nato.
Nato troops, he says, will be able to pull out "within four years".
Many military analysts will consider that optimistic given that it is only three years since the Nato combat mission ended and the Afghan military took responsibility for the battle against the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
About 14,000 Nato troops remain in the country to "train, advise and assist" Afghan forces. The aim is to strengthen them so they can take the battle to the Taliban.
The president says the Afghan National Army is prevailing against the Taliban
Mr Ghani doesn't deny it has been a difficult three years. "We were like 12-year-olds taking on the responsibility of a 30-year-old; but we really grew in the process. Now in terms of management and leadership things are really falling into place."
He continues: "Within four years, we think our security forces would be able to do the constitutional thing, which is the claim of legitimate monopoly of power."
He expects that some foreign troops will remain in Afghanistan after that period as part of the global fight against terrorism but, when I ask whether he is saying Afghan forces have turned the corner in the fight against the Taliban, there is no hesitation: "Yes," he says.
The Taliban, he says, had two strategic aims: to overthrow the government or to create two "political geographies", by which he means whole areas of the country where it holds sway.
"It has failed miserably in both of these aims," Mr Ghani believes.
Whether that is true is debatable. The latest figures from the US military show that the Afghan government controls less than two-thirds of the country. The rest is either controlled or contested by the Taliban and other militant groups.
What is more, last year Afghanistan lost some 10% of its entire fighting force: about 7,000 Afghan National Army soldiers were killed, another 12,000 were injured, and many thousands more deserted.
One reason the Afghan president is so confident is that he believes that the West does not really understand the real nature of the conflict. His government is not fighting a civil war, he argues, but a drug war.
The US has announced that some of its forces will stay in Afghanistan indefinitely
"Taliban is the largest exporters of heroin to the world. Why is the world not focusing on heroin? Is this an ideological war or is this a drug war?" asks Mr Ghani. "This criminalisation of the economy needs to be addressed."
So what is the ultimate aim, I ask.
"A peace agreement with the Taliban," he answers without a breath.
"The whole aim of the strategy is to provide the ground for political solution and a political solution is a negotiated solution. It's imperative that the people are given a chance to live their lives. We have been denied breathing space for 40 years, and in an immense tribute to our people for their resilience, any other state would've been completely broken."
Mr Ghani is full of praise for US President Donald Trump, who finally announced last month that his government was ready to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. Withdrawal, said Mr Trump, would be determined by "conditions on the ground and not arbitrary timetables".
The US president also said he would send a few thousand more troops to support the current Nato mission. In return, Mr Ghani says he plans a complete overhaul of the Afghan government, including redoubled efforts to crack down on corruption.
"The first principle of tackling corruption," he tells me, "is that you do not engage in it and you have the will to confront it. Whoever engages in corruption, regardless of affiliation, relationship etc, must be subject to the same law."
"A three-star general that I have promoted is now in prison because it was demonstrated that fuel was being stolen," he boasts. "One of the richest men in the country that people thought was untouchable is now in prison. You can ask anyone in the judiciary, I provide full political support."
The Afghan president's message is clear: "Self-reliance is not just words, but deeds."
And, with two years to go before a general election, he says he doesn't care if the price of his reform efforts is his presidency.
"If election is your goal, you're never going to engage in reform. Reform has to be your goal. Election is the means. You run for office in order to do something, not in order to perpetuate yourself. Politicians have become extraordinarily conservative, but our times require imagination and bold action."
• None Afghan president: 'Corner has been turned' Video, 00:01:40Afghan president: 'Corner has been turned' | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41502783 |
Glee actor Mark Salling admits possessing child sex abuse images - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Mark Salling faces between four and seven years in prison, according to US media reports. | Entertainment & Arts | Mark Salling (pictured in 2016) starred in the musical series Glee for six years
Former Glee actor Mark Salling has pleaded guilty to possession of images of child sex abuse.
Salling, 35, now faces between four and seven years in prison and has been ordered to pay about $50,000 (£38,000) to each victim.
The actor was arrested in 2015 after a tip off he was in possession of images of children being sexually abused.
Investigators eventually found thousands of images on his laptop and hard drive.
Salling was charged with two counts of receiving and possessing images of child sexual abuse in May 2016, and faced a possible 20 years behind bars.
But documents obtained by several outlets show he has entered into a plea deal with California's district attorney.
As part of the agreement, Salling will be subject to 20 years supervised release and will have strict restrictions placed on his contact with under-18s, according to celebrity website TMZ.
Salling played bad-boy football player Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the hit US show Glee from 2009 to 2015. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41507130 |
Baby sleep positioners dropped by shops after deaths warning - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | UK stores drop products after US regulators say they can cause suffocation and are linked to 12 deaths. | UK | The FDA's video about sleep positioners warns that "all can be dangerous"
Some UK retailers have stopped selling baby sleep positioners amid concerns over their safety.
A US health regulator said they "can cause suffocation that can lead to death" and have been linked to 12 infant deaths in the US.
The positioners, aimed at infants under six months, are intended to keep a baby in a specific position while sleeping.
Mothercare, John Lewis, eBay, Boots and Tesco have stopped sales, but they are still available from other retailers.
The Lullaby Trust, a cot death charity which advises the NHS, told BBC News that there are hundreds of baby sleep products on the market - and "parents assume that if something is for sale, it is safe to use".
Lullaby's Jenny Ward added: "The age-old question that hasn't really changed is: how do I get my baby to sleep?
"And if there's a product that says: 'This will help your baby to sleep', it's obviously something that some parents will want to find out more about."
But she said the Trust recommends a firm, flat, waterproof mattress, in a clear cot free of pillows, toys, bumpers and sleep positioners, because the evidence shows that this reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
The Trust does not recommend wedges or sleep positioners - regardless of other potential benefits.
If, for example, parents are worried about "flat head syndrome" from babies sleeping on their backs, there are techniques that can be used - such as supervised tummy time while they are awake - that will not increase the risk of SIDS.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Here's how to put your baby to sleep safely
The Food and Drug Administration in the US released a statement on Wednesday explaining that the items - often called "nests" or "anti-roll" products - have caused some babies to suffocate after rolling from their sides to their stomachs.
It said the two most common types of sleep positioners feature raised supports or pillows (called "bolsters") that are attached to each side of a mat, or a wedge to raise a baby's head.
The FDA first issued a safety warning seven years ago, saying "in light of the suffocation risk and the lack of evidence of any benefits, we are warning consumers to stop using these products".
There is no FDA equivalent in the UK, though the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is responsible for product safety policy, which is enforced by Trading Standards.
A BEIS spokesman told the BBC: "Manufacturers, distributors and retailers must ensure products meet the relevant safety requirements and be able to prove this is the case if asked, before the product is placed on the market."
Mothercare had been selling a sleep positioner for £39.99 but has told the BBC it is no longer for sale.
It came with a warning that it should not be used once a baby was able to turn around on their own.
Tesco, which sold sleep positioners on its website through a third party, said: "We have removed these products from our website as a precautionary measure."
John Lewis, which had one sleep positioner for sale, the Cocoonababy Sleep Positioner, also said it was removing it as a "precautionary measure".
The retailer said it was also removing the Cocoonababy Nest, a sleep pod, while it awaits "further advice and reassurance from the supplier".
A spokesman for eBay said the website would be banning the sale of the products, adding: "Our team will be informing sellers and removing any listings that contravene our policies."
Boots said it is removing the sale of all sleep positioner products "whilst we investigate further with our suppliers".
Sleep positioners are however still available on other websites, including Amazon, which said it would not be commenting on the issue.
A spokeswoman for Jo Jo Maman Bebe said it was still selling the products but was "investigating the issue as a matter of urgency with our suppliers".
The Lullaby Trust said there is no need to use any type of equipment or rolled up blankets to keep a baby in one position, unless parents have been advised to do so by a health professional for a specific medical condition.
It added: "Babies are at higher risk of SIDS if they have their heads covered, and some items added to a cot may increase the risk of head-covering and can also increase the risk of accidents.
"We recommend that while evidence on individual products is not widely available, parents do not take any chances and stick to scientifically proven safer sleep guidelines".
The charity has published a checklist to help new parents which can be found here.
Have you used a baby sleep positioner or any other sleep products? Let us know about your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41516239 |
Canada forgets to mention Jewish people at Holocaust memorial - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A plaque is removed from the memorial after officials realised it failed to mention Jewish people. | US & Canada | Prime Minister Trudeau attends the opening of the National Holocaust Monument
A plaque has been removed from Canada's Holocaust memorial because it neglected to mention Jewish people.
PM Justin Trudeau opened the National Holocaust Monument last week in the capital Ottawa.
The plaque commemorated the "millions of men, women and children murdered" but did not specifically mention Jewish people or anti-Semitism.
About six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, the largest group to be persecuted by the Nazis.
The omission was seized upon by MPs and senators of the opposition Conservative Party on Tuesday.
"If we are going to stamp out hatred toward Jews, it is important to get history right," said MP David Sweet.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Senator Linda Frum This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Heritage Minister Melanie Joly assured parliament that the plaque had been removed, and would be replaced with one that reflects "the horrors experienced by the Jewish people".
The omission on the plaque appears to have been an oversight - during the opening on 27 September both anti-Semitism and the effects of the Holocaust on the Jewish people were mentioned.
"Today we reaffirm our unshakeable commitment to fight anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination in all its forms, and we pay tribute to those who experienced the worst of humanity. We can honour them by fighting hatred with love, and seeking always to see ourselves in each other," Mr Trudeau said at the unveiling.
Until then, Canada had been the only Allied power to not have a national Holocaust memorial.
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump was admonished for failing to use the word Jew on Holocaust Remembrance Day. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41506700 |
Ex-GCHQ boss Brian Lord admits Truth or Dare assault - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Brian Lord placed his hand on a female party guest's knee for "two to three" minutes, a court heard. | Gloucestershire | A former GCHQ boss has admitted assaulting a female dinner guest during a "sexualised" Truth or Dare-style party game.
Brian Lord OBE, the ex-deputy director for intelligence and cyber operations at the Cheltenham spy base, denied sexually assaulting the woman by putting his hand on her knee.
Prosecutors instead proceeded with a charge of assault, which Lord admitted.
He was ordered to pay the woman £100 compensation and £200 costs.
The judge in the case also gave him a conditional discharge.
The court heard Lord, 56, who now works in the private sector, and his partner, Natasha Marshall, attended a colleague's dinner party in Churchdown, near Gloucester, on 26 November 2016.
Prosecutor Robert Duvall said: "During some party games the defendant placed his hand on the lady's knee.
"It was there for a significant time and caused her embarrassment and awkwardness."
Mr Duvall said the woman had not felt able to express her concern but when Lord's partner left the table, she followed her to the kitchen.
He said Lord was "apologetic and left without question" when the issue was raised.
"He was emphatic that his actions, however unwise, were not sexual in nature."
Rosemary Collins, defending, said everybody at the party had been drinking and Lord accepted he had put his hand on the woman's knee for "two to three minutes".
She said: "This was during the course of party games.
"They were sexualised party games such as 'Did you ever...?', 'Have you ever...?' that sort of thing.
"He intended no disrespect to her at all and accepts it was something that was stupid, done in drink.
"He thought he was getting on rather well with the complainant."
She added: "He has never been in trouble before.
"He is a family man, it is such a shame that it has come to this."
Judge Michael Cullum told Lord: "Your behaviour crossed the line to criminal behaviour, as a result of which you have lost your good name and your good character which, I know, you will have held dear."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-41503393 |
Kazuo Ishiguro keeps calm amid Nobel Prize frenzy - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The author is surprised but unruffled amid the whirlwind of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. | Entertainment & Arts | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"How should a Nobel laureate dress?" asked Kazuo Ishiguro, who, 40 minutes earlier, had found out he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
To say the news was unexpected is an understatement. He literally couldn't believe it.
Until, that was, his phone began to ring constantly, an orderly queue of TV crews started to form outside his front door ("how do they all know where I live?"), and his publishers dispatched a top team to his house as back-up.
This was not fake news. This was delightful, surprising news. Maybe there were others who should have won instead, he wondered. "But that is the nature of prizes. They are a lottery."
While chaos reigned around him, he was calm, assured and thoughtful, talking (after nipping upstairs to fetch a smart jacket for our interview) about his belief in the power of stories and how those that he wrote would often explore wasted lives and opportunities.
"I've always had a faith that it should be possible, if you tell stories in a certain way, to transcend barriers of race, class and ethnicity."
For me, he is one of the great living writers working in any language. All writers can tell stories. Ishiguro tells stories on another level.
He places the reader in some sort of alternative reality - which might be the future, it might be the present, it might be the past. They feel like places that are whole and real, but you don't know them.
They're weird and not necessarily happy places. But they're places that you can inhabit and relate to, and you become deeply involved with the characters. That's the writer's job - he just does it better than most.
Kazuo Ishiguro held an audience with reporters in his garden
Growing up in England in a Japanese household was crucial to his writing, he says, enabling him to see things from a different perspective to many of his British peers.
It is most obvious in the slightly detached nature of many of his narrators, which he explains as coming from "a long tradition in Japanese art towards a surface calm and surface restraint. There is a felling emotions can feel more intense if they are held down to the surface level".
There was nothing superficial about his emotions when we met earlier today. He was chuffed to bits, and rightly so.
Kazuo Ishiguro is worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. Follow my Twitter feed: @WillGompertzBBC If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41517882 |
The community hoping to buy their island - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Emma Jane Kirby visits the local community on Ulva who are hoping to raise the money to buy the Scottish island | UK | The 4,500-acre (seven-sq-mile) Inner Hebridean island of Ulva was put up for sale over the summer
A beautiful, remote Scottish island is up for sale - but can the local community raise the money to buy it for themselves? Emma Jane Kirby writes from Ulva.
The problem with Ulva is that once you get on to the 4,500-acre (seven-sq-mile) Inner Hebridean island, you really don't ever want to get off it.
The unexpected autumn sunshine is showcasing the rusty browns and mossy greens of its landscape as a true bucolic idyll, and the dark sea, which follows the contours of its dramatic coastline, inspires childish thoughts of escape and adventure.
Donald Munro, the island's ferryman tugs the brim of his hat down a little over his eyes when I tell him this.
"And how many others feel the way you do?" he smiles. "How many others with £4.25m to spend? But this is our home... we have roots here."
For Donald Munro, the island's ferryman, Ulva is his home
Over the summer, Ulva was put up for sale.
Billed as the ultimate private getaway, the island has drawn attention from wealthy individuals from all over the world.
Rumours flip and fly across the narrow strait of water that separates it from the Isle of Mull - someone has heard a sheikh is keen, another fears Russian oligarchs, there are whispers of a professional footballer wanting his very own millionaire's playground.
"It's not really about who the buyer is," explains my tour guide for the day, John Addy, who lives on neighbouring Mull.
"It's about what that buyer wants to do with this island. The buyer could really want to regenerate this island; that would be great - or the buyer could just want it as a plaything. That's why we are putting in a bid for a community buyout - to protect the people from an absentee landlord."
John Addy has put in a bid for a community buyout of Ulva and hopes to develop and repopulate the island
John is a director of the North West Mull Community Woodland Company Ltd, a community body, affectionately known as The Woodies, which has applied to the Scottish government to exercise the community right to buy, created by the land reform legislation, which gives communities the opportunity to try to buy land themselves if it comes up for sale.
The Woodies, set up in 2006, have already successfully taken over acres of forests on Mull from the Forestry Commission Scotland.
In Ulva they have plans to repopulate the island by increasing economic activity and the housing stock, building new affordable homes and developing farming, fishing, and even crofting.
"Just look at the potential here," says John, as we stop in front of an information board that boasts of the island's red deer, sea eagles, otters and dolphins.
The community group would like to transform derelict cottages into hostels and B&Bs
"Can't you just imagine the tourism potential if we won our bid and were allowed to develop and restore and repopulate this place?"
We walk past some rundown farm buildings and some fairytale but derelict cottages the community group would like to transform into hostels and B&Bs.
At the moment, wild camping is the only way to stay overnight as a visitor on the island.
"All that would change with the community buyout," says John. "We're even thinking of electric cars."
Two hundred years ago, more than 500 people lived here. Today, only six call Ulva their home. They rent their homes from the current owner, Jamie Howard, who is resident on the island and whose family have owned Ulva for over 70 years.
If The Woodies don't succeed in their community buyout, and the island is put back on the market for private sale, the residents fear that a new owner may not want tenants on their land.
Barry George has been an Ulva resident for 21 years but fears a new owner could shut the island down
"I have nowhere else to go," says Barry George as he harvests vegetables from his beautiful island garden.
Barry, who used to work on the local fish farms, has been an Ulva resident for 21 years.
"This is all I've got," he says. "A new owner could shut our island down - when you buy the island, you also buy the piers - so we could be cut off and told to go."
It is possible that the Scottish government could refuse to consider North West Mull Community Woodland Company's buyout bid as the application came in late, but for now The Woodies' action has caused the private sale to be put on hold.
If the bid is registered, the group would then have about eight months to come up with a viable economic plan, and the necessary funding, to meet whatever eventual sale price was set by the government.
Ulva is not the first Scottish island to attempt a community buyout - in 1997, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust successfully took ownership of the Isle of Eigg, meeting the sale price of £1.5m through a series of grants and a major fundraising campaign.
John Addy is confident the money needed to buy Ulva could also be raised through grants and crowdfunding.
The fifth Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, known as the Father of Australia, was an Ulva man, and there have already been encouraging noises from down under.
The owner of this seafood cafe believes the community are the best people to run Ulva
As she opens oysters for the hungry day-trippers at the thriving seafood cafe she runs with her sister-in-law, 30-year-old Rebecca Munro tells me that living on Ulva with her fisherman husband and bringing up their two young children here is "exceptionally special".
Since the announcement that the island was up for sale however, she admits to sleepless nights.
Rebecca is passionate about the community buyout and adamant that if Ulva was community-owned, it would be easy to repopulate the island because people would feel secure.
"This is about securing opportunities and our future," she says, wiping lemon juice from her hands on to her apron.
"Surely it's obvious that the community are the best people to run this place.
"Why would the people who live here and care about this place not be the best placed people to take over?"
As he ferries me back to Mull in his small boat, Rebecca's father-in-law Donald waves away my question about what would happen to his livelihood if the community buyout failed and a new owner decided to shut access to Ulva.
"Let's not talk about that," he says gruffly. He turns his head to look at Ulva's retreating and stunning coastline.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" he says. "The girls will be busy in the cafe." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41484213 |
Theresa May speech prank prompts security review - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Simon Brodkin had "legitimate accreditation" for the event where he handed Theresa May a P45. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A prankster interrupted the prime minister during her speech
Security at future Conservative Party conferences will be reviewed after a prankster got close enough to the prime minister to hand her a P45.
Comedian Simon Brodkin - also known as his TV persona Lee Nelson - handed the sheet of paper to Theresa May in the middle of her speech.
He was arrested by Greater Manchester Police to prevent a breach of the peace, but later released.
The force said he had "legitimate accreditation" to attend the event.
Brodkin approached the podium as the PM was giving her address to close the conference.
He held piece of paper up to Mrs May, which she took amid a sea of photographers.
He allegedly told her that the P45 was from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, before giving her cabinet colleague a thumbs up.
Brodkin was then led out of the conference hall to angry shouts from party members.
The paper, a faked P45, was later discovered on the floor of the hall.
After being released by police, the comedian tweeted Mr Johnson.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Simon Brodkin This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Brodkin has a reputation for carrying out pranks at big public events.
Political moves by the comedian include throwing US dollar bills over former Fifa president Sepp Blatter during the football organisation's bidding scandal.
He was also found handing out Nazi golf balls at a Donald Trump speech.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UK prankster Simon Brodkin was behind the protest at the news conference
During Glastonbury Festival in 2015, he ran on to the stage as Kanye West was performing.
He pulled a similar stunt on The X Factor in 2014 as boy band Stereo Kicks were playing.
The incident split opinion online. Some praised the prank, including fellow comedian Russell Kane who tweeted that he was an "absolute ledge".
But Conservative MP George Freeman, head of the prime minister's policy board, said: "There should be some very serious questions - that could have been a terrorist."
He added that "questions will be asked about how he was allowed to get that close".
Even opposition MPs stepped in, with Labour's Angela Eagle tweeting that whilst the incident was "harmless", there were "worrying questions about her security".
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Angela Rayner MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Shaun Hinds, chief executive of Manchester Central - where the conference was being held - said: "At the time of the disturbance, conference security protocols were immediately enacted resulting in the individual being quickly ejected from the venue and handed over to [police]."
A Conservative spokesman added: "In light of the arrest during the prime minister's speech we are working with the police to review the accreditation process and security arrangements for party conference." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41503374 |
US couple stole goods worth $1.2m from Amazon - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A couple in Indiana have admitted stealing goods valued at $1.2m by claiming products were damaged in the post. | Technology | A couple in Indiana stole $1.2m from Amazon by repeatedly claiming that packages had arrived damaged
A couple in the US have admitted stealing goods from Amazon valued at more than $1.2m (£910,000) by repeatedly pretending that items they ordered were damaged in the post.
Erin Joseph Finan, 38, and Leah Jeanette Finan, 37, from Indiana, have pleaded guilty to postal fraud and money laundering.
The couple face fines of up to $500,000, as well as prison sentences of up to 20 years.
They will be sentenced on 9 November.
According to local newspaper the Muncie Star Press, the Finans used hundreds of false online identities to order popular tech gadgets from Amazon, including Samsung smartwatches, GoPro cameras and Xbox video game consoles.
The couple then contacted Amazon's customer service department to report that the items had arrived damaged or were not working, and Amazon sent out replacement products for free.
The Finans then sold the merchandise on to another individual, who resold the products to an unnamed firm based in New York.
The couple and their accomplice were eventually caught after a joint investigation conducted by the US Postal Inspection Service, Indiana State Police and the Internal Revenue Service. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41484402 |
Yosemite park rock fall: Tributes to 'hero' climber - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The family of a climber who died shielding his wife from a rock fall pay tribute to their "hero". | Wales | Mr Foster, who moved to Cardiff for university, was a sales representative for an outdoor clothing firm
The family of a climber from Wales killed shielding his wife from a rock fall in California have said he will "always be our hero" for saving her.
Andrew Foster, 32, originally from Cheltenham, died when rocks fell from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park on 27 September.
His wife Lucy, 28, who was seriously injured and is recovering in hospital, was protected by her husband's body.
Mr Foster's family said they were so proud of their "brave boy".
In a statement, they said they wake up every morning hoping his death had been a "bad dream".
"As has already been reported, Andrew died whilst shielding Lucy and, indeed, we understand another climber witnessed him running back to the rock fall to protect Lucy," his family said.
"They loved each other dearly and, while our loss is indescribable, we are so proud of our brave boy in saving Lucy; he will always be our hero."
The couple got engaged during a skiing holiday
Mrs Foster's family said he was "the man of her dreams".
"We take some comfort from the fact that Andy's last act of love saved Lucy's life. Both families are supporting each other at this incredibly difficult time of loss and sadness," they said.
The families said she was stable in hospital and the friends the couple had been climbing with had been at her hospital bedside.
They said they were now focused on getting his body back to the UK.
The El Capitan rock formation is the world's largest granite monolith and one of the best-known landmarks in Yosemite.
The pair, found with climbing equipment, are believed to have been scouting out the ascent from a trail when a "sheet" of granite plummeted from a height of 200m (656ft).
Mr Foster proposed to his wife in the Alps in 2015 and the couple married last year.
He went to Cleeve School in Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire, before going to Cardiff University in 2003 to study engineering.
In 2006, he began working for the Cardiff-based outdoor activity shop Up and Under, before joining the international company Patagonia.
Mrs Foster is originally from Staffordshire and went to school in Market Drayton, Shropshire. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41510371 |
Carles Puigdemont: The man who wants to break up Spain - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Catalonia's sacked President, Carles Puigdemont, has bet everything on a split from Spain. | Europe | Mr Puigdemont is not the first Catalan leader forced to leave the region
Catalonia's sacked President Carles Puigdemont has spearheaded the region's peaceful drive for independence from Spain.
In defiance of the law and Spain's constitution, he has pushed forward in the hope of international recognition.
But his zeal for secession has put him on a collision course with Spain's authorities, which outlawed the independence referendum held in Catalonia on 1 October.
But the result on 21 December was bad news for Madrid. The separatists won a slim majority, even though a pro-unity party came top.
"[Rajoy] has only demonstrated a greater mobilisation of Catalans, greater votes," Mr Puigdemont said, calling for negotiations with the Spanish PM.
He was speaking in Brussels, having fled there with four ministers after declaring independence.
The election result proved that his campaigning via videolink from Brussels had worked.
But the village baker's son from Girona faces the weight of Spanish law if he returns to Spain. The separatist leaders are accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
Born in Amer in 1962, Carles Puigdemont grew up under the dictatorship of Gen Francisco Franco and was taught in Spanish at a Church-run boarding school, but spoke Catalan at home like others of his generation.
Joan Matamala, a few years his senior at the school, remembers the boy everyone got on with, even the older pupils.
Bookseller Joan Matamala went to school with Carles Puigdemont
Mr Matamala runs a bookshop, Les Voltes, that has been promoting Catalan language and culture in Girona for 50 years.
The young Mr Puigdemont did not come over as a natural leader at the time, but he was someone you did not forget, he says.
"Despite the difference in age, he was a role model for others," Mr Matamala remembers.
As a young man, Mr Puigdemont had a passion for his native tongue, going on to study Catalan philology at the local university and polishing colleagues' copy when he first found work at the city's newspapers.
Miquel Riera worked with him, often late into the night, at the fiercely pro-independence paper now known as El Punt Avui.
Miquel Riera worked with Carles Puigdemont at the pro-independence newspaper now known as El Punt Avui
"Right from the start he was very interested in new technology and the internet," says Mr Riera. This may have fed Mr Puigdemont's awareness of social media, which was crucial in promoting the referendum campaign.
"He's a man who makes friends easily and remembers them," says Mr Riera, whose 25-year-old son, he says, was bruised on the chest by a police rifle butt at a polling station at the 1 October referendum.
Mr Puigdemont served as mayor of Girona from 2011 until 2016 when he was elected regional president of Catalonia.
There is no denying his star appeal among his supporters, who clamour to take selfies with him at rallies and avidly follow his social media accounts, which he curates himself.
"Mr Puigdemont has been absolutely key to bringing Catalonia to where we are now," said Montse Daban, international chairperson of the Catalan National Assembly, a grassroots pro-independence movement.
"An absolute and positive surprise for Catalan citizens" - Montse Daban describing the impact of Puigdemont
But in the eyes of Spain's government, the Catalan leader has ruthlessly created a crisis, burning all the bridges in order to make a unilateral declaration of independence.
"Democracy is not about voting - there are referenda in dictatorships too," a Madrid government source told the BBC. "Only when you vote with guarantees according to the law is it a democracy."
Images of violence at the polling stations in October's banned referendum caused an international outcry.
But the source said this was "150% part of Puigdemont's plan".
"It's unfortunate because it was a trap. There's no doubt it looks bad for the Spanish government."
Mr Puigdemont talks the language of independence in a way his more cautious predecessor, Artur Mas, did not during the dry-run referendum of 2014, which was also banned by Madrid.
Speaking to the BBC after the 1 October referendum, Mr Puigdemont said: "I think we've won the right to be heard, but what I find harder to understand is this indifference - or absolute lack of interest - in understanding what is happening here. They've never wanted to listen to us.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police were filmed violently tackling voters and appearing to pull a woman by her hair
"How can we explain to the world that Europe is a paradise of democracy if we hit old women and people who've done nothing wrong? This is not acceptable. We haven't seen such a disproportionate and brutal use of force since the death of the dictator Franco."
He calls for mediation - something the Spanish government says is unacceptable.
A Madrid source dismissed the idea, telling the BBC it would be "mediation between the Spanish government and part of the Spanish state".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
From Brussels, Mr Puigdemont has watched as his Catalan allies back home have been placed in Spanish custody to face trial.
He has been mocked by some for not going to Madrid along with them and placing himself in the hands of Spanish justice.
One cartoon apparently being circulated on the Whatsapp messaging app shows him, with his distinctive mop of hair and glasses, hiding out in a box of Belgian chocolates.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Pascal Hansens This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
But Mr Puigdemont told Belgian TV he was not hiding from "real justice" but from the "clearly politicised" Spanish legal system.
Last year Spain issued then dropped European arrest warrants against him and his four colleagues in Belgium.
But he was arrested in Germany on 25 March while travelling back to Brussels from a conference in Finland. The European arrest warrant against him had been reissued two days earlier, apparently taking him by surprise.
Germany must now decide whether to extradite him to Spain.
Meanwhile, the man from Girona is keeping the cause he holds so dear, Catalan independence, squarely on the doorstep of the European Union. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41508660 |
Royal Mail staff set to strike over pay and pensions - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Royal Mail threatens legal action in a bid to stop 110,000 workers walking out on 19 October. | Business | Royal Mail workers are set to strike for 48 hours from 19 October in a dispute over pensions, pay and jobs.
The Communication Workers Union said it had told the Royal Mail Group that 111,000 postal workers will walk out.
The industrial action follows the 89.1% vote in favour of a strike announced by the union on Thursday.
Royal Mail said it will use all legal options, including applying for a High Court injunction, to prevent industrial action.
The FTSE 250-listed company called for further talks with the CWU, adding: "We believe any strike action before the dispute resolution procedures have been followed would be unlawful."
The union said the company's move to replace the pension scheme meant its members would lose up to a third of their retirement entitlements.
CWU general secretary Dave Ward said it was a "watershed dispute" that would determine the future of the postal service.
"We are determined to take whatever steps are necessary to deliver an agreement that will protect and enhance our member's terms and conditions and improve the range of services on offer to customers," he said.
The CWU vote, which had a 73.7% turnout, is the first major ballot since the introduction of the Trade Union Act, which requires a 50% turnout.
The union did not rule out further strike action in addition to the 48-hour walkout later this month.
CWU deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger said it had been in negotiations with the company for 18 months.
"Royal Mail Group management have clearly moved away from the spirit and intent of our agreements and the empty promises of privatisation, and have suffered a huge vote of no confidence from their employees and CWU members as a consequence," he said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41516975 |
Newspaper headlines: May 'on final warning after speech shambles' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Theresa May's "disastrous" Conservative conference speech takes centre stage on the front pages. | The Papers | The Huffpost UK website chooses an image of the prime minister swigging water to control her cough, alongside the headline "The Cough Drop".
Its executive editor of politics, Paul Waugh, describes how "the PM's dogged persistence won her sympathy from her own tribe" but warns that she "is now in danger of being neither liked, feared nor respected, merely pitied".
Jason Beattie, in the Daily Mirror, warns that a position that "now relies on sympathy, not respect" is no way to win votes, adding that "the Tories are lumbered with supporting an ill-fated leader whose speech will become a metaphor for a party in poor health and struggling to find its voice".
The Sun pokes fun at the party slogan sliding off the backdrop behind her, employing the headline "things can only get letter".
Its editorial takes the view that, like the crumbling catchphrase, "the entire party has come unstuck".
The Times says Tory sources blamed the repeated standing ovations - led by ministers in an attempt to let her recover her voice - for loosening the magnets that were securing the motto on the wall.
Politics.co.uk editor Ian Dunt likens the "crescendo" of applause to "a parent clapping their child when he falls over during the school play".
The Daily Telegraph quotes former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell and a professional vocal coach as criticising Theresa May for failing to seek help to preserve her voice ahead of the speech.
Her former chief of staff, Nick Timothy, tells the paper the blame for a disastrous week lies with the whole government.
While Conservative former cabinet minister Lord Tebbit says she has been let down by advisers "lacking in experience and ability".
"Carry On Conference" is the headline for the Independent, which believes her performance "was so bad, the next P45 may not be a comic's prank".
It points out the "inevitable parallels" with the Tory conference address given in 2003 by Iain Duncan Smith who was forced to stand down as leader three weeks later.
The Daily Star claims Boris Johnson was "smirking" as the prime minister stumbled along.
Jenni Russell, in the Times, agrees that Mr Johnson "was the only cabinet minister looking alert and cheerful".
But she reports that support for him among his colleagues is evaporating amid an "icy realism that, severe as the party's problems are, Boris's fantasies are not the answer".
One Conservative MP tells the Financial Times that Mrs May's critics have already begun plotting her demise.
But the paper adds that most MPs fear a chaotic leadership contest if she is ousted before Brexit.
Politico reflects on reporting of the speech across Europe with Italy's La Repubblica describing it as an "odyssey", Spain's El Pais regarding her as "tiptoeing around Brexit" in an "anguished" address and Le Figaro of France referring to her "arriving weakened and ending up on her knees". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41507073 |
Army sergeant 'removed parachute parts in bid to kill wife' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Victoria Cilliers survived falling from 4,000ft after both of her parachutes failed, a court hears. | Wiltshire | An Army sergeant tried to kill his wife by removing parts of her parachute, causing her to spin thousands of feet to the ground, a court has heard.
Emile Cilliers, 37, is accused of two counts of attempted murder of Victoria Cilliers who survived the jump on 5 April 2015.
Mr Cilliers, who denies all charges, wanted to leave his wife for a lover he had met on Tinder, prosecutors said.
It is also claimed that just days before the jump, on 29 March 2015, the defendant tried to kill Ms Cilliers, 40, by deliberately causing a gas leak in the family home while he stayed away.
Police evidence showed the kitchen cupboard where the gas leak occurred (large arrow)
Prosecutor Michael Bowes QC said that on the night of the gas leak Mr Cilliers had left his wife at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire, to stay at his Army barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire.
He said the following morning Ms Cilliers contacted her husband complaining of a gas smell coming from a kitchen cupboard next to the oven.
She noticed dried blood on the fitting which was later found to be a full DNA match to her husband, the court was told.
The jury was told the Royal Army Physical Training Corps sergeant lied to his lover, Stefanie Glover, that he was leaving his wife because she was having an affair and he was not the father of one of their children.
Mr Bowes QC said Mr Cilliers was also having an affair with his ex-wife Carly Cilliers.
He told the court the defendant had debts of £22,000 and believed he would receive a £120,000 life insurance payout on his wife's death.
Emile Cilliers made up lies about his wife having an affair, the court heard
Mr Bowes QC said Ms Cilliers was a highly experienced parachutist and instructor but when she jumped out of the plane 4,000ft (1,200m) above Netheravon Airfield in Wiltshire "both her main parachute and her reserve parachute failed".
"Those attending at the scene expected to find her dead, although she was badly injured, almost miraculously she survived the fall.
"Those at the scene immediately realised that something was seriously wrong with her reserve parachute, two vital pieces of equipment which fasten the parachute harness were missing," he said.
Police picture of the gas pipe which Sgt Cilliers allegedly tampered with
The day before the failed jump the couple had visited Netheravon together, the court heard.
While there Mr Cilliers collected a hire parachute for his wife and took it into the men's toilets at the base, where he is alleged to have tampered with it.
Mr Bowes QC said: "It's heavy, it's bulky, there is absolutely no reason to take it in there at all.
"The weather was so poor that afternoon that Victoria couldn't jump, the cloud base was too low."
The court heard that Mr Cilliers then arranged to keep the equipment overnight in his wife's locker, a move that was against normal procedure.
He added that at the time of the murder attempts, Mr Cilliers was leaving his wife and treated her with "callousness and contempt".
The third allegation, which Mr Cilliers also denies, is damaging a gas fitting, reckless to endangerment of life.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-41499604 |
100 Women: Where are the female Nobel Prize winners? - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 2017 Nobel prizes for the sciences have all been announced, but many in the scientific community are pointing out the lack of female laureates. | Science & Environment | The 2017 Nobel season is still under way, with the prizes for peace, and economics yet to be announced.
But for the sciences, this year's work is done and many in the scientific community are noticing some similarities about the winners.
In the case of physics, the winning discovery had already been making global headlines.
The prize was shared by three researchers for the groundbreaking 2015 detection of gravitational waves.
For chemistry, the committee recognised the less publicised work of developing a new microscopy technique, which the Nobel committee said had "moved biochemistry into a new era".
For physiology or medicine, a team who uncovered a better understanding our body clocks was honoured.
However, the science community was quick to notice that this year's laureates all had one thing in common.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Benjamin Saunders This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Ed Yong This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Raychelle Burks This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we're challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today - the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport.
With your help, they'll be coming up with real-life solutions and we want you to get involved with your ideas. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women
With prizes often awarded years, or even decades, after the discoveries that merit them, it was an opportunity for celebration for the teams involved.
The Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, said the three physicists honoured by the Nobel Committee were "outstanding individuals whose contributions were distinctive and complementary".
Yet despite being excited by the wider recognition of this groundbreaking research, it is clear that many scientists feel a change is necessary.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Becky Douglas This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Bryan Gaensler This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 6 by Divya M. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Only 17 women have been awarded a Nobel prize in the three science categories since the awards' inception in 1901. There have been no black science laureates.
Of the 206 physics laureates recognised, two have been women - Marie Curie (1903) and Maria Goeppert Mayer (1963).
There are more men named Robert on the list of previous chemistry winners than there are female laureates.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 7 by Alexis Verger This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Some researchers on Twitter took issue with the current criteria for awarding the Nobel. Each prize cannot be shared by more than three people, laureates are not nominated posthumously, and nomination lists are kept confidential for 50 years.
Vera Rubin, Lise Meitner and Jocelyn Bell Burnell were all cited as worthy potential recipients of a prize in previous years.
Rubin's death in 2016 means that her work on dark matter, believed to occupy most of the mass in the universe, is now ineligible for recognition.
Meitner's long-term collaborator Otto Hahn was awarded the chemistry prize for nuclear fission in 1944, which she did not share, despite being nominated in previous and subsequent years.
Burnell and Chien-Shiung Wu, both physicists, also saw their colleagues win for research they had worked on, but were not included.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 8 by Mika McKinnon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 9 by Rod Van Meter This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Given the lifelong prestige of becoming a Nobel laureate, the prize is a significant boost to any researcher's career. The acclaim can legitimise a life's work, and yield international notoriety in a field where funding is highly competitive.
Yet for women in physics and chemistry, there are few forerunners to aspire to. Medicine does only slightly better, with 12 female laureates.
Other prizes such as literature often fare better in terms of gender equality, with previous winners including Alice Munroe, Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison.
This year the literature prize has gone to a Japanese-British male author - Kazuo Ishiguro.
While equality initiatives like Athena Swan and organisations like Stemettes work to promote and encourage women, the Nobels remain the most prominent glass ceiling in the world of science.
As part of this year's 100 Women Challenge, a team in Silicon Valley, where women hold just one in 10 senior positions, will be looking at ways to tackle the glass ceiling.
They reveal their results on Friday 6 October. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41513261 |
Sputnik: How the Soviet Union spun the satellite launch - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | For the Soviet Union, the launch of the satellite was a triumph not just for science. but socialism. | Science & Environment | The launch of Sputnik, the first man-made satellite, 60 years ago kicked off the space race between the Soviet Union and America.
The satellite was a success not just in terms of scientific advancement but in terms of providing a propaganda opportunity for the socialist state.
Early reports detailed a wealth of technical information about the launch of the "Earth satellite", such was the general interest in it.
One news correspondent described seeing the satellite appear "like a flashing spark over the horizon" and the Communist Party's main newspaper, Pravda, wrote that "all the world heard the announcement of the launching of the artificial moon".
But reports by the state news agency Tass also mentioned its orbital velocity of about 8km a second, the fact that it was travelling at up to 900km above the surface of the earth, and that Sputnik was making one complete revolution in an hour and 35 minutes.
Sputnik was just 58cm in diameter and weighed 84kg
Russian media also detailed the frequencies and wavelengths on which Sputnik was emitting regular beeps, saying its transmitters were powerful enough for amateur radio operators to be able to receive them.
Later, radio broadcasts to America touted the fact that the Soviet magazine Radio was offering "special prizes" for radio hams who submitted reports of the signals.
Special broadcasts listed the places and times the satellite was expected to pass over.
BBC Monitoring, a unit of the World Service, recorded Soviet broadcasts about Sputnik's movements
The day after its launch, Tass and Russian radio reported world reaction to it, noting how major media outlets like AFP, the Daily Mail and the BBC had reported it and how "some US radio stations interrupted their programmes in order to broadcast the satellite's signals".
On Soviet radio, various scientists, such as jet propulsion expert Professor Kirill Stanyukovich, called it "a great victory not only for Soviet science but also for the Soviet order".
"I think that the very fact that this has been achieved in our socialist country must not be regarded as mere chance," another academic told listeners. "That we are not as rich as America is no secret to us. Why then has it happened that we have been capable of solving these most advanced and difficult scientific and technical problems ahead of Americans?"
Several digs at America made their way into reports.
"For 40 years they closed their eyes to the enormous successes of Soviet industry and agriculture," one radio broadcast said. "Now the most reactionary personalities in the USA are trying to raise some doubts about the tremendous value and great significance of this new success of Soviet science."
BBC Monitoring, a unit of the World Service which monitored Soviet broadcasts at the time, notes that "Leading officials were quoted by Tass as showing reluctance to accept the news; and Moscow radio told the home audience on the 7th that the United States Information Agency had adopted a policy of minimising the military and scientific significance of the achievement. US scientists, on the other hand, were given as expressing pleased congratulations."
Komsomolskaya Pravda described Sputnik as "the victory of Soviet power"
Today, the name Sputnik is also associated with an international news agency, which has a presence on the web and radio, and is one of the main media outlets through which Russia influences global opinion.
Sputnik tends to seek audiences on the political margins - whether it's supporters of the Front National in France, or the Democrat Bernie Sanders in the US.
Its political stances include the idea that NATO is a menace to world peace, criticism of what it sees as US hegemony, and the general decadence of Western democracies and their institutions, especially in the face of the challenges posed by Islamist terrorism and migration into Europe.
Sputnik is still potent force for Russian influence, just in a different sort of space now.
See also: The team that tracked Sputnik - and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41498083 |
Sir Edward Heath 'would have been questioned' over abuse claims - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | One allegation claims the former PM raped and indecently assaulted an 11-year-old boy, police say. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Sir Edward Heath would have been questioned over sex abuse claims if he was alive when they came to light, police have said.
Wiltshire Police launched Operation Conifer in 2015 when the former PM was accused of historical child sex abuse.
The Conservative politician would have been interviewed under caution over seven claims, including the alleged rape of an 11-year-old, they said.
No inference of guilt should be drawn from this, police stressed.
The allegations include one of rape of a male under 16, three of indecent assault on a male under 16, four of indecent assault on a male under 14, and two of indecent assault on a male over 16.
The earliest, dating from 1961 when Sir Edward was Lord Privy Seal, alleged he had raped and indecently assaulted an 11-year-old boy in London "during a paid sexual encounter in private in a dwelling."
Another two of the seven claims relate to "paid sexual encounters."
In a statement, Sir Edward's former cabinet secretary, Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, and chairman of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, Lord Hunt of Wirral, said the report neither justifies or dispels the "the cloud of suspicion".
"All those who knew Sir Edward Heath or worked with him are, without exception, convinced that the allegations of child abuse will all be found to be groundless," it said.
Sir Edward, who led a Tory government from 1970 to 1974, died in 2005, aged 89.
Operation Conifer - which spanned 14 UK police forces - said a total of 42 claims related to 40 different individuals, with alleged offences from 1956 to 1992 - while Sir Edward was an elected MP.
The report concluded there was not enough information to meet the threshold for interview for 19 of the claims.
Among these were two cases where police said there was reason to suspect the individuals "intentionally misled" them. One of the two has been cautioned for wasting police time.
In three further cases, the investigation found that those reporting alleged abuse were "genuinely mistaken" in naming Sir Edward as the perpetrator.
As part of the £1.5m investigation, three people unconnected to Sir Edward were arrested for offences related to child abuse, one of whom is still being investigated.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has said it would investigate further.
"In regard to the allegations concerning Sir Edward Heath, the inquiry will investigate whether there was any knowledge within Westminster institutions, and if so, what actions were taken," a spokesman said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Ahead of the "closure" report's publication, Sir Edward's godson said he believed the investigation was flawed and called for a judicial inquiry into the police's handling of the abuse claims.
Lincoln Seligman, who knew Sir Edward for 50 years, said: "If you make a mass appeal for victims you are sure to get them, whether they are legitimate or not.
"A proper investigation should have taken place, but that's not what happened."
Following the report's publication, Mr Seligman told the BBC: "These are still just allegations and I do not believe them."
Edward Heath, seen aboard Morning Cloud in 1971, was a world-class yachtsman
Other friends of Sir Edward's have also criticised the investigation, and a psychologist who advised detectives claimed it was based on the allegations of a handful of fantasists.
One of Sir Edward's closest advisers told the BBC that the former Conservative leader was "completely asexual".
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster said he "never felt a whiff of sexuality about Ted Heath, whether it was in relation to women, men or children".
North Wiltshire MP James Gray wants the allegations to be fully investigated by a judge-led inquiry, saying there is "no evidence whatsoever in the report".
He added: "This is a terrible cloud hanging over the head of a great statesman and we should take steps as a government to put that right."
Sir Edward's former private secretary Michael McManus, who wrote a biography about him, said he didn't believe there was any evidence of wrongdoing.
He said: "I spent 18 months talking to people who had known him. These allegations were out there and not one person believed them, including people who really didn't like him."
Clinical psychologist Dr Elly Hanson, who was on the independent panel that scrutinised the report for the police, said she "empathises" with supporters of Sir Edward but added that it was right for the allegations to be investigated.
Child abuse in the past is extremely difficult to investigate.
The modern staples of detective work - CCTV, forensics, mobile phones - aren't available.
Witnesses may be dead or psychologically impaired. The purity of their evidence may have been tainted by the years between the alleged act and their account being given.
When those accused are famous or powerful, even in the past, and dead, it becomes even harder.
Operation Conifer has gathered a vast amount of evidence - pursuing a total of 1,580 lines of inquiry and it has made public the most serious allegations against the former prime minister, but it can't tell us whether they are true.
More than anything else, this report prompts more questions than it answers.
Mike Veale, chief constable of Wiltshire Police, said the operation was "fair and rigorous"
During the course of the lengthy investigation, the police have defended their response, with Chief Constable Veale insisting Operation Conifer was neither a "fishing trip" nor a "witch-hunt".
Chief Constable Veale said officers have "gone where the evidence has taken us", whether it supported the allegations or not.
He said: "The report does not draw any conclusions as to the likely guilt or innocence of Sir Edward Heath."
Referring to the political pressure on Operation Conifer to be scaled down or scrapped, Mr Veale said the scrutiny panel overseeing the process said it was "fair, sensitive and rigorous".
He went on to praise the investigation team who had "not buckled under the pressure of relentless external speculation and criticism".
Angus Macpherson, police and crime commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon, said calls for Mr Veale to resign or be sacked were "fundamentally misjudged".
The findings of the investigation will be passed to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The seven victim disclosures for which Sir Edward would have been interviewed under caution: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41503143 |
Theresa May says cabinet 'fully behind' her leadership - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The PM says she retains the support of colleagues after a former Tory chairman urges a contest. | UK Politics | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May: "Look, I've had a cold this week"
Theresa May has said she has the "full support of her cabinet" after a former party chairman said there should be a Conservative leadership contest.
The PM insisted she was providing the "calm leadership" the country needed.
Grant Shapps says about 30 Tory MPs back his call for a leadership contest in the wake of the general election results and conference mishaps.
But his claims prompted a backlash from loyal backbenchers, several of whom called on him to "shut up".
There has been leadership speculation since Mrs May's decision to call a snap general election backfired and the Conservatives lost their majority.
The Conservative conference this week was meant to be a chance to assert her authority over the party, but her big speech was plagued by a series of mishaps, as she struggled with a persistent cough, was interrupted by a prankster and some of the letters fell off the conference stage backdrop behind her.
Asked about leadership speculation as she attended a charity event in her constituency, Mrs May said: "What the country needs is calm leadership and that's what I am providing with the full support of my cabinet."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former Tory party chairman Grant Shapps said Theresa May should face a leadership election
She said her recent speech in Florence had given "real momentum" to Brexit negotiations and she was intending to update MPs next week on her plans to help "ordinary working families" with a cap on energy bills.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove was among cabinet ministers and MPs publicly defending Mrs May on Friday morning, as the story broke that Mr Shapps was the senior Tory behind a bid to persuade her to go.
Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4 the prime minister was a "fantastic" leader, had widespread support, and should stay "as long as she wants".
He said that the "overwhelming majority of MPs and the entirety of the cabinet" backed the prime minister.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd wrote an article in the Telegraph urging the prime minister to stay, while First Secretary of State Damian Green said on the BBC's Question Time the prime minister "was determined as ever to get on with her job - she sees it as her duty to do so".
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, hit out at those plotting to oust Mrs May as prime minister.
Speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking podcast, she said: "I have to say, I've not got much time for them...
"I really don't think that having a bit of a cold... when you are trying to make a speech changes the fundamentals of whether Theresa May is the right person to lead the country."
There is, this morning, an operation being mounted by the government to try to show that nothing has changed in the Conservative Party in the last few days.
That Theresa May's leadership remains on track and she is, to use another of her famous phrases, just, "getting on with the job".
Except, as happened the last time she proclaimed "nothing has changed", something rather fundamental has, after all.
For the doubts that have been building about her in the party for months are now out there in the wide open.
To trigger a vote of confidence in the party leader, 48 of the 316 Conservative MPs would need to write to the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee.
A leadership contest would only be triggered if Mrs May lost that vote, or chose to quit.
Mr Shapps, who was co-chair of the party between 2012 and 2015, said no letter had been sent and said his intention had been to gather signatures privately and persuade Mrs May to stand down.
But he claimed party whips had taken the "extraordinary" step of making it public by naming him as the ringleader of a plot to oust the PM in a story in the Times.
He told the BBC: "I think it's time we actually tackle this issue of leadership and so do many colleagues.
"We wanted to present that to Theresa May privately. Now I'm afraid it's being done a bit more publicly."
He added: "The country needs leadership. It needs leadership at this time in particular. I think the conference and the lead-up through the summer has shown that that's not going to happen. I think it's time that we have a leadership election now, or at least let's set out that timetable."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The "overwhelming majority of MPs" support the prime minister, says Environment Secretary Michael Gove
But Conservative MP Nigel Evans told the BBC's Daily Politics that if Grant Shapps "can't get 48 signatures, he should just shut up: "In my chats to MPs at Westminster nobody wants an early leadership election. We just simply don't want that."
Fellow MP James Cleverly tweeted: "I've always liked Grant Shapps but he really is doing himself, the party and (most importantly) the country no favours at all. Just stop."
Among other MPs criticising Mr Shapps was Charles Walker, vice chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, who suggested the plot was going to "fizzle out".
"No 10 must be delighted to learn that it's Grant Shapps leading this alleged coup," he said. "Grant has many talents but one thing he doesn't have is a following in the party."
Former minister Ed Vaizey was the first MP to publicly suggest Mrs May should quit on Thursday, telling the BBC: "I think there will be quite a few people who will now be pretty firmly of the view that she should resign." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41519601 |
Southend fire crew suspended for cling film 'joke' - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A "robust" investigation is launched after two children are wrapped in cling film at a fire station. | Essex | The children's mother said it "was intended as a joke"
A fire crew has been suspended from community work after a firefighter wrapped two children in cling film.
The incident, which involved the children of a crew member, was caught on camera at a fire station in Southend.
Essex Fire Service is investigating after the BBC notified it of photographs sent by a concerned party.
The chief fire officer said the images had "raised concerns" and a "thorough investigation" was under way.
The service said the watch had been put on "core duties only", meaning it cannot carry out community work.
The children's mother said what happened "was intended as a joke" and the youngsters enjoyed it.
Chief fire officer Adam Eckley said it was believed no harm was done to the children
The incident happened two weeks ago. Five people, including the two children, were present when the photographs were taken and their mother later posted them on Facebook.
The youngsters were wrapped in plastic by a colleague of their father.
Their mother, who is not being named in order to protect the privacy of the children, said it was a joke.
She added: "I can see that this was not an appropriate activity, and we should not have played around like this at the fire station."
Chief fire officer Adam Eckley said although he encouraged "family spirit", stations were still "a workplace" where behaviour "must reflect our service values and exemplify professionalism".
He said: "The photos we have seen have raised concerns, we have liaised with the appropriate statutory agencies and a thorough investigation and process has now started.
"The firefighters involved are embarrassed and regretful of how this event has been interpreted.
"It does not give the right impression to our public, and it is not who we are."
Roger Hirst, the police, fire and crime commissioner for Essex, said: "I am clear that the behaviour shown in these photos is inappropriate and requires a thorough and robust investigation." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-41429546 |
PM speech: Are fewer black people being stopped and searched? - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Black people remain more likely to be stopped and searched than any other ethnic group. | UK Politics | The claim: Prime Minister Theresa May said that following a speech at the Conservative Party conference in 2014, government action had meant "the number of black people being stopped and searched has fallen by over two-thirds".
Reality Check verdict: The number of black people being stopped and searched by police has fallen by two-thirds since 2010-11 but not since the 2014 conference.
Also, black people still form a disproportionately large percentage of those being stopped and searched and the percentage has actually risen since 2013-14.
As she delivered her keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference, the prime minister reminded Tories of what she sees as a key achievement - a reduction in the number of black people being stopped and searched, but all is not what it seems.
Theresa May spoke about a young black man called Alexander Paul who spoke at the conference in 2014 about his experience of police stop-and-search tactics.
She said: "Inspired by his example, we took action. We shook up the system, and the number of black people being stopped and searched has fallen by over two-thirds."
The overall number of stop-and-searches fell dramatically between 2010-11 and 2015-16, which is the most recent year for which data is available. So, the number of black people being stopped also fell.
This graph shows that the number of black people being stopped fell by two-thirds over the total period, but not since Mr Paul spoke at the conference in 2014.
But even though far fewer black people are being stopped and searched, they are still more likely to be stopped than any other ethnic group.
When you look at the percentage of those stopped and searched who define themselves as black, little has changed. It was 15.2% in 2010-11, and fell to about 11% in 2013-14. Then it rose, and in 2015-16 was back up to 15.1%.
The 2011 census found that 3.3% of people in England and Wales defined themselves as black - meaning black people are being stopped and searched nearly five times as often as you would expect them to be.
So, while the number of black people being stopped and searched fell, their proportion of the total rose since Mr Paul spoke at the 2014 Conservative party conference.
Just to be clear - these figures don't include stop-and-searches related to terrorism or that are carried out because police are trying to manage an incident that affects public safety - those fall under different legislation and are recorded separately. They would not have significantly changed the data. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41501683 |
Netflix raises prices for first time in two years - BBC News | 2017-10-05 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The £1 or $2 a month increases for a premium subscription are the first for two years. | Business | Stranger Things has been a hit for Netflix
Netflix has raised prices in countries including the UK and US for the first time in two years.
The streaming video service will also increase subscription charges in some European countries, a spokeswoman said.
A standard UK plan will rise 50p to £7.99 a month, while a premium subscription for four simultaneous users jumps £1 to £9.99 a month.
The standard US plan increases by $1 to $10.99 a month, with a $2 rise to $13.99 for the premium option.
A basic subscription in the UK, which does not offer high definition viewing, remains at £5.99 a month.
The increases apply immediately for new customers, while existing users will be notified of the change 30 days in advance.
Germany and France are among the other countries where prices will rise. Subscriptions were tweaked in Canada, Latin America and some Nordic countries earlier this year.
Netflix said in July it has 104 million subscribers globally, while revenues rose 32% in the second quarter to $2.8bn.
Shares in Netflix closed 5.4% in New York, bringing the stock's gain this year to 56%.
The price rises come as Netflix faces growing competition from Amazon and other sites such as Hulu in the US.
Mary J. Blige (left) and director Dee Rees at the Toronto premiere of Mudbound
The company continues to spending heavily on original programming such as The Crown, Stranger Things and House of Cards.
It also promises 40 feature films this year ranging from "big-budget popcorn films to grassroots independent cinema".
One of those titles Mudbound, which Variety describes as "an epic about race and poverty in the 1940s Mississippi Delta", starring Mary J. Blige and Carey Mulligan.
The film, which premiered at the Toronto film festival last month, is available to stream from 17 November - the same day it opens in some US cinemas.
Some critics say it is a contender for the Academy Awards and would be the first Netflix feature to be in the Oscars race. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41516159 |
Ivory trade to be banned in UK 'to protect elephants' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Conservation groups welcome government proposals for a full-scale ban on sales and exports. | Science & Environment | Tiny elephants carved from ivory are the type of product that would be banned under the proposals
The sale and export of almost all ivory items would be banned in the UK under plans set out by the government.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has announced a consultation to end the trade in ivory of all ages - previous attempts at a ban would have excluded antique ivory produced before 1947.
The government says there will be some exemptions, for musical instruments and items of cultural importance.
Conservation groups have given a guarded welcome to the plan.
While the UK has had a ban on the trade in raw ivory tusks, it has become the world's leading exporter of legal ivory carvings and antiques in recent years.
According to an Environmental Investigation Agency report, there were more than 36,000 items exported from the UK between 2010 and 2015, more than three times that of the next biggest exporter, the US.
Conservationists argue that these sales stimulate the demand for the product, and are linked to increased elephant poaching across Africa.
Prince William condemned illegal wildlife trading during a trip to China in 2015
Prince William has long been a campaigner against against ivory trade and in 2016 urged the UK to pass a total ban on domestic sales.
At a wildlife conference in Vietnam, he said: "Ivory is not something to be desired and when removed from an elephant it is not beautiful.
"So, the question is: why are we still trading it? We need governments to send a clear signal that trading in ivory is abhorrent."
Previous attempts in the UK by the Conservative Party to limit sales of ivory have failed to get off the ground.
A ban on sales of ivory produced after 1947 was announced by then Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom in 2016 but a follow-up consultation never materialised.
However, a 12-week consultation on Mr Gove's proposals is due to start immediately, and draft legislation covering a ban on sales and exports is likely in the new year.
Campaigners have been pushing hard for government action on UK ivory sales
The government says that the proposals are being driven by concern for the 20,000 elephants that are killed by poachers every year.
"The decline in the elephant population fuelled by poaching for ivory shames our generation," said Mr Gove in a statement.
"The need for radical and robust action to protect one of the world's most iconic and treasured species is beyond dispute."
He said the proposals will put the "UK front and centre of global efforts to end the insidious trade in ivory".
While the government says the plans are driven by concerns over elephants, there are other factors at play.
Many countries have moved to end the trade in ivory by destroying stocks such as in Kenya
Britain will host a major illegal wildlife conference in 2018 and it would be embarrassing if the UK was continuing to allow a domestic market in ivory while countries like China were moving to close theirs as they have promised to do by the end of this year.
"The key thing is, we hope, they will have committed to the ban before this conference," said Heather Sohl from WWF UK.
She said it would allow the UK to have a greater standing in how China enforces its own ban and also strengthen its hand in dealing with countries with legal markets.
While environmental groups have welcomed the government's new stand, there are concerns over the size and scale of exemptions to the ban.
Mr Gove says there should be four categories of ivory items allowed for sale:
Some conservationists are worried that if these exemptions are too broad, they could become loopholes and undermine attempts at a ban.
Others, though, believe that clear and strong restrictions can be put in place.
But those involved in the antiques business are not happy about the proposed ban.
Noelle McElhatton from the Antiques Trade Gazette said those involved in the trade abhor poaching and are disgusted by what is happening to the African elephant.
However, she said she expected art and antique sellers to argue that a ban on trade in objects made pre-1947 - which she said could include Georgian chests of drawers, Victorian pianos or Art Deco figures - "will not save a single living elephant".
"We feel strongly that an outright ban would be an over-reaction and would be very detrimental to the honest and legitimate trade of pre-1947 ivory."
The consultation will run until 29 December.
Follow Matt on Twitter and on Facebook | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41512796 |
Newspaper headlines: May clings on and Rooney's punishment - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Saturday's papers focus on Theresa May's future and Wayne Rooney starting his community service. | The Papers | Most of the papers reflect on the attempt by Conservative backbenchers, led by ex-party chairman Grant Shapps, to oust Theresa May.
The verdict of the Daily Express is "Theresa slaps down rebels", reporting that the prime minister appears to have secured her position, thanks to a "ruthless operation" to discredit those seeking to undermine her.
Under the headline "rout of the pygmies", it says the plot to remove Mrs May "collapsed into a shambles yesterday" as MPs and ministers united to condemn what it labels "the betrayal of rivals seeking revenge."
The paper also offers its readers pen portraits of the "traitors gallery" of senior Conservatives it says are part of Mr Shapps' attempted coup.
The paper's columnist Peter Oborne says Mrs May must "destroy her Tory enemies before they destroy her".
However, even if the rebellion has been seen off, doubts about the prime minister most definitely remain for some.
"PM clings to power - for now" is the i newspaper's take.
Meanwhile, the Sun endorses Mrs May, but only because - as its editorial puts it - "there is no obvious replacement".
Until one emerges the Tories must unite behind her, the paper says.
The Financial Times urges the PM to sack lacklustre members of the cabinet and bring in new talent. The FT concedes that it is a strategy that carries risk, but, it says, "she has nothing to lose."
The Daily Mirror laments that at a time when the nation is crying out for strong leadership, it has been left rudderless by a "top of the flops" prime minister.
"Britain deserves much better than these incompetent Tories," says its leader.
The Daily Mirror reports on another beleaguered leader: Ryanair's Michael O'Leary.
The paper says it has seen a letter to Mr O'Leary written on behalf of his pilots, responding to his "grovelling" pledge to improve their pay and conditions.
In it, the pilots accuse their boss of "considering us nothing more than aircraft parts".
One pilot tells the Mirror that Mr O'Leary's offer was "the ramblings of a desperate man".
One of the most successful glossy magazines of recent years is ceasing its monthly print edition and going online, the Times reports.
Glamour's decision to go "digital first" is the result of tumbling sales and alarm about the future of beauty and celebrity titles.
The Financial Times says there is in fact a broader challenge to the magazine industry.
It says it's partly the result of the "abundance of free news and entertainment" available on the internet - and also a "changing of the guard" at some of the world's top titles.
It cites the retirement of Vanity Fair's longstanding editor, Graydon Carter.
The FT quotes the founder of Rolling Stone, which in another sign of the times was recently put up for sale.
He says "publishing is a completely different industry than what it was."
It could be worse, though, as various long-lens photos of Wayne Rooney doing community service at a garden centre attest.
It follows his conviction for drink-driving last month. He's been painting park benches at the centre.
"Tired and emulsional", is the Sun's headline.
To avoid the glare of publicity, Wayne Rooney could perhaps have benefited from the new England rugby kit, which, as the Daily Telegraph reports sceptically, "purports to use state of the art camouflage technology to mask player movement".
An expert in visual perception doubts the manufacturer's breathless claim and points out that in any case, any advantage gained from the design is counteracted by the fact the shirts have a large, highly visible advertiser's logo in the middle of them.
The Telegraph says fans have grumbled that the replica strip costs £95 and it is the eighth new kit in the last three years, meaning that, transparently, it is merely a "revenue raising stunt." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41533755 |
Royal Navy could lose 'fight on beaches' ships in planned cuts - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Royal Navy could lose ability to assault enemy-held beaches, under plans considered in the MoD. | UK | The Royal Navy could lose its ability to assault enemy held beaches, under plans being considered in the Ministry of Defence, BBC Newsnight understands.
Two specialist landing ships - HMS Albion and Bulwark - would be taken out of service under the proposals.
The plan - part of a package of cost-cutting measures - has caused alarm among senior Royal Marine officers.
The MoD told the BBC that no decisions have been made yet and that discussion of options was "pure speculation".
It is understood the head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, formulated the move as part of a package designed to balance the books and free up sailors for the service's two new aircraft carriers.
Critics say the proposal would deprive the Royal Marines of its core mission.
Among other cuts envisaged are a reduction of 1,000 to the strength of the Royal Marines and the early retirement of two mine-hunting vessels and one survey vessel.
A senior Royal Marine officer blamed the introduction of the new carriers for exacerbating the senior service's financial and manning problems.
He told the BBC: "This is the worst procurement decision of the past half century - that's what the Royal Marines are being sacrificed for."
The proposed cuts are part of a raft of "adjustments" being considered by all three services - the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force - as the Ministry of Defence struggles to balance its books.
The Royal Air Force could slow down orders of its new F35 fighter, and the Army could lose dozens of helicopters as part of their efforts towards the same goal.
In 2015 there was a Strategic Defence and Security Review, a paper intended to act as a blueprint for the coming five years.
However the depreciation of sterling has made big buys of foreign equipment more expensive and the armed forces have crammed the programme with too many projects, creating a hole in the budget.
The government announced "additional work to review national security capabilities" in July - a review by stealth - under the leadership of its national security adviser Mark Sedwill.
The proposed cuts to the Royal Navy have been put forward as part of this exercise.
Under the 1997 defence review, a group of ships was created to improve the UK's ability to land its commando brigade, even in the face of opposition.
The helicopter carrier Ocean, two specialist landing ships - Albion and Bulwark - and four logistic support ships were to be acquired to allow the 5,000 strong force to continue performing operations such as the 1982 Falklands landing, or the one on the Faw peninsula during the 2003 Iraq conflict.
With the retirement of HMS Ocean already announced, and the new plans to lose the two landing ships, the Royal Marines' ability to use landing or hovercraft to get ashore would be drastically curtailed.
In recent years, as an economy measure, the Royal Navy has only been crewing Albion or Bulwark alternately - they are big ships, each requiring a complement of 325.
While the government has dubbed 2017 "the Year of the Royal Navy" and emphasised its commitment to a new national shipbuilding strategy, observers at the MoD noticed that this blueprint contained no commitment to renew the amphibious warfare fleet.
The service is already committed to putting its two new carriers into service, replacing Trident, buying a new class of hunter-killer submarines, and two new types of frigate.
"The Royal Navy has got us into this mess", said a senior MoD figure, referring to the department's budgetary black hole, "so it's up to them to take the pain necessary to get us out of it".
With budgetary responsibility devolved to service chiefs, it fell to the head of the Navy Admiral Sir Philip Jones, to come up with proposals for how he could run the fleet within the financial and personnel limits he has been set. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41511790 |
Organ donation opt-out plan: What do people waiting for transplants think? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | What do people waiting for an organ, or who have recently had a transplant, make of plans for an opt-out organ donation system in England? | UK | Heart failure left Julie exhausted and grey-skinned - a pump has brought the colour back to her cheeks and given her a good quality of life
At home, Julie Bartlett has her bags packed and people on standby to drive her to hospital, just in case she receives a phone call saying doctors have a heart that is a match for her.
If the call comes, she'll have a couple of hours to get to Harefield Hospital in west London - she can even rely on a police escort if she gets stuck in traffic.
"That call could be this afternoon. It could be never," she says, but she's optimistic that government plans for a new organ donation system of presumed consent in England might boost her chances significantly.
While the policy content of Theresa May's conference speech on Wednesday might have been overlooked, one of the prime minister's announcements could potentially save many lives - about three people a day in the UK die because of a lack of organ donors.
The Conservatives are proposing a consultation on changing the organ donation system in England from opt-in to opt-out, meaning people's organs could be used in transplants when they died unless they expressly said otherwise.
Currently, anyone who wants to donate their organs after death has to "opt in" through the donor card scheme.
There are currently 6,500 people waiting for an organ donation and it is hoped the new system would see more organs becoming available.
What do people waiting for an organ, and recent recipients of life-saving transplants, think of the proposed changes?
Last Christmas, former midwife Julie Bartlett was fitted with an LVAD - a mechanical pump for the heart known as a "bridge to transplant" - but what she really needs is a new heart.
"I could kiss Theresa May - although she's got that bad cold," she said.
"It was something that I have been waiting for, for a long a time - the sooner they do it, the better."
In 2009, Julie was diagnosed with heart failure and never expected to see her first grandchild or go to her daughter's wedding.
After it became end-stage heart failure and she was in a hospice, the option of the LVAD was presented to her.
"My quality of life is good now, but I have good days and bad days," she says.
The LVAD means Julie is permanently attached to two lines, has to recharge batteries overnight and can shower only weekly because of the wound.
"There are limits, but I'm very blessed to have one and it's better than being bedbound in a hospice," she says.
However, a new heart would transform her life. It would even free her to travel abroad, as while on the waiting list she must stay in the UK.
While she waits for that heart, Julie lives in limbo.
She believes families should have the final decision over donation, as they do under the Welsh "soft opt-out" system - where if the individual's family objects, their organs are not removed.
"Families need to share what their wishes are, so they are less likely to go against the person's wishes. It's a gift," she said.
Matthew's new kidneys allow him to "do what normal boys do"
The Victoria Derbyshire programme spoke to 12-year old Matthew Pietrzyk, who spent eight years on dialysis after he was born with failing kidneys which had to be removed.
He and his mum Nicola told the programme that the transplant has not only "given him his life back" but had also transformed those of his brothers and parents.
The family can now go on holiday and make plans without the fear of emergency hospital visits.
Nicola said she can finally "be a mum" instead of a nurse.
Matthew believes that the new opt-out scheme will "save lives".
But another patient in need of a kidney donor is not so impressed with the proposals.
Kerigh Palmer, from Hertfordshire, whose first kidney transplant failed this summer, said the change would be "pointless" because, under the system the government is proposing, families could still stop donations.
"The majority of possible transplants are blocked by family members," she says.
"I don't think doctors should be saying 'these are your loved one's wishes, now what do you want to do?'"
"It takes away the individual's choice."
Kerigh Palmer does not think the new opt-out scheme goes far enough
Kerigh's transplant story has been long and full of hurt. After her kidneys failed in 2015, her wife, Julie, offered to donate hers.
But they weren't compatible so Julie donated to another patient, and Kerigh, 40, received hers from someone else.
Julie's recipient's transplant was a success. Kerigh's, though, was not - complications during surgery meant it failed at the last hurdle.
As she drifted in and out of consciousness after the operation, she heard the words: "We are very sorry that it did not work."
"Is it true?" she asked Julie, who was lying in a hospital bed nearby.
"It was devastating. That person is living with my kidney effectively. We feel pretty bitter."
Julie, left, saved another kidney patient's life. But the kidney Kerigh received did not transplant successfully
Straight after the gruelling failed operation, she was back on dialysis twice a week.
"I'm trying not to think about what's happened, because I will depress myself.
"I'm thinking ahead to Christmas, because I love Christmas. I'm not thinking 'where's my next kidney coming from?'"
But she admits it would be life-changing to have a successful transplant.
"I wouldn't be tied to the hospital, I could work full-time without having to work from hospital, I could go abroad on holiday, eat what I like, not have to second-guess everything I do."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41513961 |
Storm Nate: At least 22 dead in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Thousands of homes are damaged as the tropical storm heads for Mexico and the US. | Latin America & Caribbean | Heavy rain has swollen rivers and affected towns across Costa Rica
Tropical Storm Nate has killed at least 22 people in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras.
It caused heavy rains, landslides and floods which blocked roads, destroyed bridges and damaged houses.
In Costa Rica, nearly 400,000 people are without running water and thousands are sleeping in shelters.
The eye of the storm has since moved over the sea, heading towards Mexico and the United States, where it could become a hurricane.
At least eight people died in Costa Rica, while another 11 were killed when Nate moved north and reached Nicaragua, where as much as 15ins (38cm) of rain had been predicted to fall by the US National Hurricane Center.
Three people were killed in Honduras, including two youths who drowned in a river, and several are reported missing.
One man was killed in a mudslide in El Salvador, according to emergency services.
Oil companies have been evacuating staff from platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that lie along the predicted path of the storm.
In Costa Rica, people were trapped on a stretch of the Inter-American Highway known as the Mountain of Death, after the bus in which they were travelling got stuck between two landslides on Wednesday, according to La Nación newspaper.
There are also concerns crocodiles may be lurking around the overflowing Tárcoles river, and could appear in places where they are not normally expected.
"Please do not kill crocodiles," said officials, according to news site CRHoy.com. The advice was to avoid standing in overflowing water, to protect children and pets, and to call emergency services if one was spotted.
Some 5,000 people are sleeping in temporary shelters in Costa Rica
All train journeys were suspended in Costa Rica and dozens of flights cancelled on Thursday, when the weather worsened.
More than a dozen national parks popular with tourists have been closed as a precaution.
The storm also caused extensive damage to infrastructure in Nicaragua.
"Sometimes we think we think we can cross a river and the hardest thing to understand is that we must wait," Vice-President Rosario Murillo said on state radio.
"It's better to be late than not to get there at all."
Forecasters say the storm could become a category one hurricane before it makes landfall on the southern coast of the United States on Sunday.
Residents from Florida to Texas have been told to prepare for Nate, which, if it does strike, would be the third major storm to hit the southern coast this year.
Most of the damage in Nicaragua has been along its Caribbean coast
Texas and Florida are recovering from the damage inflicted by Hurricane Harvey, which hit the former in August and caused "unprecedented damage", and Hurricane Irma, which made landfall in Florida in September.
A state of emergency has been declared in 29 Florida counties, and in New Orleans.
The city's mayor told people who live on low-lying ground to evacuate.
"There is no need to panic," Mitch Landrieu tweeted. "Be ready and prepare. Get a plan. Prepare to protect your personal property." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41520672 |
Top Ryanair executive leaves after pilot scheduling fiasco - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The airline will bid farewell to operations manager who had ultimate responsibility for pilot rosters | Business | Thousands of travellers had their holiday plans ruined by a Ryanair scheduling mistake
Embattled low-cost airline Ryanair said its chief operations officer will depart the company at the end of the month.
Michael Hickey will be the first executive to leave the company after a rostering error led to the cancellation of thousands of flights.
In his role, Mr Hickey was responsible for scheduling shifts for pilots.
Chief executive Michael O'Leary earlier faced calls to resign over his handling of the mishap.
Mr O'Leary on Friday said Mr Hickey "will be a hard act to replace".
Ryanair announced its first wave of 2,100 cancellations in the middle of September, after it rearranged pilots' rosters to comply with new aviation rules requiring a change in how their flying hours are logged.
Towards the end of September it announced 18,000 further flights would be cancelled over the winter season. These moves affect more than 700,000 passengers.
In the airline's first wave of cancellations Ryanair offered affected passengers a £40 voucher per cancelled flight as a way to say sorry.
This was short of European rules governing flight cancellations and passenger rights, and Ryanair was eventually forced to bow to regulator demands and spell out the options on offer to affected passengers. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41533625 |
Teacher Alice McBrearty jailed for sex with pupil - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Alice McBrearty, 23, had a four-month relationship with a 15-year-old boy. | London | Alice McBrearty committed "the grossest breach of trust", a judge said
A teacher who had a "full-blown sexual relationship" with a 15-year-old boy has been jailed for 16 months.
Alice McBrearty, 23, admitted the four-month relationship with a pupil she taught at an east London school.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard McBrearty kissed the youngster in a classroom, and had sex with him at her parents' home in Wanstead Park, east London.
She pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.
Prosecutors said the relationship began when the teacher sent the boy a friend request on Facebook.
Barrister Lisa Matthews said the teenager, who cannot be named, "felt special" and "appeared to be besotted" with McBrearty.
The court heard the pair met in several locations, including a hotel room McBrearty had booked, and had sexual contact.
Their relationship ended when the boy's father contacted police.
McBrearty put her head in her hands and sobbed when she was sentenced by Judge Sheelagh Canavan.
The judge described her as a "bright, intelligent and gifted young woman, who knew right from wrong," but who had committed the "grossest breach of trust".
"You engaged in a full-blown sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child," she said.
"I accept he was consenting - what 15-year-old schoolboy would turn down such an attractive offer?
"I accept you truly believed this was a great romance, you were in love with him and vice versa, and that age didn't matter. But it did.
"You were supposed to keep him safe, to help him make the right decisions. Instead, you helped him make all the wrong ones."
Emma Shafton, defending, said her client, who is no longer a teacher, has had "a spectacular fall from grace".
"She has been utterly disgraced by this," she added. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41528271 |
Father loses IVF damages claim - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The man sued a London IVF clinic after his ex-partner forged his signature to use frozen embryos. | Health | A father has lost a damages claim against a London IVF clinic after his ex-partner forged his signature to use frozen embryos.
The High Court found IVF Hammersmith was not negligent.
The couple broke up in 2010 but some months later the woman asked the clinic to implant an embryo, which they had stored.
The man, who can only be identified as ARB, said he did not give his consent and was tricked by his former partner.
After the couple had a son together through IVF at the clinic in 2008, a number of embryos were frozen and they signed agreements annually for these to remain in storage.
In October 2010, the mother handed IVF Hammersmith a 'consent to thaw' form, forged with ARB's signature. On the basis of this document, an embryo was thawed and successfully implanted.
The father said his ex-partner's dishonesty resulted in the birth of his daughter, an "unwanted child".
"It's a very, very difficult situation for me. A beautiful child, a child that everyone would want, a child that I love. But also a child that has brought us so much pain."
He argued that the clinic should pay for the cost of her upbringing, including private school fees, holidays, refurbishing her bedroom and her wedding.
The presiding judge Mr Justice Jay said: "Although he has lost this case, my judgment must be seen as a complete personal and moral vindication for ARB."
"The same, of course, cannot be said for R." R was used to identify the mother in the case.
Jude Fleming of IVF Hammersmith welcomed the finding: "As a clinic, we place patient care at the heart of everything we do.
"We have been clear throughout that we have always adhered to the highest industry standards and met all statutory and regulatory obligations."
But the judge said he did have concerns about the way consent was obtained by clinics during this time.
The clinic said it has since reviewed its procedures to "ensure such a case could not occur again."
The father said: "This claim has never been about money; it is about justice."
He plans to appeal the decision regarding damages in the Supreme Court. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41525215 |
Is privacy dead in an online world? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Four experts examine the issue of information security in an online world. | Technology | Last month, 145 million Americans discovered they were victims of one of the biggest data breaches in history, after the credit rating agency Equifax was hacked.
Social security numbers, birth dates, telephone numbers and, in some cases, driver's licence and credit card numbers were exposed, leaving people vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.
Companies know more about individuals than they ever have. And almost every week there is news of a data hack.
So does this mean that the age of personal privacy is over?
BBC World Service's The Inquiry programme has been hearing the views of four experts.
"Technology has created enormous conveniences for us, but there is no reason why those conveniences have to inevitably come at the cost of giving up our privacy wholesale," says Ben Wizner, of the American Civil Liberties Union, who is chief legal adviser to the US intelligence leaker Edward Snowdon.
Mr Wizner says people should be able to control information held on them, as well as with whom they share it.
"It is now both technologically and financially feasible for corporations and governments to collect and store records of almost all of our activities, records that never would have existed in the past," he says.
All of this - whether harvested from the web, mobile phones or social media - creates vast amounts of data from consumers, held by corporations.
And with the advent of smart appliances, this will only increase.
"You will be watching your television, your television will be watching you."
And he has concerns about agreements meant to safeguard consumers' data.
"It is literally impossible for consumers to read all of those agreements. What we all do instead is we click "agree". In legal terms, we have consented. In meaningful terms, have we consented?"
Personal information, Mr Wizner says, allows corporations to make highly accurate predictions about a person's life, including their sexuality and any health problems they may have.
"I think that we hear all too often this sort of blase remark that 'I don't need to be worried about surveillance because I've done nothing wrong and I have nothing to hide.'
"For every single one of us, there is some pile of aggregated data that exists, the publication of which would cause us enormous harm and, in some cases, even professional and personal ruin.
"Every single one of us has a database of ruin."
Former Amazon chief scientist Andreas Weigend says the time has come to recognise that privacy is now an illusion.
He grew up in West Germany, where his family moved following his father's release from prison in East Germany, where he had been a political prisoner.
Later, he discovered that, though his father's Stasi files had been destroyed, the secret police had opened a file on him, in 1986, when he was a graduate student in the US.
Though he felt vulnerable after this revelation, his views on privacy are clear.
"I have realised that even if you were a privacy zealot, you don't have a chance.
"Data is being created as we breathe, as we live, and it is too hard a battle to try to live without creating data.
"And that is a starting point: that you assume that we do live in a post-privacy economy."
Indeed, he has just written a book called Data For the People: How to Make Our Post-Privacy Economy Work for You.
Or daily lives, he says, constantly lead to the creation of new data: from phones, credit cards, public transport systems and more.
"I think we don't have the time in the day to know everything that's being created about us.
"On the other hand, we don't want companies to just scoop up all the data that we create and never tell us anything about it."
He believes we should embrace the fact we're creating lots of data, because we get better products and services in return.
"Every battle we should fight now is, 'And what can we, as individuals, as citizens, get out of the data which we create?'
"Having new technologies means that we need to think about what actually does 'privacy' mean. So, it's time to actually redefine privacy."
But Mr Weigend isn't willing to let go of all privacy. There is "no way", for instance, he would publish his browsing history.
"I think our browsing histories are way more personal than what we share with our partners.
"Our most secret questions in our mind, our most secret desires, they end up at Google and where Google takes us."
His message to people concerned about privacy is simple.
"Think about your computer security, think about your passwords, think about just how lax, probably, your own personal security is."
And he believes that people's views on privacy will change, just as things have already changed.
"What the KGB wouldn't have gotten out of people under torture, now people knowingly and willingly publish on Facebook."
Svea Eckert is an investigative reporter for Germany's national broadcaster, ARD. Last year she decided to adopt a fake name and set up a fake company, complete with its own website.
Her target? Detailed information showing which web pages individuals had visited, offered for sale by companies who gather data about people's internet use.
Journalist Svea Eckert was able to view the internet browsing histories of about 20 people, all in high-profile positions in Germany
She and a colleague eventually gained access to a month's worth of de-anonymised browsing records of about 20 people, all in high-profile positions.
The URLs pointed to details of a criminal investigation, a senior executive's complete financial records, a judge's daily porn viewing habits and the browsing histories of politicians.
The subjects were shocked when shown the data held about them.
It emerged that all this data had come from a browser plug-in that these users had installed.
Ms Eckert says it wasn't legal for the data to be sold but there has been no action against the company selling it, because it was based outside the EU.
And she is concerned at how smaller marketing companies were able to sell this sensitive data but may not have had the money available to wealthy corporations to protect themselves from hackers.
"I think at the moment we are living in a time which is like the time was when people were not wearing seatbelts in the car."
"The beauty of what's been occurring in the past year or two," says Gus Hosein, head of Privacy International, a global non-governmental organisation campaigning for privacy, "has been that some of the companies who are core now to the delivery of the internet as we know it have taken security and privacy much more seriously.
The EU is set to introduce new regulations on data privacy
"What is disappointing is that below the waterline, below what we can see, some of these companies have doubled-down or tripled-down on the extent to which they are grabbing data and doing things with that data without you ever being able to see."
But he thinks there is a limit to how much individual behaviour can achieve in securing online privacy.
"Almost every positive move that Facebook and Google and the other large companies have taken, particularly the data companies… has been as a result of regulatory pressure."
Most technology companies are based in the US where, he says, lobbyists have prevented regulations from being imposed.
That lobbying influence has proven less effective in Europe, where a new law, the General Data Protection Regulation, designed to increase safeguards on the storage and handling of personal data, is due to come into effect next year.
"My worry is that we'll become desensitised and we'll become quite resigned to the fact that, 'Yeah, our data is harvested, and, yeah, I guess it is not secure, and, yeah, I guess any criminal who wanted to can get access to it.'
"The defence of privacy will be the saviour of the future, essentially."
The Inquiry: Is privacy dead? was broadcast on Thursday 5 October. Listen online or download the podcast. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41483723 |
Ryanair boss offers pilots better pay and conditions to stay - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Michael O'Leary's offer comes after the airline cancelled thousands of flights in recent weeks. | Business | Ryanair's boss has made an unprecedented apology to pilots
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has written to the airline's pilots to offer them better pay and conditions.
The improved conditions came after the airline was forced to cancel thousands of flights in recent weeks.
In a letter to pilots, Mr O'Leary also apologised for changes that caused disruptions to their rotas and urges them not to leave the airline.
The Irish Air Line Pilots' Association was sceptical, saying the letter gave no details of the cost of the promises.
"Our members have experienced Ryanair promises before and therefore we will need to carefully consider each point before we decide on a response," it added.
The letter also received a lukewarm response from pilots who contacted the BBC.
One, who didn't want to be named, said: "It's the standard. It's a, How nice we are, followed by a carrot and then a threat."
Mr O'Leary's apology came after he accused the pilots of being "full of their own self-importance".
But in the letter he urges pilots to stay with Ryanair "for a brighter future".
Ryanair has been in crisis after the rota changes - brought about to comply with new aviation rules - led to a shortage of pilots because the airline failed to plan for enough leave.
Many of the airline's 4,200 pilots had joined unions over the past two weeks over discontent with the disruptions caused by the rota changes.
Mr O'Leary's letter implored the pilot team not to leave the airline and offered them improved terms and working conditions.
Ryanair's sweeteners included pay increases, loyalty bonus payments, improved rotas and better compensation for pilots forced to work away from their home base.
Mr O'Leary stressed that Ryanair was a "very secure employer in a very insecure industry" and he emphasised that the airline's pilots "are the best in the business".
And he asked them not to allow competitor pilots or their unions "to demean or disparage our collective success".
The Ryanair boss also urged the airline's pilots not to join "one of these less financially secure or Brexit-challenged airlines".
Mr O'Leary's letter asked the pilots to take note of "the recent bankruptcies of Air Berlin, Alitalia and Monarch", as well as the difficulties faced by another budget airline, Norwegian Air, which has been under pressure to boost its finances.
Ryanair has cancelled thousands of flights since September
Ryanair announced its first wave of 2,100 cancellations in the middle of September, after it rearranged pilots' rosters to comply with new aviation rules requiring a change in how their flying hours are logged.
Towards the end of September it announced 18,000 further flights would be cancelled over the winter season. These moves affect more than 700,000 passengers.
The airline blamed the flight fiasco on its own mistaken decision to force its pilots to take their remaining annual leave before the end of this year, rather than by the end of the financial year next March.
That left Ryanair without enough pilots to fly all its scheduled flights in September and October.
But passengers have complained about the short notice of the cancellations and the consumer group Which? said Ryanair's compensation information was "woefully short". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41520970 |
Emile Cilliers trial: Wife 'among top UK parachutists' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Victoria Cilliers, whose ex-husband is accused of sabotaging her parachute, had made 2,600 jumps. | Wiltshire | The wife of an Army sergeant who survived a 4,000ft fall after her husband allegedly tampered with her parachute was among the UK's top parachutists, a court has heard.
Victoria Cilliers, 40, suffered multiple serious injuries at Netheravon Airfield, Wiltshire, on April 5, 2015.
Winchester Crown Court heard Mrs Cilliers has completed more than 2,600 jumps.
Prosecutors allege her ex-husband sabotaged both her main and reserve parachute by removing components.
Mark Bayada, chief instructor of the Army Parachute Association at Netheravon, told the court Mrs Cilliers was "in the top per cent of competency in the country".
He told jurors two vital components, known as slinks, were missing from Mrs Cillier's reserve chute.
It is "almost impossible", he said, for the "extremely strong" components to come off by mistake.
Mr Bayada said Mrs Cillier's main parachute was "distorted, rotated and bunched up".
He said the parachute's lines were "massively entangled".
It was "highly unlikely", he said, that user error "would result in a malfunction with that much entanglement".
The only "innocent explanation" for the missing slinks, he said, was that medics had cut them away.
The court was shown the various parachute parts
But upon checking, he said, the only thing at the scene which first aiders had cut was Mrs Cilliers' goggles strap.
Mr Bayada attributed Mrs Cilliers' survival to the relatively low height of her jump.
Its "sub terminal" nature meant she had not reached full speed, he said.
He also said her small size and "exceptionally soft" field had probably contributed to her survival too.
Prosecutors alleged Mr Cilliers wanted to leave his wife for a lover he had met on Tinder.
Alongside the allegation he tampered with his wife's parachutes, Mr Cilliers is also accused of deliberately causing a gas leak in the family home while he stayed away.
He denies two counts of attempted murder.
Mr Cilliers, who is based at the Royal Army Physical Training Corps in Aldershot, Hampshire, is also accused of a third charge of damaging a gas valve at their home in Amesbury, Wiltshire.
The trial will resume on Friday.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-41515862 |
Secret engagement: 'We eloped and sent out postcards' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The couple who travelled overseas to avoid the stress and expense of a traditional wedding at home | World | A view of New Zealand and Kristy and Corey Rousseau on their wedding day
Why would couples keep their engagement and even their wedding secret from friends and family?
Some would find it hard to believe, but for Kristy Rousseau from Ontario, Canada, it was probably the best decision she and her partner made.
"We travel a lot and preferred to spend money on marrying on a mountain top in our favourite place instead of a big traditional wedding," Kristy told the BBC.
She and her husband Corey, who had been together for seven years, secretly got engaged so that their friends and family would not discover their plan to elope to New Zealand.
In the run up to her wedding, Kristy found it hard not to wear her engagement ring. On her birthday, just two weeks before flying to New Zealand, she wore it out to dinner and nearly let the secret out.
Kristy says husband Corey thinks he looks like James Bond
They almost managed to tell no one, as Kristy explains:
"Corey had to tell his boss [about the elopement] because he was recruited to a new company and needed the time off. Some of his co-workers thought he was in rehab!"
As their big day approached, the couple flew to New Zealand, took a helicopter ride to the mountains, and enlisted the help of the pilot as the best man and a photographer as a witness.
Having been a bridesmaid and maid of honour three times before getting married herself, Kristy saw how wedding planning can be stressful.
She said: "I didn't want to ruin what is meant to be the happiest day."
Personalised postcard anyone? The happy couple in 'the most beautiful place on earth'
So, they got married, took photos and sent home postcards. Kristy said everyone was happy she and Corey had finally tied the knot although her mother was a little disappointed she was not there to witness her only daughter's big day.
However, Kristy wanted her day to be about her and Corey: "Ultimately, we wanted it to just be something personal between the two of us." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41517059 |
Harvey Weinstein: Film producer says 'I have caused a lot of pain' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Film producer Harvey Weinstein disputes allegations he sexually harassed women. | US & Canada | Film producer Harvey Weinstein has issued an apology as a newspaper reported a number of sexual harassment allegations against him.
"I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologise for it," said the movie mogul's statement.
But he later disputed a New York Times report that claimed he harassed female employees over nearly three decades.
The newspaper reported he had reached at least eight settlements with women.
Mr Weinstein, a married father-of-five, said he planned to take a leave of absence from his company and had hired therapists to deal with his issue.
"My journey now will be to learn about myself and conquer my demons," the 65-year-old's statement on Thursday said.
"I so respect all women and regret what happened," he added in the statement initially given to the New York Times, and later sent to the BBC.
It continued: "I cannot be more remorseful about the people I hurt and I plan to do right by all of them."
The Miramax and Weinstein Company co-founder has produced a number of Oscar-winning blockbusters, including Shakespeare in Love, The King's Speech and The Artist.
Mr Weinstein's lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said in another statement that he denies many of the allegations against him as "patently false".
She also said that as a women's rights advocate she had been blunt with him that some of his conduct "can be perceived as inappropriate, even intimidating".
"He has acknowledged mistakes he has made," said Ms Bloom. "He is reading books and going to therapy. He is an old dinosaur learning new ways."
But another Weinstein lawyer, Charles Harder, said in a separate statement to the Hollywood Reporter that his client was preparing to sue the New York Times.
The attorney said the newspaper's report was "saturated with false and defamatory statements".
The statement also said the report "relies on mostly hearsay accounts and a faulty report, apparently stolen from an employee personnel file, which has been debunked by 9 different eyewitnesses". It did not specify which particular parts of the Times article were disputed.
Mr Harder's statement said the New York Times had ignored the "facts and evidence" and any proceeds from the lawsuit would be donated to women's organisations.
Mr Weinstein has been married since 2007 to London-born fashion designer Georgina Rose Chapman, and they have two children. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41520007 |
More than £1.8m paid by council to a pothole claimant - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Somerset County Council paid £1,836,000 to a claimant for damages caused by a "pothole defect". | Somerset | A council paid out more than £1.8m in a single compensation claim involving a pothole, it has emerged.
Somerset County Council paid out £1,836,000 to a third party for "general damages" following an accident "involving a pothole defect".
Details released to the Somerset County Gazette under a Freedom of Information request also reveal £2.1m was paid in 31 compensation claims in 2016 to 2017.
The council said it was unable to give further details for legal reasons.
Documents also reveal a rise in the total amount of compensation paid out by the authority.
It paid about £170,000 to 28 claimants in 2014 to 2015, and almost £900,000 to 33 claimants in the following year.
This financial year, however, the authority has had to pay out £2,137,167, with £1.8m of it going to just one person.
Across the county, the FoI revealed the most common claim for compensation was for potholes, followed by drains and gullies and then "erosion of road".
The lowest compensation pay out was £11.99 for "damage to clothing caused by overgrown brambles that were not maintained".
A spokesman for Somerset County Council said, "data protection legislation" meant it could not give "any further details about individual claims against the local authority".
But he added, to successfully claim compensation claimants would need to prove the council had neglected or breached its "statutory duty".
"Often events occur that are unfortunate but not due to any party's negligence," he said.
"As such, there is no automatic entitlement to compensation or any guarantee that making a claim will be successful."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-41523751 |
Glamour magazine goes 'digital first' and cuts back print editions - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The last monthly print edition of the UK magazine will be in December as it takes a new direction. | Entertainment & Arts | The November edition of Glamour magazine, published this month
UK Glamour magazine is going "digital first", stopping its monthly editions and instead producing a "collectible, glossy" issue twice a year.
A spokeswoman told the BBC the "mobile-first, social-first" move with a focus on beauty was based on how readers are "living their life today".
Glamour will be going into consultation over jobs but "can't confirm numbers" at this stage.
The last monthly print edition will be published in November.
"We are taking our lead from our readers, who are largely women aged 20 to 54," she added.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by British GLAMOUR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The move is for the "beauty obsessed", the magazine said, adding the content will still include "some celebrities and fashion".
The twice-yearly magazines will be out in spring and autumn, reflecting beauty and style "for the coming season".
The move will also see the editorial and commercial teams becoming "fully integrated". The BBC understands the move will result in the loss of some editorial and publishing staff.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Leonie Roderick This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
"Today's Glamour consumer moves to a different rhythm than the one who bought the magazine when it launched in 2001. It is a faster, more focused, multi-platform relationship," the magazine said, adding the "quality of ideas, vision and execution remain central".
Simon Gresham Jones, chief digital officer of Conde Nast Britain said: "We look forward to inspiring the Glamour audience in new ways."
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Lebby Eyres This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Changes to the site will begin in the coming weeks.
This move is taking place in the UK only, although the magazine is published in 17 markets including Brazil, France, Germany and the US.
Glamour is not the first magazine to change its focus to digital content - last year In Style magazine closed its print edition, while in 2014 Company magazine did the same.
What can Glamour do online that others can't? Be better - more smart, beautiful, easy to use - perhaps. But that won't be easy.
There is no getting around the deeper structural forces that are driving this change, which is the flight of readers from print to online, and the pursuit of those readers by advertisers for whom print is an ever lower priority.
The claim that integrating editorial and commercial departments is "a further innovative move" is not up to much, because many others have been forced to do the same. And when editorial and commercial departments merge, it's generally because the money is running out and so the commercial team actually control the editorial content.
Jo Elvin is the editor of the UK's Glamour magazine
And that must be the concern for staff and indeed readers. The danger is that by moving online and focusing ever more on the traffic-generating beauty content, Glamour invests less and less in quality journalism. Of course they will deny that is either the intention or the probable danger, but it is a substantial risk.
It has felt over recent months like an era is passing in magazine culture. In the US, the editors of Vanity Fair, Time, Glamour and Elle all departed. Not so long ago Rolling Stone was sold. And in recent weeks Hugh Hefner and Si Newhouse, two giants of magazine publishing, have died.
It may seem a stretch to link those events to Glamour becoming an online beauty destination, but there is a link: the huge upheaval in journalism, driven by technology.
High quality magazine journalism still has a future online of course, but only if people pay for it. Everyone who wants to see journalism thrive will wish Glamour well, and hope it focuses on quality as it navigates this transition.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
• None Bono named on 'women of the year' list | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41527740 |
Is ex-warlord Charles Taylor pulling Liberia's election strings from prison? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor is suspected of using his UK jail as a base to interfere in the elections in his homeland. | Africa | Liberia's former President Charles Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes in a prison in the British city of Durham. But is he using that as a base to interfere in the elections in his homeland next Tuesday?
"If he was to come back today, I'd roll out the red carpet," said Justin Luther Cassell, a 32-year-old man sitting outside the Pray for Peace Business Centre in Gbartala, central Liberia.
Gathered round on plastic chairs, drinking beer and discussing the forthcoming Liberian elections, the men here are clearly frustrated.
This was Charles Taylor's rebel headquarters in the 1990s.
The former military base may be crumbling, with buildings almost completely engulfed by the jungle, but Taylor's name is still as strong as ever in Bong county.
More than five years since the former president was sentenced for war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone, people in his heartland are still harking back to the old days.
Charles Taylor's former rebel base in Gbartala is now in ruins
"Even with the sound of the gun, life was better," said one frustrated young man, bemoaning the lack of basic necessities in the country.
In an unlikely alliance, former world footballer of the year George Weah, who is running on the presidential ballot for the third time, has chosen Taylor's ex-wife, Jewel Howard Taylor, as his deputy.
Having historically been a staunch critic of Taylor and his National Patriotic Party (NPP), questions are being asked of the motives.
George Weah and Jewel Howard Taylor have been touring the country together
The union between Mr Weah's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) and the NPP came just before a phone call from the former warlord was broadcast to a gathering of his supporters on his birthday in January this year.
The call was made from inside a high-security prison in Durham.
He is heard saying that "this revolution is his life", he advises his people not to betray the party: "Go back to base and everything will be fine."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Rodney Sieh, editor of Front Page Africa - the Liberian paper that published the call - said he was sure that Taylor knew that "he was speaking to an audience".
Taylor wanted his people to know that he was still relevant, according to Mr Sieh.
"He still wants his voice heard" in the Liberian political scene, he said.
Mrs Howard Taylor has made her allegiance to her ex-husband clear.
In an interview with local journalists outside a campaign rally, she said that the country needed to get back to the "agenda" outlined by Taylor when he was president.
But she denied that he was influencing the 2017 elections.
Speaking to the BBC after a friendly football game just outside the capital, Mr Weah admitted to taking a call from prison.
But he rejected the idea that strings were being pulled.
"Charles Taylor is not running the campaign for us," he said.
Defending his choice of running mate he said simply: "People love her, she was the mother of this nation.
"If Charles Taylor was campaigning for me, I think the world would be aware."
Taylor's supporters in Gbartala say they would roll out the red carpet for the former leader should he return home
But the world is aware of the alleged interference and it is concerned.
Since news broke of the phone call, the US Congress passed a resolution that condemned any "external interference" in the poll and specifically any attempt by the convicted war criminal "to influence the elections from prison".
The EU mission in Liberia has also made it clear that "Charles Taylor is serving a 50 year jail sentence and he is not coming back to Liberia".
But if Taylor himself was to be believed when he left Liberia to be exiled in Nigeria on 11 August 2003, his intentions were clear.
"God willing, I will be back," he said at a resignation ceremony in the capital.
Observers are concerned about meddling that could go beyond election day itself.
Vice-President Joseph Boakai says he is nicknamed "Sleepy Joe" because he is a dreamer
Mr Sieh told the BBC that Mr Weah now has some of Taylor's closest aides around him.
"He may not be here physically but he could influence a lot of things if one of these people are elected," the editor said.
Mr Weah and Mrs Howard Taylor's main opponent is considered to be Vice-President Joseph Boakai - or "Sleepy Joe" as he is commonly known - because he is often caught napping at public events.
The 73-year-old has served as vice-president under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female president, for the past 12 years. But rumours of a rift between the two are rife.
"A lot more needs to be achieved," he told us when we caught up with him on the campaign trail.
"The Liberian people want to see development and someone who can unify them."
These women are fasting and praying for a peaceful election
Asked about his nickname he smiled and said he is "a dreamer", but whether he has the charisma and dynamism to captivate Liberia's youthful population, only the vote on 10 October will prove.
They have 20 candidates to choose from.
Although many commentators predict a second round between Mr Weah and Mr Boakai, former Coca-Cola executive Alexander Cummings, who came on to the scene 18 months ago, is fast becoming a serious contender.
A candidate needs more than 50% of the vote for a first-round victory.
According to Mr Sieh, with his door-to-door strategy, Mr Cummings has changed the way campaigns are carried out in Liberia and he might just make it to a run-off.
Former Coca-Cola executive Alexander Cumming has a chance of making it to the second round
But for most Liberians, the most important thing is peace.
Hundreds of women across the country are fasting and praying for a peaceful election.
Just opposite President Sirleaf's private residence, 44-year-old Bernice Freeman is one of more than 100 women gathered under a tent providing shade from the hot sun.
"Every woman here has a very bitter past," she said with a determined look in her eye.
"Some of us were raped several times, we are tired."
The power of these women cannot be underestimated - this same group is credited with bringing an end to the conflict by forcing the warlords to engage in peace talks.
Nobody here wants a return to those days. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41509896 |
'I didn't say no, but I regret that' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A 24-year-old teacher's account of teenage sexual activity prompts many to share their concerns. | Family & Education | A 24-year-old secondary school teacher told the BBC she was shocked by the stories she heard from teenage pupils about their sexual activity.
Her frank account prompted many readers to share their concerns.
Catherine: I'm shocked by what I read. The exact thing happened to my 15-year-old daughter two years ago. The teacher could be talking about her experience. It was devastating.
At the time she didn't realise what was happening to her. Two years on she does understand and she's very angry, but the damage is done.
I'd like you to thank the teacher for speaking so boldly about a serious problem that needs addressing.
Jayne: Wow. I'm in my 40s but so much of what you wrote hit home with me. No one taught me any of the things your teacher spoke about.
My mum worked late nights in a factory. I didn't know I could and should say no. I did think it made me feel special. But it was crumby and lousy and I'm left years later thinking an otherwise idyllic childhood was shadowed and scarred somehow by crappy encounters with crappy boys.
I feel shame for it - until I read your item - maybe I can be/should be kinder to my younger self. If only girls were taught their self worth. It's ok to say no.
Shaun: Interesting article. I've just found out that my 14-year-old daughter has gone on the pill and is having sex with a boy one year older than her. I've tried talking to her and asking whether she has been pressurised into having sex but she says she's not.
Kids (certainly my one) just want to be an adult but she's not, she's 14 and the media/friends/social network is dictating that she has to be sexually active. This is a con and she's now on the pill pumping hormones into her body unnecessarily.
As a father all I can do (and have done) is ask her whether she is being pressured, is this what she wants to do and is she happy. Explaining that I cannot condone it, but I accept it, and that I am present and here if/when she wants to talk to me.
Too many parents lose it with their daughters and push them away. Better to accept and be ready for the inevitable "cry on my shoulders" that I'll get when she realises she has made a mistake.
Jade: I was in the same position and I understand where she is coming from but I still went with it. I regretted it once I got home and told my parents so I could get it off my shoulders.
My parents helped me a lot. It is always good to tell someone if you regret something after. If it's going to be a weight on your shoulders, tell someone.
I didn't say no, but I regret that because I haven't seen or heard from him since it happened and I know why. He didn't love me, he was only using me.
Rachel: This teacher is three years younger than me and believes that 14-year-olds did not exhibit the behaviours she discusses in the article, when she was in school. This seems absolutely ridiculous to me.
When I was 14, there were boys saying these things, and worse, every day. There was a ridiculous amount of pressure to be clean-shaven in school - and I didn't even have any sexual partners.
Boys were always commenting on how girls looked; to the point where I was often ridiculed for having hair on my arms.
Porn definitely shaped boys' opinions then, and it shapes boys' opinions now. But the blame can't all go to porn. Girls "beauty" magazines are to blame as well for these absurd expectations.
Rachel, mother to two teenage boys: The article gives the impression that boys are predatory and incapable of understanding and regulating their own urges. I have found the opposite to be the case.
I talk to my boys about respect, the pressure young women are under and that their desires are normal and healthy, but they should not expect these young women to meet those desires.
They suffer the occasional feminist rant with good grace. I also leave a few art photography books, maybe a not too sexy underwear catalogue lying around. Images of happy healthy smiling girls, with pubic hair (of course).
It might appear a little creepy, but in my opinion, as parents it would be foolish to bury our heads in the sand. Things are definitely not like when we were growing up and porn has a lot to do with that.
Caitlin: This is so true and I cannot express how grateful I am to the teacher who wrote this article for starting this conversation.
I'm 25 now. However, this article reflects exactly how the situation was when I was 14, 15, 16 and clearly nothing has changed. The sad thing is that these feelings and attitudes stay with you well past your early teen years.
The quote "almost like a validation of their appearance and attractiveness - or they think it is" really rings true for me - not just at school but throughout my university life, and even in my early 20s I feel this has always been a huge reason I have felt the desire to sleep with men.
Never for my own pleasure, but to boost my self-esteem and to validate that I was attractive to the opposite sex. An incredibly sad truth and one that I was only able to admit to myself very recently and, after speaking with friends about it, one which seems to be true among many bright and attractive young women.
There really needs to be some radical reform in the way young people are taught about sex and what sex education is focused on. Otherwise I fear that this is something that we will see more and more within society.
Holly: I was particularly struck by the topic of coercion among teenagers.
I am very interested in this topic as I believe it is a monumental issue that exploded with the introduction of the internet, and actually massively affected me - among thousands of other girls - through my teenage years and even to this day.
I currently work in a school and I am thinking about how we can help the current generation of young girls so they are as protected as possible from negative situations as outlined in your article.
I believe so much more needs to be done in schools to educate girls about self-respect and empowerment and would like to develop a course that could be implemented in PSHE [personal, social, health and economic].
• None Girls go along with sex acts, says teacher | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41512300 |
Liz Dawn: Coronation Street stars bid farewell at Salford Cathedral funeral - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Emotional tributes are paid to the Coronation Street legend at Salford Cathedral. | Entertainment & Arts | The order of service gave both Dawn's real and professional names
Liz Dawn's Coronation Street co-stars have paid emotional tribute to the actress at her funeral in Salford.
Dawn, who played Vera Duckworth in the ITV soap for more than 30 years, died last week at the age of 77.
Samia Longchambon, who plays Maria Connor, delivered a eulogy alongside Alan Halsall, who plays the role of Tyrone Dobbs.
Dawn was "a wonderful, kind, funny, and considerate person", Longchambon told the congregation at Salford Cathedral.
"On this very sad day for us all, we know you'll understand when we say how much we're going to miss Liz," she said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"Her infectious laughter, the mischievous sparkle in her eyes, her considerate and warm way with those around her. Always asking after you and your family before thinking of herself.
"We will cherish our memories of working with her and our everlasting friendship. God bless you, Liz, sleep tight. We'll never forget you."
Halsall described her as "a true inspiration" and recalled how she once left fellow cast members in hysterics when she berated Prince Charles on a visit to the set.
"She had no idea how much she was loved or how funny she was and she'd have been totally overwhelmed by the outpouring of love these last couple of weeks," he said.
Pivaro (centre) was last seen as Terry Duckworth in 2012
The Coronation Street theme tune was played by the organist as her coffin was brought into the cathedral.
And Dawn's real-life son Graham Ibbetson recounted personal memories, including the time when his mother, before she was famous, gave away the £25 prize from a holiday camp talent competition to a children's charity.
Her generosity, he went on, meant that her husband Don had to borrow petrol money for the journey home.
He said: "No matter who met with mum, at any place, at any time, in any circumstances, all of them laughed and walked away smiling. Happier. That was mum's legacy."
Sally Dynevor and Michael Le Vell were among the Coronation Street stars present
Graham Ibbetson also recounted the actress's final afternoon, when the family sat with her and held her hand, while he played Frank Sinatra on his phone "hoping she could hear it".
He finished his tribute by adapting the words of Sinatra's My Way to apply to his mother, making it Her Way.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Antony Cotton This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Other cast members at the service included Helen Worth, who plays Gail Rodwell, Sally Dynevor, who plays Sally Metcalfe, and Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster.
"It was a lovely service," said Worth, holding back tears. "It was quiet, it was calm, it was gentle. People spoke beautifully and so bravely.
"We all loved her. I also know she'll be looking down now and saying, 'eh, that were nice.' It was a good send-off for someone we loved."
Ken Morley (l) and Bruce Jones were among others in attendance
When Coronation Street's famous faces emerged from Salford Cathedral after the funeral, the mood was one of sadness - but they were also comforted by remembering and celebrating the woman who they knew as Liz and we knew as Vera.
Above all, there was huge affection as they spoke. Antony Cotton described the service as the coming together of her "two families" - her real family and her screen family.
The word family was mentioned a lot to describe the atmosphere on the show when she was there - as several co-stars said, she was the matriarch of Corrie.
There was a third family - the family of fans. A few dozen of them had gathered to watch the mourners amid the everyday bustle of Salford, a couple of miles from the Corrie cobbles, outside Weatherfield's local cathedral.
Dynevor said the service had been "incredible" and that Dawn was "the heart of Coronation Street".
"There was always laughter where Liz was, and kindness," she told the BBC. "She was friends with everybody."
Le Vell remembered an occasion when Dawn, a devout Catholic, returned from an audience with Pope John Paul II in 1998 "with all these little angel things to bless us with".
"She was such a selfless person," he went on. "She was like a proper matriarch. It's a massive loss."
Former stars Ken Morley, who played Reg Holdsworth, and Bruce Jones, who played Les Battersby, were among the others there to pay their respects.
The Coronation Street theme tune was played as her coffin was brought in
The funeral was conducted by Father Brendan Curley, the former dean of Salford Cathedral and a friend of Dawn and her family, alongside the cathedral's current dean, Father Michael Jones.
Her coffin was transported to the cathedral with a display of pale pink roses spelling the word "Mum".
Dawn played the battleaxe Vera from 1974 until 2008, when an episode featuring Vera's death attracted more than 12 million viewers. She was diagnosed with emphysema in 2004.
She is survived by her husband Don, four children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41523801 |
Brazil nursery attack: Children set on fire in Minas Gerais - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A security guard sets fire to a childcare centre, killing four children and a teacher. | Latin America & Caribbean | Police said the security guard appears to have locked the door of the room before starting the fire
Four children and a teacher have been killed in Brazil after a security guard threw flammable liquid on them and set them on fire, officials say.
The man also set himself alight at the childcare centre in the remote town of Janauba in Minas Gerais state.
Video footage showed chaotic scenes outside, as parents cried and panicked as the news broke.
Twenty-five people, mostly children aged four and five, are being treated for burns in local hospitals.
Some of the patients may still need to be airlifted to a specialised burns unit in the state capital, Belo Horizonte.
Relatives and residents have gathered outside the local hospital in Janauba
The mother of one of the victims, four-year-old Juan Miguel Soares Silva, told O Globo newspaper that she had been considering enrolling him in another nursery prior to the attack.
"We are about to move to a different neighbourhood," Jane Kelly da Silva Soares said.
"I woke up early to drop him at the nursery. When I saw him again he was already dead in hospital."
The security guard has been identified by police as Damiao Soares dos Santos, 50. He died in hospital of his wounds.
The reasons for the attack are still being investigated.
Local media has reported that he was dismissed after returning from annual leave last month with an alleged health condition.
He went to the Gente Inocente childcare centre to hand in his medical certificate and then started the fire, O Globo newspaper reported.
President Michel Temer tweeted: "I'm very sorry about this tragedy involving children in Janauba. I want to express my sympathy to the families."
"This must be a very, very painful loss," he added.
The mayor of Janauba has declared seven days of mourning. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41515503 |
Las Vegas shooting: NRA urges new rules for gun 'bump-stocks' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US pro-gun group calls for a review of the legality of the devices after the Las Vegas massacre. | US & Canada | The National Rifle Association has called for "additional regulations" on bump-stocks, a rapid fire device used by the Las Vegas massacre gunman.
The group said: "Devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations."
Republicans have said they would consider banning the tool, despite years of resisting any gun control.
Lawmakers plan to hold hearings and consider a bill to outlaw the device.
The NRA called on Thursday for regulators to "immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law".
President Donald Trump later told reporters his administration would be looking into whether to ban them "in the next short period of time".
"In the aftermath of the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas, the American people are looking for answers as to how future tragedies can be prevented," NRA chiefs Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox wrote in the statement.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'It was the scariest moment in my life'
They criticised politicians who are calling for gun control, writing that "banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks".
The statement, the organisation's first since Sunday's attack in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and nearly 500 injured, noted that bump-stocks were approved by the Obama administration's Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
The NRA's strategy for responding to the Las Vegas mass-shooting is now coming into focus.
By recommending that an executive branch agency conduct a review of the legality of bump stock devices, the extremely influential gun rights lobby is seeking to direct efforts towards administrative, not legislative, solutions.
If Congress were to start drafting new laws, the process may be more difficult for the NRA to control. Democrats, who have been clamouring for the opportunity to debate new gun-control laws, could have their chance. Republican congressional leadership may try to clamp down on the proceedings, but there's a chance other proposals -like limits on magazine capacity, military-style rifle features and new background check requirements - could come up for consideration.
These types of provisions are popular with the public at large but vigorously opposed by the NRA and their supporters in Congress. It could make for difficult votes for some conservative legislators.
The White House and many congressional Republicans are pledging to have a "conversation" about the issue and "look into" the details. That, for the moment, is a far cry from action.
The NRA is now suggesting an alternative route.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, who spoke to reporters moments after the NRA statement was issued, said: "Members of both parties and multiple organisations are planning to take a look at bump-stocks. We welcome that and would like to be part of that conversation."
In the same statement the NRA urged Congress to pass their longstanding pet proposal to expand gun rights nationwide, so-called right-to-carry reciprocity.
The lobby group wants gun-owners with concealed-carry permits from one state to be allowed to take their weapons into any other US state, even if it has stricter firearms limits.
Another NRA policy priority, the deregulation of silencer attachments, appears to have stalled in Congress in the wake of the Las Vegas attack, after Republican sponsors withdrew their bill.
A bill to ban bump-stocks was submitted to the US Senate on Wednesday by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. After the Las Vegas attack in October 2017 the BBC looked at how US mass shootings are getting worse
A Republican-led version of the bill may be submitted for debate as early as Thursday, Florida Republican Carlos Curbelo told reporters.
He said there was growing bipartisan consensus and that his office had been "flooded" with calls from other lawmakers interested in the bill.
"I think we are on the verge of a breakthrough when it comes to sensible gun policy," he told reporters.
Bump-fire stocks, also called bump-stocks and slide-fire adapters, allow semi-automatic rifles to fire at a high rate, similar to a machine gun.
But they can be obtained without the extensive background checks required of automatic weapons.
Ask survivors of the Las Vegas massacre about gun control and you may well hear the sound of silence.
The cultures of country music and shooting overlap and many concert-goers remain strong supporters of the right to bear arms.
"It's obviously kind of a touchy subject," singer and performer Krystal Goddard, 35, told me after recounting the horror of her escape from the gig.
"I think that guns are just a symptom of other things going on," she said, although she added that she did not understand why anyone needed to own an assault rifle.
There is some support among survivors for banning bump-stocks but there is also a realisation that doing so does not amount to serious gun control.
And all the while the killing continues. Fifty-nine people died here on Sunday.
By Thursday afternoon at least 87 more people had been shot and killed across the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That's a Las Vegas massacre every three days.
Stephen Paddock, the gunman in Las Vegas, had fixed the accessories to 12 rifles used in his attack.
Bump-stocks typically cost less than $200 (£150) and allow nearly 100 high-velocity bullets to be fired in just seven seconds, according to one company advert.
One of the most popular manufacturers of bump-stocks, Slide Fire, said they had sold out "due to extreme high demands" since the Las Vegas shooting. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41519815 |
Ashraf Ghani: Afghan president has 'worst job on Earth' - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ashraf Ghani tells the BBC that Nato troops will be able to leave Afghanistan "within four years". | Asia | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ashraf Ghani: "Now in terms of management and leadership things are really falling into place"
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan makes no bones about the challenges facing his country when we sit down for an exclusive BBC interview in his palace in Kabul.
"This is the worst job on Earth," he tells me.
And it is true there are no shortage of tough issues facing Afghanistan. The most obvious is security. His country has been at war for almost 16 years now. Yet the Afghan president is surprisingly bullish about how long the country will continue to require the support of Nato.
Nato troops, he says, will be able to pull out "within four years".
Many military analysts will consider that optimistic given that it is only three years since the Nato combat mission ended and the Afghan military took responsibility for the battle against the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
About 14,000 Nato troops remain in the country to "train, advise and assist" Afghan forces. The aim is to strengthen them so they can take the battle to the Taliban.
The president says the Afghan National Army is prevailing against the Taliban
Mr Ghani doesn't deny it has been a difficult three years. "We were like 12-year-olds taking on the responsibility of a 30-year-old; but we really grew in the process. Now in terms of management and leadership things are really falling into place."
He continues: "Within four years, we think our security forces would be able to do the constitutional thing, which is the claim of legitimate monopoly of power."
He expects that some foreign troops will remain in Afghanistan after that period as part of the global fight against terrorism but, when I ask whether he is saying Afghan forces have turned the corner in the fight against the Taliban, there is no hesitation: "Yes," he says.
The Taliban, he says, had two strategic aims: to overthrow the government or to create two "political geographies", by which he means whole areas of the country where it holds sway.
"It has failed miserably in both of these aims," Mr Ghani believes.
Whether that is true is debatable. The latest figures from the US military show that the Afghan government controls less than two-thirds of the country. The rest is either controlled or contested by the Taliban and other militant groups.
What is more, last year Afghanistan lost some 10% of its entire fighting force: about 7,000 Afghan National Army soldiers were killed, another 12,000 were injured, and many thousands more deserted.
One reason the Afghan president is so confident is that he believes that the West does not really understand the real nature of the conflict. His government is not fighting a civil war, he argues, but a drug war.
The US has announced that some of its forces will stay in Afghanistan indefinitely
"Taliban is the largest exporters of heroin to the world. Why is the world not focusing on heroin? Is this an ideological war or is this a drug war?" asks Mr Ghani. "This criminalisation of the economy needs to be addressed."
So what is the ultimate aim, I ask.
"A peace agreement with the Taliban," he answers without a breath.
"The whole aim of the strategy is to provide the ground for political solution and a political solution is a negotiated solution. It's imperative that the people are given a chance to live their lives. We have been denied breathing space for 40 years, and in an immense tribute to our people for their resilience, any other state would've been completely broken."
Mr Ghani is full of praise for US President Donald Trump, who finally announced last month that his government was ready to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. Withdrawal, said Mr Trump, would be determined by "conditions on the ground and not arbitrary timetables".
The US president also said he would send a few thousand more troops to support the current Nato mission. In return, Mr Ghani says he plans a complete overhaul of the Afghan government, including redoubled efforts to crack down on corruption.
"The first principle of tackling corruption," he tells me, "is that you do not engage in it and you have the will to confront it. Whoever engages in corruption, regardless of affiliation, relationship etc, must be subject to the same law."
"A three-star general that I have promoted is now in prison because it was demonstrated that fuel was being stolen," he boasts. "One of the richest men in the country that people thought was untouchable is now in prison. You can ask anyone in the judiciary, I provide full political support."
The Afghan president's message is clear: "Self-reliance is not just words, but deeds."
And, with two years to go before a general election, he says he doesn't care if the price of his reform efforts is his presidency.
"If election is your goal, you're never going to engage in reform. Reform has to be your goal. Election is the means. You run for office in order to do something, not in order to perpetuate yourself. Politicians have become extraordinarily conservative, but our times require imagination and bold action."
• None Afghan president: 'Corner has been turned' Video, 00:01:40Afghan president: 'Corner has been turned' | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41502783 |
Baby sleep positioners dropped by shops after deaths warning - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | UK stores drop products after US regulators say they can cause suffocation and are linked to 12 deaths. | UK | The FDA's video about sleep positioners warns that "all can be dangerous"
Some UK retailers have stopped selling baby sleep positioners amid concerns over their safety.
A US health regulator said they "can cause suffocation that can lead to death" and have been linked to 12 infant deaths in the US.
The positioners, aimed at infants under six months, are intended to keep a baby in a specific position while sleeping.
Mothercare, John Lewis, eBay, Boots and Tesco have stopped sales, but they are still available from other retailers.
The Lullaby Trust, a cot death charity which advises the NHS, told BBC News that there are hundreds of baby sleep products on the market - and "parents assume that if something is for sale, it is safe to use".
Lullaby's Jenny Ward added: "The age-old question that hasn't really changed is: how do I get my baby to sleep?
"And if there's a product that says: 'This will help your baby to sleep', it's obviously something that some parents will want to find out more about."
But she said the Trust recommends a firm, flat, waterproof mattress, in a clear cot free of pillows, toys, bumpers and sleep positioners, because the evidence shows that this reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
The Trust does not recommend wedges or sleep positioners - regardless of other potential benefits.
If, for example, parents are worried about "flat head syndrome" from babies sleeping on their backs, there are techniques that can be used - such as supervised tummy time while they are awake - that will not increase the risk of SIDS.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Here's how to put your baby to sleep safely
The Food and Drug Administration in the US released a statement on Wednesday explaining that the items - often called "nests" or "anti-roll" products - have caused some babies to suffocate after rolling from their sides to their stomachs.
It said the two most common types of sleep positioners feature raised supports or pillows (called "bolsters") that are attached to each side of a mat, or a wedge to raise a baby's head.
The FDA first issued a safety warning seven years ago, saying "in light of the suffocation risk and the lack of evidence of any benefits, we are warning consumers to stop using these products".
There is no FDA equivalent in the UK, though the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is responsible for product safety policy, which is enforced by Trading Standards.
A BEIS spokesman told the BBC: "Manufacturers, distributors and retailers must ensure products meet the relevant safety requirements and be able to prove this is the case if asked, before the product is placed on the market."
Mothercare had been selling a sleep positioner for £39.99 but has told the BBC it is no longer for sale.
It came with a warning that it should not be used once a baby was able to turn around on their own.
Tesco, which sold sleep positioners on its website through a third party, said: "We have removed these products from our website as a precautionary measure."
John Lewis, which had one sleep positioner for sale, the Cocoonababy Sleep Positioner, also said it was removing it as a "precautionary measure".
The retailer said it was also removing the Cocoonababy Nest, a sleep pod, while it awaits "further advice and reassurance from the supplier".
A spokesman for eBay said the website would be banning the sale of the products, adding: "Our team will be informing sellers and removing any listings that contravene our policies."
Boots said it is removing the sale of all sleep positioner products "whilst we investigate further with our suppliers".
Sleep positioners are however still available on other websites, including Amazon, which said it would not be commenting on the issue.
A spokeswoman for Jo Jo Maman Bebe said it was still selling the products but was "investigating the issue as a matter of urgency with our suppliers".
The Lullaby Trust said there is no need to use any type of equipment or rolled up blankets to keep a baby in one position, unless parents have been advised to do so by a health professional for a specific medical condition.
It added: "Babies are at higher risk of SIDS if they have their heads covered, and some items added to a cot may increase the risk of head-covering and can also increase the risk of accidents.
"We recommend that while evidence on individual products is not widely available, parents do not take any chances and stick to scientifically proven safer sleep guidelines".
The charity has published a checklist to help new parents which can be found here.
Have you used a baby sleep positioner or any other sleep products? Let us know about your experiences. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your stories.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41516239 |
Ryanair 'run like a communist regime', says pilot - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A pilot says colleagues are leaving the airline in a mass exodus due to a "toxic atmosphere". | England | Cabin crew reduced to tears, pilots refused days off even for their weddings, and workers "left in exile" thousands of miles from their homes and families.
After budget airline Ryanair was forced to cancel thousands of flights - repeatedly blaming a rostering error rather than an alleged pilot shortage - chief executive Michael O'Leary has written to pilots offering them better pay and conditions.
Here, a long-serving pilot explains why the offer is "too little, too late", and explains why his colleagues are leaving the airline.
Ryanair said it had "messed up the allocation of annual leave", but pilots claim their colleagues are leaving to fly for other airlines
Mr O'Leary is partly right to say the cancellations have been caused by problems accommodating pilots' leave, says the pilot.
But this has been exacerbated by unhappy staff seeking new jobs with rival airlines, he believes.
"The Irish Aviation Authority has changed the rules where pilots cannot fly more than 1,000 hours in a rolling year, and the flight hours have to be taken from January to December, whereas Ryanair were using April to April.
"Ryanair have been given two years' notice but the company have left it to the last minute," the pilot says.
"It's been the perfect storm because, at the same time, other airlines are hiring crews, so they are leaving for pastures new.
"If it wasn't for the crews' goodwill I think this crisis would have come sooner, because for a long time now they've been asking people to work days off.
"Pilots are being used as the scapegoat to cover for incompetency in the upper management, and it's just totally disgusting.
"Instead of O'Leary standing up and taking the blame he's directing the problems and the blame at pilots and saying it's because we're taking leave and holidays.
"That's simply not true. It may be true in a very few cases, but people are working harder now than ever to try to make up this shortfall in crewing levels that we have."
Ryanair staff have been sharing memes among each other that compare the management of Ryanair to the North Korean regime
The pilot said he and many other newly-qualified pilots joined Ryanair following the recession of 2008 when it was one of the few airlines still recruiting.
"A lot have remained here ticking along, but now that the market has become a lot more buoyant and there are other competitors offering much better terms and conditions, they've had enough and they are leaving," he said.
"On a local level the company is fantastic and I'm very fortunate to work with some very highly-skilled individuals.
"Then you have the management at the upper level and it's run like a communist regime in some respects. It's dictated from the top and you are just expected to get on with it.
"I know of colleagues that have had leave denied to get married and then these pilots rely on the goodwill and conscience of other pilots to cover their rostered flights so they can get married.
"This company will happily fire pilots to quell any uprising, even to the point where they would close a base or multiple bases to send a message to the rest: 'You just get on and do your job and keep doing what we tell you to do'.
"We have some memes that have been doing the rounds which we feel accurately portray the situation and feelings of the crew - comparing the company to the North Korean communist regime.
"The way they treat the staff is not much better, if not worse, than the way they treat their customers.
"People have just had enough of the toxic atmosphere that's been created here."
The BBC contacted Ryanair with these claims and a spokesman said it was "untrue" there was a toxic atmosphere among staff.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has said he would "challenge any pilot to explain how this is a difficult job or how it is they are overworked"
Mr O'Leary has said pilots fly for no more than 18 hours a week. However, the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) has said this "does not seem to have any basis in reality".
"In reality our hours are much longer than that," he said.
"[Mr O'Leary] has divided the maximum amount of hours a crew can fly in a year, which is 900 hours, by 52 weeks.
"I typically fly between 30 to 40 hours a week. This is what is called 'flight duty' and starts from reporting to work to when we set the parking brake at the end of the day.
"This does not include turnarounds and post-duty paperwork, which we are not paid for.
"If Ryanair advertise to their customers that the flight leaves at five o'clock and arrives at seven o'clock then we only get paid for those two hours.
"We are not paid for the time spent getting back to base either. Sometimes it's a case that you can't get back on the same day and you are having to pay for a hotel out of your own money, then catch a flight the following day to get home or catch multiple flight connections if the base isn't particularly well connected."
Ryanair declined to comment on whether pilots are paid only for the advertised length of the flight. It has said previously that pilots receive "great pay and industry-leading terms and conditions".
There is a lack of basic benefits such as crew meals and drinks, the pilot said
"Cabin crew are employed under similar conditions, on agency contracts, and the things I've seen are pretty disgusting," said the pilot.
"They are given unachievable sales targets, and if they've not reached sales targets they will be berated in a debriefing afterwards by a base supervisor, who is acting as a minion for Dublin.
"It's known for cabin crew to cry after their debriefings. I've seen them lined up almost like a military parade before being inspected, having their bags searched and all kinds of things.
"These people are not earning very much money - around £1,000 a month.
"In some bases the cabin crew even have to rent one room together, and sleep in the same bed - maybe one person who works early shifts and one person who works late shifts - because they are not paid enough to even afford their own accommodation in those particular areas.
"It's quite common for them to be threatened to be moved to a less desirable base, further away from home, unless their sales improve.
"There is also a lack of basic benefits - no free bottles of water, coffee or tea and no crew meals. All of this needs to be brought to work by the pilot and it's the same for cabin crew.
"They provide a water dispenser at every crew room, where you need to take an empty bottle to fill up. You also pay for your own uniform through a Ryanair-approved supplier."
The BBC asked Ryanair to comment on cabin crew being threatened and berated for not meeting sales targets, not being able to afford accommodation and sharing beds with colleagues. Ryanair responded: "These claims are untrue."
The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) has "urged Ryanair to do more to encourage pilots to stay with the airline"
"Some competitors do have similar work arrangements, but nothing to the extent that Ryanair do," the pilot said.
"They've copied the low cost business model from Southwest Airlines [in the United States] but gone to the extreme.
"Southwest make good profits and it's been ranked as one of the best airlines in America to fly for, as they take good care of crews and pay them well.
"However, Michael O'Leary seems to have taken enjoyment from taking the low road and taunting his customers and crews because he knows he can get away with it.
"Passengers want a British Airways service, but ultimately when it comes to booking they will book with Ryanair because he's offering a 10-euro seat.
"However, the tactics of ruling by fear and divide and conquer are outdated in the pilot market we're in now.
"Now, with the invention of WhatsApp people are openly discussing what's going on, and people are starting to see that there is more unity coming together.
"If there's no improvement here, and the management continue to bury their head in the sand, many people will continue to leave and the mass exodus will just continue."
The pilot said Mr O'Leary's offer of better pay and conditions "does not come across as sincere and genuine".
"People want to stay, they want to work and do a good job, but management are treating us like the enemy when we are the assets of the company," he said.
"We are an airline and without pilots and cabin crew the aircraft go nowhere."
In his latest letter to pilots, Mr O'Leary said he had interacted with many pilots over 30 years. "Over this period I have always tried to be courteous, respectful and grateful for the outstanding job that you do, and this will remain my approach."
Michael O'Leary, pictured outside a British Airways travel shop in 1998, has taken cost-cutting culture to the extreme, said the pilot
The BBC agreed not to identify the pilot. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41384789 |
Butterfly swarm shows up on Denver radar system - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Weather scientists first mistook the radar pattern to be birds, and turned to social media for help. | US & Canada | A colourful, shimmering spectacle detected by weather radar over the US state of Colorado has been identified as swarms of migrating butterflies.
Scientists at the National Weather Service (NWS) first mistook the orange radar blob for birds and had asked the public to help identifying the species.
They later established that the 70-mile wide (110km) mass was a kaleidoscope of Painted Lady butterflies.
Forecasters say it is uncommon for flying insects to be detected by radar.
"We hadn't seen a signature like that in a while," said NWS meteorologist Paul Schlatter, who first spotted the radar blip.
The Painted Lady is often mistaken for the monarch butterfly
"We detect migrating birds all the time, but they were flying north to south," he told CBS News, explaining that this direction of travel would be unusual for migratory birds for the time of year.
So he put the question to Twitter, asking for help determining the bird species.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NWS Boulder This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Almost every response he received was the same: "Butterflies".
"Migrating butterflies in high quantities explains it", he later wrote on the NWS Boulder Twitter account.
Namely the three-inch long Painted Lady butterfly, which has descended in clouds on the Denver area in recent weeks.
The species, commonly mistaken for monarch butterflies, are found across the continental United States, and travel to northern Mexico and the US southwest during colder months.
They are known to follow wind patterns, and can glide hundreds of miles each day.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by kiki cannon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41528521 |
Further tariff of 80% imposed on import of C-Series plane - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US Department of Commerce again rules against the aerospace firm in its dispute with rival Boeing. | Northern Ireland | Parts of Bombardier's C-Series planes are made in Belfast
The US Department of Commerce has again ruled against aerospace firm Bombardier in its dispute with rival Boeing.
A further tariff of 80% has been imposed on the import of Bombardier's C-Series jet to the US for alleged below-cost selling.
This is on top of an earlier tariff of 220% which related to subsidies Bombardier got from Canada and the UK.
There have been warnings that the import tariffs could threaten Bombardier jobs in Belfast.
About 1,000 jobs are linked to the C-Series, the wings of which are made at a purpose-built £520m factory in the city.
A spokesperson for Bombardier said: "We strongly disagree with the commerce department's preliminary decision."
The firm said the ruling represented an "egregious overreach and misapplication of U.S. trade laws".
"The commerce department's approach throughout this investigation has completely ignored aerospace industry realities," it said.
"This hypocrisy is appalling, and it should be deeply troubling to any importer of large, complex, and highly engineered products."
The programme is not just important to Bombardier jobs in Belfast, but also to 15 smaller aerospace firms in Northern Ireland - and dozens more across the UK - which make components for the wings.
The US Department of Commerce rulings, which could more than triple the cost of a C-Series aircraft sold into the US, could jeopardise a major order placed last year from US airline Delta.
A final ruling in the case is due early next year.
Davy Thompson from the Unite union said workers are very concerned.
"It looms very large over these workers and it's time for the British government to actually step up for British workers," he said.
"We see the British government being bullied by Boeing.
"The EU needs to step in, because effectively they are being bullied too. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The history of Bombardier in Northern Ireland
A government spokesperson described the latest development as "disappointing", but said it was "hardly surprising given last week's preliminary ruling sided with Boeing".
"As with the investigation into subsidies, this is only the first step in the process," they added.
"Since the interim finding, we have had further Cabinet level engagement with the US Administration and Canadian government.
"We continue to make all efforts alongside the Canadian government to get Boeing to the table to resolve the case."
In a statement Boeing said: "Today's decision follows a fact-based investigation by the Commerce Department and it validates Boeing's dumping complaints regarding Bombardier's pricing in the United States.
"This was an avoidable outcome within Bombardier's control. The laws governing global trade are transparent and well known."
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said: "The United States is committed to free, fair and reciprocal trade with Canada, but this is not our idea of a properly functioning trading relationship".
"We will continue to verify the accuracy of this decision, while doing everything in our power to stand up for American companies and their workers."
The Canadian aerospace firm employs more than 4,000 workers across four sites in Northern Ireland.
Components of the C-Series jet are manufactured at a purpose-built factory in east Belfast and many other local firms are involved in the supply chain.
The punitive tax would significantly raise the price of the jet in the US market, and threaten the future of the product.
Boeing took the case after accusing Bombardier of anti-competitive practices.
It claimed its rival was selling the C-Series jets below cost price after taking state subsidies from the Canadian and British governments.
When the preliminary tax ruling was made last week, Wilbur Ross said: "The subsidisation of goods by foreign governments is something that the Trump administration takes very seriously."
The US trade commission is due to rule on the Department of Commerce's 220% tax proposal next year, but the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise (ISME) Association said the EU should not wait for the final decision.
Its chief executive, Neil McDonnell, said the EU "should signal right now that it will unconditionally, unequivocally and aggressively oppose protectionist measures by the US with tariffs of like effect". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-41532309 |
Kazuo Ishiguro keeps calm amid Nobel Prize frenzy - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The author is surprised but unruffled amid the whirlwind of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. | Entertainment & Arts | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"How should a Nobel laureate dress?" asked Kazuo Ishiguro, who, 40 minutes earlier, had found out he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
To say the news was unexpected is an understatement. He literally couldn't believe it.
Until, that was, his phone began to ring constantly, an orderly queue of TV crews started to form outside his front door ("how do they all know where I live?"), and his publishers dispatched a top team to his house as back-up.
This was not fake news. This was delightful, surprising news. Maybe there were others who should have won instead, he wondered. "But that is the nature of prizes. They are a lottery."
While chaos reigned around him, he was calm, assured and thoughtful, talking (after nipping upstairs to fetch a smart jacket for our interview) about his belief in the power of stories and how those that he wrote would often explore wasted lives and opportunities.
"I've always had a faith that it should be possible, if you tell stories in a certain way, to transcend barriers of race, class and ethnicity."
For me, he is one of the great living writers working in any language. All writers can tell stories. Ishiguro tells stories on another level.
He places the reader in some sort of alternative reality - which might be the future, it might be the present, it might be the past. They feel like places that are whole and real, but you don't know them.
They're weird and not necessarily happy places. But they're places that you can inhabit and relate to, and you become deeply involved with the characters. That's the writer's job - he just does it better than most.
Kazuo Ishiguro held an audience with reporters in his garden
Growing up in England in a Japanese household was crucial to his writing, he says, enabling him to see things from a different perspective to many of his British peers.
It is most obvious in the slightly detached nature of many of his narrators, which he explains as coming from "a long tradition in Japanese art towards a surface calm and surface restraint. There is a felling emotions can feel more intense if they are held down to the surface level".
There was nothing superficial about his emotions when we met earlier today. He was chuffed to bits, and rightly so.
Kazuo Ishiguro is worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. Follow my Twitter feed: @WillGompertzBBC If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41517882 |
7 days quiz: Which renowned thinker is connected to Victoria Beckham? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | 7 days quiz: 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? | 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-41517019 |
The community hoping to buy their island - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Emma Jane Kirby visits the local community on Ulva who are hoping to raise the money to buy the Scottish island | UK | The 4,500-acre (seven-sq-mile) Inner Hebridean island of Ulva was put up for sale over the summer
A beautiful, remote Scottish island is up for sale - but can the local community raise the money to buy it for themselves? Emma Jane Kirby writes from Ulva.
The problem with Ulva is that once you get on to the 4,500-acre (seven-sq-mile) Inner Hebridean island, you really don't ever want to get off it.
The unexpected autumn sunshine is showcasing the rusty browns and mossy greens of its landscape as a true bucolic idyll, and the dark sea, which follows the contours of its dramatic coastline, inspires childish thoughts of escape and adventure.
Donald Munro, the island's ferryman tugs the brim of his hat down a little over his eyes when I tell him this.
"And how many others feel the way you do?" he smiles. "How many others with £4.25m to spend? But this is our home... we have roots here."
For Donald Munro, the island's ferryman, Ulva is his home
Over the summer, Ulva was put up for sale.
Billed as the ultimate private getaway, the island has drawn attention from wealthy individuals from all over the world.
Rumours flip and fly across the narrow strait of water that separates it from the Isle of Mull - someone has heard a sheikh is keen, another fears Russian oligarchs, there are whispers of a professional footballer wanting his very own millionaire's playground.
"It's not really about who the buyer is," explains my tour guide for the day, John Addy, who lives on neighbouring Mull.
"It's about what that buyer wants to do with this island. The buyer could really want to regenerate this island; that would be great - or the buyer could just want it as a plaything. That's why we are putting in a bid for a community buyout - to protect the people from an absentee landlord."
John Addy has put in a bid for a community buyout of Ulva and hopes to develop and repopulate the island
John is a director of the North West Mull Community Woodland Company Ltd, a community body, affectionately known as The Woodies, which has applied to the Scottish government to exercise the community right to buy, created by the land reform legislation, which gives communities the opportunity to try to buy land themselves if it comes up for sale.
The Woodies, set up in 2006, have already successfully taken over acres of forests on Mull from the Forestry Commission Scotland.
In Ulva they have plans to repopulate the island by increasing economic activity and the housing stock, building new affordable homes and developing farming, fishing, and even crofting.
"Just look at the potential here," says John, as we stop in front of an information board that boasts of the island's red deer, sea eagles, otters and dolphins.
The community group would like to transform derelict cottages into hostels and B&Bs
"Can't you just imagine the tourism potential if we won our bid and were allowed to develop and restore and repopulate this place?"
We walk past some rundown farm buildings and some fairytale but derelict cottages the community group would like to transform into hostels and B&Bs.
At the moment, wild camping is the only way to stay overnight as a visitor on the island.
"All that would change with the community buyout," says John. "We're even thinking of electric cars."
Two hundred years ago, more than 500 people lived here. Today, only six call Ulva their home. They rent their homes from the current owner, Jamie Howard, who is resident on the island and whose family have owned Ulva for over 70 years.
If The Woodies don't succeed in their community buyout, and the island is put back on the market for private sale, the residents fear that a new owner may not want tenants on their land.
Barry George has been an Ulva resident for 21 years but fears a new owner could shut the island down
"I have nowhere else to go," says Barry George as he harvests vegetables from his beautiful island garden.
Barry, who used to work on the local fish farms, has been an Ulva resident for 21 years.
"This is all I've got," he says. "A new owner could shut our island down - when you buy the island, you also buy the piers - so we could be cut off and told to go."
It is possible that the Scottish government could refuse to consider North West Mull Community Woodland Company's buyout bid as the application came in late, but for now The Woodies' action has caused the private sale to be put on hold.
If the bid is registered, the group would then have about eight months to come up with a viable economic plan, and the necessary funding, to meet whatever eventual sale price was set by the government.
Ulva is not the first Scottish island to attempt a community buyout - in 1997, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust successfully took ownership of the Isle of Eigg, meeting the sale price of £1.5m through a series of grants and a major fundraising campaign.
John Addy is confident the money needed to buy Ulva could also be raised through grants and crowdfunding.
The fifth Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, known as the Father of Australia, was an Ulva man, and there have already been encouraging noises from down under.
The owner of this seafood cafe believes the community are the best people to run Ulva
As she opens oysters for the hungry day-trippers at the thriving seafood cafe she runs with her sister-in-law, 30-year-old Rebecca Munro tells me that living on Ulva with her fisherman husband and bringing up their two young children here is "exceptionally special".
Since the announcement that the island was up for sale however, she admits to sleepless nights.
Rebecca is passionate about the community buyout and adamant that if Ulva was community-owned, it would be easy to repopulate the island because people would feel secure.
"This is about securing opportunities and our future," she says, wiping lemon juice from her hands on to her apron.
"Surely it's obvious that the community are the best people to run this place.
"Why would the people who live here and care about this place not be the best placed people to take over?"
As he ferries me back to Mull in his small boat, Rebecca's father-in-law Donald waves away my question about what would happen to his livelihood if the community buyout failed and a new owner decided to shut access to Ulva.
"Let's not talk about that," he says gruffly. He turns his head to look at Ulva's retreating and stunning coastline.
"It's a beautiful day, isn't it?" he says. "The girls will be busy in the cafe." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41484213 |
The stand-up comedian who can't speak - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Lost Voice Guy uses a synthetic voice on to speak - but at least one person was not convinced... | Disability | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lee Ridley a.k.a. "Lost Voice Guy" reveals the perils of relying on a synthetic voice for comic timing
Life as a disabled person sometimes means you are asked slightly confused questions. But amid those awkward moments, there can be humour.
The following is an edited version of a monologue by Lost Voice Guy, Lee Ridley. He has cerebral palsy and uses a synthetic voice on his iPad to talk. He first performed this sketch for the BBC at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
One thing I've noticed about being a stand-up comedian is that mixing a disabled guy with loads of drunk people is rarely a good idea.
In fact, I would say the majority of my awkward moments come from meeting people in bars after my gigs.
It still amazes me how people can quite happily watch me on stage and laugh at my jokes, but as soon as I'm off stage, they aren't sure how to treat me.
They either think I'm deaf, and write everything down to show me, or they talk to my mates instead, even though they've just seen me on stage.
They could at least give me a bit of credit.
My most awkward moment came after a gig at The Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle.
I had just been on stage and was chilling out in the bar when this bloke came up to me and asked me if I really could talk - as if I was only putting it on to take advantage of the disabled parking.
Ridley, here with his personal assistant Emy Jones, won the BBC New Comedy Award 2014
I had never been in a position where someone has questioned my disability before. Well, if you don't count my Department for Work and Pensions assessment.
Surely it was obvious I was disabled? I mean, I have the funny walk and everything. Not even the best method actor could put this rubbish on for days at a time.
But he didn't believe me.
I tried to lighten the mood by making a joke and told him that if I was going to lie about being disabled, I doubt I would have chosen this.
I explained that, as a comedian, not being able to speak is probably the worst disability to pretend to have.
Lee was one of seven people with a disability or mental health difficulty to perform a story about awkward moments as part of BBC Ouch's storytelling event at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Watch the full programme on BBC iPlayer here or you can also read:
For more Disability News, follow BBC Ouch on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the weekly podcast.
It's far more likely I would pretend I couldn't walk, so I could perform while sitting down, or maybe I would say that I was blind, then I'd be able to let my dog poo on people who didn't laugh at my jokes.
I told him my job would be so much easier if I could talk because, apparently, it's very important to get your tone of voice right when doing comedy. That meant I was completely screwed because my voice always sounds the same when I'm excited, miserable, happy or bored.
Except on Tuesday nights, I added, when I pretend to be a woman.
The bloke laughed and I thought that was the end of the matter.
But instead of walking away, like any normal person, he decided to ask me if I had ever tried to talk just to see what would happen - as if I had just been lazy all of my life.
I said no, I hadn't tried to talk before, mainly because I knew nothing would happen. Besides, I've built a career out of not being able to speak so I didn't think I should encourage my voice to magically reappear.
Then I realised, because he was drunk, he'd be very easy to wind up.
I told him that I talk in my sleep.
I said I know this because I always wake up with random sentences typed out on my iPad and he believed me.
Then I convinced him I had a job as a satellite navigation system. He didn't seem too sure at first, so I got him to suggest a location and said I could direct him to it exactly. Thankfully, he chose somewhere I knew. So I started my journey.
"After 200 yards bear left. At the roundabout, take the second exit. Or is it the third? Follow the yellow brick road. Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street. Take the bridge over troubled water. You're on the road to hell. Stop - hammer time."
But, even after all this, he still wouldn't leave me alone. So I did what I always do when I get tired of talking to people.
I pretended my batteries had gone flat.
BBC Ouch Storytelling Live: Awkward Moments will be broadcast on the BBC News Channel at 21:30 BST on 6 October and on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days afterwards.
For more Disability News, follow on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to the weekly podcast. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-40960483 |
Thaad: US to sell $15bn missile defence to Saudi Arabia - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The deal will supply the US's advanced Thaad missile defence system to Saudi Arabia. | US & Canada | The system can destroy incoming missiles at altitudes beyond the Earth's atmosphere
The US government has approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of its advanced Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missile defence system.
The State Department said the $15bn (£11.5bn) deal furthered US national security and foreign policy interests.
It would boost Saudi and Gulf security against Iranian and other regional threats, the state department added.
The announcement comes a day after Saudi Arabia agreed to buy air defence systems from Russia.
The deal would not alter the military balance in the region, the Pentagon's Defense Security Co-operation Agency said.
Thaad systems are being deployed in South Korea to protect against a possible missile attack from North Korea.
But many South Koreans have objected, fearing it would become a target and endanger the lives of those who live near its launch sites.
China also voiced opposition to the system, saying it would affect the regional security balance.
The system destroys incoming missiles at altitudes beyond the Earth's atmosphere, making it especially useful in countering missiles that might carry a nuclear warhead.
The Thaad interceptor is produced by the US company Lockheed Martin.
This latest multi-billion-dollar deal will help satisfy the Trump administration's desire to be seen to be protecting and increasing jobs at home.
Donald Trump has also made it abundantly clear that he is completely in tune with the Saudi view of Iran as the biggest threat in the region - which is a key rationale behind this new Saudi spending spree.
He may be less pleased, though about the arms deal the Saudis agreed with Russia during King Salman's visit to Moscow this week.
It showed perhaps how Riyadh is hedging its bets, as US influence has been diminishing in the Middle East.
• None What impact could Thaad have in South Korea? | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41532889 |
Tory leadership: 'Nothing has changed', or has it? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | PM's allies believe plot is under control but private questions are now out in the ether. | UK Politics | "Nothing has changed." Remember that?
There is, this morning, an operation being mounted by the government to try to show that nothing has changed in the Conservative Party in the last few days, that Theresa May's leadership remains on track and she is, to use another of her famous phrases, just, "getting on with the job".
Except, as happened the last time she proclaimed "nothing has changed", something rather fundamental has, after all.
For the doubts that have been building about her in the party for months are now out there in the wide open.
Yes, they have only been articulated by two former ministers, Grant Shapps and Ed Vaizey. Yes they were both close to David Cameron. Yes they were both Remainers too, which allows a conspiracy theory to take hold that the efforts to get rid of Theresa May are really a guise for stopping Brexit.
(Having talked to those involved for some time, the doubts are about competence and authority, not Brexit and there is at least one senior Brexiteer among their number).
And yes, most importantly of all, just as it was on the morning after the election, there is still no obvious successor to Theresa May, who commands broad support right across the Tory Party.
If there had been, it's likely that she would have gone then. That is really why those around Theresa May believe they have got the plot under control.
But the public, and now the prime minister's opponents across the table in the Brexit talks are aware that some of her colleagues simply don't think that she is up to the job.
Remarks by Mr Vaizey and Mr Shapps can't be unsaid. The private questions are now out there in the ether and can't be taken back.
Even if the plot has been killed off at birth, it's another crack in her authority, already so fractured after the election.
It doesn't mean she'll have to go now, or indeed anytime soon. Other leaders have survived countless attempts to shove them out.
But even many of Theresa May's supporters know that something is deeply wrong, however many times they tell themselves, "nothing has changed". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41524377 |
Ex-EastEnder Joseph Shade sentenced for sex offences - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Joseph Shade, 24, who played Peter Beale in EastEnders is sentenced for sex offences against girls. | Norfolk | Ex-EastEnders actor Joseph Shade admitted sex offences against three girls between 2012 and 2015
A former EastEnders actor has been given a suspended prison sentence for sex offences against teenage girls.
Joseph Shade, 24, from Sheringham in Norfolk, played Peter Beale as a child from 1998 until 2004.
The youth worker admitted causing or inciting a child under 18 to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust and sexual activity with a child.
Victims sitting in Norwich Crown Court shouted "where is the justice for us?" in response to his sentence.
Shade was given an 18-month prison sentence suspended for two years.
The offences were committed against three girls aged between 14 and 17, and happened between 2012 and 2015.
Shade was working as a youth worker at Norfolk at the time.
Shade played the character Peter Beale (being carried, above) between 1998 and 2004
He sent text messages to girls asking them to have sex or send him pictures of their breasts, and on a single occasion he touched one girl on the bottom, the court heard.
Sentencing him, Judge Maureen Bacon QC said: "You sought to engage vulnerable teenage girls in sexual activity when you were in a position of trust."
During mitigation, it was heard he was a "young vulnerable individual" who had been helped by the youth project himself.
The "humiliation has been significant" for Shade, the court heard.
Joseph Shade had helped by the youth project himself, the court heard
Shade, of Cliff Road, Sheringham, admitted five counts of causing or inciting a child under 18 to engage in sexual activity while in a position of trust.
He admitted one count of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust.
Shade was given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, barring him from working with children and vulnerable adults, and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
He must also sign the sex offenders register and complete a 60-day offender programme.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-41524427 |
Hollywood reacts to Harvey Weinstein abuse claims - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Lena Dunham, Brie Larson and others respond to allegations of sexual harassment against the producer. | Entertainment & Arts | Dunham (l) and Larson (r) are among those to comment either directly or obliquely
Leading Hollywood figures have reacted to the New York Times' article on sexual harassment allegations made against film producer Harvey Weinstein.
The article reported he had reached at least eight settlements with women.
Girls creator Lena Dunham thanked one of its writers "for pushing past [a] flimsy but firm veil of secrecy".
Weinstein has disputed the newspaper report that claimed he harassed female employees over nearly three decades and is taking legal action.
The co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Company released a statement on Thursday in which he expressed "regret [for] what happened".
"I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologise for it," he wrote.
Weinstein, a married father of five, said he planned to take a leave of absence from his company and had hired therapists to deal with his issues.
Nicole Kidman is among the many stars with whom the producer has worked
Yet the producer of Shakespeare in Love, The King's Speech and other Oscar winners later said he was taking legal action against the paper for its "reckless reporting".
"This is a vendetta, and the next time I see [NYT executive editor] Dean Baquet it will be across a courtroom," he is quoted as saying by the Page Six website.
The 65-year-old has been married since 2007 to fashion designer Georgina Rose Chapman, with whom he has two children.
Oscar-winner Brie Larson responded to the allegations by saying she stood "with the brave survivors of sexual assault and harassment... as always".
"It's not your fault. I believe you," she wrote in a post that did not mention Weinstein by name.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Brie Larson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
"The woman who chose to speak about their experience of harassment by Harvey Weinstein deserve our awe," wrote Dunham in another post.
"It's not fun or easy. It's brave."
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Lena Dunham This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41522956 |
Netflix raises prices for first time in two years - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The £1 or $2 a month increases for a premium subscription are the first for two years. | Business | Stranger Things has been a hit for Netflix
Netflix has raised prices in countries including the UK and US for the first time in two years.
The streaming video service will also increase subscription charges in some European countries, a spokeswoman said.
A standard UK plan will rise 50p to £7.99 a month, while a premium subscription for four simultaneous users jumps £1 to £9.99 a month.
The standard US plan increases by $1 to $10.99 a month, with a $2 rise to $13.99 for the premium option.
A basic subscription in the UK, which does not offer high definition viewing, remains at £5.99 a month.
The increases apply immediately for new customers, while existing users will be notified of the change 30 days in advance.
Germany and France are among the other countries where prices will rise. Subscriptions were tweaked in Canada, Latin America and some Nordic countries earlier this year.
Netflix said in July it has 104 million subscribers globally, while revenues rose 32% in the second quarter to $2.8bn.
Shares in Netflix closed 5.4% in New York, bringing the stock's gain this year to 56%.
The price rises come as Netflix faces growing competition from Amazon and other sites such as Hulu in the US.
Mary J. Blige (left) and director Dee Rees at the Toronto premiere of Mudbound
The company continues to spending heavily on original programming such as The Crown, Stranger Things and House of Cards.
It also promises 40 feature films this year ranging from "big-budget popcorn films to grassroots independent cinema".
One of those titles Mudbound, which Variety describes as "an epic about race and poverty in the 1940s Mississippi Delta", starring Mary J. Blige and Carey Mulligan.
The film, which premiered at the Toronto film festival last month, is available to stream from 17 November - the same day it opens in some US cinemas.
Some critics say it is a contender for the Academy Awards and would be the first Netflix feature to be in the Oscars race. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41516159 |
Carles Puigdemont: The man who wants to break up Spain - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Catalonia's sacked President, Carles Puigdemont, has bet everything on a split from Spain. | Europe | Mr Puigdemont is not the first Catalan leader forced to leave the region
Catalonia's sacked President Carles Puigdemont has spearheaded the region's peaceful drive for independence from Spain.
In defiance of the law and Spain's constitution, he has pushed forward in the hope of international recognition.
But his zeal for secession has put him on a collision course with Spain's authorities, which outlawed the independence referendum held in Catalonia on 1 October.
But the result on 21 December was bad news for Madrid. The separatists won a slim majority, even though a pro-unity party came top.
"[Rajoy] has only demonstrated a greater mobilisation of Catalans, greater votes," Mr Puigdemont said, calling for negotiations with the Spanish PM.
He was speaking in Brussels, having fled there with four ministers after declaring independence.
The election result proved that his campaigning via videolink from Brussels had worked.
But the village baker's son from Girona faces the weight of Spanish law if he returns to Spain. The separatist leaders are accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
Born in Amer in 1962, Carles Puigdemont grew up under the dictatorship of Gen Francisco Franco and was taught in Spanish at a Church-run boarding school, but spoke Catalan at home like others of his generation.
Joan Matamala, a few years his senior at the school, remembers the boy everyone got on with, even the older pupils.
Bookseller Joan Matamala went to school with Carles Puigdemont
Mr Matamala runs a bookshop, Les Voltes, that has been promoting Catalan language and culture in Girona for 50 years.
The young Mr Puigdemont did not come over as a natural leader at the time, but he was someone you did not forget, he says.
"Despite the difference in age, he was a role model for others," Mr Matamala remembers.
As a young man, Mr Puigdemont had a passion for his native tongue, going on to study Catalan philology at the local university and polishing colleagues' copy when he first found work at the city's newspapers.
Miquel Riera worked with him, often late into the night, at the fiercely pro-independence paper now known as El Punt Avui.
Miquel Riera worked with Carles Puigdemont at the pro-independence newspaper now known as El Punt Avui
"Right from the start he was very interested in new technology and the internet," says Mr Riera. This may have fed Mr Puigdemont's awareness of social media, which was crucial in promoting the referendum campaign.
"He's a man who makes friends easily and remembers them," says Mr Riera, whose 25-year-old son, he says, was bruised on the chest by a police rifle butt at a polling station at the 1 October referendum.
Mr Puigdemont served as mayor of Girona from 2011 until 2016 when he was elected regional president of Catalonia.
There is no denying his star appeal among his supporters, who clamour to take selfies with him at rallies and avidly follow his social media accounts, which he curates himself.
"Mr Puigdemont has been absolutely key to bringing Catalonia to where we are now," said Montse Daban, international chairperson of the Catalan National Assembly, a grassroots pro-independence movement.
"An absolute and positive surprise for Catalan citizens" - Montse Daban describing the impact of Puigdemont
But in the eyes of Spain's government, the Catalan leader has ruthlessly created a crisis, burning all the bridges in order to make a unilateral declaration of independence.
"Democracy is not about voting - there are referenda in dictatorships too," a Madrid government source told the BBC. "Only when you vote with guarantees according to the law is it a democracy."
Images of violence at the polling stations in October's banned referendum caused an international outcry.
But the source said this was "150% part of Puigdemont's plan".
"It's unfortunate because it was a trap. There's no doubt it looks bad for the Spanish government."
Mr Puigdemont talks the language of independence in a way his more cautious predecessor, Artur Mas, did not during the dry-run referendum of 2014, which was also banned by Madrid.
Speaking to the BBC after the 1 October referendum, Mr Puigdemont said: "I think we've won the right to be heard, but what I find harder to understand is this indifference - or absolute lack of interest - in understanding what is happening here. They've never wanted to listen to us.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police were filmed violently tackling voters and appearing to pull a woman by her hair
"How can we explain to the world that Europe is a paradise of democracy if we hit old women and people who've done nothing wrong? This is not acceptable. We haven't seen such a disproportionate and brutal use of force since the death of the dictator Franco."
He calls for mediation - something the Spanish government says is unacceptable.
A Madrid source dismissed the idea, telling the BBC it would be "mediation between the Spanish government and part of the Spanish state".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
From Brussels, Mr Puigdemont has watched as his Catalan allies back home have been placed in Spanish custody to face trial.
He has been mocked by some for not going to Madrid along with them and placing himself in the hands of Spanish justice.
One cartoon apparently being circulated on the Whatsapp messaging app shows him, with his distinctive mop of hair and glasses, hiding out in a box of Belgian chocolates.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Pascal Hansens This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
But Mr Puigdemont told Belgian TV he was not hiding from "real justice" but from the "clearly politicised" Spanish legal system.
Last year Spain issued then dropped European arrest warrants against him and his four colleagues in Belgium.
But he was arrested in Germany on 25 March while travelling back to Brussels from a conference in Finland. The European arrest warrant against him had been reissued two days earlier, apparently taking him by surprise.
Germany must now decide whether to extradite him to Spain.
Meanwhile, the man from Girona is keeping the cause he holds so dear, Catalan independence, squarely on the doorstep of the European Union. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41508660 |
100 Women: Where are the female Nobel Prize winners? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 2017 Nobel prizes for the sciences have all been announced, but many in the scientific community are pointing out the lack of female laureates. | Science & Environment | The 2017 Nobel season is still under way, with the prizes for peace, and economics yet to be announced.
But for the sciences, this year's work is done and many in the scientific community are noticing some similarities about the winners.
In the case of physics, the winning discovery had already been making global headlines.
The prize was shared by three researchers for the groundbreaking 2015 detection of gravitational waves.
For chemistry, the committee recognised the less publicised work of developing a new microscopy technique, which the Nobel committee said had "moved biochemistry into a new era".
For physiology or medicine, a team who uncovered a better understanding our body clocks was honoured.
However, the science community was quick to notice that this year's laureates all had one thing in common.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Benjamin Saunders This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Ed Yong This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Raychelle Burks This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we're challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today - the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport.
With your help, they'll be coming up with real-life solutions and we want you to get involved with your ideas. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women
With prizes often awarded years, or even decades, after the discoveries that merit them, it was an opportunity for celebration for the teams involved.
The Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, said the three physicists honoured by the Nobel Committee were "outstanding individuals whose contributions were distinctive and complementary".
Yet despite being excited by the wider recognition of this groundbreaking research, it is clear that many scientists feel a change is necessary.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Becky Douglas This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Bryan Gaensler This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 6 by Divya M. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Only 17 women have been awarded a Nobel prize in the three science categories since the awards' inception in 1901. There have been no black science laureates.
Of the 206 physics laureates recognised, two have been women - Marie Curie (1903) and Maria Goeppert Mayer (1963).
There are more men named Robert on the list of previous chemistry winners than there are female laureates.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 7 by Alexis Verger This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Some researchers on Twitter took issue with the current criteria for awarding the Nobel. Each prize cannot be shared by more than three people, laureates are not nominated posthumously, and nomination lists are kept confidential for 50 years.
Vera Rubin, Lise Meitner and Jocelyn Bell Burnell were all cited as worthy potential recipients of a prize in previous years.
Rubin's death in 2016 means that her work on dark matter, believed to occupy most of the mass in the universe, is now ineligible for recognition.
Meitner's long-term collaborator Otto Hahn was awarded the chemistry prize for nuclear fission in 1944, which she did not share, despite being nominated in previous and subsequent years.
Burnell and Chien-Shiung Wu, both physicists, also saw their colleagues win for research they had worked on, but were not included.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 8 by Mika McKinnon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 9 by Rod Van Meter This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Given the lifelong prestige of becoming a Nobel laureate, the prize is a significant boost to any researcher's career. The acclaim can legitimise a life's work, and yield international notoriety in a field where funding is highly competitive.
Yet for women in physics and chemistry, there are few forerunners to aspire to. Medicine does only slightly better, with 12 female laureates.
Other prizes such as literature often fare better in terms of gender equality, with previous winners including Alice Munroe, Doris Lessing and Toni Morrison.
This year the literature prize has gone to a Japanese-British male author - Kazuo Ishiguro.
While equality initiatives like Athena Swan and organisations like Stemettes work to promote and encourage women, the Nobels remain the most prominent glass ceiling in the world of science.
As part of this year's 100 Women Challenge, a team in Silicon Valley, where women hold just one in 10 senior positions, will be looking at ways to tackle the glass ceiling.
They reveal their results on Friday 6 October. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41513261 |
Amy Winehouse, music, arthritis and me - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | 20-year-old Jade Carter was diagnosed with arthritis as a baby. She explains how Amy Winehouse's charity is helping her use music to ease the pain. | Newsbeat | Jade Carter has spent a lot of her life in hospital.
Rheumatoid arthritis causes the 20-year-old such intense pain she sometimes can't move. That's where music helps.
"I kind of enter this different world when I'm singing. I feel like I can just let go of the reality of life," she tells Newsbeat.
Now Amy Winehouse's charity is helping her find her voice and launch a singing career.
"I was singing since I was six-years-old, when my mum would leave me in Great Ormond Street hospital," she says.
"I just wrote songs all the time because that's pretty much all I could do. I couldn't go to school a lot of the time."
Last night Jade performed for some of the biggest names in UK music, including Emeli Sande, Naughty Boy and Trevor Nelson, at the Amy Winehouse Foundation Gala, an event in memory of the late singer.
She's one of a small group of musicians chosen for Amy's Yard, a 12-week project which gives them time in the late singer's studio, working with a producer on their own track.
"It was a really lovely experience," says Jade, "Too much information, but I would sit on the toilet and be like 'Amy probably sat on this toilet," she laughs.
Jade, from London, was diagnosed with arthritis as a baby.
"I was on and off lots of trial drugs as well as arthritis drugs. Without those I think I would be in a wheelchair now.
"I can't bend my arm properly, sometimes I can't move my legs. I feel like I literally can't move my entire body."
Emeli Sande performed at the event at The Dorchester hotel
She says she's spent years feeling ashamed of having the condition.
"People used to look at me and be like 'you're not disabled. You're just making it up'. I'd be scared to tell people I'm in pain."
Taking part in Amy's Yard has taught her a lot about the music industry, she says.
"We had a lot of wellbeing talks, about staying healthy and positive while you're trying to become someone. That's part of the reason I'm now so confident talking about my illness.
"I want to use my disability to show people they shouldn't hide who they are. I want to do music, and tell people about my condition. Don't let anything stop you."
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat | http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/41525620 |
School discipline: How strict is too strict? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Detentions, isolation rooms and obsessive uniform policies... are schools becoming too strict? | Family & Education | Sarah Vincent changed her daughter's school when the rules suddenly got very strict
"Everyone will sit up extra straight, eyes front, looking at the teacher. You will follow their instructions first time, every time."
Parents may well agree that this excerpt from Great Yarmouth Charter Academy's school rules is no bad thing.
The rules also require pupils to read with a ruler and to wait for teacher's instructions before picking up a pen or anything else.
When they are not reading or writing they must sit up straight with their arms folded and they must "track the teacher" around the room.
"You never turn around - even if you hear a noise behind you. You don't look out of the window. You don't lose focus," the rules from new academy sponsors, Inspiration Trust, say.
Well, a group of parents did not think so and responded by contacting newspapers with claims children had wet themselves in class because they were not allowed to go to the toilet.
One upset parent, Sarah Vincent, said: "If we treated our children like that we would be reported to social services."
Her daughter, Summer, had become "withdrawn" and "miserable" after being repeatedly pulled up for uniform infringements, she said.
She was then given a demerit because she did not have her arms folded as per the school rules, Sarah added.
Others complained pupils were being isolated for as little as dropping a pencil, and parents of at least 16 children have applied to move them to other schools.
But the school, which the new academy trust is trying to turn around after it was rated inadequate, insists it is simply trying to enforce new, high standards of behaviour where they had been lacking.
Children were in school to learn, not look out of the window, a trust spokesman said.
"Setting out clear expectations means everyone knows what is expected and lessons start promptly and run efficiently, so that every pupil gets the most of their time in school."
Pupils had been getting out of their chairs and sometimes leaving classrooms and it was necessary now to enforce order, he said.
"It's very early days," he added.
"And there's been a culture shock from where the school was previously."
And some parents have been delighted with the change.
Parent Tanya McCormick said it had been "so far so good" for her daughter and that she thought parents might be "pleasantly surprised" by the effect of the new regime by the end of term.
But the case has certainly prompted parents, particularly those of children new to secondary school, to ask how strict is too strict.
David, an 11-year-old who has just started a very popular London boys' state school, describes all the things for which you can get a detention.
"For talking too loudly in the playground, for talking while you are lining up...
"You can get one if you don't take your bag off within five seconds of going inside, if you take more than 10 minutes to eat your lunch, or if you have a sweet wrapper in your pocket.
"It just feels like you're only really behaving because you are scared you will get a detention," he says.
Christopher, a pupil at another successful boys' state school, says about 80% of the boys in his class had been given a detention in the first week.
He says his best friend crosses himself every time a detention is dished out in class, like he has "dodged a bullet".
But are these boys enjoying their new schools?
The answer's yes - they love them. But both think teachers should stop handing out quite so many detentions.
Jarlath O'Brien, director of schools with the Eden Academy Trust, says every September a slew of stories about parents horrified at the strictness of their new schools hits the headlines.
"No teacher would say 'we don't really care about bullying or the lessons being disrupted'," he says.
"My concern is when you have a set of rules which start to interfere with the flow of things."
He gives the example of a school allowing short or long-sleeved shirts in its uniform, but not allowing rolled-up sleeves.
"A child might inadvertently roll his sleeves up, and then the lesson is disrupted because the teacher has to pick the child up on it."
Old school ties? Some schools specify how to tie them, as well as which to wear
There has been a tendency in recent times to equate smart uniform with high standards of behaviour, he says, but the two are not the same.
Being too strict can "smack of professional insecurity", he says, adding that this can backfire when "kids find themselves getting into bother without even trying".
The government's behaviour tsar Tom Bennett says people outside the UK "marvel at our obsession with school uniform".
He says the media pander to it by reporting examples of entire forms being sent home for wearing the wrong shoes or some such.
But it can used as a way of fostering a sense of belonging, he says, and letting pupils know: "This is the way we do things around here."
The best behaviour policies balance a culture of discipline with lots of pastoral support, he says.
"You need to have the compassion within the school structure.
"If you have that, if you have the love as well as the discipline, then things can really sky-rocket."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41441639 |
100 Women: Who's going to lose out from automation? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Robots and artificial intelligence are set to replace many jobs but will women or men be affected equally? | US & Canada | Virtual waiters and waitresses, self-service checkouts and robot orchestra conductors: love it or hate it, automation, artificial intelligence and robotics are here to stay. But will these technological advances - be it in the office or the factory - affect the working life of men and women equally?
While there is debate about the benefits of automation in the world of work, there is no escaping the fact that more robots and artificial intelligence means more jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths, known as the Stem group.
In the US, home to some of the world's largest technology firms, growth in computing is expected to yield half a million jobs within the next decade.
But the prospects for women and girls aren't looking good.
If current gender ratios remain the same until 2020, according to the World Economic Forum's study of more than a dozen advanced economies, for every twenty jobs lost to automation, men working in Stem will see five new jobs and women just one.
This research shows that at the current rate, women and girls risk missing out on the jobs of the future as more tasks at work become automated.
Experts say that if there were more female computer scientists it would also ensure that women and men both have creative input and oversight of new technology.
"You get them [girls] interested in the power of technology. It's inspiring," says Aimee van Wynsberghe, the co-founder of Responsible Robotics, which specialises in ethics in new technologies such as robotics and automation.
So what do we know about whose jobs are likely to disappear because of automation?
On balance, the evidence shows that more men work in the jobs that are at risk from automation, says Dr Carl Frey, who co-authored a 2013 Oxford University study on American jobs that were susceptible to automation.
Technology has in many ways, he says, benefited women in employment over the past century.
Machines have created jobs that require more cognitive skills such as memory and reading, proven to be beneficial for women, and have replaced physical tasks done mainly by men.
The World Economic Forum's 2016 Future of Jobs report indicated men and women would share the burden of jobs losses fairly equally.
And PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 2017 suggested a higher percentage of men in the UK, US, Germany and Japan worked in jobs at a high risk of automation.
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, is one of the leading women in technology
But according to preliminary findings from the Institute for Spatial Economic Analysis (ISEA), in California, women are twice as likely to work in jobs with a high chance of being replaced by automation.
Many of the jobs on the list of occupations that have a high chance of becoming automated were in the office and administrative sector, which employs more women than men.
"Public officials need to take a stand and prepare for the future," says Dr Jess Chen, from ISEA.
The pace of change will vary in different sectors and parts of the world; unpredictable economic events could make investment in robotics or AI less or more likely.
There will be jobs created in the future that don't exist now, and there will be demand for jobs that require tasks that can't be done by a robot.
There are ethical and social concerns too: does everyone find it socially acceptable to have robots caring for their ageing grandparents?
BBC 100 Women names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year. In 2017, we're challenging them to tackle four of the biggest problems facing women today - the glass ceiling, female illiteracy, harassment in public spaces and sexism in sport.
With your help, they'll be coming up with real-life solutions and we want you to get involved with your ideas. Find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and use #100Women
Read more: Who is on the 100 Women list?
Calls to get more women and girls working in the Stem fields are about employment opportunities, but addressing the gender gap also protects against bias, experts say.
Bias can be manifested in a number of different ways, says Catherine Ashcraft, director of research at the National Centre for Women and Information Technology, ranging from hiring practices to interview techniques.
And there are other instances of human bias about race and gender actually becoming part of a computer's decision-making process.
"Biases can also evolve even after technologies are created through machine learning - because they learn from the data we give them. This also ends up reflecting our biases," says Dr Ashcraft.
Machine learning, a type of AI, can help humans perform tasks and take decisions by seeing patterns in large quantities of data.
This concern about bias has become especially relevant in the world of work because companies have started to screen applicants using artificial intelligence.
"Would artificial intelligence find a male applicant less fit for a nurse position? Or would this lead to women having lower chances to be called for a programming position?" said Aylin Caliskan, an AI expert at Princeton University, in an interview with Science magazine.
Therefore, it could make a difference if more women work in the professions overseeing this new technology.
"If we don't do something, bias will propagate and get worse," says Aimee Van Wynsberghe, the robotics expert.
Search for your job below to find out how susceptible it is to automation. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41286697 |
UK house price rises picking up, says Halifax - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A shortage of properties for sale and growth in full-time employment is supporting prices, the lender says. | Business | House prices across the UK have jumped by an average of 4% in the year to September, according to Britain's largest lender, the Halifax.
The rate indicates a pick-up from August, when the Halifax said prices were rising at an annual pace of 2.6%.
The Halifax said the average price of a house or flat in the UK had now risen to a new high of £225,109.
A shortage of properties for sale and growth in full-time employment was supporting prices, it said.
"However, increasing pressure on spending power and continuing affordability concerns may well dampen buyer demand," said Russell Galley, the managing director of Halifax Community Bank.
Rival lender Nationwide has said prices in the year to September rose by 2%.
The Halifax figures are not broken down by region, but other research has indicated that while house price growth is slowing in the south of England, it is rising in parts of the Midlands and the North.
Between August and September, prices rose by 0.8%, the Halifax said, compared to a monthly rise of 1.5% in the previous month.
The 4% annual rise in house prices is calculated by comparing the three months to September with the same three months last year.
Where can you afford to live? Try our housing calculator to see where you could rent or buy This interactive content requires an internet connection and a modern browser. Do you want to buy or rent? Use the buttons to increase or decrease the number of bedrooms: minimum one, maximum four. Alternatively, enter a number into the text input How much is your deposit? Enter your deposit below or adjust the deposit amount using the slider Return to 'How much is your deposit?' This calculator assumes you need a deposit of at least 5% of the value of the property to get a mortgage. The average deposit for UK first-time buyers is . How much can you pay monthly? Enter your monthly payment below or adjust the payment amount using the slider Return to 'How much can you pay monthly?' Your monthly payments are what you can afford to pay each month. Think about your monthly income and take off bills, council tax and living expenses. The average rent figure is for England and Wales. Amount of the that has housing you can Explore the map in detail below Search the UK for more details about a local area What does affordable mean? You have a big enough deposit and your monthly payments are high enough. The prices are based on the local market. If there are 100 properties of the right size in an area and they are placed in price order with the cheapest first, the “low-end” of the market will be the 25th property, "mid-priced" is the 50th and "high-end” will be the 75th.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41523430 |
Newspaper headlines: Theresa May - should she stay or go? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The position of the prime minister after her party conference speech dominates the front pages. | The Papers | Speculation about the prime minister's future dominates most of Friday's front pages.
Under the headline All We Want For Christmas Is A New PM, the Daily Mirror quotes one MP as saying Theresa May is "like a pet waiting to be put down".
A former Cabinet minister tells the i: 'It's not terminal yet, but she is in intensive care", while former cabinet minister David Mellor tells The Daily Telegraph Mrs May is a "dead woman walking".
Home Secretary Amber Rudd writes in the same paper that Mrs May should remain as leader at what she calls "a turning point for the nation". The Times says government whips will canvass Tory MPs over the weekend.
The Financial Times reports that Chancellor Philip Hammond is facing a "bloodbath" in the public finances in next month's Budget, because official growth forecasts have been too optimistic.
The Office for Budget Responsibility is said to have overestimated productivity for the past seven years - meaning much of the £26bn set aside to help the economy through Brexit could be "wiped out".
The Sun seizes on the "bloodbath" theme, employing the headline "Hamma Horror". It says the warning "will stoke fears the chancellor will be forced to push through stinging tax rises".
The papers are divided in their opinion of the investigation into allegations against Sir Edward Heath.
The Guardian believes the police have a duty to examine any potential abuse of power and the Daily Express agrees that "it can deliver closure for victims and help them access compensation", even if the supposed perpetrator is dead.
But a leading criminologist brought on to the case last year writes in The Times that it was a shambles, based on "a catalogue of fabrication".
The paper's editorial says it's hard to argue with claims the Wiltshire force was "appealing to fantasists and attention-seekers".
Boris Becker's financial woes are detailed on the front of The Times. It says the former tennis champion borrowed £2m from John Caudwell, the billionaire co-founder of Phones 4U, after he was warned that he could be jailed as his debts reached £50m.
The money, it says, "enabled him to juggle the demands of banks, an ex-wife and lover and business partners while maintaining his jet-set lifestyle".
Jamie Oliver's specially designed Land Rover has a host of cooking features including a slow-cooker, barbecue, and olive oil dispenser
The Daily Mail reveals how Jamie Oliver has paid £100,000 to turn his Land Rover into a mobile kitchen.
The custom-built car, it says, features a rotisserie, pasta maker, slow cooker, wheel-mounted butter and ice cream churners and a toaster wedged between the front seats.
And the Sun features a landlord in Bristol who may have been inspired by Alan Bennett, by advertising for a tenant to live in a van parked on his street.
The vehicle is described as having "all the facilities for winter living" including a wood burner, oven and double bed - but the paper says it is untaxed and could be towed away. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41520152 |
100 Women: Do women on boards increase company profits? - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | There are lots of reasons to fight for gender equality - but could hiring more women make you more money? | Women in the workplace | "Having women on company boards leads to better financial performance" came the headlines from report after report, highlighting a business statistic guaranteed to capture the imagination and prompt debate.
What better way to encourage companies to focus on equality and diversity than to make them think of their bottom line?
In the UK, the 30% Club was set up in 2010 with the aim of having women make up at least 30% of the members on every board.
In the US, the Thirty Percent Coalition - a group of people who are chief executives and chairs of their companies - was created to achieve the same thing.
Of course, there are many other - and some say better - reasons to argue for gender equality, but we wanted to look at whether this broadly accepted claim is true - does having more women on the board really mean the company makes more money?
Academics have warned against jumping to simple conclusions.
A report published by Credit Suisse last year said companies with at least one woman director received a better return on their investments compared with companies with all-male boardrooms.
They say companies where women made up at least 15% of senior management were 50% more profitable than those where fewer than 10% of senior managers were female.
But Prof Alice Eagly, at Northwestern University in the US, says many of the studies commissioned by corporations are "naive" as they don't consider other variables.
Some European countries have introduced quotas for female board members
She explains that more sophisticated pieces of analysis carried out by academics have shown very small positive correlations between female board members and financial success. But this is an average - in some companies the relationship was neutral and in some it was negative.
And proving causation is far harder. It is difficult to say that it is having more women on boards that makes companies do better, rather than other factors - something corporate reports acknowledge.
This is because companies with more women on boards are different in other ways, too, according to Prof Eagly.
For example, firm size seems to be one of the most significant factors in determining profitability. And larger companies are likely to employ more women at every level.
More innovative companies were more likely to use their talent effectively, regardless of gender. And companies that were already more profitable may have been more able to focus efforts on diversity, she says.
A study looking at the gender make-up of the top management of the US's biggest firms, not only their board members, found female representation in top management improves firm performance but only in companies that are "focused on innovation".
And, interestingly, female board members appear to have more of a positive impact on their company's performance in countries where women have more equal rights and treatment overall.
It looks like there is a relationship between more successful companies and those with more women in senior positions in general, but it's not enough to simply "add women and stir", as Prof Robin Ely at Harvard Business School puts it.
Another study from a group of German, Dutch and Belgian researchers found "the mere representation of females on corporate boards is not related to firm financial performance if other factors are not considered". It relies on there being a good company culture too.
If women are in the minority in a room that is hostile to them, they are unlikely to be able to have a positive effect and that applies to other kinds of diversity too, the study suggests.
Focusing on numbers without also addressing structural diversity issues is not enough, according to Prof Ely.
In the biggest US companies on the stock market, around 16% of board seats are held by women
Looking at how many spaces on a board are filled by women doesn't tell you how influential the board is, and it doesn't tell us whether those women are being listened to and allowed to have an impact, Prof Ely points out, as "not all spots on a board are created equal".
There is some evidence that having three women on a board of 12 to 15 people is the tipping point for them to actually be heard and able to have an influence at all. So there are good arguments for the 30% rule - it just doesn't necessarily translate directly to profits.
In fact Corinne Post, a professor of organisation management at Lehigh University, says that board members don't have a direct influence on the bottom line of a company, but they do have a greater influence on corporate social responsibility.
She found that there was a five times stronger correlation between a company having female board members and stronger performance when it comes to ensuring they are environmentally friendly as a company, or involve themselves in philanthropy for example, than the correlation between female board members and profits.
Profitability is highly complex and there's even evidence that chief executives might not have much of an influence on company profits.
"In companies with any women on their board at all, they tend to have between one and three - are you really saying the gender of three people on a board is going to have an impact on the bottom line?" Prof Ely asks.
For Northwestern's Prof Eagly, the most pertinent question is why we would need evidence women bring in more money than men, before they are given equal status on boards.
"Why should you rule out 50% of the population from important jobs. It's about social justice not about profits." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/41365364 |
Theresa May says cabinet 'fully behind' her leadership - BBC News | 2017-10-06 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The PM says she retains the support of colleagues after a former Tory chairman urges a contest. | UK Politics | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May: "Look, I've had a cold this week"
Theresa May has said she has the "full support of her cabinet" after a former party chairman said there should be a Conservative leadership contest.
The PM insisted she was providing the "calm leadership" the country needed.
Grant Shapps says about 30 Tory MPs back his call for a leadership contest in the wake of the general election results and conference mishaps.
But his claims prompted a backlash from loyal backbenchers, several of whom called on him to "shut up".
There has been leadership speculation since Mrs May's decision to call a snap general election backfired and the Conservatives lost their majority.
The Conservative conference this week was meant to be a chance to assert her authority over the party, but her big speech was plagued by a series of mishaps, as she struggled with a persistent cough, was interrupted by a prankster and some of the letters fell off the conference stage backdrop behind her.
Asked about leadership speculation as she attended a charity event in her constituency, Mrs May said: "What the country needs is calm leadership and that's what I am providing with the full support of my cabinet."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Former Tory party chairman Grant Shapps said Theresa May should face a leadership election
She said her recent speech in Florence had given "real momentum" to Brexit negotiations and she was intending to update MPs next week on her plans to help "ordinary working families" with a cap on energy bills.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove was among cabinet ministers and MPs publicly defending Mrs May on Friday morning, as the story broke that Mr Shapps was the senior Tory behind a bid to persuade her to go.
Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4 the prime minister was a "fantastic" leader, had widespread support, and should stay "as long as she wants".
He said that the "overwhelming majority of MPs and the entirety of the cabinet" backed the prime minister.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd wrote an article in the Telegraph urging the prime minister to stay, while First Secretary of State Damian Green said on the BBC's Question Time the prime minister "was determined as ever to get on with her job - she sees it as her duty to do so".
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, hit out at those plotting to oust Mrs May as prime minister.
Speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking podcast, she said: "I have to say, I've not got much time for them...
"I really don't think that having a bit of a cold... when you are trying to make a speech changes the fundamentals of whether Theresa May is the right person to lead the country."
There is, this morning, an operation being mounted by the government to try to show that nothing has changed in the Conservative Party in the last few days.
That Theresa May's leadership remains on track and she is, to use another of her famous phrases, just, "getting on with the job".
Except, as happened the last time she proclaimed "nothing has changed", something rather fundamental has, after all.
For the doubts that have been building about her in the party for months are now out there in the wide open.
To trigger a vote of confidence in the party leader, 48 of the 316 Conservative MPs would need to write to the chairman of the backbench 1922 committee.
A leadership contest would only be triggered if Mrs May lost that vote, or chose to quit.
Mr Shapps, who was co-chair of the party between 2012 and 2015, said no letter had been sent and said his intention had been to gather signatures privately and persuade Mrs May to stand down.
But he claimed party whips had taken the "extraordinary" step of making it public by naming him as the ringleader of a plot to oust the PM in a story in the Times.
He told the BBC: "I think it's time we actually tackle this issue of leadership and so do many colleagues.
"We wanted to present that to Theresa May privately. Now I'm afraid it's being done a bit more publicly."
He added: "The country needs leadership. It needs leadership at this time in particular. I think the conference and the lead-up through the summer has shown that that's not going to happen. I think it's time that we have a leadership election now, or at least let's set out that timetable."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The "overwhelming majority of MPs" support the prime minister, says Environment Secretary Michael Gove
But Conservative MP Nigel Evans told the BBC's Daily Politics that if Grant Shapps "can't get 48 signatures, he should just shut up: "In my chats to MPs at Westminster nobody wants an early leadership election. We just simply don't want that."
Fellow MP James Cleverly tweeted: "I've always liked Grant Shapps but he really is doing himself, the party and (most importantly) the country no favours at all. Just stop."
Among other MPs criticising Mr Shapps was Charles Walker, vice chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, who suggested the plot was going to "fizzle out".
"No 10 must be delighted to learn that it's Grant Shapps leading this alleged coup," he said. "Grant has many talents but one thing he doesn't have is a following in the party."
Former minister Ed Vaizey was the first MP to publicly suggest Mrs May should quit on Thursday, telling the BBC: "I think there will be quite a few people who will now be pretty firmly of the view that she should resign." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41519601 |
Newspaper headlines: May clings on and Rooney's punishment - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Saturday's papers focus on Theresa May's future and Wayne Rooney starting his community service. | The Papers | Most of the papers reflect on the attempt by Conservative backbenchers, led by ex-party chairman Grant Shapps, to oust Theresa May.
The verdict of the Daily Express is "Theresa slaps down rebels", reporting that the prime minister appears to have secured her position, thanks to a "ruthless operation" to discredit those seeking to undermine her.
Under the headline "rout of the pygmies", it says the plot to remove Mrs May "collapsed into a shambles yesterday" as MPs and ministers united to condemn what it labels "the betrayal of rivals seeking revenge."
The paper also offers its readers pen portraits of the "traitors gallery" of senior Conservatives it says are part of Mr Shapps' attempted coup.
The paper's columnist Peter Oborne says Mrs May must "destroy her Tory enemies before they destroy her".
However, even if the rebellion has been seen off, doubts about the prime minister most definitely remain for some.
"PM clings to power - for now" is the i newspaper's take.
Meanwhile, the Sun endorses Mrs May, but only because - as its editorial puts it - "there is no obvious replacement".
Until one emerges the Tories must unite behind her, the paper says.
The Financial Times urges the PM to sack lacklustre members of the cabinet and bring in new talent. The FT concedes that it is a strategy that carries risk, but, it says, "she has nothing to lose."
The Daily Mirror laments that at a time when the nation is crying out for strong leadership, it has been left rudderless by a "top of the flops" prime minister.
"Britain deserves much better than these incompetent Tories," says its leader.
The Daily Mirror reports on another beleaguered leader: Ryanair's Michael O'Leary.
The paper says it has seen a letter to Mr O'Leary written on behalf of his pilots, responding to his "grovelling" pledge to improve their pay and conditions.
In it, the pilots accuse their boss of "considering us nothing more than aircraft parts".
One pilot tells the Mirror that Mr O'Leary's offer was "the ramblings of a desperate man".
One of the most successful glossy magazines of recent years is ceasing its monthly print edition and going online, the Times reports.
Glamour's decision to go "digital first" is the result of tumbling sales and alarm about the future of beauty and celebrity titles.
The Financial Times says there is in fact a broader challenge to the magazine industry.
It says it's partly the result of the "abundance of free news and entertainment" available on the internet - and also a "changing of the guard" at some of the world's top titles.
It cites the retirement of Vanity Fair's longstanding editor, Graydon Carter.
The FT quotes the founder of Rolling Stone, which in another sign of the times was recently put up for sale.
He says "publishing is a completely different industry than what it was."
It could be worse, though, as various long-lens photos of Wayne Rooney doing community service at a garden centre attest.
It follows his conviction for drink-driving last month. He's been painting park benches at the centre.
"Tired and emulsional", is the Sun's headline.
To avoid the glare of publicity, Wayne Rooney could perhaps have benefited from the new England rugby kit, which, as the Daily Telegraph reports sceptically, "purports to use state of the art camouflage technology to mask player movement".
An expert in visual perception doubts the manufacturer's breathless claim and points out that in any case, any advantage gained from the design is counteracted by the fact the shirts have a large, highly visible advertiser's logo in the middle of them.
The Telegraph says fans have grumbled that the replica strip costs £95 and it is the eighth new kit in the last three years, meaning that, transparently, it is merely a "revenue raising stunt." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41533755 |
Top Ryanair executive leaves after pilot scheduling fiasco - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The airline will bid farewell to operations manager who had ultimate responsibility for pilot rosters | Business | Thousands of travellers had their holiday plans ruined by a Ryanair scheduling mistake
Embattled low-cost airline Ryanair said its chief operations officer will depart the company at the end of the month.
Michael Hickey will be the first executive to leave the company after a rostering error led to the cancellation of thousands of flights.
In his role, Mr Hickey was responsible for scheduling shifts for pilots.
Chief executive Michael O'Leary earlier faced calls to resign over his handling of the mishap.
Mr O'Leary on Friday said Mr Hickey "will be a hard act to replace".
Ryanair announced its first wave of 2,100 cancellations in the middle of September, after it rearranged pilots' rosters to comply with new aviation rules requiring a change in how their flying hours are logged.
Towards the end of September it announced 18,000 further flights would be cancelled over the winter season. These moves affect more than 700,000 passengers.
In the airline's first wave of cancellations Ryanair offered affected passengers a £40 voucher per cancelled flight as a way to say sorry.
This was short of European rules governing flight cancellations and passenger rights, and Ryanair was eventually forced to bow to regulator demands and spell out the options on offer to affected passengers. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41533625 |
Teacher Alice McBrearty jailed for sex with pupil - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Alice McBrearty, 23, had a four-month relationship with a 15-year-old boy. | London | Alice McBrearty committed "the grossest breach of trust", a judge said
A teacher who had a "full-blown sexual relationship" with a 15-year-old boy has been jailed for 16 months.
Alice McBrearty, 23, admitted the four-month relationship with a pupil she taught at an east London school.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard McBrearty kissed the youngster in a classroom, and had sex with him at her parents' home in Wanstead Park, east London.
She pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child while in a position of trust.
Prosecutors said the relationship began when the teacher sent the boy a friend request on Facebook.
Barrister Lisa Matthews said the teenager, who cannot be named, "felt special" and "appeared to be besotted" with McBrearty.
The court heard the pair met in several locations, including a hotel room McBrearty had booked, and had sexual contact.
Their relationship ended when the boy's father contacted police.
McBrearty put her head in her hands and sobbed when she was sentenced by Judge Sheelagh Canavan.
The judge described her as a "bright, intelligent and gifted young woman, who knew right from wrong," but who had committed the "grossest breach of trust".
"You engaged in a full-blown sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child," she said.
"I accept he was consenting - what 15-year-old schoolboy would turn down such an attractive offer?
"I accept you truly believed this was a great romance, you were in love with him and vice versa, and that age didn't matter. But it did.
"You were supposed to keep him safe, to help him make the right decisions. Instead, you helped him make all the wrong ones."
Emma Shafton, defending, said her client, who is no longer a teacher, has had "a spectacular fall from grace".
"She has been utterly disgraced by this," she added. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41528271 |
Poland Catholics hold controversial prayer day on borders - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | There are concerns the event is being seen as support for a bar on Muslim migrants. | Europe | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Tens of thousands prayed in numerous locations around Poland's borders
Tens of thousands have taken part in a controversial prayer day in Poland.
Catholics were encouraged to go to designated points along the country's borders for a mass rosary prayer for the salvation of Poland and the world.
Church leaders say the event is purely religious, but there are concerns it could be seen as endorsing the state's refusal to let in Muslim migrants.
The feast day marks the anniversary of a Christian victory over Ottoman Turks at the sea battle of Lepanto in 1571.
People were bussed in from more than 300 churches to points all along the border.
They stood in lines, some on beaches on the Baltic Sea, some in fields and some in towns.
"We come to the border of Poland to pray for the Poles and for the whole world," said one woman.
Many people said they were praying for their Catholic faith
Several hundred took part in the port of Gdynia
"We want our Catholic faith to continue, to keep our children safe, that our brothers from other countries can understand that our faith is unwavering and that we feel safer, not only in Poland but also in the world."
Mateusz Maranowski, a Polish radio journalist, said he had come out to thank the Virgin Mary for his child, who was born prematurely.
He said about 300 people took part in the event in the sea port of Gdynia.
"At first I wanted to pray alone on the beach but it turned out that many people from nearby parishes came out to the beach to take part in the... event," he said.
Halina Kotarska, 65, said she was expressing thanks for the survival of her son in a car crash, but also praying for the survival of Christianity in Europe.
"Islam wants to destroy Europe," she said, quoted by the Associated Press. "They want to turn us away from Christianity."
Some priests and Church commentators said the event could be seen as support for the government's refusal to accept Muslim migrants, a policy backed by a majority of Poles.
Organisers said the prayer was not directed against anyone or anything.
The border was chosen, they said, because it symbolised their desire to encompass the world with prayer.
Poland, along with Hungary and the Czech Republic, refused to take part in an EU deal in 2015 to relocate refugees from frontline states Italy and Greece.
The Polish position has put it at odds with the Vatican, with Pope Francis urging greater acceptance of migrants on a visit to Poland last year.
Bishops have urged the government to assist selected Syrian refugees but the plan has failed to secure politicians' backing. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41538260 |
More than £1.8m paid by council to a pothole claimant - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Somerset County Council paid £1,836,000 to a claimant for damages caused by a "pothole defect". | Somerset | A council paid out more than £1.8m in a single compensation claim involving a pothole, it has emerged.
Somerset County Council paid out £1,836,000 to a third party for "general damages" following an accident "involving a pothole defect".
Details released to the Somerset County Gazette under a Freedom of Information request also reveal £2.1m was paid in 31 compensation claims in 2016 to 2017.
The council said it was unable to give further details for legal reasons.
Documents also reveal a rise in the total amount of compensation paid out by the authority.
It paid about £170,000 to 28 claimants in 2014 to 2015, and almost £900,000 to 33 claimants in the following year.
This financial year, however, the authority has had to pay out £2,137,167, with £1.8m of it going to just one person.
Across the county, the FoI revealed the most common claim for compensation was for potholes, followed by drains and gullies and then "erosion of road".
The lowest compensation pay out was £11.99 for "damage to clothing caused by overgrown brambles that were not maintained".
A spokesman for Somerset County Council said, "data protection legislation" meant it could not give "any further details about individual claims against the local authority".
But he added, to successfully claim compensation claimants would need to prove the council had neglected or breached its "statutory duty".
"Often events occur that are unfortunate but not due to any party's negligence," he said.
"As such, there is no automatic entitlement to compensation or any guarantee that making a claim will be successful."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-41523751 |
Hurricane Nate: New Orleans braces for storm - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Hurricane Nate is set to strike US Gulf Coast states as a category two storm, forecasters say. | Latin America & Caribbean | New Orleans residents fill sandbags as forecasters warn that Nate will make US landfall as a category two hurricane
A state of emergency has been declared in four southern US states with Hurricane Nate gathering strength as it heads towards the Gulf Coast.
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida have issued hurricane warnings and evacuation orders.
The measures apply to parts of the city of New Orleans, which was devastated by Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago.
Nate killed at least 25 people as it swept through Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras as a tropical storm.
The storm, which brushed past Mexican beach resorts, is still strengthening, and is now expected to make landfall as a category two hurricane overnight.
Although not as strong as last month's Maria and Irma, Nate will still bring strong winds and storm surges. Its latest recorded wind speeds reached 90mph (150km/h).
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows passengers climbing out of the windows of a bus, after it was stranded in flood water
US President Donald Trump has issued an emergency declaration for Louisiana, allowing the state to seek federal help with preparation and possible relief efforts.
In Alabama, Republican Governor Kay Ivey has urged residents in areas facing heavy winds and storm surges to take precautions.
Five ports along the Gulf Coast have also been closed to shipping as a precaution.
Most oil and gas platforms in the US Gulf of Mexico have evacuated their staff and stopped production ahead of the storm.
The hurricane warning issued to parts of the Gulf Coast includes the threat of life-threatening storm surge flooding. Evacuation orders have been put in place for some low-lying areas.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency ahead of the hurricane, which is due to make landfall on Saturday night local time.
He said more than 1,000 National Guard troops had been mobilised with a number sent to New Orleans to monitor the drainage pumps there. "Anyone in low-lying areas... we are urging them to prepare now," he said.
Star Wars fans dressed as storm troopers walk the streets of New Orleans ahead of Nate's arrival
A mandatory curfew from 18:00 (23:00 GMT) is in place in New Orleans, where residents from areas outside the city's levee system have been evacuated.
"Nate is at our doorstep, or will be soon," the city's Mayor Mitch Landrieu said, adding that the winds could cause significant power outages.
"We have been through this many, many times, there is no need to panic," he added.
Nate went past Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula - home to the popular beach resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen - on Friday night as it headed north, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said.
The governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquin, earlier said that although the worst of the storm had been expected to pass just east of the peninsula, it could still bring torrential rains and flooding.
Costa Rica is among central American countries hit by storm Nate
Nate caused heavy rains, landslides and floods which blocked roads, destroyed bridges and damaged houses as it tore through central America.
At least 13 people died in Nicaragua, eight in Costa Rica, three in Honduras and one in El Salvador.
The tail of the storm is still causing problems in the region, where thousands have been forced to sleep in shelters and some 400,000 people in Costa Rica were reported to be without running water.
Are you in the affected area? Email us with your experiences at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41536192 |
Grenfell Tower: Safety cash not released, councils say - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Some councils say requests for government money in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire have not been met. | UK | The government has not released funds to make tower blocks safe following the Grenfell Tower fire, according to some councils.
Several local authorities in England and Wales say funding requests for refurbishments such as new cladding and sprinkler systems are not being met.
Jane Urquhart, from Nottingham City Council, said some works were regarded as "additional rather than essential".
The government said it had asked councils for more detailed proposals.
Police believe at least 80 people died when fire engulfed Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, west London in the early hours of 14 June.
Ms Urquhart, a Labour councillor, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that "safety must come at the top of the list".
She said: "Given that in the refurbishment of the Houses of Parliament sprinklers are considered essential... we thought it was quite incredible that they were essential for the Houses of Parliament but not essential for residents of high-rises."
Adam Hug, leader of the Labour opposition group on Westminster City Council, said the authority had faced difficulties securing funding from Communities Secretary Sajid Javid's department to pay for the removal of cladding and installation of sprinklers.
"Ultimately these are things that the London Fire Brigade says have to be done and ultimately the cost is having to be borne by the housing revenue account, which is tenants' rents and service charge fees," he said.
"Councils across the country are asking the government for the help that Sajid Javid promised and they are being told 'no, only in exceptional circumstances when you literally don't have the money in any form'."
Cladding has been removed from many tower blocks following the Grenfell Tower fire
Mr Hug described the situation as a "national civil emergency across the country", adding that councils have complied with regulations but "the government is not stepping up to the plate".
According to the Guardian other councils, including Croydon and Wandsworth, have also seen requests for funding declined.
Fire safety expert Paul Atkins, who was previously contracted to work on Grenfell Tower, told the BBC last month that sprinklers would have stopped the flames from spreading.
"If they'd had a sprinkler system the fire would have been deluged before it got to the cladding," he said.
"People would've had plenty of time to leave the building."
Mr Atkins said no-one had ever died in a fire when a sprinkler system was present in the building.
The Grenfell Tower fire started in a Hotpoint fridge freezer, and was not deliberate, police have said.
The flames ignited the cladding on the outside of the building, spreading across the exterior of the tower block with what police described as "unexpected" speed.
Police also said the building's cladding and insulation failed subsequent safety tests.
A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said public safety was "paramount".
He added: "Building owners are responsible for funding measures designed to make a building safe.
"We've been clear that where a local authority has concerns about funding essential fire safety measures, they should contact DCLG as soon as possible to discuss their position.
"The department has written to Nottingham, Croydon and Wandsworth councils inviting them to provide more detail about the works they propose. To date these authorities have not submitted this information." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41537022 |
Addenbrooke's Hospital pays out to abused patients - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Compensation is paid to patients aged from six to 17 who were abused by cancer doctor Myles Bradbury. | Cambridgeshire | Myles Bradbury was sentenced to 22 years in prison for abusing child patients
A hospital where a doctor abused child patients has said it has paid out £611,750 in compensation to victims and their families.
Myles Bradbury was jailed for 22 years in December 2014 after admitting abusing 18 victims at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
The hospital said it received 31 claims, 15 of which have been settled.
It said the age range of patients was from six to 17. The claims were made over the period of 2014-2017, it said.
The information was disclosed by Addenbrooke's Hospital in response to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC.
Bradbury, of Herringswell, Suffolk, admitted 25 offences, including sexual assault, voyeurism and possessing more than 16,000 indecent images.
Addenbrooke's Hospital said it has paid out £611,750 in compensation to Bradbury's patients and their families
The blood cancer specialist used a spy pen to take pictures of his victims.
It contained 170,425 images of "boys partially clothed... none indecent", Cambridge Crown Court heard at the time of his sentencing.
The images of his victims, some of whom had haemophilia, leukaemia and other serious illnesses, were gathered at Addenbrooke's Hospital.
Samantha Robson, who has represented nine of Bradbury's victims, said some of those cases have been settled with damages awarded between £17,500 and £30,000.
"To date only a small proportion of the potential victims of Bradbury have come forward.
"The fact that not all of Bradbury's victims were named in the criminal proceedings should not prevent others from coming forward with their claims."
In addition to his jail term, Bradbury was placed on the sex offenders register for life and made subject of a sexual offences prevention order for life.
At the time, Addenbrooke's Hospital said it was "sickened" by Bradbury's "abhorrent betrayal and manipulation of his position as a doctor".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-41512275 |
Glamour magazine goes 'digital first' and cuts back print editions - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The last monthly print edition of the UK magazine will be in December as it takes a new direction. | Entertainment & Arts | The November edition of Glamour magazine, published this month
UK Glamour magazine is going "digital first", stopping its monthly editions and instead producing a "collectible, glossy" issue twice a year.
A spokeswoman told the BBC the "mobile-first, social-first" move with a focus on beauty was based on how readers are "living their life today".
Glamour will be going into consultation over jobs but "can't confirm numbers" at this stage.
The last monthly print edition will be published in November.
"We are taking our lead from our readers, who are largely women aged 20 to 54," she added.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by British GLAMOUR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The move is for the "beauty obsessed", the magazine said, adding the content will still include "some celebrities and fashion".
The twice-yearly magazines will be out in spring and autumn, reflecting beauty and style "for the coming season".
The move will also see the editorial and commercial teams becoming "fully integrated". The BBC understands the move will result in the loss of some editorial and publishing staff.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Leonie Roderick This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
"Today's Glamour consumer moves to a different rhythm than the one who bought the magazine when it launched in 2001. It is a faster, more focused, multi-platform relationship," the magazine said, adding the "quality of ideas, vision and execution remain central".
Simon Gresham Jones, chief digital officer of Conde Nast Britain said: "We look forward to inspiring the Glamour audience in new ways."
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Lebby Eyres This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Changes to the site will begin in the coming weeks.
This move is taking place in the UK only, although the magazine is published in 17 markets including Brazil, France, Germany and the US.
Glamour is not the first magazine to change its focus to digital content - last year In Style magazine closed its print edition, while in 2014 Company magazine did the same.
What can Glamour do online that others can't? Be better - more smart, beautiful, easy to use - perhaps. But that won't be easy.
There is no getting around the deeper structural forces that are driving this change, which is the flight of readers from print to online, and the pursuit of those readers by advertisers for whom print is an ever lower priority.
The claim that integrating editorial and commercial departments is "a further innovative move" is not up to much, because many others have been forced to do the same. And when editorial and commercial departments merge, it's generally because the money is running out and so the commercial team actually control the editorial content.
Jo Elvin is the editor of the UK's Glamour magazine
And that must be the concern for staff and indeed readers. The danger is that by moving online and focusing ever more on the traffic-generating beauty content, Glamour invests less and less in quality journalism. Of course they will deny that is either the intention or the probable danger, but it is a substantial risk.
It has felt over recent months like an era is passing in magazine culture. In the US, the editors of Vanity Fair, Time, Glamour and Elle all departed. Not so long ago Rolling Stone was sold. And in recent weeks Hugh Hefner and Si Newhouse, two giants of magazine publishing, have died.
It may seem a stretch to link those events to Glamour becoming an online beauty destination, but there is a link: the huge upheaval in journalism, driven by technology.
High quality magazine journalism still has a future online of course, but only if people pay for it. Everyone who wants to see journalism thrive will wish Glamour well, and hope it focuses on quality as it navigates this transition.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
• None Bono named on 'women of the year' list | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41527740 |
Scot facing jail over Dubai 'hip touch' - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 27-year-old from Stirling is accused of public indecency over the incident at a Dubai nightclub. | Tayside and Central Scotland | Jamie Harron has been prevented from leaving the country and has had his passport confiscated
A Scot is facing a three-year jail sentence in Dubai for reportedly putting his hand on a man in a bar.
Jamie Harron, who is 27 and from Stirling, said he was trying to avoid spilling his drink in the crowded Rock Bottom Bar when the incident happened.
He was locked up for five days and has now been prevented from leaving the city in order to attend court.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was providing consular assistance on the matter.
The arrest follows the case of an Edinburgh man who was also detained in Dubai after attempting to exchange a fake £20.
William Barclay, from Edinburgh, returned home on Friday after being held in a Dubai jail for three days during a family holiday.
The campaign group Detained in Dubai said Mr Harron was arrested for public indecency after touching the man on his hip.
Mr Harron, who works as an electrician in Afghanistan and was on a two-day stopover in the United Arab Emirates, is said to have since lost his job and spent more than £30,000 in expenses and legal fees, since the incident on 15 July.
Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, said: "It is quite outrageous that he has been held in the country for so long already.
Jamie Harron was at the Rock Bottom Bar when the incident reportedly happened
"This is another example of how vulnerable tourists are to arrest and detention in Dubai and at how drawn-out and disorganised legal proceedings are."
The organisation claims it was only after Mr Harron and his friend sat at a table that the man who had been touched seemed aggravated.
Police arrived at the scene "20 to 30" minutes later and arrested Mr Harron, according to his representatives.
The charges he faces in connection with the incident are said to be twofold - drinking alcohol and public indecency.
Mr Harron was reportedly locked up for five days in Al Barsha prison, before being released on bail and having his passport confiscated.
Ms Stirling added that following a conversation with Mr Harron, it was clear that he was under "immense pressure and stress".
She said: "He was expecting to appear in court this Sunday, but the court moved the date without telling him or his lawyer.
"This led to a sentence of 30 days' imprisonment for failing to present himself at the hearing."
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: "We have been in contact with a British man following his arrest in Dubai in July. We are providing consular assistance." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-41536636 |
'Only one thing will work' with N Korea, says President Trump - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US leader says years of talks with Pyongyang over its nuclear activities have brought no results. | US & Canada | The US president and his North Korean counterpart are at loggerheads over Pyongyang's nuclear programme
"Only one thing will work" in dealing with North Korea after years of talks with Pyongyang brought no results, US President Donald Trump has warned.
"Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years," he tweeted, adding that this "hasn't worked".
Mr Trump did not elaborate further.
The two nations have been engaged in heated rhetoric over North Korea's nuclear activities, with the US pressing for a halt of missile tests.
Pyongyang says it has recently successfully tested a miniaturised hydrogen bomb which could be loaded on to a long-range missile.
The US has been conducting military exercises with South Korea as part of what it describes as show of force missions
There are fears that North Korea will soon have the capacity to hit the US mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile
President Trump has previously warned that the US could destroy North Korea if necessary to protect America's national interests and defend its allies in the region.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday praised nuclear weapons as a "powerful deterrent" which guaranteed his country's security, state media reported.
In a speech addressing "the complicated international situation", he said such weapons had safeguarded "the peace and security in the Korean peninsula and north-east Asia" against the "protracted nuclear threats of the US imperialists".
He said his country's policy of simultaneously pursuing the development of nuclear weapons in parallel with moves to strengthen the economy was "absolutely right".
North Korea recently launched two missiles over Japan and defied international condemnation to carry out its sixth nuclear test in September. It has promised to carry out another test in the Pacific Ocean.
There are fears in the West that is rapidly reaching the point where it is capable of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the US mainland.
Saturday's tweets by President Trump are another cryptic announcement by America's leader, the BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington says.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (above) has denied reports of a rift with President Trump
Last week, it was suggested that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had direct lines of communication with Pyongyang to try to resolve the escalating tensions.
Mr Trump then tweeted: "Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!"
On Saturday, the US president insisted he had a good relationship with his secretary of state, but added that Mr Tillerson could be tougher.
Earlier in the week, Mr Tillerson had denied rumours of a rift between the two men, amid media reports he had called the president a "moron".
Mr Trump's latest comment on North Korea could just be bluster - but the fear is that Pyongyang will interpret it as a threat, our correspondent says.
At a speech to the UN later that month, Mr Trump threatened to annihilate North Korea, saying the country's leader, Kim Jong-un," is on a suicide mission".
In exchange, Mr Kim in a rare statement, vowed to "tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire".
A group of "young pioneers" on the way home on the Pyongyang metro | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41540736 |
Protests for Navalny across Russia on Putin birthday - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Police clash with protesters in St Petersburg, as more than 250 are arrested throughout Russia. | Europe | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police blocked off Moscow city centre, but generally kept a low profile during the protests there
More than 250 people have been arrested as supporters of opposition leader Alexei Navalny held protests in some 80 cities across Russia, reports say.
They were demanding he be allowed to stand in 2018 presidential elections.
Clashes and dozens of arrests were reported in St Petersburg, where the main protest was taking place.
The rallies coincided with President Vladimir Putin's 65th birthday. Most were unauthorised, including those in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Mr Navalny is currently serving 20 days in jail for repeatedly violating a law on organising public meetings.
It is the third time this year that Mr Navalny has been jailed.
Russia's electoral authorities say he cannot stand in the March vote because of a separate suspended sentence.
In recent months he has travelled across Russia in a bid to bolster his makeshift election campaign.
Mr Navalny was arrested again for protests in Moscow this month
Mr Navalny had been due to attend the main rally taking place on Saturday evening in St Petersburg, Mr Putin's home city.
As many as 3,000 people were at the demonstration in Russia's second city, many of them carrying "Navalny 2018" banners.
Media reports say there were a large number of arrests after a group of demonstrators tried to break through a police line.
According to the human rights website OVD-Info, 62 people were detained. Most were later released.
Several other organisers of the rally and leaders of the pro-democracy group Open Russia - sponsored by exiled former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky - were arrested in the city earlier on Saturday, the website said.
Earlier several people were arrested as hundreds rallied in Moscow's Pushkin Square, though all were reportedly later released.
The main event was in St Petersburg, where clashes occurred
Protests were held earlier in the day in eastern cities like Vladivostok
Police urged people to disperse but did not move to break up the rally. Some protesters marched towards the Kremlin, but were blocked by police.
Elsewhere demonstrations ranged from a few dozen people to more than 100 in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
Protest organisers were pre-emptively detained in Smolensk, Tver, Stavropol, Irkutsk, Yakutsk and Perm, media reports say.
OVD-Info put the total number of arrests at 271 in 26 cities, with 57 in Yaroslavl, 21 in Krasnodar and 20 in Lipetsk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41538256 |
Could you brave an 'immersive horror' show? - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | More and more are popping up as audiences seek a more thrilling experience. | Entertainment & Arts | A child gets sucked down a drain by a scary clown
Earlier this month, horror movie It (based on the Stephen King novel) was released in cinemas. You may well have seen It.
But surely only the bravest among you would've gone to the "immersive" screenings of the movie.
Such fans would've had the pleasure of a real-life Pennywise the Clown creeping round the auditorium during the film, jumping out at them from behind and basically scaring the living daylights out of everyone there.
While many of us may think this sounds like the most utterly hideous experience in the world, not everyone feels that way - immersive horror is becoming quite a thing.
"There's huge growth in this area," says Simon Oakes, CEO of British horror brand Hammer, who have just premiered their first immersive show, The Soulless Ones.
Hammer's immersive show's contemporary look is a far cry from that of its gothic horrors of the 1950s-70s
"It's a generational thing, newer audiences want something that's more tangible, emotional, more physical an experience, which is different from the promenade shows that you would've seen before, or even traditional theatre."
As anybody who has been to the cinema in the last decade knows, many people struggle to go for more than about four-and-a-half minutes without checking their WhatsApp, so the appeal of immersive theatre may be down to being totally engrossed in something and disconnected from the outside world.
Of course, we've seen hugely popular immersive shows before with the likes of Punchdrunk and You Me Bum Bum Train.
"There's a whole generation of younger audiences who are excited about the idea of being involved in a story rather than told it," says Oscar Blustin, the co-writer and co-director of The Soulless Ones.
"I think gaming has a lot to do with it, and how young audiences expect things to be interactive.
Now who wouldn't want this friendly chap jumping out at them in a dark cinema
"When you watch TV, we've all shouted at the screen, 'Don't go in there!' or 'Don't go upstairs', I think artists are recognising that this can engage audiences more with the narrative."
In the case of The Soulless Ones, Simon says: "We wanted to come up with something completely original."
"With something like The Great Gatsby or Alice in Wonderland, the audience knows what they're going to get. If you know the show, you've already bought into what the creative expectation might be.
"So we chose to start with a completely new show, this isn't a Frankenstein or Dracula, so as a story it's original."
Horror is arguably the genre which provides the most potential to create an immersive experience for theatregoers.
"I think that's because it's able to shed a light on your deepest fears," says Simon.
Stephen King wrote It - immersive screenings of which have been terrifying audiences
"We don't want to frighten people and scare people as much as unsettle them. But it's not a jump-scare performance, which a lot of the modern horror films are.
"The general philosophy behind horror is that if you don't care about the people, you don't care about what happens to them, and with the great genre directors like Kubrick and Hitchcock, you were invested in the characters."
While the immersive screenings of Stephen King's It were just a few special ones organised to promote the film, The Soulless Ones has a residency at Hoxton Hall in London from this week until 31 October.
Oscar explains the show is about "a hive of vampires who are trying to perform a ritual which will let them walk in the daylight - it's our take on the vampire legend".
"That is the over-arching story, but there are 14 characters, and 18-20 different rooms around the building, they all interweave and interlink, it's a patchwork of narrative threads."
That may sound a little overwhelming, but Simon argues one key aspect of the show's appeal is the potential for repeat visits.
The Soulless Ones has a residency in Hoxton Hall for the month of October
"Because of the number of rooms, we've got 14 hours in total of prepared material," he says.
"And I hope that's one of the reasons people might want to see it again. You'd comfortably be able to see the show four times, and never see the same show twice, if you were clever about the route you take.
"Whichever room you walk into, you'll get a different side of the same story."
Oscar points out that audiences would struggle to play with their phones during performances even if they wanted to, "mostly because the Victorian music hall we're performing in has absolutely no signal".
And if fans enjoy the experience, it could well lead to other similar projects.
"We're not like Marvel or DC comics," says Simon, "at Hammer we feel immersive theatre is an intriguing part of what we do in terms of creating intellectual property.
"But what we do have is a place in this area, if it's successful, to be a building block to others."
Oscar adds: "People are so on the hunt for unique and one-off experiences in particular.
"There's so much to talk about with immersive theatre, audiences who can compare notes on what they've seen and the different experience they've had at the same show.
"In the bar afterwards I'm anticipating a lot of 'What did you see?' conversations."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41414049 |
Woman arrested for climbing Buckingham Palace gates - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The woman was stopped by police officers before she could get into the Buckingham Palace grounds. | UK | A woman has been arrested for trying to climb the front gates of Buckingham Palace, the Metropolitan Police said.
She was detained by police officers at 17:40 BST and did not gain access to the palace grounds.
The woman, believed to be in her 30s, was arrested on suspicion of trespass and is currently in custody at a central London police station.
The incident is not being treated as terrorism-related, a police statement added.
Videos on social media showed a woman who appeared to be shouting as she was led to a waiting police car.
A crowd of tourists had gathered, with many of them filming the incident on their phones. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41540081 |
Man aged 18 stabbed to death in Neasden, north-west London - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The victim was attacked multiple times in the street, the Met Police said. | London | An 18-year-old man has been stabbed to death in a north-west London street.
He was found with multiple wounds in Tanfield Avenue, Neasden, on Friday afternoon.
Police and paramedics were called but the man died at the scene. His family have been informed.
A 15-year-old boy was arrested and taken to a north London police station for questioning. The police have appealed for witnesses.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41536572 |
New York City: 'Islamic State attack plot' is revealed - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | One of three suspects allegedly said he wanted to create "the next 9/11" in the city. | US & Canada | Security is always tight around Times Square in the centre of New York
A jihadist plot to attack New York City including Times Square and the subway system was foiled with the help of an undercover FBI agent, officials say.
One man in the US and two others in Pakistan and the Philippines are under arrest and face charges of plotting the attacks which they hoped to carry out in the name of the Islamic State group.
One of the suspects allegedly said he wanted to create "the next 9/11".
The trio allegedly used chat apps to plan their attack.
It was prevented last year with the help of an undercover FBI agent - posing as an IS supporter - who communicated with the three plotters. Details of the alleged plot were released on Friday as prosecutors revealed the charges.
New York's subway system is alleged to have been a target of the bombers
The trio are alleged to have wanted to attack Times Square when it was heavily crowded
Police on Friday announced charges against Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 19, a Canadian citizen detained in New York; Talha Haroon, also 19, a US citizen based in Pakistan and Russell Salic, 37, from the Philippines.
El Bahnasawy was arrested in May 2016 and pleaded guilty last October to seven terror-related charges. He is awaiting his sentence.
Haroon was arrested in Pakistan in September 2016, while Salic was arrested in the Philippines the following April. Both men are due to be extradited to the US.
"The planned attacks included detonating bombs in Times Square and the New York City subway system and shooting civilians at specific concert venues," a Department of Justice statement said.
The trio hoped to carry out the attacks during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan in 2016, inspired by an attack the previous year on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris and by an attack on the metro in Belgium.
New York was the target of the 11 September 2001 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and led to President George W Bush's "war on terror"- which included the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
There was an attempted car bomb attack in Times Square in 2010 - for which Faisal Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison after the petrol and fertiliser device he planted failed to go off.
The Pakistani-born US citizen was described by prosecutors as a "remorseless terrorist". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41536402 |
Newspaper headlines: May 'to demote Boris' and Major's 'blast' - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Sunday's papers are dominated by politics, with speculation that Boris Johnson could be demoted. | The Papers | The overwhelming message on Sunday's front pages is summed up in a Sunday Telegraph headline, which says the Tories are "at war".
Rebel MPs are said to have given Theresa May until Christmas to make real progress on Brexit to avoid another attempt to oust her.
The paper says Mrs May has decided to commit billions of pounds on preparing Britain to leave the EU without a deal - to send a signal to pro-Brexit MPs that she's serious about regaining the upper hand in negotiations.
According to the Sunday Times, the prime minister will reassert her authority with a cabinet reshuffle in which she is prepared to demote Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Tory sources have told the paper she will shake up her top team later this month.
In an interview with the paper, Mrs May says: "It's never been my style to hide from a challenge and I'm not going to start now."
In his article in the Mail on Sunday, Sir John Major tells the plotters it is time to focus on the needs of the British people rather than their own ambitions if they want to avoid two 'neo-Marxists' being in government - a reference to Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.
In an editorial, the Mail urges Mrs May to seize the moment and attack.
"While willing to wound," it says, "her foes fear to strike".
It advises her to "get rid of unreliable and worn-out ministers".
According to the Sunday Express, "Brexit's big three" - Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis - "have thrown their weight behind Theresa May" and urged Tories to rally round her as leader.
In an article for the paper, Dr Fox praises the prime minister's "great inner strength".
But Nigel Nelson in the People says Mrs May is no longer "she who must be obeyed" and instead labels her: "She who's being abandoned."
The Sunday Mirror has a front page picture which it says shows prisoners cooking steaks smuggled into their jail.
Pictures inside the paper are said to expose the lifestyle of convicts - with no fear of authority - partying on drugs, vodka and take-away pizzas and fried chicken.
The paper says the pictures "shame our failing prison system".
A spokesman for the Prison Service is quoted saying: "This behaviour is completely unacceptable."
The Sun on Sunday also features a prison story.
It says "prison chiefs have been blasted" after reports that a mother was groomed from behind bars by the jailed paedophile, Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.
It says it led to the woman's two-year-old daughter being taken into care, after police and social services were alerted.
The paper says it's only the latest in a series of scandals and the prison bosses who allowed it should be ashamed of themselves.
Many of the Spanish papers carry pictures of the demonstrations for national unity that took place on Saturday, calling on Catalans to reject independence.
The country's biggest selling newspaper, El Pais, criticises the authorities in Catalonia, saying they should never have encouraged a large part of their population to go outside the legal framework and vote in a referendum already banned by the constitutional court.
The Observer says huge numbers are expected at a demonstration by Catalans opposed to independence in Barcelona today.
According to the Sunday Times, "Spain is a powder keg" as Catalans edge closer to breaking away. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41540863 |
Ryanair 'run like a communist regime', says pilot - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A pilot says colleagues are leaving the airline in a mass exodus due to a "toxic atmosphere". | England | Cabin crew reduced to tears, pilots refused days off even for their weddings, and workers "left in exile" thousands of miles from their homes and families.
After budget airline Ryanair was forced to cancel thousands of flights - repeatedly blaming a rostering error rather than an alleged pilot shortage - chief executive Michael O'Leary has written to pilots offering them better pay and conditions.
Here, a long-serving pilot explains why the offer is "too little, too late", and explains why his colleagues are leaving the airline.
Ryanair said it had "messed up the allocation of annual leave", but pilots claim their colleagues are leaving to fly for other airlines
Mr O'Leary is partly right to say the cancellations have been caused by problems accommodating pilots' leave, says the pilot.
But this has been exacerbated by unhappy staff seeking new jobs with rival airlines, he believes.
"The Irish Aviation Authority has changed the rules where pilots cannot fly more than 1,000 hours in a rolling year, and the flight hours have to be taken from January to December, whereas Ryanair were using April to April.
"Ryanair have been given two years' notice but the company have left it to the last minute," the pilot says.
"It's been the perfect storm because, at the same time, other airlines are hiring crews, so they are leaving for pastures new.
"If it wasn't for the crews' goodwill I think this crisis would have come sooner, because for a long time now they've been asking people to work days off.
"Pilots are being used as the scapegoat to cover for incompetency in the upper management, and it's just totally disgusting.
"Instead of O'Leary standing up and taking the blame he's directing the problems and the blame at pilots and saying it's because we're taking leave and holidays.
"That's simply not true. It may be true in a very few cases, but people are working harder now than ever to try to make up this shortfall in crewing levels that we have."
Ryanair staff have been sharing memes among each other that compare the management of Ryanair to the North Korean regime
The pilot said he and many other newly-qualified pilots joined Ryanair following the recession of 2008 when it was one of the few airlines still recruiting.
"A lot have remained here ticking along, but now that the market has become a lot more buoyant and there are other competitors offering much better terms and conditions, they've had enough and they are leaving," he said.
"On a local level the company is fantastic and I'm very fortunate to work with some very highly-skilled individuals.
"Then you have the management at the upper level and it's run like a communist regime in some respects. It's dictated from the top and you are just expected to get on with it.
"I know of colleagues that have had leave denied to get married and then these pilots rely on the goodwill and conscience of other pilots to cover their rostered flights so they can get married.
"This company will happily fire pilots to quell any uprising, even to the point where they would close a base or multiple bases to send a message to the rest: 'You just get on and do your job and keep doing what we tell you to do'.
"We have some memes that have been doing the rounds which we feel accurately portray the situation and feelings of the crew - comparing the company to the North Korean communist regime.
"The way they treat the staff is not much better, if not worse, than the way they treat their customers.
"People have just had enough of the toxic atmosphere that's been created here."
The BBC contacted Ryanair with these claims and a spokesman said it was "untrue" there was a toxic atmosphere among staff.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has said he would "challenge any pilot to explain how this is a difficult job or how it is they are overworked"
Mr O'Leary has said pilots fly for no more than 18 hours a week. However, the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) has said this "does not seem to have any basis in reality".
"In reality our hours are much longer than that," he said.
"[Mr O'Leary] has divided the maximum amount of hours a crew can fly in a year, which is 900 hours, by 52 weeks.
"I typically fly between 30 to 40 hours a week. This is what is called 'flight duty' and starts from reporting to work to when we set the parking brake at the end of the day.
"This does not include turnarounds and post-duty paperwork, which we are not paid for.
"If Ryanair advertise to their customers that the flight leaves at five o'clock and arrives at seven o'clock then we only get paid for those two hours.
"We are not paid for the time spent getting back to base either. Sometimes it's a case that you can't get back on the same day and you are having to pay for a hotel out of your own money, then catch a flight the following day to get home or catch multiple flight connections if the base isn't particularly well connected."
Ryanair declined to comment on whether pilots are paid only for the advertised length of the flight. It has said previously that pilots receive "great pay and industry-leading terms and conditions".
There is a lack of basic benefits such as crew meals and drinks, the pilot said
"Cabin crew are employed under similar conditions, on agency contracts, and the things I've seen are pretty disgusting," said the pilot.
"They are given unachievable sales targets, and if they've not reached sales targets they will be berated in a debriefing afterwards by a base supervisor, who is acting as a minion for Dublin.
"It's known for cabin crew to cry after their debriefings. I've seen them lined up almost like a military parade before being inspected, having their bags searched and all kinds of things.
"These people are not earning very much money - around £1,000 a month.
"In some bases the cabin crew even have to rent one room together, and sleep in the same bed - maybe one person who works early shifts and one person who works late shifts - because they are not paid enough to even afford their own accommodation in those particular areas.
"It's quite common for them to be threatened to be moved to a less desirable base, further away from home, unless their sales improve.
"There is also a lack of basic benefits - no free bottles of water, coffee or tea and no crew meals. All of this needs to be brought to work by the pilot and it's the same for cabin crew.
"They provide a water dispenser at every crew room, where you need to take an empty bottle to fill up. You also pay for your own uniform through a Ryanair-approved supplier."
The BBC asked Ryanair to comment on cabin crew being threatened and berated for not meeting sales targets, not being able to afford accommodation and sharing beds with colleagues. Ryanair responded: "These claims are untrue."
The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) has "urged Ryanair to do more to encourage pilots to stay with the airline"
"Some competitors do have similar work arrangements, but nothing to the extent that Ryanair do," the pilot said.
"They've copied the low cost business model from Southwest Airlines [in the United States] but gone to the extreme.
"Southwest make good profits and it's been ranked as one of the best airlines in America to fly for, as they take good care of crews and pay them well.
"However, Michael O'Leary seems to have taken enjoyment from taking the low road and taunting his customers and crews because he knows he can get away with it.
"Passengers want a British Airways service, but ultimately when it comes to booking they will book with Ryanair because he's offering a 10-euro seat.
"However, the tactics of ruling by fear and divide and conquer are outdated in the pilot market we're in now.
"Now, with the invention of WhatsApp people are openly discussing what's going on, and people are starting to see that there is more unity coming together.
"If there's no improvement here, and the management continue to bury their head in the sand, many people will continue to leave and the mass exodus will just continue."
The pilot said Mr O'Leary's offer of better pay and conditions "does not come across as sincere and genuine".
"People want to stay, they want to work and do a good job, but management are treating us like the enemy when we are the assets of the company," he said.
"We are an airline and without pilots and cabin crew the aircraft go nowhere."
In his latest letter to pilots, Mr O'Leary said he had interacted with many pilots over 30 years. "Over this period I have always tried to be courteous, respectful and grateful for the outstanding job that you do, and this will remain my approach."
Michael O'Leary, pictured outside a British Airways travel shop in 1998, has taken cost-cutting culture to the extreme, said the pilot
The BBC agreed not to identify the pilot. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41384789 |
Butterfly swarm shows up on Denver radar system - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Weather scientists first mistook the radar pattern to be birds, and turned to social media for help. | US & Canada | A colourful, shimmering spectacle detected by weather radar over the US state of Colorado has been identified as swarms of migrating butterflies.
Scientists at the National Weather Service (NWS) first mistook the orange radar blob for birds and had asked the public to help identifying the species.
They later established that the 70-mile wide (110km) mass was a kaleidoscope of Painted Lady butterflies.
Forecasters say it is uncommon for flying insects to be detected by radar.
"We hadn't seen a signature like that in a while," said NWS meteorologist Paul Schlatter, who first spotted the radar blip.
The Painted Lady is often mistaken for the monarch butterfly
"We detect migrating birds all the time, but they were flying north to south," he told CBS News, explaining that this direction of travel would be unusual for migratory birds for the time of year.
So he put the question to Twitter, asking for help determining the bird species.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by NWS Boulder This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Almost every response he received was the same: "Butterflies".
"Migrating butterflies in high quantities explains it", he later wrote on the NWS Boulder Twitter account.
Namely the three-inch long Painted Lady butterfly, which has descended in clouds on the Denver area in recent weeks.
The species, commonly mistaken for monarch butterflies, are found across the continental United States, and travel to northern Mexico and the US southwest during colder months.
They are known to follow wind patterns, and can glide hundreds of miles each day.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by kiki cannon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41528521 |
Natural History Museum crash 'not terror-related' - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The crash near the Natural History Museum, injuring 11 people, was not terror-related, say police. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows a man being pinned to the ground near the Natural History Museum
A crash outside a London museum that injured 11 people was not terror-related, police have said.
A black Toyota Prius hit the people outside the Natural History Museum in Exhibition Road, South Kensington.
Video footage that emerged on Twitter showed a man, believed to be the driver, being restrained on the ground.
The Metropolitan Police later said the incident was thought to be a "road traffic collision" and a man in his 40s had been arrested at the scene.
He was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and received hospital treatment before being taken to a north London police station for questioning.
London Ambulance said the people it treated - including the detained man - had mostly sustained head and leg injuries. Nine were taken to hospital.
The Met said none of the injuries were believed to be life-threatening or life changing.
Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted her thanks to first responders and members of the public, adding: "My thoughts are with the injured."
A picture of the car at the scene on Exhibition Road
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also tweeted his thanks and hopes for a "swift recovery" for those injured.
"For Londoners and visitors planning to visit our excellent museums and attractions in the area, please be assured they will be open as usual tomorrow."
The current terror threat in the UK is at "severe" - the second highest level - meaning an attack is highly likely.
Exhibition Road is an area popular with tourists as it is home to the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Oliver Cheshire, a model and popstar Pixie Lott's fiance, was involved in helping hold the man down after the incident.
He tweeted: "I'm OK. Thank you to the men who helped me pin him down and the police for coming so quickly."
BBC reporter Chloe Hayward, who was leaving the Natural History Museum as the crash happened at 14:20 BST, said she saw a car "diagonally across the road", looking like it had hit a bollard, before armed officers arrived.
We have been to the south end of Exhibition Road nearest the Tube and the area, normally a busy destination for Saturday afternoon dining by locals and tourists, is deserted.
Eyewitnesses told us that police came rushing into each bar and restaurant and told people to get out.
We can see coats on chairs - some knocked over - half-eaten meals and half-drunk glasses of wine.
Police helped one restaurant owner to recover staff belongings, like house keys, because it was unclear when the area would reopen.
An eyewitness who was walking to the Science Museum said: "When waiting for the light, we heard what I thought was gunshots and saw a car drive over the pavement. We just ran. My friend dived on the floor and cut her hands."
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "When it calmed down we walked back to where we'd been and saw a gentleman on the floor being restrained by police."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ellie Mackay, who lives opposite South Kensington tube station, said she heard "a couple of loud bangs"
Connor Honeyman, from Essex, who was in the queue for the museum, said: "We heard a horrible thudding noise and a car engine. Everyone started running and screaming inside.
"We ran in, everyone was following us, and then all the security guards ran out and they closed the main entrance. There was much confusion before the police got there."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Chloe Hayward said she saw a car diagonally across the road | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41538762 |
Further tariff of 80% imposed on import of C-Series plane - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US Department of Commerce again rules against the aerospace firm in its dispute with rival Boeing. | Northern Ireland | Parts of Bombardier's C-Series planes are made in Belfast
The US Department of Commerce has again ruled against aerospace firm Bombardier in its dispute with rival Boeing.
A further tariff of 80% has been imposed on the import of Bombardier's C-Series jet to the US for alleged below-cost selling.
This is on top of an earlier tariff of 220% which related to subsidies Bombardier got from Canada and the UK.
There have been warnings that the import tariffs could threaten Bombardier jobs in Belfast.
About 1,000 jobs are linked to the C-Series, the wings of which are made at a purpose-built £520m factory in the city.
A spokesperson for Bombardier said: "We strongly disagree with the commerce department's preliminary decision."
The firm said the ruling represented an "egregious overreach and misapplication of U.S. trade laws".
"The commerce department's approach throughout this investigation has completely ignored aerospace industry realities," it said.
"This hypocrisy is appalling, and it should be deeply troubling to any importer of large, complex, and highly engineered products."
The programme is not just important to Bombardier jobs in Belfast, but also to 15 smaller aerospace firms in Northern Ireland - and dozens more across the UK - which make components for the wings.
The US Department of Commerce rulings, which could more than triple the cost of a C-Series aircraft sold into the US, could jeopardise a major order placed last year from US airline Delta.
A final ruling in the case is due early next year.
Davy Thompson from the Unite union said workers are very concerned.
"It looms very large over these workers and it's time for the British government to actually step up for British workers," he said.
"We see the British government being bullied by Boeing.
"The EU needs to step in, because effectively they are being bullied too. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The history of Bombardier in Northern Ireland
A government spokesperson described the latest development as "disappointing", but said it was "hardly surprising given last week's preliminary ruling sided with Boeing".
"As with the investigation into subsidies, this is only the first step in the process," they added.
"Since the interim finding, we have had further Cabinet level engagement with the US Administration and Canadian government.
"We continue to make all efforts alongside the Canadian government to get Boeing to the table to resolve the case."
In a statement Boeing said: "Today's decision follows a fact-based investigation by the Commerce Department and it validates Boeing's dumping complaints regarding Bombardier's pricing in the United States.
"This was an avoidable outcome within Bombardier's control. The laws governing global trade are transparent and well known."
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said: "The United States is committed to free, fair and reciprocal trade with Canada, but this is not our idea of a properly functioning trading relationship".
"We will continue to verify the accuracy of this decision, while doing everything in our power to stand up for American companies and their workers."
The Canadian aerospace firm employs more than 4,000 workers across four sites in Northern Ireland.
Components of the C-Series jet are manufactured at a purpose-built factory in east Belfast and many other local firms are involved in the supply chain.
The punitive tax would significantly raise the price of the jet in the US market, and threaten the future of the product.
Boeing took the case after accusing Bombardier of anti-competitive practices.
It claimed its rival was selling the C-Series jets below cost price after taking state subsidies from the Canadian and British governments.
When the preliminary tax ruling was made last week, Wilbur Ross said: "The subsidisation of goods by foreign governments is something that the Trump administration takes very seriously."
The US trade commission is due to rule on the Department of Commerce's 220% tax proposal next year, but the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise (ISME) Association said the EU should not wait for the final decision.
Its chief executive, Neil McDonnell, said the EU "should signal right now that it will unconditionally, unequivocally and aggressively oppose protectionist measures by the US with tariffs of like effect". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-41532309 |
Journalist Kim Wall's head found in sea near Copenhagen - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It was found near where she disappeared on a trip with a Danish submariner, now facing a murder charge. | Europe | Kim Wall (right) went missing after boarding Peter Madsen's submarine (left)
The head of Swedish journalist Kim Wall has been found, two months after she disappeared on a trip with a Danish submariner, Danish police say.
Divers found bags containing her head, legs and clothing in Koge Bay, just south of Copenhagen, the city's police inspector Jens Moller Jensen said.
They were found not far from where Ms Wall's torso was discovered 11 days after she boarded Peter Madsen's submarine on 10 August.
He also denies a charge of mutilating her corpse.
Mr Moller Jensen said the bags, found on Friday, had been weighed down with pieces of metal.
"Yesterday morning we found a bag within which we found Kim Wall's clothes, underwear, stockings, and shoes. In the same bag laid a knife, and there were some car pipes to weigh the bag down," he said.
He said a post-mortem examination confirmed the head was Ms Wall's and that it showed "no sign of fracture... [or] any sign of other blunt violence to the skull".
This would seem to contradict Mr Madsen's statement that she had died after hitting her head on a hatch.
Ms Wall, 30, was last seen alive on the evening of 10 August as she departed with Mr Madsen on his self-built 40-tonne submarine, UC3 Nautilus, for a story she was writing about his venture.
Her boyfriend raised the alarm the next day when she did not return from the trip.
Initially, Mr Madsen said he had dropped her off safely in Copenhagen, but he later changed his story to say it had been a "terrible accident", that he had "buried her at sea" and planned afterwards to take his own life by sinking his submarine.
Ms Wall's torso was found on 21 August; a post-mortem examination revealed knife wounds to her genitals and ribcage, which were believed to have been caused "around or shortly after her death".
Danish Prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen told a court earlier this month that footage of women being decapitated alive had been found on a hard drive believed to belong to Mr Madsen.
Mr Madsen, who denied the hard drive was his, was detained for a further four weeks while investigations into the case continue.
• None Kim Wall: What really happened on Peter Madsen's submarine? | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41536552 |
Freddy Shepherd funeral: Football stars honour ex-Newcastle chairman - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Wayne Rooney, Alan Shearer and Sam Allardyce are among mourners at the ex-Newcastle chairman's funeral. | Tyne & Wear | Everton star Wayne Rooney was among the mourners
Family and friends have gathered for the funeral of former Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd.
Former club captain Alan Shearer, ex-Magpies managers Kenny Dalglish and Sam Allardyce, and Everton star Wayne Rooney were among mourners at St George's Church, in Jesmond, Newcastle.
The service got under way at noon and was followed by a private cremation ceremony.
Mr Shepherd, 75, passed away at home on 25 September.
He engineered the £15m deal which took Shearer from Blackburn back to his native Newcastle in July 1996.
Paying tribute during the service, Shearer said: "It is well-documented that there was another, so-called big club after me, but it was Freddy along with Kevin (Keegan), Sir John (Hall) and Douglas (Hall) who was instrumental in getting me home.
"I left 10 years later with him as my great friend, playing for my club, breaking the goal-scoring record, living my dream.
"I can thank Freddy for all of that."
He ended his eulogy by saying: "We miss you Mr Chairman, we miss you Freddy."
The club's record goal-scorer and former captain, Alan Shearer, paid tribute during the service
Mr Shepherd (l) paid £250,000 for a brass statue of former striker Shearer outside St James' Park last year
Sir John Hall, who was chairman before Mr Shepherd and who teamed up with him to take over the club when it was in trouble in the 1990s, said Newcastle became other fans' second team and their brand of entertaining football "lifted Tyneside".
During Mr Shepherd's time at Newcastle, the club twice finished as Premier League runners-up, reached two FA Cup finals and enjoyed two Champions League campaigns.
In addition, he oversaw the redevelopment of an ageing stadium, boosting its capacity from about 36,000 to more than 52,000.
Sir John Hall handed over the role of club chairman to Mr Shepherd in 1997
Former Newcastle United and England manager Sam Allardyce was another guest
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce was among the big names from the world of football in attendance
Local Labour MP Nick Brown told mourners Mr Shepherd created the Soccer Aid charity with Robbie Williams to help the world's poorest children, and it has raised £25m since 2004.
Away from football, Mr Shepherd was a major employer on Tyneside, having built up his offshore industry business with his brother Bruce.
On a floral tribute, Mr Shepherd's son Kenneth said his father was his best friend, adding: "My rock, Mr Charisma, Big Fred you are - but more, you are dad."
Floral tributes were placed outside the church
Television presenter Declan Donnelly was accompanied by his wife, Ali Astall
Mr Shepherd was to be cremated in a private service following the funeral
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-41536565 |
'Most important' Ely Bronze Age gold torc on display - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Amateur detectorists found the 3,000-year-old torc, which is made of pure gold and valued at £220,000. | Cambridgeshire | The torc is made of 730g (26oz) of almost pure gold
One of England's "most important Bronze Age finds" has gone on display for the first time near to where it was found.
The £220,000 gold torc was unearthed by metal detectorists in an east Cambridgeshire field last year.
It was probably left as a "gift to the gods" and its diameter is "larger than any adult male trousers" according to Neil Wilkin, from the British Museum.
The bracelet-like ring is more than 3,000 years old and was bought by Ely Museum using a series of grants.
It was declared treasure at an inquest and the finder and landowner will receive a reward.
Elie Hughes, Ely Museum curator, said the detectorist "had no idea what it was until he cleaned it", at which point he reported it to the county finds liaison officer.
This is how the torc looked once the dirt was washed off - it has not required any polishing, according to Ely curator Elie Hughes
Dr Wilkin, who is responsible for the British Museum's British and European Bronze Age Collection, described it as "one of the most important Bronze Age finds that's ever been made in England".
He said the torc is the "largest of its type in the whole of Europe" and its diameter is "larger than any adult male trousers that you can buy in a shop today".
He speculated the torc could have been worn over bulky clothing or by a sacrificial animal but its use "remains a guessing game".
At this time in the Bronze Age, people were no longer being buried with important objects - instead they deposited them at "important places in the landscape".
Dr Wilkin said: "We don't necessarily know why, but we think it was a gift to the gods, designed to secure good harvests or a healthy family.
"I've calculated you could probably make 10 smaller objects out of this one, so it's a really big sacrifice of wealth and status."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-41513451 |
Natural History Museum: Latest updates on crash - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Police say people were injured when a car crashed near the Natural History Museum | UK | The Metropolitan Police have released a statement confirming that a "road traffic investigation" is under way.
The force said the injuries sustained to the 11 people were "not believed to be life-threatening or life-changing".
The detained man is under arrest, the police said, and is in custody at a north London police station. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-41538870 |
Thaad: US to sell $15bn missile defence to Saudi Arabia - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The deal will supply the US's advanced Thaad missile defence system to Saudi Arabia. | US & Canada | The system can destroy incoming missiles at altitudes beyond the Earth's atmosphere
The US government has approved the sale to Saudi Arabia of its advanced Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) missile defence system.
The State Department said the $15bn (£11.5bn) deal furthered US national security and foreign policy interests.
It would boost Saudi and Gulf security against Iranian and other regional threats, the state department added.
The announcement comes a day after Saudi Arabia agreed to buy air defence systems from Russia.
The deal would not alter the military balance in the region, the Pentagon's Defense Security Co-operation Agency said.
Thaad systems are being deployed in South Korea to protect against a possible missile attack from North Korea.
But many South Koreans have objected, fearing it would become a target and endanger the lives of those who live near its launch sites.
China also voiced opposition to the system, saying it would affect the regional security balance.
The system destroys incoming missiles at altitudes beyond the Earth's atmosphere, making it especially useful in countering missiles that might carry a nuclear warhead.
The Thaad interceptor is produced by the US company Lockheed Martin.
This latest multi-billion-dollar deal will help satisfy the Trump administration's desire to be seen to be protecting and increasing jobs at home.
Donald Trump has also made it abundantly clear that he is completely in tune with the Saudi view of Iran as the biggest threat in the region - which is a key rationale behind this new Saudi spending spree.
He may be less pleased, though about the arms deal the Saudis agreed with Russia during King Salman's visit to Moscow this week.
It showed perhaps how Riyadh is hedging its bets, as US influence has been diminishing in the Middle East.
• None What impact could Thaad have in South Korea? | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41532889 |
Scam baiter: Why I risk death threats to expose online cons - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A man who runs an online support group says scam victims are not stupid - just unaware of the con. | Technology | In the flesh, Wayne May (not his real name) is an affable gentleman in his late 40s, softly spoken with a lilting Welsh accent.
When we meet he's casually dressed in jeans and a Batman T-shirt. He works full-time as a carer.
On the net, he's a tireless defender of scam victims and a fearless scam baiter - a person who deliberately contacts scammers, engages with them and then publishes as much information about them as possible in order to warn others.
He regularly receives death threats, and his website, Scam Survivors, is often subjected to attempted DDoS attacks - where a site is maliciously hit with lots of web traffic to try to knock it offline.
But Mr May is determined to continue helping scamming victims in his spare time, and has a team of volunteers in the US, Canada and Europe doing the same.
"Wayne May" says victims need to accept that they are unlikely to get their money back
Scam Survivors is not an official platform - in the UK victims are encouraged to contact Action Fraud - but the team has dealt with 20,000 cases in the past 12 years, he claims.
According to the Office for National Statistics there were 1.9 million reports of "cyber-related" fraud in the year ending March 2017 in England and Wales. But the report also says that many incidents go unreported.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission website says nearly AUS$13m (£8m, $10m) has been lost this year to romance fraud alone.
Scamming may be an old trick but it's still an effective one.
Mr May, who does not charge but invites donations on his website, says his website gets up to 10,000 hits a day and the group also receives up to two dozen messages a day from people who are victims of sextortion - when a person is blackmailed after being persuaded to carry out a sex act on webcam, which is then recorded.
"A lot of people, when they come to us are already so far deep into it, they have nowhere to turn," he says.
"They're not stupid, they're just unaware of the scam."
"It's not obvious [that it's a scam] if they've never experienced it before."
He discovered he was "rather good" at baiting romance scammers and found relatives of victims were approaching him to help loved-ones.
"I started dealing more with the victims of the scams rather than the scammers themselves, so my priorities changed then from just having fun to actually helping people."
Many scams are not a particularly sophisticated form of fraud.
"There are constantly new scams coming out, and we need to be aware of those," says Mr May.
"But a lot of the scams aren't high-tech, they simply write messages to people and that's it.
"You might think, 'I'm not going to fall for this scam' but then you'll fall for another one. The scammers will find a chink in your armour."
Daniel Perry, 17, died in a fall from the Forth Road Bridge in July 2013 - he was a victim of sextortion
The first thing Mr May has to explain to those who get in touch is that Scam Survivors cannot recover any money the victim has been persuaded to hand it over.
In his experience, the average victim will end up around £1,000 out of pocket, but some will go a lot further - one man who recently made contact with the support group had given more than £500,000 to a male Russian scammer he thought he was in a relationship with.
"We say upfront, we can't get your money back. We can't offer you emotional support. We're not psychiatrists. We're just people who know how scams work and how to deal with them," he says.
To prevent being a victim, his advice is simple: "Google everything."
Search the images you are sent, the messages you receive - often scammers use the same material and the more widely shared it is, the more likely it is to end up on a website dedicated to exposing scams.
If you fear blackmail, Mr May suggests setting up an alert so that you are notified if your name is mentioned online. If, in the case of sextortion, a video is published on the net, you will then know straight away and can report it, as you are likely to be tagged in it.
"Be aware and learn how to search everything," he says.
"If someone sends you a picture or text, search it, try to find out as much as you can. If you're unsure don't send them money."
Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud and cyber-crime reporting service, said all scams reported to it are passed on to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, which is part of City of London Police.
However, a spokeswoman told the BBC that only around 30% of all fraud cases had "viable lines of inquiry".
"We know that at these levels it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to investigate all these crimes," said a spokeswoman.
"We have to maximise our resources where there is the best chance of a successful investigative outcome."
Professor Alan Woodward, cyber-security expert from Surrey University, said it was still important to keep reporting scams to the national body even if individual justice was not always possible.
"For those contacting Action Fraud UK to report a crime it may appear that little happens, but your information is vital in constructing an accurate picture of where, when and how online scams are occurring," he said.
"It may be that the police are unable to solve your individual crime but by studying the big picture they are able to zero in on the scammers.
"Your report could be vital in completing the overall picture and enable law enforcement to prevent others suffering as you have."
Some people argue that the scammers themselves are also in desperate situations - many of them operate in some of the poorest parts of the world, such as West Africa and the Philippines.
Wayne May has no sympathy.
"These people aren't Robin Hood types," he says.
"If you go online and scam people you have the money to go online, if you can't afford food you can't spend hours in an internet cafe."
He is, however, haunted by one occasion when a woman from the Philippines he was scam-baiting offered to perform on webcam for him. When he declined she then asked if she should involve her sister.
"She called this girl over and she couldn't have been more than nine or 10," he recalls.
"That horrified me. I said, 'Don't do this, not for me, not for anybody. You shouldn't do this'. I couldn't talk to her again after that. I had to completely walk away."
He says he has no idea what happened to her.
"I can't let it affect me too much, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do what I do," he said.
"I've been doing it for almost 12 years now, and if I let every case affect me I'd be a gibbering wreck in the corner."
Romance - when a scammer builds an intense online relationship with someone, then asks for money
Sextortion - when a victim is persuaded to carry out a sex act on webcam which is then videoed and the scammer demands a ransom in return for not publishing the content on the net
Pets - a pet is advertised for sale, and then fees are demanded in order to get the pet to its new owner. The pet does not exist.
Hitman - Someone claims to be a hitman and says that they have been paid to kill you. They then say that if you are prepared to pay more, they will not carry out the threat.
419 - named after section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code - claiming money from another person under false pretence: such as needing assistance to release a large sum of fictional inheritance. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41518352 |