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South Africa v Sri Lanka: Bees stop play in third ODI - BBC Sport
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2017-02-05
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A swarm of bees stop play midway through Sri Lanka's innings in the third one-day international against South Africa in Johannesburg.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
A groundsman uses a fire extinguisher to disperse the bees at the Wanderers A swarm of bees stopped play midway through Sri Lanka's innings in the third one-day international against South Africa in Johannesburg. The bees disrupted play twice - sending players diving to the ground - before the game was officially stopped in the 27th over, with Sri Lanka on 117-4. A groundsman used a fire extinguisher to try to disperse the bees, before a beekeeper was called to the Wanderers. Play restarted over an hour later and South Africa won by seven wickets.
• None Scorecards from the third ODI Players and umpires dive to the ground
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38868267
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Teenager's Facebook search uncovers missing mother's death - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Marco's viral Facebook search for a mother he barely knew prompted police to look at the case again.
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Europe
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Marco Hauenstein as a baby with his birth mother
A man who launched an online search for his missing birth mother discovered she died years ago in Germany - but bureaucratic errors led to the family never being informed.
Gina Hauenstein, who came from a small village in northern Switzerland, had been listed as officially missing since 2000.
In January this year her son Marco, who spent his childhood with foster parents in another part of the country, posted a Facebook appeal for information about the mother he last saw as an infant.
His story captured attention across Europe, prompting new enquiries - until Swiss police confirmed that the remains of Gina Hauenstein had actually been found just across the border in Germany in 2013.
Marco did not have an easy start in life.
He knew very little about his birth family, but he did know that his mother had been a drug addict, and is believed to have spent time during the 1990s in Zurich's then-notorious Platzspitz drugs scene, where addicts bought heroin in a city centre park and injected it openly.
When Marco was born in 1997, he was already addicted, and had to spend the first months of his life in hospital withdrawing and recovering.
Although his mother visited him from time to time, he never lived with her, and when Marco was just three, she disappeared.
Although Marco describes his childhood with foster parents as happy, he says questions about his birth family were "always on my mind".
His search first started when he was around 16, and he began by asking local town councils in the region of Switzerland his mother had come from. He also made enquiries with the police.
No information was forthcoming. Police told him that despite a search both within Switzerland and across Europe, no trace of her had ever been found.
Gina Hauenstein had been missing since 2000
Only when an appeal Marco made on Facebook began to attract attention - it was shared thousands of times in just a few days - did Swiss police look again at their records.
They discovered that in 2013 they had been contacted by German police, with news that human bones had been found in a village just across the border from Gina Hauenstein's home town in Switzerland.
The results of a forensic examination by Swiss investigators confirmed the bones were Gina's.
Local police in her home town were informed in 2015, but inexplicably that information never reached either Gina's family or the German authorities investigating the remains.
This week, Swiss police visited Marco and broke the news, apologising for a mistake they admit should never have happened.
Marco's social media feeds were saturated with messages during the search
Marco, who patiently gave many interviews when he first launched his Facebook appeal just four weeks ago, is now taking time for himself to digest the news.
He has not posted on Facebook since January. While not quite the happy end he had hoped for, there was at least one positive development.
"Danke! Thank you! Merci!" he wrote. "Thanks to your help, on 20 January, I was able to meet my uncle and my grandmother for the first time. It was a very emotional moment.
"At last, I have part of my family back."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38860398
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Black Sabbath: 'We hated being a heavy metal band' - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Black Sabbath reflect on their 50-year career as they play the final gig of their last world tour.
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Birmingham & Black Country
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After several world tours spanning five decades, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath are bringing it to a close in the city where it all began. How did Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and former member Bill Ward's upbringing in post-war, industrial Birmingham influence their unique sound - and is this really "the end" for the band?
For a group that has been widely credited with creating the sound of heavy metal, influencing thousands of bands and inspiring generations of guitarists, it was a term Black Sabbath initially wanted to have nothing to do with.
"We called it heavy rock," recalls Iommi. "The term heavy metal came about from a journalist when I came back from America (in the 70s).
"He said 'you're playing heavy metal' and I said 'no, it's heavy rock - what's that?'"
Who coined the phrase is disputed, with Rolling Stone critics Lester Bangs and Mike Saunders both credited with using it first.
Throughout the 1970s, many reviewers used it as an insult - a sneering description of this new wave of "aggressive" musicians, their loud, thrashing sounds reverberating around packed, sweaty rooms full of fans.
"At first we didn't like being called heavy metal," admits Butler. "But everyone likes to put you into certain pigeon holes, so we sort of got used to it.
"And then instead of it being derogatory, it became a whole lifestyle."
Along with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath were credited with 'inventing' heavy metal
Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, who, like Black Sabbath, formed in 1968, were also progenitors of the movement.
But Sabbath are credited with inventing the distinctive riffs that characterised the sound in the early days - and that was all down to a terrible twist of fate that befell a 17-year-old Iommi at a steelworks in Aston, Birmingham.
It was the last shift for the young welder at the Summer Lane factory, who was leaving to try and make his fortune as a professional musician.
As he went to cut a piece of metal, the guillotine came crashing down on his right hand, slicing off the tips of his middle and right fingers.
"I was told 'you'll never play again'," says the lead guitarist.
"It was just unbelievable. I sat in the hospital with my hand in this bag and I thought 'that's it - I'm finished'.
"But eventually I thought 'I'm not going to accept that. There must be a way I can play'."
He went home and fashioned new fingertips out of an old Fairy Liquid bottle - "melted it down, got a hot soldering iron and shaped it like a finger" - and cut sections from a leather jacket to cover his new homemade prosthetic.
"It helped to make me play a different style because I couldn't play the conventional way - I couldn't play the proper chords like I could before the accident, so I had to come up with a different way of making a bigger sound."
A 17-year-old Iommi fashioned his own prosthetic fingertips to enable him to carry on playing the guitar - the prosthetics he uses today were crafted by professionals
"Tony's an incredible guy," says Osbourne. "He not only played again, he invented a new sound. I often say to him, 'how do you know when you're touching the strings?' - and he says 'I just do it'."
The bleak, factory-laden streets of Aston, where Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward grew up just a few roads apart, also had an impact on Sabbath's haunting sound and ominous lyrics.
The working-class suburb hadn't benefitted from post-war regeneration in the way Birmingham city centre had, just a couple of miles away.
Iommi and Butler worked in factories after leaving school, Ward delivered coal and Osbourne, after stints in a slaughterhouse and car plant, turned his hand to burglary. Music was an escape for the teenagers.
"It wasn't a great place to be at that time," recalls Butler. "We were listening to songs about San Francisco, the hippies were all love and peace and everything.
Within two years of forming their band in Aston, Birmingham, in 1968, Black Sabbath were touring America
"There we were, in Aston, Ozzy was in prison from burgling houses, me and Tony were always in fights with somebody, and Bill, so we had quite a rough upbringing.
"Our music reflected the way we felt."
It was the chance sighting of a small, oddly-written note in a Birmingham music shop - 'Ozzy Zig needs a gig' - that brought the four together.
It was spotted by Iommi and Ward, who were looking for a singer after leaving "a band people could fight to".
"I knew Ozzy from school, Birchfield Road in Perry Barr, and I didn't know he used to sing," remembers Iommi.
"His mum came to the door and we said we were answering the advert, and she said 'John, it's for you'.
The musicians all lived a few streets away from each other in Aston - Osbourne and Iommi used to attend the same school
Ozzy Osbourne said the band "had to finish in Birmingham" where it all began
"I saw him walking up the hallway and I said to Bill, 'forget it'. We talked for a bit and then we left.
"I said, 'I don't think he can sing, I know him from school'."
A few days later, Osbourne and Butler went round to the Iommi family's grocery shop in Aston, saying they were looking for a drummer.
"Bill was with me but he said 'I'm not going to do anything without you'," says Iommi.
"So we said let's give it a go - the four of us."
"I have been out of Black Sabbath longer than I've been in," says Ozzy Osbourne
Tony Iommi's much-publicised battle with cancer is among the reasons the band has finally decided to stop touring
Calling themselves Earth, they started out playing blues, before turning their attention to writing their own material.
Butler recalls: "It was always the hippy, happy stuff on the radio and there were we, in Aston, having to go to work in factories.
"We wanted to put how we thought about the world at the time. We didn't want to write happy pop songs. We gave that industrial feeling to it."
And it was Butler and Iommi's love of horror films that gave the group its signature, stirring sound.
"We wanted to create a vibe like you get off horror films - try and create a tension within the music," says Iommi.
"We thought it would be really good to get this sort of vibe, this fear and excitement.
"It was a struggle. There was nothing like what we were doing. We'd taken on something because we believed in it, and loved what we were doing."
Black Sabbath have had many line-ups over the years, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence
Following a mix-up with another band called Earth, the band changed their name to Black Sabbath, after the title track that took its moniker from a 1963 horror film by Boris Karloff.
And within just two years, they were flying to the US to perform to an emerging, global fan base at the start of a career that would span the next 50 years.
Over 70 million records, several line-up changes - Iommi has been the only constant presence - and one headless bat later, the band has decided to call time on touring, performing the last gig on their exhausting 81-date "The End" tour in their home city.
Iommi's much-documented cancer battle and the musicians' advancing years - Osbourne and Iommi are 68 and Butler is 67 - contributed to the decision to slow down.
All three founding members speak with a mixture of pride, excitement and sadness when talking about performing in their beloved Birmingham.
"We've toured everywhere else in the world but there's nowhere like Birmingham," says Butler.
Geezer Butler said the band "came from nothing", growing up on the streets of Aston, Birmingham
"It's still the only place where I get nervous before I go on. It means the world to me. It's where our hearts are."
"It's where we started," adds Osbourne. "The old road has gone back to Birmingham.
"I don't live there any more but most of my family live there. We started in Birmingham so why not finish in Birmingham?"
But, like many bands before them who have announced "the end" before being enticed back on stage with lucrative deals, should we actually expect to see Sabbath back together again one day?
Iommi's certainly keen. "We're not saying goodbye as such, as in we're never going to do it again, [but] we don't want to do any more world tours," he says.
"I wouldn't rule out doing a one-off show. Or even an album. I think the door's open."
"As far as I am concerned, this is the end," he insists.
"I have been out of Black Sabbath longer than I've been in. We've all had different arguments and fallings out.
"I don't know about them but I'm not doing it again. We want to end on a high note."
For the full interviews with Black Sabbath, watch Inside Out West Midlands on Monday at 19:30, or on iPlayer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38768573
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What numbers make up Super Sunday? - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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It's the second largest food consumption day in America after Thanksgiving.
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The New England Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons this Sunday at the NRG Stadium in Houstan, Texas.
It's the second largest food consumption day in America after Thanksgiving.
But, how many chicken wings will Americans eat on the day?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38855151
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Vegetable shortage: How to cope as supermarkets ration lettuces - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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With experts warning that salad shortages are the tip of the iceberg, what can leaf lovers do?
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UK
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Kale is used as an alternative to iceberg lettuce in Riverford's Caesar salad
Some supermarkets are rationing iceberg lettuces, with experts warning it could be the, er, tip of the iceberg.
Bad weather in Europe has already caused a #courgette crisis, alongside a shortage of broccoli, tomatoes, salad peppers and aubergines.
With vegetable shortages expected to continue until April, what alternatives are there for shoppers?
During the UK's winter months of December, January and February, UK farmers produce beetroot, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celeriac, chicory, fennel, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, leeks, parsnips, potatoes, red cabbage, swede and turnips.
We've become a "slightly strange group", expecting all-year-round produce, according to Lord Haskins, the former chairman of Northern Foods, which supplies Tesco.
"Thirty years ago you'd never have worried about buying lettuce in the middle of the winter - lettuces were things that grew in the summer and you ate them in the summer - you ate cauliflowers and Brussels sprouts in the winter," he says.
As for courgettes, they are actually "very, very out of season", says organic vegetable retailer Riverford. We have just got used to supermarkets supplying them all year round.
Eating British produce that's in season is often cheaper, as it is produced locally - and it can be healthier too.
According to food industry campaign group Love British Food, fruit and vegetables that are in season contain the nutrients, minerals and trace elements that our bodies need at particular times of year.
Apples, for example, are packed with vitamin C to boost our resistance to winter colds.
Beetroot is "terrific in soups" says Alexia Robinson from Love British Food
The group's Alexia Robinson recommends beetroot, kale, cabbages, broccoli and traditional root vegetables for their health-giving properties.
Riverford says a slaw made with cabbage, beetroot or swede will offer "10 times more nutrients" than an iceberg lettuce - which it says aren't known for their nutritional value.
If you are really keen on iceberg lettuces, you can probably pay a bit more for one from Peru or South Africa, says Lord Haskins.
But imported vegetables can clock up a lot of air miles before they land on your plate - making them worse for the environment.
Hatty Richards, from the Community Farm in Chew Magna, Somerset, says buying local is better.
"We have such a range on our doorsteps already, it's fresher, it's really good for the environment - it reduces air miles - and it supports local business which is crucial."
Lord Haskins agrees, and suggests your tastebuds may also be grateful:
"We all buy stuff from far parts. They don't taste nearly as good: strawberries at this time of year from Egypt don't taste anything like as good as a British strawberry in May, June, July."
Kale is a hardy winter leaf that can withstand frosty weather
A leafy salad is nice - but there are plenty of alternative dishes to try.
Riverford's Guy Watson thinks the UK's more bitter winter salad leaves and root vegetables can provide "a far superior substitute" which will easily make up for a lack of lettuce.
Vibrant winter coleslaws and cauliflower salads "bring British veg to life", he says, adding that one of the Riverford Field Kitchen's most popular winter dishes is a kale caesar salad.
Kale, which was originally used to feed cows, is a robust, hardy winder leaf that can withstand frosty weather. It can also be used in soups, stews, stir fries, gratins or just wilted with butter.
Ms Robinson suggests embracing winter comfort food with a "good old fashioned winter stew with plenty of root vegetables with tender meat".
If you're still not convinced you can do without leafy salads, try growing your own.
Those who do want to eat lettuce need not despair. According to the campaign group Eat Seasonably, lettuce, rocket and other crunchy salad leaves are some of the easiest things to grow at home, all year around - on a seed tray indoors, on your window sill or in the garden.
Spinach is easily grown, even in window boxes, says Ms Robinson
Ms Robinson says: "As well as the cress there are many great veg that can be easily grown in window boxes such as leaf lettuce, radishes, spinach, green onions and of course a good selection of herbs."
Another easy win is beetroot, Eat Seasonably says, which can be grown in a big pot. Though beetroot is harvested in October, Riverford says it can last up to four months if it's kept in a cold storage.
"Carrots are not too hard to grow either," Riverford's Emily Muddeman said, "Leeks, kale - you could plant just four or five stalks of kale and it will go on sprouting."
Any budding gardeners could start with planting onions later this month - Eat Seasonably says they are "not even slightly difficult to grow".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38852000
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United Arab Emirates sees rare snowfall - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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The United Arab Emirates is dealing with some weird weather.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38873907
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2017 Six Nations: Scotland 27-22 Ireland - BBC Sport
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2017-02-05
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Scotland withstand a superb Ireland fightback to record their first opening-round Six Nations victory since 2006,
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Scotland survived a thrilling Ireland comeback at Murrayfield to record only their second opening-round victory in Six Nations history.
The hosts enjoyed a stunning start despite Ireland's scrum dominance, full-back Stuart Hogg crossing twice.
Keith Earls scored in the corner but Alex Dunbar's try from a clever line-out move put the Scots 21-5 up.
Tries from Iain Henderson and Paddy Jackson put Ireland 22-21 ahead before Greig Laidlaw's two late penalties.
It was a remarkable conclusion to a scintillating opening match of this year's Championship, with Ireland - who took a losing bonus point - having 70% of the possession in the second half.
But, despite scoring 17 unanswered points either side of the interval, Irish hopes of a third title in four years suffered a major blow.
They must now lift themselves for next Saturday's trip to face Italy in Rome, while Scotland travel to play France the following day in buoyant mood.
• None Never miss a Six Nations story - sign up for our rugby union news alerts
This was an absolute firecracker of a Test match, a classic of its kind. It got off to a thunderous start and rarely let up. The portents for the Scots were not good in the early minutes when their scrum came under heavy attack and started shipping penalties at an alarming rate, but their game-breakers soon came to prominence and set Murrayfield alight.
Scotland were clinical, seizing on uncharacteristic Irish errors. When they applied pressure in the visitors' 22 and Garry Ringrose unwisely came out of the defensive line, Hogg went outside him and through for the opening score.
The Scots weathered an Irish backlash and hit them with another score just after the first quarter.
Zander Fagerson forced a turnover on the floor and Scotland went from there. From a line-out, Finn Russell, standing flat to the advantage line, found Huw Jones, who sent Hogg away. The full-back dummied Rob Kearney to go over and Laidlaw made it 14-0 with the conversion.
Ireland responded and got reward for waves of pressure when Earls went over, but that only galvanised Scotland to get a third try. And it was a thing of wonder. A beautiful crossfield kick from Russell forced Simon Zebo into conceding the line-out.
The Scottish line-out then pulled the canniest trick in the book, front-loading it with three backs - Laidlaw, Tommy Seymour and Dunbar.
Ireland didn't think for one second that Ross Ford's throw was going to one of them, but it did. He threw it flat to Dunbar who, surreally, went through a gap to score.
Laidlaw's conversion made it 21-5, Jackson's penalty reducing the deficit to 21-8 just before the break.
The second half was utterly extraordinary. Ireland mobilised their troops in a very major way. They owned the ball for vast sections of the half, Henderson scoring after monumental pressure finally broke through incredible Scottish resistance.
Ireland came again, with power and intent. Conor Murray broke free and linked with Jamie Heaslip but the outstanding Ryan Wilson, with help from a Sean Maitland interception, snuffed out the danger.
Next, Maitland's tackle forced Kearney to put a foot in touch on the right wing, denying Earls a second try.
In the midst of the onslaught, Jonny Gray was a defensive rock. A total colossus. When Irishmen went down in the tackle it was normally Gray who put him there.
Not even Gray and his army of heavy-hitters could stop Ireland from scoring again, however. They were making yards and finding holes against a seemingly tiring Scotland and Jackson stretched to score and then converted his own try.
Ireland were ahead for the first time; 21-20 after 62 minutes.
Scotland's goose looked cooked, but these players have learned some lessons on the road to this victory, some bitter lessons from matches that should have been won but were lost in the closing minutes.
Roles were reversed here. From somewhere, Scotland summoned grunt and control and won a penalty that Laidlaw fired over to put them back in the lead. They kicked on, controlling the ball, looking after it like it was a new-born babe. Ireland couldn't get near it.
The last act was another penalty from the captain, boomed over against a backdrop of sheer delirium.
This was Scotland's biggest victory in 18 years, since they were champions in 1999. Nobody will be thinking about trophies, but Scotland have momentum - and history.
Paris next, with a mighty spring in the step.
Replacements: Ford (for Brown, blood 5-11, then 27), Reid (for Dell, 56), Berghan, Swinson (for Strauss, 65), Barclay (for Watson, 49), Price, Weir (temp for Russell, 46-52), Bennett (for Jones, 60)
Replacements: Scannell, Healy (for McGrath, 56), Ryan (for Furlong, 69), Dillane (for Henderson, 64), Van der Flier (for O'Brien, 66), Marmion, Keatley, Bowe (for Earls, 68).
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38848621
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Caught between Trump and a liberal place - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Technology bosses seem open to talking with President Trump - but their staff seem to have other ideas.
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Technology
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Donald Trump (R) met technology leaders when he was president-elect
It also just so happens to be the sixth largest economy in the world and home to the most influential, profitable and powerful companies on earth.
If the bubble bursts, or even just contracts a little, the whole country suffers - including President Donald Trump and his supporters. California is a so-called “donor” state, meaning it simply pays more into the US Treasury than it gets out.
So when President Trump talks about making deals, he’ll know full well that in California he faces formidable bargaining chips he can’t ignore. He may even be on the back foot.
And that may be one of the reasons why we saw a peculiar thing happen on Friday.
Uber boss Travis Kalanick decided not to turn up to President Trump’s economic advisory panel, and the president said... nothing.
He didn’t call the company “failing” or “once great” or “weak” or any of those words he’s typically thrown around when he feels personally slighted.
In fact, aside from a few pre-election skirmishes with Apple, President Trump has been relatively ambivalent towards tech firms, and there’s a very good theory as to why - he really needs them.
Travis Kalanick put Uber's reputation ahead of the value the company might get from a meeting with the president
And they need him too, of course.
Under President Trump, Silicon Valley is holding out for a lower corporate tax rate - which could bring billions back into the US, a win-win for both sides.
But there’s a snag in this arrangement. For the most part, the workers at these companies are outraged, seething at the prospect of their bosses even sitting at the same table as the new president.
That’s why we saw 2,000 Google employees across the world leave their desks on Monday to demonstrate against the immigration ban.
It’s why Amazon’s own employees are calling on the company to stop advertising on right-wing news website Breitbart.
It’s why Uber’s staff wrote a lengthy “Letter to Travis”, informing their boss about how unpopular his involvement with President Trump was among the ranks. It worked.
“Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that,” Mr Kalanick told staff in a memo announcing he was stepping down.
The tone was understanding, but a little frustrated. Would it not be better to at least have a seat at the table? Uber’s staff didn’t see it that way.
Although he said he didn’t support President Trump’s immigration policy, people thought he did. And that’s what mattered most.
He put Uber’s reputation ahead of the value Uber might get from a meeting with the president.
He may have been extra-sensitive after a long week.
Last Saturday, a misjudged tweet caused a reported 200,000 Uber users to delete their accounts - so many, in fact, the company had to create a special tool to automate the process.
Uber’s explanation that it was all a big misunderstanding has merit, but the furore, justified or not, underlined the fine line tech companies tread with their users.
The firms have until now acted in ways that were “good for business”, but now they are being forced to consider what is simply “good”.
One minute you can be helping the people of San Francisco get around, the next those same people are protesting outside your headquarters.
Another company tip-toeing along is Twitter, buoyed by its role as the mouthpiece for the most important man in the world, but cowed by what that man chooses to share.
It has faced calls to ban President Trump from the site on account of some feeling he has breached the network’s rules on hate speech and harassment.
It of course hasn’t done that - and to be fair, the demand didn’t gain significant traction, even amongst Trump’s opponents.
But Twitter’s employees, nervous about their role as President Trump’s megaphone, contributed a combined $1m (£800,775) to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The ACLU has been the benefactor of choice for companies that have one eye on public perception.
Many are dealing with what can be plainly described as the “Peter Thiel problem”. Mr Thiel, an investor with an arguably unrivalled track record, has his fingers in almost every significant pie around here.
And, uncomfortably for many, he also has the ear of the president, of whom he is an outspoken supporter.
When Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg chose not to make a public statement on the Women’s March two weeks ago, people jumped to various conclusions, most of which inevitably led to the hand of Mr Thiel - who sits on Facebook’s board.
This comes despite any evidence Mr Thiel is calling any kind of shots on Facebook’s political position.
Support for President Trump in California is harder to come by than in other parts of the US
Meanwhile, well-regarded start-up accelerator Y Combinator is also feeling pressure thanks to its links with Mr Thiel.
The company’s president Sam Altman said he wouldn’t sever ties with the investor. The programme has said it will take on the ACLU as one of its cohorts, offering mentorship on digital projects.
It seems for now the rank-and-file of Silicon Valley see advising President Trump as indistinguishable from supporting him.
Technology companies are perhaps paying for years of hyperbolic statements about changing the world, in a place where a minor software update gets people “super excited”.
One thing that has struck me about staff at these huge companies is the infectious, passionate loyalty. It exists because those employees believe the company stands for the same issues they do. Any wavering creates shockwaves.
The atmosphere may get less toxic as the presidency continues, but it leaves bosses extremely hesitant to get around President Trump’s table.
Will President Trump need to get around theirs?
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38866023
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Louvre attack: Friend defends 'respectful' suspect - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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Social media updates by the Egyptian suspected of launching a machete attack at a Paris museum suggested nothing untoward, says his friend.
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Social media updates by the Egyptian suspected of launching a machete attack at the Louvre in Paris suggested nothing untoward, says his friend.
French authorities say a man, believed to be Abdullah Hamamy, was shot in the stomach as he lunged at soldiers with the knives at the museum on Friday.
But his neighbour in Egypt, Ibrahim Yossry, says updates to Abdullah's social media upon his arrival in France suggested nothing untoward.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38873908
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Five cult films audiences hate to love - BBC News
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2017-02-05
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As Sharknado 5 begins production, here are five other critically-panned films audiences have grown to love.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Tara Reid and Ian Ziering have been ever present in the Sharknado series
Sharknado fans rejoiced this week at the news that the Syfy channel is pressing ahead with a fifth instalment in the trashy disaster franchise.
Directed as ever by Anthony C Ferrante, Sharknado 5 will see returning stars Ian Ziering and Tara Reid travel to London to avert a global shark tornado.
Since it began in 2013, the TV movie series has been met with glee by viewers - and derision by critics.
Here are five critically-panned movies that audiences have grown to love.
Often cited as the worst movie ever made, Tommy Wiseau's self-financed opus came and went in 2003 but has since developed an enthusiastic fan following.
Audiences at special screenings regularly congregate to yell abuse, recite lines from the script in unison and throw plastic spoons at the screen (don't ask!)
Tommy Wiseau wrote, directed and produced the film and also played the lead role
Wiseau, who also appeared in the film, has taken this in good humour, appearing at screenings to take questions and even taking part in a live reading of his script.
He's since reteamed with co-star Greg Sestero for a new film called Best F(r)iends, while James Franco has made a film about The Room's production, entitled The Masterpiece.
Read more about The Room from BBC Culture.
Made for less than $10,000 (£8,000), this ultra low-budget attempt to replicate Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds on a shoestring had audiences flocking to revel in its awfulness.
James Nguyen's film was particularly derided for its special effects, which consisted mainly of shoddy CGI eagles interacting unconvincingly with the film's cast of unknowns.
US distribution company Severin Films saw potential in its ineptitude and took the film on a "Birdemic experience tour" that included a visit to London in 2010.
Not to be deterred, Nguyen released a sequel, Birdemic 2: The Resurrection, in 2013 and has plans to round out the franchise with Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle.
Paul Verhoeven with Showgirls stars Gina Gershon and Elizabeth Berkley in 1995
Riding high on the success of Basic Instinct, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven reteamed with writer Joe Eszterhas for this torrid tale about a Las Vegas dancer stripping her way to stardom.
Their labours were met with derision by the critics, who poured scorn on the script, Elizabeth Berkley's lead performance and one particularly ill-judged swimming pool sex scene.
As is the way of these things, though, the film developed a cult following on home video and is now a staple on the midnight screening circuit.
Verhoeven, incidentally, is currently getting some of the best reviews of his career for Elle, a dark drama about rape that won two Golden Globes last month.
Just three years on from Return of the Jedi, George Lucas laid an almighty egg with this disastrous stab at bringing Marvel's wise-quacking alien to the big screen.
Back to the Future's Lea Thompson was among Howard the Duck's human stars
Released as Howard: A New Breed of Hero in the UK, the film's crimes against cinema include putting an actor with dwarfism in an inexpressive duck suit that reportedly cost $2m (£1.6m) to make.
Since its release in 1986, though, the film has come to be embraced both by lovers of bad movies and fans of the original comic book character.
Howard's brief appearance at the end of 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, meanwhile, has prompted talk that a movie comeback may be on the cards.
Edward Wood Jr's status as the world's worst director is largely down to a 1959 black-and-white creature feature that languished in late-night TV obscurity for 20 years.
But after film critic Michael Medved declared it the worst movie ever made in 1980, it found a new audience among those who saw a camp value in its cheap effects and cheesy sci-fi storyline.
Many were particularly impressed by Wood's billing of Bela Lugosi as the film's star, despite the fact that he barely appears and actually died three years before the film's release.
The film and Wood himself were subsequently granted the ultimate accolade when Tim Burton made a film about the director's life, starring Johnny Depp as Wood and Martin Landau as Lugosi.
Depp and Landau at the Cannes Film Festival, where Burton's Ed Wood screened in 1994
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38856191
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Trump travel ban: Mike Pence defends president - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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US Vice-President Mike Pence defends Donald Trump, after he called the man who suspended his travel ban a "so-called judge".
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US Vice-President Mike Pence has defended Donald Trump's right to ban people from travelling to the US from seven mainly-Muslim countries.
On Friday the ban was suspended by federal Judge James Robart, who the president has since described as a "so-called judge".
An attempt by the White House to reinstate the ban on Sunday was rejected by the US federal appeals court.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38872177
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Local voting figures shed new light on EU referendum - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC gets localised voting figures for the EU referendum - giving more detail of voting patterns.
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UK Politics
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The BBC has obtained a more localised breakdown of votes from nearly half of the local authorities which counted EU referendum ballots last June.
This information provides much greater depth and detail in explaining the pattern of how the UK voted. The key findings are:
A statistical analysis of the data obtained for over a thousand individual local government wards confirms how the strength of the local Leave vote was strongly associated with lower educational qualifications.
Wards where the population had fewer qualifications tended to have a higher Leave vote, as shown in the chart. If the proportion of the local electorate with a degree or similar qualification was one percentage point lower, then on average the leave vote was higher by nearly one percentage point.
Using ward-level data means we can compare voting figures in this way to the local demographic information collected in the 2011 census. Of the main census statistics, this is the one with the greatest association with how people voted.
In statistical terms the level of educational qualifications explains about two-thirds of the variation in the results between different wards.
The correlation is strong, whether based on assessing graduate and equivalent qualifications or lower-level ones.
This ward-by-ward analysis covers 1,070 individual wards in England and Wales whose boundaries had not changed since the 2011 census, about one in nine of the UK's wards. We had very little ward-level data from Scotland, and none from Northern Ireland.
It should be noted, however, that many ward counts also included some postal votes from across the counting area, and therefore some variation between wards will have been masked by the random allocation of postal votes for counting. This makes the results less accurate geographically, but we can still use the information to explore broad national and local patterns.
Adding age as a second factor significantly helps to further explain voting patterns. Older populations were more likely to vote Leave. Education and age combined account for nearly 80% of the voting variation between wards.
Ethnicity is a smaller factor, but one which also contributed to the results. Adding that in means that now 83% of the variation in the vote between wards is explained. White populations were generally more pro-Leave, and ethnic minorities less so. However, there were some interesting differences between London and elsewhere.
The ethnic dimension is particularly interesting when examining the outliers on the graph that compares the Leave vote to levels of education.
Some wards in Birmingham illustrate the pattern of ethnic minority populations being more likely to support Remain.
There are numerous wards towards the bottom left of the graph where electorates with lower educational qualifications nevertheless produced low Leave and high Remain votes. This is where the link between low qualifications and Leave voting breaks down.
It turns out that these exceptional wards have high ethnic minority populations, particularly in Birmingham and Haringey in north London.
In contrast, there are virtually no dramatic outliers on the other side of the line, where comparatively highly educated populations voted Leave. Only one point on the graph stands out - this is Osterley and Spring Grove in Hounslow, west London, a mainly ethnic minority ward which had a Leave vote of 63%. While this figure does include some postal votes, they are not nearly enough to explain away this unusual outcome.
In fact, in Ealing and Hounslow, west London boroughs with many voters of Asian origin, the ethnic correlation was in the other direction to the national picture: a higher number of Asian voters was associated with a higher Leave vote.
This powerful link to educational attainment could stem from the lower qualified tending to feel less confident about their prospects and ability to compete for work in a competitive globalised economy with high levels of migration.
On the other hand some commentators see it as primarily reflecting a "culture war" or "values conflict", rather than issues of economics and inequality. Research shows that non-graduates tend to take less liberal positions than graduates on a range of social issues from immigration and multi-culturalism to the death penalty.
The former campaign director of Vote Leave, Dominic Cummings, argues that the better educated are more prone to holding irrational political opinions because they are more driven by fashion and a group mentality.
Of course this assessment does not imply that Leave voters were almost all poorly educated and old, and Remain voters well educated and young. The Leave side obviously attracted support from many middle class professionals, graduates and younger people. Otherwise it couldn't have won.
While there was undoubtedly a lot of voting which cut across these criteria, the point of this analysis is to explore how different social groups most probably voted - and it is clear that education, age and ethnicity were crucial influences.
After these three key factors are taken into account, adding in further demographic measures from the census does little to increase the explanation of UK-wide voting patterns.
However, this does not reflect the distinctively more pro-Remain voting in Scotland, since we are short of Scottish data at this geographical level. It is clear as well that in a few specific locations high student numbers were also very relevant.
To a certain extent, using the level of educational qualifications as a measure combines both class and age factors, with working class and older adults both tending to be less well qualified.
But the association between education and the voting results is stronger than the association between social or occupational class and the results. This is still true after taking the age of the local population into account.
This suggests that voters with lower qualifications were more likely to back Leave than the better qualified, even when they were in the same social or occupational class.
The existence of a significant connection between Leave voting and lower educational qualifications had already been suggested by analysis of the published referendum results from the official counting areas.
The data we have obtained strengthens this conclusion, because voting patterns can now be compared to social statistics from the 2011 census at a much more detailed geographical level than by the earlier studies.
The BBC analysis is also consistent with opinion polling (for example, from Lord Ashcroft, Ipsos Mori and YouGov) that tried to identify the characteristics of Leave and Remain voters.
The data we have collected can be used to illustrate the sort of places where the Leave and Remain camps did particularly well: it is hard to imagine a more glaring social contrast than that between the deprived, poorly educated housing estates of Brambles and Thorntree in Middlesbrough, and the privileged elite colleges of Market ward in central Cambridge.
It is important to bear in mind, however, that most of the voting figures mentioned below also include some postal votes, so they should be treated as approximate rather than precise. It is also important to note that the examples are limited to the places for which we were able to obtain localised information, which was only a minority of areas. The rest of the country may well contain even starker instances.
Of the 1,283 individual wards for which we have data, the highest Leave vote was 82.5% in Brambles and Thorntree, a section of east Middlesbrough with many social problems. Ward boundaries have changed since the 2011 census, but in that survey the Thorntree part of the area had the lowest proportion of people with a degree or similar qualification of anywhere in England and Wales, at only 5%. And according to Middlesbrough council, the figure for the current Brambles and Thorntree ward is even lower, at just 4%.
Second highest was 80.3% in Waterlees Village, a poor locality within Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. This area has seen a major influx of East European migrants who have been doing low-paid work in nearby food processing factories and farms, with tensions between them and British residents.
Other wards with available data which had the strongest Leave votes were congregated in Middlesbrough, Canvey Island in Essex, Skegness in coastal Lincolnshire, and Havering in east London.
The highest Remain vote was 87.8% in Market ward in central Cambridge, an area with numerous colleges and a high student population, in a city which was strongly pro-Remain.
This was followed by Ashley ward (85.6%) in central Bristol, a district featuring ethnic diversity, gentrification and alternative culture.
Next highest was Northumberland Park (85.0%) in Haringey, north London, which has a substantial black population.
Other wards with available data which had the strongest Remain votes were generally located in Cambridge, Bristol and the multi-ethnic London boroughs of Haringey and Lambeth.
The count for Ashburton in Croydon, south London, split 50-50 exactly, with both Leave and Remain getting 3,885 votes, but that did include some postal ballots.
As for being nearest to the overall result, the combined count of Tulketh and University, neighbouring wards near the centre of Preston, was 51.92% for leave, very close to the UK wide figure of 51.89%. The individual ward of Barnwood in Gloucester had Leave at 51.94%. Both figures however contain some postal votes.
Given that a few councils provided even more detailed data down to the level of polling districts, it is possible to identify some very small localities that were nicely representative of the national picture.
The 527 voters in the neighbouring districts of Kirk Langley and Mackworth in Amber Valley in Derbyshire, whose two ballot boxes were counted together, produced a leave proportion of 51.99%. And this figure is not contaminated by any postal votes.
So journalists (or anyone else for that matter) who seek a microcosm of the UK should perhaps visit the Mundy Arms pub in Mackworth, the location for that district's polling station.
Similarly, the 427 voters in the combined neighbouring polling districts of Chiddingstone Hoath and Hever Four Elms to the south of Sevenoaks in Kent delivered a leave vote of 51.6% (again, without any postal votes).
The data obtained points to 269 areas of various sizes (wards, clusters of wards or constituencies) which had a different Leave/Remain outcome compared to the official counting area of which they were part.
This consists of 150 areas which backed Remain but were part of Leave-voting counting areas; and 119 in the other direction.
The detailed information therefore gives us an understanding of how the electorate voted which is more variegated than the officially published results.
Scotland voted to Remain - but some wards backed Leave, analysis shows
Every one of Scotland's 32 counting areas came down on the Remain side. Yet, despite the fact that most Scottish councils did not give us much detailed information, we can nevertheless identify a few smaller parts of the country which actually backed Leave.
A cluster of six wards in the Banff and Buchan area in north Aberdeenshire had a strong Leave majority of 61%. There is much local discontent within the fishing industry of this coastal district about the EU's common fisheries policy.
An Taobh Siar agus Nis, a ward at the northern end of the Isle of Lewis in Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles), also voted Leave, if very narrowly.
And at a smaller geographical level, in Shetland the 567 voters in the combined polling districts of Whalsay and South Unst had an extremely high Leave vote of 81%. The island of Whalsay is a fishing community, where EU rules have been controversial and in 2012 numerous skippers were heavily fined for major breaches of fishing quotas.
Ealing and Hounslow are neighbouring multi-ethnic boroughs in the west of London with large Asian populations, where - in contrast to the national picture - non-white ethnicity was associated with voting Leave, particularly in Ealing. Both boroughs shared a varied internal pattern of prosperous largely white areas voting strongly Remain, poorer largely white areas preferring Leave, and the Asian areas tending to be more evenly split.
Ealing voted 60% Remain, with Southfield ward hitting 76%, but in contrast the Southall wards which are over 90% ethnic minority were close to 50-50.
In Hounslow the richer wards in Chiswick in the east of the area voted heavily Remain (73%), but the poorer largely white wards at the opposite western end in Feltham and Bedfont voted Leave (64-66%). Osterley and Spring Grove was also 63% Leave, the highest Leave vote in any individual ward in the UK with a non-white majority for which we have data.
The south London borough of Bromley narrowly voted Remain. Those parts which did not do so by a significant margin were the Cray Valley wards, largely poor white working class areas; and Biggin Hill and Darwin wards, locations to the south which contain more open countryside and lie outside the built-up commuter belt.
In Croydon in south London, places which voted Leave by substantial amounts were New Addington and Fieldway, neighbouring wards with large council estates.
Beyond the areas with the strongest backing for Leave and Remain, examining the detailed breakdown of votes in various places gives greater insight into the pattern of support for the two sides - as can be seen from the following examples.
In several places (for example, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham, Portsmouth) there was a strong contrast between the Leave-voting populations of large, rundown, predominantly white, housing estates in the urban periphery, versus Remain-voting populations in inner city areas with large numbers of ethnic minorities and sometimes students.
Birmingham had several wards with large Remain votes, although the city as a whole narrowly voted Leave. These pro-Remain wards tended to be the more highly educated, better off localities, or minority ethnic areas which strongly backed Remain despite low levels of educational qualifications. I have written about this before.
In Blackburn with Darwen, Bastwell ward had the highest Remain vote at 65%, compared to only 44% in the area as a whole. This ward has an ethnic minority proportion of over 90%. Other Blackburn wards which voted Remain were also ones with high minority populations.
Bradford voted to Leave (54%), but the area included some starkly contrasting places which went over 60% Remain: the prosperous, genteel, spa town of Ilkley, and strongly ethnic minority wards in the city, such as Manningham and Toller.
Bristol voted strongly Remain on the whole (62%), but there were some striking exceptions, particularly the large, deprived, mainly white estates to the south of the city. Hartcliffe and Withywood backed Leave at 67%. Similar neighbouring wards (Hengrove and Whitchurch Park, Filwood, Bishopsworth and Stockwood) also voted Leave, as did the more industrial area of Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston to the north west of the city.
As a county Cornwall voted to Leave. But one of its six parliamentary constituencies, Truro and Falmouth, voted 53% to Remain, possibly linked to a significant student population.
In Lincoln, which voted 57% to Leave, Carholme ward stands out as very different - it voted 63% to Remain. This ward includes Lincoln University, and 43% of the residents are students
Middlesbrough voted 65% to Leave. As already noted, it had several wards with extremely high leave votes of over 75%. But one ward, Linthorpe, voted very narrowly to Remain - a comparatively well-to-do inner suburb which includes an art college; and another ward, Central, which contains Teesside University, nearly did.
Mole Valley in Surrey exhibited a dramatic contrast between two neighbouring districts with very different demographics and housing. The highest Remain vote was in the very prosperous location of Dorking South, which voted 63% Remain, but the neighbouring ward of Holmwoods, dominated by large estates on the edge of the town of Dorking, voted 57% Leave, the area's highest Leave vote.
Nottingham voted narrowly to Leave, but the inner city ward of Radford and Park voted 68% Remain. This has both a comparatively high proportion of ethnic minorities and considerable numbers of students from two nearby universities. There was a lot of variation within the area. Bulwell - a market town to the north of the city with many social problems - voted 69% Leave
There was also a high Leave vote in the housing estate locations of the Clifton wards in the south of Nottingham.
Oldham voted to Leave at 61%, but Werneth, the city ward with the highest ethnic minority population, voted Remain (57%). Other wards with high minority populations also voted Remain.
The central wards in Oxford had high Remain votes
In Oxford the cluster of polling districts which included Blackbird Leys and other deprived estates on the southern edge of the city voted to Leave at 51%. In contrast the central areas containing colleges, university buildings and student accommodation voted to Remain at over 80%.
Plymouth voted 60% Leave, but Drake ward which includes the university had the city's highest Remain vote at 56%.
Portsmouth was another place with wide variation. Paulsgrove ward, with its large estate on the edge of the city, had the highest Leave vote at 70%, whereas at the other end of the spectrum Central Southsea, an inner city ward and student area, voted 57% Remain.
Rochdale voted 60% Leave. The place which bucked this trend by voting 59% Remain, Milkstone and Deeplish, was the most predominantly ethnic minority ward. Central Rochdale had the second highest Remain vote and is the other ward that is mainly not white.
Walsall voted strongly Leave (68%). The only ward which voted Remain, Paddock, is both a comparatively prosperous and multi-ethnic locality.
A few councils released their data at remarkably localised levels, down even to individual polling districts (ie ballot boxes) in the case of Blackburn with Darwen and Bracknell Forest, or clusters of two/three/four districts, in the case of Amber Valley, Brentwood, Sevenoaks, Shetland, South Oxfordshire, and Tewkesbury.
This provides very local and specific data, in some cases just for neighbourhoods of hundreds of voters.
At its most detailed this reveals that the 110 people who cast their votes in the ballot box at St. Alban's Primary School in central Blackburn split 56-52 in favour of Remain, with two spoilt papers.
It also discloses stark contrasts in some neighbouring locations. The 953 people who voted at Little Harwood community centre in north Blackburn had a Leave vote of only 31%, while the 336 electors who voted in the neighbouring ballot box at Roe Lee Park primary school produced a Leave percentage over twice as high, at 64%.
The very detailed data we obtained also provides some rare evidence on the views of postal compared to non-postal voters. Campaign strategists have often deliberated on whether the two groups vote differently and should be given separate targeted messages.
Most places mixed boxes of postal and non-postal votes for counting, so generally it's not possible to draw comparative conclusions. However there were a few exceptions which recorded them separately, or included a very small number of non-postal votes with the postals.
These figures indicate that postal voters were narrowly less likely to back Leave than voters in polling stations. Data covering five counting areas with about 260,000 votes shows that in these places the roughly one in five electors who voted by post backed Leave at 55.4%, one percentage point lower than the local non-postal support for Leave of 56.4%.
The counting areas involved are Amber Valley, East Cambridgeshire, Gwynedd, Hyndburn and North Warwickshire.
Since the referendum the BBC has been trying to get the most detailed, localised voting data we could from each of the counting areas. This was a major data collection exercise carried out by my colleague George Greenwood.
We managed to obtain voting figures broken down into smaller geographical units for 178 of the 399 referendum counting areas (380 councils in England, Wales and Scotland, with a separate tally in Gibraltar, while in Northern Ireland results were issued for the 18 constituencies).
This varied between data for individual local government wards, wards grouped into clusters, and constituency level data. In a few cases the results supplied were even more localised than ward level. Overall the extra data covers a wide range of different areas and kinds of councils across the UK.
Electoral returning officers are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act, so releasing the information was up to the discretion of councils. While some were very willing, in other cases it required a lot of persistence and persuasion.
Some councils could not supply any detailed data because they mixed all ballot boxes prior to counting; some did possess more local figures but simply refused to disclose them to us. Others did provide data, but the combinations in which ballot boxes were mixed before counting were too complex to fit ward boundaries neatly.
A few places such as Birmingham released their ward by ward data following the referendum on their own initiative, but in most cases the information had to be obtained by us requesting it directly, and sometimes repeatedly, from the authority.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38762034
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Subway commuters scrub anti-Semitic graffiti - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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A group of commuters raided their bags and pockets to clean racist graffiti from a New York subway car.
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A group of commuters raided their bags and pockets to clean racist graffiti from a New York subway car.
Gregory Locke was one of them, and spoke to BBC World Have Your Say.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38888769
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Alastair Cook was 'drained' by England captaincy - Andrew Strauss - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Alastair Cook had become "drained" as England Test captain, says England's director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
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Alastair Cook had become "drained" as England Test captain, says England's director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
Cook stepped down on Monday after a record 59 matches in charge.
"He was getting drained by the relentlessness of being England captain," Strauss told the BBC's sports editor Dan Roan.
Strauss added that vice-captain Joe Root would be a strong candidate to take over but refused "to rule anyone in or out of the role".
Cook is England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket with 11,057, while his 140 Test appearances and 30 centuries are also national records.
But the Essex batsman had been considering his future as captain after his side suffered a 4-0 Test series defeat in India last year.
And Strauss said the 32-year-old had taken time to come to his decision.
"We know it has been a tough winter and it was an obvious time for him to step back and reflect and consider and have thoughts about what was right for the team moving forwards," he said.
"In my conversations with him in January it became clear that Alastair felt a huge amount of energy, drive and determination was needed to drive the team forward over the next 12 months.
"You are the only one who knows how much gas you have left in the tank and how much the many demands of being England captain are taking out of you.
"He feels it is time for new blood, new impetus and fresh thinking and allow someone else to take over and do that."
Strauss said he did not attempt to make Cook change his mind, and explained: "Once it became obvious how clear his thinking was, it was his decision to make. It would have been wrong to persuade him otherwise."
Is the appointment of Root a foregone conclusion?
The Yorkshire batsman, who was appointed England vice-captain before the 2015 Ashes Series is seen as the favourite for the job.
But Strauss, while praising his qualities, says that there is a process to go through before Cook's successor is announced.
England's next Test series will be against South Africa with the first game of the four-match series due to start at Lord's on 6 July.
After that, they will host the West Indies in three Tests in August and September before travelling to Australia for the Ashes in November.
"Joe has leadership experience and is a phenomenal cricketer and an influential figure in the dressing room, and there is no reason why he wouldn't be a strong candidate," said Strauss.
"But I don't want to rule anyone out or in at this stage.
"There are conversations that need to take place, both between myself and the selectors and the coach, but also among some of the senior players to make sure I understand how best to take the team forward so that when we announce the captain he is the right man for the job."
Cook's first job after taking over from Strauss in 2012 was to manage the return of batsman Kevin Pietersen, who had been left out of the England side over allegations he had sent derogatory text messages about Strauss to members of the South Africa team.
But Cook also played an influential role in the decision to end Pietersen's international career in February 2014 when he was part of a three-man panel who met the batsman to tell him of their decision.
When asked if that incident could overshadow Cook's legacy as captain, Strauss said: "I think the fact he was able to get through that episode at a very tough time for him and others and come out the other side and keep scoring runs and winning matches and keep a degree of sanity at a difficult time speaks volumes for him."
The most difficult time for Cook as England captain was in 2014, which began with the Ashes whitewash down under, moved on to the Kevin Pietersen saga and was followed by a home series defeat by Sri Lanka.
His 2013 Ashes win as skipper is a highlight of his reign. So too, the triumph in South Africa in 2015-16 and the historic win in India in 2012.
Cook's winning percentage of 40.67 is only the fourth best of the six captains to have led England in more than 40 Tests. It has been an up-and-down ride.
The extended period of time taken to mull over his future shows that Cook has made the right decision for him. He will be incredibly comfortable with what lies ahead. That is likely to be scoring many more runs for England.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38886052
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Six Nations 2017: Italy 7-33 Wales - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Wales score 30 unanswered points in the second half as their Six Nations begins with a win against Italy in Rome.
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Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Wales stuttered for an hour in the face of a colossal Italian defensive display before pulling clear to open their Six Nations campaign with a victory.
But they missed out on a bonus point as Liam Williams came agonisingly close to a fourth try from the final move of the match, but lost control of the ball over the line as he tried to tried to touch down.
Rob Howley's team left a number of criticisms from the autumn campaign unanswered as they toiled in damp and slippery Rome to break down an Azzurri team inspired by peerless number eight and captain Sergio Parisse.
It was only when Italy cracked in the face of lopsided possession and penalty count, and prop Andrea Lovotti was sent to the sin-bin, that Wales were able to open up.
Tries by Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams while Italy were a man short turned the tables, and an apparently injured George North delivered a killer blow as he ran in from 60 metres.
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Wales almost claimed the tournament's first every try bonus point when wing Williams just failed to touch down as the clock ticked past 80 minutes.
Italy led at half-time, but just as Parisse had feared in his pre-match news conference, fell off the pace in the last 20 minutes and paid a heavy price.
Leigh Halfpenny kicked three conversions and four penalties for his 18-point tally.
Wales' ambition saw them turn down three kickable penalties in a dominant opening 20 minutes, but they failed to score a point despite 80% possession.
And with referee JP Doyle disinclined to issue warnings let alone a yellow card for repeat infringements, Italy weathered the storm and then showed a more ruthless cutting edge when their chance came.
Parisse was alternately deft and a powerhouse as he set up the attack and then orchestrated the rolling maul that led to scrum-half Edoardo Gori touching down between the posts.
Halfpenny, having missed an early chance, finally had Wales on the scoreboard in the 36th minute when he nailed a penalty as the hosts took a 7-3 lead into the changing rooms at the break.
After the interval Wales were in no mood to turn down the points as Halfpenny punished continuing Italian indiscipline with three penalties before Lovotti pushed Mr Doyle's patience past breaking point.
When replacement fly-half Sam Davies showed the quick hands that have earned him his Wales call, Scott Williams was able to send Davies over, and Williams' try followed quickly.
Freed of the shackles of having to win the game, Wales showed ambition and skill where they had previously been patient in the face of remorseless defence.
With their scrum bolstered by the arrival of Rob Evans and Tomas Francis from the bench, the visitors finished well on top.
But they have a lot to think about and work on in the six-day turnaround before England arrive in Cardiff.
And it is unlikely they will be on the right end of a 16-5 penalty count on that day.
It could have been Sergio Parisse, but the accuracy of Leigh Halfpenny's boot and his counter-attacking late in the game earned him the nod.
What is the pundit's view?
Jonathan Davies, former Wales dual-code stand-off and captain: "As expected it was a tough game and a brutal first 60 minutes. They absorbed that and then went on to score a couple of great tries and win comfortably.
"There were a few problems - namely the slow ball movement but by the end the Italians didn't have enough."
Replacements: 16-Leonardo Ghiraldini for Gega (47), 17-Sami Panico, 18-Pietro Ceccarelli for Cittadini (59), 19-Joshua Furno for Fuser (41), 20-Francesco Minto, 21-Giorgio Bronzini for Gori (63), 22-Tommaso Allan for Canna (69), 23-Michele Campagnaro Benvenuti (53),
Replacements: 16-Scott Baldwin, 17-Rob Evans for Smith (50), 18-Tomas Francis for Lee (50), 19-Cory Hill Hill for Ball (63), 20-James King for Moriarty (74)., 21-Gareth Davies for Webb (74), 22-Sam Davies (for Biggar, 40), 23-Jamie Roberts for S Williams (74).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38850890
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John Bercow defends plans to axe Commons clerks' wigs - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Speaker and a Tory MP clash over the ending of a traditional dress code for parliamentary staff.
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UK Politics
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Speaker Bercow said it would make things 'less stuffy'
John Bercow has defended the decision that Commons clerks will no longer have to wear wigs, after one MP likened the move to an "executive order".
The Speaker announced the clerks, who advise him on conduct and constitutional issues, would also no longer wear wing collars and white tie.
Conservative Sir Gerald Howarth said the tradition of wearing wigs went back "several centuries".
But Mr Bercow said there was an even older tradition of not wearing wigs.
He announced the changes on Monday, but added that clerks would keep part of their garb - black gowns, to signify they are experts on procedure and constitutional issues.
Mr Bercow said changes to clothing and headgear represented the "overwhelming view" of clerks themselves.
They would "convey to the public a marginally less stuffy and forbidding image of this chamber at work".
But Sir Gerald, MP for Aldershot, raised a point of order, telling the Commons: "I was surprised by [the] statement, which had the sort of appearance of an executive order."
He added that traditional clerks' dress was "key to the dignity of the House" and had been so "for several centuries", adding that MPs "should discuss this".
Mr Bercow replied that it was "a matter that can properly be decided by the Speaker", adding that the House of Commons Commission had approved the changes, which clerks themselves had suggested.
He said that, if one went back more than a "couple of hundred years", the situation was different from that presented by Sir Gerald, and that "several centuries ago", clerks "did not wear wigs".
Mr Bercow has refrained from wearing a wig himself in the Commons since becoming Speaker in 2009, as did his predecessors Michael Martin and Betty Boothroyd.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38879102
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Super Bowl LI: New England Patriots recover from record deficit to beat Atlanta Falcons - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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The New England Patriots produced the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history to beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in overtime and claim a fifth title.
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The New England Patriots produced the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history to beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in overtime and claim a fifth title in the most dramatic of circumstances.
The Patriots trailed by 25 points in the third quarter but recovered to level at 28-28 and force the extra period - the first in Super Bowl history.
Thanks to everyone back in Boston... we're bringing this sucker home!
Quarterback Tom Brady led the recovery, finishing with a record 466 yards en route to being named the Super Bowl's Most Valuable Player for a fourth time.
The turnaround was completed when James White scored on a two-yard run - taking his personal haul for the game to 20 points.
The previous biggest deficit overcome by the eventual Super Bowl champions was 10 points, a record emphatically shattered by the Patriots on an incredible night at Houston's NRG Stadium, which also featured a spectacular half-time show by Lady Gaga.
The singer opened her set with Woody Guthrie's civil rights anthem This Land Is Your Land, "a gentle but pointed rebuke to the Trump administration", BBC Music reporter Mark Savage says.
• None Tom Brady becoming the first quarterback to win five Super Bowl rings - and just the second player in history along with Charles Haley
• None Brady breaking his own Super Bowl record with 43 pass completions
• None Brady also becoming the first player to win four Super Bowl MVPs, on a record seventh appearance in the game
• None Brady's 466 passing yards surpassing the previous record of 414 set by Kurt Warner in Super Bowl XXXIV
• None James White finishing with 14 receptions, the most by any player ever in the Super Bowl. His 20 points is also a record
• None New England's Bill Belichick setting a new record for Super Bowl games as head coach (seven) and wins (five)
• None The Patriots scoring 19 unanswered points in the fourth quarter - including a pair of two-point conversions
Brady, 39, admitted afterwards the outcome could have been very different had any part of the Patriots team not done its job.
A key moment came with the Patriots trailing 28-20 with 2:28 remaining in the final quarter when Julian Edelman made a miraculous catch for a first down, somehow grabbing the ball under pressure from three opponents after it was tipped into the air by Falcons cornerback Robert Alford.
"I couldn't believe the Edelman catch, it was one of the greatest catches. I don't think he knows how he caught it. We've been on the end of a few of those, it was spectacular," Brady said.
"It's going to be a great celebration tonight. Thanks to everyone back in Boston, we love you, we're bringing this sucker home!"
He added: "That was exactly the way we didn't plan it. It was a hell of a football game.
"This is an incredible team and I'm just happy to be a part of it. We overcame a lot of different things and it's all worth it."
"To be 28-3 down, it was a lot of mental toughness from our team and we're all going to remember this for the rest of our life."
Much of the talk before the game centred on whether Brady could become the first quarterback to win five Super Bowls, but such thoughts were swiftly pushed to one side once the game began as the veteran struggled to find a rhythm.
The first quarter whipped by with hardly any stoppages and no points scored, both defences on top, but come the second quarter the momentum shifted emphatically in favour of Atlanta, who boasted the best regular-season offense and, in quarterback Matt Ryan, the NFL's MVP.
Atlanta went ahead when Devonta Freeman capped an impressive half by rushing for a touchdown, while Ryan connected with Austin Hooper for the second a short time later.
For the last year and a half I've talked about how Tom Brady is not the greatest of all time. I take it all back
Brady, meanwhile, was labouring, struggling to connect with his receivers and cutting an increasingly frustrated figure as half-time loomed.
When Alford intercepted Brady for an 82-yard touchdown, the writing appeared to be on the wall - with a 21-point lead already double the highest deficit ever overcome in a Super Bowl - although a late field goal at least gave the Pats a sliver of hope at the interval.
As Lady Gaga descended into the arena, Falcons fans were no doubt daring to dream that the franchise could break its Super Bowl duck at the second time of asking, having been beaten by the Denver Broncos on their only previous appearance in 1999.
But if they were thinking along those lines, they reckoned without Brady.
Certainly the omens looked good for Atlanta at the start of the second half with Tevin Coleman's score taking their advantage to 28-3, but that was the cue for New England's fightback to begin.
White scored what seemed like a consolation touchdown late in the third quarter, a feeling only heightened by Stephen Gostkowski's failed extra-point attempt, but still the Pats kept coming.
A Gostkowski field goal was backed up by Brady's touchdown pass to Danny Amendola, with the successful two-point conversion from a White rush closing the gap to eight points.
With Atlanta rattled, Brady marched the Patriots 90 yards upfield via Edelman's stunning catch to present White with a one-yard rushing touchdown, which was followed by a vital two-point conversion catch by Amendola that took the game to overtime.
What they said...
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady: "There were a lot of plays, probably about 30 of them, and if any one was different the outcome would have been different. It was unbelievable. I'm so proud of these guys.
"James White is everything you want in a team-mate. Dependable, reliable, durable. He brings it every day. We kept going to him and that speaks for itself."
Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola: "[Brady] was the same as he always is: cool, calm and collected. He's the leader, the general, the best ever and that is the end of the story."
Patriots running back James White: "We knew we had a shot the whole game. It was an amazing comeback by our team. It's surreal right now. You couldn't write this script."
Patriots coach Bill Belichick: "We have great players, they competed the whole game. They were 28-3 down but they never looked back. They just keep competing for 60 minutes, or longer."
Patriots owner Robert Kraft: "I told our fans two years ago that was the sweetest win of all, but a lot has transpired in the last two years. That doesn't need any explanation.
"This is unequivocally the sweetest. I am proud to say for the fifth time the Patriots are world champions."
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan: "There's nothing you can really say. That's a tough loss. Obviously very disappointed, very close to getting done what we wanted to get done, but it's hard to find words tonight."
Osi Umenyiora, BBC NFL analyst: "There is no solace for Atlanta. They were ahead by 25 points, a game they had to win. I can't imagine how they are feeling. They made so many young mistakes, you can't make them against the New England Patriots.
"This is the worst loss we have ever seen in the history of the Super Bowl.
"For the last year and a half I've talked about how Tom Brady is not the greatest of all time. I take it all back. The improbability of what this man just did, I can't believe what I have seen with my own two eyes.
"It is unbelievable. I take back every negative thing I ever said about this man, he shut me up today. He truly is the greatest."
Social media reacts to the game... and Gaga
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/38876834
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BIBA to introduce head scans following Mike Towell and Nick Blackwell incidents - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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The British & Irish Boxing Authority are to introduce head scanners to check for bleeding on the brains of boxers.
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Handheld scanners which detect bleeding on the brain will be introduced to improve the ringside care of boxers.
The British & Irish Boxing Authority (BIBA) hopes to use the device at an event in Bradford on 26 February.
Mike Towell died from head injuries sustained in a bout in September, six months after Nick Blackwell was hospitalised with a bleed to the brain.
BIBA will offer use of the scanners to fighters who compete under the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC).
But the BBBofC told BBC Sport it "does not recognise" BIBA - known as the Malta Boxing Commission until 2016 - and that it will continue to do its own research and use its own medical practices.
BIBA vice-president Gianluca Di Caro told BBC Sport: "It's not about us and the fighters we work with versus fighters with other organisations. It is about all the fighters.
"If there is a fighter anywhere, who has been suffering with headaches, he needs to know we will go to him and do a scan. Sometimes we will just have to move quickly to ensure that any boxer can be helped.
"We will have one scanner by 22 February, another is on order and our aim is to have 10. I will raise the sponsorship to do that."
Scans 'can only be good'
Towell had been suffering with headaches in the run-up to a bout days before his death after a fifth-round loss to Welsh fighter Dale Evans.
Upon hearing news of the introduction of scanners, his girlfriend Chloe Ross posted on Facebook: "I'm glad to be finally seeing something good coming from what happened to Michael. It shouldn't take someone's life for these things to be used but if it saves someone else's life then that can only be a good thing."
Through sponsorship from an Australian backer, BIBA has purchased two scanners at a cost of $15,000 (£12,000) each and intends on using them to check on fighters before and after fights.
Scanners, which operate by shining a light laser beam into the head, can detect brain bleeds with an accuracy of 90% and take around three minutes to complete. Their use by BIBA will form part of a broad medical undertaken by fighters before bouts, including cognitive testing.
In addition to Towell's death and Blackwell's injury, 2016 also saw amateur boxer Kuba Moczyk, 22, die after sustaining a severe head injury in his first bout.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/38878500
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Putting the fun into funeral - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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A village in Cuba holds a burial, with a twist.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38876939
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Fire engulfs recycling centre in Milton, Stoke-on-Trent - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Amateur footage captures the blaze at a recycling centre in Milton, Stoke-on-Trent.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38872527
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Queen's Sapphire Jubilee: 41-gun salute marks 65 years on the throne - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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The Queen has become the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee.
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A 41-gun salute has been fired in London's Green Park to mark the Queen's 65 years on the throne.
During the celebration, 89 horses pulled six World War One-era 13-pounder field guns into position in the park.
The Queen has become the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee, after becoming the UK's longest-reigning monarch in 2015, aged 89.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38882900
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Tractor used as 'taxi for drunk mates' in Ripley - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The vehicle was seen leaving a North Yorkshire town with no lights on.
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York & North Yorkshire
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The John Deere tractor was seen leaving Harrogate in the early hours of the morning
A tractor being driven by a 15-year-old boy "as a taxi for his drunk mates" has been stopped by police in North Yorkshire.
The John Deere tractor was pulled over by officers in the village of Ripley and had two other males on board.
The vehicle had been seen in nearby Harrogate at about 05:00 GMT with no headlights on.
Police said the driver had no licence, was not insured and did not have permission from the tractor's owner.
The vehicle was seized, with the three due to be interviewed by officers.
Posting on Twitter, Insp Chris Galley said: "A strange end to a night shift. 15-year-old lad driving a tractor as a taxi for his drunk mates."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-38872959
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Phnom Penh's No 1 ladies taxi scooter agency - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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In Cambodia, motorbike taxis are everywhere - but it's rare to see women drivers transporting tourists. One entrepreneur is trying to change that.
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Magazine
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In Cambodia's capital, motorbike taxis are everywhere - but it's extremely rare to see women drivers transporting tourists. Those who do are judged harshly. Katya Cengel meets the young entrepreneur trying to change that.
When they show up at a Phnom Penh hotel in their tight red T-shirts and skinny jeans, people tend to get the wrong idea about Renou Chea and her fellow Moto Girl Tour guides.
"They think we're not 'good girls'," says Renou, a slight 26-year-old with long dark hair. "They think we're 'bad girls'."
It is an important distinction to make in Cambodia, where women who associate with foreigners are often assumed to be "bad girls" - or women who work in the sex trade.
"Sometimes they think that when we hang out with the men, it's just like for sex or something like that," adds her sister, Raksmey Chea, 23.
The Moto Girl Tour website doesn't help, offering motorbike tours of Cambodia's capital by "young and beautiful lady drivers".
Because they are all young and beautiful, Renou doesn't understand why advertising this might seem strange.
What is strange, at least in this South East Asian country, is women driving tourists. It just isn't done, says Siv Cheng, owner of Phnom Penh-based CS Travel.
"Mostly, you see, all moto (taxi) drivers are male," says Cheng.
Left to right: Sreynich Horm, Raksmey Chea and Renou Chea
Many women drive the little Vespa scooters and Hyundai motorbikes that zip around the city - everyone does - but they don't usually carry tourists.
Renou got the idea after an aunt told her about schoolgirls offering a moto taxi service in Thailand.
Having ridden a motorbike since high school, and having studied English in college, Renou figured showing tourists around her city would be a fun way to earn money. Having also studied accounting, she no doubt saw a good business opportunity as well. In 2015 almost five million tourists travelled to Cambodia, according to the Cambodian Ministry of Tourism.
Renou recruited her younger sister and Sreynich Horm, 22 - both as petite and pretty as Renou - and occasionally a fourth woman to be Moto Girl Tour guides.
But before they took their first tourists on board their bikes in early 2016, they had to convince their families that they would be safe.
Horm's father worried that a foreigner riding behind her could touch her and do other things to her - things "good" virgin girls should not have done to them.
To make sure they kept their reputations safe, the women established a rule - no holding on to the guide, hold the handlebar on the seat behind you instead.
When they have night tours and tours outside the city they team up. Still, friends and family often worry about the women carrying around large foreigners.
At 4ft 9in (1.45m) and 6st 5lb (40kg), Renou is the "tall" Moto Girl. Her Vespa is more than twice her weight, but she gets upset when people think she can't handle it or heavy loads.
For years she has been helping her father with his grocery store by making deliveries on her Vespa. Plus, as a woman, she believes she is actually a safer driver, something Hong Ly, guest relations' manager at Mito Hotel agrees with.
Renou would like to see more female travellers in Cambodia
"Tourists like girls who drive slow, not weave in and out of traffic," said Ly, who keeps a stack of Moto Girl Tour brochures on her desk.
The Moto Girls may be on to something. In early 2016 Vespa Adventures motorbike tour-company opened a branch in Phnom Penh and began hiring both male and female drivers, says Alex Meldrum, manager of the Phnom Penh branch.
An American man founded the original Vespa Adventures in Vietnam. But a Cambodian woman who plans to hire mainly female drivers in the group's other Cambodian location of Siem Reap runs Cambodian Vespa Adventures.
Chanel Sinclair, a 31-year-old lawyer from Australia, was both thrilled and comforted to find female tour guides when travelling solo in Phnom Penh for the first time in spring 2016.
She was so pleased with the attentive service she received from the Moto Girls, including regular cold water deliveries and help with bartering, that she went on three tours with the group.
Renou would like to see more women travellers like Sinclair, but so far the majority of the company's 50 or so customers have been male.
Scottish photographer Ross Kennedy, 44, took a custom tour with the Moto Girls in March 2016. To find more authentic scenes for Kennedy to shoot, Horm went to a region outside the city where her father has family and asked locals' advice.
Kennedy's tour began with crashing a wedding in the morning and ended with a Buddhist blessing ceremony in the afternoon. "Those are the memories that make a trip special," Kennedy wrote in an email.
In addition to being female, the Moto Girls try to differentiate themselves as well-informed guides who can discuss Cambodian art, history and culture.
Finding the right spots are not the only challenges they face. There are the cultural differences as well, like the Indian customer who said "Yes" while shaking his head in a fashion Renou mistook for "No", or the man from New Zealand who screamed when he saw a chicken on the road.
On one occasion Renou and her client were so absorbed in their tour of the National Museum that neither heard the alarm sounding the museum's closing. Renou finally glanced at her watch at 17:30, half an hour after closing time. As they raced to the gate, her client promised to book another tour - if she could get them out of the museum.
The locked gate proved a dead end, but some workers were able to find a security guard who let them out. Renou's customer proved true to his word and booked another tour.
Other difficulties are in the driving itself. Passengers unfamiliar with riding motorbikes sometimes lean to the left when they should lean right, says Horm.
Then there was the tourist who got the wrong idea and asked her out on a date. She turned him down, not wanting to confuse her work with her social life. Plus, she didn't fancy him.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38827372
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Trump protests: LGBTQ rally in New York - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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An immigrant rights campaigner has five things to say at the LGBTQ Solidarity Rally in New York.
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An immigrant rights campaigner took the podium at the LGBTQ Solidarity Rally in New York on Saturday.
Thanushka Yakupitiyage from the New York Immigration Coalition spoke at one of a number of worldwide protests over President Trump's agenda.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38872520
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Guy Hamilton: The James Bond director who went undercover in WW2 - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The James Bond director who risked his life during a daring secret mission in Nazi-occupied France.
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England
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James Bond director Guy Hamilton, pictured here on the set of Goldfinger, was a secret agent during World War Two
That James Bond creator Ian Fleming drew literary inspiration from his wartime work in espionage is relatively well known. But the heroic World War Two exploits of the director of Bond films including Goldfinger and Live and Let Die are less well documented.
Guy Hamilton, who grew up in France but was sent to boarding school to England, made an early foray into the film industry in the late 1930s, but after fleeing France at the outbreak of war his film-making career had to be put on hold while he joined the effort to defeat Nazi Germany.
In June 1944, he found himself in the sort of dire straits that would have challenged Bond himself.
On a mission to drop French secret agents in Brittany, Lt Hamilton and his crew of two sailors became stranded in a place crawling with German soldiers.
Under cover of darkness, Hamilton and his crew had rowed to shore from his navy ship in a small surfboat to drop off the agents. But when he headed back the ship had gone. There was no way of returning home.
Hamilton ran covert high-speed motor gun and torpedo boats out of Dartmouth for the Royal Navy's 15th Flotilla
Hamilton used the Shelburne Line, one of a series of crucial Allied escape routes that crisscrossed occupied France
Plymouth's Honorary French Consul Alain Sibril, who was born in Brittany and whose grandfather was part of the local Resistance, said: "This was shortly after D-Day, it was extremely, extremely dangerous.
"You can imagine it was a terrible place to be stuck."
Speaking to BBC Inside Out before his death last year, Hamilton said the events of that time were still etched on his memory: "My worries were to get rid of the surfboat and to try and get as far away form the beach as possible."
He spent several days on the run with two other sailors, evading German patrols and navigating minefields.
They were eventually rescued by the French Resistance and sheltered in a safe house run by Anne Ropers.
Hamilton (right) spent a month in Brittany pretending to be a Frenchman to avoid detection
Anne Ropers hid Hamilton and two other agents for about a month
In an interview before she died last year Mrs Ropers, then 97, said: "They stayed in my parents' room. At night, Guy was in one bed and the sailors in the other.
"By day, all three of them spent their time lying on their beds, so that they did not make any noise."
Mr Sibril said: "Had the Germans discovered Guy Hamilton and his fellow sailors, this would have been extremely dangerous. Not only for them, but also for the whole network of Resistance fighters."
Marguerite Pierre, 92, was another Resistance member who helped Lt Hamilton.
She said: "We were told by our commander that we risked either deportation or being shot in the field. We knew what the risks were."
Hamilton managed to send a message back to his naval crew in Dartmouth telling them he was safe
One night Hamilton's cover was almost blown, when members of the Resistance took him for a boozy game of boules.
He said: "They took me down the road to a cafe that had a bowling alley in the back.
"Well that was alright except that it was full of Germans all in uniform, having a drink. And the lads said 'can we have the bowling alley after you Fritz?', and they said 'yes, yes'… I was appalled and horrified."
Mrs Ropers said: "Each team bought the other a jug of cider. The Germans bought a jug of cider for the Englishman and vice versa."
Sir Roger Moore said Hamilton "was very much a James Bond character himself"
Hamilton would recall these experiences while directing James Bond films, as 007 actor Sir Roger Moore recalls.
He said: "He did tell me that he was once dropped into Nazi-occupied France and, being separated from his squad, found himself in a fairly sticky situation in a French village teeming with German soldiers.
"By virtue of speaking fluent French he was able to pull the wool over the Germans' eyes in a bar by pretending to be a local, and he was obviously very convincing."
For nearly a month Hamilton managed to avoid detection before escaping back to safety in England. Ten days later the escape route used by the Resistance was uncovered by the Nazis.
After the war Guy Hamilton worked in the film industry training under Carol Reed
The first Bond film he directed was Goldfinger in 1964
Hamilton directed a series of war films including Battle of Britain in 1969
He lived in Majorca until his death last year, aged 93
Hamilton would be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his gallantry.
After the war he returned to the film industry, training under legendary director Carol Reed on movies such as The Third Man, later directing blockbusters including The Colditz Story and Battle of Britain, as well as four Bond movies - Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun and Live and Let Die.
And for Moore, Hamilton's experiences in the Royal Navy informed the way he helped to bring Bond to life on the silver screen.
"Guy was very much a James Bond character himself," the actor said.
"He always knew what was believable and how far he could take audiences - and that was based on both his film-making experience and real wartime exploits."
Guy Hamilton's daring exploits can be relived on Inside Out South West on BBC One on Monday 6 February at 19:30 BST and on the iPlayer for 30 days thereafter
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38733763
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Super Bowl LI: Unforgettable moments including Rio Ferdinand & Lady Gaga - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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BBC Sport looks back at some of the best moments of Super Bowl LI, including some dazzling footwork from Atlanta Falcons Taylor Gabriel and Lady Gaga's dramatic half-time entrance.
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BBC Sport looks back at some of the best moments of Super Bowl LI, including some dazzling footwork from Atlanta Falcons Taylor Gabriel and Lady Gaga's dramatic half-time entrance.
WATCH MORE: Watch the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/38876858
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United Arab Emirates sees rare snowfall - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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The United Arab Emirates is dealing with some weird weather.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38873907
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Louvre attack: Friend defends 'respectful' suspect - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Social media updates by the Egyptian suspected of launching a machete attack at a Paris museum suggested nothing untoward, says his friend.
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Social media updates by the Egyptian suspected of launching a machete attack at the Louvre in Paris suggested nothing untoward, says his friend.
French authorities say a man, believed to be Abdullah Hamamy, was shot in the stomach as he lunged at soldiers with the knives at the museum on Friday.
But his neighbour in Egypt, Ibrahim Yossry, says updates to Abdullah's social media upon his arrival in France suggested nothing untoward.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38873908
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Lady Gaga dives into Super Bowl history - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The pop star leaps 79 metres from the roof of Houston's NRG stadium during her Super Bowl show.
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Entertainment & Arts
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The star performed aerial stunts throughout the first half of her set
She jumped off the roof of Houston's NRG stadium and bathed in the light of hundreds of drones - but Lady Gaga's Super Bowl show was fairly restrained... by her standards.
The star only changed costume twice, letting her music do the talking in a 12-minute, hit-laden set.
She opened with Woody Guthrie's civil rights anthem This Land Is Your Land, a gentle but pointed rebuke to the Trump administration; which she reinforced by performing Born This Way - her hymn to acceptance and inclusion.
"No matter black, white or beige... I was born to be brave," she sang to an expected US TV audience of 110 million.
But Gaga refrained from overt sermonising, simply saying: "We're here to make you feel good" (and, later on, "hello mum").
Gaga's vocals were impeccable throughout the show
She only performed one song from her current album, Joanne
Ahead of the Super Bowl, the star said her show would be "inclusive" and celebrate "the spirit of equality". Sponsors Pepsi simply said it would be "uniquely Gaga".
And, while she didn't hatch from an egg (as at the 2011 Grammy Awards) or smear herself in blood (2009's Monster Ball tour), it was certainly spectacular.
Gaga first appeared 79 metres above the crowd, as a swarm of drones hovered behind her; twinkling in the sky before adopting the colours of the stars and stripes during Woody Guthrie's left-wing anthem.
"One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," said the star, quoting the pledge of allegiance, then promptly performed a swan-dive from the roof, landing on a towering, torch-like structure several storeys below.
There, she launched into a dizzying medley of hit singles including Poker Face, Just Dance and Telephone, backed by an army of dancers.
Her vocals were strong and resonant throughout - although the intricate choreography left her out of breath for the set's sole ballad, Million Reasons.
The show had taken months to plan
Lady Gaga ties with Katy Perry as the youngest female artist to headline the half-time show: Both were 30 when they performed
Stage hands had just seven minutes to construct the elaborate set
Fans who flooded the pitch were given torches that flashed in time to the music, spelling out lyrics and making elaborate, co-ordinated patterns.
BBC Sport presenter Mark Chapman revealed that the entire stadium - including his commentary booth and the public toilets - had been plunged into darkness to make the visuals work on television.
Gaga ended the set with Bad Romance, backed by 40 dancers, dressed in blinding white costumes inspired by American Football uniforms.
Finishing the show atop a staircase, Gaga shouted "Super Bowl 51," dropped her microphone and jumped into the crowd holding a glittery silver football.
"This is for you Monsters," the star tweeted to her fanbase. "I love you."
Gaga was backed by 40 dancers for Bad Romance
Gaga posed on the field during the build-up to the clash between the Patriots and the Falcons
She also found time to take a selfie from the centre of the stadium
The last time the Super Bowl was held in Houston the half time performer was Janet Jackson, whose infamous "wardrobe malfunction" made the NFL wary of hiring young, edgy pop stars for several years.
Gaga posed no such problems, taming her worst excesses to deliver a streamlined, spectacular show that reminded many fans why they love her.
And while her performance lacked the political punch of Beyonce last year; or even a gif-able meme like Katy Perry's "left shark", there wasn't a single mis-step or misfiring moment.
The star was invited to play the half time show after singing the National Anthem at the 50th Super Bowl in California last year.
She said she had studied the greats (name-checking Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Bruce Springsteen) before beginning work on her show in September.
"I want every guy's girlfriend in his arms; I want every husband and wife kissing; every kid laughing," she told Radio Disney last year.
"In my mind they're having this really powerful family experience watching the Super Bowl."
According to CNN, the drone light show required special permission from the Federal Aviation Authority - which had established a 34.5-mile-radius "no-drone zone" around the stadium during the game for safety and security reasons.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38875699
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Joost van der Westhuizen: Former South Africa captain dies, aged 45 - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen dies aged 45, six years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen has died aged 45, six years after he was diagnosed with the debilitating motor neurone disease.
Van der Westhuizen won the World Cup with the Springboks in 1995.
Regarded as one of the finest scrum-halves in history, he won 89 international caps between 1993 and 2003, scoring 38 tries.
He captained the Springboks for four years, including at the 1999 World Cup, before his retirement in 2003.
Van der Westhuizen was admitted to hospital in Johannesburg on Saturday, when he was said to be in a "critical condition".
• None In his own words: 'It's been a rollercoaster from day one'
"Joost will be remembered as one of the greatest Springboks - not only of his generation, but of all time," said South Africa Rugby president Mark Alexander.
"He also became an inspiration and hero to many fellow sufferers of this terrible disease as well as to those unaffected.
"We all marvelled at his bravery, his fortitude and his uncomplaining acceptance of this terrible burden."
Van der Westhuizen made his Springboks debut the year after the team were readmitted to international rugby and was their record try-scorer until Bryan Habana surpassed him in 2011.
He will be best remembered for his major role in the Springboks lifting the World Cup on home soil, beating New Zealand in the final.
After winning the Tri-Nations Championship in 1998, he was named captain for the 1999 World Cup - at which South Africa finished third - before retiring after defeat by New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the 2003 tournament.
At the time of his retirement, his 89 Tests made him the most-capped South African of all time, though five players have since won more caps.
After being diagnosed with MND, a rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system and impacts on important muscle activity such as walking, speaking and breathing, he set up the J9 Foundation, which provides support and care to people with the disease.
'He was the best I played against'
Wales interim coach Rob Howley said he was "devastated" by his fellow former scrum-half's death.
"He was a fantastic rugby player and for me was the best nine I played against," Howley said.
"He was a world-class nine who was respected throughout the rugby world.
"I have been fortunate enough to play against him and enjoy his company off the pitch and it is tragic he has passed so young."
England coach Eddie Jones, who coached against Van der Westhuizen during his time in Super Rugby, also paid his tribute.
"He was an absolutely outstanding player, a very good long-passer with a great kicking game, a terrific defender and a guy who really influenced the players," he told BBC Sport.
"Having coached against him when he played for the Bulls, they were a completely different team with him playing and he will be sorely missed.
"You had to be very tight around the ruck when you played against him because he was a great sniper. He was such a big guy who had good pace and was difficult to defend against.
"It is so sad to hear of his death. You feel for his family and supporters of South African rugby."
'It became an iconic moment'
Former South Africa captain Jean de Villiers says Van der Westhuizen will be remembered as one of the best to play for the Springboks.
"What he achieved on the rugby field was unbelievable," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
De Villiers remembers Van der Westhuizen's tackle on New Zealand great Jonah Lomu, who died at the age of 40 in November 2015, in the 1995 World Cup final as an "iconic moment in the game".
"The sad thing is that neither of them are with us any more," he added.
"Joost's tackle on Jonah that day - a front on tackle on the guy that was destroying every team in the world. Here comes a scrum-half, someone who is not meant to put in tackles like that, and tackles him front on.
"The team as a whole got so much inspiration from him for doing that. For us as a country it became an iconic day and it changed the way that we were viewed forever."
De Villiers says Van der Westhuizen's contribution to raising awareness of motor neuron disease will be remembered as much as his rugby achievements.
"He never gave up," he said. "He gained so much respect in the latter part of his life, even though he was so successful on the rugby field as well."
Former South African captain Corne Krige added: "If you wanted an X factor in your team - he was that guy.
"He was the ultimate modern day scrum-half - first of the bigger scrum-halves in the world. It's tragic for his family and for his kids and for everyone involved."
Joost van der Westhuizen made an impact on the sport in two ways.
The first was as a magnificent scrum-half - one of the all-time greats - who won 89 caps and scored 38 tries and was the man who stopped Jonah Lomu in his tracks in the 1995 World Cup final, which the Springboks went on to win.
The other part was as a great inspiration - a man who gamely and bravely fought motor neurone disease for six years, who set up his foundation and inspired so many people along the way.
He was a great figure on and off the rugby field.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38882762
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NHS care: Iris Sibley's six-month wait to leave hospital - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Justin Webb looks at an elderly Bristol woman's struggle to find a care home place.
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Health
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Iris Sibley spent six months in hospital waiting for a place in a care home
It is December in the Bristol Royal Infirmary and in a room tucked away on a top floor is 89-year-old Iris Sibley. She has been living here for more than six months.
Keeping her company are her devoted husband and son - Arthur, who is 90, and John.
"Mum has got dementia and other problems and she now needs 24/7 nursing care," says John.
"At the moment she is being funded by the NHS. But it's just a system where you're going from one organisation to another and nobody seems to be co-ordinating."
Tracing the steps that John, Arthur and Iris have tried to take to get her moved on to a care home is mind-numbingly complex. Everyone is well meaning but no-one is fully in charge of the whole process.
Julia Clarke, chief executive of local NHS services provider Bristol Community Health, says Iris's case is simple to process and fund - but finding space in a care home is the difficult part.
"I've seen the printout of all the calls that we made to the various homes between August and December and it was more or less a daily effort," she says.
"Twenty-four homes were contacted during the period, 11 had no vacancies and another 11 felt they couldn't meet Mrs Sibley's needs. And the two able to meet her needs with vacancies, unfortunately were too far away for the family and for Mrs Sibley to have access to her support networks.
"So it's a combination of circumstances. Some people would call it a perfect storm."
There are two big costs here, the human and of course the financial cost for the NHS, which is providing a place for Iris to live.
Bristol Royal Infirmary is a large teaching hospital in the centre of the city
Robert Woolley, the chief executive of the Bristol Royal Infirmary, says he has 800 beds available. On any given day around 60 people are ready to leave but can't and that is when it gets pricey.
"The sort of medical ward that Mrs Sibley was on, the costs are in the order of £450 a night.
"Given the delay that she had leaving hospital, going on for six months that is probably £90,000 that we didn't really need to spend in the NHS if there had been appropriate care available for her outside of hospital."
Iris's husband Arthur appreciates the care given to his wife but said: "She needs a bit of stimulation. I'm not sure that being alone in the room is good for her.
"We've tried all sorts of ways to hurry things up but if they can't find a vacancy, they can't find a vacancy."
Anne Morris, director of nursing for South Gloucestershire's clinical commissioning group which orders the area's NHS and community health services, says: "Iris is an elderly lady with some health needs that some of the care homes would struggle to be able to meet."
She adds they are working to put appropriate support in place for staff.
However space is not the only problem John and Arthur face - money can potentially be an issue.
"We went to see a home where there was a vacancy and it was great," says John.
"It had everything that mum needed, a window to look out into a garden to see birds. But then a few days later we heard from the NHS people that the bed had gone."
Care providers have to balance the number of patients who pay privately and those funded by the state
John believed his mum lost out on the place because a private person could pay more.
David Sallacombe, chief executive of Care and Support West, the body that represents the homes, is blunt about the cost.
"What often happens is that the provider has to make some difficult judgements about the percentage they have in their organisation who might be self-funders and the percentage of state-funded," he explains.
"Some organisations have made the decision to only have self-funding clients, whereas on the residential side it can be often 70% self-funders, 30% state funded."
Since December, Iris has been found a place in a nursing home and she loves it.
However, she has been reassessed by the funding authority and although she is still doubly incontinent, living with dementia and needing a hoist to be moved out of bed, the family are now being told that she no longer qualifies for NHS funding.
This means she will be back with the council and the family will have to pay towards her care.
Mike Hennessy, director of adult social services for Bristol City Council, says fully-funded NHS care is free at the point of delivery, whereas council services are means tested. He points out there is usually a contribution to be made by the service user towards their care.
"The cost of a care home varies significantly. In actual fact it could be anywhere between £800 and £1,100 a week depending on the needs of the individual," he says.
He says the amount to pay is decided on the individual's income and any assets that they have.
"Sometimes if people have got over £23,500 they will be required to pay the full cost of their care."
Everyone we talked to about Iris mentioned the future that we all face, with an ageing population and a lack of money. Could some planning and a national conversation make it less gloomy?
Mr Sallacombe says: "Is there any conversation about what that might mean - are we talking here about whether it will cost everybody a pound a week more or five pounds a week more?
"That debate hasn't in my view been engaged in the public with enough vigour."
You can download the podcast of Justin Webb's full report for BBC Radio 4's Today programme here.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38859217
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Six Nations 2017: Biggar and North injuries worry Wales - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Wales have injury worries over Dan Biggar and George North as they look forward to hosting England in the Six Nations on Saturday.
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Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Coverage: Live on BBC One Wales, S4C, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app, plus live text commentary
Wales have injury concerns over fly-half Dan Biggar and wing George North before their Six Nations game against England in Cardiff on Saturday.
Fly-half Biggar injured ribs and wing North played on after taking an early blow to the thigh in their 33-7 win over Italy in Rome.
Biggar failed to return after half-time while North played on - and scored a try - in obvious discomfort.
The wing's 60-metre try in the 77th minute was Wales' highlight.
Full-back Leigh Halfpenny's conversion meant Wales scored 30 unanswered points in the second period.
Wales have a six-day turnaround before playing England in Cardiff with the visitors having a day extra to recover from their opening win over France.
"Dan's taken a blow to his ribs, we'll wait for more medical information," said interim coach Rob Howley.
"George took an early bump, and has a haematoma on his thigh.
"We were happy for him to stay on and he showed some mental toughness which is important in games when you come away from home and we were delighted for him to get over the try-line as well."
• None Never miss a Six Nations story - sign up for our rugby news alerts
Wales are hoping to have number eight Taulupe Faletau and lock Luke Charteris available to face England.
Neither player travelled to Rome with Howley confirming they had been working on their fitness in Wales over the weekend.
Biggar's replacement, Sam Davies, played a part in two of Wales' second-half tries.
It was his adventure deep in Wales' own 22 which set up North's score and took Howley's team within touching distance of the tournament's first try bonus point.
"Sam played particularly well, as we know he can," said Howley.
But the coach refused to be drawn on whether Davies had done enough to gain selection for England ahead of Bigger if both players are fit.
"We'll have to see how Dan comes through. Hopefully he and George North will be available for selection," he added.
North believes the faith they showed in themselves paid off in the win.
Wales ended the first round on top of the table after North followed Jonathan Davies and Liam Williams in touching down amid 30 unanswered second-half points.
"We had to fight to the end, every inch, but we're happy with the performance," said North.
"We know they are a passionate team but we backed ourselves and it showed."
After leading the team for the first time since replacing Sam Warburton as captain, lock Alun Wyn Jones was pleased with his side's attitude having trailed 7-3 at the break.
"The first half proved how much of a test it was," said Jones.
"We started slowly but the character showed. We got our foot in the door after the way results have gone.
"We worked a little harder, kept the ball and we came together in the second half."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38875547
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The mind of Donald Trump - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What does his first fortnight as president reveal about Donald Trump's beliefs?
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US & Canada
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No modern president has been so analysed. Other leaders don't know him and can't read him. He leaves a trail, but it is strewn with contradictions. He craves popularity but revels in being demonised. He trusts his gut instincts and embraces unpredictability as a virtue.
Diplomats, foreign leaders, business chiefs are all trying to decipher what drives the 45th president.
Donald Trump's first two weeks have been about power, about asserting it, about the noise of power, about taking a wrecking ball to the establishment and leaving it wrong-footed and uncertain.
No president before him has been so ready with threats against foreign powers, old allies, major corporations, and Washington's public servants.
At conferences, seminars, at diplomatic functions, in foreign ministries, I have encountered the same whispered and not so hidden question: what do these erratic actions tell us about the mind of Donald Trump?"
Some say he can't survive or that he will over-reach himself. Others are waiting for him to self-destruct, but there is clear calculation behind these early heady days of being the most powerful man in the world.
Despite the protests, many Americans support the president on migration
First, Donald Trump is doing in office what he promised he would do, on the campaign trail.
At more than 15 campaign stops, I heard him vow to:
His claims were dismissed as campaign braggadocio, but he would bracket most of his promises with the words "believe me". He is now delivering.
Secondly, President Trump is looking after his core supporters; all those voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina who delivered him the White House.
While demonstrators gather in cities and at airports, protesting at his banning refugees and citizens from seven mainly Muslim countries from entering the States, the polls indicate that in middle America he has the support of nearly one in two Americans: 49% agreed with the policy.
All the outrage about the policy being discriminatory, that it is incoherent, that it will prove a recruiting sergeant for extremists, that such a policy - if it had been in place - would have prevented none of the recent terrorists attacks, make little impression on Mr Trump's inner circle.
Mr Trump knows his people, and he tweets his messages to them, direct and simple, as they were during the campaign.
"This travel ban is not about religion," he tweets, "this is about terror and keeping our country safe."
Some who voted for him may have misgivings, but most of them, so far, don't.
They like his confrontational style. Offending Washington's elite is a badge of his authenticity.
Early battles with judges and state department officials are evidence that he is "draining the swamp" as promised.
When a federal judge halted the travel ban, the president tweeted: "The opinion of this so-called judge… is ridiculous and will be overturned."
While his critics accused him of showing a lack of respect for the Constitution, Donald Trump reminded his audience that many "bad and dangerous people" could be "pouring" into the country.
Mr Trump has criticised those who halted his new migration policy
The dizzying array of announcements and executive orders form part of a strategic plan.
Never mind that some of the policies are incomplete. That is to miss the point.
The strategy is to demonstrate over the first 100 days of his presidency that he is a "high-energy" leader, shaking up the old order.
He is lucky to have inherited a strong economy, but he has promised much more.
The bonfire of regulations, the slashing of corporate and personal taxes, the pump-priming investments in infrastructure are all intended to lift growth levels above 3%.
If he achieves that, many Americans will stick with him.
Social media, as it did during the campaign, enables him to talk directly to those who packed his rallies.
The conventional wisdom was that he would not be tweeter-in-chief when he got to the White House.
But Mr Trump knows that every tweet becomes a news story and so enables him to manage the news agenda.
The mainstream media is still struggling to find a convincing riposte to a president who bypasses them to deliver his messages.
He declares he's in a "running war" with the press.
His chief strategist labels the media the "opposition party".
Again Mr Trump understands that if he denounces the media as "dishonest", it weakens its ability to hold him to account.
The state of the US economy will be a key indicator of President Trump's achievements
They point to his personal flaws: the need to be loved, to be popular, to make every issue about himself, the thin-skinned retorts, the savaging of those who disagree and the demonising of the press.
All are weaknesses that over time may damage and perhaps undo him.
His strategy is not just to change America but for him to dominate the public space.
Others search for the ideology that will underpin his presidency.
For Donald Trump, his guiding slogan will be "America first."
It will be his defence against all attacks. If that means challenging the international order, or tearing up old trade agreements or upsetting the global elite, so be it.
In these early days, it is impossible to know how much of a revolutionary Donald Trump will be and how much ideology will inform his decision-making.
His chief strategist, Stephen Bannon is, on the other hand, deeply ideological.
He seeks a new political order, where sovereignty returns to nation states, where the West confronts the "hateful ideology" of radical Islam.
In the immediate future, President Trump is likely to continue with his confrontational style, believing it is popular with his core supporters.
Many tests lie ahead. Not least is whether his policies will be followed through.
Was the announcement about the wall with Mexico intended as a headline or is Mr Trump determined to build it with Mexican money?
Will he really impose an import tax?
Will he risk a trade and currency war with China?
Will he move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem?
Will he encourage anti-establishment parties in Europe?
The questions are many, and the answers few.
To those who have openly doubted the president's sanity in these churning, bruising opening days, a clear strategy emerges.
The president and his close advisers will pay scant attention to the outcry from their opponents.
But they will nurture those who gave him his majority in the electoral college and might again.
In two years, and by the time of the mid-term elections, the American public will deliver an initial verdict on Trumpism.
Most importantly the Republican Party will be deciding whether it stays loyal to Mr Trump or whether it allows doubts and reservations to seep in, making Congress the obstacle to his presidency.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38881469
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France election: Hard-left candidate Melenchon appears by hologram - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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One of the candidates in the French presidential election doubles his audience with a hologram.
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One of the candidates in France's presidential election, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has launched his campaign as a hologram.
The veteran hard-left politician took to the stage in the flesh in Lyon while his three-dimensional image spoke simultaneously to another delighted audience in Paris, 500km (310 miles) away.
Mr Melenchon promotes the use of new technology as part of his "citizen revolution".
"Melenchon killed it for innovation in political communication this year," French radio station Europe 1 tweeted (in French).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38875197
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Super Bowl LI: New England Patriots beat Atlanta Falcons in greatest comeback - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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The New England Patriots complete the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history to beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28, having trailed 28-3.
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The New England Patriots complete the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, courtesy of a Tom Brady performance "for the ages", beating the Atlanta Falcons 34-28, having trailed 28-3.
WATCH MORE: Superb things from the Super Bowl
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/38876856
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Alastair Cook: England captain resigns after a record 59 Tests - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Alastair Cook resigns as England Test captain after leading the side in a record 59 matches.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Alastair Cook has resigned as England Test captain after a record 59 matches in charge.
The 32-year-old Essex batsman took the role in August 2012 and led his country to Ashes victories in 2013 and 2015.
However, during last year's 4-0 Test series defeat in India he admitted to having "questions" over his role.
"Stepping down has been an incredibly hard decision but I know this is the correct decision for me and at the right time for the team," said Cook.
"Playing for England really is a privilege and I hope to carry on as a Test player, making a full contribution and helping the next England captain and the team however I can."
Cook is England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket with 11,057, while his 140 Test appearances and 30 centuries are also England records.
England and Wales Cricket Board director of cricket Andrew Strauss, who Cook replaced as captain, said his successor was owed "a great debt of gratitude" by his country.
"He's led the team with determination, conviction and a huge amount of pride over the last five years and his record stands for itself," added Strauss.
"He deserves to be seen as one of our country's great captains."
In a BBC Sport poll, 32% of voters think that Cook was one of England's best ever captains.
The ECB has started the process of selecting Cook's successor, with his fellow batsman Joe Root regarded as the favourite.
Strauss said he hoped to make an appointment before England depart for a three-match one-day international series in the West Indies on 22 February, which will be led by limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan.
The team will only play limited-overs matches for the first half of 2017, with their next Test, against South Africa at Lord's, starting on 6 July.
After the four-match South Africa series, England host the West Indies in three Tests in August and September before travelling to Australia for the Ashes in November.
Why has Cook stepped down?
According to Cook's long-time mentor Graham Gooch, he was asked to make the decision now or wait until the end of this winter's Ashes tour.
Speculation over Cook's future first arose before the winter tour of India, when he said he was looking forward to a time when he was no longer captain.
Although England gained a creditable draw in the first Test, their performances deteriorated.
In the fourth Test they became only the third side to lose by an innings after making 400 or more batting first, a result that sealed a series defeat and after which Cook said he thought Root was "ready" to lead.
The fifth Test saw the tourists again beaten by an innings after hitting 477 batting first, this time with India piling on 759-7, their highest Test total and the largest made by any side against England.
In the aftermath, former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott called on Cook to step aside, while ex-captain Michael Vaughan said he expected the opener to stand down.
Cook always maintained his future would be decided in a regular post-series debrief with Strauss.
The former team-mates met to discuss the India tour in January, but Cook had already indicated he would like more time to consider his position, with Strauss keen to give his old opening partner ample opportunity to come to a decision.
However, despite being publicly backed to stay on by coach Trevor Bayliss and a number of players, the Essex batsman has opted to quit, informing ECB chairman Colin Graves of his decision on Sunday.
As England's highest Test run-scorer, Cook has always been admired for his batting, but there have always been questions, particularly over his tactics.
He has been stubborn - an excellent quality for an opening batsman, not always ideal in a captain - and largely cautious.
The most difficult time was in 2014, which began with the Ashes whitewash down under, moved on to the Kevin Pietersen saga and was followed by a home series defeat by Sri Lanka.
Cook's 2013 Ashes win as skipper is a highlight of his reign. So too, the triumph in South Africa in 2015-16 and the historic win in India in 2012.
Cook's winning percentage of 40.67 is only the fourth best of the six captains to have led England in more than 40 Tests. It has been an up-and-down ride.
The extended period of time taken to mull over his future shows that Cook has made the right decision for him. He will be incredibly comfortable with what lies ahead. That is likely to be scoring many more runs for England.
Root, who was Cook's vice-captain, made his England debut against India in 2012 and has won 53 caps.
The 26-year-old Yorkshireman is the overwhelming favourite to replace Cook, but England head coach Bayliss indicated last week that all options would be looked at.
Speaking to BBC Sport two weeks ago, Root said it was "hard to say" how he would deal with becoming England captain.
"I've got a lot of experience in Test cricket and it's one of those things that you learn on the job," he added.
Root said he would like Cook to remain in the Test team as "whether as captain or not he will be a massive leader within the dressing room".
Former England off-spinner Graeme Swann has said he is "not convinced" appointing Root would be the right decision.
"Root is the outstanding candidate, but you wouldn't want it to be a case of making your best player captain, only for it to backfire on you later," said Swann.
"I want him to concentrate on being the best player we have ever had, rather than having his talent curbed by the pressures of captaincy."
Cook was always seen as the heir to former captain Strauss, who retired in 2012.
His first job was to manage the return of batsman Kevin Pietersen, who had been left out of the England side over allegations he had sent derogatory texts messages about Strauss to members of the South Africa team.
With Pietersen back, Cook's first year in charge was a success, including a first Test series win in India for 27 years and the retaining of the Ashes on home soil.
However, England were whitewashed 5-0 in the return series in Australia in 2013-14, after which England decided to end Pietersen's international career, a decision in which Cook played an influential role.
With Cook's form on the wane - at one point the left-hander went almost two years without a Test century - and England struggling, he came under immense pressure in the summer of 2014.
After defeats by Sri Lanka at Headingley and India at Lord's, the likes of Vaughan and Alec Stewart, another former England captain, called for Cook to resign.
Cook, who later admitted he came close to quitting, revived his tenure with 95 against India at Southampton, an innings that set England on the way to a 3-1 series win.
Although he was sacked as one-day captain in late 2014, he regained the Ashes in the summer of 2015 and led England to a 2-1 series victory in South Africa, the world's number one team at the time.
In the summer of 2016, he became the first England batsman to reach 10,000 Test runs and spoke of his desire to lead on the Ashes tour of 2017-18.
However, he began speculation over his future with his comments before the India series.
The four defeats took him to 22 as captain, an England record, while eight Test losses in 2016 equals their worst calendar year.
What they said
Cook's mentor Gooch, another former England captain, said he had told Cook to stay on.
"This type of sportsman only comes once in a generation, maybe less. He's a great man and he's still got great things to do for his country," Gooch told BBC Radio 5 live.
Former England bowler Matthew Hoggard said Cook would be remembered "not only as a great leader but also as a genuinely nice bloke" and his captaincy had "evolved" over time.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38376729
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CV test pits Adam against Mohamed - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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A BBC test pitted Adam's CV against Mohamed's. Here's what happened.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38887860
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Leicester City: Kasper Schmeichel says title defence has been 'embarrassing' - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel calls the Foxes' title defence "embarrassing" and says they could go down.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has said the Foxes could be relegated if their "embarrassing" Premier League title defence continues.
The Foxes are just one point above the relegation zone following Sunday's 3-0 defeat at home by Manchester United.
Leicester are yet to win a league game in 2017 and have not scored in their previous five league outings.
"We're the reigning champions but quite frankly it's been terrible," Schmeichel told Sky Sports.
"Every player is hurting. It's not a situation that is comfortable. It's time for everyone to stand up and be counted because if we don't we're going to end up getting relegated."
• None Listen: Mahrez 'really is lacking in confidence'
Are the players behind Ranieri?
This time last year, Leicester won 3-1 at Manchester City to move five points clear at the top of the table and put them on course for an unexpected title.
Now they are 38 points behind leaders Chelsea with reports suggesting manager Claudio Ranieri has lost the support of his players.
Schemeichel would not comment on the speculation but Ranieri insisted his squad is behind him.
"We're together. I'm happy with the players and they're happy with me. We have to stay together and keep fighting," he said.
Leicester full-back Christian Fuchs said the players must start to show more fight if they are to pull away from trouble.
"We keep our heads high, we have to fight as a team and give everything until the last game," he said.
"We have to stick together. We are not there to stick our head in the sand, we want to fight back."
Former England international Jermaine Jenas, speaking on Match of the Day 2, said: "Watching the game against Manchester United, it was not a great performance, but I didn't see players downing tools, or players that had completely given up on a manager.
"I saw players low on confidence and not given much direction of where to play.
"In the stadium there seemed to be no atmosphere and the longer that continues, the more they will be in trouble."
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho had sympathy for his counterpart's predicament.
Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea in December 2015, just seven months after winning the Premier League, and the Portuguese coach said Ranieri deserves respect for his achievement at Leicester.
"For many years people will remember what he did," he said.
"They are finding it difficult. But we know their strength well. I'm sure they will get enough points to stay in the league."
'If not for title, Ranieri would be gone' - analysis
Ex-England defender Phil Neville, speaking on Match of the Day's Facebook Live, said: "As much as last season was an absolute fairytale, they have got to get that out of their heads quickly because they are in a relegation battle.
"Everyone kept telling me of the qualities of Leicester last season but I have not seen any of that - the hard work, discipline.
"They must have been wracking their brains but what they have got to do is shape up. Ranieri has to take some of the blame and find a system that will get them results."
Jenas added: "If Ranieri hadn't won the league last season he would have gone. He is in a tough spell. The fact the club are sticking with him is the right decision."
'They are in serious trouble'
Neville added on Match of the Day 2: "With the fixtures they have got coming up, you can't see where their next three points are coming from.
"In the next eight games, if they pick up one win, they will be lucky and that's why I think they're in serious trouble.
"The barometer is not last season when they won the league - that was a one-off - the barometer is two seasons ago when they had 21 points and were bottom of the league and won seven of their last nine games. They will have to do something similar."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38875721
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Formula 1: Nico Rosberg wanted Fernando Alonso as his Mercedes replacement - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Retired world champion Nico Rosberg reveals he wanted Fernando Alonso to replace him as Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate
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Nico Rosberg says he would have liked Fernando Alonso to replace him as Lewis Hamilton's team-mate.
The German retired last November, five days after winning the title, and Mercedes have chosen former Williams driver Valtteri Bottas to replace him.
Asked by Spain's Marca who he would have preferred, Rosberg said: "Everyone says Alonso and I say it too because there would be fireworks with Hamilton.
"As a fan, it would be nice, but for the team it wouldn't work."
Rosberg, who has become a Mercedes ambassador after hanging up his helmet, said: "They've found a great solution. Bottas is fast and though Hamilton will be at a very, very high level and it will be difficult to beat him, I have proved that he can."
This will be the first season F1 has not had the reigning champion competing on track since 1994, when Alain Prost retired after winning the title with Williams.
Rosberg said he was "happier" now he no longer has to battle against Hamilton and he said he would continue to attend some races this year.
He said: "It's true, it's a little weird. It is not the first time it's happened, but without the two yeah, well... I'm going to be at some races. I want to go and be close to the sport, I love it and I'll be a fan from now on."
He dismissed suggestions Mercedes might have been angry with him for announcing his decision so late and forcing them to have to persuade another team to release a contracted driver.
"Angry?" he said. "No, they have a lot of respect for me and I appreciate it.
However he admitted his relationship with non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, who has been critical of his decision in the media, was " more complicated".
"Though he seems angry in the press, with me he isn't," Rosberg said. "He told me in person that he took off his hat to me. He's been very supportive after three very good years working together."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/38880327
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Ciaran Maxwell: The Marine who turned to terror - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How Royal Marine Ciaran Maxwell turned to terror and stored arms smuggled from the military.
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Northern Ireland
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Ciaran Maxwell was set upon and beaten unconscious as a teenager in Larne
A Royal Marine Commando from Northern Ireland has pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism linked to dissident republicanism. Ciaran Maxwell's case raises alarming questions of how he was able to penetrate the ranks of an elite British military unit and smuggle out arms.
In the early hours of a morning back in June 2002, Maxwell, then 16, was walking from his home in Larne towards the Seacourt estate, which sits on a hill overlooking the port. What happened next left the Catholic teenager "angry and traumatised", according to someone in the nationalist community who knew him.
Maxwell was struck by a bottle, fell to the ground and was set upon and beaten unconscious by a gang of loyalists armed with golf clubs and iron bars.
The unprovoked attack featured in the republican newspaper An Phoblacht, which claimed that an Army patrol arrived at the scene but did not intervene.
That cannot be substantiated, though amid escalating tension in the town, soldiers were back on the streets to support the police who dealt with nearly 300 sectarian incidents between April 2001 and March 2004.
A security source we spoke to recalled shootings, houses being burnt out and regular beatings.
This was the environment in which Maxwell - described as a "quiet republican" - became an adult.
Several residents in his home town said the mental scars of his beating never fully healed, leaving a vulnerability that others would later exploit.
The failure of police to prosecute anyone for the assault may also have caused him bitterness.
Eight years later the adventure-loving, physically fit Maxwell began the gruelling 32-week training to become a Royal Marine, writing online: "Pain is temporary, the Green Beret is forever."
In May 2011 his mother expressed her pride ahead of attending his passing out parade in England.
But all was not as it seemed. One of the men who completed training with Maxwell, and does not want to be identified, told the BBC: "He was a strange character, very reserved, didn't join in with the banter."
He described him as "shifty" and unwilling to form close relationships with others in the unit.
Before he had even completed his training, court papers show that Maxwell began "assisting another to commit an act of terrorism" although it is not clear which individual or group he was working with.
He was not the only young man from Larne being drawn into the orbit of dissident republicanism.
A friend from the Seacourt estate was jailed in 2014 after pleading guilty to possession of explosives with intent to endanger life. Niall Lehd had buried chemicals, a pipe bomb and a deactivated submachine gun in blue barrels in a field.
By 2016, despite having become a father, Maxwell had begun burying his own blue barrels full of explosive ingredients during visits to see family in Larne.
Some of the ammunition discovered
In a country park, he stockpiled chemicals which he bought online, timer units and improvised detonators. Even more alarmingly, in a remote forest he hid a handgun, ammunition, pipe bombs and Claymore anti-personnel mines he had stolen from the British military.
His behaviour was becoming increasingly reckless as he built more hides in the woods near his home in Devon where he also stashed cannabis he planned to sell in Larne.
In his work locker were bank card details stolen from fellow Marines to carry out fraud and handwritten notes on tactics used by terrorist groups.
But his plans unravelled when police uncovered the hides in Northern Ireland in one of the most significant arms finds of recent years.
Detectives traced the serial numbers on the mines across the Irish Sea to 40 Commando, the Royal Marine unit based near Taunton where Ciaran Maxwell had been quietly building a career. They also found his DNA on some of the material found in the woods.
Maxwell had endured so much to get the green beret only to trade it for terrorism. Was his a long-planned infiltration or was he dragged back by others to a past he thought he had escaped?
In his hometown few are willing to talk on the record about his case. Larne is much calmer these days but the occasional street mural and flag hint at the continuing presence of loyalist paramilitary groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association.
There are concerns that dissident republicans are becoming more active in parts of Northern Ireland. Last month a police officer was shot and injured in north Belfast.
Although Maxwell had links to dissident republicans, it is not known how extensive they were. A security source told the BBC that he was "operating as a bit of a lone wolf."
Sammy Wilson, Democratic Unionist MP for East Antrim, said: "There has always been a dissident group which has been operating around Larne engaged in firebombing, that kind of activity, and it's been known that they have been trying to move into the area and recruit."
Mr Wilson is concerned that Ciaran Maxwell was able to sneak munitions out of his base and evade detection for so long.
He said: "Where it is clear that someone is vulnerable either to coercion or may well have sympathies to aid and abet terrorist groups because of their background, perhaps we should give special attention to them when they come back to their own community."
The BBC asked the Ministry of Defence about its security vetting procedures for Royal Marines but received no response.
The criminal case against Ciaran Maxwell was overwhelming, paving the way for today's guilty plea.
What is much less clear is exactly why he turned to terrorism, although his actions offer a stark reminder of the dark forces that still threaten stability in Northern Ireland.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38856986
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Migrants take public transport to Calais - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Scores of migrants take buses to Calais each day, and use them to get home again if they fail to stow away on a lorry to the UK.
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Every day scores are migrants are using public buses to travel to the port of Calais from the only official camp near Dunkirk, the BBC has discovered.
Many say they are hoping to stow away in lorries and enter the UK via Dover.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-38880918
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Six Nations 2017: England's 'horrendous' record in Wales puzzles Eddie Jones - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Eddie Jones will seek to address England's "horrendous" record in Cardiff before the Six Nations meeting with Wales on Saturday.
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Last updated on .From the section English Rugby
Coverage: Live on BBC One (watch with 5 live commentary on BBC Red Button and online from 16:30 GMT)
Eddie Jones will seek to address England's "horrendous" record in Cardiff before the Six Nations meeting with Wales on Saturday.
England have won just two of their past seven visits to the Welsh capital and head coach Jones says the fixture has "petrified" previous Red Rose teams.
Jones' side set a new national record 15th consecutive victory after beating France in their opening game.
"I can't work out why our record in Wales is so poor," said Jones.
• None Watch the latest highlights and videos from the Six Nations
Wales, who are top of the early Six Nations table after their 33-7 win against Italy, have won 36 of 61 home meetings against England - nearly 60%.
Jones added: "There seems to be some sort of thing there because no-one can tell me why the English are petrified of playing Wales in Wales.
"I will talk to a few blokes who have played there to figure out what the problem is and why the record is so horrendous - because it is horrendous.
"Obviously it has been difficult for the English to cope with, so we need to find a way whereby they see it as being delightful."
• None Get all the latest Six Nations news by adding
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38875387
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Tube ticket office row resolved but at what cost? - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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After a long three years, there finally seems to be a resolution over Tube ticket office closures.
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London
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It has been three long years in the making, but today it seems as if we have a resolution to the closure of Tube ticket offices.
Both have moved on to greater things but the hangover of that announcement has lasted until today.
It was one of the most radical changes in Tube history and 953 jobs were earmarked for closure.
The bosses tried to sweeten the pill on that day by announcing the Night Tube, but it was the job losses the unions really hated.
From that day, there have been countless strikes, pickets, demonstrations, offers and counter offers over the issue of job cuts and safety.
But under the Tory mayor, Boris Johnson, the unions had given up striking as they were making very little headway.
The ticket offices shut in 2015 and the unions managed to get the number of lost staff down to 838.
In the mayoral election last year, the unions reinvigorated their campaign against the cuts and when Labour's Sadiq Khan took power he promised a review of the ticket office closures - carried out by London TravelWatch.
Countless strikes, pickets and demonstrations have been held in the last three years
It found staff were not visible enough (but didn't comment on specific numbers) and it did not say ticket offices should be re-opened.
However, crucially for the first time LU admitted they were short of staff.
That was the turning point and then it became a question of numbers.
The RMT and TSSA unions walked out on 9 January much to the annoyance of the new mayor whose promise of "zero strikes" evaporated.
This week that number rose - according to LU - to 325 with at least 200 of them being full-time.
On top of that 325 will be taken on as part of annual recruitment to match those leaving their jobs on the Tube. (The unions say 300 or so jobs are lost a year through retirement etc and there are already 70 unfilled posts.)
So, who can claim this as a victory?
Certainly the unions are delighted. They have got more staff but it is some way short of the 838 laid off.
LU said getting rid of 838 staff would save £50m a year. That saving will be reduced and now there is inevitably the question of affordability.
Transport for London (TfL) is having to make big changes and big savings and there are job losses being made elsewhere.
Conservative London Assembly member Keith Prince says: "Sadiq Khan has caved in and bought off the RMT by spending tens of millions of pounds on unnecessary jobs."
By recruiting in one area, bigger cuts will have to be made elsewhere. This though was a political and operational priority.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38861415
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Petition started for retiring officer to keep his police dog - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The officer is upset at the prospect of not being able to keep four-year-old Ivy when he retires.
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Shropshire
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Sgt David Evans has offered to buy Ivy and cover the cost of replacing her
More than 15,000 people have signed a petition to allow a police dog to retire with her handler.
Sgt David Evans, from Shropshire, is "heartbroken" at the prospect of not being able to keep four-year-old Ivy when he retires, his daughter said.
She set up an online petition to gather support for her father, who is stepping down in April after 34 years' service.
The chief constable has "made a direct offer" to speak to Sgt Evans. Police dogs normally retire about age eight.
Sgt Evans, 59, has been told he will have to pass the animal - a Malinois cross German Shepherd - on to another handler to continue working, the family said.
The petition calling for Ivy to be allowed to retire with her handler has been signed by people from as far afield as Canada and New Zealand
West Mercia Police's chief constable has offered to speak to the officer personally about Ivy's future
The petition has been signed by people from as far afield as Canada and New Zealand. Daughter Jennie said the response was "incredible".
She said Sgt Evans, of Market Drayton, had offered to buy Ivy and cover the cost of replacing her.
Ms Evans said: "Dad sacrificed many family moments with the support of his wife to enable him to undergo months of training with his police dogs.
"West Mercia need to show they appreciate these efforts and do not treat dogs as dispensable equipment that can be 'handed down' to other people."
West Mercia Police said Chief Constable Anthony Bangham "recognises the unique bond between an officer and his dog and has made a direct offer to speak to the officer personally about this".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-38878259
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Huge meteor blazes across US skies - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Dashcam footage captures a fireball over US Midwestern states on Monday.
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A bright meteor streaked across skies over US Midwestern states early on Monday morning.
Hundreds of witnesses reported seeing the glowing object, which was visible in seven US states and Ontario, Canada, according to the American Meteor Society.
The fireball was also reportedly accompanied by a sonic boom that rattled homes in the area.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38887748
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Paris tries to seduce the City - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The French capital is aiming to win billions in business and thousands of jobs from London in the months ahead.
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Business
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"When was the last time you thought of taking your partner for a nice weekend in Frankfurt?".
That was one of the more memorable lines of a heavy sales pitch from politicians and business leaders from Paris. A raiding party touched down in London this morning determined to cart off billions in business and tens of thousands of jobs to the French capital in the weeks and months ahead.
Valerie Pecresse - President of the region including Paris and its environs, and a former budget minister under Nicolas Sarkozy - led the party, and told a group of senior finance executives from heavyweights such as Blackrock, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse why Paris was the natural choice for any business they moved out of London.
To be fair to Mme Pecresse, the brochure she presented had more to it than Paris being très agréable. She described the competition for London business as fierce and came armed accordingly.
A 28% top rate of income tax for expat executives for a period of eight years (recently extended from five). That compares to a top rate of 45% in the UK.
Commercial rents one-third the price of London - with millions of square feet currently unoccupied.
A deep pool of talent - a lot of which, she joked, is currently in London.
Two international schools and a plan for two more near the business areas of Paris.
Some companies in the City of London have already said staff may have to move abroad
Four of the six biggest continental European banks are French and based in Paris.
The brochure was glossy and the tone was friendly - apart from the odd sideswipe at arch rival Frankfurt. But there were two issues the political and business leaders from across La Manche struggled with.
Bankers I spoke to afterwards said that one big turn off remains how difficult it is to fire people in France. That really matters for banks. As their staff are so well paid, when business slumps they need to reduce their biggest cost - people - quickly. Working in finance is profitable but it can be brutal.
The other issue was politics.
The delegation arrived on the same day as the man who thought he would be president, Francois Fillon, was fighting for his political life after paying his wife over half a million euros for work she may or may not have done.
Economic nationalism, the political wind that many say secured Brexit and the Trump presidency, is packing a punch in France with Marine Le Pen promising French jobs for French workers. Tax breaks for rich expats and looser employment protection sit uneasily with those priorities.
The future of the UK's relationship with the EU is maddeningly vague to most business leaders, but if it's political uncertainty you don't like - why would you ever pick France?
Madame Pecresse and her entourage insisted that the political uncertainty would be gone after the elections on 7 May. She said she was convinced that whoever was in charge, "HE"(sic) would be pro-business.
The same folks who told us Donald Trump couldn't win and that Brexit would never happen agree with her.
One member of the raiding party told us why the pundits were right about France. Jean-Louis Missika, the Deputy Mayor of Paris for economic development, told the BBC that "because France has embraced globalisation with more care for our workers, the backlash will be less severe".
The Parisian ambition is to tempt 10,000 direct employees and further 20,000 indirect employees to Paris. When bankers move, they tend to take law, accounting, office management, sandwich making and dry cleaning jobs with them.
Those are pretty modest ambitions when you consider over a million people work in financial services in the UK - a third of them in London. Modest, but perhaps realistic. The good news for Paris is that they are already 10% of the way there.
HSBC has already said it will move 1,000 jobs to Paris.
It seems unlikely they will be the only newcomers to succumb to its charms.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38885058
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Why don't more African Americans become organ donors? - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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When her daughter, Thalya, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, Chantal Onelien's initial reaction was shock. But, as Adam Harris reports, it was only the beginning of a long and difficult fight.
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US & Canada
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When her daughter, Thalya, was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, Chantal Onelien's initial reaction was shock. But, as Adam Harris reports, it was only the beginning of a long and difficult fight.
Thalya, then only 13 years old, would need to begin dialysis immediately, and she would also need a new kidney.
The family set out on what became a two-year journey of dialysis appointments, meetings with doctors and trying to provide Thalya a normal childhood.
"You make it work, so that it doesn't seem like doom and gloom," Onelien told the BBC.
Every ten minutes in the United States, someone is added to the national transplant list. Roughly 119,000 total people are on the list as of early February 2017, and almost 100,000 of those are waiting for a kidney. There are not nearly enough organ donors - living or deceased - to trim that figure.
But for the Oneliens, an African-American family, the odds were even greater.
In 2016, African Americans accounted for 30% of the overall organ donation waiting list, and 33% of the kidney list, despite being only 13% of the US population.
A black organ recipient doesn't have to have a black donor. But they would be more likely to have a successful match - based on certain genetic markers and antibodies - if more black donors were available. The percentage of black Americans who donate organs has risen since 1988, but there is still an outsized need.
Faced with these odds, the Oneliens started a social media campaign, using the hashtag #KidneyForThalya on Twitter, and a Facebook page that called for donations, shared inspirational stories of successful transplants and posted educational material about organ donation.
Chantal Onelien is familiar with some of the reasons why African Americans might not want to donate, including a distrust of doctors. "People sometimes believe that not only will they not try to save your life, but will try to use your organs as experiments," she says.
"And it's hard to defuse some of that thinking - to debunk and demystify it."
Mistrust of the medical community among African Americans is not uncommon, and not without historical justification.
In the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, black men in Alabama were promised free medical care, and then unknowingly signed up for a long-term research study into the effects of syphilis. When a cure became available, the men were denied treatment so that the study could continue.
Henrietta Lacks went to John Hopkins for cervical cancer treatment, where a doctor took samples from her cervix and used them to develop one of the most-used cell research lines - all without her permission or knowledge.
Derek DuBay, chief transplant surgeon at the Medical University of South Carolina, believes there is much more at play than just mistrust in the medical community.
So Dr DuBay, alongside a team of researchers, used surveys and focus groups to find out why there was a such a disparity between black and white donors. They found many African Americans cited fear that their organs would not be usable due to high blood pressure, heart disease and other prevalent ailments in the black community.
The researchers concluded that often, it's a simple matter of educating people about organ donation.
"We need to enhance education to let them know that a lot of times these organs are acceptable for transplant," Dr DuBay says. "And even though the heart might not be good for transplant," another organ might be.
"While there may be mistrust in the African-American community surrounding organ donation," Dr Wilder says, "it is not a barrier to the extent that lack of education or access is".
Access, Dr Wilder says, is key to driving both living and deceased donations.
"Minorities are more likely to live in places with less economic and healthcare resources.
"This is a vicious cycle that feeds on itself because these resource poor environments make people sicker and they often have greater need for organ transplantation."
The treatment centre helped by providing activities like music and entertainment during dialysis, Onelien says, making it seem less like a chore
The lack of access is found in both rural communities and urban centres in close proximity to transplantation hospitals.
"If you do not have health insurance or strong social support resources," he says, meaning both emotional and tangible support, such as money or childcare, "you will not have access to transplantation".
Donor advocates are now trying to steer kidney donors of all races towards living donations.
Josh Morrison and Thomas Kelly were both living donors. They started Waitlist Zero to educate the general public abut living donation and chip away at the growing waitlist.
Organs such as kidneys, segments of the liver, and portions of the pancreas and intestine can be donated with the donor continuing to live a healthy life.
Unfortunately, African Americans are the least likely group to receive a kidney donation from a living donor. But Mr Morrison hopes public education campaigns can change that.
"If you ask people who've donated, they get this surge of just purpose and energy," Chantal Onelien says. "It's like, 'Wow, I saved someone's life'."
In June, the Obama administration announced several measures it was taking to address the overall waiting list, including $200m for research and development, and promoting new technology to make registering as an organ donation easier.
On 19 November, the Oneliens got the call - there was a deceased donor and kidney for Thalya. The family spent 33 days in hospital, after minor complications led to more procedures than anticipated. Just days before Christmas, they went home.
With Thalya in recovery, the Oneliens are now looking forward to the future.
When asked whether they planned to continue to raise awareness about organ donation, Chantal Onelien says: "Absolutely. Now more than ever."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37378048
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Russia to remain suspended for World Athletics Championships - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Russia will not be eligible to compete at this summer's World Championships in London, says athletics' world governing body.
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Last updated on .From the section Athletics
Russia will miss this summer's World Championships after athletics' governing body voted to extend their suspension from international competition for state-sponsored doping.
However, some Russians may be able to compete under a neutral banner, if they can satisfy testing criteria.
Russia was suspended by the IAAF in November 2015, meaning athletes missed the Rio Olympics last year.
The country is now not expected to be fully reinstated until November.
London will host the World Championships between 4-13 August.
The decision to extend Russia's suspension came at an IAAF Council meeting in Monaco on Monday.
Independent chairman of the IAAF Taskforce, Rune Andersen, told the council that the Russian Track and Field Federation (Rusaf) was unlikely to be reinstated until the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) code-compliant, probably in November.
However, the taskforce said concerns still exist about drug-testing procedures in Russia.
More than 1,000 Russian athletes were part of a state-sponsored doping programme between 2011 and 2015, according to the McLaren report, commissioned by Wada and published in December.
Athletes who can follow strict IAAF criteria and show they are clean may be allowed to compete - but not under a Russian flag. The IAAF said so far this year, 35 Russians had applied to compete as neutrals.
At the meeting, IAAF president Lord Coe also said that all nationality switches by athletes would be frozen.
He said the current rules were "no longer fit for purpose" and new proposals would be written up.
Andersen said that there is still limited testing of Russian track and field at a national level and there continued to be "troubling incidents", although the situation is improving.
However, he said that in January 2017:
• None Five athletes had withdrawn from a national competition after hearing that drug testing would be taking place;
• None Bottles being shipped to foreign laboratories for testing were opened and screened in at least one case;
• None Russian authorities have refused to release samples that have been screened in Moscow so the IAAF can test them further;
• None Testers are still being denied access to 'closed cities' - military facilities where some athletes train.
"Our priority is to return clean athletes to competition but we must all have confidence in the process," said Briton Coe.
"Clean Russian athletes have been badly let down by their national system. We must ensure they are protected and that those safeguards give confidence to the rest of the world that there is a level playing field of competition when Russians return."
How can Russia compete again?
The IAAF has put together a "roadmap" that Russia must follow before athletes can once again take part in international competition. It includes:
• None Russia providing an "appropriate official response" addressing points raised in the McLaren report;
• None Drug testing being "carried out without any further adverse incidents or difficulties";
• None Rusada being reinstated as "a truly autonomous, independent and properly resourced national anti-doping organisation".
Athletes are now banned from changing nationalities following a proposal by Coe, who said athletics was "vulnerable" to the practice.
"It has become abundantly clear with regular multiple transfers of athletes, especially from Africa, that the present rules are no longer fit for purpose," he said.
The IAAF Council was told African talent was effectively being put up for sale to different nations.
Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, Africa area group representative on the IAAF Council, said: "The present situation is wrong. What we have is a wholesale market for African talent open to the highest bidder.
"Lots of the individual athletes concerned, many of whom are transferred at a young age, do not understand that they are forfeiting their nationality."
At December's European Cross Country Championships, the top two finishers in both the senior men's and women's races were Kenya-born athletes representing Turkey.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/38887556
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Davis Cup: Denis Shapovalov 'ashamed' after default for hitting umpire with a ball - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Canada's Denis Shapovalov is "incredibly ashamed" after his default for hitting the umpire with a ball in the Davis Cup.
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Canada's Denis Shapovalov said he was "incredibly ashamed and embarrassed" after he was defaulted for hitting the umpire with a ball - handing Great Britain Davis Cup victory in Ottawa.
The 17-year-old had just dropped serve to trail Kyle Edmund 6-3 6-4 2-1 when he angrily hit the ball out of court.
It struck French umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye and a default followed.
"Luckily he was OK but obviously it's unacceptable behaviour from me," said Wimbledon junior champion Shapovalov.
"I just feel awful for letting my team down, for letting my country down, for acting in a way that I would never want to act.
"I can promise that's the last time I will do anything like that. I'm going to learn from this and try to move past it."
The World Group first-round tie was poised at 2-2 after Vasek Pospisil beat Dan Evans to set up a decider, but Canada's hopes ended when Shapovalov let frustration get the better of him.
He later apologised to Gabas in the referee's office before the Frenchman headed to Ottawa General Hospital for a precautionary evaluation on bruising and swelling to his left eye.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said in a statement it was "clear that Mr Shapovalov did not intend to hit Mr Gabas".
Referee Brian Earley has the power to impose a fine of up to $12,000 (£9,600) and the ITF might significantly increase that fine, and suspend Shapovalov from future ties.
GB captain Leon Smith said: "Unfortunately for the young lad this is going to get an awful lot of attention.
"This will be looked at closely and it should be as it is dangerous. Whether it's an umpire or a young kid who's at the side of the court, that really could be a serious injury, so I'm sure it will be dealt with swiftly and pretty firmly."
Britain go on to face an away tie in France from 7-9 April - a repeat of the 2015 quarter-final in London that Britain won on their way to regaining the title for the first time in 79 years.
We don't know yet how the umpire's eye is but we could see it was already closing. You don't know about permanent damage until he sees the doctor.
It's devastating for Shapovalov. He let himself down, he let his country down. He could have caused serious damage to the umpire. He will realise that he can't do that sort of thing again and he's going to get a lot of trouble in the press for this, quite rightly so because he deserves it, but he will rebound.
If you look to the brighter side we've seen some undoubted talent in him, if he can just control it a little bit. There's nothing wrong with getting emotional - we've seen great champions like John McEnroe get emotional - but you can't go to that extent and he'll have to curb it a little bit.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38876869
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David Hockney on Tate Britain retrospective - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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David Hockney reflects on his career as the Tate Britain puts on the biggest ever retrospective of the artist's work.
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David Hockney has told the BBC he's "not that good, but not that terrible either", as the Tate Britain puts on the biggest ever retrospective of the artist's work.
He spoke to the BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38888772
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Is the Eagle Huntress really a documentary? - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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The Eagle Huntress, a film about a Kazakh girl in Mongolia learning to hunt with a golden eagle, divides opinion. It's described as a documentary, but is it staged?
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Magazine
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The Eagle Huntress, a documentary about a Kazakh nomad girl in Mongolia learning to hunt with a golden eagle, divides opinion. It is up for a Bafta award on Sunday night but missed out on an Oscar nomination, possibly because to some viewers it feels staged. Director Otto Bell, however, denies all accusations that the film was scripted, acted or re-enacted.
The story of the Eagle Huntress is simple and heartwarming. Aisholpan Nurgaiv, the rosy-cheeked 13-year-old heroine, is trained by her father to hunt on horseback with a golden eagle - traditionally a male pursuit - and shocks everyone by winning the prestigious eagle-hunters' competition held annually in the town of Ulgii, in north-western Mongolia.
It has a stirring musical soundtrack, ends with an anthem "You can do anything" sung by pop superstar Sia, and is narrated by another teenage role model, Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley.
One reviewer has described it as a "fairytale documentary" - two words that don't usually go together - that feels at times "more like fiction than fact".
Another calls it a "repetitious, half-baked, contrived and crudely staged homily on female empowerment [that] tells us less about Kazakh nomads than Pocahontas does about the Algonquins in 17th Century Virginia". The film took another culture's traditions, he goes on, and translated them "into the tired platitudes of a second-rate Disney animation".
Early publicity for the film did little to inspire confidence, by stating that Aisholpan had fought "an ingrained culture of misogyny to become the first female eagle hunter in 2,000 years of male-dominated history" - a claim that US historian Adrienne Mayor has shown is untrue.
This line was recast to say that Aisholpan is "the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family" to be an eagle huntress. But Mayor and others still argue that the film creates a false impression, by failing to mention other Kazakh eagle huntresses, and exaggerating the patriarchal pressures that Aisholpan had to overcome.
"I think eagle hunting would be open to any young woman who would want to pursue it," Mayor says.
Adrienne Mayor's paper, The Eagle Huntress - Ancient Traditions and New Generations, mentions a number of Kazakh women who have trained or are training to hunt with eagles
The spark for the film came when director Otto Bell came across photographs of Aisholpan taken by Israeli photographer Asher Svidensky on the BBC News website, in April 2014.
He tracked Aisholpan's family down (being nomads, they move around) and on the very first day, he says, filmed one of the early scenes in the film, where the girl and her father seize a baby eaglet from its nest. It's a dramatic moment with Aisholpan climbing down a cliff, her father holding a rope attached to her waist. And it's one of a number of scenes that some critics have assumed was staged.
"The scene where she takes the baby eagle out of the nest - people are always surprised to know that's one single take. I filmed it like I would film a live sports event," he says.
"I did it drawing on my experience in commercials. As far as reconstructing stuff and staging stuff, what you see on the screen is what we got."
Another scene that sceptics find questionable comes when Aisholpan's father, Agalai, gets his own father to give his blessing to Aisholpan's eagle-hunting ambitions. The shot is framed and the camera is rolling when the conversation between the two men takes place outside the tent, and the girl is summoned to receive the old man's good wishes.
Was it staged? No, says Bell.
"The blessing scene - he said he was going to do this, I just asked him to do it outside. He told me: 'We need to think about what my father thinks of this.' The father likes to sit outside anyway, he likes to watch the goats. That was as close [to staging] as we got."
Otto Bell (centre) with Aisholpan's parents at the Ajyal film festival in Doha in December
There are other moments that critics grumble about. Tim Robey in the Telegraph describes as "woefully unspontaneous" a scene where a newsreader on the radio in the family's tent is heard talking about the forthcoming eagle festival, and Aisholpan pipes up to plead with her parents for permission to enter.
It's "engineered storytelling" he says. "You feel sorry for her enacting some of these charades."
Will Dunn in the New Statesman is also bothered by the film's "re-enactment and editorialising", though he notes that without the imposed girl-power narrative it's "a film about the fox-hunting techniques of Mongolian Kazakhs, a subject that is not exactly a banker at the box office". He also accepts it would have been a shame if Aisholpan's world had not been revealed to a wider audience.
Nigel Andrews in his review in the Financial Times last December wrote that the action and dialogue seemed "a little set up". He was particularly suspicious of a montage of grumpy elderly men filmed tut-tutting over the idea of a woman taking up eagle hunting. But while the academic Adrienne Mayor suggests Bell went searching for these naysayers in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, in Andrews' latest article about the film Bell says he just went round knocking on elders' doors, and all openly voiced disapproval. So he put them in the film.
Meghan Fitz-James, a Canadian traveller who spent time with Aisholpan's family, also says that one scene showing Aisholpan training for the eagle festival was in fact shot three days later, in a four-hour shoot with coaching and retakes.
But the fundamentals of the film are confirmed by Aisholpan herself.
"I started to train when I was 10 years old, going into the mountains with my dad," she told the BBC, while passing through Ulan Bator recently. "I told my dad that I wanted to become an eagle huntress."
That was in 2011 - two or three years before Svidensky arrived on the scene - and she wasn't just training with the eagle, she was already hunting too, she says.
Aisholpan also confirms that she was aware some men thought a girl was not strong enough to hold an eagle, that she should stay at home, and would not be able to stand the cold hunting for hours in winter in the Altai mountains.
"The pressure gave me more will and power. It gave me the inspiration to win," she says.
But the curmudgeonly views of these mostly elderly men were not expressed at the eagle festival, where officials and competitors were supportive, she says. After her win in 2014 (captured on film) she was greeted by loud cheers when she competed again in 2015 and 2016.
Watching the film, a cynical viewer may fear that Aisholpan has been coached when she says: "Girls can do anything if they try." But she says the same thing off-screen too: "I am happy that I have won a man's competition. It shows how strong women are."
Who would not be proud, in her position, to have beaten grown men with years of eagle-hunting experience? Any telling of her story would carry a female empowerment message, even if this film does milk it for all its worth.
Despite her criticisms of the film, the historian Adrienne Mayor agrees that Aisholpan is a worthy heroine.
"Her bravery and her feats in that eagle hunting contest are really amazing and inspiring," she says. "That would have been enough in the film."
Additional reporting by Grace Brown in Ulan Bator, and Mike Wendling in London
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38874266
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Moussa Dembele hat-trick rounds off superb Celtic team move - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Twenty-four passes involving every member of the Celtic team lead to Moussa Dembele completing his hat-trick against St Johnstone.
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In Perth, striker Moussa Dembele completes his hat-trick in a 5-2 win for Celtic over St Johnstone with a goal that came at the end of 24 passes involving every member of the Celtic team.
Please note, available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/scotland/38879055
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Alastair Cook had toughest ride as skipper - Jonathan Agnew - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Alastair Cook had a rough ride as England captain with some up-and-down results, says BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew.
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Alastair Cook never had it easy. He's had the toughest ride of all recent England captains.
As England's highest Test run-scorer he has always been admired for his batting, but there have always been questions, particularly over his tactics, during his 59-match reign as skipper, which he ended on Monday.
In a funny way, the constant criticism forced him to improve, to reflect on the things he had not done well and to try new things. I put this to him once and he laughed it off, but I still disagree.
He has been stubborn - an excellent quality for an opening batsman, not always ideal in a captain - and largely cautious, which is hardly surprising considering his mentor was predecessor Andrew Strauss, another skipper that favoured the attritional approach.
The most difficult time for Cook was in 2014, which began with the Ashes whitewash down under, moved on to the Kevin Pietersen saga and was followed by a home series defeat by Sri Lanka.
He found a measure of redemption in the subsequent victory over the touring India side, but the year still ended with him being sacked as one-day captain.
To this day, he thinks that was the wrong decision, but he is in a minority. He was no longer worth his place in the side and he had to go. It also may have aided England's bid to regain the Ashes in 2015, which few at the time gave them much hope of doing. That success, to go with Cook's 2013 Ashes win as skipper is a highlight of his reign. So too, the triumph in South Africa in 2015-16 and the historic win in India in 2012, England's first there in 27 years. Time will prove what a good result that was - England are miles away from doing it again.
But there were also the disappointments. As well as the thumping in Australia and the loss to Sri Lanka, there was a defeat by India at Lord's on a made-to-order green seamer and a 1-1 draw away to a poor West Indies team.
Cook's winning percentage of 40.67 is only the fourth best of the six captains to have led England in more than 40 Tests. The two skippers with a worse record, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, did not have the world-class talents of Pietersen, Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, or the emerging Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow at their disposal. It has been an up-and-down ride.
Will Cook be defined by the way in which Pietersen's international career was ended? The two men will inevitably always be linked, but that would be to ignore the fact that Cook welcomed Pietersen back into the England side when many captains in his position could have quite easily taken the opposite stance.
When Cook took over in 2012, Pietersen was in exile for his part in text messages sent to the South Africa team about former skipper Strauss. Cook oversaw Pietersen's 'reintegration' and the star batsman responded, playing a pivotal role in that triumph in India.
But, as we now know, the relationship deteriorated on the fateful tour of Australia a year later, with Cook eventually having a hand in Pietersen's international career being ended.
Some will say that there was nothing that Cook could have done, others will think that the captain should have seen those problems approaching and done more to manage them.
What is unarguable is that the vitriol that Cook faced on social media from certain individuals in the aftermath of the Pietersen affair was nasty, personal and uncalled for.
Views were expressed, most of them by people who do not know Cook. Lots of them were depressing.
Indeed, it could be said that he was the first man to serve as England captain in a world that has been fully gripped by social media - though Cook himself has no interest in putting his views out online or anywhere else.
At the time, I thought he was getting some very rough treatment over the Pietersen issue and I was happy to say so publicly. Maybe because he saw me as an ally, we have always had a very good working relationship during his time as captain.
I have interviewed him well in excess of 100 times and can say that he is not a natural speaker. He sees media responsibilities as something to be endured rather than enjoyed.
There have been times when we have agreed, others when we have disagreed and when I have criticised him. The task of being honest about a player, but fair enough that they will still speak when you put a microphone under their nose, is a tightrope a sports journalist must walk.
We have also had our moments of fun.
Just on this last tour of India, I was cajoled into having a pedicure by an Indian barber. Who should walk in, but Cook, complete with camera. He took great delight in showing the photo to everyone he could find, as well as making sure he got it out to the world. I let him enjoy that one.
And so he departs. For Cook, the nature of the end of his tenure as captain very much reflects the type of man he is.
There was no chucking it all in at the end of the fifth Test against India, a shambles in Chennai. That's not his style. Like his batting, he was patient, he weighed it all up and considered his options. He went back to his farm and away from cricket, he no doubt had many conversations with his wife Alice. They really are a team and it was Alice who talked Cook out of stepping down in 2014.
This, though, is different. The extended period of time taken to mull over his future shows that Cook has made the right decision for him.
He will be incredibly comfortable with what lies ahead. That is likely to be scoring many more runs for England.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38554063
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Southern rail: Could drivers reject deal? - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Some members of the Aslef union say they are unhappy with a deal to avert strike action at Southern rail.
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Business
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Some of Southern's drivers say they are not happy with the deal
"It's two weeks of my life I'll never get back. But we finally got there."
Bizarrely, the bosses of both sides said exactly the same thing to me when I interviewed them last week, moments after they'd announced a deal to resolve the worst of the Southern rail strikes.
Mick Whelan from Aslef and Nick Brown from GTR (Southern's parent company) looked shattered but pleased with their agreement.
But was everyone cracking the champagne corks too soon?
Aslef's 1,000 or so drivers still need to vote on the deal and there are possible signs that they might just kick it out.
I spoke to a couple of Southern's train drivers over the weekend and they were not happy.
One wrote this to me: "GTR, 'We will agree to carry on doing exactly what we want.' Aslef, 'OK, we'll agree to that then.'"
Strikes on the Southern network caused chaos for passengers
He went on: "I'm very much of the opinion it will be a resounding 'no' vote (when members vote). The feeling is the union has sold us out."
Another driver also said that everyone he'd spoken to will vote no to the deal, again saying that they felt let down and that the company had got away with it.
He even suggested that some of his colleagues might leave Aslef and join the RMT union instead. The RMT is still in dispute with Southern over the same issue and was vitriolic about the deal over the weekend.
True, this is just the opinion of two drivers who've been chatting to their colleagues. But it suggests some anger at what they are being asked to sign up to.
I understand that there is going to be a meeting in Brighton on Tuesday, where Aslef reps will try to sell the deal to members. It's bound to be frosty.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan says the deal was discussed in "good faith"
All of this doesn't necessarily mean that Aslef's drivers will vote against the agreement. When I interviewed Mick Whelan last week he told me: "I'm not in the habit of making deals that my members don't like."
Then there are the London members who already use driver-only-operated trains and may not feel as strongly over this crunch issue.
Plus, Aslef doesn't pay members during industrial action, and the double whammy of losing strike-day pay plus overtime may be enough to cut their appetite for a fight.
If the drivers do vote against the deal though, it's hard to see where the next breakthrough in this dispute might come. If two weeks of "incredibly intense" negotiation at the TUC can't solve it, what can?
If Aslef drivers vote no to the deal, could more strikes lie ahead?
Presumably, Aslef would be forced to call more crippling strikes, which would also turn up the heat on the government to take over either part or all of this troublesome, complex behemoth of a franchise. I can tell you, ministers are not keen to seize control.
Meanwhile, the RMT union, which represents the guards/conductors, has vowed to keep fighting. Their strikes don't have the same impact as Aslef's, with the last one only knocking out around 30% of services.
But even that might change if their angry Aslef colleagues decide not to cross picket lines.
Anyway, we should know all on 16 February when the ballot result comes back.
The worst may not be over for beleaguered Southern passengers.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/38877149
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Why the falling cost of light matters - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Once too precious to use, now too cheap to notice – the significance of the light bulb is profound.
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Business
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Back in the mid-1990s, an economist called William Nordhaus conducted a series of simple experiments with light.
First, he used a prehistoric technology: he lit a wood fire.
But Prof Nordhaus also had a piece of hi-tech equipment with him - a Minolta light meter.
He burned 20lb (9kg) of wood, kept track of how long it burned for and carefully recorded the dim, flickering firelight with his meter.
Next, he bought a Roman oil lamp, fitted it with a wick, and filled it with cold-pressed sesame oil.
He lit the lamp and watched the oil burn down, again using the light meter to measure its soft, even glow.
Bill Nordhaus's open wood fire had burned for just three hours on 9kg of wood.
But a mere eggcup of oil burned all day, and more brightly and controllably.
He wanted to understand the economic significance of the light bulb.
But Prof Nordhaus also wanted to illuminate a difficult issue for economists: how to keep track of inflation, the changing cost of goods and services.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.
To see why this is difficult, consider the price of travelling from - say - Lisbon in Portugal to Luanda in Angola.
When that journey was first made, by Portuguese explorers, it would have been an epic expedition, possibly taking months.
Later, by steam ship, it would have taken a few days; then, by plane, a few hours.
An economic historian could start by tracking the price of passage on the ship, but once an air route has opened up, which price do you look at?
Maybe you simply switch to the airline ticket price once more people start flying than sailing.
But flying is a different service - faster, more convenient.
If more travellers are willing to pay twice as much to fly, it hardly makes sense for inflation statistics to record that the cost of the journey has suddenly doubled.
It was to raise this question over the way we measure inflation that Bill Nordhaus started fooling around with wood fires, oil lamps and light meters.
Prof Nordhaus found the Roman oil lamp offered much better light
He wanted to unbundle the cost of a single quality that humans have cared deeply about since time immemorial, using the state-of-the-art technology of different ages: illumination.
Light is measured in lumens, or lumen-hours.
A candle gives off 13 lumens while it burns.
A typical modern light bulb is almost 100 times brighter than that.
Imagine gathering and chopping wood 10 hours a day for six days.
Those 60 hours of work would produce 1,000 lumen hours of light.
That is the equivalent of one modern light bulb shining for just 54 minutes, although what you would actually get is many more hours of dim, flickering light instead.
Of course, light is not the only reason to burn fires: they also help keep you warm, cook your food and scare off wild animals.
If you just needed light and a wood fire was your only option, you might decide to wait until the Sun comes up.
Thousands of years ago, better options came along - candles from Egypt and Crete, and oil lamps from Babylon.
Their light was steadier and more controllable, but still prohibitively expensive.
In a diary entry of May 1743, the president of Harvard University, the Reverend Edward Holyoake, noted that his household had spent two days making 78lb (35kg) of tallow candles.
Six months later, he noted: "Candles all gone."
And those were the summer months.
Nor were these the clean-burning paraffin wax candles we use today.
The wealthiest could afford beeswax, but most people - even the Harvard president - used tallow candles, stinking, smoking sticks of animal fat.
Making them involved heating up animal fat and dipping and re-dipping wicks into the molten lard.
It was pungent and time-consuming work.
A tallow chandler dips a frame of candles into a bath of liquid fat
According to Prof Nordhaus's research, if you set aside one whole week a year to spend 60 hours devoted exclusively to making candles - or earning the money to buy them - that would enable you to burn a single candle for just two hours and 20 minutes every evening.
Things improved a little as the 18th and 19th Centuries unfolded.
Candles were made of spermaceti - the milk-hued oily gloop harvested from dead sperm whales.
American founding father Ben Franklin loved the strong, white light they gave off, and the way they "may be held in the hand, even in hot weather, without softening", and noted that they "last much longer".
While the new candles were pleasing, they were also pricey.
George Washington calculated that burning a single spermaceti candle for five hours a night all year would cost him £8, or well over $1,000 (£820) in today's money.
A few decades later, gas lamps and kerosene lamps helped to lower costs.
They also saved the sperm whale from extinction.
But they, too, were basically an expensive hassle.
They dripped, smelt and set fire to things.
That something was the light bulb.
By 1900, one of Thomas Edison's carbon filament bulbs would provide you with 10 days of bright, continuous illumination, 100 times as bright as a candle, for the money you could earn with our 60-hour week of hard labour.
By 1920, that same week of labour would pay for more than five months' continuous light from tungsten filament bulbs.
By 1990, it was 10 years.
A couple of years after that, thanks to compact fluorescent bulbs, it was more than five times longer.
The labour that had once produced the equivalent of 54 minutes of quality light now produced 52 years.
And modern LED lights continue to get cheaper and cheaper.
Switch off a light bulb for an hour and you are saving illumination that would have cost our ancestors all week to create.
It would have taken Benjamin Franklin's contemporaries all afternoon.
But someone in a rich industrial economy today could earn the money to buy that illumination in a fraction of a second.
And of course, unlike oil lamps and candles, modern light bulbs are clean, fire-safe and controllable.
The light bulb has become an icon of innovation.
It has transformed our society into one where we can work, read, sew or play whenever we want to, regardless of how dark the night has become.
But the price of light alone tells a fascinating story: it has fallen by a factor of 500,000, far faster than official inflation statistics suggest.
A thing that was once too precious to use is now too cheap to notice.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38650976
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CCTV of Russell Square knife attacker released - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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CCTV showing police chasing Zakaria Bulhan moments after stabbing six people in London is released.
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CCTV showing police chasing Zakaria Bulhan moments after he stabbed six people in London has been released.
The 19-year-old has admitted killing a US tourist and wounding five others in Russell Square on 3 August last year, pleading guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38888590
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Romanian protesters light up huge rally with phone torches - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Hundreds of thousands of protesters shone torches on their phones at an anti-corruption rally in the capital Bucharest, lighting up Victory Square.
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Hundreds of thousands of protesters shone torches on their phones at an anti-corruption rally in the capital Bucharest, lighting up Victory Square.
It's thought between 250,000 and 300,000 people were at the demonstration, which came despite the government revoking a controversial decree which would have shielded many politicians from prosecution for corruption.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38882575
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Leicester City 0-3 Manchester United - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Manchester United ease to victory at Leicester to leave the defending champions just one point above the relegation zone.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Premier League champions Leicester are just one point above the relegation zone after defeat at home by Manchester United left them still searching for a first league win in 2017.
A dour opening half came to life just before the break when the visitors scored twice in two minutes.
First, Henrikh Mkhitaryan latched onto Chris Smalling's flick-on and raced through on goal before beating Kasper Schmeichel with a clinical finish.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic then took advantage of terrible Leicester marking to side-foot home his 15th Premier League goal of the season.
Juan Mata ensured there was no way back for the hosts when he finished off a one-two with Mkhitaryan early in the second half.
Leicester never looked like scoring, with their only shot on target a tame Wilfred Ndidi strike just before half-time.
Manchester United remain in the hunt for a top-four finish. They are sixth, one point behind Liverpool and two behind fourth-placed Arsenal.
• None Listen: Mahrez 'really is lacking in confidence'
Could the champions really go down?
Jose Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea the last time he visited the King Power Stadium. That was in December 2015 and he was sacked the day after a defeat that strengthened Leicester's title charge.
This time it is Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri who is under pressure. Far from defending their title, they are very much in a relegation dogfight and went into Sunday's game looking to record their first league win since New Year's Eve.
A pacy attack of Ahmed Musa and Jamie Vardy promised much but ultimately offered little, the latter in particular a shadow of the striker who scored in 11 consecutive Premier League games last season.
The Foxes have now failed to score a league goal in five games this year, but of equal concern for Ranieri will have been his side's defending. Ibrahimovic was left unmarked to poke home Manchester United's second and then Wes Morgan played two players onside for the third.
Leicester have not won away all season in the league, so it is their home form that has kept them out of the drop zone so far - 18 of their 21 points have been collected at the King Power Stadium.
This defeat, though, was their third in six home games and Ranieri will need to get things back on track quickly if the Foxes are to avoid being the first reigning top-flight champions to be relegated since Manchester City in 1938.
Manchester United have been far too reliant on Ibrahimovic this season. The evergreen Swedish striker is the club's leading scorer with 10 more league goals than any other Manchester United player.
In an effort to relieve the Swede's burden, Mourinho started Marcus Rashford alongside him in a 4-4-2 formation.
It quickly became evident that Ibrahimovic was far more effective in a central role and after 20 minutes Mourinho reverted to 4-2-3-1 with Rashford, Mkhitaryan and Mata behind the former Paris St-Germain striker.
The change immediately improved the visitors' attacking strength as the pace of Mkhitaryan and Rashford, coupled with Mata's creativity, stretched Leicester's defence and left gaps for Manchester United to exploit, which they did to full effect.
In the end Leicester could not cope and although United will arguably face tougher defences this season, three different goalscorers and a convincing win will give Mourinho confidence his side can challenge for the top four, particularly with Liverpool and Arsenal's own challenge faltering.
What they said
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri: "When we conceded the first goal we got down. I don't understand why. It's important to be strong until the end and never give up. But the confidence is not so high.
"Last season was terrific but we are Leicester and every time we have to fight.
"We are together. I am fully confident in my players and the players are confident in me."
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho: "It was really important for us. We lost two points in the last match at home and had three consecutive draws so we needed the points.
"I am happy. We don't have a league defeat since October and if we tried to transform the unlucky draws to victories, we would be in an amazing position."
• None Leicester City are the first Premier League team to fail to score in the first five matches of a calendar year and the first top-flight side since Spurs in 1986.
• None They are the only side in the top-four English tiers to have failed to score in the league in 2017.
• None Manchester United are unbeaten in their past 15 Premier League games; their longest run since March 2013 (18 games unbeaten).
• None The Foxes are the second reigning Premier League champions to lose successive home league games by a three-goal margin (also Man Utd in 2013-14).
• None There were just 88 seconds between Henrikh Mkhitaryan's and Zlatan Ibrahimovic's goals for Man Utd.
• None Ibrahimovic has reached 15 Premier League goals for Man Utd in the fourth fastest number of games (23), following Van Nistelrooy (19) Yorke (20) and van Persie (21).
• None Juan Mata has been involved in 86 Premier League goals since his debut (44 goals, 42 assists) - the highest goal involvement rate of any Premier League midfielder in that time.
After an FA Cup fourth-round replay against Derby at the King Power Stadium on Wednesday, Leicester have a potentially massive game in the Premier League on Sunday [kick-off 16:00 GMT]. They travel to Swansea, who are one place below the Foxes in 18th.
Manchester United, meanwhile, host Watford on Saturday [15:00] knowing three points could lift them into the top four.
• None Attempt blocked. Demarai Gray (Leicester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Riyad Mahrez.
• None Attempt saved. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ashley Young.
• None Attempt missed. Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Antonio Valencia.
• None Attempt blocked. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Ander Herrera. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38786544
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Ticket inspector attack man jailed after train assault filmed - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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The fare dodger ranted and lashed out at London Midland staff after refusing to buy a £2.20 ticket.
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A fare dodger who attacked a rail ticket inspector has been jailed for 15 weeks.
British Transport Police has released video of Elliot Nash ranting at a female train worker before kicking and lashing out at her colleague on a London Midland service.
The 32-year-old, from Northfield, Birmingham, verbally abused three members of rail staff and threatened to knock them out while travelling between Bournville and Northfield in November.
Footage from one ticket officer's body-worn camera shows Nash repeatedly swearing and taking a running kick at a staff member in the train's aisle.
Police identified Nash from the footage, arresting him at his home just two hours later.
He was later charged with assault and two public order offences. He pleaded guilty at Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
PC Nicola Mallaber said: "As the footage shows, his attitude is completely unacceptable and there was absolutely no need for this to have escalated into violence - all for the sake of a £2.20 fare."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-38878886
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High security: The man who protects our bank accounts - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Francisco Fernandez and software firm Avaloq are key to the security of millions of bank accounts.
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Business
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Francisco Fernandez and his business are little known
Most people have never heard of a Swiss man called Francisco Fernandez, but tens of millions of us rely on him to look after our money.
An unassuming 53-year-old who likes playing the piano in his spare time, he is responsible for the security of $4 trillion (£3.2tn) of bank deposits around the world.
Mr Fernandez is the founder and boss of a company that is as little known as he is - Avaloq.
The Swiss business and its 2,500 employees may fly under the radar, but it is one of the world's largest providers of banking software.
Its systems are used by more than 450 banks around the world, including the UK's Barclays, HSBC, and Royal Bank of Scotland, plus Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, UBS and Nomura.
As you'd expect, Avaloq takes security very seriously, especially protecting banks from cyber-attack. To help make its software as secure as possible, the company has a novel approach - it pays technology firms in Israel to attack it.
Avaloq says it sees off thousands of cyber-attacks every year
With a number of hi-tech Israeli companies at the forefront of protecting against hacking, Avaloq uses them to test its defences.
Mr Fernandez says: "The Israelis are very, very good, they [the young tech workers] are coming out of active military service, and they are brilliant.
"We regularly appoint them to attack our systems in a controlled way, and then with their help we try to make our systems bulletproof.
"We do our homework, security is a constant thing... we get thousands of attacks per year but so far, touch wood, we have never had an intrusion into our systems."
For a company that today enjoys annual revenues of more than $500m (£351m), Avaloq has come a long way since 1991 when Mr Fernandez led a $200,000 management buyout of the computer department of Swiss bank BZ Bank.
At the time the department had just five members of staff, but Mr Fernandez had big ambitions.
He says he had long recognised that the software used by most banks across the world was both overly complicated and unstable, yet also too expensive.
His idea was to produce a simpler but stronger universal software system that could be used by multiple banks.
So with a small amount of money coming in from a single bank customer and some additional consulting work, Mr Fernandez and his team set to work on building their software system. It took them five years.
When the software was finally ready to be sold to banks, Avaloq found that the notoriously risk-averse Swiss banking sector was reluctant to take a chance on a start-up business that by then still had only 20 employees.
The company is based in Zurich
Mr Fernandez says that many people thought it would be a "mission impossible" for Avaloq to find a buyer for its new software, but then thanks to a contact he was able to showcase it to no less than Switzerland's central bank, the Swiss National Bank.
The central bank was impressed enough to buy the software, which within six months saw five commercial Swiss banks follow suit. Overseas banks soon came on board too.
Today Avaloq offers banks two services - the use of its software, or a more intensive service whereby it also takes over the running of a bank's computer system. Some 17% of banks (holding $700bn of funds) now opt for the latter, which uses cloud computing technology.
The business remains owned by its staff
Avaloq makes its money through continuing licence fees, and apart from a 10% stake held by a Swiss bank, the company is owned by its employees.
Of its 2,500 members of staff, 500 are programmers. In addition to a main base in Zurich, it also has offices in Edinburgh and as far afield as Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
Instead of staff getting individual bonus payments for hitting personal targets, all workers get a bonus if the company meets its annual objective, be that revenue growth or extended geographic reach.
Mr Fernandez says his family background helped give him the will to achieve in life
Antony Peyton, deputy editor of trade paper Banking Tech, tells the BBC: "Avaloq's success can be attributed to chief executive Francisco Fernandez's astute leadership, and the Avaloq Banking Suite, its core software offering for private banks."
Mr Fernandez is the son of Spanish refugees who fled the dictatorship of General Franco and settled in the Swiss city of Lucerne before he was born.
He says his background played a large part in his decision to take a risk and launch Avaloq.
"My parents were fugitives after the Spanish Civil War, and that culture, of leaving your country, and having the guts to come out of your comfort zone, is very much in my DNA.
"As a child we couldn't afford a car, TV or central heating, but growing up in Switzerland was a huge privilege, and I was able to attend ETH Zurich, one of the best [universities] in the world for computer science.
"I feel privileged to have the top job at Avaloq, but I don't take anything for granted."
Follow The Boss series editor Will Smale on Twitter @WillSmale1
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38800176
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Newspaper headlines: Health tourists crackdown 'to save £500m' - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Moves to target 'health tourism' and claims David Beckham was blackmailed over hacked emails are among Monday's headlines.
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The Papers
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The Daily Express is one of many papers to seize on the news that the government is to tighten the rules to prevent "health tourism" in England.
The paper says the move to make foreign nationals pay in advance for non-urgent care is "long overdue", and will cut what it calls the "widespread abuse" of the system.
The plan is welcomed by the Daily Mail as a "major crackdown".
Meanwhile, the Times says the move comes after a week in which NHS bosses faced criticism that their attempts to combat health tourism were "chaotic".
But Labour's Meg Hillier, who chairs the public accounts committee, says she does not think mandating hospitals to take patients' money is the answer to the problem.
The Daily Telegraph leads with a different NHS story - saying one in six A&E departments in England could be facing closure.
The paper says the changes are being considered despite record overcrowding, and quotes senior doctors as calling them "crazy", although health officials say care will also be improved, and moved closer to people's homes.
The paper describes the plan as "a potent example of the death spiral gripping the NHS" - greater demand leads to cuts, which make the situation worse.
Its editorial suggests there is a clear logic to recouping money from overseas patients - but it calls for a more fundamental overhaul.
His attack on a "so-called" judge who suspended his travel ban is certainly in character, says the paper, "but this is the judiciary... Presidents aren't supposed to attack judges".
There is a similar warning in the Guardian, which says the president is "fishing in dangerous waters" by questioning the legitimacy of a court.
"If this continues," it says, "the United States would be taking a step into the unknown."
The Daily Telegraph finds voters in west Kansas fully supportive of Mr Trump's policies.
"Foreigners are coming in, getting bigger in the areas they're in, and their goal is to kill us," says one.
The Daily Mail leads with what it calls the "downsizing revolution", which it expects in a government White Paper on housing in England this week.
It says pensioners with large family homes will be given incentives to sell and move to smaller properties.
Studies suggest more than 2.5m family homes could be made available if older owners downsized but the paper quotes Whitehall officials stressing there is no intention to put pressure on people to sell up.
Finally, the Sun thinks that the special relationship between Donald Trump and Theresa May is bearing fruit - over the issue of vegetables.
It says British shopkeepers have turned to the Americans to solve the "Great Lettuce Shortage" which has been caused by bad weather in Europe.
It says that is one in the eye for those who warned about Britain going to the back of the queue - though the paper also notes that iceberg lettuces flown in from California and Arizona are selling for three times the price of those from Spain.
The Daily Telegraph warns that the shortage could soon spread to carrots, parsnips and other vegetables because of a cold snap which might see temperatures plummet to -15C.
On the bright side, one expert says slower growth increases the sugar level, so the vegetables you do get are likely to be sweeter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38876514
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Super Bowl LI: Julian Edelman's miracle catch for New England Patriots - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Watch Julian Edelman make a miraculous catch which helps New England Patriots complete the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history to beat the Atlanta Falcons.
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Watch Julian Edelman make a miraculous catch which helps New England Patriots complete the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history to beat the Atlanta Falcons.
WATCH MORE: Watch the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/38876854
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Man City: Why Gabriel Jesus is not ready to replace Sergio Aguero yet - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Gabriel Jesus has made an impressive start at Man City, but he is not better than Sergio Aguero says MOTD 2 pundit Jermaine Jenas.
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Gabriel Jesus has made quite a start to his Manchester City career but I would be wary of going overboard about how good a player he is just yet.
Jesus has scored three goals in two Premier League starts, and against Swansea he looked sharp and lively - a player who works hard and can finish, and has ability on the ball so can bring others into play too.
I am delighted for him, but he is only 19 and he is getting what all youngsters get when they arrive in the Premier League - that circus-type scenario where everyone just seems to jump on board and describe a player as the new best thing that has ever happened.
'Nobody knows what kind of player Jesus can be yet'
There has been a lot of hype about Jesus but, although he is clearly a very talented player, I have not seen anything that has really blown me away in the way the likes of Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen did when they burst on to the scene.
Part of that is because nobody knows what kind of player Jesus can be yet. Even Guardiola came out with an analogy this week comparing him to a watermelon that you have to cut open to see whether it is good or not.
Jesus has been compared to Neymar back in Brazil but, for all we really know at the moment, he might just be a 'right place, right time' person - a goal poacher. We will have to wait to find out.
Don't get me wrong, I love to see young players get their chance and he has taken this opportunity brilliantly so soon after a move to a different country. He deserves a lot of credit for that.
But the point I am trying to make is related to his situation at City, and the player whose place he has taken in their attack.
I have not seen enough from Jesus to think he is a better striker than Sergio Aguero, or is good enough to replace him. Not yet, at least.
'Aguero is not the kind of player to sit on City's bench'
Jesus got Manchester City out of jail with his late winner against Swansea on Sunday but I still find it hard to believe that there is no room for Aguero in Guardiola's side.
If the situation continues, there is only one thing that is going to happen - Aguero will leave in the summer. He is not the kind of player that is going to sit on City's bench.
The Argentina striker's comments after the Swansea game basically said that if City want to keep him, then they will show it.
If I were in his situation, I would be sitting there thinking that this manager does not want me, and it is time for me to leave.
I don't think anybody at City, from fans to staff, could argue that Aguero is not within his rights to say that because, if there is anyone in their squad who deserves a starting place, it is him.
Aguero is not having a great season by his high standards, but I would put that down to the way he has been managed.
Based on the way he has been treated, like being dropped for City's Champions League game against Barcelona in October for example, you cannot blame him for feeling frustrated.
He has not been poor - he has still scored 18 goals in all competitions - he has just not been the lethal player we know.
Since he joined City in 2011, Aguero has been one of the best strikers the Premier League has ever seen, so there is no way you can tell me they are better without him.
The statistics we showed on MOTD2 would suggest that is the case, based on the past couple of seasons.
But as I explained on the show, those percentages in the table above do not reflect who they were playing.
For example, in 2015-16, City played nine Premier League games without Aguero. They won five of them, and lost only two.
But four of those five wins came against teams who were 16th or lower, and they were games City were expected to win anyway.
Jesus selection worked to perfection - for player and manager
It is not a massive surprise to see Aguero treated this way because Guardiola has done it before, with Robert Lewandowski at Bayern Munich and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Barcelona.
There were times when Guardiola played without a main striker at all, just to get his team to play the way he wants to play.
We have seen Jurgen Klopp do similar at Liverpool when Roberto Firmino leads their attack. Firmino is more than an attacking midfielder but you would still not describe him as an out-and-out striker.
Jesus is similar, with his movement and his work-rate, and his selection is clearly down to him fitting into the system that Guardiola is trying to implement.
At the moment the kid is on a crest of a wave and things are working out for him to perfection - and for his manager too.
Two of the biggest calls I have seen by any manager this season have been by Guardiola, to leave out a player with Aguero's reputation in City's last two games, against Swansea and West Ham.
This is a player whose goals have helped City win two titles - but Guardiola has left him out twice in a week, and won both games.
He says Aguero is still part of his plans but if he is looking to the future then you could understand if he isn't, no matter what he has contributed to the club in the past.
What next? Real Madrid, Chelsea… or Man Utd?
Aguero is understandably not happy but I believe him when he says he will give everything for the team when he is needed for the rest of the season.
Like Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez or Barcelona's Luis Suarez, Aguero is a born winner - you are always going to get the best out of him when he is out on the pitch.
Right now the biggest clubs in the world will be rubbing their hands, thinking they might be able to sign him. He turns 29 in June and is at the peak of his powers.
Who would want him? Who wouldn't, if they can afford him? Real Madrid would take him in the blink of an eye if they could.
Chelsea must be thinking that if Diego Costa leaves them in the summer then they would take Aguero. Even Manchester United must be watching the situation too.
Carlos Tevez moved across Manchester when he left United so it is not impossible to go the other way and, if Aguero leaves City, it will be because they were willing to let him go.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38876685
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Growing waiting times threat to NHS - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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With waiting lists growing longer, the subject could soon raise fierce debate.
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Health
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There are many indicators against which patients can judge the performance of the NHS.
But historically, the totemic benchmark of the quality of service provided by hospitals is the number of people waiting for surgery and how long they have to wait.
Waiting times for non-urgent surgery were the subject of fierce political debate for much of the last two decades, but recently they faded in importance as targets have been met.
That could now be changing as waiting lists grow longer in the different health systems across the UK and the human cost of delayed surgery becomes more apparent.
Media and political attention has focused on the four-hour benchmark for being treated or assessed in A&E.
The King's Fund think tank believes the number of patients waiting for operations in England will soon top four million - for the first time in nearly a decade - and that could prove to be the tipping point for public and political opinion.
Cutting waiting lists was a key promise by New Labour ahead of its election victory in 1997. Remember the pledge card brandished by Tony Blair and his colleagues?
Labour delivered its policy of reducing numbers waiting for operations by 100,000, and then, in 2008, went further by introducing the 18-week target.
That established a right for patients to start consultant-led treatment within 18 weeks of being referred by a GP, with a benchmark of 92% of patients seen in that time.
The 18-week target and fines regime, which was refined in 2012, was widely seen as an effective incentive to hospitals to cut waiting times for patients.
Tony Blair pledged to cut waiting lists during the 1997 election campaign
Hospitals on average managed to hit and exceed the 92% standard, but that all changed in early 2016 when performance slipped below that target.
Analysis of NHS England data reveals that the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for non-urgent surgery has more than doubled in the four years to November 2016.
That is a much faster rate of increase that the number who start treatment in under 18 weeks and faster still than the rate of growth of NHS operations across the board.
Hospital chiefs and health experts say increasing waiting times are an inevitable consequence of NHS budgets lagging behind increases in patient demand.
When emergency admissions are rising, and with a finite number of beds, something has to give.
Delayed transfers of care make the task of finding beds even harder. Patients waiting for routine surgery and procedures are the ones who lose out.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different target regimes for waiting lists.
All have seen sharp increases in the number of long waits between 2012 and 2016.
Wales has not hit its target since 2010 and the NHS in Scotland has been adrift since June 2014.
The pressures on resources and the ability to deliver timely routine treatment are similar across the UK.
Without an injection of more cash it is hard to see how the waiting list situation will improve, given the stresses and strains on all forms of care across the NHS.
Cancellations of routine surgery over Christmas and early January will contribute to the deterioration.
Waiting lists are still a lot shorter than at the worst points in the 1990s and at times over the following decade.
But the question now is whether patients begin to feel that what they get from their local hospital, unless they are seriously ill, is falling well short of their expectations.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38859225
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Should you have two bins in your bathroom? - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How much difference could you make by having separate bathroom bins for recycling?
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UK
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Our bathrooms are filled with shampoo bottles, toilet rolls and cleaning products which could easily be put into our recycling bins when finished with.
Yet research shows our green intentions are washed away as soon as we step near a toilet.
Now a business group has come up with an idea for how to combat this problem - two bathroom bins.
The Circular Economy Taskforce, who were brought together by Prince Charles's Business in the Community environment charity, says it could boost recycling.
So should two bins really sit alongside your stack of loo roll in the bathroom?
Why should people have two bins in their bathrooms?
"It's trying to address the problem that people are less likely to recycle packaging for things we use in our bathrooms than for things we use in other rooms of the house," says Jonny Hazell, senior policy adviser for environmental think tank Green Alliance.
The Recycle Now campaign points to its statistics, which show that while 90% of packaging is recycled in our kitchens, only 50% is being recycled in the bathroom.
"Often homes have one central recycling bin located in the kitchen, so when in the shower or washing your face it can be tricky to remember to transfer it to that bin," it says.
"This is why having a recycling bin or bag in the bathroom might be useful, if there is space."
Business in the Community says two bins could make it easier to separate out the plastics that can be recycled.
"But it doesn't have to be a bin, it could be as simple as a bag on the door handle that you bring down to the kitchen every week," it added.
Where has this idea come from?
While recycling has grown from 12% to 45% in the UK over the last decade, campaigners say the bathroom is an area that needs more focus.
The Circular Economy Taskforce came up with the idea as part of its work looking at practical collaborative ways to boost recycling and re-use rates.
"The bathroom is one of the areas that has come up time and time again in the group as somewhere where both business and consumers can make a difference to help us all reduce our impact on the environment," says Business in the Community.
"Thinking about how different types of bins could boost recycling in the bathroom is just one example of a potential simple solution that could have a big impact."
Why are people failing to recycle their bathroom products?
Campaigners believes it comes down not just to where a recycling bin is located but also to confusion over what can be recycled.
Recycle Now says: "There can also be confusion about what can or can't be recycled with bathroom products.
"For example many people don't realise that bleach bottles can be easily recycled - simply make sure it's empty and put the lid back on.
"Recycling just one bleach bottle saves enough energy to power a street light for 6.5 hours, so the value quickly adds up."
Research from the University of Exeter also found that people who threw away waste in the bathroom saw it as being "dirty" and were less likely to recycle it.
Going through your bathroom bin to separate out what can and can't be recycled can seem off-putting," says Business in the Community.
It added: "There is also a lot of confusion around what can be recycled in the bathroom, for example many consumers are confused by aerosols."
How much recyclable waste comes from a bathroom?
Plastic shampoo, conditioner and shower gel bottles, plastic moisturiser bottles (such as for hand cream and body lotion), glass face cream pots (plus the cardboard packaging they come in), perfume and aftershave bottles, aerosols for deodorant, air freshener and shaving foam, bleach and bathroom cleaner bottles, toothpaste boxes and toilet roll tubes.
Is a lack of recycling in bathrooms a real problem?
Every little helps, is the message from environmental and recycling groups.
"In general, the less we recycle, the more water and energy we need to use to produce the materials we use in our daily lives," said Mr Hazell.
Recycle Now says recycling reduces the amount we are sending to landfill and makes use of resources already available rather than making them from scratch.
"Ultimately this means reduced levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere which contribute to climate change," it added.
"For instance it takes 75% less energy to make a plastic shampoo bottle from recycled plastic compared with using virgin materials."
Can two bins have a meaningful impact on recycling overall?
"Ensuring you recycle in the bathroom can make a big difference," says Recycle Now.
"It would save £135,000 in landfill costs if every UK household threw their next empty shampoo bottles into the recycling bin.
"On top of this, if everyone recycled one more toilet roll tube it would save enough cardboard inner tubes from landfill to go round the M25 38 times."
But what if you don't have the space for two bins?
There are other options. Hang a reusable bag on the bathroom door so you can transfer your recyclable items straight into the recycling bin. Or opt for a bin with split compartments which can be used to separate recyclable and non-recyclable items.
• None Are you rubbish at recycling?
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38856081
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Africa Cup of Nations 2017: Cameroon 2-1 Egypt - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Cameroon come from behind to beat Egypt 2-1 and seal a fifth Africa Cup of Nations title in a thrilling, edgy final in Libreville.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Cameroon came from behind to beat Egypt 2-1 and seal a fifth Africa Cup of Nations in a thrilling, edgy final.
Substitute Vincent Aboubakar swept in the winner two minutes from time, flicking the ball over defender Ali Gabr and thumping it home.
Nicolas Nkoulou had earlier equalised for Cameroon, rising highest to power in a header on the hour mark.
The equaliser cancelled out Mohamed Elneny's opener on 22 minutes with a beautifully taken near-post strike.
The wild celebrations for Aboubakar's winner announced Cameroon's return to the continental summit, after a 15-year wait.
It also makes them the second most successful nation in the competition's history - behind Egypt - and marks the first time they have beaten the Pharaohs in the final in three attempts.
Besiktas striker Aboubakar ran towards the triumphant Cameroon fans in the Stade de l'Amitie stands in Libreville to celebrate, pursued by delirious team-mates and coaching staff.
Underdogs Cameroon had already upset the odds to reach the final and stunned the much-fancied Egyptians with a late dramatic strike, after fellow substitute Nkoulou had drawn them level.
Despite being beset by pre-tournament problems, including the withdrawal of key players such as Joel Matip and Eric Choupo-Moting, coach Hugo Broos managed to assemble a squad that got their reward for being strong, adaptable and resilient in equal measure throughout.
The Pharaohs - bidding for an eighth title after seven years in the international wilderness - started comfortably and Elneny's opening strike capped a wonderful fluent move down the right.
The Gunners midfielder started the move and finished it - receiving the ball from Mohamed Salah in the box and sweeping it past Fabrice Ondoa into the roof of the net at the near post.
But Egypt invited the Indomitable Lions to come at them in the second half and they paid a heavy price.
The excellent Cameroon forward Benjamin Moukandjo whipped in a dangerous cross and substitute Nkoulou muscled his way through the Egyptian defence to beat Ahmed Hegazy to the ball and bury it past 44-year-old Essam El Hadary in the Egyptian goal.
The contest developed into a fascinating cagey final, with Cameroon, inspired by Christian Bassogog and Jacques Zoua up front, pinning Egypt back and limiting them to long balls to Salah and substitute Ramadan Sobhi.
Fatigue soon set in in the Egyptian ranks and Cameroon got their reward for increasing the pressure on the experienced Pharaohs defence.
Aboubakar controlled a long ball forward with his chest at the edge of the box, flicked it over the stranded Gabr, before gathering, taking a step and smashing home off his right foot for a fitting winner.
The Egyptians - featuring the tournament's oldest and most experienced player - El Hadary, were left stunned after looking comfortable for much of the first half.
As they had done for much of the tournament, Egypt relied on a well-marshalled defence, led by Ahmed Hegazy, Gabr and Hull City's Ahmed Elmohamady. They also had the formidable Elneny and Salah leading the line.
The Pharaohs more than played their part in an entertaining final, but it was Cameroon's energy that would light up the occasion and provide a thrilling end to a thoroughly entertaining tournament for the near-capacity crowd of more than 38,000 in the Gabonese capital.
Belgian coach Broos reflected the unity in his squad's ranks, as he celebrated the first Nations Cup title of his career.
"I am happy for the players," he said. "This is not a group of football players, they are a group of friends."
Egypt coach Hector Cuper was left to dwell on another defeat in a major final, having lost two European Champions League finals with Spanish club Valencia.
"The sadness I have is not because I lost another final," he said.
"It's because there was so much hope especially among the people in Egypt and I am sorry for the players who put in so much effort."
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Christian Bassogog (Cameroon) because of an injury.
• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Elneny (Egypt) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Abdallah El Said from a direct free kick.
• None Collins Fai (Cameroon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt blocked. Benjamin Moukandjo (Cameroon) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Christian Bassogog.
• None Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) is shown the yellow card for excessive celebration.
• None Goal! Egypt 1, Cameroon 2. Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Sébastien Siani.
• None Offside, Egypt. Abdallah El Said tries a through ball, but Ali Gabr is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38786537
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The coolest president? - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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President Trump is just one of the sculptures carved out of snow and ice featured in the annual Sapporo snow festival.
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President Trump is just one of the sculptures carved out of snow and ice featured in the annual Sapporo snow festival, which attracts thousands of visitors.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38880668
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Donald Trump UK visit opposed by Commons speaker - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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MPs applaud the speaker of the House of Commons for declaring he would not choose to invite President Trump to Parliament.
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MPs applauded the speaker of the House of Commons for declaring he would not choose to invite President Trump to Parliament.
John Bercow said he valued the relationship with the US, but would oppose inviting the president to address MPs and Lords in Westminster.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38885773
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Sapphire Jubilee: The Queen makes history - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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The Queen makes history again, becoming the first British monarch to reign for 65 years.
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The Queen has become the first British monarch to reach a sapphire jubilee, marking 65 years on the throne.
She will spend the day at her estate in Norfolk, with no official engagements planned.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38879349
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Alastair Cook: England's record breaker - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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BBC Sport looks back at key milestones in Alastair Cook's England Test career after the 32-year-old Essex batsman resigned as skipper.
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BBC Sport looks back at key milestones in Alastair Cook's England Test career after the 32-year-old Essex batsman resigned as skipper on Monday.
WATCH MORE: Cook was drained by captaincy before retiring - Strauss
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38882656
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The people behind famous phrases - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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From "Bob's your uncle" to "Gordon Bennett" - are there real people behind such English phrases?
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England
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Some of the most famous English phrases use people's names to convey a meaning, from the Bob of "Bob's your uncle" to the Gordon Bennett we call upon when we must not swear. But are these expressions, and others like them, based on real people? And if so, how did they become household names?
The phrase "all my eye and Betty Martin" is used to declare something as nonsense.
There are a number of theories as to who the mystery woman - or indeed man - was, says Benjamin Norris, assistant editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
"One idea is that it stems from Latin words used to call on the goddess of Crete 'O mihi Britomartis', or St Martin of Porres 'O mihi, beate Martinehe'," he said.
Eric Scaife from the Yorkshire Dialect Society said: "St Martin was the patron saint of innkeepers, so if you had had a few it may sound different - you would be talking rubbish!"
Could it be that British soldiers or sailors abroad heard locals uttering these Latin words in disbelief and anglicized them?
Could Betty Martin be versions of the Latin for St Martin or the goddess of Crete Britomartis?
"I suspect she was a character of the lusty London of 1770s and no record of her exists," wrote lexicographer Eric Partridge in his Dictionary of Catchphrases (1977).
Mr Norris said in northern England the phrase is sometimes uttered as "all my eye and Peggy Martin".
"It seems relatively unlikely that we will be able to discover the identity of the individual in question for sure," said Mr Norris.
The term is used to mean "and there you have it" or the equivalent of the French "et voilà".
Its origin could have been a satirical swipe at Conservative prime minister Lord Salisbury's controversial decision in 1887 to appoint his nephew Arthur Balfour as chief secretary for Ireland, wrote journalist Fraser McAlpine, in his BBC America Anglophenia blog.
Mr Norris agreed: "In light of Lord Salisbury's Christian name being Robert - 'Bob', of course, being a familiar form of this name - and the appointment being seen by many at the time as nepotistic this theory is an appealing one.
"Though, if it is true, it does not easily explain why the phrase is first recorded in the 1930s."
Is Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, the third Marquess of Salisbury the inspiration for the phrase "Bob's your uncle"?
McApline and Mr Scaife have also both questioned whether the phrase could have something to do with Sir Robert Peel, who created the Metropolitan Police Force - where officers were commonly known as "bobbies".
"Perhaps he had a roguish nephew who was believed to have been kept from prison by his uncle," McAlpine wrote.
"Then there's the name itself, which appears to have been used as a catch-all name for someone you don't know, in much the same way that Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and that lot constantly referred to, well, anyone, as Clyde," he wrote.
This expression conveys the sense that "if anything can go wrong it will go wrong".
It was created by aerospace engineer Captain Edward A Murphy while he was working on a series of US Air Force studies to test human tolerance to acceleration and deceleration, according to Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase & Fable.
He coined the phrase after he observed someone setting up an experiment that required the attachment of 16 accelerometers, according to Brewers.
Captain Edward A Murphy is thought to be behind his eponymous "law"
Each consisted of a sensor that could be attached to its mount in two different ways - and the subject had attached all of them the wrong way round.
"It is quite widely accepted as true and it also fits the chronology of our evidence for the phrase, with the earliest recorded use of Murphy's law in Genetic Psychology Monographs: 1951," said Mr Norris.
The expression "to go to Davy Jones's locker" means to be drowned at sea.
"This item of nautical slang is shrouded in mystery, though we do know that the figure of Davy Jones was seen to represent the spirit of the ocean, sometimes even being interpreted as essentially a sea-devil," said Mr Norris.
Davey Jones's locker is a nautical phrase meaning to drown at sea
The use of Davy Jones's locker to refer to the depths of the sea, frequently considered as the graveyard of those who have drowned, has been around since 18th Century, he said.
For instance, in his 1751 work Peregrine Pickle, Tobias Smollett refers to Davy Jones as "the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep".
This man's name is often used in place of a swear word when making an exclamation of anger, surprise or frustration.
There were two famous Gordon Bennetts who might have been the source - a father and son.
James Gordon Bennett senior (1795-1872) was a Scottish-born journalist, famous in the US for founding the New York Herald and conducting the first ever newspaper interview.
His son, of the same name, was something of an international playboy. Mr Scaife described him as "a dandy... known for driving fast cars and causing consternation and surprise".
Gordon Bennett used his inheritance to sponsor the Bennett Trophy in motor racing from 1900 to 1905, and in 1906 established a hot-air balloon race that is still held today.
He holds the Guinness Book of Records entry for "Greatest Engagement Faux Pas".
One very drunken evening he turned up late to a posh party held by his future in-laws, and ended up urinating into a fireplace in full view of everyone. The engagement, unsurprisingly, was broken off.
However Mr Norris said of the Gordon Bennett expression: "It seems most likely to be a euphemistic substitution for 'gorblimey', which is itself a phonetic rendering of a colloquial or regional pronunciation of 'God blind me'."
This story was inspired by phrases sent in by readers of England's oddest phrases explained.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-38563240
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Romania protesters demand more - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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Romania protesters demand more, as government scraps corruption bill, BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports.
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About 500,000 demonstrators rallied across Romania on Sunday, despite the government revoking a controversial decree that had fuelled their discontent.
The left-wing government earlier scrapped the bill, which would have shielded many politicians from prosecution for corruption.
But protesters remain dissatisfied about a revised version of the bill which will now be put to parliament.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38877370
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Caught between Trump and a liberal place - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Technology bosses seem open to talking with President Trump - but their staff seem to have other ideas.
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Technology
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Donald Trump (R) met technology leaders when he was president-elect
It also just so happens to be the sixth largest economy in the world and home to the most influential, profitable and powerful companies on earth.
If the bubble bursts, or even just contracts a little, the whole country suffers - including President Donald Trump and his supporters. California is a so-called “donor” state, meaning it simply pays more into the US Treasury than it gets out.
So when President Trump talks about making deals, he’ll know full well that in California he faces formidable bargaining chips he can’t ignore. He may even be on the back foot.
And that may be one of the reasons why we saw a peculiar thing happen on Friday.
Uber boss Travis Kalanick decided not to turn up to President Trump’s economic advisory panel, and the president said... nothing.
He didn’t call the company “failing” or “once great” or “weak” or any of those words he’s typically thrown around when he feels personally slighted.
In fact, aside from a few pre-election skirmishes with Apple, President Trump has been relatively ambivalent towards tech firms, and there’s a very good theory as to why - he really needs them.
Travis Kalanick put Uber's reputation ahead of the value the company might get from a meeting with the president
And they need him too, of course.
Under President Trump, Silicon Valley is holding out for a lower corporate tax rate - which could bring billions back into the US, a win-win for both sides.
But there’s a snag in this arrangement. For the most part, the workers at these companies are outraged, seething at the prospect of their bosses even sitting at the same table as the new president.
That’s why we saw 2,000 Google employees across the world leave their desks on Monday to demonstrate against the immigration ban.
It’s why Amazon’s own employees are calling on the company to stop advertising on right-wing news website Breitbart.
It’s why Uber’s staff wrote a lengthy “Letter to Travis”, informing their boss about how unpopular his involvement with President Trump was among the ranks. It worked.
“Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that,” Mr Kalanick told staff in a memo announcing he was stepping down.
The tone was understanding, but a little frustrated. Would it not be better to at least have a seat at the table? Uber’s staff didn’t see it that way.
Although he said he didn’t support President Trump’s immigration policy, people thought he did. And that’s what mattered most.
He put Uber’s reputation ahead of the value Uber might get from a meeting with the president.
He may have been extra-sensitive after a long week.
Last Saturday, a misjudged tweet caused a reported 200,000 Uber users to delete their accounts - so many, in fact, the company had to create a special tool to automate the process.
Uber’s explanation that it was all a big misunderstanding has merit, but the furore, justified or not, underlined the fine line tech companies tread with their users.
The firms have until now acted in ways that were “good for business”, but now they are being forced to consider what is simply “good”.
One minute you can be helping the people of San Francisco get around, the next those same people are protesting outside your headquarters.
Another company tip-toeing along is Twitter, buoyed by its role as the mouthpiece for the most important man in the world, but cowed by what that man chooses to share.
It has faced calls to ban President Trump from the site on account of some feeling he has breached the network’s rules on hate speech and harassment.
It of course hasn’t done that - and to be fair, the demand didn’t gain significant traction, even amongst Trump’s opponents.
But Twitter’s employees, nervous about their role as President Trump’s megaphone, contributed a combined $1m (£800,775) to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The ACLU has been the benefactor of choice for companies that have one eye on public perception.
Many are dealing with what can be plainly described as the “Peter Thiel problem”. Mr Thiel, an investor with an arguably unrivalled track record, has his fingers in almost every significant pie around here.
And, uncomfortably for many, he also has the ear of the president, of whom he is an outspoken supporter.
When Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg chose not to make a public statement on the Women’s March two weeks ago, people jumped to various conclusions, most of which inevitably led to the hand of Mr Thiel - who sits on Facebook’s board.
This comes despite any evidence Mr Thiel is calling any kind of shots on Facebook’s political position.
Support for President Trump in California is harder to come by than in other parts of the US
Meanwhile, well-regarded start-up accelerator Y Combinator is also feeling pressure thanks to its links with Mr Thiel.
The company’s president Sam Altman said he wouldn’t sever ties with the investor. The programme has said it will take on the ACLU as one of its cohorts, offering mentorship on digital projects.
It seems for now the rank-and-file of Silicon Valley see advising President Trump as indistinguishable from supporting him.
Technology companies are perhaps paying for years of hyperbolic statements about changing the world, in a place where a minor software update gets people “super excited”.
One thing that has struck me about staff at these huge companies is the infectious, passionate loyalty. It exists because those employees believe the company stands for the same issues they do. Any wavering creates shockwaves.
The atmosphere may get less toxic as the presidency continues, but it leaves bosses extremely hesitant to get around President Trump’s table.
Will President Trump need to get around theirs?
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC and on Facebook
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38866023
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Davis Cup: Denis Shapovalov fined over Great Britain default - BBC Sport
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2017-02-06
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Canada's Denis Shapovalov is fined after being defaulted from his match against Great Britain's Kyle Edmund in the Davis Cup.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Canada's Denis Shapovalov has been fined $7,000 (£5,600) after hitting an umpire in the eye with a ball.
The 17-year-old was trailing Great Britain's Kyle Edmund 6-3 6-4 2-1 when he struck the ball in anger and hit Arnaud Gabas - and defaulted the match.
He must pay $2,000 for the default and $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct, escaping the maximum $12,000 penalty as it was not deemed intentional.
The International Tennis Federation has said no further action is anticipated.
The Davis Cup World Group first-round tie in Ottawa was poised at 2-2 after Vasek Pospisil beat Dan Evans to set up a decider, but Canada's hopes ended when Shapovalov was disqualified after letting frustration get the better of him.
He later apologised to Frenchman Gabas in the match referee's office before the umpire went to Ottawa General Hospital as a precaution.
No damage to the cornea or retina was found and Gabas will see an eye doctor in France on Tuesday for a further examination.
Shapovalov, who had just dropped serve when the incident happened, said he feels "incredibly ashamed and embarrassed".
"I just feel awful for letting my team down, for letting my country down, for acting in a way that I would never want to act," he added.
"I can promise that's the last time I will do anything like that. I'm going to learn from this and try to move past it."
Shapovalov was full of remorse and handled himself very impressively in the hour after his disqualification. He is only 17, and should be allowed to put this behind him.
But - given the ferocity with which he hit the ball away - this appears a lenient response from the ITF.
By way of comparison: Heather Watson was fined $12,000 and Serena Williams $10,000 for smashing racquets into Wimbledon's turf last year. Yes, they are both much more experienced than Shapovalov - but the consequences in Ottawa were potentially far greater.
I wonder if chair umpires around the world feel their employers are doing all they can to protect them?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/38884448
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Traditional retail markets and the battle to stay afloat - BBC News
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2017-02-06
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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BBC News visits the winner of "Britain's Favourite Market" to see how these community cornerstones are coping in the competitive world of modern retail.
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Leeds & West Yorkshire
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British markets are seen as a microcosm of the city or town in which they are based, encapsulating the diversity of communities and skills a place has to offer. But with some being sold off due to their prime locations and others fighting for their existence amid the rise of discount supermarkets and online retailers, will generations to come be able to enjoy them?
Kirkgate Market has been selling food and goods to the people of Leeds for more than 150 years.
The winner of "Britain's Favourite Market" for the second year in a row, the cavernous hall at the south of the city centre remains popular. But it is not immune to the need to adapt to changing trends.
Among the 170 stall-holders, optimism for the future is mixed with serious concern about dropping footfall and the rising costs of renting floor space.
Near an entrance to the 1904 hall, with its glass roof and cast-iron balcony, sits North African and Middle Eastern food vendor Cafe Moor.
Owner Kada Bendaha set up his stand after a life-changing breakfast in the bustle of London's Borough Market and its speciality food stands.
"The beauty of a market is you have that one-to-one contact, you build that relationship with your fishmonger or butcher," he said.
"If you go to the fish section, there's a gentleman there who has been there for 38 years, you go and ask him about a particular fish, he knows the business inside out.
"Go to a supermarket and you will have a student who is just working part time there, it's not the same."
Dating back to 1857, Kirkgate has become one of the largest indoor markets in Europe, selling fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, clothes, jewellery, haberdashery, flowers and hardware.
The booming voice of a butcher offering the day's best prices still echoes down its walkways, although e-cigarette stands and racks of iPhone covers tick off some modern requirements.
It has been a turbulent time for the Leeds City Council-run market over the past couple of years, with temporary walls and scaffolding becoming a familiar sight during a £13.7m renovation.
Despite the council reducing rents during this period, stall-holders have complained of regulars becoming put off and heading elsewhere.
Monthly footfall at Kirkgate dropped significantly from 718,000 in 2014 to 628,000 in 2015, but the number rose again to 699,000 in 2016.
Leslie Burwell, of Whitaker's Farmhouse Eggs, has worked in the market for 25 years in total.
She said: "It used to be heaving, you couldn't move for people down the aisles, there was an atmosphere with people shouting.
"They've taken all of the shops out of one section and made a big wide open space - they have spent millions of pounds and have nothing to show for it."
Kashif Ali Raja, who recently took over Spice Corner, said he was positive despite widespread change.
He said: "When you start a business, you have to work really hard. There's early mornings, working late.
"We sell seeds, fresh vegetables, things which are very difficult to find in Leeds, this is the only place you can get it.
"I don't think recent changes have made any difference, because the regular customers are the same, they will always come."
The outdoor section of Kirkgate, with its fruit stalls, luggage-sellers and flea market, is where Michael Marks opened his Penny Bazaar, leading to the founding of Marks & Spencer in 1890.
The patch now sits a stone's throw away from the newly-opened 42,000 sq m Victoria Gate complex, a £165m retail development featuring a flagship John Lewis store.
Leeds City Council wants the market to be able to take advantage of the expected increase in shoppers in the area, but not everyone feels it will make a difference.
Julie Carr has worked in the outdoor section for 35 years and now sells second-hand toys and collectables at her stall.
She said: "The new John Lewis has made no difference to us, I don't think their customers and ours are connected at all.
"My theory is in 20 years there will be no shops, no markets, everything will be online and people will say 'I remember when we used to go to the market' - and they've gone."
The market's 1976 Hall has seen the most significant change, with the space transformed into a brightly-coloured communal seating area, where established "street food" traders have decided to set up permanently.
A rotating schedule of craft fairs, live music and kids' entertainment is used to draw people in, with long tables encouraging those new to the market to get chatting to those who have been regulars for decades.
One of the new food traders is the Yorkshire Wrap Company, selling hot meals wrapped up in a Yorkshire pudding.
Michael Pratt, who runs the stall, said: "First impressions are good, word of mouth seems to be getting out about the new food hall area.
"It's bringing a lot of different faces into the market, people who maybe wouldn't have usually come here."
He added: "Markets give a sense of community and the ability to get everything under one roof, great produce for great prices. I think they're going from strength to strength."
Down in the basement of the top end of the market, Brian Bettison has been providing haircuts since 1982. He said rents for stalls had gone "up and up and up".
He said: "They've had numerous different ways of doing it through the years, it was measured on square footage, it was zoned into the most desirable areas.
"Everyone now has different agreements with the markets, nobody will let you know, they will keep it to themselves."
What do the shoppers think?
Close to where the indoor market meets the outdoor section, Cheryl Murtheh has been selling cosmetics for 16 years.
She said: "They're giving cheaper rent to newcomers coming in, but they should lower the rents of people who have been here a long time.
"What happens to the people who have been keeping you going for years, shouldn't they be entitled to something as well?"
According to the National Association of British Market Authorities, from 2009 to 2016 the number of market traders in the UK dropped from approximately 55,000 to 32,000.
The recession has been highlighted as a key reason for this, although there is some evidence the sector as a whole has started to turn a corner.
The National Market Traders Federation (NMTF) said traditional retail markets currently have a collective annual turnover of £2.7bn, with the figure increasing by £200m year on year since 2013.
Like Kirkgate, several markets across the UK are adapting to modern trends to cater for younger shoppers.
Many have introduced hot food areas, improved their branding, have extended opening hours and provided free wi-fi.
Joe Harrison, chief executive of the NMTF, said: "It's easy to follow trends, but five years down the line you may realise you've got nothing.
"They need to make sure careful steps are taken to keep them popular with the next generation, but it needs to have that social value, dealing with every demographic rather than focusing on one specific thing as it's currently the most economically viable."
Leeds City Council said visitor numbers were now "on the up" since the refurbishment, with the number of vacant units "also reduced significantly".
A spokeswoman said: "We recognise that there is still some way to go but we are very optimistic that more and more visitors will continue to discover the traditional charm combined with the new modern areas that Kirkgate has to offer."
Clearly the market has reached a key moment in its history, with bold decisions about the site's future use being made.
While serving up mint teas and chicken shawarmas to lunchtime customers at his food stand, Mr Bendaha said: "This is not just a full-time job, it's a lifestyle and it's a big part of the city.
"Hopefully it will never die."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-38768838
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Local voting figures shed new light on EU referendum - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC gets localised voting figures for the EU referendum - giving more detail of voting patterns.
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UK Politics
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The BBC has obtained a more localised breakdown of votes from nearly half of the local authorities which counted EU referendum ballots last June.
This information provides much greater depth and detail in explaining the pattern of how the UK voted. The key findings are:
A statistical analysis of the data obtained for over a thousand individual local government wards confirms how the strength of the local Leave vote was strongly associated with lower educational qualifications.
Wards where the population had fewer qualifications tended to have a higher Leave vote, as shown in the chart. If the proportion of the local electorate with a degree or similar qualification was one percentage point lower, then on average the leave vote was higher by nearly one percentage point.
Using ward-level data means we can compare voting figures in this way to the local demographic information collected in the 2011 census. Of the main census statistics, this is the one with the greatest association with how people voted.
In statistical terms the level of educational qualifications explains about two-thirds of the variation in the results between different wards.
The correlation is strong, whether based on assessing graduate and equivalent qualifications or lower-level ones.
This ward-by-ward analysis covers 1,070 individual wards in England and Wales whose boundaries had not changed since the 2011 census, about one in nine of the UK's wards. We had very little ward-level data from Scotland, and none from Northern Ireland.
It should be noted, however, that many ward counts also included some postal votes from across the counting area, and therefore some variation between wards will have been masked by the random allocation of postal votes for counting. This makes the results less accurate geographically, but we can still use the information to explore broad national and local patterns.
Adding age as a second factor significantly helps to further explain voting patterns. Older populations were more likely to vote Leave. Education and age combined account for nearly 80% of the voting variation between wards.
Ethnicity is a smaller factor, but one which also contributed to the results. Adding that in means that now 83% of the variation in the vote between wards is explained. White populations were generally more pro-Leave, and ethnic minorities less so. However, there were some interesting differences between London and elsewhere.
The ethnic dimension is particularly interesting when examining the outliers on the graph that compares the Leave vote to levels of education.
Some wards in Birmingham illustrate the pattern of ethnic minority populations being more likely to support Remain.
There are numerous wards towards the bottom left of the graph where electorates with lower educational qualifications nevertheless produced low Leave and high Remain votes. This is where the link between low qualifications and Leave voting breaks down.
It turns out that these exceptional wards have high ethnic minority populations, particularly in Birmingham and Haringey in north London.
In contrast, there are virtually no dramatic outliers on the other side of the line, where comparatively highly educated populations voted Leave. Only one point on the graph stands out - this is Osterley and Spring Grove in Hounslow, west London, a mainly ethnic minority ward which had a Leave vote of 63%. While this figure does include some postal votes, they are not nearly enough to explain away this unusual outcome.
In fact, in Ealing and Hounslow, west London boroughs with many voters of Asian origin, the ethnic correlation was in the other direction to the national picture: a higher number of Asian voters was associated with a higher Leave vote.
This powerful link to educational attainment could stem from the lower qualified tending to feel less confident about their prospects and ability to compete for work in a competitive globalised economy with high levels of migration.
On the other hand some commentators see it as primarily reflecting a "culture war" or "values conflict", rather than issues of economics and inequality. Research shows that non-graduates tend to take less liberal positions than graduates on a range of social issues from immigration and multi-culturalism to the death penalty.
The former campaign director of Vote Leave, Dominic Cummings, argues that the better educated are more prone to holding irrational political opinions because they are more driven by fashion and a group mentality.
Of course this assessment does not imply that Leave voters were almost all poorly educated and old, and Remain voters well educated and young. The Leave side obviously attracted support from many middle class professionals, graduates and younger people. Otherwise it couldn't have won.
While there was undoubtedly a lot of voting which cut across these criteria, the point of this analysis is to explore how different social groups most probably voted - and it is clear that education, age and ethnicity were crucial influences.
After these three key factors are taken into account, adding in further demographic measures from the census does little to increase the explanation of UK-wide voting patterns.
However, this does not reflect the distinctively more pro-Remain voting in Scotland, since we are short of Scottish data at this geographical level. It is clear as well that in a few specific locations high student numbers were also very relevant.
To a certain extent, using the level of educational qualifications as a measure combines both class and age factors, with working class and older adults both tending to be less well qualified.
But the association between education and the voting results is stronger than the association between social or occupational class and the results. This is still true after taking the age of the local population into account.
This suggests that voters with lower qualifications were more likely to back Leave than the better qualified, even when they were in the same social or occupational class.
The existence of a significant connection between Leave voting and lower educational qualifications had already been suggested by analysis of the published referendum results from the official counting areas.
The data we have obtained strengthens this conclusion, because voting patterns can now be compared to social statistics from the 2011 census at a much more detailed geographical level than by the earlier studies.
The BBC analysis is also consistent with opinion polling (for example, from Lord Ashcroft, Ipsos Mori and YouGov) that tried to identify the characteristics of Leave and Remain voters.
The data we have collected can be used to illustrate the sort of places where the Leave and Remain camps did particularly well: it is hard to imagine a more glaring social contrast than that between the deprived, poorly educated housing estates of Brambles and Thorntree in Middlesbrough, and the privileged elite colleges of Market ward in central Cambridge.
It is important to bear in mind, however, that most of the voting figures mentioned below also include some postal votes, so they should be treated as approximate rather than precise. It is also important to note that the examples are limited to the places for which we were able to obtain localised information, which was only a minority of areas. The rest of the country may well contain even starker instances.
Of the 1,283 individual wards for which we have data, the highest Leave vote was 82.5% in Brambles and Thorntree, a section of east Middlesbrough with many social problems. Ward boundaries have changed since the 2011 census, but in that survey the Thorntree part of the area had the lowest proportion of people with a degree or similar qualification of anywhere in England and Wales, at only 5%. And according to Middlesbrough council, the figure for the current Brambles and Thorntree ward is even lower, at just 4%.
Second highest was 80.3% in Waterlees Village, a poor locality within Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. This area has seen a major influx of East European migrants who have been doing low-paid work in nearby food processing factories and farms, with tensions between them and British residents.
Other wards with available data which had the strongest Leave votes were congregated in Middlesbrough, Canvey Island in Essex, Skegness in coastal Lincolnshire, and Havering in east London.
The highest Remain vote was 87.8% in Market ward in central Cambridge, an area with numerous colleges and a high student population, in a city which was strongly pro-Remain.
This was followed by Ashley ward (85.6%) in central Bristol, a district featuring ethnic diversity, gentrification and alternative culture.
Next highest was Northumberland Park (85.0%) in Haringey, north London, which has a substantial black population.
Other wards with available data which had the strongest Remain votes were generally located in Cambridge, Bristol and the multi-ethnic London boroughs of Haringey and Lambeth.
The count for Ashburton in Croydon, south London, split 50-50 exactly, with both Leave and Remain getting 3,885 votes, but that did include some postal ballots.
As for being nearest to the overall result, the combined count of Tulketh and University, neighbouring wards near the centre of Preston, was 51.92% for leave, very close to the UK wide figure of 51.89%. The individual ward of Barnwood in Gloucester had Leave at 51.94%. Both figures however contain some postal votes.
Given that a few councils provided even more detailed data down to the level of polling districts, it is possible to identify some very small localities that were nicely representative of the national picture.
The 527 voters in the neighbouring districts of Kirk Langley and Mackworth in Amber Valley in Derbyshire, whose two ballot boxes were counted together, produced a leave proportion of 51.99%. And this figure is not contaminated by any postal votes.
So journalists (or anyone else for that matter) who seek a microcosm of the UK should perhaps visit the Mundy Arms pub in Mackworth, the location for that district's polling station.
Similarly, the 427 voters in the combined neighbouring polling districts of Chiddingstone Hoath and Hever Four Elms to the south of Sevenoaks in Kent delivered a leave vote of 51.6% (again, without any postal votes).
The data obtained points to 269 areas of various sizes (wards, clusters of wards or constituencies) which had a different Leave/Remain outcome compared to the official counting area of which they were part.
This consists of 150 areas which backed Remain but were part of Leave-voting counting areas; and 119 in the other direction.
The detailed information therefore gives us an understanding of how the electorate voted which is more variegated than the officially published results.
Scotland voted to Remain - but some wards backed Leave, analysis shows
Every one of Scotland's 32 counting areas came down on the Remain side. Yet, despite the fact that most Scottish councils did not give us much detailed information, we can nevertheless identify a few smaller parts of the country which actually backed Leave.
A cluster of six wards in the Banff and Buchan area in north Aberdeenshire had a strong Leave majority of 61%. There is much local discontent within the fishing industry of this coastal district about the EU's common fisheries policy.
An Taobh Siar agus Nis, a ward at the northern end of the Isle of Lewis in Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles), also voted Leave, if very narrowly.
And at a smaller geographical level, in Shetland the 567 voters in the combined polling districts of Whalsay and South Unst had an extremely high Leave vote of 81%. The island of Whalsay is a fishing community, where EU rules have been controversial and in 2012 numerous skippers were heavily fined for major breaches of fishing quotas.
Ealing and Hounslow are neighbouring multi-ethnic boroughs in the west of London with large Asian populations, where - in contrast to the national picture - non-white ethnicity was associated with voting Leave, particularly in Ealing. Both boroughs shared a varied internal pattern of prosperous largely white areas voting strongly Remain, poorer largely white areas preferring Leave, and the Asian areas tending to be more evenly split.
Ealing voted 60% Remain, with Southfield ward hitting 76%, but in contrast the Southall wards which are over 90% ethnic minority were close to 50-50.
In Hounslow the richer wards in Chiswick in the east of the area voted heavily Remain (73%), but the poorer largely white wards at the opposite western end in Feltham and Bedfont voted Leave (64-66%). Osterley and Spring Grove was also 63% Leave, the highest Leave vote in any individual ward in the UK with a non-white majority for which we have data.
The south London borough of Bromley narrowly voted Remain. Those parts which did not do so by a significant margin were the Cray Valley wards, largely poor white working class areas; and Biggin Hill and Darwin wards, locations to the south which contain more open countryside and lie outside the built-up commuter belt.
In Croydon in south London, places which voted Leave by substantial amounts were New Addington and Fieldway, neighbouring wards with large council estates.
Beyond the areas with the strongest backing for Leave and Remain, examining the detailed breakdown of votes in various places gives greater insight into the pattern of support for the two sides - as can be seen from the following examples.
In several places (for example, Birmingham, Bristol, Nottingham, Portsmouth) there was a strong contrast between the Leave-voting populations of large, rundown, predominantly white, housing estates in the urban periphery, versus Remain-voting populations in inner city areas with large numbers of ethnic minorities and sometimes students.
Birmingham had several wards with large Remain votes, although the city as a whole narrowly voted Leave. These pro-Remain wards tended to be the more highly educated, better off localities, or minority ethnic areas which strongly backed Remain despite low levels of educational qualifications. I have written about this before.
In Blackburn with Darwen, Bastwell ward had the highest Remain vote at 65%, compared to only 44% in the area as a whole. This ward has an ethnic minority proportion of over 90%. Other Blackburn wards which voted Remain were also ones with high minority populations.
Bradford voted to Leave (54%), but the area included some starkly contrasting places which went over 60% Remain: the prosperous, genteel, spa town of Ilkley, and strongly ethnic minority wards in the city, such as Manningham and Toller.
Bristol voted strongly Remain on the whole (62%), but there were some striking exceptions, particularly the large, deprived, mainly white estates to the south of the city. Hartcliffe and Withywood backed Leave at 67%. Similar neighbouring wards (Hengrove and Whitchurch Park, Filwood, Bishopsworth and Stockwood) also voted Leave, as did the more industrial area of Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston to the north west of the city.
As a county Cornwall voted to Leave. But one of its six parliamentary constituencies, Truro and Falmouth, voted 53% to Remain, possibly linked to a significant student population.
In Lincoln, which voted 57% to Leave, Carholme ward stands out as very different - it voted 63% to Remain. This ward includes Lincoln University, and 43% of the residents are students
Middlesbrough voted 65% to Leave. As already noted, it had several wards with extremely high leave votes of over 75%. But one ward, Linthorpe, voted very narrowly to Remain - a comparatively well-to-do inner suburb which includes an art college; and another ward, Central, which contains Teesside University, nearly did.
Mole Valley in Surrey exhibited a dramatic contrast between two neighbouring districts with very different demographics and housing. The highest Remain vote was in the very prosperous location of Dorking South, which voted 63% Remain, but the neighbouring ward of Holmwoods, dominated by large estates on the edge of the town of Dorking, voted 57% Leave, the area's highest Leave vote.
Nottingham voted narrowly to Leave, but the inner city ward of Radford and Park voted 68% Remain. This has both a comparatively high proportion of ethnic minorities and considerable numbers of students from two nearby universities. There was a lot of variation within the area. Bulwell - a market town to the north of the city with many social problems - voted 69% Leave
There was also a high Leave vote in the housing estate locations of the Clifton wards in the south of Nottingham.
Oldham voted to Leave at 61%, but Werneth, the city ward with the highest ethnic minority population, voted Remain (57%). Other wards with high minority populations also voted Remain.
The central wards in Oxford had high Remain votes
In Oxford the cluster of polling districts which included Blackbird Leys and other deprived estates on the southern edge of the city voted to Leave at 51%. In contrast the central areas containing colleges, university buildings and student accommodation voted to Remain at over 80%.
Plymouth voted 60% Leave, but Drake ward which includes the university had the city's highest Remain vote at 56%.
Portsmouth was another place with wide variation. Paulsgrove ward, with its large estate on the edge of the city, had the highest Leave vote at 70%, whereas at the other end of the spectrum Central Southsea, an inner city ward and student area, voted 57% Remain.
Rochdale voted 60% Leave. The place which bucked this trend by voting 59% Remain, Milkstone and Deeplish, was the most predominantly ethnic minority ward. Central Rochdale had the second highest Remain vote and is the other ward that is mainly not white.
Walsall voted strongly Leave (68%). The only ward which voted Remain, Paddock, is both a comparatively prosperous and multi-ethnic locality.
A few councils released their data at remarkably localised levels, down even to individual polling districts (ie ballot boxes) in the case of Blackburn with Darwen and Bracknell Forest, or clusters of two/three/four districts, in the case of Amber Valley, Brentwood, Sevenoaks, Shetland, South Oxfordshire, and Tewkesbury.
This provides very local and specific data, in some cases just for neighbourhoods of hundreds of voters.
At its most detailed this reveals that the 110 people who cast their votes in the ballot box at St. Alban's Primary School in central Blackburn split 56-52 in favour of Remain, with two spoilt papers.
It also discloses stark contrasts in some neighbouring locations. The 953 people who voted at Little Harwood community centre in north Blackburn had a Leave vote of only 31%, while the 336 electors who voted in the neighbouring ballot box at Roe Lee Park primary school produced a Leave percentage over twice as high, at 64%.
The very detailed data we obtained also provides some rare evidence on the views of postal compared to non-postal voters. Campaign strategists have often deliberated on whether the two groups vote differently and should be given separate targeted messages.
Most places mixed boxes of postal and non-postal votes for counting, so generally it's not possible to draw comparative conclusions. However there were a few exceptions which recorded them separately, or included a very small number of non-postal votes with the postals.
These figures indicate that postal voters were narrowly less likely to back Leave than voters in polling stations. Data covering five counting areas with about 260,000 votes shows that in these places the roughly one in five electors who voted by post backed Leave at 55.4%, one percentage point lower than the local non-postal support for Leave of 56.4%.
The counting areas involved are Amber Valley, East Cambridgeshire, Gwynedd, Hyndburn and North Warwickshire.
Since the referendum the BBC has been trying to get the most detailed, localised voting data we could from each of the counting areas. This was a major data collection exercise carried out by my colleague George Greenwood.
We managed to obtain voting figures broken down into smaller geographical units for 178 of the 399 referendum counting areas (380 councils in England, Wales and Scotland, with a separate tally in Gibraltar, while in Northern Ireland results were issued for the 18 constituencies).
This varied between data for individual local government wards, wards grouped into clusters, and constituency level data. In a few cases the results supplied were even more localised than ward level. Overall the extra data covers a wide range of different areas and kinds of councils across the UK.
Electoral returning officers are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act, so releasing the information was up to the discretion of councils. While some were very willing, in other cases it required a lot of persistence and persuasion.
Some councils could not supply any detailed data because they mixed all ballot boxes prior to counting; some did possess more local figures but simply refused to disclose them to us. Others did provide data, but the combinations in which ballot boxes were mixed before counting were too complex to fit ward boundaries neatly.
A few places such as Birmingham released their ward by ward data following the referendum on their own initiative, but in most cases the information had to be obtained by us requesting it directly, and sometimes repeatedly, from the authority.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38762034
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Claudio Ranieri: Leicester City back Italian coach despite poor form - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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Leicester City stand by boss Claudio Ranieri despite the reigning Premier League champions being one point above the relegation zone.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Leicester City have given their "unwavering support" to manager Claudio Ranieri despite the reigning Premier League champions being just one point above the relegation zone.
The Italian had been under pressure after a run of just two wins in their last 15 Premier League games.
However, the Foxes said in a statement that "the entire club is and will remain united behind its manager".
"This is not a crisis," Ranieri said following the club's backing.
"When you aren't winning you lose confidence, it is normal."
Leicester play Derby County at home in an FA Cup fourth round replay on Wednesday and club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will be flying in from Thailand for the game - but also to give a public show of support to Ranieri.
• None 'Change the manager, it's the only thing to do' - Listen as Leicester fan lets loose on 606
Leicester are 16th and are without a league win in 2017.
Foxes goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel called the club's title defence "embarrassing" after Sunday's 3-0 defeat at home to Manchester United.
Leicester acknowledged that "recent form needs to improve", but said Ranieri would be given the opportunity to turn things around.
"The unprecedented success achieved in recent seasons has been based firmly on stability, togetherness and determination to overcome the greatest of challenges," the club said.
Leicester's last two seasons after 24 games
Ranieri guided Leicester to the Premier League title last season despite the Foxes being 5,000-1 shots.
They won the league by 10 points but face becoming the first defending champions to be relegated since 1938, after winning just five league games so far this season.
Recent reports suggested Ranieri had lost the support of his players, with the 65-year-old's squad tinkering and supposed ban on chicken burgers angering some of the Leicester squad.
However, Ranieri denied any unrest and said he has "a fantastic relationship" with his squad.
"The dressing room is fantastic," he said.
"Never have I seen a chicken burger, only deep fried chicken. It's fantastic.
"The dressing room is fantastic. We try to do our best, but this season everything is wrong."
Leicester host Derby County in an FA Cup fourth-round replay at King Power Stadium on Wednesday and it is live on BBC One and online (19:30 GMT)
"Claudio was upbeat and thoroughly charming as he showed no signs of pressure during his news conference this afternoon.
"Leicester City are struggling in the Premier League and haven't scored a goal in the competition since 31 December, but you wouldn't know it from speaking to him today.
"He suggested the club's statement was for us in the media rather than for him - but what it does show is that the club are prepared to be patient with him.
"Nigel Pearson initially struggled in his first season in the top-flight but the club backed him and he led them to the 'greatest escape'.
"Here's my concern, though. There was real evidence of fight then but I'm not so sure that steeliness and determination is as prevalent now. I fear for the club this season, but they do have the capability to stay up. I hope they go out there and prove themselves once again.
"Kasper Schmeichel has come out with some strong words and the rest of the players could do well to heed his advice."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38896070
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Shopping robots on the march in Ocado - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How online retailer Ocado is automating its processes and experimenting with robotics.
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Technology
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There is growing concern about the impact of automation on employment - or in crude terms - the threat that robots will eat our jobs.
But if you want to see how important robotics and artificial intelligence can be to a business Ocado is a good place to start.
"Without it we simply couldn't do what we do at this scale," the online retailer's chief technology officer Paul Clarke told me. With margins in the supermarket business wafer thin, continually bearing down on costs and waste has been vital.
At its Hatfield distribution centre I got a glimpse of how far the process of automating the sorting of thousands of grocery orders has come. For now, you will struggle to spot a robot - unless you count a machine that inserts plastic shopping bags into crates - but software is doing a very complex job of sending the right goods in the right crates to the right human pickers.
Roboticists at Ocado are working on a robotic hand, gentle enough to pick up fruit
"This warehouse is crammed with machine learning and algorithms that are controlling all manner of operations that are invisible to the human eye," Mr Clarke explains.
But in one corner of the warehouse is the robotics lab where the next stage of automating Ocado is under way. A group of some of the smartest robotic engineers from across Europe are at work on their latest project which could replace human pickers one day. It's a robotic hand sensitive enough to pick up a piece of fruit without damaging it.
"The overall challenge is to develop robotic systems that can pick and pack the full range of items," explains head of robotics Alex Harvey.
The robot warehouse contains crates containing various goods which the robots select
The robot hand won't be ready to start work for a while but at Ocado's newest warehouse in Andover, Hampshire, a robotics project that the company believes is unequalled in its sophistication has already been deployed. Swarms of robots move across a grid, collaborating with each other to collect groceries stored beneath them and then bring them to a human picker.
Showing me some video of the warehouse, Paul Clarke explains the technical challenge: "Controlling thousands of robots in real time has required not only building a very sophisticated AI-based air traffic control system but also we've had to evolve a new communications systems to talk to all those robots 10 times a second."
But seeing all those swarming robots with not a human in sight sparks an obvious thought - what about the impact on jobs?
Ocado says despite the onward march of automation its workforce has continued to grow. "We have no choice both as a company and as UK PLC but to invest in this technology," says Mr Clarke."We are a net employer of 12,000 people, none of whom would have a job at all if it weren't for our use of automation because this has been our differentiator as a business."
Economists disagree on the scale of the threat to employment. An Oxford study which predicted that more than 40% of occupations could be threatened by automation over the next two decades is now seen by many as far too pessimistic.
Will human jobs change as robots take on some of the roles we currently fill?
That is certainly the view of Laura Gardiner, of the Resolution Foundation, who points out that jobs are becoming more multi-faceted, so that even if one task is taken by a robot, there will still be others left for the humans.
But she does accept that for certain categories of worker life may get harder: "It is right to be concerned about specific occupations - secretarial work, processing jobs in factories - moderately skilled jobs which used to pay quite well."
What is clear is that in an evolving job market, some skills will become redundant, while others will be in higher demand. And the best advice? Train as a robotics engineer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38892383
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Subway commuters scrub anti-Semitic graffiti - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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A group of commuters raided their bags and pockets to clean racist graffiti from a New York subway car.
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A group of commuters raided their bags and pockets to clean racist graffiti from a New York subway car.
Gregory Locke was one of them, and spoke to BBC World Have Your Say.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38888769
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Alastair Cook was 'drained' by England captaincy - Andrew Strauss - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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Alastair Cook had become "drained" as England Test captain, says England's director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
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Alastair Cook had become "drained" as England Test captain, says England's director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
Cook stepped down on Monday after a record 59 matches in charge.
"He was getting drained by the relentlessness of being England captain," Strauss told the BBC's sports editor Dan Roan.
Strauss added that vice-captain Joe Root would be a strong candidate to take over but refused "to rule anyone in or out of the role".
Cook is England's highest run-scorer in Test cricket with 11,057, while his 140 Test appearances and 30 centuries are also national records.
But the Essex batsman had been considering his future as captain after his side suffered a 4-0 Test series defeat in India last year.
And Strauss said the 32-year-old had taken time to come to his decision.
"We know it has been a tough winter and it was an obvious time for him to step back and reflect and consider and have thoughts about what was right for the team moving forwards," he said.
"In my conversations with him in January it became clear that Alastair felt a huge amount of energy, drive and determination was needed to drive the team forward over the next 12 months.
"You are the only one who knows how much gas you have left in the tank and how much the many demands of being England captain are taking out of you.
"He feels it is time for new blood, new impetus and fresh thinking and allow someone else to take over and do that."
Strauss said he did not attempt to make Cook change his mind, and explained: "Once it became obvious how clear his thinking was, it was his decision to make. It would have been wrong to persuade him otherwise."
Is the appointment of Root a foregone conclusion?
The Yorkshire batsman, who was appointed England vice-captain before the 2015 Ashes Series is seen as the favourite for the job.
But Strauss, while praising his qualities, says that there is a process to go through before Cook's successor is announced.
England's next Test series will be against South Africa with the first game of the four-match series due to start at Lord's on 6 July.
After that, they will host the West Indies in three Tests in August and September before travelling to Australia for the Ashes in November.
"Joe has leadership experience and is a phenomenal cricketer and an influential figure in the dressing room, and there is no reason why he wouldn't be a strong candidate," said Strauss.
"But I don't want to rule anyone out or in at this stage.
"There are conversations that need to take place, both between myself and the selectors and the coach, but also among some of the senior players to make sure I understand how best to take the team forward so that when we announce the captain he is the right man for the job."
Cook's first job after taking over from Strauss in 2012 was to manage the return of batsman Kevin Pietersen, who had been left out of the England side over allegations he had sent derogatory text messages about Strauss to members of the South Africa team.
But Cook also played an influential role in the decision to end Pietersen's international career in February 2014 when he was part of a three-man panel who met the batsman to tell him of their decision.
When asked if that incident could overshadow Cook's legacy as captain, Strauss said: "I think the fact he was able to get through that episode at a very tough time for him and others and come out the other side and keep scoring runs and winning matches and keep a degree of sanity at a difficult time speaks volumes for him."
The most difficult time for Cook as England captain was in 2014, which began with the Ashes whitewash down under, moved on to the Kevin Pietersen saga and was followed by a home series defeat by Sri Lanka.
His 2013 Ashes win as skipper is a highlight of his reign. So too, the triumph in South Africa in 2015-16 and the historic win in India in 2012.
Cook's winning percentage of 40.67 is only the fourth best of the six captains to have led England in more than 40 Tests. It has been an up-and-down ride.
The extended period of time taken to mull over his future shows that Cook has made the right decision for him. He will be incredibly comfortable with what lies ahead. That is likely to be scoring many more runs for England.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38886052
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Public finances and the shadow of Osborne - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The IFS’s Green Budget reveals that the financial crisis and austerity still cast a long shadow over the UK economy.
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Business
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Philip Hammond knows all about the government's attempts to "get the public finances in order" following the financial crisis of 2008.
He was the man, as shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, credited by many for the tough detail of the austerity plan laid before voters in the run up to the 2010 election.
George Osborne was the architect, Mr Hammond the foreman, ensuring there was a plan that might actually have a chance of working, public sector cut by public sector cut.
Now Mr Hammond is the man in charge of the public finances - his dream government job and, a relatively rare occurrence for the resident of Number 11, said authoritatively to be the high water mark of his ambitions.
Whatever his relations with the Prime Minister, and they are better than often reported, the fact that he doesn't want to move his sofas next door is a useful salve to any scratchiness between Downing Street's most important neighbours.
Mr Hammond expected to take a "steady-as-she-goes" approach to his first Budget
Today sees the publication of the Institute for Fiscal Studies' (IFS) annual Green Budget, its analysis of Mr Hammond's room for manoeuvre as he prepares for the real Budget, on 8 March.
There is one clear message.
If you thought the era of cuts is over, think again.
Day-to-day spending, officially known rather more prosaically as the Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (which excludes investment spending), is set to fall by 4% over the next three years.
The IFS says that a "particularly sharp cut" has been loaded onto the last year of the parliament, 2019-20, never a particularly comfortable time for a government to be squeezing the public sector pips even more aggressively.
Alongside that, the IFS says the overall tax burden is set to rise as a proportion of national income to the highest level since 1986.
That is not a function of actual tax rises - taxes for many millions of people have fallen as income tax thresholds have risen - but a function of a relatively high tax take throughout an era of pretty stagnant growth.
Will Mr Hammond change course on 8 March, and further loosen the government's austerity strictures as he did in the Autumn Statement last year - pushing the deficit reduction target into the conveniently indistinct long grass of "during the next parliament"?
The government has, after all, promised an economy that works for all.
I am told not - and that Mr Hammond is approaching his first Budget as a "steady-as-she-goes affair" with no major yanks on the national rudder, particularly given the economy's robust performance since the Brexit referendum.
It has been pointed out to me that, just ahead of the triggering of Article 50 - the official mechanism for leaving the European Union - the last thing Britain needs is a reset of fiscal policy.
In 2010, the Conservatives were elected as the party that would bring public income and public expenditure into balance.
Mr Hammond still cleaves to that view. "He is a Conservative," as one official close to him says.
George Osborne's economic approach is alive and well.
Yes, there are criticisms by some economists that there is no need to run a country like a household budget where pennies in and pennies out matter - governments are able to borrow at very cheap rates on the international markets and put that money to economically valuable use.
Yes, there are criticisms that debt costs as a percentage of national income are low by historic standards and so the room for manoeuvre is rather greater than the national debt headline figures suggest.
But those close to Mr Hammond argue that, OK, borrowing may be cheap now but servicing Britain's £1.7 trillion debt is still expensive, costing around £34bn a year, or 4.6% of all government spending.
Cut out the deficit and start dealing with the debt and those costs can be brought down.
Certainly, since the referendum, the cost of government debt has increased as rising inflation risk pushes up yields - the interest rate on government bonds issued to investors.
Mr Hammond is briefing the Cabinet for the first time this week on the broad parameters of next month's Budget.
He will talk about Britain's historic productivity problem and how to solve it, he will talk about skills, he will talk about research and development support and he will talk about infrastructure spending.
Supporting the private economy is his priority, not reversing public sector cuts.
Mr Hammond will also say that the new world of work - the gig economy - is affecting the way the Treasury has to approach complicated issues such as tax receipts as the number of self-employed - who tend to pay a lower proportion of their income to the state - grows.
A lot of it will be rhetoric at this stage.
For Mr Hammond wants to keep his powder dry.
Dry for the bigger fiscal event of the year, the autumn Budget (as we should now call it) in November or December.
As he said last year, he only wants one major tax and spend "moment" a year.
And it's not going to be next month.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38891441
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Is a 'seven-day NHS' feasible? - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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The "seven-day NHS" has been a key pledge of the Conservative government. But is it feasible?
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The "seven-day NHS" was a key pledge of former Prime Minister David Cameron, and has been taken on by Theresa May.
Her government envisages people having access to local GPs seven days a week. It also wants patients to receive the same level of urgent and emergency care in hospitals in England at weekends, as on Mondays to Fridays.
But is this feasible?
The Victoria Derbyshire programme is broadcast on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38882876
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Joost van der Westhuizen: Matt Dawson on friend & former South Africa scrum-half - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson tells BBC Sport about his battles - and friendship - with South Africa's Joost van der Westhuizen.
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I am so proud to have known Joost van der Westhuizen well, having battled against him so many times on the field and then socialised off it.
He is one of those guys that whoever met him, at any stage of his life, they will remember it and recount to their children or grandchildren that they were in his presence.
His eyes lit up the room, particularly when he was poorly with Motor Neurone Disease, as it was his way of saying that he'll never give up. Joost's actions put a lot of things into context.
He was a very lively character. He knew how to party and knew how to celebrate. Saying that, he was very respectful in defeat as well as victory.
At the end of each game we would swap shirts, however I wasn't rushing to the home dressing room when we won the second Test in South Africa with the Lions in 1997.
Then again I didn't need to. Joost knew how poignant this match was and that I would want to keep my shirt, so he strolled into our changing room amidst a rendition of Wonderwall and gave me his. A tradition I tried to replicate for the rest of my career.
In fact, I had the chance to return the favour for his 50th cap when we played South Africa in December 1998.
After the game we would always meet up, have a chat and socialise. In the clubhouse or in town later on. For whatever reason we had a connection.
When I found out he was poorly, I naturally tried to support him. People from all different sports around the world did, too.
The last time I saw him was at the end of 2015, when he came to London and hosted a charity dinner for the J9 Foundation. Justin Rose donated items, Liz Hurley and Shane Warne were in attendance.
Goodness only knows how many international rugby players were there. I sat next to Joost and his brother Peter, who has barely spent a moment from his side since he was confined to a wheelchair.
Joost couldn't speak too clearly but understood every word spoken to him. As he muttered his answers, and Peter interpreted, Joost's eyes were bright blue with enthusiasm and energy for the stories we were recounting.
I remember zoning out from the potential awkwardness of having to ask him to repeat what he had said as I could hear every word crystal clearly from how his expressive face altered and eyes widened. His smile as wide as his stride that devastated every opponent.
Joost was one of the new breed of rugby players, not just a scrum-half.
Traditionally the position had been about kicking and passing from behind the forward pack. He tried playing the game at a very different pace, playing in different positions on the pitch - no one had really done that before.
He was playing for South Africa in what would be an iconic era for the country, not just the sport.
As one of the poster boys, he gave a huge amount to his country and his sport and millions of people in South Africa.
He was absolutely one of the lynchpins of the 1995 World Cup-winning side, up there with captain Francois Pienaar. Who can forget those telling tackles on the giant Jonah Lomu in the final.
I first watched him when Joost scored a try against England in 1995 at the front of a line-out, sprinting and side-stepping in front of the east stand.
It was the most ridiculous score. Only ever dreamt about by school children on a lunchtime break. Not at Twickenham versus England.
And to think that I was threatening to get into the England side the next week and make my debut. Little did I know that I'd face this great seven times in my career for England and the Lions. What a total privilege.
He was one of those guys that, when you were working on the opposition, he was always top of the 'danger men' list that you would plan how to negate. No exaggeration. Every time!
It's not very often as a scrum-half that you have to actually go head-to-head against your opposite number because you're playing behind the first line of defence.
But I had to expect that he was going to make a break or break through a tackle every time. So I would never give anyone else the responsibility of marking him.
Joel Stransky loved playing outside him as Joost created so much more time for his backs. You had to watch him like a hawk, therefore nobody could fly out of the line in defence. A secret weapon that I've only ever seen once in another player - Wales' Rob Howley.
Every player knew that when Joost was around the fringes he would be a threat.
Every move he made, every part of his brilliant armoury we had to understand because he was so lethal.
Everyone knew if they could get the upper-hand on Joost then they could get the better of the team.
With his size and speed he was capable of doing things other scrum-halves could not do. He had a presence of mind and fleet of foot. You couldn't really try to emulate him. With his kicks over the top and breaking through tackles - he had it all, or so we thought.
Given the debilitating illness that was always going to take Joost from us so early, JVD was always so philosophical about life. Making the most of every moment. Accepting regrets and moving on to a better mental state.
I will always be in awe of what he's done for the awareness of MND. A brave battler to the end, a stare to intimidate and a smile to embrace.
I'm now going to climb into the loft, find his shirt in an old kitbag and place it on a chair next to me. I wish I had a Castle Lager to toast him as I know it'll be on the front of his jersey, but a fine single unique malt whisky will serve as the perfect toast.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38884906
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Housing White Paper: Radical or feeble? - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Many "ground-breaking" housing initiatives prove to be business as usual - is this any different?
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UK
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Over the last three decades, governments of various stripes have promised radical change to solve England's housing crisis and today's White Paper is no exception.
The problem is that so many of the initiatives and ideas sold to the country as ground-breaking prove to be business as usual.
So the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid went out of his way to sound no-nonsense and tough today. He accused some English councils of "fudging" the numbers on housing need in their area and warned them that he was not going to allow that to happen anymore.
But the response to the government's proposals has been decidedly mixed.
Labour's shadow housing minister John Healey described them as "feeble beyond belief".
"Re-treading old ground" was how the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers described the White Paper. "Kicking the can down the road," one big investment fund said.
The chief executive of the housebuilder Inland Homes, Stephen Wicks, bemoaned the failure to relax rules on green belt development.
"Brownfield in itself can't possibly sustain the long-term housing requirements of the UK," he said. "It can go an awful long way but there needs to be a relaxation of some green belt to enable us to deliver the numbers that we are required to do."
The White Paper does include measures to encourage developers, housing associations and councils to build more affordable homes more quickly, both to rent and to buy.
But this government seems to speak with two voices on housing: the communities department wants to shift the balance of power firmly towards new development in places people want to live, but Number 10 and some influential Tory backbenchers are sympathetic to the passionate concerns of those who wish to protect the countryside and particularly the green belt.
The real question that lies behind all the rhetoric and policy bullet-points is whether the balance of power between development and local opposition has fundamentally changed.
Ministers now accept England needs 250,000 new homes every year, they have described the housing market as "broken" and they agree that radical change is the only way to mend it.
But many have yet to be convinced that this White Paper amounts to a "realistic plan" to achieve that.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38901296
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NBA: LeBron James' 'jaw-dropping' three-pointer - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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Watch Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James score a "jaw-dropping" three-pointer in the last second to force overtime against the Washington Wizards.
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Watch Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James score a "jaw-dropping" three-pointer in the last second to force overtime against the Washington Wizards, with his side going on to win 140-135.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/basketball/38887735
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Newspaper headlines: John Bercow 'silences' Donald Trump - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The fall-out from Speaker John Bercow voicing his opposition to Donald Trump addressing Parliament makes most of Tuesday's front pages.
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The Papers
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"Speaker silences Trump", is the i's front page headline, while the Times says ministers are questioning whether John Bercow's decision to oppose President Trump addressing Parliament breached impartiality rules.
The Daily Telegraph says those close to the Commons speaker believe he's only required to be politically neutral on domestic issues.
But a ministerial source tells the paper Mr Bercow's intervention has "ramifications" for the "special relationship" with the United States.
In an editorial, the paper says: "The contents of Mr Bercow's near-hysterical rant about President Donald Trump's planned state visit to Britain are unacceptable.
"So too is the fact that Mr Bercow has grossly exceeded his authority seemingly believing himself entitled to wade deep into British foreign policy by dint of his office and his bottomless self-importance."
The Sun labels Mr Bercow an "egomaniac", saying he will have "lapped up the applause from Labour yesterday as he denounced Donald Trump".
"Indeed John Bercow will bask in the adulation from the president's haters everywhere. That was the point," it says.
The Guardian describes the intervention as "extraordinary" and it reports that a senior figure in the government has accused Mr Bercow of "grandstanding".
However, the paper offers a different verdict on Mr Bercow in its comment pages, saying his stance on President Trump was not a "party political" point.
It was "a defence of the everyday decencies that underlie democracy", the paper says.
The Daily Mail's front page lead is that part of the UK's foreign aid budget is being offered to help improve care for the elderly in China.
The money would come from the £1.3bn Prosperity Fund.
The government insists it will be used to help poor people in middle income countries, as well as build post-Brexit trading partnerships.
However, the Mail says the idea of sending money to China - one of the richest states in the world - "sticks horribly in the craw".
The paper believes foreign aid must be brought home to help pensioners who deserve decent care.
It highlights the case of 89-year-old Iris Sibley, who was kept on a hospital ward in Bristol for six months before a care home was found for her.
"Iris and millions like her paid taxes during their working lives expecting decent care in retirement. They deserve nothing less. Now foreign aid must be brought home to Britain to do precisely that," the paper's comment says.
The Times understands the energy efficiency ratings of televisions, fridges and dishwashers are to be retested "in an echo of the Volkswagen-emissions scandal".
"TV makers kept consumers in dark about running costs," it says.
According to the paper, there are claims that cheating by manufacturers is costing consumers almost £10bn a year in higher electricity bills.
The paper says Samsung and LG face allegations that technology helped their products to perform better in energy efficiency tests than in the home.
The companies deny this but the European Environmental Bureau has commissioned a British laboratory to examine the claims.
The Financial Times leads on the fall of French bond prices to their lowest level in 18 months because of fears about the presidential election.
The paper reports the markets are concerned a political scandal engulfing Francois Fillon and his family could bolster the chances of victory for the far-right leader, Marine Le Pen.
The FT says traders have been on edge after failing to predict Brexit and President Trump's victory - and that investors are steeling themselves for more jolts.
Many of the papers continue to report on the leaking of emails between the former England football captain David Beckham and his public relations team.
A spokesman has said the emails about his charity work and his response to not receiving a knighthood have been doctored and are deliberately inaccurate.
According to the Daily Mirror, a cyber security firm has been called in to try to find the "mastermind" behind the theft from servers in Portugal. Contact has been made with British police, it says.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Beckham is frustrated by the lack of progress being made and he fears further damaging material may become public.
The Sun says the story is in the public interest because the suggestion that the rich and famous can negotiate their way to an award is another "nail in the coffin for the honours system".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38888660
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Use talk not tech to tame your children's online habits - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Hi-tech controls will not do all the work for parents keen to ensure their children stay safe online.
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Technology
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Many children now spend more time online than watching TV
Like many parents, I am the unofficial IT manager in my house. And, like many IT managers, my users are never happy with the service they get.
The complaints have got louder over the past few months as I have tried to manage how much time two of them (my teenage children) spend online and to restrict what they see.
A patchwork of different technologies help me do this. It includes:
It works, after a fashion, but I know it has holes and that is why I also use a lot of sneakernet.
This involves me walking around the house, kicking my kids off the game console, tablet, phone or TV (delete as appropriate) they are using when they should be doing homework, cleaning out the rabbit or getting ready for school.
Research suggests I'm not alone in using tech to oversee online time - both to limit it and to help them stay safe.
About 44% of parents use apps to oversee online activity, 39% check browser histories and 37% put controls on the router, suggests statistics gathered by security company Symantec.
I use all three of those and want to use more. And it looked like technology was going to get even more useful as electronics companies released products with comprehensive parental controls onboard.
Talking to children about their online habits can help limit cyber-bullying
It's perhaps no surprise that parents are keen to turn to technology to help manage time online, says Nick Shaw, European general manager at security company Norton, because it's one area where they struggle to find help.
"When people have a parenting problem with their children, they might go to their own parents for advice," he says, "but this is the one area where your parents are not as clued up as you are."
And, he says, children are even more clued up and easily capable of running rings around their parents.
"A lot of parents are very naive about this," he says.
Even I got complacent because none of the tech I had put in place was sending me alerts. I thought it was all working fine and my children were browsing and gaming in an impenetrable bubble of safety.
Slowly I found out that by fiddling with system clocks, using safe mode and putting home PCs into sleep states, my two teenagers could avoid most of the locks and blocks.
My schoolboy error, says Mr Shaw, was to let the hardware do the heavy lifting.
"Technology is going to help you," he says, "but it's not going to get away from the fact that you should be having more conversations about this with your kids."
The parental controls of Norton's futuristic looking Core router are controlled via a smartphone
What I should be doing, he says, is helping them to understand why the controls are needed.
Explaining the reasons, he says, can help to defuse some of the objections.
It is fair to say that my children and I have had some of these conversations. But they have been more of the "play-less-games-and-do-more-maths" type rather than the "anti-virus-stops-your-YouTube-account-being-stolen" sort.
Tony Anscombe, security evangelist at anti-virus company Avast, says talking to children about safe ways to use the web is better than just imposing restrictions.
"Sure," he says, "set some rules about how they should use it, but you should also educate your kids about basic security principles.
"A lot of parents just do not have the conversation, talking to them about what is acceptable and what is not."
This should cover not sharing passwords and thinking before they share personal data such as contact information, images and videos.
Naivety puts many children at risk, he says, and it is worth reminding them about what can be done with that information and who might want it.
Ofcom suggests UK parents are doing more to protect their children online, but threats remain (stock photo)
It might not just fall into the hands of cyber-thieves, he says, it might also expose them to cyber-bullying or just be inappropriate to share.
Warnings about the hidden features in popular apps are worth passing on, he says, as they often seek to scoop up more information than they really need.
"The biggest and most important thing that parents can do is run the apps their children do," he says.
This will help parents understand what information children might share and uncover any hidden features the apps possess.
Some, he says, look innocuous but are designed to help children conceal what they are doing.
"Gadgets are only half the story, if that," says Dr Sonia Livingstone, from the London School of Economics, who studies how children use the internet, as part of her work with the long-running EU Kids Online project.
Companies should concentrate on doing less selling and more on designing services that do not need the protections they peddle, she says.
In addition, she says, parents should encourage children to do the right thing by doing it themselves, rather than just by dictating terms.
It's about respect too, she says, helping children make good decisions instead of arbitrarily imposing rules.
If they can see the benefits of the rules, they are more likely to follow them.
"I am not very keen on the idea that parents have lots of control over their children," she says. "Children have rights too."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38842791
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'Don't let parents have social media' - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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A group of 10 to 12-year-olds tells CBBC's Newsround what they think about social media.
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Research commissioned by Newsround has found that 10-12 year-olds feel worried and pressured about looking good in the photos they share on social media.
The majority take at least four selfies before choosing one to share, and three quarters say they edit photos before posting them.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38890907
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Steve Hewlett marries as cancer treatment halted - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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Steve Hewlett marries in hospital after being told his treatment for oesophageal cancer must end.
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Radio 4's Steve Hewlett has married his partner in hospital after being told his cancer treatment could not continue.
The Media Show presenter has been documenting his progress on air since being diagnosed last year.
Speaking to PM's Eddie Mair on Monday, he said his consultant had helped arrange the quickie wedding after telling him he had "weeks, possibly months" to live.
You can listen to the full interview here
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38887862
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Joe Root is 'obvious candidate' for England captaincy says James Anderson - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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Joe Root is the "obvious candidate" to be named as England Test captain - but the role must not affect his batting, says James Anderson.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Joe Root is the "obvious candidate" to be named as England Test captain - but the role must not affect his batting, says pace bowler James Anderson.
Batsman Root is the favourite to take over from Alastair Cook, who stepped down on Monday after a record 59 Tests.
The Yorkshire player had been Test vice-captain to Cook since May 2015.
"Root is fairly quiet but he has got that fire in his belly. He's a really impressive young man," Anderson told The Tuffers and Vaughan Cricket Show.
Should he be named captain aged 26, Root would be a year younger than Cook was when he took on the Test role on a full-time basis in August 2012.
No batsman has scored more Test runs than Root's 4,594 since he made his debut on 13 December 2012, and only India captain Virat Kohli (8,536) has scored more runs than Root's 8,469 in all three forms of international cricket.
Anderson, England's leading Test wicket-taker, has played under five full-time Test captains since making his debut in May 2003.
The 34-year-old has served Nasser Hussain, Michael Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Strauss and Cook, as well as Andrew Flintoff who deputised for several Tests in 2006 and 2007.
"Root gets into situations, one-on-ones, with people. He speaks a lot of sense when he does speak and he's a really impressive young man," explained Anderson.
"He's the obvious candidate. The decision is a big one because he's our best player, so you obviously don't want that to be affected."
While they do not play another Test until July, England then play seven home Test matches - against South Africa and West Indies - in three months, before travelling to Australia in November for the Ashes.
Root scored 1,477 Test runs in 2016, making centuries against South Africa, Pakistan and India, as well as scoring 796 runs in one-day internationals and 297 in Twenty20 internationals.
"He loves cricket. It's very rare you see a player that's had the success he's had and he's not like that," Anderson said.
"In the brief period Alastair Cook's been off the field - for bathroom breaks - Root's been in there making changes. He's been good.
"It can be a difficult situation for a vice-captain when the captain goes off, you're in charge and myself and Stuart [Broad] might not make it that easy to go up and talk tactics. However he's done that and he's been good."
Are there any other candidates?
Root has led Yorkshire four times in the County Championship, taking charge when the county secured the 2014 County Championship title after then-captain Andrew Gale was suspended.
He was also the on-field captain when Middlesex, led by Australian batsman Chris Rogers, made a record 472-3 to beat Yorkshire by seven wickets in the same year.
All-rounder Ben Stokes, who was vice-captain on the recent limited-overs tour of Bangladesh which regular ODI skipper Eoin Morgan missed, was described as a "natural leader" by his Durham skipper Paul Collingwood.
"Ben has got a natural draw to him and he would be an excellent vice-captain for Root," former England limited-overs captain Collingwood said on the Tuffers and Vaughan show.
"The captain will have leaders underneath him that he knows he can go to - I think Ben Stokes would be the perfect man for that."
Fast bowler Stuart Broad has also been mooted - he captained the Twenty20 side between 2011 and 2014 - and Anderson said: "I wouldn't be against a fast bowler but one issue could be fitness.
"Bowlers get injured a lot more so are they going to play every game? The international schedule is hectic so it can be difficult."
Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler, who led the one-day side in Bangladesh in Morgan's absence and remains the official limited-overs vice-captain, has also been suggested as a possible candidate.
However, the Lancashire player's Test place is not guaranteed given current keeper Jonny Bairstow's good form - although Buttler played as a specialist batsman in the last three Tests of the recent India series.
'You don't need any captaincy experience'
Ex-England spinner Graeme Swann told BBC Radio 5 live he felt the pressure of potential Test captaincy was already affecting Root's batting.
"I think we should leave Joe Root to be the best batsman this country has ever produced, which he would be without the burden of being the captain," he said.
However, Kohli, along with Australia's Steve Smith and New Zealand's Kane Williamson, have each raised their games since becoming captains of their respective countries.
Smith and Kohli are the two top-ranked Test batsmen, while Williamson is one of 13 men to have scored a Test century against all of the other nine Test-playing nations.
"It's very English to assume the captaincy will affect him. The other three have got captaincy of their country and gone to a different level with it," said ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan, who came through the same Sheffield Collegiate club side and Yorkshire academy ranks which produced Root, and has been a long-term mentor to the young right-hander.
"I don't think there's an issue with him captaining, he's too good a player. I think he'd be a good one.
"To captain any team you have to be loving the game, love the difficult moments and prove people wrong. He is that kind of character."
England and Yorkshire batsman Gary Ballance, who was named captain of the county in December 2016, said that his team-mate Root's inexperience was not an issue in him assuming the captaincy.
The pair lived together in 2011 during their early years in the Yorkshire first team and Ballance took Root's place when he was dropped for the final Test of England's Ashes whitewash in Australia in 2013-14.
"I think both of us have probably matured a bit more as cricketers and people. He's ready as a leader now in that England changing room," Ballance told BBC World Service's Stumped programme.
"I think Rooty's a natural born leader. He's done it from a young age. People follow him.
"He speaks well, he's got a great cricket brain. I don't think inexperience is too much of a problem. He'll be ready if he gets the opportunity."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38900248
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Reality Check: How much could NHS recover from foreign patients? - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BMA's Dr Mark Porter says between £200m and £500m may be recouped. Is he right?
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Health
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The claim: The NHS could recover between £200m and £500m annually from foreign patients if a system of charging them in advance for non-emergency care worked perfectly.
Reality Check verdict: The NHS recovered £358m in 2016-17 and £500m is the government's target for 2017-18. The NHS may struggle to meet that target, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that amount could be recouped by a perfect system.
NHS hospitals in England now have to charge patients from overseas up front for non-emergency care if they are not entitled to free treatment.
Dr Mark Porter, from the British Medical Association, told BBC Radio 5 live in February 2017 that the amount that could be recovered if the charging system worked perfectly was between £200m and £500m a year.
He went on to say that was not very much money in the context of NHS spending and deficits, bearing in mind that the NHS budget in England was £116.4bn in 2015-16.
A report - based on 2013 figures - estimates that treating all visitors and migrants in England (not only in hospitals) costs the NHS about £2bn, although it warns there is considerable uncertainty about that figure.
That includes treating tourists who become ill while on holiday and longer-term migrants who have paid surcharges on their visas to be entitled to NHS care.
Not all of that £2bn could be recovered. Treatment in A&E, for example, is free for everyone up to the point when a patient is either admitted to hospital or given an outpatient appointment.
The government does recoup some of the £2bn, although not as much as it would like. It has a target to recoup £500m of the cost of treating overseas visitors by 2017-18.
It has made considerable progress towards that goal, increasing the amount recouped from £97m in 2013-14 to £358m in 2016-17.
A big proportion of that increase, £210m of it, has come from a health surcharge that must be paid by most students and temporary migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) applying for visas to come to the UK for more than six months.
Patients from inside the EEA with EHIC cards are generally treated free, with the government applying to their home countries to cover the cost.
Those from elsewhere in the world who are not covered by the health surcharge will be charged for the cost of their treatment. Trusts are now allowed to charge 150% of the cost of treatment to patients from outside the EEA.
The NHS has not been particularly good at recouping the costs in the past because trusts have not been good at identifying which patients should be charged for their treatment and it is difficult to collect money from patients living outside the EEA once they have returned home.
The authorities have also not been particularly good at recouping the costs of treating people from EEA countries.
This report from the National Audit Office from October 2016 said that on current trends the NHS would not manage to recover £500m a year by 2017-18, although that was before the announcement of the change to the rules so that non-urgent care must be paid for upfront.
The NAO estimated that trusts only manage to recover about half of the amount they invoiced overseas patients.
The Department of Health estimated that in 2012-13 the potentially recoverable amount was £367m, but it excluded from that figure the estimated cost of between £100m and £300m for a combination of people who had travelled to England purely to receive urgent treatment and regular visitors who are described as "taking advantage" of the system by registering for GP services and other NHS services to which they are not entitled.
All of these figures are estimates. Looking at the bottom end of the range, £200m is too low a figure as it is considerably less than is currently being collected. At the top end, £500m is the government's target - it is not unreasonable to suggest that amount could be collected by a perfect system.
This article was originally published on 6 February 2017 and updated on 23 October 2017 with the 2016-17 figures for the amount recouped. Dr Mark Porter ended his term as chair of the BMA in June 2017.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38065810
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Lord Coe denies misleading select committee MPs over doping in Russia - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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IAAF president Lord Coe insists he did not mislead an MPs' inquiry over what he knew about the state-sponsored doping program in Russia.
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IAAF president Lord Coe insists he did not mislead an MPs' inquiry over what he knew about the state-sponsored doping program in Russia.
READ MORE: Russia to remain suspended for World Athletics Championships
WATCH MORE: Coe knew more than he let on - MP Collins
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/38892762
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Joost van der Westhuizen: Former South Africa captain dies, aged 45 - BBC Sport
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2017-02-07
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Former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen dies aged 45, six years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Former South Africa captain Joost van der Westhuizen has died aged 45, six years after he was diagnosed with the debilitating motor neurone disease.
Van der Westhuizen won the World Cup with the Springboks in 1995.
Regarded as one of the finest scrum-halves in history, he won 89 international caps between 1993 and 2003, scoring 38 tries.
He captained the Springboks for four years, including at the 1999 World Cup, before his retirement in 2003.
Van der Westhuizen was admitted to hospital in Johannesburg on Saturday, when he was said to be in a "critical condition".
• None In his own words: 'It's been a rollercoaster from day one'
"Joost will be remembered as one of the greatest Springboks - not only of his generation, but of all time," said South Africa Rugby president Mark Alexander.
"He also became an inspiration and hero to many fellow sufferers of this terrible disease as well as to those unaffected.
"We all marvelled at his bravery, his fortitude and his uncomplaining acceptance of this terrible burden."
Van der Westhuizen made his Springboks debut the year after the team were readmitted to international rugby and was their record try-scorer until Bryan Habana surpassed him in 2011.
He will be best remembered for his major role in the Springboks lifting the World Cup on home soil, beating New Zealand in the final.
After winning the Tri-Nations Championship in 1998, he was named captain for the 1999 World Cup - at which South Africa finished third - before retiring after defeat by New Zealand in the quarter-finals of the 2003 tournament.
At the time of his retirement, his 89 Tests made him the most-capped South African of all time, though five players have since won more caps.
After being diagnosed with MND, a rare condition that progressively damages parts of the nervous system and impacts on important muscle activity such as walking, speaking and breathing, he set up the J9 Foundation, which provides support and care to people with the disease.
'He was the best I played against'
Wales interim coach Rob Howley said he was "devastated" by his fellow former scrum-half's death.
"He was a fantastic rugby player and for me was the best nine I played against," Howley said.
"He was a world-class nine who was respected throughout the rugby world.
"I have been fortunate enough to play against him and enjoy his company off the pitch and it is tragic he has passed so young."
England coach Eddie Jones, who coached against Van der Westhuizen during his time in Super Rugby, also paid his tribute.
"He was an absolutely outstanding player, a very good long-passer with a great kicking game, a terrific defender and a guy who really influenced the players," he told BBC Sport.
"Having coached against him when he played for the Bulls, they were a completely different team with him playing and he will be sorely missed.
"You had to be very tight around the ruck when you played against him because he was a great sniper. He was such a big guy who had good pace and was difficult to defend against.
"It is so sad to hear of his death. You feel for his family and supporters of South African rugby."
'It became an iconic moment'
Former South Africa captain Jean de Villiers says Van der Westhuizen will be remembered as one of the best to play for the Springboks.
"What he achieved on the rugby field was unbelievable," he told BBC Radio 5 live.
De Villiers remembers Van der Westhuizen's tackle on New Zealand great Jonah Lomu, who died at the age of 40 in November 2015, in the 1995 World Cup final as an "iconic moment in the game".
"The sad thing is that neither of them are with us any more," he added.
"Joost's tackle on Jonah that day - a front on tackle on the guy that was destroying every team in the world. Here comes a scrum-half, someone who is not meant to put in tackles like that, and tackles him front on.
"The team as a whole got so much inspiration from him for doing that. For us as a country it became an iconic day and it changed the way that we were viewed forever."
De Villiers says Van der Westhuizen's contribution to raising awareness of motor neuron disease will be remembered as much as his rugby achievements.
"He never gave up," he said. "He gained so much respect in the latter part of his life, even though he was so successful on the rugby field as well."
Former South African captain Corne Krige added: "If you wanted an X factor in your team - he was that guy.
"He was the ultimate modern day scrum-half - first of the bigger scrum-halves in the world. It's tragic for his family and for his kids and for everyone involved."
Joost van der Westhuizen made an impact on the sport in two ways.
The first was as a magnificent scrum-half - one of the all-time greats - who won 89 caps and scored 38 tries and was the man who stopped Jonah Lomu in his tracks in the 1995 World Cup final, which the Springboks went on to win.
The other part was as a great inspiration - a man who gamely and bravely fought motor neurone disease for six years, who set up his foundation and inspired so many people along the way.
He was a great figure on and off the rugby field.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/38882762
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Honours quiz - the people who refused, returned or lost medals and awards - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How well do you remember these other people who refused, returned or were stripped of honours and awards?
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Magazine
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Leaked emails claim to show David Beckham complaining that he never received a knighthood.
Giving and receiving gongs can be a fraught business - how well do you remember these other people who refused, returned or were stripped of honours and awards?
If you missed last week's 7 day quiz, try it here
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38893536
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Reality Check: Will it be easier to build on green belt? - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The government has said that the green belt remains safe in its hands. Is it right?
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UK Politics
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The claim: The green belt is safe from an increase in development.
Reality Check verdict: The rules for developing green belt previously said that it was allowed only in exceptional circumstances. The government has now specified what would count as exceptional circumstances. It is not clear whether the new rules will be more or less strict than just letting councils decide what counted as exceptional circumstances.
The government has described the housing market as broken, promised more affordable homes and said it would help people to buy and rent.
A big question in discussions of increasing the supply of homes is whether planning regulations will be changed to make it easier to build on green belt land.
Green belts were introduced after World War Two to stop cities from sprawling and countryside being spoilt. About 13% of England is now covered.
This covers scenic sites open to the public, such as the Chiltern Hills and North Downs, but it also covers a lot of land that has limited public access and may not be particularly beautiful.
In the House of Commons, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said: "In 2015, we promised the British people that the green belt was safe in our hands and that is still the case."
There has been little variation in the amount of green belt land since 1997, although data is not available for every year.
The Housing White Paper says the current planning regulations allow building on the green belt only "in exceptional circumstances" but that there is no detail given of what would amount to exceptional circumstances.
The government has now specified that before allowing development on green belt land, councils would need to rule out options including:
The White Paper also says that councils allowing the boundaries of green belt land to be changed would have to make up for it by improving other bits of green belt.
It also asks for suggestions of other things councils should take into account before doing so.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38899301
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The woman trying to revive a century-old leather brand - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How Isabel Ettedgui is single-handedly trying to revive century-old leather brand Connolly.
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Business
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. "I just think it's got massive amounts of potential," says Isabel Ettedgui
"I know I've got to do this. It must be a sickness!" says Isabel Ettedgui, laughing.
It is June 2016, in Mayfair in central London, and she is standing in the middle of a building site. An early 18th Century house is being renovated, ready to be the home of Mrs Ettedgui's latest venture.
She is attempting to relaunch a venerable luxury brand: Connolly, a name famous for its leather for over a century.
"I've known this brand for 30-odd years - I still really believe in it. It's got massive amounts of potential," she says.
Starting any kind of enterprise is challenging, with many businesses failing within their first few years, and relaunching one can be just as hard.
"Reviving a brand that's been silent for a number of years is very difficult indeed," says consultant and author Peter York.
People actually like to see the owner in a luxury brand store, says Isabel Ettedgui
So what's the best way to go about it?
Heritage is one factor that certainly seems to be on Mrs Ettedgui's side.
Look at the websites of many luxury names, and it is clear that history and tradition are some of the factors that brands are most keen to stress. These are attributes that Connolly has in abundance.
The firm, which was family-run for much of its history, began producing leather in the late 19th Century. It soon won favour with a huge range of clients.
W Heath Robinson was commissioned to produce illustrations to mark Connolly's 50th anniversary
Its leather could be found on the seats of many luxury car marques (including Rolls-Royce), at the Houses of Parliament, on ocean liners such as the Queen Mary, and on supersonic plane Concorde.
"You haven't lived until you have sat your naked butt on Connolly leather," actress Joan Collins is reported to have said.
In the 1920s, the company asked W Heath Robinson to produce some illustrations to mark its 50th anniversary.
The artist, well-known for his drawings of outlandish devices, was astonished by what he found at the factory in Wimbledon. "I can't improve on that, Mr Connolly," was his response to one of the firm's remarkable leather-measuring machines.
Decades later, after doing some corporate identity work for the firm, Ms Ettedgui helped the enterprise with a move into retail.
"I just thought, 'this is fantastic…they don't realise what they've got,'" she remembers.
Isabel Ettedgui credits her husband Joseph, famous for building the eponymous fashion chain, for showing her the potential of Connolly
The first store opened in 1995, in a mews close to the Lanesborough Hotel in London. Several years later, Mrs Ettedgui's husband Joseph was offered the retail arm of the business, because the Connolly family had decided to concentrate on the motor trade.
Joseph Ettedgui had extensive experience of fashion retailing, having built up the Joseph chain of high-end fashion stores, which had branches across the UK. He and Isabel nurtured the retail side of Connolly, opening a bigger store in Conduit Street in Mayfair.
"Joseph brought in clothes," Mrs Ettedgui recalls. "It taught me that Connolly wasn't just a brand of briefcases, it had potential to be a fashion brand as well."
But in the 2000s, Connolly faltered. The family's leather finishing business experienced an unsuccessful expansion into the US. And in 2010, Joseph Ettedgui died.
"After Joe died, I kept renewing these trademarks and thinking what am I going to do?" says Mrs Ettedgui. She decided to put everything on hold.
Connolly was well-known for making the leather seats for many luxury cars, including Ferrari
A few years later, she began to get the enterprise going once more. She licensed Jonathan Connolly (a fourth generation member of the family) to start producing leather again, while she began to look for a suitable retail location.
Her search led her to a Georgian house just off London's Savile Row. "It was a little freehold building, which is really rare, and I decided to sell my flat, put everything I could into it and try and launch it without any external backers," she says.
The house includes several floors of retail space, plus an apartment where Mrs Ettedgui now lives.
The new Connolly shop opened in late 2016
For her, this is an essential part of the story. "There's a desperate need for a different narrative in luxury," she says.
"Too many brands are being run in silos by men in suits - what people actually like is to see the owner.
"It's like when you go to a restaurant and the chef [appears] - it's such a joy, you feel connected."
As well as emphasising a personal touch, Mrs Ettedgui has broadened the range of items on sale. In addition to leather goods and clothes, there will be furniture too. "Beautiful objects, beautiful clothes, well-designed pieces of furniture - it just goes together," she says.
Reviving a brand, as Mrs Ettedgui is attempting to do, is a tricky thing to pull off.
The shop stocks clothing and furniture as well as leather goods
"The things to think about are: how to explain what happened, because people are suspicious of a relaunch. [You need to] say very clearly what it is you're about and reconcile that with the previous back story," says Mr York.
Mrs Ettedgui is conscious of the challenges she faces - but she is cautiously optimistic. After a hectic period of building and renovation, and working around the clock to get everything ready, the store opened in late 2016.
Soon afterwards, a customer came in and showed Mrs Ettedgui a Connolly wallet that he had bought 20 years ago. "He was really happy that we were back," she says.
To succeed, she believes, "you need a dream - you need an obsession really. And you need to believe in something that means you can't not do it."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38878808
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The mind of Donald Trump - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What does his first fortnight as president reveal about Donald Trump's beliefs?
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US & Canada
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No modern president has been so analysed. Other leaders don't know him and can't read him. He leaves a trail, but it is strewn with contradictions. He craves popularity but revels in being demonised. He trusts his gut instincts and embraces unpredictability as a virtue.
Diplomats, foreign leaders, business chiefs are all trying to decipher what drives the 45th president.
Donald Trump's first two weeks have been about power, about asserting it, about the noise of power, about taking a wrecking ball to the establishment and leaving it wrong-footed and uncertain.
No president before him has been so ready with threats against foreign powers, old allies, major corporations, and Washington's public servants.
At conferences, seminars, at diplomatic functions, in foreign ministries, I have encountered the same whispered and not so hidden question: what do these erratic actions tell us about the mind of Donald Trump?"
Some say he can't survive or that he will over-reach himself. Others are waiting for him to self-destruct, but there is clear calculation behind these early heady days of being the most powerful man in the world.
Despite the protests, many Americans support the president on migration
First, Donald Trump is doing in office what he promised he would do, on the campaign trail.
At more than 15 campaign stops, I heard him vow to:
His claims were dismissed as campaign braggadocio, but he would bracket most of his promises with the words "believe me". He is now delivering.
Secondly, President Trump is looking after his core supporters; all those voters in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina who delivered him the White House.
While demonstrators gather in cities and at airports, protesting at his banning refugees and citizens from seven mainly Muslim countries from entering the States, the polls indicate that in middle America he has the support of nearly one in two Americans: 49% agreed with the policy.
All the outrage about the policy being discriminatory, that it is incoherent, that it will prove a recruiting sergeant for extremists, that such a policy - if it had been in place - would have prevented none of the recent terrorists attacks, make little impression on Mr Trump's inner circle.
Mr Trump knows his people, and he tweets his messages to them, direct and simple, as they were during the campaign.
"This travel ban is not about religion," he tweets, "this is about terror and keeping our country safe."
Some who voted for him may have misgivings, but most of them, so far, don't.
They like his confrontational style. Offending Washington's elite is a badge of his authenticity.
Early battles with judges and state department officials are evidence that he is "draining the swamp" as promised.
When a federal judge halted the travel ban, the president tweeted: "The opinion of this so-called judge… is ridiculous and will be overturned."
While his critics accused him of showing a lack of respect for the Constitution, Donald Trump reminded his audience that many "bad and dangerous people" could be "pouring" into the country.
Mr Trump has criticised those who halted his new migration policy
The dizzying array of announcements and executive orders form part of a strategic plan.
Never mind that some of the policies are incomplete. That is to miss the point.
The strategy is to demonstrate over the first 100 days of his presidency that he is a "high-energy" leader, shaking up the old order.
He is lucky to have inherited a strong economy, but he has promised much more.
The bonfire of regulations, the slashing of corporate and personal taxes, the pump-priming investments in infrastructure are all intended to lift growth levels above 3%.
If he achieves that, many Americans will stick with him.
Social media, as it did during the campaign, enables him to talk directly to those who packed his rallies.
The conventional wisdom was that he would not be tweeter-in-chief when he got to the White House.
But Mr Trump knows that every tweet becomes a news story and so enables him to manage the news agenda.
The mainstream media is still struggling to find a convincing riposte to a president who bypasses them to deliver his messages.
He declares he's in a "running war" with the press.
His chief strategist labels the media the "opposition party".
Again Mr Trump understands that if he denounces the media as "dishonest", it weakens its ability to hold him to account.
The state of the US economy will be a key indicator of President Trump's achievements
They point to his personal flaws: the need to be loved, to be popular, to make every issue about himself, the thin-skinned retorts, the savaging of those who disagree and the demonising of the press.
All are weaknesses that over time may damage and perhaps undo him.
His strategy is not just to change America but for him to dominate the public space.
Others search for the ideology that will underpin his presidency.
For Donald Trump, his guiding slogan will be "America first."
It will be his defence against all attacks. If that means challenging the international order, or tearing up old trade agreements or upsetting the global elite, so be it.
In these early days, it is impossible to know how much of a revolutionary Donald Trump will be and how much ideology will inform his decision-making.
His chief strategist, Stephen Bannon is, on the other hand, deeply ideological.
He seeks a new political order, where sovereignty returns to nation states, where the West confronts the "hateful ideology" of radical Islam.
In the immediate future, President Trump is likely to continue with his confrontational style, believing it is popular with his core supporters.
Many tests lie ahead. Not least is whether his policies will be followed through.
Was the announcement about the wall with Mexico intended as a headline or is Mr Trump determined to build it with Mexican money?
Will he really impose an import tax?
Will he risk a trade and currency war with China?
Will he move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem?
Will he encourage anti-establishment parties in Europe?
The questions are many, and the answers few.
To those who have openly doubted the president's sanity in these churning, bruising opening days, a clear strategy emerges.
The president and his close advisers will pay scant attention to the outcry from their opponents.
But they will nurture those who gave him his majority in the electoral college and might again.
In two years, and by the time of the mid-term elections, the American public will deliver an initial verdict on Trumpism.
Most importantly the Republican Party will be deciding whether it stays loyal to Mr Trump or whether it allows doubts and reservations to seep in, making Congress the obstacle to his presidency.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38881469
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Sean Spicer: 'I don't think the President owns a bathrobe' - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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The New York Times has referred to President Trump wearing a bathrobe but his press secretary Sean Spicer has come out to refute that.
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The New York Times has referred to President Trump wearing a bathrobe and his press secretary Sean Spicer has come out to refute that, calling it 'fake news'.
Social media, meanwhile, has been flooded with photos of a younger Mr Trump clad in a robe.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38899342
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Thousands executed in prison, claims charity - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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Amnesty International says as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilian opposition supporters, have been executed in secret at a prison in Syria.
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Amnesty International says as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilian opposition supporters, have been executed in secret at a prison in Syria.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38890900
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Newspaper headlines: Barack Obama kitesurfing and Brexit hard talk - BBC News
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2017-02-07
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A photograph of Barack Obama learning to kitesurf is printed on a number of Wednesday's front pages.
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The Papers
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For the Times, MPs have been given a "concession" after they were promised the chance to vote on Theresa May's deal with EU negotiators six months before the UK leaves the EU.
The paper says Number 10 was "forced into the move to avoid defeat" at the hands of Labour and Tory rebels.
Before the government's move to head off a rebellion, there were 20 Conservative MPs who were ready to defy Downing Street and vote against the government on Article 50 amendments, the paper says.
According to the Guardian, however, the prime minister successfully "faced down a Conservative rebellion over Brexit".
A potential Tory rebellion was "virtually cancelled out" by six pro-Brexit Labour MPs who voted with the government, it says.
The government remains relatively confident the Brexit bill will pass its third and final Commons reading on Wednesday without changes, before heading to the Lords, the paper adds.
The Daily Telegraph warns the European Union is facing a new Greek debt crisis.
It claims the state of the government finances in Greece could destabilise the whole eurozone, and quotes the International Monetary Fund as saying a new bailout is needed.
The paper notes that the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is unwilling to send funds directly to Athens as she faces a tough re-election battle in the autumn.
It predicts the Greek debt problems will come to the fore as soon as July, when the country is due to repay around 7bn euros to its creditors.
The Guardian considers the government's white paper on the housing market in England and concludes it does nothing to confront what it calls the country's "housing crisis".
The paper says the government is not addressing the obsession of buyers in extending themselves to own a home.
It says there needs to be an honest admission that there is no chance of building the extra 250,000 new homes a year that the government says are required.
The Daily Telegraph reflects on the news that the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinks tax rises and cuts to public services are set to continue well into the next decade.
In an editorial, the paper says the British state has regressed 30 years, threatening to reverse the direction of travel Margaret Thatcher struggled so hard to establish.
It says that while it is admirable that the government wants to reduce the deficit, taxes have risen for seven years in a row - and another way of raising cash would be by reducing our foreign aid budget.
The Times says teachers are using police-style body cameras to record misbehaving pupils.
The paper says at least two comprehensives in England - both with a history of unruly pupils - are using the cameras to tackle "constant low level disruption".
The Information Commissioner's Office - which regulates privacy issues - said that schools were free to use the technique as a "self-reflection" tool for students.
In its editorial, the Times says that Commons Speaker John Bercow over-reached his office when he tried to pre-emptively bar US President Donald Trump from addressing Parliament.
The paper says that while the speaker is entitled to his personal opinions, his comments smell of hypocrisy - having already invited the presidents of China, Kuwait and Indonesia to address MPs and peers.
It says that while Mr Bercow has done a reasonable job as speaker, his desire for personal publicity has "blighted his record".
In his column in the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts says Mr Bercow's criticism of the president is all the more surprising given the fact that he is a "mini" Trump himself.
He says Mr Bercow is as greedy for attention as the president and has the same inflated self-regard.
The Guardian though says Mr Bercow did not over-reach his powers.
The paper says he was right to intervene because, if Britain is truly pro-American, it cannot want Mr Trump's presidency to succeed.
It says the president's temperament does not tolerate "democratic restraint" and he wants his whim enacted as law.
They are the photos that show former US President Barack Obama "as you've never seen him before", according to the Sun.
The photographs show Mr Obama learning to kitesurf while on holiday at Sir Richard Branson's luxurious Necker Island in the Caribbean.
The "worries of the White House are clearly far from Obama's mind", says the Daily Mail.
The Guardian says US presidents "don't get to have very much fun", however, "whatever Barack Obama might be missing about the Oval Office, those restrictions don't appear to be one of them".
"Branson challenged the ex-president to learn how to kiteboard before Branson himself could learn to foilboard, another young watersport that resembles water skiing.
"According to Branson's post, it was a challenge Obama easily won," the paper says.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-38902468
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