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
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amy Winehouse, music, arthritis and me - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | 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 | 2017-10-07 | 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 |
Rapper Nelly arrested over alleged tour bus rape - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 42-year-old was released after questioning over an alleged sex assault on board his tour bus. | US & Canada | A lawyer for the 42-year-old artist denied the allegations
Rapper Nelly has been arrested after a woman accused him of raping her on his tour bus following a concert near Seattle.
Police in Auburn said they arrested the artist after a woman called emergency services at 03:48 (10:48 GMT) to report a sex assault.
The singer strongly denies the allegations and has now been released.
"I have not been charged... therefore no bail was required," he tweeted.
Nelly, 42, is currently on tour with the Backstreet Boys and Florida Georgia Line
The singer tweeted that he was "beyond shocked that I have been targeted with this false allegation".
"I am completely innocent," he said. "I am confident that once the facts are looked at, it will be very clear that I am the victim of a false allegation."
Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr, was taken into custody on a second degree rape charge, TMZ said.
In a statement his lawyer also described the allegation as "completely fabricated".
"Our initial investigation clearly establishes this allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness," Scott Rosenblum said in a statement.
Nelly is best known for his US number one hits "Hot in herre" and "Dilemma". He last released a studio album in 2013.
In 2015 he was arrested on felony charges after police found drugs and guns on board his tour bus.
The 42-year-old is currently on tour with the Backstreet Boys and Florida Georgia Line, and performed in Auburn on Friday night.
The bus was parked near a local Walmart at the time of the alleged incident. A police statement said they were continuing to investigate.
Nelly was due to perform on the Smooth Stadium Tour in Ridgefield near Portland on Saturday evening. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41539463 |
Boris Johnson tells Tories to 'get behind' Theresa May - BBC News | 2017-10-07 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | In a WhatsApp message, the foreign secretary warned that "people are fed up with all this malarkey". | UK Politics | Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has urged colleagues to "get behind" the PM because "people are fed up with this malarkey".
In a WhatsApp message he urged Tories "talk about nothing except policies".
It comes after ex-party chairman Grant Shapps said about 30 Tory MPs backed his call for a leadership contest.
The party's leader in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, said it should "get its house in order", back Theresa May and "let her get back to governing".
Ms Davidson said critics should "put up" and "shut up", adding that the calls were not led by anyone "serious".
Folks I am away but just read all this!
We have JUST HAD AN ELECTION and people are fed up with all this malarkey
Get behind the pm. Ordinary punters I have spoken to thought her speech was good and anyone can have a cold
Circle the wagons turn the fire on Corbyn and talk about nothing except our great policies and what we can do for the country
The prime minister has said she has the "full support of her cabinet".
Speaking on Friday, she insisted she was providing the "calm leadership" the country needed.
Nigel Evans MP, of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, said Mr Shapps's "sniping" was doing the party "no favours" and could have a negative impact on Brexit negotiations.
Dismissing supporters of a plot to oust Mrs May as "the coalition of the disappointed", he told BBC Breakfast: "Any talents he thinks he's got he should really now direct towards backing Theresa May on the difficult negotiations on Brexit."
Former leadership contender Andrea Leadsom also gave her support to the PM, telling BBC Radio 4's Any Questions: "Like a lot of my colleagues have said today, [Mr Shapps] should shut up."
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"
Pressure on the prime minister has grown since her party conference speech was plagued by a series of mishaps, as she struggled with a persistent cough and was interrupted by a prankster.
Mr Shapps, who was co-chair of the party between 2012 and 2015, said he believed it was "time we actually tackle this issue of leadership" adding that "so do many colleagues".
However, cabinet ministers including Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Amber Rudd were among those who backed the PM on Friday.
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
Speaking on Radio 4's Political Thinking podcast, Ms Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, suggested the prime minister's critics should "put up, shut up and get off the stage", adding there were "an awful lot of people in our party who need to settle down".
"I think if the plotters were serious, they would be led by someone a bit more serious," she said.
"One of the irritants over the last couple of days, for me, particularly as a woman, is this idea that all of these men are supposed to be making decisions on Theresa May's behalf," she added.
"Well, have they actually met Theresa May? This is a woman with agency, with grit, with determination.
"I backed her in the leadership, I back her now and I will back her in the future."
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 said no letter had been sent and that 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 said: "The country needs leadership. It needs leadership at this time in particular."
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-41534552 |
India national park: White tigers kill keeper - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The keeper was mauled to death as he tried to get the tigers into their enclosure, officials say. | India | White tigers are believed derive their colour from a recessive gene
An animal keeper at a national park in southern India has been attacked and killed by two rare young white tigers, officials say.
The keeper, 40, was mauled to death as he attempted to direct the tigers into their enclosure on Saturday night at the Bannerghatta Biological Park.
An official said the tigers pounced on him because one of the four enclosure gates was not properly latched.
The keeper had only been employed by the national park for a little over a week.
His angry relatives protested outside the park on Sunday - they want financial compensation from park management, accusing them of negligence.
A keeper at the park near Bangalore was reported to have been injured two years ago by lions. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-41544271 |
Blade Runner 2049 disappoints at US box office - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The sequel to the 1982 cult classic is the weekend's most popular film in America and 45 countries. | Business | Ryan Gosling, Denis Villeneuve, Ana de Armas and Harrison Ford at the Paris premiere of Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049 has made far less than expected on its opening weekend at the US box office.
The $31.5m (£24.1m) total will be a major disappointment for distributor Warner Bros, which had projected ticket sales of between $45m and $50m.
Its 163-minute running time, limiting the number of screenings, was said to be one factor in the under-performance.
But it was still the weekend's most popular movie in the US. It topped the UK box office, with sales above £6m.
The sequel to the 1982 cult classic, which also stars Harrison Ford as well as Ryan Gosling, cost Sony and Alcon Entertainment $150m to make.
Despite strong advance ticket sales and glowing reviews from many critics, the movie made $12.7m on Thursday night and Friday, $11.4m on Saturday and a projected $7.4m on Sunday from just over 4,000 cinemas.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford star in the sequel of Blade Runner
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore, said: "The core of enthusiastic and loyal 'Blade Runner' fans were over 25 and predominantly male, and propelled the film as expected to the top spot, but a lengthy running time and lesser interest among females made it tougher for the film to reach the original weekend box office projections."
Men over 25 accounted for half the audience, according to PostTrack, with women over 25 making up 27%.
Jeff Goldstein, of Warner Bros, said Blade Runner 2049 had disappointed in smaller cities and in the South and Midwest, where the running time and baseball playoffs appeared to have deterred moviegoers.
"We did well in the major and high-profile markets," he said. "Alcon and Denis [Villeneuve, the director] made an amazing movie. The audience for it was narrower than we anticipated."
Globally, the film took $50.2m and claimed the number one spot in 45 of its 63 markets, Screen Daily reported.
That tally was higher than the $44.6m for The Martian, starring Matt Damon, on its opening weekend in 2015. The movie was directed by Ridley Scott, who also made the original Blade Runner and was an executive producer on 2049.
The Chinese comedy Never Say Die took $66m globally to top the international box office, pushing Kingsman: The Golden Circle into second place.
The remake of the Stephen King killer clown thriller It has now taken $305m in the US, and almost as much internationally, to top the $600m mark globally, making it the most successful horror film.
UK moviegoers have been its biggest fans, spending $40.7m (£31.1m) on tickets since its release on 8 September. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41546692 |
Brazilians in the south asked to vote on secession - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Three Brazilian states hold an informal referendum on whether they should form a new country. | Latin America & Caribbean | President Temer has had a lot in his in-tray recently
Voters in the south of Brazil have been asked in an informal vote whether they want to be part of a new country.
The referendum was organised a week after a similar vote in Catalonia by a secessionist movement called "The South Is My Country".
The movement said it set up polls in more than 1,000 municipalities across the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná.
The group's leader, Celso Deucher, says he hopes to gather three million votes.
At polling stations in the Paraná state city, Londrina, voters told local media they were disillusioned with the federal government and a giant corruption scandal that has seen dozens of politicians and members of the business elite jailed or indicted.
Acacio Fernandes Tozzini told online newspaper, Redacaõ Bonde: "Our nation has reached a dramatic level of political disorder that is impossible to mend. We want to get rid of Brasilia, Brazil has reached the apex of corruption."
Others complained that the south of Brazil saw little return from taxation which mostly benefitted the poorer northern regions of the country who have bigger voting rights than the south.
Paulo Mauricio Acquarole said: "If you look at the six or seven states above us (in the northeast), altogether they don't give what the three states of the south give in taxation. Proportionally they have the same number of votes as Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná.
"If you hear the accent of the political legislature of Brazil it is a north-eastern one."
The south of Brazil has expressed secessionist tendencies before, ever since Italy's Giuseppe Garibaldi helped it achieve a short-lived semi-independence in 1836.
Last year a similar vote in October 2016 organised by "The South Is My Country" gathered 617,500 votes. Over 95% of the voters in the three states said they were in favour of separation.
Few Brazilians believe the separatist movement will succeed, not least because it is forbidden by the constitution which proclaims that the country is "formed by the indissoluble union of states".
But the poll is another indicator among Brazilian voters of anger towards the federal government which they say has failed to tackle a spike in violence across the country and has been unable to overturn the worse recession in more than a century.
Analysts say the corruption scandal has also destroyed support for the political ruling class leaving next year's elections wide open. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41541063 |
Ghana's capital rocked by huge gas blasts - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The explosions at a fuel depot in Accra leave at least seven people dead and force a mass evacuation. | Africa | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage from the explosion in Ghana
Huge explosions have rocked a fuel depot in Ghana's capital Accra, leaving at least seven people dead.
The blasts sent a giant fireball into the sky and forced residents to flee the Atomic Junction area, in the north-east of the city, officials say.
The incident happened at about 19:30 GMT on Saturday, reportedly as a tanker delivering natural gas caught fire.
Seven people were confirmed killed in the incident in the suburb of Legon, and more than 100 others were injured.
The first blast reportedly triggered a second explosion and a fire at a petrol station nearby.
Many of those evacuated were students at the University of Ghana, which is sited in the area.
President Nana Akufo-Addo tweeted that he was devastated by the news.
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 Nana Akufo-Addo 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.
"Government is resolved, now more than ever, to ensure such an incident does not occur again," he added in a later tweet.
In June 2015, about 150 died in a fire at a petrol station in the city.
It took hours to put the fire out | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-41541001 |
Airbnb paid £188,000 in UK tax last year - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The home-sharing website collected more than £650m in rental payments for UK landlords last year. | Business | Airbnb, the accommodation website, paid less than £200,000 in UK corporation tax last year despite collecting £657m of rental payments for property owners.
The commissions the company earns in the UK are booked by its Irish subsidiary, but it also has two UK subsidiaries.
One unit made a pre-tax profit, but the other did not incur UK corporation tax because deductions resulted in a loss.
Airbnb said in a statement: "We follow the rules and pay all the tax we owe."
One of the British subsidiaries, Airbnb Payments UK, handles payments between landlords and travellers for countries other than the United States, China and India.
That unit made a pre-tax profit of £960,000 and paid £188,000 in UK corporation tax - £8,000 less than in 2015.
The other British subsidiary, Airbnb UK, markets the website and app to British consumers. It reported a £463,000 pre-tax profit last year but because it gave shares to staff, which are tax-deductable, there was no corporation tax bill.
Airbnb said: "Our UK office provides marketing services and pays all applicable taxes, including VAT. The Airbnb model is unique and boosted the UK economy by £3.46bn last year alone."
The tax arrangements of other technology giants have come under under closer scrutiny in recent years.
One of the most vocal critics has been EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. She has taken aim at the likes of Apple, Amazon and others for where they book the revenues and profits of their European activities.
Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, has also asked why Airbnb paid tens of thousand of euros in French corporation tax despite a turnover in the millions.
The company, founded in San Francisco in 2008, has disrupted the hotel industry by linking travellers with landlords who generally want to rent out a spare room or an entire property for short-term stays.
It has become one of the most successful examples of the digital economy, with an estimated value of about $24bn.
However, Airbnb has faced a growing backlash in cities including Barcelona, Berlin and Paris, where politicians have taken steps to stop landlords renting properties to tourists rather than local residents.
While Airbnb has long been linked with a stock market listing, it remains privately owned.
It takes a 3% commission from landlords for each booking, and also charges fees to travellers.
In the UK last year Airbnb catered for 5.9m travellers and had 168,000 listings. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41543449 |
A permanent reminder of my own stupidity - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A festival has left an indelible mark on the BBC's South Asia correspondent. | Magazine | I have done something so stupid I still can't believe it.
Maybe I had fallen under the influence of the 10-headed demon Ravana.
The vanquishing of Ravana by Lord Rama is the excuse for Dussehra, one of the wildest of all Hindu festivals.
Towering wicker effigies of Ravana and his henchmen - complete with curling moustaches and wicked smiles - are filled with fireworks, ready to be burned in the climax of a re-enactment of Lord Rama's great victory.
Last year my wife and I took our four children to the biggest Dussehra celebration in Delhi, at the Ramlila Maidan, a vast field outside the gates of the old city.
As the sunlight turned a delicious gold, we joined the jostling queues.
But Ravana's malign influence isn't enough to explain what follows. I blame the fairground, too.
There's an Indian concept called jugaad. It means a simple, cheap solution to a complex problem. Basically - it means bodging it. The rides applied jugaad with breathtaking abandon.
It was as my 14 and 15-year-old daughters and I tottered, giggling nervously, from a terrifying, harness-free spin on a juddering big wheel that I noticed the sheet laid out on the dry mud.
Crouched on it was a man offering temporary tattoos.
Now, I have always hated tattoos. I live in fear of my children getting some ugly doodle etched into their perfect skin. That's why I thought it would be so funny to surprise my wife, Bee, with a fake one.
"How about a heart with her name in it for her birthday?" I said.
I promise I hadn't had anything to drink.
"They wash off, yes?" I asked the tattoo man.
"Yes, yes, yes," he said.
I felt the chrome nozzle of his little machine. I couldn't feel a needle.
He showed me a pot of ink. Well, you'd need ink for a temporary tattoo, wouldn't you?
I pointed to a heart on one of the laminated sheets with pictures of his craft, and then at the letters B, E, E.
"Yes, yes, yes," he said and took my arm firmly.
Before I knew it, he was already at work, and here's the thing: it didn't hurt.
Everyone I know who has ever had a tattoo says it hurt.
All I felt was a prickle. That said, it did worry me, but by then the tattoo man had already inked out a rough heart - and I do mean rough - in the middle of my upper arm.
It must have taken all of 30 seconds.
He started on the letters.
First an L. Hold on a second…
Now I was really worried. I tried to pull my arm away.
"No, no, no," said the tattoo man, pulling back.
With a sharp tug I got my arm free and wiped in desperation at the ink. But beneath my fingers I could feel my skin was slightly raised. The blue-black ink didn't even smudge.
"What have you done?" my wife wanted to know when we found her in the crowd and showed her my arm.
My daughters were doubled up with glee. Who wouldn't laugh when your dad has just got himself a tattoo by mistake?
The first fireworks exploded in the sky. Ravana was about to be put to the torch. I was already rushing for the exit.
"There must be a way to get rid of this thing," I told myself.
There wasn't. And here's some advice you probably don't need - never follow home tattoo removal instructions from the internet.
Flushing it with gin - the only alcohol to hand - didn't make any difference.
Salification - literally rubbing salt in the wound - didn't work either.
I now have a white scar as well as a cheap tattoo.
My wife was more worried about the risk of blood-borne infection, which is how I came to be sitting in front of a doctor in one of Delhi's hospitals.
So how risky is a street tattoo like this, I wanted to know?
"Oh, infection is very, very, very common," he told me with a huge smile.
He said as well as hepatitis B and C, there was also the risk of HIV.
"Oh, this is a very, very, very common way to get HIV. I see it all the time. All the time," he said, apparently delighted.
Two weeks later, the results of the blood test came through. It was clear. I have booked another test to make sure that is still the case.
The tattoo, however, isn't going anywhere. Ugly as it is, I'm keeping it - a permanent reminder to be less impetuous.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41510293 |
McDonald's Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce stunt backfires - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Fans of cartoon Rick and Morty were left angry after they were unable to get a rare dipping sauce. | US & Canada | McDonalds sent the out-of production sauce to the show's creators before announcing its return
A McDonald's PR stunt to bring back a rare dipping sauce left thousands of fans disappointed, with police called to some US restaurants on Saturday.
The Szechuan sauce, which was only made in 1998 to promote the film Mulan, has become well known after featuring in the popular cartoon Rick and Morty.
In July the chain sent a large bottle of the sauce to the show's creators.
They then announced it would come back for one day on 7 October, but fans were left disappointed after stores ran out.
In one video, police can be seen holding back people chanting "we want sauce".
Officers also attended other stores because hundreds of people turned up.
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 Ian 👻💀👽 Sikes 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 sauce became a meme among fans of the adult animated science-fiction series after it was featured in the third series.
McDonald's announced the Szechuan's return last week, describing it as a "really, really limited release" to special locations in the US.
But fans online said some restaurants claimed they were only given 20 pots of the sauce per venue, while others received none.
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 Frederick 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.
Fans took to social media to vent their frustrations after being unable to get their hands on the out-of-production dip.
One couple posted that they had driven for four hours to a restaurant stocking the sauce, but were left disappointed.
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 Jillian Campagnola 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 global fast food chain apologised to fans on social media but repeated their warning that the release was going to be "super limited".
Pots of the sauce are now listed for sale on online auction websites for hundreds of dollars.
Angry customers posted pictures of breaded chicken and dipping sauces from other fast-food chains in protest at the stunt.
Others posted pictures of large bowls of the sauce they had made for themselves at home. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41543636 |
Poland Catholics hold controversial prayer day on borders - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Hurricane Nate: New Orleans braces for storm - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
'Support' for woman jogger in Nottingham sex attack - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Police are treating the incident as a misogynistic hate crime. | Nottingham | The victim said some women told her they had had a similar experience
A woman who was indecently assaulted while running says she has been overwhelmed by people saying they have had similar experiences.
The 48-year-old victim was grabbed by a man while jogging in Sherwood Rise, Nottingham.
Nottinghamshire Police are treating the incident as a misogynistic hate crime.
The suspect is Asian, about 30, 6ft (1.8m) tall, with a bald patch. He was carrying a large backpack containing tennis racquets.
The woman was running along Claremont Road, Sherwood, at about 18:30 BST on Tuesday when the man grabbed her.
She said: "I started to make quite a lot of noise and really yelled at him and then carried on running.
"One of the most shocking things was how unfazed he was."
She posted what had happened on Facebook and received many messages of support from women of all ages.
"I think it is really important women speak out when this happens," she said.
The victim said being shouted and leered at was common, but this was the first time she had been physically assaulted.
Sharon Cairney, from Notts Women's Runners, said such incidents were becoming more common.
"We certainly have had half a dozen we know as a club this calendar year," she said. "It is absolutely outrageous."
In January, an England Athletics survey found that one in three women had been harassed while running.
• None One in three women runners 'harassed'
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-41527940 |
'Only one thing will work' with N Korea, says President Trump - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Could you brave an 'immersive horror' show? - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Theresa May 'resilient' amid Conservative Party infighting - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | "It has never been my style to hide from a challenge," says the PM, after her mishap-strewn speech. | UK Politics | Theresa May has said she is "pretty resilient" and it is not her style to "hide from a challenge" despite a mishap-strewn party conference speech.
The prime minister told the Sunday Times: "I am a very determined person. I am not someone who gives up."
But Downing St says the newspaper's report that she is planning a cabinet reshuffle is "speculation".
On Friday, former party chairman Grant Shapps claimed 30 Tory MPs backed his calls for a leadership contest.
It followed a conference speech in which Mrs May apologised for calling a snap general election and losing the Tory majority, only to then be plagued by a persistent cough.
She was also interrupted by a prankster giving her a fake P45 and letters falling off the Conservative message in the background.
After Mr Shapps was publicly named as the Tory gathering support for a leadership contest, Mrs May insisted she was providing "calm leadership" with the "full support" of the cabinet.
She then told the Sunday Times the problems during her speech had been "really frustrating", but added: "Let's keep this in proportion. I had to give a long speech with a bad cough, a somewhat shaky set and a so-called comedian intent on getting his 15 minutes of fame.
"Was it uncomfortable? Certainly. But let's not get carried away!"
She added: "The truth is, my feelings can be hurt, like everyone else, but I am pretty resilient."
Asked what she would do about Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson - who has been seen by some as disloyal after writing two articles setting out his own vision for Brexit - she said she would not "hide from a challenge", and would "make sure I always have the best people in my cabinet, to make the most of the wealth of talent available in the party".
But she added: "I have a terrific cabinet."
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Johnson himself suggested only "nutters" in the party would want to oust Mrs May, while in the Mail on Sunday, former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major accused "self absorbed" critics of undermining her.
Sir John said the country "has had enough" of the "disloyal behaviour we have witnessed over recent weeks".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said any politician watching Mrs May's speech would have sympathised with her, but if she wasn't a "weak prime minister presiding over a deeply divided party" it would not have been an issue.
But the Conservative leader in Scotland, Ruth Davidson, told the BBC that while there had been some "unfortunate shenanigans" in the party, "the pushback has been pretty strong" against those trying to force a leadership contest.
She criticised "tittle-tattle" by colleagues, adding that being a politician is "about delivering for the country, it's not and should never be about private ambition".
Of Mr Johnson, whom some Conservative figures have suggested should be sacked, she said: "He is a big intellect, a big figure in the party and if the prime minister believes he is the right person to be foreign secretary then she has my full support."
Mr Johnson had said he was "fully behind" the PM's Florence speech last month - designed to break the deadlock in Brexit negotiations - and she should "hold him to that", Ms Davidson added.
Of her own leadership ambitions, Ms Davidson said she was focussed on her job as Scottish Tory leader: "I'm looking to 2021 [Holyrood elections] and I'm not looking past it because there is quite a lot in my in-tray right now."
The Conservative former deputy PM Lord Heseltine said he believed a reshuffle was now inevitable given the prime minister's "unenviable" position - but it would be dangerous to return Mr Johnson to the backbenches.
"Brexit is the over-arching issue of our day and it is hugely damaging to the unity of the Conservative Party," he told the BBC.
"They can't make up their minds, either about the issues or the personality they would like to put in her [Theresa May's] place and that's the argument for the reshuffle because it could broaden the choice."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lord Heseltine: May could 'open debate' on her successor
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 then only be triggered if Mrs May lost that vote, or chose to quit. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41541208 |
Huge cocaine haul seized in tugboat in Atlantic - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It is not clear where the 165 packages of cocaine were being transported to, officials say. | Europe | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows the spot where the cocaine was hidden on board the boat
Nearly four tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated $260m (£200m) have been seized by international law enforcement officers in the Atlantic.
The drugs were found on a boat between Portugal's Madeira and Azores islands.
Officials found 165 individual packages of cocaine weighing 23kg - a total of 3.7 tonnes - concealed beneath the vessel's cooking area.
It is not clear where the drugs were being taken to.
The Comoros-flagged vessel was towed into the Spanish port of Cádiz on Friday after Spanish officials received intelligence from the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).
The crew, from Turkey and Azerbaijan, were arrested.
The cocaine was hidden beneath the vessel's galley
Spanish officers made the seizure after a tip-off from the UK
The operation was jointly conducted by Spanish customs and police and the NCA under the overall co-ordination of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics (MAOC-N) in Lisbon.
"Seizing this quantity of cocaine represents a major disruption to international crime groups, depriving them of revenue potentially running into the hundreds of millions of pounds," NCA spokesman Mark Blackwell said.
There have been two other big Atlantic drug busts in recent months.
Thirteen Spanish citizens of Moroccan origin were arrested on Monday over what is believed to be a record seizure of cocaine in the North African country, officials there said.
Officials say the bust will cause traffickers major disruption
Police were reported to have seized more than 2.5 tonnes of the drug, with a street value of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The cocaine was thought to have come from Venezuela on its way to Europe or the United Arab Emirates.
Morocco's investigations chief Abdelhak Khiam said South American drug cartels were using smuggling routes through sub-Saharan countries where he said there was "little control".
The Portuguese navy and air force is also reported to have carried out a drugs seizure on Thursday after intercepting a yacht suspected of transporting cocaine to the country from the Caribbean.
The vessel was stopped about 965km (600 miles) south of the Azores, Portugal News Online reported, and was carrying a large amount of "highly pure" cocaine believed to be worth about $23.5m (£18m). | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41542224 |
Newspaper headlines: Gender neutral census and £1 coin chaos - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Monday's front pages included stories about the 2021 census and problems around the old £1 coin. | The Papers | There is continuing speculation that Theresa May is coming under pressure to carry out a cabinet reshuffle - and move Boris Johnson to another job.
But the Daily Telegraph says allies of the foreign secretary have warned that he will "just say no" if the prime minister tries to sack him.
According to the paper, sources say that firing him would undermine Brexit and destabilise the government.
Instead, the paper says the prime minister is being urged by members of her cabinet to remove Chancellor Philip Hammond for "making Brexit hard" and being "miserable".
The Times reports one ex-senior minister saying Mr Johnson is not the problem and it is Mr Hammond who has been stirring Tory divisions on Brexit.
The former minister claims the chancellor is trying to force Mrs May into an "endless no-change transition deal".
The Guardian says Brexit-supporting politicians have told the paper that concerns about the chancellor are being widely discussed on the Tory backbenches.
But, it says, a cabinet ally of Mr Hammond has warned that "realism is no sin when it comes to Brexit".
The Daily Mail and the Sun are aghast at news that the Office for National Statistics is considering making it optional for people to declare their sex in the next census.
The move is aimed at recognising transgender people.
The Sun rejects the idea as crazy - pointing out that the information is needed to determine how many men and women make up the population.
In the Mail's view, if we don't even know such a fundamental fact, the whole purpose of the census is undermined.
The old pound coin ceases to be legal tender next Sunday - but the Daily Telegraph reports that thousands of shops and businesses will ignore the deadline.
It says a trade association representing 170,000 small shops has advised its members to continue taking the round coins if customers don't have any other change.
The Mail reports that the old coins are already being rejected by some supermarket self-service checkouts.
For its lead, the Daily Mirror says the vast majority of households in England no longer have weekly bin collections.
The paper reports that 76% of council areas have a 14-day wait - and six local authorities have even reduced collections to one in every three weeks.
According to the paper, young families are having to resort to paying for private collections.
Finally, the dining room is doomed - according to Mary Berry.
The Times reports that she told the Cheltenham Literature Festival she had stopped using her dining room - and kitchens were much more homely places in which to eat.
"We have given up our dining room finally," she said.
The Daily Mail says the former Great British Bake Off star told her audience that her family use the dining room at Christmas and occasionally if people come round, but it's much easier eating in the kitchen - with the sink and dishwasher nearby. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41547459 |
Newspaper headlines: May 'to demote Boris' and Major's 'blast' - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Trump NFL row: Mike Pence walks out of game after players kneel - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US vice-president abandons a game in his home state after players kneel during the national anthem. | US & Canada | Mike Pence said he abandoned the game because kneeling during the anthem "disrespects our soldiers"
US Vice-President Mike Pence has walked out of a National Football League (NFL) game after several players refused to stand for the US national anthem.
Mr Pence said he could not be present at an event that "disrespects our soldiers, our flag" after abandoning the game in his home state of Indiana.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he had asked Mr Pence to leave if players kneeled and said he was "proud of him".
Kneeling at NFL games has become a form of protest against racial injustice.
Mr Trump has criticised players sharply for the protests and pressed the NFL to ban them.
"I left today's Colts game because @POTUS [President Trump] and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag, or our National Anthem," Mr Pence tweeted on Sunday.
Mike Pence travelled quite a ways - from Nevada to Indianapolis then back west to California - to make a statement.
There's little doubt the vice-president, despite his earlier tweet about looking forward to attending an NFL game in his home state, planned to walk out early.
The matchup involved the San Francisco 49ers, whose then-quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, started the kneeling protests. Mr Pence's media pool was told the vice-president might be making a quick exit. And Mr Pence's press statement, followed by a presidential tweet of approval, appeared shortly after Mr Pence left.
Next come the questions. Was that statement worth the vice-president's time? And how much did that trip cost US taxpayers?
Trump's supporters are already celebrating the move, helping the vice-president burnish his standing with his boss's loyal base.
Some of the NFL players were clearly irritated by what they saw as a political publicity stunt.
Americans, according to polls, are split. They're not happy about the NFL protests, but they don't like Mr Trump's eagerness to stoke the flames of controversy. Now - as tensions rise in North Korea and yet another hurricane slams into the US - Mr Pence is joining the anthem fray.
Mr Pence's departure came after players from the visiting San Francisco 49ers did not stand during the anthem before the game against the Indianapolis Colts.
"While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the flag," Mr Pence 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 Vice President Pence 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.
He had earlier tweeted that he and his wife Karen were looking forward to the game in a tweet in which he used of photo of then both wearing Colts shirts.
That the photo appeared also to have been used in 2014 has in part helped fuel critics' claims his walk out was a publicity stunt.
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 Vice President Pence 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.
Mr Trump has previously said that his comments condemning the NFL protests have "nothing to do with race".
But his criticism of the protests has appeared to galvanise players,
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Recent protests have involved players kneeling, linking arms or staying in the locker room during the Star-Spangled Banner.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred controversy last year when he first knelt for the anthem to highlight the treatment of black Americans after a series of police shootings.
Since then, more and more public figures in the US have been "taking a knee" at big events and using the hashtag #TakeAKnee on social media. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41544567 |
Ryanair 'run like a communist regime', says pilot - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Natural History Museum crash 'not terror-related' - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Trump Twitter row with top Republican Senator Bob Corker - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Senator Bob Corker says the White House has become an "adult day care centre". | US & Canada | US President Donald Trump has had an ill-tempered exchange with a leading Republican senator, aggravating already poor relations between the two men.
Foreign Relations Committee head Bob Corker was a "negative voice" and "largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal", Mr Trump tweeted.
Mr Corker hit back that the White House had become an "adult day care centre".
He was considered for the job of secretary of state by Mr Trump last year but they have since clashed.
Analysts suggest Mr Trump's tirade on Sunday morning may have been prompted by Mr Corker's message of support last week for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, which was also seen as a jab at the president.
He was quoted by media as saying that Mr Tillerson was "in an incredibly frustrating place" where he "ends up not being supported in the way that I hope a secretary of state would be supported".
On Wednesday Mr Tillerson denied rumours that he was about to resign.
Last month Mr Corker announced that he would not seek re-election at next year's mid-term elections. He has been an ardent supporter of the 2015 agreement to curb Iran's development of nuclear weapons.
Mr Trump has sharply criticised the deal on many occasions and is expected to de-certify it next week.
Mr Trump said he refused to endorse Mr Corker for re-election
In a series of tweets, Mr Trump said: "Senator Bob Corker 'begged' me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said 'NO' and he dropped out (said he could not win without my endorsement).
"He also wanted to be Secretary of State, I said 'NO THANKS.' He is also largely responsible for the horrendous Iran Deal!
"Hence, I would fully expect Corker to be a negative voice and stand in the way of our great agenda. Didn't have the guts to run!"
Mr Corker responded: "It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center.
"Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."
The two men previously clashed in August when the senator criticised Mr Trump's response to the clashes between white supremacists and anti-fascist demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Mr Trump responded by tweeting about Mr Corker's apparent hesitation about running for re-election. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41546140 |
More than 60% of Monarch passengers back in the UK - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | More than 350 rescue flights have so far been chartered or leased by the Civil Aviation Authority. | Business | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The chief executive of failed airline Monarch tells Today projected losses were too great to stay operating
More than 60% of holidaymakers left overseas when Monarch Airlines collapsed have now flown back to the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority says.
The CAA stepped in after all of Monarch's flights and holidays were cancelled, leasing and chartering planes from 16 different countries.
On Saturday, 51 flights carried more than 11,000 people back to UK airports, bringing the total to 67,522.
The collapse of the 50-year old company is the largest ever for a UK airline.
By Sunday morning, more than 350 flights chartered or leased by the CAA had brought Monarch customers back from their destination.
It said the vast majority of the 110,000 passengers who were on holiday and booked to fly home with the airline when it went into administration will be back in the UK by next weekend.
The CAA called the flight operation "the biggest peacetime repatriation effort", and still expects it to cost close to £60m.
The bill will be met by the government and a trust run by the UK's holiday industry licensing body Atol, which collects a levy on all holiday packages sold in the UK.
The CAA also suggested Monarch passengers with Air Travel Organiser's Licence (Atol) protection should have their refunds within 28 days of submitting a claim.
The organisation is expecting £21m worth of payouts to rectify around 32,000 claims.
KPMG. the administrators for the now-defunct airline, has estimated that just 10-15% of Monarch customers have bookings protected by Atol.
The scheme only covers package holidays or Monarch flight-only bookings made before 15 December 2016.
Those without Atol protection will be forced to seek refunds from their credit or debit card supplier or through travel insurance.
CAA chair Dame Deirdre Hutton earlier told the BBC it could not act before Monarch's announcement, even though it was known the firm was in difficulty.
"The regulator really can't step in until a company goes into administration, that is completely a matter for the company directors," she said. "It would be neither possible nor legal for us to give out confidential financial information while a company is still operating legally.
"Monarch didn't own the planes, the planes were leased, so as soon as the company went into administration, the owners of the planes took them back and that's why we've had to acquire planes from 16 different countries." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41543436 |
Brexit: 'No deal' planning is well under way, says minister - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Justice minister says while UK wants best deal it must "prepare for all eventualities". | UK Politics | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dominic Raab: Planning for Brexit no deal 'goes on'
Contingency plans in case the UK has to leave the EU with no deal in place are "well under way", a minister has said.
Dominic Raab said while the UK had to "strive for the very best outcome" from Brexit negotiations, it had to "prepare for all eventualities".
The Sunday Telegraph claimed there were plans to "unlock" billions of pounds in the new year to prepare for a "no deal" Brexit, if talks make no progress.
Six months of Brexit negotiations have not led to a significant breakthrough.
Last month Prime Minister Theresa May used a speech in Florence to set out proposals for a two-year transition period after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, in a bid to ease the deadlock.
Talks had stalled over key issues including EU citizens' rights, a financial settlement and on the Northern Ireland border.
UK Brexit Secretary David Davis has since said "decisive steps forward" have been made - although EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said there are still "big gaps" between the two sides on some issues.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that, if no further progress is made, Mrs May has decided to commit billions in the new year to spend on things like new technology to speed up customs checks, in case there is no trade deal and the UK has to revert to World Trade Organisation tariffs with the EU.
Appearing on the BBC's Sunday Politics, Justice Minister Mr Raab was asked why there was no visible sign of preparations for no deal - such as the recruitment of more customs officers and more infrastructure at ports.
He said: "This planning goes on, it's right that it does because of the prime minister's clear point of view that we need to search and hope for the best, strive for the very best outcome from these negotiations, but prepare for all eventualities.
"What we don't do is run around advertising it demonstrably. Why? Because we want to send the right, positive tone to our EU partners.
"So we don't go talking about what happens if we end up with no deal, but quietly, assiduously, those preparations will be in place."
He added that the government wanted to see "the best deal I think in terms of trade, security, co-operation" but added: "Those contingency plans are well under way."
Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told the programme that after Brexit, Britain "should stay as close as we can" to the EU because it is "good for our economy".
"We need to leave the European Union but it is good for our economy - they're our biggest market - that we stay as close as we can.
"And the problem that the British country has is that a good half of the Tory party wants to go sailing off into the mid-Atlantic with no deal at all and that would be disastrous for our country."
EU leaders are due to decide at October's meeting of the European Council whether enough progress has been made on key issues to move on to the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the EU.
Meanwhile two Conservative MEPs who voted to block moves towards trade talks between the UK and European Union have had the party whip removed.
South West MEP Julie Girling and South East MEP Richard Ashworth were suspended from the Conservative Party after supporting a resolution in Strasbourg declaring that "sufficient progress" had not been made in talks to move on to discussions about the future relationship.
The non-binding vote was passed by 557 votes to 92, with 29 abstentions
In a letter, European Parliament Chief Whip Dan Dalton said: "Given the seriousness of this issue, and your failure to discuss your intention to vote against the agreed position of the Conservative delegation in advance, I am therefore writing to inform you that I am suspending the Conservative whip from you until further notice."
Julie Girling told her local newspaper she had not voted to block trade talks but to "focus the minds of negotiators" and "drive more effective negotiations".
Mr Ashworth reportedly said he was confused by the suspension: "The vote was not about disrupting Brexit and the negotiations. We were asked a technical question about how much progress had been made and the answer for me was not enough."
The fourth round of Brexit negotiations began on 25 September, with the UK due to leave the EU in March 2019. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41544588 |
Buckingham Palace: Woman charged over incident - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A woman is charged with being drunk and disorderly over an incident at Buckingham Palace. | England | A woman has been charged with being drunk and disorderly following an incident at Buckingham Palace.
Jessica Davey, 35, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Monday, the Metropolitan Police said.
She was detained by officers at the palace on Saturday afternoon and taken to a central London police station.
Davey, from Queen's Park in west London, remains in custody ahead of her court appearance. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41545166 |
Scam baiter: Why I risk death threats to expose online cons - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | 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 |
Natural History Museum crash: Man released by police - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 47-year-old was arrested after 11 people were hurt near London's Natural History Museum. | UK | The crash happened on Exhibition Road, in London's South Kensington
A man arrested following a crash outside London's Natural History Museum has been released under investigation, police said.
The 47-year-old had been questioned on suspicion of dangerous driving.
Eleven people suffered non-life threatening injuries in the incident, involving a Black Toyota Prius, in South Kensington on Saturday.
The Metropolitan Police said it was not "terrorist-related" and is appealing for witnesses.
London Ambulance Service said the people it treated - including the suspected driver - had mostly sustained head and leg injuries. Nine were taken to hospital.
The Met said none of the injuries was believed to be life changing and the majority of those hurt had been discharged by Saturday night.
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
Saturday's incident at about 14:20 BST on Exhibition Road initially sparked panic in an area popular with families and tourists.
Armed police were deployed and video footage quickly emerged showing a man, believed to be the driver, being restrained on the ground.
However, the Met later said its inquiry was "entirely a road traffic investigation".
Det Con Darren Case, from the force's roads and transport team, said he appreciated "the concern and alarm this incident caused".
"Enquiries have established that this incident is not terrorist related and I'd like to thank those who came to assist the injured," he said.
As well as the Natural History Museum, the area is also home to the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Road closures at the scene have now been lifted
Prime Minister Theresa May tweeted her thanks to first responders and members of the public, adding: "My thoughts are with the injured."
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 fiance of singer Pixie Lott, Oliver Cheshire, was one of those who held down the driver of the car involved in the incident.
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 Oliver Cheshire 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 current terror threat in the UK is at "severe" - the second highest level - meaning an attack is highly likely.
Police say anyone with any information about the incident is asked to contact the Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 020 8543 5157. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41541165 |
Rapper Nelly arrested over alleged tour bus rape - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 42-year-old was released after questioning over an alleged sex assault on board his tour bus. | US & Canada | A lawyer for the 42-year-old artist denied the allegations
Rapper Nelly has been arrested after a woman accused him of raping her on his tour bus following a concert near Seattle.
Police in Auburn said they arrested the artist after a woman called emergency services at 03:48 (10:48 GMT) to report a sex assault.
The singer strongly denies the allegations and has now been released.
"I have not been charged... therefore no bail was required," he tweeted.
Nelly, 42, is currently on tour with the Backstreet Boys and Florida Georgia Line
The singer tweeted that he was "beyond shocked that I have been targeted with this false allegation".
"I am completely innocent," he said. "I am confident that once the facts are looked at, it will be very clear that I am the victim of a false allegation."
Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr, was taken into custody on a second degree rape charge, TMZ said.
In a statement his lawyer also described the allegation as "completely fabricated".
"Our initial investigation clearly establishes this allegation is devoid of credibility and is motivated by greed and vindictiveness," Scott Rosenblum said in a statement.
Nelly is best known for his US number one hits "Hot in herre" and "Dilemma". He last released a studio album in 2013.
In 2015 he was arrested on felony charges after police found drugs and guns on board his tour bus.
The 42-year-old is currently on tour with the Backstreet Boys and Florida Georgia Line, and performed in Auburn on Friday night.
The bus was parked near a local Walmart at the time of the alleged incident. A police statement said they were continuing to investigate.
Nelly was due to perform on the Smooth Stadium Tour in Ridgefield near Portland on Saturday evening. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41539463 |
Storm Nate weakens but brings heavy rain - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Fears of a storm surge on the US Gulf coast subside as Nate, now a tropical depression, heads inland. | US & Canada | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Catfish in the streets as Nate floods US cities
Storm Nate has weakened to a tropical depression after bringing strong winds, heavy rain and some flooding to the south-eastern United States.
It made landfall as a hurricane twice, in Louisiana and Mississippi, and is currently over Alabama.
Storm surge warnings have been lifted across the region.
Nate killed at least 25 people in Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras. No deaths or injuries have yet been reported in the US.
Although it was not as strong as last month's Maria and Irma, the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida had issued warnings and evacuation orders ahead of its arrival.
Film footage from Biloxi, Mississippi, where the storm made landfall, showed flooded streets and highways.
Storm surges displaced boats, vehicles and even this gazebo
But the waters quickly receded, leaving boats and vehicles marooned.
Mayor of nearby Gulfport, Billy Hewes, told the BBC the storm surge did not appear to be as high as feared and he thought the damage there would "be minimal".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres: "The origin is clear - we are facing the consequences of climate change"
Mississippi emergency official Greg Flynn told AP that more than 1,000 people in the state spent the night in shelters but no major damage had been reported.
In southern Alabama, the local power company said some 5,000 people were without power. Residents there had been urged to take precautions ahead of Nate's arrival.
A mandatory curfew was lifted in New Orleans, Louisiana, as the threat to the city - devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 - was downgraded.
Nate was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm by the National Hurricane Center at 09:00 GMT on Sunday, and later to a tropical depression.
Warnings of storm surge flooding were lifted on Sunday afternoon.
Some 300 guests were in the Golden Nugget Hotel in Biloxi when the storm came
Five ports along the Gulf Coast were also closed to shipping as a precaution ahead of Nate's arrival. Most oil and gas platforms in the US Gulf of Mexico also evacuated their staff, but are now planning to reopen.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday issued an emergency declaration for Louisiana and Mississippi, allowing the state to seek federal help with preparation and possible relief efforts.
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.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, visiting Antigua and Barbuda which were badly damaged by Hurricane Irma in September, said the international community needed to do more to help Caribbean countries hit by a series of powerful hurricanes.
"There is an increasing intensity of hurricanes, an increasing frequency, and increasing devastation," he told the BBC. "The origin is clear - we are facing the consequences of climate change." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41541002 |
North Korea: Kim Jong-un promotes sister to politburo - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Kim Yo-jong is elevated by the North Korean leader to the country's top decision-making body. | Asia | Kim Yo-jong (circled) has often appeared alongside her brother
North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has given his sister more power by promoting her to the nation's top decision-making body.
Kim Yo-jong, the youngest daughter of late leader Kim Jong-il, will be replacing her aunt as a member of the Workers Party's Politburo.
Ms Kim, 30, was referred to as a senior party official three years ago.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea since the country was established following the Second World War in 1948.
Ms Kim, who has frequently appeared alongside her brother in public and is thought to have been responsible for his public image, was already influential as vice-director of the propaganda and agitation department.
She is blacklisted by the US over alleged links to human rights abuses in North Korea.
Her promotion was announced by Mr Kim at a party meeting on Saturday as part of a reshuffle involving dozens of other top officials.
When Ms Kim was given a key post at the country's rare ruling party congress last year, it was widely expected that she would take up an important role in the country's core leadership.
Among other announcements made on Saturday was the decision to promote Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho - who last month referred to US President Donald Trump as "President Evil" at a UN meeting - to a full vote-carrying member of the Politburo.
Mr Ri has recently accused Mr Trump of declaring war on North Korea and said that if the president continues with his "dangerous" rhetoric the US will become an "inevitable" target for missile strikes.
The promotions come as a defiant Mr Kim once again made it clear that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme would continue despite sanctions and threats.
His comments were made hours before Mr Trump tweeted that "only one thing will work" in dealing with Pyongyang following years of dialogue that the US president said had failed to deliver results. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41544558 |
Sturgeon says government will pay EU 'settled status' fee - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Nicola Sturgeon says her government will cover the fee of EU citizens applying to stay in Scotland post Brexit. | Scotland politics | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Scotland First Minister on Catalonia: "How can Catalans legally express their view?
Nicola Sturgeon says her government will pay a so-called "settled status" fee of any EU citizen working in the public sector in Scotland.
Prime Minister Theresa May has offered settled status to EU migrants who have lived in the UK for five years.
However, the UK government has hinted that those applying for the status will have to pay a fee.
Scotland's first minister made the announcement ahead of her party's annual conference in Glasgow.
The three-day conference is the party's 83rd and the first since June's general election, when the SNP lost 21 of the 56 seats it won in 2015.
They included those of former leader Alex Salmond and its deputy leader Angus Robertson.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, Ms Sturgeon said EU migrants had made a big contribution and their right to remain in Scotland should be guaranteed.
She said: "It appears that the UK government is going to make EU citizens apply for what they're calling settled status and possibly charge a fee for that.
"They haven't said what that fee would be, but if it's the same as it is for residents, it will be around £65.
Nicola Sturgeon said it was time for dialogue to replace confrontation in Catalonia
"We will pay that for workers in the public sector. Why? Because it helps individuals, it helps us keep vital workers in the NHS and public services and it sends a message to EU nationals that we want them to stay here because we welcome them."
Ms Sturgeon also discussed the disputed referendum in Catalonia, but refused to say whether or not she would recognise an independent Catalonia, should its government declare independence.
She told the programme: "What I think has to be recognised is the strength of feeling in Catalonia.
"I think it's now time for dialogue to replace confrontation."
She added: "You cannot simply say the right of a people to choose their future is illegal in all circumstances."
When pressed on whether she would back the Catalan leaders, she responded: "We'd recognise the decisions and the statements that were made, but I'm not going to speculate here on what will happen in Catalonia before it happens.
"I'm not in control of that. It's not for me to decide what is the right future for Catalonia."
She added: "My view is that is shouldn't be resolved by both sides going further to extreme positions.
"It should be resolved by both sides coming together to try to find a way forward in this that respects all of these principles - the rule of law, democracy and the right to choose."
Ms Sturgeon will address her party's conference on Tuesday afternoon.
Her deputy and Education Secretary John Swinney opened the three-day event at the SECC by announcing a new system of bursaries to tempt professionals from science, technology and maths subjects into teaching.
He told delegates that with "chaos on the left and chaos on the right, through it all the SNP government stands firm" as "a beacon of progressive, effective government, delivering for all of the people of Scotland".
There has long been a dilemma confronting the SNP when preparing for a party conference. Do they yell Freedom and energise the faithful? Or do they ca' canny with the aim of attracting the unpersuaded?
In practice, of course, they customarily offer a bit of both. The issue, then, is emphasis, prioritisation. Thus far, the Glasgow conference defaults rather towards caution.
I think we may reasonably pay little heed to those who point out that there is no formal debate at the conference on independence.
It is not the case - not remotely the case - that the issue of Scotland's constitutional future is being ignored. Indeed, in his opening keynote speech, John Swinney drew huge applause and cheers when he urged delegates to "rededicate ourselves to independence."
It is rather a question of tactics. There is more of an emphasis upon what we might call, for short, the day job.
Read more from Brian here.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41538311 |
Man in Dubai court over 'hip touch' - BBC News | 2017-10-08 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Stirling man was told to stay in the city for future court dates after being accused of public indecency. | Tayside and Central Scotland | Jamie Harron has been prevented from leaving the country and has had his passport confiscated
A Scot, who is facing a three-year jail term in Dubai for putting his hand on a man in a bar, has appeared in court.
Jamie Harron, from Stirling, was summoned to a hearing on Sunday after he reportedly failed to attend a previous court date in the city.
The 27-year-old was arrested for public indecency following an incident at the Rock Bottom Bar in Dubai on 15 July.
Despite fears he would be rearrested, Mr Harron was freed but told to remain in the city for future court dates.
The electrician, who had been working in Afghanistan, was on a two-day stopover in the United Arab Emirates when the incident happened.
He claims he was trying to avoid spilling his drink in the crowded club and was holding his hand out in front of him when he inadvertently "touched a man on his hip to avoid impact".
He was reportedly locked up for five days in Al Barsha prison, before being released on bail and having his passport confiscated.
Jamie Harron was at the Rock Bottom Bar when the incident reportedly happened
A spokeswoman for the charity, Detained in Dubai, which is representing Mr Harron, told the BBC she had expected him to be rearrested at court on Sunday for his previous non-appearance.
She expressed relief that he had been freed. However, said he still faced future court appearances for the original charges relating to public indecency and consumption of alcohol.
Radha Stirling, chief executive of Detained in Dubai, said: "Jamie is relieved he wasn't arrested at the latest hearing. It was expected that he would have to spend some time in prison."
Ms Stirling said a further court date was expected in about two weeks, although no firm date had yet been set.
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. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-41544117 |
Matthew Scully-Hicks 'murdered' adopted baby after two weeks - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | 18-month-old Elsie suffered months of abuse before she died two weeks after being adopted, court hears. | South East Wales | A father murdered his baby daughter just two weeks after formally adopting her with his husband, a court heard.
Matthew Scully-Hicks, 31, is accused of "violently shaking" 18-month-old Elsie, causing her "catastrophic head injuries" following months of abuse.
Cardiff Crown Court heard she died at University Hospital of Wales on May 29, four days after the defendant called 999 saying she was "floppy and limp".
Baby Elsie was placed in the care of Vale of Glamorgan Council just days after being born, the jury was told.
At the age of 10 months she was taken in by fitness instructor Matthew Scully-Hicks and his husband Craig in September 2015.
The couple relocated from Swindon, Wiltshire, to Cardiff six years ago and had been married for three years.
Matthew Scully-Hicks had given up full-time work to care for any children.
Eight months after they took Elsie in, the couple completed the adoption process. A fortnight later she was dead.
"Within two weeks of Elsie's formal adoption by the couple, we allege that the defendant had inflicted fatal injuries upon her," prosecutor Paul Lewis QC said.
He told the jury that on 25 May 2016, the ambulance service received a 999 call from Matthew Scully-Hicks reporting that Elsie was unresponsive.
Mr Lewis told the court that paramedics attended the house and found Elsie was not breathing, with no signs of cardiac output.
"The injuries that caused her death were inflicted upon her by the defendant shortly before he called emergency services that day," said Mr Lewis.
"His attack upon her that day was not the first time he had employed violence towards Elsie, nor was it the first time he had caused her serious injury.
"His actions on the late afternoon of 25 May were the tragic culmination of a course of violent conduct on his part towards a defenceless child - an infant that he should have loved and protected, but whom he instead assaulted, abused, and ultimately murdered."
The trial is being held at Cardiff Crown Court
The court heard Elsie had suffered haemorrhages to her brain and behind her eyes, and doctors decided to switch her ventilator off.
Tests showed there were older bleeds to her brain and behind her eyes and a post-mortem examination revealed she had also suffered broken ribs, a fractured left femur and a fractured skull.
The court was told Matthew Scully-Hicks carried out the alleged attacks on Elsie while his husband worked full time as a company director.
Mr Lewis told the jury about a catalogue of injuries Elsie had suffered during her short life.
In November 2015, two months after she had been taken in by the couple, she had fractured her ankle while in the sole care of the defendant, who had given differing accounts of how she had suffered the injury.
A month later she sustained a bruise to her forehead which a health visitor advised needed treating. Matthew Scully-Hicks allegedly lied he had done so, the jury heard.
In January, Elsie suffered another bruise on her head and in March she was taken to hospital by ambulance after Matthew Scully-Hicks said she had fallen down the stairs.
She was discharged from hospital after four hours after her injuries were considered "consistent with a fall downstairs".
The jury were read a series of text messages the defendant allegedly sent to friends. One described the baby as a "psycho".
One read: "I'm going through hell with Elsie. Mealtimes and bedtimes are like my worst nightmare at the minute."
Another said: "She has just screamed non stop for 10 minutes. She had a full bottle and clean nappy. Literally not even half an hour and she is a psycho."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-41549969 |
India national park: White tigers kill keeper - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The keeper was mauled to death as he tried to get the tigers into their enclosure, officials say. | India | White tigers are believed derive their colour from a recessive gene
An animal keeper at a national park in southern India has been attacked and killed by two rare young white tigers, officials say.
The keeper, 40, was mauled to death as he attempted to direct the tigers into their enclosure on Saturday night at the Bannerghatta Biological Park.
An official said the tigers pounced on him because one of the four enclosure gates was not properly latched.
The keeper had only been employed by the national park for a little over a week.
His angry relatives protested outside the park on Sunday - they want financial compensation from park management, accusing them of negligence.
A keeper at the park near Bangalore was reported to have been injured two years ago by lions. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-41544271 |
Weinstein and the media's shame - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Harvey Weinstein sacked after sexual harassment claims. A cascade of allegations is swirling. | Entertainment & Arts | Harvey Weinstein, the Oscar-winning film producer accused of sexually harassing female employees, has been fired by the board of his company.
Harvey Weinstein has denied many of the allegations against him, but in such a convoluted and incoherent manner that it is not too soon to conclude his behaviour over the course of a storied career has, at times, been disgusting.
Now that he has been sacked by the company named after him and his brother, a cascade of allegations is swirling and many people who have been loyal to him over the years are suddenly questioning why they bothered.
It is hard not to see the allegations against Weinstein in the light of similarly tawdry claims made against the late Fox News boss Roger Ailes, Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly, comedian Bill Cosby, and even the President, Donald Trump, who - we should remind ourselves - stands accused of sexually exploitative behaviour by many women. Those allegations are unproven and Trump denies them.
Changing attitudes to the behaviour of powerful men are driving a cultural shift, which most people will consider long overdue if it means that bullying and intimidation in exchange for sexual favours is no longer so widespread.
I wonder too if the advent of social media is making more women feel able to speak out: perhaps the capacity for an accusation to go viral, and so garner both attention and support from a vast global audience in a matter of seconds, incentivises honesty where women might previously have feared the consequences of speaking out.
But it would be a dereliction of duty to ignore that these allegations are pouring forth from the American media and creative industries.
The painful fact is, many, many people were aware of Weinstein's behaviour for years. He was, as the saying goes, hiding in plain sight, no doubt protected to some extent by his friendships with famous people and his ability to hand out internships to the likes of Malia Obama (who as far as we know was treated with the utmost civility). That he was a major supporter of Hillary Clinton will have done him little harm, too.
Weinstein was also protected by sheer force of character. The few times I've met him in New York he was declaiming at a party, raconteuring his way through Manhattan's most starry joints, a sun around which other stars would orbit. It's pathetic, of course, but one reason those who knew about his sordid malefactions didn't speak out is because he was their host, and they enjoyed his parties.
There is outrage in American media circles now - though many would say it pales in comparison to the outrage that attended the claims of rampant sexual harassment at Fox News. To that extent, this scandal - revealed by that other icon of liberal America, The New York Times - is in fact a test of liberal America. If late night TV hosts and their boosters in the media don't pour the same opprobrium on Weinstein as they have on, for instance, O'Reilly, they could stand accused of double standards.
Why are all these scandals erupting in the media? There's no firm evidence that sexual intimidation is more prevalent in, say, Hollywood than Wall Street. But if - and it is a big if - it is, I wonder if that's because the likes of Weinstein are part of an economy within an economy in the creative industries: they buy and sell fame.
Weinstein was the kind of man who used his power to be a gateway to both financial riches and fame: he controlled access to huge audiences, with all the money that can bring. If some of the claims made by actresses are true, it may be that Weinstein was - unforgivably - allowed to get away with it because of his power. Not just his power to make people very rich; also, his power to make them very famous.
That's the same power Roger Ailes had. Do this sexual favour for me, his sick argument allegedly went, and you'll have a better chance of ending up on screen.
If more women feel prepared to speak out, and fewer lecherous men are allowed to get away with exchanging sexual favours for fame and riches, some good may yet come from the turpitudinous exploits of Harvey Weinstein and his ilk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41558556 |
Turkey and US scale back visa services amid diplomatic row - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Both sides cite security concerns, with the move coming after a US employee was held in Turkey. | Europe | The American embassy in Ankara will not issue visas to those travelling to the US for tourism, medical treatment, business, temporary work or study
Turkey and the US have become embroiled in a consular row, mutually scaling back visa services.
The American mission in Ankara said it had suspended all non-immigrant visa services in order to "reassess" Turkey's commitment to staff security.
Turkey's embassy in Washington replied by suspending "all visa services".
The latest spat began when a US consulate worker in Istanbul was held over suspected links to a cleric blamed for last year's failed coup in Turkey.
Washington condemned the move as baseless and damaging to bilateral relations.
The row prompted a 4% fall in Turkey's main share index while the Turkish lira tumbled more than 2.5% against the dollar.
Turkey accuses Fethullah Gulen of being behind the failed coup - a charge he denies
In its statement on Sunday, the US embassy in Ankara said: "Recent events have forced the United States government to reassess the commitment of government of Turkey to the security of US mission and personnel.
"In order to minimise the number of visitors to our embassy and consulates while this assessment proceeds, effective immediately we have suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all US diplomatic facilities in Turkey."
Only people permanently moving to the US will now be able to apply for visas.
Turkey stands accused of holding detainees as hostages in its bilateral disputes with countries.
As well as the consular employee, an American pastor was arrested here a year ago. Several German nationals are also in custody as Ankara presses the US to extradite the cleric it accuses of masterminding the coup, and urges Berlin to deport Turkish citizens who have claimed asylum there.
Germany has already warned its nationals against travelling to Turkey.
There could now be a similar response from Washington in this unprecedented row.
The Turkish statement mimicked the American one, but said that "effective immediately we have suspended all visa services regarding the US citizens at our diplomatic and consular missions in the US".
It added: "This measure will apply to sticker visas as well as e-visas and border visas."
Ankara has for months been pressing Washington to extradite US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen over his alleged role in the botched coup in July 2016.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Mr Gulen of instigating the unrest - a charge the cleric denies.
In the aftermath of the coup attempt, which was led by military officers, 40,000 people were arrested and 120,000 sacked or suspended.
The new diplomatic low between the US and Turkey comes less than a month after Donald Trump said ties between the countries were "close as we've ever been". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41547502 |
Blade Runner 2049 disappoints at US box office - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The sequel to the 1982 cult classic is the weekend's most popular film in America and 45 countries. | Business | Ryan Gosling, Denis Villeneuve, Ana de Armas and Harrison Ford at the Paris premiere of Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049 has made far less than expected on its opening weekend at the US box office.
The $31.5m (£24.1m) total will be a major disappointment for distributor Warner Bros, which had projected ticket sales of between $45m and $50m.
Its 163-minute running time, limiting the number of screenings, was said to be one factor in the under-performance.
But it was still the weekend's most popular movie in the US. It topped the UK box office, with sales above £6m.
The sequel to the 1982 cult classic, which also stars Harrison Ford as well as Ryan Gosling, cost Sony and Alcon Entertainment $150m to make.
Despite strong advance ticket sales and glowing reviews from many critics, the movie made $12.7m on Thursday night and Friday, $11.4m on Saturday and a projected $7.4m on Sunday from just over 4,000 cinemas.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford star in the sequel of Blade Runner
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with comScore, said: "The core of enthusiastic and loyal 'Blade Runner' fans were over 25 and predominantly male, and propelled the film as expected to the top spot, but a lengthy running time and lesser interest among females made it tougher for the film to reach the original weekend box office projections."
Men over 25 accounted for half the audience, according to PostTrack, with women over 25 making up 27%.
Jeff Goldstein, of Warner Bros, said Blade Runner 2049 had disappointed in smaller cities and in the South and Midwest, where the running time and baseball playoffs appeared to have deterred moviegoers.
"We did well in the major and high-profile markets," he said. "Alcon and Denis [Villeneuve, the director] made an amazing movie. The audience for it was narrower than we anticipated."
Globally, the film took $50.2m and claimed the number one spot in 45 of its 63 markets, Screen Daily reported.
That tally was higher than the $44.6m for The Martian, starring Matt Damon, on its opening weekend in 2015. The movie was directed by Ridley Scott, who also made the original Blade Runner and was an executive producer on 2049.
The Chinese comedy Never Say Die took $66m globally to top the international box office, pushing Kingsman: The Golden Circle into second place.
The remake of the Stephen King killer clown thriller It has now taken $305m in the US, and almost as much internationally, to top the $600m mark globally, making it the most successful horror film.
UK moviegoers have been its biggest fans, spending $40.7m (£31.1m) on tickets since its release on 8 September. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41546692 |
Theresa May sets out Brexit options including 'no deal' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Theresa May also says the UK could face European Court of Justice rulings for two years after Brexit. | UK Politics | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May: "The ball is in their court"
The UK has set out how it could operate as an "independent trading nation" after Brexit, even if no trade deal is reached with Brussels.
Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs "real and tangible progress" had been made in Brexit talks.
But the country must be prepared for "every eventuality", as the government published papers on future trade and customs arrangements.
Labour said "no real progress has been made" since last June's referendum.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said a "no deal" scenario was starting to appear "more likely" even if it was not something either side in the talks wanted.
Mrs May's statement comes as the fifth round of negotiations began in Brussels. Focusing on technical issues, it is the final set of talks before EU leaders meet on 19 October to decide if enough progress has been made to talk about post-Brexit relations with the UK, including trade.
European Commission spokeswoman Margaritis Schinas said "the ball is entirely in the UK court" to reach agreement on Britain's "divorce deal", without which the EU has said it will not move on to the second phase of talks.
Mrs May appeared to reject that in her statement to MPs, saying: "As we look forward to the next stage, the ball is in their court.
"But I am optimistic we will receive a positive response."
Mrs May also confirmed that the UK would remain subject to the rulings of the European Court of Justice during a planned two-year transition period after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.
Responding to a challenge from Eurosceptic Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, she told MPs the need to ensure the minimum of disruption "may mean that we will start off with the ECJ still governing the rules we're part of for that period".
She said it was "highly unlikely" any new EU laws would come into force during the transition, but did not rule out the possibility that any which did so would have effect in Britain.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeremy Corbyn: "What on earth the government has been doing?"
The prime minister rejected existing models for economic co-operation, such as membership of the European Economic Area or the Canadian model, calling instead for a "creative" solution that would be "unique" to the UK.
But she also stressed - as she has done before - that the government was preparing for "every eventuality," reinforcing her long-held position that walking away without a deal is a possibility.
She rejected a call from a Tory MP to name a date when the UK would walk away from talks without an agreement, saying "flexibility" was needed.
On Northern Ireland, she said the government had begun "drafting joint principles on preserving the Common Travel Area, and associated rights and we have both stated explicitly we will not accept any physical infrastructure at the border".
The two White Papers give the most detail yet of contingency planning that is under way.
The White Papers set out three strategic objectives: ensuring UK-EU trade is as frictionless as possible, avoiding a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, and establishing the UK's own independent international trade policy.
But there is also contingency planning, in case the UK leaves the EU without a negotiated settlement.
A customs bill will make provision for the UK to establish a stand-alone customs regime from day one, applying the same duties to every country with which it has no special deal.
The level of this duty would be set out in secondary legislation before the UK leaves the EU.
For high-volume roll-on roll-off ports, the legislation would require that consignments are pre-notified to customs authorities, to try to ensure that trade continues to flow as seamlessly as possible.
"No deal" is not the government's preferred option; and the detail in the customs paper in particular hints at how disruptive it could be. But the UK wants the EU to know that it is planning for all eventualities.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the government had spent the 15 months since the EU referendum "squabbling amongst themselves" and were making a "mess" of Brexit.
He urged Mrs May to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK, as well as criticising the lack of progress on Northern Ireland.
The SNP's leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, said there had not been a single mention of the devolved administrations in Mrs May's speech, as he called for urgent action on EU citizens' rights.
The Liberal Democrats, who want a referendum on any final Brexit deal, urged the prime minister to "show real leadership" by ring-fencing the issue of EU citizens' rights, confirming the UK will remain in the single market and customs union and firing Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC he was "troubled" by the PM's statement: "If we're remaining under the jurisdiction of the ECJ then we haven't left the European Union or the date of departure is being delayed."
But Boris Johnson said the UK would "still be able to negotiate proper free trade deals" during the transition period.
"She (Theresa May) has reaffirmed the destination of a self-governing, free-trading, buccaneering and Global Britain taking back control over our laws, money, and borders," he said in Facebook post.
"The future is bright. Let's keep calm and carry on leaving the EU." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41546701 |
Melania Trump hits back at Ivana 'first lady' jibe - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US first lady's spokeswoman says comments by Donald Trump's ex-wife are attention seeking. | US & Canada | Ivana Trump (L) said she was the first lady
A spokeswoman for US First Lady Melania Trump has described comments by her husband's ex-wife Ivana as "attention seeking and self-serving noise".
Ivana Trump told ABC's Good Morning America she was "basically first Trump wife, I'm first lady".
She said she had a direct line to the White House but did not want to "cause any kind of jealousy".
The first Mrs Trump is promoting her book Raising Trump, to be released on Tuesday.
She was married to Donald Trump in 1977 but they divorced in the 1990s over his affair with Marla Maples, who became his second wife.
Ivana and Donald had three children - Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric Trump.
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 Good Morning America 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.
Ivana Trump told GMA she spoke to her former husband about once a fortnight.
"I have the direct number to White House, but I no [sic] really want to call him there because Melania is there," she said.
"I don't want to cause any kind of jealousy or something like that because I'm basically first Trump wife. I'm first lady, OK?"
Melania Trump responded with a barbed statement through her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.
"Mrs Trump has made the White House a home for [their son] Barron and The President," it read.
"She loves living in Washington, DC and is honoured by her role as First Lady of the United States. She plans to use her title and role to help children, not sell books.
"There is clearly no substance to this statement from an ex. Unfortunately only attention seeking and self-serving noise."
The exchange is thought to be the only public row between a US first lady and a president's former wife.
Before Mr Trump, Ronald Reagan was the only divorcee president. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41560528 |
Have you been nudged? - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Five ways the theory behind this year's Nobel prize for economics may have influenced your behaviour. | Business | Richard Thaler has won a Nobel prize for his research into 'nudge' theory
Think the Nobel prize for economics has nothing to do with you? In some years that may well be true.
But this year's award has gone to Richard Thaler who, in his book Nudge, was one of the first to outline how tiny prompts can alter our behaviour.
The Nobel judges are clearly keen on the discipline, since they awarded fellow behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman the Economics prize in 2002.
Since when "nudge theory" has been applied to a wide range of problems.
Here are a few ways you may have been nudged yourself.
In probably the most well-known example, spillage around the toilet, an age old problem for at least half of the human race, was cut by 80% using an ingeniously simple intervention.
First introduced at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam back in 1999, the idea was simple: etch the image of a fly in the urinal and men cannot help but take aim, saving on clean-up costs as well as alleviating unpleasantness.
The painted porcelain was one of Prof Thaler's early favourite examples of tweaking the environment in a way that makes us change how we behave.
When David Cameron became prime minister in 2010, one of his pet projects was the "Nudge Unit" or to give it its official title: the Behaviourial Insights Team.
It set about encouraging better behaviour amongst UK citizens in a range of ways from letting you know that other people had filled in their tax returns (so you should do yours now) to offering a more personal approach at the job centre.
But the most eye-catching, for those on the receiving end, was what you were sent if you failed to pay your car tax.
A big heading shouted: "Pay your tax or lose your Ford Fiesta" (or whatever car you owned) accompanied by a photograph of the untaxed car. The focused approach paid off.
A more positive tone was taken with the wealthy failing to pay their taxes. They received letters explaining how their taxes would help improve local services, and pointing out what would disappear without funding. These tweaks saw £210m in overdue tax paid into the Treasury.
Woolwich in south-east London had a problem with anti-social behaviour. During the riots in 2011 several shop fronts were smashed in.
The following year advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, embracing the new science of behavioural economics, offered an innovative strategy.
Knowing that even the toughest heart is melted by the sight of a infant, they spent a night with graffiti artists painting pictures of local babies' faces onto the shutters protecting the shop windows.
The move was credited with helping to reduce anti-social behaviour by 18% in Woolwich.
If you've ever been on the phone to a salesperson, you may well have heard one of the following:
"Most people in your position buy this" or "This deal is only available today".
The first plays on our susceptibility to "social norming" - we think if others are doing it they must have a good reason.
The second is based on loss aversion: we hate the idea of missing out.
Thirdly, there can often be a tone of inexplicable cheeriness. Relentless positivity is catching apparently, and makes us feel good about signing up.
Big brands have embraced the idea. For example, a team from Ogilvy and Mather has coached staff selling subscriptions to the Times and the Sunday Times to use these persuasive techniques. Did they work on you?
In the past, people who want to donate their vital organs in the event of their death have usually been asked to "opt in" by putting their name on a register. Thanks in part to behavioural economics, there's a growing trend to adopt policies that presume consent and ask objectors to "opt out".
Though the results are inconclusive it's clear we've embraced the concept - that we need to design the system in a way that helps us to "do the right thing" rather than rely on individuals' consciences.
Likewise, we all know we need to save for our retirement, but it can be hard to summon the will-power.
The "save more tomorrow" approach pioneered in the United States saw employees automatically signed up to pay into a pension, but starting with very small contributions to avoid loss-aversion that could make them baulk. Only later do payments rise.
All if all this makes you feel as though the policymakers and marketers are only out to manipulate us, well at least thanks to Prof Thaler we now understand what they're up to a little better. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41549533 |
Airbnb paid £188,000 in UK tax last year - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The home-sharing website collected more than £650m in rental payments for UK landlords last year. | Business | Airbnb, the accommodation website, paid less than £200,000 in UK corporation tax last year despite collecting £657m of rental payments for property owners.
The commissions the company earns in the UK are booked by its Irish subsidiary, but it also has two UK subsidiaries.
One unit made a pre-tax profit, but the other did not incur UK corporation tax because deductions resulted in a loss.
Airbnb said in a statement: "We follow the rules and pay all the tax we owe."
One of the British subsidiaries, Airbnb Payments UK, handles payments between landlords and travellers for countries other than the United States, China and India.
That unit made a pre-tax profit of £960,000 and paid £188,000 in UK corporation tax - £8,000 less than in 2015.
The other British subsidiary, Airbnb UK, markets the website and app to British consumers. It reported a £463,000 pre-tax profit last year but because it gave shares to staff, which are tax-deductable, there was no corporation tax bill.
Airbnb said: "Our UK office provides marketing services and pays all applicable taxes, including VAT. The Airbnb model is unique and boosted the UK economy by £3.46bn last year alone."
The tax arrangements of other technology giants have come under under closer scrutiny in recent years.
One of the most vocal critics has been EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager. She has taken aim at the likes of Apple, Amazon and others for where they book the revenues and profits of their European activities.
Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, has also asked why Airbnb paid tens of thousand of euros in French corporation tax despite a turnover in the millions.
The company, founded in San Francisco in 2008, has disrupted the hotel industry by linking travellers with landlords who generally want to rent out a spare room or an entire property for short-term stays.
It has become one of the most successful examples of the digital economy, with an estimated value of about $24bn.
However, Airbnb has faced a growing backlash in cities including Barcelona, Berlin and Paris, where politicians have taken steps to stop landlords renting properties to tourists rather than local residents.
While Airbnb has long been linked with a stock market listing, it remains privately owned.
It takes a 3% commission from landlords for each booking, and also charges fees to travellers.
In the UK last year Airbnb catered for 5.9m travellers and had 168,000 listings. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41543449 |
BAE Systems 'to axe more than 1,000 jobs' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The bulk of cuts will affect the defence contractor's two Lancashire plants, the BBC understands. | Lancashire | BAE Systems's two sites in Lancashire produce the Eurofighter Typhoon
More than 1,000 jobs are set to be axed by defence contractor BAE Systems, the BBC understands.
The firm is expected to make an announcement on Tuesday regarding the cuts, which are thought to mainly affect its two plants in Lancashire.
Union Unite warned the cuts would undermine the nation's defence and said it was demanding urgent talks with BAE.
Up to 10,000 people work at the Warton and Samlesbury plants, where aircraft assembly takes place.
The cuts are believed to centre on the lack of orders for the Eurofighter Typhoon on which 5,000 staff work.
The Warton and Samlesbury sites are involved in making parts and the final assembly of the Typhoon fighter.
BAE is yet to make a specific announcement, but a spokesman said the business "continually reviews its operations to make sure we are performing as effectively and efficiently as possible".
"If and when there are any changes proposed we are committed to communicating with our employees and their representatives first," he said.
Asked about the reports, Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said it would be wrong to pre-empt any announcement by the firm.
However, he said: "We do have a long track record of working with BAE Systems and with its works and we'll continue to do so."
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the government could end the uncertainty for thousands of British BAE defence jobs "at a stroke by committing to building the next generation fighter jets here in the UK".
He said BAE must also come clean on its plans, too.
"If these job cuts materialise it will significantly undermine our nation's sovereign defence capability and leave us reliant on foreign powers and foreign companies for the successor to the Typhoon and the defence of the nation.
"Once these jobs are gone, they are gone for a generation and with them the skills and ability to control our own defence and manufacture the next generation of fighter jets and other defence equipment in the UK."
He added: "At a time of Brexit, these are precisely the kind of jobs the UK government should be protecting.
"Rather than shipping our defence spend overseas to factories in America and cutting defence, ministers should be investing in jobs, skills and communities by buying British."
Fylde Conservative MP Mark Menzies said it was a "deeply unsettling time" for BAE workers.
But he hoped it would end up the same as in November 2015 when hundreds of redundancies were announced but "in reality, very few people left the business as they were deployed on other projects".
He said the firm would look at other opportunities for the workers, such as on BAE's nuclear submarine and shipbuilding programmes.
Mr Menzies said: "Potentially lucrative contracts on the way from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others could help sustain these jobs."
Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said the job losses would be a "massive detriment not only to my own constituency but to Lancashire as a whole".
In a statement he urged BAE systems to put emphasis on voluntary redundancy and offer "transitional assistance" for redundant staff to find new employment.
He said he was working with Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle on the issue and they were contacting all the affected North West MPs "to get them on board when representations are made to the Secretary of State for Defence".
Nia Griffith MP - shadow secretary of state for defence - said it was "devastating news" for workers and their families.
"The men and women who work on the Eurofighter are highly skilled and the potential loss of these jobs would have an appalling impact on them, the local economy and wider supply chains," she said.
The Labour MP for Llanelli also called on the government to urgently come up with a "clear plan to secure these jobs" and said it "must give long-term certainty to the industry".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-41556207 |
A permanent reminder of my own stupidity - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A festival has left an indelible mark on the BBC's South Asia correspondent. | Magazine | I have done something so stupid I still can't believe it.
Maybe I had fallen under the influence of the 10-headed demon Ravana.
The vanquishing of Ravana by Lord Rama is the excuse for Dussehra, one of the wildest of all Hindu festivals.
Towering wicker effigies of Ravana and his henchmen - complete with curling moustaches and wicked smiles - are filled with fireworks, ready to be burned in the climax of a re-enactment of Lord Rama's great victory.
Last year my wife and I took our four children to the biggest Dussehra celebration in Delhi, at the Ramlila Maidan, a vast field outside the gates of the old city.
As the sunlight turned a delicious gold, we joined the jostling queues.
But Ravana's malign influence isn't enough to explain what follows. I blame the fairground, too.
There's an Indian concept called jugaad. It means a simple, cheap solution to a complex problem. Basically - it means bodging it. The rides applied jugaad with breathtaking abandon.
It was as my 14 and 15-year-old daughters and I tottered, giggling nervously, from a terrifying, harness-free spin on a juddering big wheel that I noticed the sheet laid out on the dry mud.
Crouched on it was a man offering temporary tattoos.
Now, I have always hated tattoos. I live in fear of my children getting some ugly doodle etched into their perfect skin. That's why I thought it would be so funny to surprise my wife, Bee, with a fake one.
"How about a heart with her name in it for her birthday?" I said.
I promise I hadn't had anything to drink.
"They wash off, yes?" I asked the tattoo man.
"Yes, yes, yes," he said.
I felt the chrome nozzle of his little machine. I couldn't feel a needle.
He showed me a pot of ink. Well, you'd need ink for a temporary tattoo, wouldn't you?
I pointed to a heart on one of the laminated sheets with pictures of his craft, and then at the letters B, E, E.
"Yes, yes, yes," he said and took my arm firmly.
Before I knew it, he was already at work, and here's the thing: it didn't hurt.
Everyone I know who has ever had a tattoo says it hurt.
All I felt was a prickle. That said, it did worry me, but by then the tattoo man had already inked out a rough heart - and I do mean rough - in the middle of my upper arm.
It must have taken all of 30 seconds.
He started on the letters.
First an L. Hold on a second…
Now I was really worried. I tried to pull my arm away.
"No, no, no," said the tattoo man, pulling back.
With a sharp tug I got my arm free and wiped in desperation at the ink. But beneath my fingers I could feel my skin was slightly raised. The blue-black ink didn't even smudge.
"What have you done?" my wife wanted to know when we found her in the crowd and showed her my arm.
My daughters were doubled up with glee. Who wouldn't laugh when your dad has just got himself a tattoo by mistake?
The first fireworks exploded in the sky. Ravana was about to be put to the torch. I was already rushing for the exit.
"There must be a way to get rid of this thing," I told myself.
There wasn't. And here's some advice you probably don't need - never follow home tattoo removal instructions from the internet.
Flushing it with gin - the only alcohol to hand - didn't make any difference.
Salification - literally rubbing salt in the wound - didn't work either.
I now have a white scar as well as a cheap tattoo.
My wife was more worried about the risk of blood-borne infection, which is how I came to be sitting in front of a doctor in one of Delhi's hospitals.
So how risky is a street tattoo like this, I wanted to know?
"Oh, infection is very, very, very common," he told me with a huge smile.
He said as well as hepatitis B and C, there was also the risk of HIV.
"Oh, this is a very, very, very common way to get HIV. I see it all the time. All the time," he said, apparently delighted.
Two weeks later, the results of the blood test came through. It was clear. I have booked another test to make sure that is still the case.
The tattoo, however, isn't going anywhere. Ugly as it is, I'm keeping it - a permanent reminder to be less impetuous.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41510293 |
McDonald's Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce stunt backfires - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Fans of cartoon Rick and Morty were left angry after they were unable to get a rare dipping sauce. | US & Canada | McDonalds sent the out-of production sauce to the show's creators before announcing its return
A McDonald's PR stunt to bring back a rare dipping sauce left thousands of fans disappointed, with police called to some US restaurants on Saturday.
The Szechuan sauce, which was only made in 1998 to promote the film Mulan, has become well known after featuring in the popular cartoon Rick and Morty.
In July the chain sent a large bottle of the sauce to the show's creators.
They then announced it would come back for one day on 7 October, but fans were left disappointed after stores ran out.
In one video, police can be seen holding back people chanting "we want sauce".
Officers also attended other stores because hundreds of people turned up.
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 Ian 👻💀👽 Sikes 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 sauce became a meme among fans of the adult animated science-fiction series after it was featured in the third series.
McDonald's announced the Szechuan's return last week, describing it as a "really, really limited release" to special locations in the US.
But fans online said some restaurants claimed they were only given 20 pots of the sauce per venue, while others received none.
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 Frederick 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.
Fans took to social media to vent their frustrations after being unable to get their hands on the out-of-production dip.
One couple posted that they had driven for four hours to a restaurant stocking the sauce, but were left disappointed.
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 Jillian Campagnola 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 global fast food chain apologised to fans on social media but repeated their warning that the release was going to be "super limited".
Pots of the sauce are now listed for sale on online auction websites for hundreds of dollars.
Angry customers posted pictures of breaded chicken and dipping sauces from other fast-food chains in protest at the stunt.
Others posted pictures of large bowls of the sauce they had made for themselves at home. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41543636 |
Data is not the new oil - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | There are vital differences between the power of tech firms today and oil barons a century ago | Entertainment & Arts | Unlike oil, which is finite, data is a super-abundant resource in a post-industrial economy
How do you know when a pithy phrase or seductive idea has become fashionable in policy circles? When The Economist devotes a briefing to it.
In a briefing and accompanying editorial earlier this summer, that distinguished newspaper (it's a magazine, but still calls itself a newspaper, and I'm happy to indulge such eccentricity) argued that data is today what oil was a century ago.
As The Economist put it, "A new commodity spawns a lucrative, fast-growing industry, prompting anti-trust regulators to step in to restrain those who control its flow." Never mind that data isn't particularly new (though the volume may be) - this argument does, at first glance, have much to recommend it.
Just as a century ago those who got to the oil in the ground were able to amass vast wealth, establish near monopolies, and build the future economy on their own precious resource, so data companies like Facebook and Google are able to do similar now. With oil in the 20th century, a consensus eventually grew that it would be up to regulators to intervene and break up the oligopolies - or oiliogopolies - that threatened an excessive concentration of power.
Many impressive thinkers have detected similarities between data today and oil in yesteryear. John Thornhill, the Financial Times's Innovation Editor, has used the example of Alaska to argue that data companies should pay a universal basic income, another idea that has become highly fashionable in policy circles.
A drilling crew poses for a photograph at Spindletop Hill in Beaumont, Texas where the first Texas oil gusher was discovered in 1901.
At first I was taken by the parallels between data and oil. But now I'm not so sure. As I argued in a series of tweets last week, there are such important differences between data today and oil a century ago that the comparison, while catchy, risks spreading a misunderstanding of how these new technology super-firms operate - and what to do about their power.
The first big difference is one of supply. There is a finite amount of oil in the ground, albeit that is still plenty, and we probably haven't found all of it. But data is virtually infinite. Its supply is super-abundant. In terms of basic supply, data is more like sunlight than oil: there is so much of it that our principal concern should be more what to do with it than where to find more, or how to share that which we've already found.
Data can also be re-used, and the same data can be used by different people for different reasons. Say I invented a new email address. I might use that to register for a music service, where I left a footprint of my taste in music; a social media platform on which I upload photos of my baby son; and a search engine, where I indulge my fascination with reggae.
If, through that email address, a data company were able to access information about me or my friends, the music service, the social network and the search engine might all benefit from that one email address and all that is connected to it. This is different from oil. If a major oil company get to an oil field in, say, Texas, they alone will have control of the oil there - and once they've used it up, it's gone.
This points to another key difference: who controls the commodity. There are very legitimate fears about the use and abuse of personal data online - for instance, by foreign powers trying to influence elections. And very few people have a really clear idea about the digital footprint they have left online. If they did know, they might become obsessed with security. I know a few data fanatics who own several phones and indulge data-savvy habits, such as avoiding all text messages in favour of WhatsApp, which is encrypted.
But data is something which - in theory if not in practice - the user can control, and which ideally - though again the practice falls well short - spreads by consent. Going back to that oil company, it's largely up to them how they deploy the oil in the ground beneath Texas: how many barrels they take out every day, what price they sell it for, who they sell it to.
With my email address, it's up to me whether to give it to that music service, social network, or search engine. If I don't want people to know that I have an unhealthy obsession with bands such as The Wailers, The Pioneers and The Ethiopians, I can keep digitally schtum.
Now, I realise that in practice, very few people feel they have control over their personal data online; and retrieving your data isn't exactly easy. If I tried to reclaim, or wipe from the face of the earth, all the personal data that I've handed over to data companies, it'd be a full time job for the rest of my life and I'd never actually achieve it. That said, it is largely as a result of my choices that these firms have so much of my personal data.
Servers for data storage in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland, which is trying to make a name for itself in the business of data centres - warehouses that consume enormous amounts of energy to store the information of 3.2 billion internet users.
The final key difference is that the data industry is much faster to evolve than the oil industry was. Innovation is in the very DNA of big data companies, some of whose lifespans are pitifully short. As a result, regulation is much harder. That briefing in The Economist actually makes the point well that a previous model of regulation may not necessarily work for these new companies, who are forever adapting. That is not to say they should not be regulated; rather, that regulating them is something we haven't yet worked out how to do.
It is because the debate over regulation of these companies is so live that I think we need to interrogate superficially attractive ideas such as 'data is the new oil'. In fact, whereas finite but plentiful oil supplied a raw material for the industrial economy, data is a super-abundant resource in a post-industrial economy. Data companies increasingly control, and redefine, the nature of our public domain, rather than power our transport, or heat our homes.
Data today has something important in common with oil a century ago. But the tech titans are more media moguls than oil barons. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41559076 |
Ernesto Guevara: How my father inspired my Cuban motorcycle tours - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Fifty years after Che Guevara's death, his son takes the BBC on a motorcycle tour of Cuba. | Latin America & Caribbean | Ernesto Guevara shares his father's love of motorbikes and cigars
On 9 October 1967, guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara was executed in Bolivia. Fifty years on, the BBC's Will Grant takes a motorbike tour of Cuba with the leader's son and asks him about the pressures of living under his father's legacy.
At times, the family resemblance is uncanny.
The stubbly beard, the unmistakable nose, the similarity extending down to a smouldering cigar clasped firmly between his forefingers.
Beyond the physical attributes, the youngest son of Latin America's most recognisable revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, has inherited another trait from his late father: his love of motorbikes.
"I've always liked mechanics, speed, motorbikes, cars," said 52-year-old Ernesto, named after his father, over a cold drink in a Harley Davidson-themed bar in Havana.
"As a child I was interested in repairing cars and bikes. I suppose it's something I picked up from my old man but wherever it's from, I love it."
Despite the shared passion, the younger Guevara has taken a very different path in life: into tourism.
He runs a motorbike tour company whose only link to Che is in the name, La Poderosa Tours after La Poderosa, the famous Norton 500cc on which his father crossed the Americas in the Motorcycle Diaries.
Che Guevara and Aleida March on their wedding day in Havana in June 1959
La Poderosa Tours is a private company using foreign capital and works with several state-run Cuban companies. It is part of the wave of private enterprise permitted under rule changes by President Raul Castro in 2010, and a far cry from Ernesto's training as a lawyer.
When I joined him on a recent tour, we headed out west, towards the tobacco-growing region of Pinar del Río.
Heads turned on the streets of Havana as the fleet of Harley Davidsons swept out of the capital.
The motorbike is proving an increasingly popular way to see the island. The tour group was a broad cross-section of nationalities including riders from the United States, China, Britain and Argentina.
"Americans my age have never been able to come to Cuba and now we can," reflected amateur bike enthusiast Scott Rodgers from Massachusetts when we stopped for coffee.
"I don't know long that is going to last so I thought I had to jump through this window while I could."
Others were directly drawn to the link to Che, including Eduardo Lopez, a fellow Argentine.
"Of course he is part of the attraction," Eduardo said. "Travelling the world by motorbike is my hobby but we specifically came on this tour because Che lived for years in my home town of Córdoba. So we feel a link to this myth, this figure."
Some tourists say they take the tour because they are interested in the Guevara history
Despite the famous surname, Ernesto insists he is very much his own man.
"I always try to not link things. Anything I've achieved I've done as Ernesto Guevara March - as myself, as a human being," said the son from Che's second marriage to Cuban Aleida March.
"I do everything with a sense of responsibility. If it works out, then great. If not, fair enough."
Che Guevara's image - seen here in Havana - is used in graffiti worldwide
So far, it's a business philosophy that has served him well. Last year saw record numbers of tourists visit Cuba and business at La Poderosa Tours is brisk.
He knows he has his critics though, particularly in Miami. It is often pointed out that after being born with such Marxist credentials, the younger Guevara has made a capitalist's career in tourism.
It's not a charge that worries him, however.
"It has nothing to do with whether it's socialist or capitalist," he argued with a hint of indignation in his voice.
Pinar del Río, west of Havana, is known for its tobacco plantations
"It makes no sense to focus on that issue. For me, we're doing a good job, one that helps my country."
Our tour carried on to a place synonymous with the darker side of his father's image, the Cabaña Fortress.
It was here that after the revolutionaries took power, Che presided over the revolutionary trials of members of the ousted military government. Dozens were executed in what critics of the Cuban Revolution say was summary justice.
Fifty years after his father's death, Ernesto still leaps to his defence insisting the trials were "normal". I pointed out that such a view will incense some families the other side of the Florida Straits.
Ernesto Guevera (R) named his company after his father's bike, La Poderosa
"The enemy can say what he likes. The people of Cuba know why it was done, how it was done, and above all in order to bring tranquillity to all Cuban society that they weren't going to pardon murderers of that kind," he said looking out across the bay to Havana.
"So I'm very calm, my soul is at peace, and my father's soul is too."
Ernesto readily admits it wasn't always easy growing up with a famous father - or rather, without one. Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia in 1967 when Ernesto was just two.
"Of course, at school sometimes you'd be pointed out as 'Ernesto Guevara', but generally you were known as 'Ernesto Guevara March', which is the person you are. The son of both your father and your mother."
And as the worldwide fascination with his iconic father shows no signs of slowing down, this has become a point the younger Ernesto is keen to stress.
"Those who love me, love me for the person I am. Not just for the name Guevara." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41510650 |
'Narcissistic cult' brothers put into care - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | They had "formed a group identity" and "saw themselves as intellectually superior", a court hears. | UK | The case was heard by the Family Division of the High Court
Three teenage brothers should be taken from their mother and put into care, having developed a "narcissistic cult" mentality, a High Court judge has said.
The boys, who were not sent to school and suffered from a lack of food and healthcare, were led to believe they should not socialise or go outside.
Their mother, who cannot be identified, had mental health issues.
Psychotherapists said the brothers had "formed a group identity" and "saw themselves as intellectually superior".
Mr Justice Hayden, the judge, said the children had been placed in temporary residential care while further decisions could be made about their futures.
He said they should not be returned to their mother.
Social services said the trio had come to believe there was "no purpose to attending school, leaving the home or socialising with others", while two psychotherapists said they saw themselves as "separate to the rest of the world".
They said a "cult mentality" had developed. One described it as a "narcissistic cult".
Two of the boys were said to have communicated with each other in a secret language.
The court was also told about the strict reward system imposed on the boys.
"There was an elaborate and quite rigid structure to their interactions predicated on an achievement and award system," Mr Justice Hayden said.
"Achievement of particular tasks enabled time on the computer or an opportunity to pet and stroke the cat."
The boys are now in the care of Wandsworth Council social services. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41556407 |
Dramatic Grenfell baby story probably never happened - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Was a baby thrown from Grenfell Tower and caught? The evidence suggests the event never took place. | UK | One of the most dramatic stories from the night of the Grenfell Tower blaze - that a baby was thrown from a window and caught - probably never happened, a BBC investigation has concluded.
The news was reported in the media right across the UK and the world.
But neither the police nor ambulance service have a record of the event, and experts have questioned whether it is scientifically possible.
No witnesses quoted at the time were willing to be interviewed on camera.
The report, by BBC Newsnight, found the first reference to the story can be traced back to 10:08 on 14 June while firefighters were still battling the blaze.
It was one of the few good news stories out of Grenfell Tower that awful night in June
The Press Association tweeted an interview with a woman named Samira Lamrani.
She told them that she had witnessed a woman on the "ninth or 10th floor" throwing a baby from a window and that the child was caught by a man below.
The quotes were picked up by news organisations across the UK, including by the BBC.
Newsnight contacted Ms Lamrani but she declined to be interviewed. "My memory of that night is fading… I don't want to talk about it," she said.
Another witness quoted at the time was the broadcaster and architect George Clarke who told Newsnight on the day of the fire that he saw a man catch "a kid" thrown out of the window from the eighth floor.
When we contacted him for this report, he told us he did not wish to make any comment on the matter at all. "It's such a contentious issue and I think it's so hurtful to so many people," he said.
The news was first reported in this tweet from a journalist with a video of a witness at the scene
On the 16 June, two days after the fire, a dramatic account of a similar sounding incident appeared in The Sun newspaper. It was subsequently picked up by many other news organisations.
The story features photographs of a man holding a young girl. The Sun names him as "Pat" and says the picture was taken just after he had caught the girl, aged 4, who the newspaper said had been dropped from the fourth floor.
However, we tracked down the man in the picture. His name is Oluwaseun Talabi, and the girl he is holding in the picture is actually his own daughter. The pair had escaped the fire by walking down from the 14th floor.
Belief in this miracle doesn't seem to have diminished in the streets around the burned-out tower. If you ask local residents some will tell you that they are certain the story is true, although they didn't see it themselves.
Newsnight has attempted to contact every person quoted as saying they did see the baby thrown and caught. Some told us that they had been misquoted. For some supposed witnesses, we found no evidence that they actually exist at all. None of those we could track down were willing to go on the record and give us an on-camera interview.
One local resident, Jody Martin, has a theory about where the baby story originated. He arrived at the scene of the fire at about the same time as the first fire crews, just after 01:00.
Jody Martin saw a woman holding a child outside a window to give it air
He says his attention was drawn to activity on the third or fourth floor.
"There was an African-Caribbean lady with her baby and she was leaning out the window," he says. "It was more like a toddler. And there was smoke just billowing out behind us, so obviously she was just trying to get oxygen. So she was at the lowest point of the ledge, you know right down low, top half of her torso hanging out, but her infant at arm's length."
Jody is clear that the woman was only minutes away from being rescued by fire crews and wasn't throwing the baby, just trying to make sure it had enough air.
According to psychologists it is common in fast moving situations for witnesses to see part of an event and then assume what happened next. There is nothing dishonest about this. It is just how we formulate memories.
As experts told us, human memory isn't a video tape - it is a best guess assembly of often incomplete or even contradictory information.
There is another reason we should perhaps be sceptical of this story. The physics of such a fall would make serious injury to any child and anyone who tried to catch it a probability according to medical experts.
Even dropped from five storeys or 15m, an object would be travelling at 17.15m per second or 61.73km per hour (38mph).
Double the height to the 10th floor, or 30m, and an object is travelling at 24.25m per second or 87.3kmh (54.2mph).
Any fall from above one storey would likely result in serious injury, irrespective of whether someone tries to catch the child or not, according to Dr Dan Magnus, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.
"I would be sceptical of a baby falling from a very high height and someone catching that baby would somehow make the fall benign. I think that is difficult to understand," he said.
If this event had happened you would think that there would be some official record of it, but Newsnight has established that neither the police, nor the ambulance service know anything about it, and no children from Grenfell were treated at hospital for the serious physical injuries likely to have resulted from such a fall.
The Metropolitan Police could not have been clearer in their statement: "We have no record of this incident."
It is often not possible to definitively say something didn't happen. All we can do is search for the witnesses and scrutinise the evidence.
We have done that and haven't turned up anything that suggests this amazing event actually happened. Indeed all the available evidence points to the opposite conclusion.
David Grossman was reporting for BBC Newsnight. Watch his full report here. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41550836 |
Google 'uncovers Russian ad campaign linked to US election' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The search giant has evidence that agents tried to influence the US election, media report. | US & Canada | Google has found evidence that Russian agents spent tens of thousands of dollars on adverts in a bid to sway the 2016 US election, media reports say.
Sources quoted by the Washington Post say the adverts aimed to spread disinformation across Google's products including YouTube and Gmail.
They say the adverts do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-linked source that bought ads on Facebook.
Google said it was investigating attempts to "abuse" its systems.
US intelligence agencies concluded earlier this year that Russia had tried to sway the election in favour of Donald Trump.
The Russian government strongly denies the claims and President Trump has denied any collusion with the Kremlin.
The issue is under investigation by US congressional committees and the Department of Justice.
Sources said to be close to the Google investigation said the company was looking into a group of adverts that cost less than $100,000 (£76,000).
Google said in a statement: "We have a set of strict ads policies including limits on political ad targeting and prohibitions on targeting based on race and religion. We are taking a deeper look to investigate attempts to abuse our systems, working with researchers and other companies, and will provide assistance to ongoing inquiries."
Microsoft said on Monday it was also investigating whether any US election adverts had been bought by Russians for its Bing search engine or other products.
A spokesman told Reuters it had no further information at the moment.
Facebook said in September that it had uncovered a Russian-funded campaign to promote divisive social and political messages on its network.
It said that $100,000 was spent on about 3,000 ads over a two-year period, ending in May 2017.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg later said his company would pass the information to US investigators. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41561882 |
World Cup 2018: Have England improved since the 2014 World Cup? - BBC Sport | 2017-10-09 | null | England have qualified for the 2018 World Cup but what progress have they made in the past four years? | null | England manager Gareth Southgate painted a brutally honest picture of his current squad - and arguably their chances at next summer's World Cup - when he cast doubt on whether he possessed "big players".
Southgate has secured qualification for Russia but England's progress has been unspectacular and they will not travel accompanied by great expectations.
England's last brush with tournament football was that harrowing night in Nice in June last year when they lost 2-1 to Iceland in the last 16 of Euro 2016 and manager Roy Hodgson effectively resigned on the spot.
It followed a dismal World Cup in Brazil in 2014, when England did not make it out of the group stage following defeats by Italy and Uruguay and were reduced to the embarrassment of playing out a dead rubber against Costa Rica in their final game.
So, with Southgate putting his squad's quality into context, and looking back at previous selections, are England in any better shape to make an impact in Russia than they were in Brazil and France?
England's goalkeepers at the past two tournaments
England's goalkeepers for the 2018 World Cup almost pick themselves - and it is a stronger hand than Hodgson had to play with in the past two major tournaments.
Southgate appears to have settled on Joe Hart as his first choice but the memories of his edgy, hyped-up displays in the 2014 World Cup and his crucial errors for goals conceded against Wales and Iceland at Euro 2016 mean this is a debate that will continue.
England are in a better place to deal with this problem now because back-up and competition is better than it has been for years with 24-year-old Jack Butland excelling at Stoke City and Jordan Pickford, 23, shining after his £30m move to Everton.
Hart needs to maintain his form to fight off this pair, with Burnley's Tom Heaton also in the shake-up for a squad place, but he will be under the microscope once the World Cup starts to see how he copes with the pressure.
Verdict: England's overall quality is stronger but Southgate looks set to keep faith with a keeper whose flaws were exposed in Brazil and France. Will it prove a mistake?
England's defenders at the past two tournaments
England's options in the defensive areas for next year look stronger than they did in previous tournaments - but that does not mean Southgate's backline will give off an air of confidence.
The full-backs are almost interchangeable with Kyle Walker established at right-back and Ryan Bertrand now the regular left-back. Liverpool's Nathaniel Clyne and Danny Rose at Tottenham provide similar alternatives but are struggling with injury.
A back four of Leighton Baines, Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka and Glen Johnson was ageing and cruelly exposed in Brazil and Southgate will surely be casting eyes in the direction of Manchester in the hope a solid central-defensive partnership emerges.
Phil Jones' career had threatened to stall after early comparisons with Duncan Edwards but he has flourished under Jose Mourinho at Manchester United. John Stones, who also suffered a dip after his £47.5m move from Everton to Manchester City, is again starting to look like the defender who was once regarded as the future but then disappeared almost undetected from the England team.
Jones and Stones, at their best and if their renaissance continues, offer a good blend in central defence and an upgrade on the Cahill/Chris Smalling partnership in France - but Southgate may still want the Chelsea's captain's experience, even though he has struggled at major tournaments.
He will probably want his pairing to come from those three, with Smalling still in contention, because the likes of Leicester City's Harry Maguire and Everton's Michael Keane offer promise, but will have nothing in the way of experience at the sharp end of a major tournament when the action starts in Russia.
Southgate opened up another possibility by using a three-man defensive system in Sunday's final qualifier in Lithuania.
England have high-profile friendlies coming up against Germany and Brazil and they would appear to be the perfect opportunity to test out his preferred players in that system against high-class opposition.
England's defensive candidates in the Premier League since August 2016
Chris Waddle, who reached a World Cup semi-final with England in 1990, has concerns.
"Central defence has been a problem for a long time now since people like Rio Ferdinand left the scene," he said. "I don't think we've really had an outstanding partnership since the Terry-Ferdinand years.
"I think age is creeping up on some and do the younger ones like Keane and Maguire have the experience to go into a major tournament against the likes of Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Spain? I'm not so sure."
Verdict: If Jones and Stones are at their best they will be a nice contrast and give England a more solid appearance in central defence - it is still a big "if" at this stage of the season.
Walker and Bertrand or Rose will be the full-back partnership, positions England were found short in at the past two tournaments.
Southgate may just have a better defence than Hodgson had in Brazil and France but it still has a vulnerable look and you would not stake your life on its reliability under pressure.
England's midfielders at the past two tournaments
Here is where Southgate might have to pull off his biggest balancing act of all.
The central pairing of Jordan Henderson and a Steven Gerrard at the end of his England career failed in Brazil, while Liverpool's current captain and Eric Dier were colourless and lacking impact in France. Their shortage of creativity and 'much of a muchness' combination must be addressed or Southgate risks faring no better than Hodgson in tournament combat.
The increasing desperation to find a cure has seen eyes cast towards Ross Barkley, injured and an outcast at Everton, in the hope he might find form with a move to Spurs in January and a quick-fix partnership with Dier that could work for club and country.
This is the same Barkley that Hodgson would not touch with a bargepole in France. Even Jack Wilshere's name has appeared in the debate after resurfacing at Arsenal.
Former England international Waddle suggested Chelsea new boy Danny Drinkwater and Newcastle United maverick Jonjo Shelvey as possibilities and the stakes are high. If Southgate can find the answer England could make real progress on what was on offer in Brazil and France.
A creative player could serve Dele Alli in his telepathic link with Spurs team-mate Harry Kane, and Adam Lallana - England's best player before his injury, according to Southgate - will be another important addition in the midfield area once he is fit and playing for Liverpool.
There are young possibilities such as Everton teenager Tom Davies, Spurs rookie Harry Winks and Nathaniel Chalobah at Watford but it would require serious progress and serious trust from Southgate.
It could end up being a mix-and-match three-man midfield of Dier centrally, with Lallana and Henderson either side, Alli at 10 and a threatening strikeforce of Kane and Manchester United's Marcus Rashford.
Verdict: Southgate will hope for a late wildcard, perhaps Barkley, to stake a claim otherwise England's stodgy central midfield will lack imagination and offer little improvement on 2014 in Brazil, and France last summer.
England's forwards at the past two tournaments
England will definitely pose more danger in attack than in France, when Kane looked exhausted and Wayne Rooney's England career was drawing to a disappointing conclusion.
Kane is rejuvenated, full of confidence and is now a match-winner on the brink of world-class.
Rashford will have another 12 months of experience and know-how to make even more use of his fearlessness and blistering pace that will force any defence in world football to take a few steps back.
If one, or indeed both, come off in Russia - with Alli in support - England will carry real danger if they can get the supply right.
Former England international Phil Neville told BBC Sport: "We know the qualifying rounds are not really a barometer and friendlies are exactly that. Until we go to a major tournament it is difficult to say England are going to do this or that.
"We have got quality. This team are better for experiences in France.
"I see this as a fantastically talented England team who have got every chance of doing well in a tournament but until they get there and see how they react under pressure we will never know."
England were short of punch in Brazil and France. Kane and Rashford can provide the knockout blows with the pace of Leicester City's Jamie Vardy a weapon off the bench.
Verdict: If it all comes together and Kane and Rashford stay fit, this is an area of real progress and promise for Southgate and England.
Hodgson actually looked at his best at Euro 2012, weeks into the England job and concentrating on what he did and does best. Organisation. Organisation. Organisation.
In Brazil and France it looked like Hodgson was too keen to get "with it" to prove critics who questioned his pragmatic style wrong, tinkering with attacking formations in a manner that was out of character, with inevitably disappointing results.
Southgate, new to the job and this elite level of international football, will be learning as he goes but the 2018 World Cup will be no free hit - he will need to produce acceptable results.
Former England captain Terry Butcher is an admirer, saying: "I have seen him change systems and personnel. The Wayne Rooney situation, when he left his captain and major personality out, is an example where he showed he had a tough mentality and a tough character.
"Sometimes people see a calmness and gentleness about him but you shouldn't mistake that for timidity and being afraid. He has got a lot of steel there.
"Gareth would not have had the career he had as a player without real steel and character. He was captain everywhere he played, and he would not be England manager without being ruthless.
"He has shown he can be ruthless and flexible. I have got no worries about Gareth and I am quite looking forward to him going into the World Cup as England manager."
Southgate is a calm-headed realist who accepts some recent England displays have been disappointing. They have made heavy weather of a comfortable group and will strike no fear into opponents in Russia.
Southgate has a matter of months to put that right.
Verdict: Southgate will find it hard to do any worse than Hodgson did in Brazil and France but whether he is the upgrade England required will only be measured by events next summer.
England have improved goalkeeping alternatives - but will Southgate use them? - and an attack that looks potent as the preparations ramp up. Midfield, however, is a serious headache.
Friendlies against Germany and Brazil will sharpen some of the blurred lines around England's squad and their World Cup aspirations but Southgate believes he has a blend of youth and experience to prove they are a better bet in Russia than they have been at recent showpiece events.
Choose who you would pick in the England starting XI in Russia - and then share it with your friends using our team selector. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41544951 |
Huge cocaine haul seized in tugboat in Atlantic - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It is not clear where the 165 packages of cocaine were being transported to, officials say. | Europe | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows the spot where the cocaine was hidden on board the boat
Nearly four tonnes of cocaine worth an estimated $260m (£200m) have been seized by international law enforcement officers in the Atlantic.
The drugs were found on a boat between Portugal's Madeira and Azores islands.
Officials found 165 individual packages of cocaine weighing 23kg - a total of 3.7 tonnes - concealed beneath the vessel's cooking area.
It is not clear where the drugs were being taken to.
The Comoros-flagged vessel was towed into the Spanish port of Cádiz on Friday after Spanish officials received intelligence from the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).
The crew, from Turkey and Azerbaijan, were arrested.
The cocaine was hidden beneath the vessel's galley
Spanish officers made the seizure after a tip-off from the UK
The operation was jointly conducted by Spanish customs and police and the NCA under the overall co-ordination of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics (MAOC-N) in Lisbon.
"Seizing this quantity of cocaine represents a major disruption to international crime groups, depriving them of revenue potentially running into the hundreds of millions of pounds," NCA spokesman Mark Blackwell said.
There have been two other big Atlantic drug busts in recent months.
Thirteen Spanish citizens of Moroccan origin were arrested on Monday over what is believed to be a record seizure of cocaine in the North African country, officials there said.
Officials say the bust will cause traffickers major disruption
Police were reported to have seized more than 2.5 tonnes of the drug, with a street value of hundreds of millions of dollars.
The cocaine was thought to have come from Venezuela on its way to Europe or the United Arab Emirates.
Morocco's investigations chief Abdelhak Khiam said South American drug cartels were using smuggling routes through sub-Saharan countries where he said there was "little control".
The Portuguese navy and air force is also reported to have carried out a drugs seizure on Thursday after intercepting a yacht suspected of transporting cocaine to the country from the Caribbean.
The vessel was stopped about 965km (600 miles) south of the Azores, Portugal News Online reported, and was carrying a large amount of "highly pure" cocaine believed to be worth about $23.5m (£18m). | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41542224 |
World Cup 2018: Does height matter in football? - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The ex-Scotland boss claimed his team failed because they were shorter but does it really make a difference? | Scotland | Gordon Strachan said genetics were to blame for Scotland's failure to beat Slovenia
The claim: Gordon Strachan, the former manager of Scotland, said after the country's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia that his team lacked the height and strength to compete, saying that Scotland were the second-shortest team "in the last campaign".
Reality Check verdict: In recent years, Scotland have been among the shortest teams in Europe, when measuring average height of the squad - but not the second-shortest. However, height in football doesn't necessarily lead to success.
After failing to lead Scotland to victory in their must-win World Cup qualifier against Slovenia, where did ex-manager Gordon Strachan lay the blame?
Scotland's opponents might not have been technically superior, but they had "height and strength" the Scots had been unable to combat, Strachan said.
"Genetically, we are behind," he said. "In the last campaign we were the second-smallest, apart from Spain."
Strachan's comments sparked a debate in the football world about whether Scotland, or any football team, needed more height in their team to succeed.
Reality Check looked at whether Strachan has a point.
Little and large. Shaun Wright-Phillips and Peter Crouch training for England.
Slovenia are one of the tallest teams in Europe. Scotland's starting XI in Ljubljana were, on average, more than 3cm (1in) smaller than their opponents.
Strachan's team, featuring players with an average height of 180.1cm, are actually in the top 10 of the "shortest" teams in Europe this year, according to research by the International Centre for Sport Studies (CIES) football observatory.
In fact, by the average measure, they are surpassed - or maybe undercut - by only Cyprus, Israel and Armenia, level with Spain.
Based on research by the CIES, which excludes seven countries (none of whom qualified), only two of the 10 shortest teams - Spain and France - will qualify for Russia 2018.
The height of footballers does not necessarily reflect the national trend. Dutch men are the tallest in world, but their football team is currently one of the shortest in Europe.
Lionel Messi, in action here for Argentina against Ecuador, is 170cm (5ft 6in) tall.
Seven out of the 10 tallest teams in 2017, excluding the World Cup hosts Russia, either qualified automatically - Serbia, Iceland, Belgium and Germany - or made the play-offs - Sweden, Greece and Denmark.
So it's certainly true that in the run-up to the World Cup, some of the tallest teams in Europe were in form this year.
But it's difficult to say whether these teams were successful because of their stature.
Strachan also claimed that Scotland had been the second-shortest team in their previous qualifying campaign (for Euro 2016). But they were in fact the sixth-shortest in 2015. The eventual winners of the tournament were Portugal, who were also one of the shortest teams, suggesting height was not necessarily a bar to success.
Globally, the top 10 shortest teams in 2015 contained some of the most successful football nations, and four World Cup winners: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Spain.
Among the tallest countries, there was only one previous World Cup winner: Germany.
At the top of the list, with an average height of 1.86m, was Serbia.
Who has the tallest team? Average heights of European national teams in 2017.
This article has been updated since its original date of publication to reflect new data. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41549709 |
Man in shark head costume falls foul of Austria anti-veil law - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A business is fined after a man wore a shark mask as part of a promotional campaign in Vienna. | Europe | Street musicians in animal masks have also been issued warnings. File picture
A man in a shark costume has fallen foul of an anti-burka law that recently came into force in Austria.
Designed to ban the full-face Islamic veil, the law says people's faces must be visible from hairline to chin.
The man in the shark mask was advertising a business in central Vienna and the business was fined.
Street musicians in animal masks have also been given official warnings. Police have called for the controversial new law to be clarified.
This Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by WARDA NETWORK This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook 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. Facebook content may contain adverts.
The company that had employed the man in a shark costume posted a picture of him on Facebook and announced the fine, saying officers had forced the man to take the costume head off. "Life isn't easy," they wrote.
His costume reportedly came to the attention of police after a member of the public reported him for breaking the law.
Full-face burka-style veils are banned in several European countries.
In January Austria's ruling coalition agreed to prohibit full-face veils (niqab and burka) in public spaces such as courts and schools. It said it was considering a more general ban on state employees wearing the headscarf and other religious symbols.
The measures were seen as an attempt to counter the rise of the far-right Freedom Party, which almost won the presidency in December 2016.
An Algerian billionaire wearing a Halloween mask has led a protest outside the Austrian interior ministry in Vienna, promising to pay the fines of any women who are prosecuted for wearing the niqab or burka.
• None Austrian ban on veil comes into force | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41559196 |
Trump administration to roll back Obama clean power rule - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | "The war on coal is over," the US environment head says, as he confirms withdrawal from the plan. | US & Canada | Scott Pruitt addressed a crowd in Kentucky - where some hope for a coal revival
The Trump administration has confirmed plans to repeal an Obama administration rule to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has voiced doubt of climate change, called the Clean Power Plan an overreach.
President Donald Trump ordered the EPA to rewrite the rule in March.
The Clean Power Plan requires states to meet carbon emission reduction targets based on their energy consumption.
Mr Pruitt said he would sign the proposed rule to begin withdrawing from the plan on Tuesday.
"The war on coal is over," he told a crowd in Hazard, Kentucky, on Monday.
He continued: "That rule really was about picking winners and losers.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Matt McGrath explains why we should care about climate change
"Regulatory power should not be used by any regulatory body to pick winners and losers."
Mr Pruitt has previously argued that the Clean Power Plan would force states to favour renewable energy in the electricity-generation market.
As Oklahoma's attorney general, he took part in a lawsuit by 27 US states against the rule.
A Supreme Court ruling in February 2016 left the regulation in limbo.
The EPA under President Barack Obama said the Clean Power Plan could prevent up to 150,000 asthma attacks in children and 6,600 premature deaths.
But according to US media, a leaked draft of the repeal proposal disputes the health benefits touted by the previous administration.
The draft also reportedly argues the country would save $33bn (£25bn) by dropping the regulation.
The Clean Power Plan required states to devise a way to cut planet-warming emissions by 32% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Eliminating the rule would make it difficult for the US to fulfil its promise to cut emissions as part of the Paris Climate accord, a 2015 international agreement which President Obama signed with nearly 200 other countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.
Mr Trump in June signalled that he would pull out of the pact, dismantling his predecessor's environmental legacy.
In August the Trump administration issued its first written notification to the UN that it intended to withdraw from the agreement.
But the move was largely viewed as symbolic as no nation seeking to leave the pact can officially announce an intention to withdraw until 4 November 2019.
The process of leaving then takes another year, meaning it would not be complete until just weeks after the US presidential election in 2020.
The planned repeal of the Clean Power Plan has sparked outrage among environmental groups.
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) threatened to sue the EPA if the plan is repealed while the Sierra Club has indicated it would fight any new rule that does not comply with the country's air pollution laws.
Mary Anne Hitt, the director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement the Trump administration was "putting the safety of our communities at risk, and making it crystal clear they have no intention of safeguarding people from the very real, immediate dangers of climate change". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41556342 |
Belinda Carlisle: Still in Heaven? - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 80s pop star on her punk days, drug addiction, and why she's made an album of yoga chants. | Entertainment & Arts | The star is celebrating the 30th anniversary of her breakthrough album, Heaven On Earth
"I have an original voice," says Belinda Carlisle,
"It may not be the best voice but it's distinct and I think that's what has carried me through the years."
And then there's her catalogue with The Go-Go's, the new wave girl band she formed in her teens. Hits like We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed sent their debut album to number one in America.
To this day, Beauty and the Beat is still the only US chart-topper to be written and played by women.
But through all of that success, Carlisle was harbouring a severe cocaine habit. Even fellow party animal Rod Stewart was shocked, writing in his autobiography that Carlisle "could snort the lacquer off a table".
After two decades, though, the singer finally got clean after hearing a voice telling her: "You are going to be found dead in a hotel if you don't stop."
That was in 2005. Now, aged 59, she's releasing her first album in a decade, Wilder Shores, which is built around the Kundalini yoga chants that helped her recovery.
On the phone from Brighton, she told the BBC about that record, the 30th anniversary of the Heaven On Earth album and what it's like to be covered in spit at a punk show.
Carlisle now lives in France, and practises yoga every day
I love Brighton! I've been coming here since the late 70s when it was just one fish-and-chip shop on the sea front.
That would have been when The Go-Go's supported Madness on tour?
Yes, exactly. It was my second trip to the UK - I think I was probably 19 and we opened for Madness on their tour, and it was mostly seaside towns.
What were the audiences like at those gigs?
Oh my God! Back then, the whole National Front thing was unfortunately involved with the ska movement - so there were lots of tattooed skinheads, and one of the things they would do is, if they liked you, they would gob on you. So we would be coming off stage covered in spit.
We were just five girls from Southern California, so it was really scary. There were a lot of tears. But overall, even though we had no money and were covered in spit, we still had a good time.
I'm always amazed that The Go-Go's are still the only all-female band to have written a number one album. It's like you battered down the door and no-one else came through.
But they used a lot of co-writers..
Yeah, they did. Go figure. You'd think there would be more after us, but there weren't. I don't understand that at all.
You can still see your legacy in other bands, like Haim or Hole or L7. It's just a shame no-one else has replicated the success.
Well, I mean, good luck now, unless you're put together by a svengali. Something like The Go-Gos could never happen now. It was too authentic. And authenticity is really lacking in music.
The star scored five top 10 albums in the UK between 1987 and 1993
Was there a backlash when you went from punk-inspired sound of The Go-Gos to the pure pop of Heaven On Earth?
Oh, I think so - and I can see why. But everything I've ever done has been true to myself. The albums Heaven On Earth and Runaway Horses and Live Your Life Be Free were harking back to when I was a young girl and listening to Californian radio - lush productions, complicated melodies, harmonies like the Beach Boys and the Mamas and Papas. That's what those albums remind me of.
So they're all very dear to my heart. Except A Woman and a Man [Belinda's sixth album, released in 1996].
But even on that record you got to work with Brian Wilson.
Well, gosh, that was one of the highlights - but, you know, at that point I was in a lot of personal turmoil… I guess there were a few good songs in there and California was one of them. Having Brian Wilson sing on my album was an unforgettable experience.
What do you recall of making the Heaven On Earth album?
I'll never forget the first time I heard Circle In The Sand; or I Get Weak, which [songwriter] Dianne Warren played on the piano and sang for me. I actually told her she should release it, because she has a great voice. And then hearing Heaven for the first time, I realised, and I think we all realised, that it had the potential to be a global hit.
Which songs have you enjoyed revisiting on the tour?
Should I Let You In - I'd totally forgotten about that one. And Fool For Love, which I started working into my set this last summer, people love it! It's just such a fun, powerful, pop song.
Heaven On Earth produced five hit singles in the UK
You don't have any writing credits on Heaven On Earth but by your fifth album, Real, you were contributing to almost every song. What changed?
For the first three albums, pretty much, I was just a voice - and I mean that in the best possible way. But on Real, I felt I needed to make a change.
I've always known I could write. I have an ear for production and melody. It was just that in those early years, I let everyone do it for me. To be honest, I was a little lazy!
Listening to Real now, it was ahead of its time, insofar as its sound and incorporating loops. And right after that, Alanis Morrisette came out with Jagged Little Pill, which had a similar approach. I mean, I'm not claiming that - there's not an original thought out there. It just happened to be a little ahead of its time.
Fast-forward to 2017, and you've just performed a concert at a yoga class...
That was really good fun. The yoga audience was pretty new for me, but what was funny was seeing fans who'd never done yoga before coming in with their mats and experiencing the mantra and singing along with it.
How did you end up making an album of chants?
I started chanting before I got sober, and chanting is really interesting, because it's a science and it definitely works.
Way back at the beginning… I had made so many messes in my life and it had all come to a head. It would have been very easy for me to jump off a cliff but because of all the chanting I was doing, I was flying high. It was like a feeling of elation at the very beginning of my sobriety. It was very strange, so I know it's power.
Then I started experimenting with repetitive mantra in a pop song format. And I think it works. And that's how you get Wilder Shores.
The Go-Go's have reformed several times, and performed at the 2016 Billboard Music Awards
Which of the mantras on the album has been the most useful to you personally?
Ek Ong Kar Sat Gur Prasad [roughly translated as, "There is one creator of all creation. All is a blessing of the one creator"]. It's one that, simply put, makes me feel pretty happy, instantaneously.
Could you have got sober without it?
Oh I probably could have, but there's no question that it made my transition into sobriety easier, no question.
Will you be singing the mantras on tour?
I do one chant at the very, very end of the show [but] it doesn't really work in the context of a full-on rock concert. The focus is really on the Heaven On Earth album.
Your voice sounds stronger than ever on the record. What do you put that down to?
Well, I always say it was 30 years of booze and cigarettes!
Belinda Carlisle's new album, Wilder Shores, is out now; as is a three-disc anniversary edition of Heaven On Earth. She is currently on tour in the UK.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41523403 |
Trump NFL row: Mike Pence walks out of game after players kneel - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US vice-president abandons a game in his home state after players kneel during the national anthem. | US & Canada | Mike Pence said he abandoned the game because kneeling during the anthem "disrespects our soldiers"
US Vice-President Mike Pence has walked out of a National Football League (NFL) game after several players refused to stand for the US national anthem.
Mr Pence said he could not be present at an event that "disrespects our soldiers, our flag" after abandoning the game in his home state of Indiana.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he had asked Mr Pence to leave if players kneeled and said he was "proud of him".
Kneeling at NFL games has become a form of protest against racial injustice.
Mr Trump has criticised players sharply for the protests and pressed the NFL to ban them.
"I left today's Colts game because @POTUS [President Trump] and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our flag, or our National Anthem," Mr Pence tweeted on Sunday.
Mike Pence travelled quite a ways - from Nevada to Indianapolis then back west to California - to make a statement.
There's little doubt the vice-president, despite his earlier tweet about looking forward to attending an NFL game in his home state, planned to walk out early.
The matchup involved the San Francisco 49ers, whose then-quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, started the kneeling protests. Mr Pence's media pool was told the vice-president might be making a quick exit. And Mr Pence's press statement, followed by a presidential tweet of approval, appeared shortly after Mr Pence left.
Next come the questions. Was that statement worth the vice-president's time? And how much did that trip cost US taxpayers?
Trump's supporters are already celebrating the move, helping the vice-president burnish his standing with his boss's loyal base.
Some of the NFL players were clearly irritated by what they saw as a political publicity stunt.
Americans, according to polls, are split. They're not happy about the NFL protests, but they don't like Mr Trump's eagerness to stoke the flames of controversy. Now - as tensions rise in North Korea and yet another hurricane slams into the US - Mr Pence is joining the anthem fray.
Mr Pence's departure came after players from the visiting San Francisco 49ers did not stand during the anthem before the game against the Indianapolis Colts.
"While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I don't think it's too much to ask NFL players to respect the flag," Mr Pence 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 Vice President Pence 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.
He had earlier tweeted that he and his wife Karen were looking forward to the game in a tweet in which he used of photo of then both wearing Colts shirts.
That the photo appeared also to have been used in 2014 has in part helped fuel critics' claims his walk out was a publicity stunt.
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 Vice President Pence 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.
Mr Trump has previously said that his comments condemning the NFL protests have "nothing to do with race".
But his criticism of the protests has appeared to galvanise players,
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Recent protests have involved players kneeling, linking arms or staying in the locker room during the Star-Spangled Banner.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick stirred controversy last year when he first knelt for the anthem to highlight the treatment of black Americans after a series of police shootings.
Since then, more and more public figures in the US have been "taking a knee" at big events and using the hashtag #TakeAKnee on social media. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41544567 |
Newspaper headlines: Gender neutral census and £1 coin chaos - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Monday's front pages included stories about the 2021 census and problems around the old £1 coin. | The Papers | There is continuing speculation that Theresa May is coming under pressure to carry out a cabinet reshuffle - and move Boris Johnson to another job.
But the Daily Telegraph says allies of the foreign secretary have warned that he will "just say no" if the prime minister tries to sack him.
According to the paper, sources say that firing him would undermine Brexit and destabilise the government.
Instead, the paper says the prime minister is being urged by members of her cabinet to remove Chancellor Philip Hammond for "making Brexit hard" and being "miserable".
The Times reports one ex-senior minister saying Mr Johnson is not the problem and it is Mr Hammond who has been stirring Tory divisions on Brexit.
The former minister claims the chancellor is trying to force Mrs May into an "endless no-change transition deal".
The Guardian says Brexit-supporting politicians have told the paper that concerns about the chancellor are being widely discussed on the Tory backbenches.
But, it says, a cabinet ally of Mr Hammond has warned that "realism is no sin when it comes to Brexit".
The Daily Mail and the Sun are aghast at news that the Office for National Statistics is considering making it optional for people to declare their sex in the next census.
The move is aimed at recognising transgender people.
The Sun rejects the idea as crazy - pointing out that the information is needed to determine how many men and women make up the population.
In the Mail's view, if we don't even know such a fundamental fact, the whole purpose of the census is undermined.
The old pound coin ceases to be legal tender next Sunday - but the Daily Telegraph reports that thousands of shops and businesses will ignore the deadline.
It says a trade association representing 170,000 small shops has advised its members to continue taking the round coins if customers don't have any other change.
The Mail reports that the old coins are already being rejected by some supermarket self-service checkouts.
For its lead, the Daily Mirror says the vast majority of households in England no longer have weekly bin collections.
The paper reports that 76% of council areas have a 14-day wait - and six local authorities have even reduced collections to one in every three weeks.
According to the paper, young families are having to resort to paying for private collections.
Finally, the dining room is doomed - according to Mary Berry.
The Times reports that she told the Cheltenham Literature Festival she had stopped using her dining room - and kitchens were much more homely places in which to eat.
"We have given up our dining room finally," she said.
The Daily Mail says the former Great British Bake Off star told her audience that her family use the dining room at Christmas and occasionally if people come round, but it's much easier eating in the kitchen - with the sink and dishwasher nearby. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41547459 |
North Korea: Kim Jong-un promotes sister to politburo - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Kim Yo-jong is elevated by the North Korean leader to the country's top decision-making body. | Asia | Kim Yo-jong (circled) has often appeared alongside her brother
North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has given his sister more power by promoting her to the nation's top decision-making body.
Kim Yo-jong, the youngest daughter of late leader Kim Jong-il, will be replacing her aunt as a member of the Workers Party's Politburo.
Ms Kim, 30, was referred to as a senior party official three years ago.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea since the country was established following the Second World War in 1948.
Ms Kim, who has frequently appeared alongside her brother in public and is thought to have been responsible for his public image, was already influential as vice-director of the propaganda and agitation department.
She is blacklisted by the US over alleged links to human rights abuses in North Korea.
Her promotion was announced by Mr Kim at a party meeting on Saturday as part of a reshuffle involving dozens of other top officials.
When Ms Kim was given a key post at the country's rare ruling party congress last year, it was widely expected that she would take up an important role in the country's core leadership.
Among other announcements made on Saturday was the decision to promote Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho - who last month referred to US President Donald Trump as "President Evil" at a UN meeting - to a full vote-carrying member of the Politburo.
Mr Ri has recently accused Mr Trump of declaring war on North Korea and said that if the president continues with his "dangerous" rhetoric the US will become an "inevitable" target for missile strikes.
The promotions come as a defiant Mr Kim once again made it clear that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme would continue despite sanctions and threats.
His comments were made hours before Mr Trump tweeted that "only one thing will work" in dealing with Pyongyang following years of dialogue that the US president said had failed to deliver results. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41544558 |
Richard Thaler and the economics of how we live - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Behavioural economics is giving us a much better understanding of why things don’t happen in the way we expect. | Business | Changing the positioning of healthier foods can change shopping habits
How do you get people to eat more healthily?
You could construct some powerful arguments about how an obesity epidemic is leading to more diseases such as Type II diabetes and coronary heart conditions.
You could put large red traffic light signs on unhealthy foods and engage in expensive public information campaigns warning that overeating products high in salt, sugar and fat can reduce life expectancy.
Or you could just change where you put the salad boxes on the supermarket shelves.
The last option is an example of nudge theory at work, a theory popularised and developed by Richard Thaler, the University of Chicago economist who was today announced as this year's recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics.
Prof Thaler's central insight is that we are not the rational beings beloved of more traditional economic theory.
Given two options, we are likely to pick the wrong one even if that means making ourselves less well off.
Lack of thinking time, habit and poor decision making mean that even when presented with a factual analysis (for example on healthy eating) we are still likely to pick burger and chips.
We're hungry, we're in a hurry and burger and chips is what we always buy.
Nudge theory takes account of this, based as it is on the simple premise that people will often choose what is easiest over what is wisest.
Tests have shown that putting healthier foods on a higher shelf increases sales. The food is more likely to be in someone's eye line and therefore "nudge" that person towards the purchase - whether they had any idea about the obesity argument or not.
Such theories, which sit in a big bucket of academic study called "behavioural economics", are what Prof Thaler is famous for.
So famous that the government now has its own Behavioural Insights Team, otherwise known as the "nudge unit".
It helps formulate policies, for example on pensions, to try and make us behave "more rationally" and push us towards better outcomes.
Shoppers will spend more on a credit or debit card in a food shop compared with cash
One of its projects revealed that charitable giving via your pay packet - called payroll giving - increased dramatically if people were told who else in their peer group (maybe Facebook friends) were also giving via that method.
Attaching a picture of "mates giving money" also improved the level of charitable donations. We tend to like doing what our friends like doing - called the peer group norm.
Prof Thaler also gave us the concept of "mental accounting" - that we will tend to divide our expenditure into separate blocks even though they come from the same source.
For example, we will spend more on a credit or debit card in a food shop compared with cash even though all the money ultimately comes from our earnings.
Then there is his work on the "planner-doer" syndrome - that we lack self-control, will act in our own short-term self-interest and need extra incentives to plan long term than simply being told that, rationally, it is good idea.
How many times do we let that gym membership lapse, despite our best intentions?
Having just received news of the award, Prof Thaler told me that his job was to "add human beings" to economic theory.
And today he has been rewarded, both via the recognition of the Nobel Prize and by the not inconsiderable sum of £845,000 in prize money.
Asked how he would spend the money Prof Thaler gave a succinct answer. "Irrationally." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41550434 |
HIV Brighton hairdresser 'pressured man into sex' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The man claims he later got a text saying, "Maybe you have the fever... I have HIV LOL." | Sussex | Daryll Rowe met his partners on the gay dating app Grindr, the jury was told
A man who says he was deliberately infected with HIV by a Brighton hairdresser felt "pressured" into having sex, a court has been told.
Hairdresser Daryll Rowe is accused of telling partners he was virus-free and then insisting on unprotected sex.
In a video statement to Lewes Crown Court, the man said he felt he was starting a relationship with Mr Rowe.
He said he later received a text from Mr Rowe saying: "Maybe you have the fever... I have HIV LOL."
Mr Rowe, from Brighton, denies infecting four men with the virus.
He also denies attempting to infect a further six men in the Brighton area between October 2015 and December 2016.
In his taped police interview, the complainant said: "He asked for sex and I gave him oral sex. He asked for more and I said no and he started to get angry.
"I felt like we had to do it. So we did."
The two men had unprotected sex in a car but stopped when a cyclist rode past.
Mr Rowe then wanted them to continue but the alleged victim said he did not.
When the complainant drove him home, Mr Rowe refused to get out of the car and tried to bully him into having sex behind some bins, the court heard.
"It felt like an hour with him just going on and on. I felt very vulnerable," he said.
A second complainant, an American man, also said Mr Rowe aggressively demanded unprotected sex but he insisted on a condom.
He said Mr Rowe's messages became aggressive, so he blocked the number.
He said Mr Rowe called him on a withheld number and said: "I ripped the condom, you're so stupid you don't even know. You may have it. Burn."
A few months later the American was diagnosed as HIV positive.
The four men Mr Rowe is accused of infecting with HIV all had very similar strains to the one he was infected with, making it highly likely he was the source of the virus, the court heard.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-41552429 |
Teenage motorbike passenger dies after Huyton shooting - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | James Meadows, 17, is killed after he is shot in the head while riding pillion on a motorbike. | Liverpool | Police said the bike's rider failed to stop and left the scene "at speed"
A boy has died after he was shot in the head while riding pillion on a motorbike, police have said.
James Meadows, 17, came off the motorcycle after being shot at Lyme Cross Road, Huyton, at about 21:40 BST on Sunday.
Merseyside Police said the bike's rider had failed to stop and had left the scene "at speed".
He died in hospital on Monday evening. A murder investigation has been launched by Merseyside Police.
A police spokesman said the victim's family had been informed and a post-mortem examination will be carried out.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-41549642 |
Fairy lights bomb plotter Zahid Hussain jailed for life - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Zahid Hussain planned to bomb a railway line with a device made from fairy lights. | Birmingham & Black Country | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
A man who planned to bomb a railway line with a device made from fairy lights and a pressure cooker has been jailed for life.
Zahid Hussain, 29, from Birmingham, filled the appliance with 1.6kg of shrapnel and made "improvised igniters" from the festive decorations.
Hussain became radicalised reading books and websites in his bedroom.
He was convicted of preparing for an act of terrorism in May and sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on Monday.
Hussain was spotted climbing down a storm drain near the West Coast Main Line
His trial was told he wrongly believed his non-viable pressure cooker "bomb" was capable of causing devastation.
In the days running up to his arrest, in August 2015, Hussain had made repeated visits to a section of the West Coast Main Line, which the prosecution said was to research a possible attack.
Following his arrest books on guerrilla warfare were also discovered, including one which talked of mounting attacks on railways.
His computer showed he had an interest in so-called Islamic State and events in Syria.
Sentencing "dangerous" Hussain, Mr Justice Sweeney said that had his device been viable, it would have been capable of causing a "significant explosion".
The judge concluded that on the evidence and reports of several expert psychiatric reports, Hussain had - during the time of the offence - and still did, suffer with paranoid schizophrenia.
The judge said a life sentence was "appropriate" in view of "the level of the danger that you pose, and the impossibility of predicting when it will come to an end".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-41556318 |
Rochdale inquiry: MI5 'told of Cyril Smith abuse case lie' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Detectives had said "sordid" allegations against the late MP "stood up", a national inquiry hears. | Manchester | Former Rochdale MP Cyril Smith was a governor at Knowl View
MI5 was made aware prosecutors lied to the press over the existence of a Cyril Smith child abuse file, an inquiry heard.
Detectives had said the "sordid" claims about the late MP's alleged abuse of young boys in 1970 "stood up".
No charges were brought, but in 1979 the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) lied to the press over the case.
The national inquiry is examining how Smith was allegedly able to target boys in Rochdale institutions.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) heard how the investigation into Smith had "illuminated" wider abuse suffered by the boys.
In 1988, when Smith was made a knight, then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had probably been informed of his chequered past, it was told.
The hearings are focusing on alleged offences at Cambridge House hostel and the Knowl View residential school in Rochdale, where Smith was a governor.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kevin Griffiths was abused at a Rochdale care home as a teenager in the 1960s by Sir Cyril Smith, he alleges
A police probe into the MP in 1970 - the year he first ran for national office - concluded he was hiding behind a "veneer of respectability" to target eight young boys at Cambridge House during the 1960s.
In his opening statement, counsel to the inquiry Brian Altman QC, said Sir Norman Skelhorn - the then DPP - claimed the police inquiry was unlikely to lead to a prosecution.
This was followed nine years later, Mr Altman said, when MI5 was informed the Rochdale Alternative Press (RAP) was told by Sir Norman's successor, Thomas Hetherington, there was no record of the 1970 case.
At the time, the RAP had just published an investigation into Smith.
According to the records, the DPP told the publication it had never received police reports of abuse by the Liberal MP.
But two MI5 documents - "notes for file" that were written by the security service's then legal adviser - were read out by Mr Altman.
The first, dated 24 April 1979, recorded that Mr Hetherington "telephoned me today to say a man named David Bartlett, representing RAP in Lancashire, had telephoned about a gross indecency case involving Cyril Smith and boys at a hotel in Rochdale, which an unnamed senior police officer had asserted had been sent to the DPP in 1970.
"After consultations, the DPP's press representative had untruthfully told Bartlett that they had no record of this case. In fact, their file closely accorded with the details given by Bartlett."
The second note, from the same day, recorded "the DPP telephoned me again late this morning to say that they had now had an inquiry about the 1970 investigation from the Daily Express" which had been told "the DPP had no record of this case."
The inquiry will examine claims of a cover-up over Knowl View
The inquiry had heard how a detective superintendent at Lancashire Police made an "unsparing" report about Smith to the force's chief constable in 1970.
The report said: "It seems impossible to excuse his conduct over a considerable period of time whilst sheltering behind a veneer of respectability.
"He has used his unique position to indulge in a sordid series of indecent episodes with young boys towards whom he had a special responsibility."
Smith was the subject of sex abuse claims over decades during his career but was never prosecuted and received the knighthood before his death in 2010.
Mr Altman said of material provided to the inquiry by MI5: "The documents show that the Security Service's legal adviser was informed of the false representations to the press from the DPP's office."
The hearing was also told a draft letter from Lord Shackleton on behalf of the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee to Mrs Thatcher had directly referred to the police investigation and coverage in RAP and Private Eye.
While it is not clear whether the prime minister received this letter, another letter enclosing the coverage is believed to have been sent to her private secretary in May 1988.
Mr Altman told the inquiry the letter demonstrated that the police investigation and the RAP article had been "considered at the very highest level of politics" and seemingly "did not prompt more than consideration of the DPP's decision not to prosecute". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41547471 |
Rebel Wilson: Bauer Media to fight record defamation payout - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The publisher will appeal against a A$4.5m compensation sum awarded to the actress. | Australia | Rebel Wilson won her defamation case against Bauer Media in June
A magazine publisher will appeal against a A$4.5m (£2.7m; $3.6m) defamation payout awarded to Hollywood actress Rebel Wilson.
Wilson was awarded the damages by an Australian court last month after arguing that she had been wrongly portrayed as a liar in several articles.
The sum was a record for a defamation case in Australia.
On Monday, publisher Bauer Media said it would lodge an appeal.
"It's important for us to revisit this unprecedented decision on the quantum of damages, which also has broad implications for the media industry," a lawyer for the group, Adrian Goss, said in a statement.
Bauer Media argued during the case that the articles were not defamatory, but the appeal announced on Monday contests only the payout's size.
In June, a jury ruled the eight articles had harmed the Australian actress's career in Hollywood, where she has appeared in films such as Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect.
Wilson sought A$7m during the trial but had offered to settle for A$200,000 before taking the case to court.
In ordering the payout in September, Justice John Dixon said the defamation case had been "unprecedented in this country" because of its international reach.
"Ms Wilson's reputation as an actress of integrity was wrongly damaged in a manner that affected her marketability in a huge worldwide audience," he said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-41521019 |
Essay cheat companies face university ban - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | "Essay mills" are charging up to £7,000 to provide students with material to pass off as their own. | Family & Education | The universities watchdog has announced a clampdown on "essay mills" which help students cheat to gain their degrees.
An investigation last year by the Quality Assurance Agency found hundreds of companies were producing work for students to pass off as their own.
The companies charge from as little as £15 to almost £7,000 for a PhD dissertation, the QAA found.
Universities minister Jo Johnson says new guidelines will help prevent "unacceptable and pernicious" cheating.
He asked the QAA to produce the guidelines, which urge universities to
Mr Johnson said this form of cheating "not only undermines standards in our world-class universities, but devalues the hard-earned qualifications of those who don't cheat and can even, when it leads to graduates practising with inadequate professional skills, endanger the lives of others".
And QAA chief executive Douglas Blackstock said it was important that students were not "duped by these unscrupulous essay companies".
"Paying someone else to write essays is wrong and could damage their career," he said.
Last year there were posters advertising essay writing services at London Underground stations near universities, and another company was distributing flyers to students on the Queen Mary University of London campus.
The National Union of Students is launching its own campaign against essay cheats.
Amatey Doku, NUS vice-president for higher education, said some students were turning to essay mills because the pressure to get the highest grades when they faced debts of £50,000 was often "overwhelming".
He said some were having to spend so much time earning money to pay for their studies that time for academic work was squeezed.
"Many websites play on the vulnerabilities and anxieties of students, particularly homing in on students' fears that their academic English and their referencing may not be good enough.
"Making money by exploiting these anxieties is disgusting."
Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, helped produce the guidance and welcomed its publication.
A spokesman said universities were increasingly engaging with students "from day one" to underline the risks of cheating and to support struggling students.
"Universities have severe penalties for students found to be submitting work that is not their own," he said.
"Such academic misconduct is a breach of an institution's disciplinary regulations and can result in students, in serious cases, being expelled from the university."
• None The man who helps students to cheat
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41530287 |
Six robbers flee Regent Street jewellers raid on one moped - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The gang abandons a scooter and crashes a second in a smash-and-grab at a West End jewellers | London | The gang attacked Mappin & Webb in Regent Street armed with a machete and a hammer
Six robbers fled on a single moped after a smash-and-grab raid at a high-end jewellers in central London.
The gang raided Mappin & Webb in Regent Street at about 19.20 BST, armed with a machete and a hammer, police said.
They arrived on three scooters but abandoned one at the scene and crashed another in nearby Oxford Street.
"All six" fled on the remaining moped, police said. An eyewitness told the BBC he saw three men on a single moped with a fourth "running alongside".
Two of the robbers crashed their moped on Oxford Street during their escape
"Four men, one with a sledgehammer sticking out of his bag, were swerving around traffic heading towards Soho on two mopeds," the eyewitness said.
He added: "One of the mopeds must have clipped another vehicle as it crashed and came sliding towards the pavement.
"The two robbers then scrambled to get on the remaining moped, but one man ended up running along side with the public giving chase."
The gang made off with a "high-value" haul, police said
The robbers made off with a "high-value" haul after smashing cabinets at the store. No arrests have been made, police said.
A Met Police spokesman said following the Oxford Street crash "the suspects who were on that moped were then picked up before all six fled on a single remaining moped".
Mappin & Webb was founded in 1775 and customers have included Queen of France Marie Antoinette, Grace Kelly and Winston Churchill.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41559472 |
How the search for a 'death ray' led to radar - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | British scientists played a key role in developing radar, which has helped deliver safer skies. | Business | You can trace the extent of our reliance on air travel to many inventions. The jet engine, perhaps, or the aeroplane itself.
But sometimes inventions need other inventions to unlock their full potential.
For the aviation industry, that story starts with the invention of the death ray, or at least an attempt to design a death ray, back in 1935.
Officials in the British Air Ministry were worried about falling behind Nazi Germany in the technological arms race.
The death ray idea intrigued them: they had been offering a £1,000 prize for anyone who could zap a sheep at a hundred paces. So far, nobody had claimed it.
But should they fund more active research? Was a death ray even possible?
Harry Grindell Matthews claimed to have invented a death ray in 1923, but couldn't persuade the British government to buy it
Unofficially, they sounded out Robert Watson Watt, of the Radio Research Station.
And he posed an abstract maths question to his colleague Skip Wilkins.
"Suppose, just suppose," said Watson Watt to Wilkins, "that you had eight pints of water, 1km [3,000ft] above the ground.
"And suppose that water was at 98F [37C], and you wanted to heat it to 105F.
"How much radio frequency power would you require, from a distance of 5km?"
He knew that eight pints was the amount of blood in an adult human, 98F was normal body temperature and 105F was warm enough to kill you, or at least make you pass out, which - if you're behind the controls of an aeroplane - amounts to much the same thing.
So Wilkins and Watson Watt understood each other, and they quickly agreed the death ray was hopeless: it would take too much power.
But they also saw an opportunity.
Clearly, the ministry had some cash to spend on research. Perhaps Watson Watt and Wilkins could propose some alternative way for them to spend it?
Wilkins pondered. It might be possible, he suggested, to transmit radio waves and detect - from the echoes - the location of oncoming aircraft long before they could be seen.
Watson Watt dashed off a memo to the Air Ministry's newly formed Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence. Would they be interested in pursuing such an idea? They would indeed.
What Skip Wilkins was describing became known as radar.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.
As Robert Buderi describes in his book The Invention That Changed the World, the Germans, the Japanese and the Americans all independently started work on it too.
But by 1940, it was the British who had made a spectacular breakthrough: the resonant cavity magnetron, a radar transmitter far more powerful than its predecessors.
Pounded by Nazi bombers, Britain's factories would struggle to put the device into production. But America's factories could.
For months, British leaders plotted to use the magnetron as a bargaining chip for American secrets in other fields.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided Britain should share its radar research with the US
Then Winston Churchill took power, and decided that desperate times called for desperate measures.
Britain would simply tell the Americans what they had, and ask for help.
So in August 1940, a Welsh physicist named Eddie Bowen endured a nerve-wracking journey with a black metal chest containing a dozen prototype magnetrons.
First, he took a black cab across London: the cabbie refused to let the clunky metal chest inside, so Bowen had to hope it wouldn't fall off the roof rack.
Then, he took a long train ride to Liverpool, sharing a compartment with a mysterious, sharply dressed, military-looking man who spent the entire journey ignoring the young scientist and silently reading a newspaper.
Then, he took a ship across the Atlantic. What if it were hit by a German U-boat? The Nazis couldn't be allowed to recover the magnetrons; two holes were drilled in the crate to make sure it would sink if the boat did. But the boat didn't.
MIT's Radiation Laboratory went on to spawn 10 Nobel laureates
The magnetron stunned the Americans. Their research was years off the pace.
President Roosevelt approved funds for a new laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - uniquely, for the American War effort, administered not by the military but a civilian agency.
Industry got involved: the very best American academics were headhunted to join Bowen and his British colleagues.
By any measure, MIT's Radiation Laboratory - known as the Rad Lab - was a resounding success. It spawned 10 Nobel laureates. The radar it developed, detecting planes and submarines, helped to win the War.
Radar played a crucial role in helping Britain and her allies win World War Two
But urgency in times of war can quickly be lost in times of peace.
It seems obvious that civilian aviation would need radar too, given how quickly it was expanding.
In 1945, at the War's end, US domestic airlines carried seven million passengers. By 1955, this figure had risen to 38 million.
And the busier the skies, the more useful radar would be at preventing collisions.
But rollout was slow and patchy. Some airports installed it; many didn't.
In most airspace, planes weren't tracked at all. Pilots submitted their flight plans in advance, which should in theory ensure that no two planes were in the same place at the same time.
But avoiding collisions ultimately came down to a four-word protocol: "see and be seen".
On 30 June 1956, two passenger flights departed Los Angeles Airport, three minutes apart: one was bound for Kansas City, one for Chicago. Their planned flight paths intersected above the Grand Canyon, but at different heights.
Then thunderclouds developed. One plane's captain radioed to ask permission to fly above the storm. The air traffic controller cleared him to go to "1,000 on top" - 1,000ft above cloud cover. See and be seen.
Nobody knows for sure what happened: planes then had no "black box" flight recorders, and there were no survivors. At just before 10:31, air traffic control heard a garbled radio transmission: "Pull up! We are going in..."
The 1956 crash was a watershed moment in the history of airline safety
From the pattern of the wreckage, strewn for miles across the canyon floor, the planes seem to have approached each other at a 25-degree angle, presumably through a cloud.
Investigators speculated that both pilots had been distracted by trying to find gaps in the clouds, so passengers could enjoy the scenery.
Accidents happen. The question is what risks we're willing to run for economic benefits.
That question is becoming pertinent again with respect to crowded skies: many people have high hopes for unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.
They're already being used for everything from film-making to crop-spraying.
Companies such as Amazon expect the skies of our cities soon to be buzzing with grocery deliveries.
There have been occasions of near misses between drones and other aircraft
Civil aviation authorities are grappling with what to approve. Drones have "sense-and-avoid" technology, and it's pretty good, but is it good enough?
The crash over the Grand Canyon certainly concentrated minds. If technology existed to prevent things like this, shouldn't we make more effort to use it?
Within two years, what's now known as the Federal Aviation Administration was born in the United States.
And American skies today are about 20 times busier still. The world's biggest airports now see planes taking off and landing at an average of nearly twice a minute.
Collisions are absurdly rare, no matter now cloudy the conditions.
That's thanks to many things, but it's largely thanks to radar. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41188464 |
Harvey Weinstein sacked after sexual harassment claims - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The producer of films including The King's Speech has been accused of sexually harassing many women. | Business | Harvey Weinstein, the Oscar-winning film producer accused of sexually harassing female employees, has been fired by the board of his company.
One of the biggest producers in Hollywood, Mr Weinstein was behind films including Shakespeare in Love, The King's Speech and Pulp Fiction.
The Weinstein Company directors said that "in light of new information about misconduct" his employment had been terminated "effective immediately".
His sudden departure comes after the New York Times published a report last week about sexual harassment claims dating back nearly three decades.
The 65-year-old apologised and said he planned to take a leave of absence.
"The way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologise for it," Mr Weinstein said.
However, he later disputed the report, which said he had reached at least eight settlements with women, and vowed to take legal action.
Mr Weinstein is one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, having co-founded the Miramax and Weinstein Company production firms.
The allegations against him, according to the New York Times report, emerged mainly from young women hoping to break into the film industry and included celebrities Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan.
Among the accusations levelled against the film producer are that he forced women to massage him and watch him naked. In return for sexual favours, he promised to help advance their careers, they said.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was "not at all surprised" by the revelations about Mr Weinstein, a major backer of Democratic candidates.
Many Democratic lawmakers have since vowed to give their contributions from Mr Weinstein to charity. Mr Trump faced his own sex scandal last year when video emerged of him using lewd language to describe groping women.
Weinstein has two children with wife Georgina Chapman
Mr Weinstein, who is married to English fashion designer Georgina Chapman, formed the Miramax production house in the late 1970s with his brother and then sold it to Disney.
The pair went on to create The Weinstein Company and produce such hits as Django Unchained, Lion and The Butler.
The Weinstein Company statement was issued on Sunday by the firm's all-male board, Bob Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar.
His departure leaves control of the company in the hands of his brother, Bob Weinstein, and chief operating officer David Glasser.
Actress Rose McGowan called on the Weinstein board to resign immediately over the allegations.
"Men in Hollywood need to change ASAP," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "Hollywood's power is dying because society has changed and grown, and yet Hollywood male behaviour has not."
Feminist author Naomi Wolf said his sacking was "a landmark in penalties for this kind of eruption of testimony" against a powerful man.
Last week Mr Weinstein's lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said that he denied many of the allegations made against him as "patently false".
"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 on Saturday, Ms Bloom said in a tweet that she was no longer advising Mr Weinstein.
"I have resigned as an advisor to Harvey Weinstein," the tweet said. "My understanding is that Mr Weinstein and his board are moving to an agreement." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41546694 |
Government reveals energy price cap plan - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Business Secretary Greg Clark outlines draft legislation which aims to lower the cost of energy bills. | Parliaments | The government has unveiled draft legislation designed to lower the cost of energy bills.
The Draft Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariffs Cap) Bill will give energy regulator Ofgem the power to cap standard variable tariffs.
About 12 million households are on some form of uncapped default tariff, which can cost hundreds of pounds a year more than the cheapest deals.
However, the price cap is unlikely to take effect before winter.
Making a statement in the Commons, Business Secretary Greg Clark said the law would send a "clear message to suppliers they must act to put an end to loyal consumers being treated so unfairly".
Find out more about events in the Commons and Lords on Today in Parliament on Radio 4. You can listen to the programme on on iPlayer here. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-parliaments-41511271 |
'My daughter had to share a classroom with her rapist' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Campaigners say the government is taking too long to produce guidelines for schools on handling sexual assaults between pupils. | Family & Education | Rachel's daughter was raped by a boy at her school. He was arrested, bailed, and put back in his normal lessons, alongside his victim, the following day.
"Somebody who's been raped is already in a terrible place, but to be expected to be back in the same space as the rapist is just terrible," she told the Victoria Derbyshire programme. "It's re-traumatising - it's just a terrible thing to do to a rape victim."
The government says it is writing interim guidelines for schools to prevent schoolchildren being forced to share classes with pupils who have raped or sexually assaulted them, but campaigners say it is taking too long.
Rachel - not her real name - said her daughter's anonymity was compromised at an early stage - which made life especially difficult.
"Being in the same classroom as the person that's raped you is difficult enough, but when people in that room know what's happened and they're watching how you cope being in the same room as the rapist - that's just awful," she explained.
"It's a whole extra layer of stress, knowing that these people are watching you - it's just vile. It's voyeurism gone mad."
Rachel said the school seemed to have no policy in place for the situation and dealt with it "extremely badly". She had to instigate a meeting and, despite her efforts, she says, they did not prioritise her daughter's needs.
"They were very keen to protect his right to an education, but seemed to give no consideration at all to her rights as a rape victim and somehow or other they just didn't understand what it would do to a rape victim to be expected to be in the same space as the rapist," she said.
Her daughter started to absent herself from lessons where she might see him, before gradually withdrawing herself from school entirely.
The issue was highlighted in a report by the Commons Women and Equalities Committee in 2016, which exposed the widespread incidence of sexual violence and harassment in England's schools.
According to BBC research, 5,500 sexual offences were reported to the police as having taken place in UK schools over a three-year period to July 2015, including 600 rapes.
Last month, lawyers who had been contacted by victims, wrote to Education Secretary Justine Greening, accusing her of being in breach of her statutory duty under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 which requires her to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination against girls in school and advance equality of opportunity.
Her department has replied saying it is drafting interim guidance.
Rachel says the current guidance on the Department for Education website includes 11 pages of notes of what to do if the perpetrator is an adult, but the paragraph on peer abuse has no detail.
"Which is why you get a patchwork approach, and it leads time and time and time again, to the victims being treated really, really badly by schools," she said.
"I believe strongly that it's time the government stepped up and provided as much guidance as they provide when the perpetrator is an adult, because it's just as complicated."
Rachel Krys, co-director of End Violence Against Women, agreed that it was all taking "far too long".
She said the extent of the problem highlighted by last year's select committee report was shocking and the government was failing to act on its obligations under human rights legislation to protect students.
"Girls continue to be failed by schools and the system," she said. "The government has to tell schools what to do, you can't expect each individual head teacher and board of governors to decide, it's not easy and the government has to take responsibility."
Rachel says her daughter is recovering well but feels "hugely" let down.
"A terrible situation was made much worse and there are long-term consequences for her of that, both in terms of her ability to access criminal justice is in some ways compromised and in terms of her psychological wellbeing," she said.
The Department for Education said it was working with specialists to determine how the issues raised in the committee inquiry should be best reflected in guidance and it was important to get it right.
Minister for Children and Families Robert Goodwill, said: "Statutory safeguarding guidance is clear that schools should have an effective child protection policy that addresses peer-on-peer abuse. This should include procedures to minimise it along with advice on how allegations will be dealt with and how victims will be supported.
"We are considering what more can be done to assist schools and we listen to the views of stakeholders and experts when updating our safeguarding guidance."
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41486776 |
Child-on-child sex offence reports 'tip of the iceberg' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The victims are going unheard, says the mother of a six-year-old girl who was assaulted. | UK | Reports of sexual assaults by children on other children are rising, according to police figures seen by BBC Panorama. But those reported cases are only the "tip of the iceberg", according to one police child abuse expert.
Emily - not her real name - was 15 when she was sexually assaulted by a boy in her class, unnoticed by her teacher, who was at the front of the room.
But after reporting the ordeal to the police, she says she was bullied by her classmates.
"About 10 to 15 pupils were all swearing and shouting at me, like 'you're a grass'… I got some comments like 'he should have raped you'. I was tagged in photos. I was called a liar."
She says her head teacher was unsympathetic. "He'd say 'well, maybe this isn't the school for you. You can leave, you know, we suggest you do and make a fresh start'."
The number of reported sexual offences by under-18s against other under-18s in England and Wales rose by 71% from 4,603 from 2013-14 to 7,866 from 2016-17, according to figures from a Freedom of Information request.
A total of 38 out of the 43 forces in England and Wales responded.
The number of reported rapes among under-18s rose 46% from 1,521 to 2,223 over the same period, according to 32 police forces that supplied a breakdown of figures.
Reports of sexual offences on schools premises also increased from 386 in 2013-14 to 922 in 2016-17, according to 31 police forces - including 225 rapes on school grounds over the four years.
Simon Bailey, the national police chief lead for child protection, said: "We are dealing unequivocally with the tip of the iceberg ... we are seeing an increasing number of reports, we are seeing significant examples of harmful sexual behaviour and the lives of young people blighted and traumatically affected by sexual abuse."
Sarah Hannafin says schools need more support
James and Anna's daughter, Bella, was six when they discovered she had been sexually assaulted in the playground for six weeks by two boys.
"She burst into tears, she just dissolved in front of me," Anna says.
Anna and James went straight to the police, but were told that as the boys were under the age of criminal responsibility they could not be charged.
The family say they had to fight to get the police to make a record of the incident.
They are now taking legal action against the local authority, as they say the school failed in its duty of care.
"We have all of these unheard victims... and they're unheard because there's no register, because there's no crime," Anna says.
Since March 2013 a total of 1,852 children under the age of 10 were reported to police for sexual offences.
The youngest was a four-year-old accused of attacking another boy, aged five, in Northumbria.
Teachers have a duty to report an alleged assault by an adult, according to the Department for Education, but there is no such obligation if a child is accused - schools are advised to follow their own child protection procedures.
"School leaders and schools want to get it right, but they're not always getting the help and support they need," Sarah Hannafin, policy adviser for the National Association of Headteachers, told Panorama.
"There needs to be some more clarity in terms of the specific procedures that schools must take."
Of the sexual offences perpetrated by under-18s, 74% resulted in no further action, according to responses from 36 out of 43 police forces in England and Wales.
Mr Bailey said such cases are very difficult to prosecute.
"You're dealing with people who'll be reluctant; you're dealing with cases whereby there's been a relationship in the past.
"It's very much a case of the Crown Prosecution Service deciding to charge, invariably on the word of one person against another."
The Department for Education said: "Sexual assault is a crime and any allegation should be reported to the police.
"Schools should be safe places and they have a duty to protect all pupils and listen to any concerns."
You can see more on this story on Panorama on BBC One on Monday at 20:30 BST. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41504571 |
'I quit Google and launched a business with my mum' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | How Munaf Kapadia runs a successful "pop up" restaurant at his family home in Mumbai. | Business | Munaf Kapadia runs a successful "pop up" restaurant at his family's home in Mumbai. His mother also works as head chef.
While watching TV one Sunday afternoon back in 2014, Munaf Kapadia had an argument with his mother that would change his life.
The then 25-year-old Google employee wanted to watch US cartoon the Simpsons, but as usual, his mother Nafisa preferred to see her favourite Indian soap opera and switched channels.
His mum had lots of skills, but in his view she spent too much time watching bad TV.
Diners usually eat Bohri food from the same large platter, or "thaal"
Determined to get her doing something more meaningful, he struck upon an idea.
Nafisa had always been good at cooking "Bohri" food, an Indian cuisine that is much feted, but hardly served anywhere in their home city of Mumbai.
And so he decided to email 50 friends, inviting them for lunch at the family home.
"We settled on a group of eight friends of friends, and served them my mom's food," recalls Mr Kapadia, now 28.
"Then we started doing it every Saturday and Sunday, opening it up to the public and charging like a restaurant. That's how The Bohri Kitchen was born."
Members of the public dine at the Kapadias' home every weekend
Traditionally, Bohri cuisine has only been available within the Dawoodi Bohra community, a small Muslim sect that lives in parts of India and Pakistan.
As Mr Kapadia says, "you literally had to beg Bohri friends or gatecrash Bohri weddings" to get a spoonful of it.
It blends Gujarati, Parsi, Mughlai and Maharastrian influences, and is often enjoyed by groups of friends or families, who eat from the same large steel platter, or "thaal".
For his first "pop-up" lunch, Mr Kapadia charged guests 700 rupees (£8, $11) per head for a traditional seven-course banquet. By the time they had finished eating he knew the idea had potential.
Mutton Khichda - goat meat cooked with dal and rice along with various Indian spices
"I was really shocked, but they actually hugged my mom. They said, 'aunty, you have magic in your hands, this food is outstanding!'."
He adds: "I saw the glint in my mom's eyes when she got that acknowledgement, which she is not used to, because we in the family take her cooking for granted.
"That's when I decided to just keep on doing this, I thought let's try to keep getting new people exposed to my mother's cooking skills."
So Mr Kapadia quit his marketing job at Google, and in January 2015 launched the "The Bohri Kitchen" as a brand.
Thanks to word-of-mouth publicity and some good reviews, it quickly gained a reputation among adventurous young food-lovers.
Mr Kapadia now charges 1,500 rupees per meal, typically offering lunches and occasional dinners at his parents' home.
He has also launched a separate takeaway and catering business, which operates through the week, and employs three members of staff from outside the family.
The firm recently broke into profit and is now looking to open outlets across India.
More The Boss features, which every week profile a different business leader from around the world:
But it hasn't all been plain sailing. For one thing, it took Mr Kapadia a while to get used to hosting strangers in his home.
"We started a 'no serial killer policy', so customers can't just book a seat, they have to ask for it," he says. We then do a background check by calling them up and asking a few questions to make sure they're legitimate."
There have been other challenges too, including convincing his parents that he wasn't crazy for leaving his job at Google, and learning how to hire good staff.
"My biggest challenge now is ensuring that our takeaway produces the same quality of food that my mother makes at home."
Bohri Kitchen samosas are stuffed with smoked lamb mince, coriander, onion and lemon
Ravinder Yadav, of management consultancy Technopak Advisors, says that many Indian food businesses struggle to build a loyal customer base.
"These days, consumers in India have plenty of options when it comes to eating out. So making sure you know who your consumer is, and creating something that they will keep coming back to, is vital, even for the biggest brands."
Still, he says in some respects things are getting easier.
"Finding investment is less of a challenge in India nowadays. And the government is making it easier to do business, so it's simpler to get the licenses you need and to meet other regulations.''
The dessert Doodhi Halwa is made by slow-cooking calabashes in milk, with dry fruits and sugar
India's food services industry is also expanding fast. In the past decade, consumer spending power has grown, along with people's appetite for eating out and ordering takeaways.
Mr Kapadia's mother, the hidden culinary talent behind The Bohri Kitchen, says that the business has brought out a different side of her personality.
"I have never looked at this from a business angle, it's just something that I love doing," she says.
"And when guests say my food reminds them of home, it's amazing. I get a lot of satisfaction and happiness."
But has her son managed to wean her off her TV habit? Not likely, she says with a giggle.
"I still watch all my favourite soaps while cooking for our guests."
You can hear an interview with Munaf Kapadia on The Big Debate on BBC Asian Network, Monday 9 October. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41467962 |
Electric honeycomb: Pakistani teen in scientific first - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Shaheer Niazi, 17, is being internationally recognised for his work on the electric honeycomb. | Asia | Only 17 years old and he is already a recognised scientist. Muhammad Shaheer Niazi's research on electric honeycomb was recently published in the Royal Society Open Science journal.
Physicists have known the phenomenon of electric honeycomb for decades. It occurs when a layer of oil is placed in an electric field between a pointy electrode and a flat one - and the instability caused by the build-up of ions applies pressure to the surface of the oil - creating a beautiful pattern that looks like a honeycomb, or a stained glass window.
The high school student from Pakistan's city of Lahore managed to photograph the movement of ions that forms the honeycomb besides recording the heat found on the surface of oil. No one has done this before.
Electric honeycomb phenomenon was the problem given to him at the International Young Physicists' Tournament held in Russia last year. Mr Niazi, and four other students, made up the first-ever team to represent Pakistan at the tournament. Returning from Russia, Mr Niazi decided to get his research published.
It took him another year of work to come up with "novel ideas" before his paper was finally accepted for publication. He received the letter of acceptance just days ahead of his 17th birthday last month.
"Your research is like your child, and you feel out of this world when it is accepted for publication," Mr Niazi tells the BBC in an interview at his residence in Lahore's posh Sukh Chayn sector.
With the slim stature of a teenage boy with curly hair and spectacles sitting firmly on his nose, the young scientist cuts a smart figure.
Anticipating the first question, he settles down on a couch next to a desk laden with boxes full of wires, motherboards and incomplete circuits. This is where he conducts his experiments.
How is an electric honeycomb formed? Mr Niazi elaborates: "Electric honeycomb perfectly demonstrates how everything in this universe is seeking equilibrium. Its hexagonal shape is the most stable structure."
In this case, he says, two electrodes are used; a pointy needle on top of a flat surface with a thin layer of oil on it. High voltage from the needle makes ions bombard the surface of the oil, on their way to meet the ground electrode.
"It is just like lightning striking the surface of earth," he says. But oil is a non-conductor. The ions start accumulating on the surface of the oil. As the pressure increases, they create a depression and manage to meet the ground electrode.
In the process the surface of the oil loses its shape, something it does not want. So within no time, honeycomb-like hexagonal structures appear on the surface of the oil.
"The amount of energy that goes in equals the energy that comes out and thus the flow of electricity is efficient. This way equilibrium is restored," he sums up. Mr Niazi replicated the phenomenon at last year's tournament.
To prove his findings, he photographed the ion wind demonstrating that the ions were moving. He also recorded the heat produced through their movement, a finding that needs further study.
He says he had been using the shadowgraphy technique just for fun before he decided to use it in his research. "I thought if I see my research from that perspective, I might discover something new. That's how I managed to photograph the shadow of ion wind and it was added as novelty in my paper."
Mr Niazi says that using this technique an oil droplet can be manipulated without touching it. Engineers can use the visualisation of this phenomenon to develop technologies that can be used in biomedicine and in printing.
In the country he comes from, not many his age would dare venture into avenues of learning other than conventional schooling. For Shaheer Niazi, the traditional classroom learning became boring at times. It was then that he turned to other avenues such as books he received from his father and grandfather.
At a very young age he was also introduced to the concept of self-learning. He was only 11 when he first started taking online courses. He has taken 25 courses in different subjects from platforms like Coursera. For toys, he owns a telescope and tools for his scientific experiments.
"When I was a child I used to watch documentaries on science with my grandfather and read books on mathematics and other science subjects," says Mr Niazi.
He has an inquisitive nature. His mind is always abuzz with questions and then theories to explain them. Yet, he too seeks equilibrium. Mr Niazi has a deep interest in music and art. He creates excellent pencil sketches and is a self-taught pianist.
He was not expecting the media attention he is now getting. But he is glad he did something that made his country proud. He hopes to get into a reputable educational institution where he can further his research in physics.
Mr Niazi aims big - "I would love to win another Nobel Prize for Pakistan" - and he thinks bigger - "Isaac Newton was 17 when his first paper was published; I was 16 when I officially received my acceptance letter." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41548203 |
Microsoft gives up on Windows 10 Mobile - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The technology company says it struggled to convince others to make mobile apps for the platform. | Technology | Microsoft said creating Windows 10 Mobile phones was not a "focus" for the company
Microsoft appears to have abandoned its smartphone operating system ambitions.
The company's Windows 10 chief has tweeted that developing new features and hardware for the Mobile version of the OS was no longer a "focus".
Joe Belfiore added that he had also switched to Android himself.
Windows 10 Mobile tried to attract users by letting them run the same "universal apps" on both their PCs and handsets, but the concept failed to catch on.
The OS accounted for just 0.03% of the global market - based on smartphone shipments - between April and June, according to research company IDC.
The market intelligence provider said the news had been a long time coming.
"There wasn't a wide range of devices running Windows 10 Mobile, so it wasn't attractive to retailers or operators," said IDC's Francisco Jeronimo.
"And from a consumer perspective, the operating system didn't provide as good an experience as Android or iOS."
Mr Belfiore headed up Microsoft's Windows Phone platform before it moved to Windows 10 Mobile
Mr Belfiore began a series of tweets on Sunday by discussing the recent launch of a test version of Microsoft's Edge web browser for Android and iOS - the latest in a series of releases of its core software for rival mobile platforms.
He then went on to respond to questions about whether there was any point sticking with Windows 10 Mobile.
He said that while Microsoft would support the "many companies" that had adopted the platform, he had switched to Android for the diversity of its apps and hardware.
"Of course we'll continue to support the platform... bug fixes, security updates, et cetera," he said.
"But building new features or hardware is not the focus."
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 Joe Belfiore 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.
Mr Belfiore posted Microsoft had tried "very hard" to incentivise other companies to release universal apps - even writing their software for them in some cases - but the number of users had been too low for most to bother.
The announcement comes a week after HP had said it no longer planned to release further Windows 10 Mobile handsets, and a fortnight after Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates disclosed that he had already made the switch to Android.
However, some manufacturers - including the UK's Wileyfox and Germany's TrekStor - had unveiled new models powered by Windows 10 Mobile as recently as last month.
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 Ben Wood 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.
"Most Microsoft applications are now available and supported on other mobile operating systems," said Mr Jeronimo.
"After Satya Nadella took over [as chief executive], that clearly became the strategy - and after that happened what incentive was there to buy a Windows-powered phone?"
However, Microsoft may not have given up on powering smartphones altogether.
Earlier this year, Windows Central reported the company was working on a new version of Windows 10 - codenamed Andromeda - that would run on all types of computer and make it possible for third-party apps to adapt without having to code a special "universal" version.
It said the OS was due for release next year, but suggested the code would not be offered as an upgrade to existing Windows 10 Mobile devices.
A spokeswoman for Microsoft was unable to provide further comment.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41551546 |
China congress: Military facelift a sign of bigger changes - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Political analyst Cheng Li explains Xi Jinping's revamp of China's military. | China | The People's Liberation Army has seen profound changes
Of the many noteworthy developments that have characterised Chinese President Xi Jinping's first five-year term, none stands out as much as military reform, and this reveals a great deal about the coming political trajectory in China, writes political analyst Cheng Li.
Xi Jinping did not shy from the bold and broad undertaking of military reform and it has resulted in profound changes to the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Even beyond the monumental purges of top generals, whose shameless corruption extended to practices like selling military titles, Mr Xi has worked with single-minded purpose to organise and modernise China's military.
His efforts have centred on marginalising the four so-called "general departments" of the PLA that functioned as a virtual arm of government and had undermined the authority of the civilian-led Central Military Commission (CMC).
He also transformed China's military operations from a Russian-style, army-centric system toward what analysts call a "Western-style joint command"; and swiftly promoted "young guards" to top positions in the officer corps.
In addition to being president, Mr Xi is also the commander in chief of China's military
It will take years to fully assess the impact of these reforms. But further changes appear to be in the works.
Judging from the list of military and police delegates to the forthcoming congress where China's future leaders are to be unveiled, the largest turnover of senior officers in the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is set to occur.
An extraordinary 90% of the 300 military delegates will be first-time attendees.
At most, only 17% (seven of 41) of the military representatives with full membership on the 18th Central Committee will retain their seats.
This would constitute the largest-ever turnover of military elite in the history of the PRC.
The new top military leadership will most likely consist of Mr Xi's long-time friends Gen Zhang Youxia, Gen Li Zuocheng, and Adm Miao Hua, along with the newly promoted commanders of the PLA army, navy, air force, and strategic support force.
In addition to their perceived loyalty to Xi Jinping, these generals are known for their extended military service, combat experience, and professional knowledge of modern warfare.
Gen Li Zuocheng (centre) is known to be a long-time friend of President Xi Jinping
The degree of military reshuffling also offers a clue to broader leadership changes, particularly the likelihood of Mr Xi further consolidating power.
With firm control over the military, Mr Xi has set the stage for a massive turnover in the party leadership at the 19th Party Congress.
Of the 376 members of the 18th Central Committee, 38 (about 10%) have already been purged on corruption charges and other transgressions.
Those purged comprise one Politburo member (former Chongqing party secretary Sun Zhengcai), 19 full members, and 18 alternate members.
In addition, about 200 members (53% of the committee) have either retired or will soon retire and, so will not be considered for the 19th Central Committee.
So the turnover rate between the 18th and 19th Central Committees could be as high as 70%, making it the largest turnover since the 9th Party Congress in 1969 at the peak of the Cultural Revolution.
Factional politics certainly help explain the fall of some prominent officials.
But Mr Xi can also make a strong case that the overall objective of his anti-corruption campaign has been to restore faith in a ruling party that had lost trust among the Chinese public.
Nevertheless, Mr Xi and his strongest political ally, the anti-corruption tsar Wang Qishan, seem to understand that the unprecedentedly widespread campaign has earned them many political enemies.
Wang Qishan is one of Mr Xi's closest allies
What began with the military ends with the civilian administration.
The biggest risk for Mr Xi and Mr Wang is that, having purged a large crop of corrupt officials, they have become wary of spending political capital to accelerate institutional reforms.
This may explain why they have striven to win public support and demonstrate that the leadership agenda aligns with the country's best interests.
Just as military reform aimed to assert civilian control over the military and spur its modernisation through initiatives like structural transformation and a strategic overhaul, the upcoming congress will likely pursue some structural changes, which can move toward improving governance.
But what does this mean for the make-up of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee?
Mr Xi's confidants in the current Politburo - director of the general office of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee Li Zhanshu, and director of the central organisation department Zhao Leji - will most likely enter it.
Protégés from his years in Zhejiang province who were known for their strong support for market reform, namely Chongqing party secretary Chen Min'er, Jiangsu party secretary Li Qiang, and Beijing party secretary Cai Qi, are positioned to obtain seats in the new Politburo - Mr Chen and Li Qiang may even be contenders for the Standing Committee.
Shanghai party secretary Han Zheng and director of the office of the central economic leading group Liu He, two seasoned economic technocrats, are expected to emerge as two of the top economic decision-makers in the national leadership after the congress.
While strong ties to Mr Xi help explain their rapid political career advancement in recent years, a number of civilian leaders, except for Cai Qi, already serve on the Central Committee as full or alternate members.
Institutional norms and regulations, including age requirements, continue to apply to these leaders' expected promotion path.
Hu Chunhua is seen as a possible pick for the Standing Committee
A majority of the national leaders after the 19th Party Congress will have been born in the 1950s, just as a majority of the provincial and ministerial leaders will have been born in the 1960s.
It is almost certain that the new Politburo, including the Standing Committee, will consist of a few leaders who are protégés of Mr Xi's predecessors.
Jiang Zemin's confidant Xu Qiliang, who also has a good relationship with Mr Xi, will likely remain as both a Politburo member and vice chairman of the CMC after the 19th Party Congress.
Hu Chunhua, a sixth-generation front-runner and protégé of Hu Jintao, is also a strong contender for the Politburo Standing Committee.
So the biggest question will be whether or not Xi Jinping unites the party establishment by forming a team of rivals and deepening China's political institutionalisation.
Abiding by established rules and norms and respecting the peaceful transition of power all carry profound implications for the future direction of the country.
More than the success or failure of any single campaign or initiative, observers in China and abroad are eager to see how Xi Jinping and his colleagues address this crucial issue in just a few short weeks.
Cheng Li is Director of and Senior Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at The Brookings Institution. His latest books include Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era: Reassessing Collective Leadership (2016) and The Power of Ideas: The Rising Influence of Thinkers and Think Tanks in China (2017). | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-41507960 |
Six men in court on firearms charges - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Eleven firearms, 74lb (34kg) of cocaine and 16lb (7kg) of heroin were seized near Calais on Friday 6 October. | England | Six men have been charged as part of a police operation in France and south east England
A group of men have appeared in court on charges of importing firearms and Class A drugs into the UK.
Eleven firearms, 74lb (34kg) of cocaine and 16lb (7kg) of heroin were seized near Calais on Friday 6 October.
French police arrested four men, including a serving Border Force officer from Dover. The Met Police arrested eight men in Kent and London and charged six.
Accused of conspiracy to import firearms and Class A drugs are:
They have all been remanded in custody, with no applications for bail.
The six will appear at Woolwich Crown Court on 6 November.
The six men arriving at Westminster Magistrates' Court
The two other men arrested in the UK were released as the investigation continues.
Searches by NCA officers have taken place in the Dover and Folkestone areas.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41549348 |
Meryl Streep and Dame Judi Dench speak out about Harvey Weinstein - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Leading actresses are appalled by sexual harassment claims against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. | Entertainment & Arts | Streep and Weinstein have worked together on such films as The Iron Lady
Meryl Streep and other Hollywood stars have spoken out against producer Harvey Weinstein in the wake of the sexual harassment claims that saw him being fired by his own company.
Streep told the Huffington Post she was "appalled" by the "disgraceful" news.
She went on to praise "the intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse", calling them "heroes".
Dame Judi Dench also issued a statement saying she was "completely unaware" of the "horrifying" claims.
The British actress also praised those who had spoken up.
"I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and wholehearted support to those who have spoken out," she said.
Meanwhile, another British actress - Romola Garai - says she felt "violated" after being asked to visit Weinstein in his hotel room when she was 18 so he could "approve" her for a role.
Garai told The Guardian he opened the door in his dressing gown. "It was humiliating for me," she said, adding: "It was an abuse of power."
Oscar-winner Kate Winslet has also praised those, like Garai, who spoke out, telling Variety they are "incredibly brave", adding it had been "deeply shocking to hear".
Emma Thompson, Mark Ruffalo and Seth Rogen are among other leading actors to express similar sentiments.
The Weinstein allegations have instigated a fierce debate about abuse of power in Hollywood and beyond.
Streep's statement followed criticism that leading Hollywood figures had maintained a "deafening silence" in the wake of the allegations against Weinstein that surfaced in the New York Times on Friday.
Streep said she wanted to make it clear that "not everybody" had known about the allegations, including herself.
The three-time Oscar-winner said the news had "appalled those of us whose work [Weinstein] championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported."
Streep worked with Weinstein on such films as The Iron Lady and August: Osage County and jokingly referred to him as "God" in a 2012 acceptance speech.
Rose McGowan has been highly vocal without mentioning Weinstein by name
"Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally," Streep wrote about the allegations.
"I did not know about his financial settlements with actresses and colleagues; I did not know about his having meetings in his hotel room, his bathroom, or other inappropriate, coercive acts.
"And if everybody knew, I don't believe that all the investigative reporters in the entertainment and the hard news media would have neglected for decades to write about it."
She added: "The behaviour is inexcusable, but the abuse of power familiar. Each brave voice that is raised, heard and credited by our watchdog media will ultimately change the game."
Thompson said Weinstein was known to be "a predatory man"
Weinstein was made an honorary CBE by the Queen in 2004 for his contribution to the British film industry.
A spokesman for Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May said she had expressed "concern" about the allegations, but said his CBE was not a matter for her office but for the Honours Forfeiture Committee, where each case is "considered on its merits".
Speaking earlier on Monday, Britain's Emma Thompson said she was pleased the story had come out and described Weinstein as "a predatory man".
"Male predatory behaviour is everywhere, not just in the film industry," the actress and screenwriter told the BBC.
"Let's support those women who don't have the confidence to speak out."
Some male stars have also spoken out to denounce Weinstein and express support for the women he is alleged to have abused.
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 Mark Ruffalo 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.
"What Harvey Weinstein did was a disgusting abuse of power," tweeted Avengers actor Mark Ruffalo about the claims.
"I believe all the women coming forward about Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment," wrote Seth Rogen.
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 Seth Rogen 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.
Actress Rose McGowan, who the New York Times claimed had reached a legal settlement with Weinstein in 1997, has also been highly vocal.
"Ladies of Hollywood, your silence is deafening," she tweeted on Saturday, going on to tell the Hollywood Reporter that "men in Hollywood need to change ASAP".
When the claims were first reported in the New York Times, Weinstein issued a statement in which he apologised.
"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.
But he later disputed the article, with one of his legal team claiming the newspaper's report was "saturated with false and defamatory statements".
Mr Weinstein's lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said in another statement that he denied many of the allegations against him as "patently false".
Bloom later announced she had resigned as Mr Weinstein's adviser.
The painful fact is, many, many people were aware of allegations about Weinstein's behaviour for years. He was, as the saying goes, hiding in plain sight, no doubt protected to some extent by his friendships with famous people and his ability to hand out internships to the likes of Malia Obama (who as far as we know was treated with the utmost civility).
That he was a major supporter of Hillary Clinton will have done him little harm, too.
Weinstein was the kind of man who used his power to be a gateway to both financial riches and fame: he controlled access to huge audiences, with all the money that can bring.
If some of the claims made by actresses are true, it may be that Weinstein was - unforgivably - allowed to get away with it because of his power. Not just his power to make people very rich; also, his power to make them very famous.
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-41557010 |
Irish Lottery: Light trick 'caused number change' - BBC News | 2017-10-09 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A winning lottery ball appeared to change from number 38 to number 33 during the weekend's draw. | Europe | The ball, second from left, appeared to be labelled number 33 as well as number 38
One of the winning balls in Saturday's Irish National Lottery appeared to change numbers due to a trick of the light, lottery chiefs have said.
Ball 38 was the second one to drop during the draw.
But after it was nudged by the next ball it seemed to be labelled number 33 as well as 38.
That led some people on social media to suspect foul play, but the Irish National Lottery has stressed that nothing sinister was afoot.
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 Bridgette 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.
"A brief reflection of light during filming caused an illusion and some players to think there were two numbers on ball 38," it said in a statement.
"The weight and size of all Lotto balls, and the numbers, are strictly checked in advance of each draw.
"This process, as well as the draw itself, is independently observed by our auditors KPMG."
The ball was the second one drawn during Saturday night's game
The ball was drawn in the Irish National Lottery's Lotto Plus 1 game, which has a jackpot of 500,000 euros (£449,000).
It is not known how many winners there were, but it is thought to be unlikely that any of them were among those who complained. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41549781 |