title stringlengths 13 112 | published_date stringlengths 10 10 | authors stringclasses 3
values | description stringlengths 0 382 ⌀ | section stringlengths 2 31 ⌀ | content stringlengths 0 81.9k | link stringlengths 21 189 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
North Korea: How are countries defending themselves? - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | As missile tests become more frequent, how do South Korea, Japan and the US plan to stop an attack? | Asia | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nuclear N Korea: What do we know?
North Korea's nuclear weapons programme has progressed faster than predicted, threatening the security of nearby nations – and potentially the United States.
The US envoy to the United Nations put it simply: "Despite our efforts over the last 24 years, the North Korean nuclear programme is more advanced and dangerous than ever."
Analysts tend to agree that the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, is seeking a nuclear deterrent rather than an all-out war - but other nations are not taking chances.
So how do you defend against a politically isolated state with nuclear ambitions, when diplomacy, it appears, simply does not work?
The other half of the Korean peninsula has a long history of preparing to defend itself from its northern neighbour. The two countries are technically still at war, having never signed a peace treaty when the Korean War ended in 1953.
The Thaad system - seen here in testing - is one of several anti-missile defences
One key part of its defensive line is the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) - a region 250km (155 mile) long and 4km (2.5 mile) wide that separates the two nations, guarded by thousands of soldiers, lined with barbed wire fences, and filled with landmines.
But it is believed that North Korea's People's Army - with more than a million regular soldiers and millions more reserve troops - has drilled extensively on how to invade across the border.
And the heavy land border fortifications do nothing, of course, to prevent a missile strike.
For a while, it was thought that Thaad - the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense - might be South Korea's best counter to a nuclear attack.
Thaad, funded by the South's military ally the United States, is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles as they descend in the final phase of a strike. The complex technology was first deployed in May 2017, and has been successfully tested.
But the politics of South Korea's relationship with the North means its rollout has not been easy.
North Korea and its only ally China both see Thaad as a provocation, and many South Koreans living near the places its was deployed fear it could be seen as a military target.
The South's new president, President Moon Jae-in, suspended the rollout of the system in June, saying an environmental impact analysis was needed.
But in light of recent nuclear tests, the South's defence ministry has now said it will deploy the four remaining Thaad launchers that had been delivered, in addition to the two already operational.
At its closest point, Japan is just a little over 500km (310 miles) from North Korea - well within striking distance.
In August, Pyongyang fired a missile directly over Japan, in what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "unprecedented" threat to his country.
The close proximity of the two nations means that Japan has only minutes to respond to any launch. During the August missile test, people had about three minutes from receiving the emergency warning until the missile flew overhead. Many only learned about the threat later in the day.
In terms of defence options, Japan utilises the Patriot missile system which, like Thaad, is designed to shoot down incoming missiles. But it has a limited operational range, making it effective at defending key locations - and not the entire country.
But Japan does not have to worry about land invasion to the same extent North Korea does, and at sea, it has other options at its disposal.
Japan, South Korea, the United States are among the countries with the Aegis naval defence system.
Aegis is yet another anti-missile system, but unlike Thaad or Patriot defences, it can also be deployed to ships patrolling the seas in the region.
A test missile fired by the US on August 29, left, was shot down by the Aegis system similar to the file photo, right
Those battleships come equipped with powerful radar which could detect the launch when deployed near the North Korean coast. They are also fitted with guided missiles, and could attempt to shoot down the incoming missile - or share its tracking data with another missile defence system closer to the target.
There are a handful of problems with the system, though. Aegis ships need to be deployed in the right place at the right time - and while they have been tested extensively, they have never been used to defend against an actual launch.
For years, the best defence for the US was its sheer distance from North Korea - some 5,000km (3,100 miles) to Alaska and almost 9,000km to San Francisco. But rapid advancements mean that distance might no longer be far enough.
North Korea's military wants the capability to shrink a high-yield nuclear warhead to fit on an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM). In theory, that would allow Pyongyang to strike the United States.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. See the US anti-missile system in action
After its latest test, North Korea claimed it had managed to shrink the warhead, posting photos of what it said was a hydrogen bomb - in keeping with a Washington Post report from early August.
That means the US is now reconsidering its missile defences, with President Trump having ordered a review of the entire system.
It already has detection and interception systems. But critics believe that the US system is far from reliable, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus wrote in July.
In the foreseeable future, only a handful of its interceptor missiles will be available to deal with the potential North Korean threat, he said.
And it also has to worry about its overseas territory of Guam - a key military outpost in the Pacific which has been singled out by North Korea as a threat to be "contained".
That island already has a Thaad system deployed, but state media says Kim Jong-un has already been briefed on strike plans - and is waiting to see the next US actions. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41152424 |
Amazon apologises for 'threats' to customer - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Amazon has apologised to a customer, who believed he was sent coded death threats by an employee. | UK | Amazon has apologised to a customer who was emailed what he felt were "coded death threats" by a call centre worker.
Michael Jacobson received five book recommendations including Death, Follow You Home and Suicide's An Option, he told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours.
"We have zero tolerance for any misuse of customer data and have apologised to the customer," Amazon, which offered Mr Jacobson a £50 goodwill gesture, said.
"The individual involved no longer works for Amazon," it told the BBC.
Mr Jacobson, a former special constable in London, first contacted Amazon's help centre after experiencing delivery issues with a package he had ordered in October.
Mr Jacobson was sent book recommendations including Death, Follow You Home and Death Made Me
He told You and Yours: "Later that afternoon I checked my emails, and I'd received five, all from Amazon."
"They were all ostensibly book recommendations but the titles were pretty ominous and threatening, and I was pretty taken aback and I joked with my girlfriend, who I was with at the time, about it being a death threat."
He added: "The more I looked into it, I realised that they had actually been sent manually by an employee at Amazon rather than via an algorithm."
The books were Death, Follow You Home, The Denial of Death, Death Made Me, and Suicide's An Option.
Mr Jacobson suspected the recommendations had been sent by an individual, which made him feel anxious about his safety.
"I was concerned, because as soon as I realised that this had been sent by an individual rather than by a computer, it meant an Amazon employee had access to my personal information."
After getting in touch with Amazon to report the issue, they investigated and found the book recommendations had been sent by a then employee in India.
In an email to Mr Jacobson, Amazon said: "On this occasion, an isolated individual was using the 'share page' function on our site to send you the emails in question.
"We are taking this matter very seriously," the company added, saying also that "corrective actions have been taken internally both in relation to the agent who instigated the emails, and subsequent service failures".
Despite the investigation by Amazon, Mr Jacobson, who felt intimidated by the emails, says he feels the matter has not been handled well.
"At no point did (Amazon) say, we're confident you're not in any danger, this individual is thousands of miles away," he said.
"They told me none of that, which I was not happy about."
You and Yours is on BBC Radio 4 weekdays 12:15-13:00 GMT. Listen online or download the programme podcast. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42459594 |
Turkey blunder 'a potential dementia sign' - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Seeing relatives for the first time in a while could be an opportunity to spot signs of confusion. | Health | You did turn it on, didn't you?
Forgetting to turn on the oven for the Christmas turkey could be a sign of early dementia in a loved one, says the NHS's top dementia expert.
Prof Alistair Burns said becoming confused in a strange house and forgetting relatives' names may also be early signs of the disease.
He said it was important to look for changes in normal behaviour in older family members.
There is usually a rise in calls to the Alzheimer's Society in January.
The charity said this was because many people had seen relatives at Christmas gatherings and wanted advice on how to broach the subject.
Prof Burns, NHS England's national clinical director for dementia and older people's mental health, has drawn up a list of dementia signs:
Around 850,000 people have dementia in the UK, and it mainly affects people over 65 - although it can develop earlier.
It is estimated that one in three of us will care for someone with dementia at some point in our lives.
Prof Burns said: "Dementia is something that happens slowly so it may slip by unnoticed in people we see regularly.
"That's why the Christmas visit to wider family and friends is an opportunity to spot the early warning signs."
He urged everyone to take time to consider whether someone they know may need help.
Prof Burns also said a visit to a relative or neighbour who might be alone could make a huge difference to their mental health, particularly if they were lonely.
Broadcaster Fiona Phillips, whose parents both had early-onset dementia, said Christmas was a "huge benchmark" in spotting the symptoms.
"I spent every Christmas with my parents," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
But one year, "we got there and I was absolutely staggered - there was no tree up, both of them were very, very stressed".
Ms Phillips, an Alzheimer's Society ambassador, said her mother showed signs of dementia in her 50s.
But she noticed a change that Christmas - when her parents bought her a fluffy toy and her brother an orange ladies' jumper.
"We went into a horrible scene," she said. "We knew things weren't right."
Erika Aldridge, from Alzheimer's Society, said: "It can be difficult to know how to discuss concerns with a loved one, and there is no right or wrong way to approach this.
"Play a board game instead of watching another hour of TV, get up and take the dog for a walk or go for a family ramble instead of snoozing in the chair for an hour."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42456853 |
'World's ugliest pig' caught on camera - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Conservationists capture the first footage in the wild of the endangered Javan warty pig | Science & Environment | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It had been feared the Javan warty pig had become extinct
Scientists have captured the first footage in the wild of one of the world's rarest - and ugliest - pigs.
The Javan warty pig is under such threat from hunting and habitat loss that conservationists surveying its habitat believed it might already have been driven to extinction.
Camera traps have now revealed that small populations survive in Java's increasingly fragmented forests.
The team says its aim now is to protect the rare animals' habitat.
The survey was led by Dr Johanna Rode-Margono from Chester Zoo, who said she and her colleagues were "thrilled" to see that the pigs were still there.
Motion-activated camera traps captured the images of the shy, endangered animals
The last study of these lowland forested areas was back in 2004 and revealed a "serious decline" in the population of the species.
"We were worried that all or most would have disappeared," she told BBC News.
While these hairy, warty-faced beasts may not be Java's most photogenic residents, Dr Rode-Margono says they fulfil an important role in the forest's ecology - tilling the soil and spreading seeds as they forage.
And in Java, Indonesia's most crowded island, they are also emblematic of the burgeoning human pressure on the country's tropical forest.
The pigs are losing habitat to deforestation for agricultural and urban development, but are also coming into direct conflict with humans. The animals are considered pests and often hunted because they raid crops.
"Hunting for sport is also a problem," says Dr Rode-Margono, "and the species may be hybridising with European wild boar." That could result in the species being bred into extinction.
Most lowland forest in Java has been cleared for building and agriculture
Out of seven areas the team surveyed - using hidden, motion-activated cameras - only three had Javan warty pigs.
"That means the threat is ongoing and if we don't do anything, more and more populations will disappear," said Dr Rode-Margono. "This is a big red flag."
One wildlife centre in Java has started a captive breeding programme for the Javan warty pigs, and the scientists hope to identify some areas where these animals could be released and protected in the wild.
Captive-bred pigs could be released into the wild if the threats to their survival can be tackled
"There is still hope," Dr Rode-Margono told BBC News. "If we can manage to design some effective conservation projects, maybe we can keep them.
"For me," she added, "they are not ugly - they are beautiful.
"And everything in our ecosystem is connected - every tree, every plant, every animal. They depend on each other.
"If something breaks away, something else [could] break away, and that's a chain reaction where we can't foresee what will happen."
• None The forests that are falling silent | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42433938 |
'Lonely' WW2 veteran's Christmas card plea answered - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | null | Former Royal Marine Ted Owens gets dozens of cards after a friend's Facebook plea. | null | A "lonely" World War Two veteran has been made "very happy" after being inundated with Christmas cards following a friend's Facebook plea.
Ted Owens, 93, a former Royal Marines Commando from Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, has received dozens of cards, which he said made him "feel young again".
Author Mark Llewhellin, a former Army Commando, met Mr Owens a year ago when he interviewed him and posted the request on Facebook on Wednesday.
The pair have since thanked everyone who sent the cards. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42467663 |
Conductor Charles Dutoit denies 'forced physical contact' claims - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Charles Dutoit says allegations by women of "forced physical contact" have "no basis in truth". | Entertainment & Arts | Renowned conductor Charles Dutoit has said allegations by a number of women of "forced physical contact" have "absolutely no basis in truth".
Dutoit issued a statement after the Associated Press news agency reported three opera singers and a musician as saying he had forced himself on them.
Dutoit said he was taking legal advice and planned to defend himself.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has cancelled its principal conductor and artistic director's appearances.
The RPO said on Friday it had "jointly agreed" with Dutoit that he would not appear "for the immediate future", following the allegations.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and New York Philharmonic have been among those distancing themselves from the Swiss-born conductor.
Dutoit's statement read: "The allegations made against me are as shocking to me as they are to my friends and colleagues. I do not recognise the man or the actions being described in the media.
"Whilst informal physical contact is commonplace in the arts world as a mutual gesture of friendship, the serious accusations made involving coercion and forced physical contact have absolutely no basis in truth."
He continued: "I believe within this current climate, media accusations on serious physical abuse do not help society tackle these issues properly if the claims are in fact not true."
One of the accusations reported by AP was from retired opera singer Paula Rasmussen, who alleged that Dutoit had "shoved my hand down his pants and shoved his tongue down my throat".
Another singer, Sylvia McNair, alleged Dutoit "tried to have his way" with her at a hotel after a rehearsal with the Minnesota Orchestra in 1985, AP reported.
The four women who have made accusations against Dutoit said they felt confident to speak after Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine was suspended earlier this month after allegations against him surfaced. Mr Levine says the claims are "unfounded".
The RPO said the accusations against Dutoit were being "taken very seriously by the orchestra".
It said: "The immediate action taken by the RPO and Charles Dutoit allows time for a clear picture to be established. Charles Dutoit needs to be given a fair opportunity to seek legal advice and contest these accusations." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42467406 |
Arsenal 3-3 Liverpool - BBC Sport | 2017-12-23 | null | Roberto Firmino earns Liverpool a draw in an incredible Premier League encounter in which Arsenal score three goals in just five minutes. | null | Last updated on .From the section Premier League
Roberto Firmino's powerful finish earned Liverpool a draw in an incredible Premier League encounter that had seen Arsenal score three goals in just five second-half minutes.
The Gunners had been trailing 2-0 after Philippe Coutinho scored his first headed league goal in England before Mohamed Salah added a second early in the second half with a deflected strike.
But Arsenal suddenly came alive as Alexis Sanchez headed in Hector Bellerin's cross from close range before Granit Xhaka's thumping strike was too powerful for Simon Mignolet's weak save.
Barely two minutes later Mesut Ozil put Arsenal ahead with a neat clip over Mignolet.
Play swung from one end of the pitch to the other at blistering pace, with both sides looking capable of scoring with every attack.
But it was Liverpool who had the final say in one of the most thrilling Premier League encounters in years as Petr Cech could only take the sting out of Firmino's shot and the ball bounced over the line.
The point meant Liverpool held onto fourth place, with Arsenal remaining fifth - a point behind the Reds.
• None Re-live the thrilling encounter between Arsenal and Liverpool
How a crazy six minutes panned out
This had looked like being a routine win for Liverpool after a dominant first half.
They led through Coutinho's clever header and should have had more but for some uncharacteristically wasteful finishing by Sadio Mane and Salah.
However, it was not long until the Premier League's top scorer had his 15th of the season, and so began an incredible six minutes...
52 mins: Salah races on to Firmino's superb pass and makes it 2-0 with a deflected finish. Arsenal, who have not had a single shot on target, look beaten.
53 mins: Out of nowhere, Arsenal are back in it. Sanchez is well placed to nod in Bellerin's cross from close range.
56 mins: What's going on!? Arsenal are level! Xhaka tries his luck from 25 yards and the ball fizzes through Mignolet's hand.
58 mins: Goals! Goals! Goals! Arsenal are ahead as Ozil is on to Alexandre Lacazette's backheel before clipping the ball over Mignolet.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is not too keen on the 'Fab Four' nickname that has been given to his attacking quartet of Coutinho, Salah, Mane and Firmino, but he might have to develop an acceptance for it as they continue to dominate the headlines.
Three of them scored in this game and, in truth, all four should have been on the scoresheet, with Mane going for the acrobatic with a first-half scissor kick with Cech beaten.
The quartet have now collectively accounted for 29 of Liverpool's past 34 goals and while the Reds' attacking strength cannot be questioned - they have scored at least three goals in their past four Premier League away games - the defence can.
Liverpool had conceded 16 goals in their first nine league games and while they had stemmed the tide in the games since the 4-1 defeat by Tottenham at the end of October, familiar frailties arose in this encounter as players switched off after conceding, while Mignolet should have done better with Xhaka's effort.
A tale of two halves for Arsenal
David de Gea's saves against Arsenal for Manchester United earlier this month appeared to have had a long-lasting impact on the Gunners.
Since Jose Mourinho's side beat them 3-1 at the start of the month - with De Gea making 14 saves that day - Arsenal had struggled to convert shots into goals, having 56 attempts in the three Premier League games before Liverpool's visit, putting 12 of those on target and scoring just twice.
It was more of the same in the first half of this game as Mignolet enjoyed once of the easiest 45 minutes of his career. Arsenal managed just one shot - and that was wide of goal - but all that changed in the second half as they scored from all but one of their shots on target.
The Gunners were no doubt helped by Liverpool's poor defensive performance, but Arsene Wenger praised the character of his side to stage such a fightback.
"In the first half we were paralysed and frozen," said Wenger. "We gave too many balls away and looked second best everywhere.
"In the second half we have shown quality, character and played at our level."
'Point is the minimum we deserve'
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: "You need to be angry with yourself, not sad or insecure. We came back into the game and scored our third. The point is the minimum we deserve. Because of the intensity of the game it was not easy to create clearer chances. When you get a point at Arsenal it is usually OK but after this give me a few minutes to get there.
"Three goals at Arsenal should be enough. We defended most of the time pretty well. We did not give space away. After they score the first and the second, it is not easy but we need to deal with these situations better."
• None There have been 27 goals scored in the past five Premier League meetings between these teams (10 for Arsenal, 17 for Liverpool) at an average of 5.4 per game.
• None Liverpool have scored 54 away goals in all competitions in 2017, their most in a calendar year since 1982 (66).
• None There were just 388 seconds between Mo Salah putting Liverpool 2-0 ahead and Mesut Ozil scoring to make it 3-2 to Arsenal.
• None Arsenal have conceded seven goals in two league games against Liverpool this season - in only one Premier League campaign have they conceded more against an opponent (10 against Man Utd in 2011-12).
• None Since Jurgen Klopp's first Premier League match in charge in October 2015, Liverpool's games have seen 279 goals scored (174 for, 105 against), more than any other club.
• None Philippe Coutinho has been involved in 16 goals in 11 away matches in all competitions (nine goals, seven assists).
• None Coutinho scored his 53rd goal for Liverpool in all competitions - however, this was his first headed goal for the Reds.
• None Roberto Firmino has been involved in eight goals in his past five Premier League appearances against Arsenal (five goals, three assists).
• None Firmino has also scored and assisted in each of his past three Premier League games against the Gunners.
Arsenal have a bit of time to enjoy the Christmas break. They are next in action on 28 December when they travel to Crystal Palace (20:00 GMT). Liverpool, meanwhile, have a shorter turnaround because they host Swansea on Boxing Day (17:30 GMT).
• None Attempt missed. Mesut Özil (Arsenal) left footed shot from the left side of the box is high and wide to the left.
• None Offside, Arsenal. Ainsley Maitland-Niles tries a through ball, but Mesut Özil is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Georginio Wijnaldum following a fast break.
• None Offside, Liverpool. James Milner tries a through ball, but Mohamed Salah is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42362392 |
London Zoo 'devastated' by aardvark fire death - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | null | A nine-year-old aardvark has died after a fire at London Zoo, with four meerkats also presumed dead. | null | London Zoo says a nine-year-old aardvark called Misha has died and four meerkats are missing, presumed dead, following a fire there.
A number of zoo staff were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and shock.
Keepers and security worked to keep animals safe before firefighters arrived. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42465392 |
Tesco: No edible food will go to waste by February 2018 - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The supermarket giant says its 2,654 stores will no longer throw away food that is fit to be eaten. | UK | No food fit for human consumption will be wasted by Tesco's UK stores by the end of February, the retail giant says.
Chief executive Dave Lewis told the Daily Telegraph food waste had been "talked about for years" as he unveiled the plans for all 2,654 stores.
Urging other chains to follow suit, he said edible food should be used for people, not go to waste.
Tesco, with all major UK supermarkets, has signed a commitment to cut food waste by one-fifth within a decade.
The voluntary agreement is known as the Courtauld Commitment 2025.
Many supermarkets have introduced initiatives to tackle waste - such as moving away from "buy-one-get-one-free" offers that have been criticised for potentially increasing the amount of food thrown away in the home.
East of England Co-op recently became the first major retailer to sell food beyond its "best before" dates.
But Mr Lewis, who joined Tesco in 2014 from consumer brand Unilever, said the contrast between the amount of wasted food in the UK and the situation in countries suffering food shortages was "really stark".
He said: "Last year we sold 10 million tons [10.2 million tonnes] of food to the British public. But even if our waste is just 0.7% of the food, that's still 70,000 tons [71,100 tonnes] of food.
"And so long as that food is fit for human consumption, I'd much prefer it to go to people than animal feed or fuel."
The UK throws away 8.1 million tons [8.2 million tonnes] of food a year, according to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Tesco says it cuts waste by selling surplus groceries with "reduced to clear" stickers and running a scheme giving unsold items to local charities.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
It uses an app, FoodCloud, to scan and upload surplus food that stores have at the end of the day, which is shared with registered charities that collect the food.
"That goes a long way in reducing charities' bill burdens, so they can spend the money on other things, like the cost of housing two more addicts, or providing much more needed services," Mr Lewis said.
But he admitted it was "impossible" to prevent food surpluses in supermarkets.
"In retail there will always be some surplus food," he said.
"No matter how sophisticated the ordering systems are, it will be impossible to perfectly match the supply and demand for every one of our shops, 365 days a year, when there's so much volatility.
"Food waste has been talked about for years but if Tesco can make this work, with all of our different stores across the country, then why can't everybody," he added. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42464912 |
Military keeping UK safe, PM says in Christmas message - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | PM recalls navy's hurricane relief efforts and fight against IS in Christmas message to troops. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The PM praised troops for their high standards and devotion to duty
The prime minister has used her Christmas message to the armed forces to pay tribute to the "valiant hearts" of British servicemen and women who are working to keep the UK safe.
Theresa May said the RAF, and soldiers training and supporting Iraqi forces, have helped tackle the threat of the so-called Islamic State group in 2017.
And she referenced troops on UK streets after terror attacks.
She praised the sacrifice of those who could not be home for Christmas.
Mrs May also paid tribute to the Royal Navy for helping to bring disaster relief to people in the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by UK Prime Minister This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Mrs May began her message by referring to the centenary commemorations for the World War One battle of Passchendaele in Belgium.
She said the nation remembered the hundreds of thousands of young men who died "in the cause of freedom".
"Through a century of great change since, the high standards and devotion to duty of our armed forces have remained constant," she said.
The prime minister added: "Whenever you are called upon - regulars or reserves - you always give of your best and inspire us all with your service."
But she said the achievements of the armed forces were "made possible by the love and support of your families".
"Partners and children are often called on to make huge sacrifices of their own - from a change of school or job, to coping with extended periods of separation," she said.
"That separation is especially difficult at Christmas time, and we should all be immensely grateful for that sacrifice."
She added: "This Christmas, as people across the United Kingdom celebrate this special time of year with their families and friends, we will do so secure in the knowledge that the valiant hearts of our servicemen and women, many far away from their own loved ones at this special time of year, are working to keep us safe."
On Friday, Mrs May visited troops at the RAF base in Cyprus, where operations against IS have been launched, and last month she met UK military personnel stationed in Iraq. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42468209 |
Typhoon fighter jets intercept prime minister's plane in exercise - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Theresa May watched the manoeuvre from the cockpit during her journey from Cyprus. | UK | The jets also refuelled from the prime minister's plane during the training exercise
Two Typhoon jets armed with air-to-air missiles intercepted Theresa May's plane on its return to the UK from Cyprus as part of a training exercise.
Theresa May watched pilots carry out the manoeuvre - a rehearsal for a suspected hijacking scenario - from the cockpit of the RAF Voyager.
The jets, scrambled from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, also hooked up to the PM's plane for air-to-air refuelling.
Mrs May was returning from a two-day trip to Poland and Cyprus.
The fighter jets pulled up alongside the converted Voyager at 17,000 feet, and tipped their wings as part of the exercise.
Pilots from 3 Squadron and 11 Squadron performed the manoeuvre.
The jets each took on four tonnes of fuel during the exercise, at 600kg-a-minute.
The Typhoons are the sort of jets that would be used to intercept foreign planes illegally entering British airspace and the exercise demonstrated how the RAF's Quick Reaction Alert would work.
Mrs May was said to have spent the rest of the journey working on papers from her ministerial Red Box and relaxing with a sudoku number puzzle.
Theresa May visited RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on her way back to the UK from Poland
She said: "Witnessing the unique skill of the RAF at first hand is an absolute privilege and demonstrates that the British Armed Forces are the finest in the world.
"The work they do is admirable and impressive and I want to take this opportunity to thank them for everything they do to keep us safe." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42457964 |
San Francisco: Man arrested over 'Christmas terror plan' - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The man allegedly discussed with undercover agents targeting San Francisco over Christmas. | US & Canada | The 25-year-old had unknowingly been communicating with undercover FBI agents
A former marine has been arrested by the FBI on suspicion of planning a terror attack in San Francisco over Christmas.
Everitt Aaron Jameson, 25, was held after allegedly discussing the plot with undercover FBI agents.
Criminal documents allege he planned to target the Pier 39 area, popular with tourists in the city.
Authorities say firearms, a will and a letter claiming the attack were found during a search of his home.
The FBI criminal complaint says that the Muslim convert's letter made reference to Donald Trump's decision to designate Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
They say Mr Jameson came to their attention in September after expressing "radical jihadi beliefs" and support of so-called Islamic State through social media use.
The FBI complaint said he had expressed his support of attacks, including the October 31 truck attack in New York.
Mr Jameson allegedly named the San Francisco's Pier 39 as a target, an area popular for its restaurants, shops and resident sea lions, because "he had been there before and knew that it was a heavily crowded area".
The area is an attraction because of the sea lions that frequent Pier 39's famous K-Dock
Investigators allege Mr Jameson had expressed a will to use explosives in the attack to "tunnel" or "funnel" people into a smaller area to inflict casualties. The FBI says he sought materials that could be made into a pipe bomb from an agent.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jameson's father: "It's just hard to fathom right now"
But on 18 December Mr Jameson apparently hesitated, telling an agent: "I don't think I can do this after all. I've reconsidered."
A search warrant for his home was issued, where a number of firearms and related material was found.
He has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
Mr Jameson completed basic recruitment training for the US Marine Corps in 2009, but was reportedly discharged for not disclosing details of his asthma. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42462463 |
Melbourne car attack: Australia police charge man - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A former Afghan refugee faces 18 counts of attempted murder after the incident in Flinders Street. | Australia | The car ploughed into Christmas shoppers near Flinders Street railway station
A man accused of driving his car into pedestrians in the Australian city of Melbourne has been charged with 18 counts of attempted murder.
Former Afghan refugee Saeed Noori, 32, appeared before magistrates on Saturday and was remanded in custody.
Police have said they do not believe the attack terrorism related and that Mr Noori has mental health issues.
Twelve people are still being treated in hospital after Thursday's incident in Flinders Street.
Three are in a critical condition. Nine of the injured are foreign nationals from countries including South Korea, Ireland, Venezuela, China, India and Italy.
The broadcaster ABC said Mr Noori became emotional in court, putting his head in his hands when he saw his mother crying ahead of the brief hearing.
The magistrate called for a psychological report. Mr Noori is scheduled to be back in court on Wednesday. There was no application for bail.
Melbourne police charged Mr Noori after he was released from hospital on Friday and have called the incident a "deliberate attack".
In addition to the attempted murder charges, he also faces one count of conduct endangering life.
Police have found no link between Mr Noori and any terrorist group. Islamist militants have used vehicles to attack people in Europe and the United States in recent years.
Security has been stepped up around Melbourne.
Police said there would be a "highly visible" presence of officers at the fourth Ashes Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between Australia and England, which starts on Tuesday. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-42464310 |
Hidden camera captures rare pig thought extinct - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | null | Scientists have filmed one of the world's rarest, and 'ugliest', pigs in a forest in Indonesia. | null | Scientists have filmed one of the world's rarest, and 'ugliest', pigs in a forest in Java, Indonesia.
The Javan warty pig is under such threat from hunting and habitat loss that conservationists surveying its habitat believed it might already have been driven to extinction. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42465534 |
Stephen Crabb MP cleared over harassment claims - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Former Welsh secretary Stephen Crabb cleared of breaching Tory party rules. | Wales politics | The allegations made about Stephen Crabb were published in national newspapers
Former Welsh secretary Stephen Crabb has been cleared of breaching party rules following an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct.
The Preseli Pembrokeshire MP was alleged to have sent explicit messages to a 19-year-old who applied for a job in his office in 2013.
The Conservative Party found his behaviour fell short but it "did not constitute harassment".
Chris Pincher MP was also cleared after allegations of inappropriate conduct.
They had been referred to a disciplinary panel, set up under a new Tory code of conduct amid a number of allegations about MPs.
Referring to Mr Crabb's case, a Conservative Party spokesman said: "Following an investigation, a panel headed by an independent QC has concluded that Mr Crabb's behaviour did not constitute harassment.
"However, it found that his behaviour in this matter was inappropriate and fell short of the standards the party expects.
"The party chairman has reminded Mr Crabb of the need to adhere to the spirit and letter of the code of conduct at all times. He accepted this unreservedly and has made a full apology."
The married MP, who was Welsh secretary between 2014 and 2016, was one of several contenders for the Tory leadership who lost out to Theresa May.
Tamworth MP Mr Pincher stood down from the whips' office and referred himself to the Tory complaints procedure following reports that he had been accused of making an unwanted pass at former Olympic rower and Conservative activist Alex Story.
The party spokesman said: "Following media allegations, Chris Pincher referred himself to our code of conduct.
"Following an investigation, a panel headed by an independent QC considered the evidence and has concluded there has not been a breach of the code of conduct." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-42462431 |
Sweetie: 'Girl' chatbot targets thousands of paedophiles - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | null | Automated chatbot "Sweetie" can handle thousands of conversations and send warnings to perpetrators. | null | Paedophiles are being targeted online by an automated chatbot that makes them think they're talking to a 12-year-old girl.
The "Sweetie" project first made headlines in 2013. It can now handle thousands of simultaneous conversations and send perpetrators warning messages. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42461065 |
Theresa May's Christmas 2017 message to the Armed Forces - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | null | PM recalls navy's hurricane relief efforts and fight against IS in Christmas message to troops. | null | Prime Minister Theresa May has used her Christmas message to the armed forces to pay tribute to the "valiant hearts" of British servicemen and women who are working to keep the UK safe. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42468213 |
Philippines country profile - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Provides an overview of Philippines, including key facts about this South East Asian country. | Asia | More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines, but the bulk of its fast-growing population lives on just 11 of them.
Much of the country is mountainous and prone to earthquakes and eruptions from around 20 active volcanoes. It is often buffeted by typhoons and other storms.
The Philippines - a Spanish colony for more than three centuries, and named after a 16th Century Spanish king - was taken over by the US in the early 20th Century after a protracted rebellion against rule from Madrid.
Spanish and US influences remain strong, especially in terms of language, religion and government. Self-rule in 1935 was followed by full independence in 1946 under a US-style constitution.
The US is a close ally and has provided military aid to help combat Islamist and communist insurgencies.
The son of authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos won a landslide victory in the May 2022 election.
He took over from firebrand Rodrigo Duterte, who came to power in 2016 after winning over voters with promises of a no-holds-barred campaign to take on crime, drugs and corruption.
President Marcos, known by the nickname Bongbong, enlisted Sara Duterte, the daughter of the outgoing president, as his vice-president, thereby uniting two populist right-wing dynasties.
Powerful commercial interests control or influence much of the media.
The lively TV scene is dominated by free-to-air networks ABS-CBN and GMA. There are hundreds of radio stations and a vigorous newspaper scene.
The constitution guarantees press freedom, but the Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
Spain's fabled galleons plied the Pacific trade route between Manila and Acapulco
Some key dates in The Philippines' history:
900AD - Laguna Copperplate Inscription, mostly written on Old Malay, is the earliest record of a Philippine language and the presence of writing in the islands.
11th Century - Some areas become part of China's tributary system.
14th Century - Indian cultural traits such as linguistic terms and religious practices began to spread in the Philippines.
15th Century - Islam is first established in the Sulu Archipelago.
1542 - Spanish expedition claims the islands and names them the Philippines after the heir to the Spanish throne. Three centuries of Spanish rule fail to conquer Muslim areas in the south.
1896-98 - Philippine Revolution: Filipino revolutionaries fight against the Spanish colonial authorities in an attempt to win the archipelago's independence.
1897 - Spanish authorities and revolutionaries sign the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, which temporarily reduces, and revolutionary officers exile themselves to Hong Kong.
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, the US navy destroys the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. Spain cedes the Philippines to the US, which proclaims military rule and begins to forcibly incorporate Muslim areas.
1898-1902 - Philippine-American War: Tensions arise after the US annexes the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris at end of the Spanish-American War rather than acknowledging the Philippines' declaration of independence. The war can be seen as a continuation of the Philippine struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution.
1916 - Jones Act, or Philippine Autonomy Act, which has the first formal declaration by the US to grant eventual independence to the Philippines.
1935 - Commonwealth of the Philippines: Philippines gains internal self-government, with the US responsible for foreign relations.
1941-1945 - The Philippines are occupied by Japan during the World War Two, but are retaken by the US in bitter fighting. More than 500,000 Filipinos die during the war.
1946 - The islands are granted full independence and renamed the Republic of the Philippines.
1942-1954 - Hukbalahap Rebellion: Rebellion by former Hukbalahap or Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon ("People's Army Against Japan") soldiers against the Philippine government. During the Japanese occupation the Huk guerrillas created village strongholds against the Japanese. After 1945, the new Philippine government, prompted by the US disarmed and arrested the Huks for allegedly being communists. The rebellion eventually petered out in the 1950s.
1965 - Ferdinand Marcos is elected president; he declares martial law in 1972.
1983 - Anti-Marcos lawyer Benigno Aquino is assassinated at Manila's airport as he returns from exile.
1986 - Marcos ousted in "people power" revolt after claiming victory over Aquino's widow in an election that many believe was stolen.
2001 - President Joseph Estrada is forced out by a military-backed "people power" uprising.
2014 - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel group signs a peace deal with the government, ending one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts.
2017 - Islamic State jihadists attack the city of Marawi in Mindanao.
2022 - Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the previous dictator, is elected president.
The Philippines capital Manila is among the most-populous and fastest-growing cities in South East Asia
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15521300 |
Miss America leaked emails: CEO Sam Haskell and three others quit - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Four executives resign after the leaking of misogynistic emails about contestants. | US & Canada | Sam Haskell (pictured on the front row) watches the 2017 contest
The Miss America Organization CEO, Sam Haskell, has resigned over leaked emails that disparaged pageant contestants.
The organisation said it would accept Mr Haskell's immediate resignation. Its chairperson, Lynn Weidner and two other executives are also leaving.
The emails reportedly include vulgar references to past winners and comments about their sex lives.
The organisation's president and chief operating officer, Josh Randle, has also resigned "in light of recent and new developments", a spokesperson confirmed to the BBC.
Announcing the resignation of Mr Haskell in a statement posted on its Twitter account, the Miss America Organisation (MAO) said Ms Weidner would help install a new leadership before leaving.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Miss America Org This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The announcement of Mr Haskell's resignation came only hours after the MAO put out a statement saying he had been suspended.
The Huffington Post published the alleged contents of three years of emails between Mr Haskell and other pageant officials.
Some of the emails referred to Mallory Hagan, the winner of the 2013 contest
The internal emails include name-calling, slut-shaming and fat-shaming of some of the contestants who had taken part in the pageant.
The revelations caused Dick Clark Productions, MAO's television sponsor, to cut ties with the long-standing pageant.
Dick Clark Productions said in a statement on Friday they had been made aware of the emails "several months ago" and were "appalled by their unacceptable content".
Pressure for the resignation of Mr Haskell also came from 49 former Miss Americas in an open letter.
A former Miss America winner, Mallory Hagan, who was mocked in some of the emails said she "wasn't shocked, but [felt] validated by the emails".
"For the longest time, I've tried to explain to people around me that this is happening or these things are being said," the winner of the 2013 pageant told NBC.
Gretchen Carlson, a former Miss America and a television presenter, said the alleged emails contained "disgusting statements about women" and "vulgar slurs".
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gretchen Carlson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
In a statement, Mr Haskell said he had been "under stress from a full year of attacks by two Miss Americas, and while I don't ever want to offer an excuse, I do want to offer context".
But he also said the original story was "vicious" with "conveniently edited emails". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42466526 |
Devon beach lifeguard's double life rescuing refugees - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | null | Beach lifeguard Richie Heard works in Devon in the summer and saves refugees in the winter. | null | Beach lifeguard Richie Heard spends summers working in north Devon and winters saving refugees in the Aegean Sea.
He spoke during a visit home from the Greek island of Lesbos, where he is operations manager with Refugee Rescue.
He said the sound of crying babies, stranded with their parents in boats on rocks, never leaves him. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-42445304 |
Aldi stabbing: Jodie Willsher murder suspect charged - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Mum-of-one Jodie Willsher, 30, was stabbed while working at the Skipton store on Thursday. | York & North Yorkshire | Jodie Willsher was working at the the Keighley Road Aldi store in Skipton, North Yorkshire, when she was stabbed
A 44-year-old man has been charged with murdering a woman who was stabbed to death in an Aldi supermarket.
Mum-of-one Jodie Willsher, 30, was attacked as she worked in the Keighley Road store in Skipton, North Yorkshire, at 15:30 GMT on Thursday.
She sustained multiple serious injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene, North Yorkshire Police said.
Neville Hord, from Skipton, has been remanded in custody and is to appear at York Magistrates' Court on Saturday.
Malcolm Willsher described his wife as "lovely and warm and always had a smile on her face".
He added: "She was amazing, beautiful and a lovely person. She was a doting mother and a loving wife."
Tributes have been paid to 30-year-old Jodie Willsher
Aldi said the store would be closed until further notice to allow police to carry out investigations.
Colin Breslin, regional managing director at Aldi, said: "Jodie was a much loved and popular colleague.
"We are all deeply shocked and saddened by this incident. Our thoughts are with her family at this difficult time."
Matthew Barnes, chief executive officer of Aldi UK and Ireland, said the company was "doing everything we can to support our people and all those affected during this difficult time".
Flowers were left in the supermarket car park, with friends describing her as "a truly lovely woman and very popular".
Flowers have been left outside the Aldi store in Keighley Road
Police have appealed for a "brave witness who restrained the suspect" to come forward.
The man, believed to be in his sixties, was wearing a flat cap and a two-tone light and dark walking jacket.
Officers believe he was shopping with a woman who has short light-brown hair and was wearing a light-coloured, possibly grey, jacket.
The force said: "He was the first person to try and intervene and was involved in a sustained struggle.
"They appear to have left the store before the emergency services arrived."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-42462131 |
Ed Sheeran (and Beyonce) have Christmas number one - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The British singer tops the festive chart with Perfect after holding off a challenge - from himself. | Entertainment & Arts | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sheeran said he felt "very proud and happy" in a video message
Ed Sheeran has beaten off competition from Eminem - and himself - to land his first UK Christmas number one single.
Perfect - which he released in three separate versions in a bid to clinch the Christmas crown - had faced a challenge from Eminem's River, on which Sheeran provides guest vocals.
But the rapper ended in second place, while Wham's Last Christmas came third.
In a video message, the British singer said securing the Christmas top spot was "an actual dream come true".
The video for Perfect riffs on Wham's classic Last Christmas clip
"I'm very proud and happy," he said. "Thank you so much and have a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year."
Sheeran's domination of the Christmas chart was all but assured after he released a new version of his doe-eyed ballad with Beyonce.
That version drove most of his sales - though chart rules mean Beyonce is denied a credit on the Christmas number one, with Sheeran's original counted as the lead track.
Eminem's River took an early lead on streaming services but faltered as the week went on.
Fans had hoped to send Last Christmas to number one to mark the first anniversary of George Michael's death.
Despite support from ITV's This Morning and Michael's ex-bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, however, the song failed to beat its original chart position of number two.
Back in 1984, it was denied the top spot by Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? charity single.
As has become tradition, yuletide standards by Mariah Carey and The Pogues have returned to the Top 40 off the back of huge streaming figures.
There are 16 Christmas songs in the Top 40, among them such classics as Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee and Wonderful Christmastime by Sir Paul McCartney.
The presence of lesser-known tracks, like Ariana Grande's Santa Tell Me and Elton John's Step Into Christmas, can be explained by their prominent placing in Spotify's Christmas is Coming playlist.
"By and large, the most popular ones are the ones featured on the front page of Spotify," chart analyst James Masterton told the BBC.
"It exposes the amount of influence the application has over the singles market."
This YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by MariahCareyVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.
Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You was the UK's favourite festive song on Spotify this year.
And it's not just an advent phenomenon. Data released by the BPI this week showed Carey's classic had been played 16,000 times in the first week of July.
According to Spotify, the most popular day for streaming seasonal songs was 13 December, when 13% of all music played in the UK was Christmas-themed.
In the album chart, Eminem's album Revival did manage to dislodge Sheeran's Divide.
It is the star's eighth UK number one album in a row, with his six previous studio albums and the 2005 greatest hits collection Curtain Call all making the top spot.
Led Zeppelin and Abba are the only other artists to accumulated eight consecutive number one albums in the UK.
Revival's first week sales are the second highest of 2017, behind Divide.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42401275 |
GP warns Santa to 'give sherry a miss' - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The head of the Royal College of GPs said we can all help Father Christmas get fitter this year. | UK | A leading doctor tells Santa to swap his mince pies for some of Rudolph's carrots this Christmas
Father Christmas could be doing serious harm to his health by overloading with mince pies and sherry, a leading doctor has warned.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, head of the Royal College of GPs, said Santa could face a raft of health issues because of his diet and busy schedule.
Some of his conditions could include gout, sleep deprivation and alcoholism.
But we can all help Santa get a bit fitter, and inspire ourselves too, she says.
Professor Stokes-Lampard said: "He's overweight, and all of us do our bit to add to his obesity by leaving mince pies and cookies out for him, and milk or alcohol.
"If Mr Claus was a patient at my practice, I would be encouraging him to adopt a vastly healthier diet and take more exercise in the new year."
Santa could risk 'mixing up important presents' if he has too much sherry
As well as running between houses, rather than riding on his sleigh, the professor thinks he should "give the sherry a miss" and share some of Rudolph's carrots instead.
"The human body can only process one unit of alcohol per hour, which means excessive consumption could make Santa drunk very quickly," she said.
"This not only increases the likelihood of him slipping in the snow or mixing up important presents, but could also lead to long-term issues affecting his mood and mental health."
So now Prof Stokes-Lampard thinks it is time for Saint Nicholas to take better care of himself and lead by example.
"Although he sets a brilliant example of good behaviour and teaches the importance of giving rather than receiving, he could probably do more to encourage healthy lifestyles - something youngsters and adults alike can benefit from," she says. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42464803 |
Garry Monk: Middlesbrough part company with manager despite victory - BBC Sport | 2017-12-23 | null | Championship side Middlesbrough part company with manager Garry Monk despite a victory hours earlier. | null | Last updated on .From the section Middlesbrough
Championship side Middlesbrough parted company with manager Garry Monk hours after a 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday.
The former Swansea and Leeds United boss has been replaced by academy manager Craig Liddle on an interim basis "while a successor is appointed", the club said.
Middlesbrough are ninth in the league and have won 10 of their 23 games.
News of Monk's departure was announced on the club's Twitter feed and comes just six months after he was appointed.
Monk took charge of the club in June and was tasked with leading the side back to the Premier League following relegation last season.
He oversaw just four wins in Middlesbrough's first 13 league games but the club won six of their next 10 games to move to within three points of the play-off places.
Speaking after Saturday's win at Hillsborough, Monk said: "That was our best away performance of the season and I thought it was a thoroughly deserved win.
"They are a good team with some quality players, but overall we dealt with their moments pretty well.
"We have to build on this and use it as a springboard. There are more things to work on and improve."
"I'm certain there will have been talks behind the scenes, certain someone is lined up.
"It's still an attractive job, people will be really thinking about this job because they know the chairman [Steve Gibson], he's is one of the best in the business.
"Don't get me wrong though, when things need to be changed, the chairman is ruthless and Middlesbrough Football Club comes first." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42468443 |
'Pay-per-mile' scheme for HGVs considered - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The transport secretary says it would help ensure UK and international drivers pay for road upkeep. | UK | The new scheme would pay to fix damage caused by lorries to roads
The government is considering a "pay-per-mile" scheme for lorries to cover the cost of damage to roads.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling confirmed the current HGV levy, used to pay for wear and tear on the road network, was being consulted on.
Critics say the current scheme means international drivers using the roads do not have to pay towards upkeep.
But the Road Haulage Association (RHA) said it was unfair to target lorries and it needs to see more detail.
Mr Grayling denied any plans for a road toll system for other vehicles for the "foreseeable future".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the minister said it was about creating a "level playing field" for British and international hauliers.
"Our hauliers often complain that a continental trucker comes in with a tank full of lower duty diesel, spends several days working in the country, goes away again and pays nothing towards the use of the roads," he said.
"We already have a system in place that provides some limited contribution, but we're now consulting the industry."
But a spokesman for the RHA said he was "worried" about the announcement.
"Although it's good news that more money is being spent on roads, it's not right to target only lorries with a new tax," he said.
"This has to be revenue neutral for lorry firms. If we fail to do this, it will make us less competitive than our European counterparts."
The government is also consulting on a fund for work to A-roads
The news came as the government launched a separate consultation to find out which A-roads in England needed cash to bring them up to scratch.
The Department for Transport announced funding in the summer to rejuvenate the road network, but is now asking councils to apply for up to £100m per road.
Priority will go to road widening projects on dual carriageways, improving road safety measure and major junction improvements.
About 5,000 miles of A-roads across the country will be eligible for the multi-billion pound funding pot to improve the nation's strategic road network.
The consultation will last for 12 weeks, but Mr Grayling said he hoped plans to start development next year and building work to start within three years.
"We've been spending a lot of money recently on the motorways and big dual carriageways," he said. "What we have not been doing is sorting out the next tier down.
"This [consultation] is all about medium-sized towns on those A-roads that have got clogged up centres, that have got lorries waiting at traffic lights, that have got pollution in the centre.
"It's about time we started to build those bypasses, improve those roads, add extra stretches of dual carriageway and focus on the next tier down of roads."
Motorists in the UK drove 324 billion miles in 2016 - up 2.2% on the previous year - but AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said many drivers suffered a "daily nightmare" at notorious pinch points.
As a result, he said improvements to ease traffic flow were "very welcome".
RAC director of motoring Steve Gooding said: "For many businesses an economically important major road is the one that runs right up to the factory gate.
"It will be interesting to see whether the business bodies consider the government's plans to go far enough in designating the roads that matter to their members."
But Bridget Fox, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said the government should focus on improving major transport links, rather than overhauling major road networks.
She said the Department for Transport should apply a "fix it first" strategy to prioritising road maintenance, and improving public transport and cycling routes. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42464125 |
I'm more than 'Madame Brexit' - Theresa May - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The PM insists she is "in it for the long-term" and shrugs off claims she has had a bad year. | UK Politics | Theresa May has insisted she is more than "Madame Brexit," having been given the title by Poland's prime minister.
She said there were "other things" she wanted to achieve apart from delivering a successful exit from the EU - such as improvements to education and training.
And she insisted she was "in it for the long-term", shrugging off suggestions she had had a bad year.
The prime minister was speaking to reporters during a visit to UK troops stationed in Cyprus.
Mrs May gained her new nickname on Thursday, after holding talks in Warsaw with Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Mr Morawiecki told their joint press conference: "As Madame Brexit has said, Brexit is Brexit."
Mrs May said she had been amused by the comment.
"You might have noticed I smiled when I heard the translation of Mrs Brexit or Madame Brexit," she told reporters.
"Look, I am going to deliver on Brexit. That is undoubtedly the case, but I am doing other things as well. If you look at the changes we are making on skills, education and training for example.
"The industrial strategy which actually was talked about with the Poles as well… and global Britain."
She said she had completed a number of foreign trips in the run up to Christmas "promoting the UK both in trading terms, but also our role in defence and security".
Asked if she would characterise 2017 - a year which saw her lose her Commons majority in a snap election she had called - as one of the most difficult years of her career, Mrs May highlighted her recent breakthrough in Brexit talks.
"If you look at what's happened over the past couple of months we have made sufficient progress on the Brexit negotiations, we have had a good Budget that is building a Britain that is fit for the future.
"What we've put into the Budget in terms of funding for the health service but also housing is really important for the future of this country.
"We have had the industrial strategy, which I see as an absolutely crucial plan and part of actually ensuring that our economy does meet the needs of the future and is providing the jobs of the future for the people in the UK."
She said she was "optimistic" about making progress on defence and security, as well as trade, "as we go into phase two of Brexit negotiations".
"What we want to achieve is in the interests of the EU27 as well as ours," she added. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42458062 |
Cancer Research award for 'Christmas miracle' boy - BBC News | 2017-12-23 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Brave three-year-old Ceylian survived surgery to remove a tumour half the size of his brain. | Leicester | Ceylian Bonnet Bocher's mother had him baptised ahead of the operation as doctors feared the worse
A boy hailed a "Christmas miracle" after surviving surgery to remove an orange-sized tumour from his brain has received a national award for courage.
It was feared Ceylian Bonnet Bocher, three, from Leicestershire, would not survive a 10-hour operation on Christmas Eve 2016.
However, on Christmas Day he was able to sit up and open his presents.
His mother said she had him baptised ahead of the operation as the doctors were doubtful he would pull through.
Marina Bonnet Bocher, who nominated her son for the Cancer Research UK award, said: "I'll never forget [the medical staff] bringing him out of surgery into intensive care.
"They were smiling and so proud. They called Ceylian their 'Christmas miracle'."
Mrs Bonnet Bocher said she noticed her son was not walking properly in November last year and thought he needed new shoes.
His walking became worse and after a visit to a GP, Ceylian was referred for an MRI scan.
"By then he couldn't even sit up in bed without falling down," she said.
"The surgeon told us he'd found the biggest tumour he'd ever seen in a child that age and didn't know if it was even possible to operate.
"We were so scared we got a priest to come and baptise him before the operation at Birmingham Children's Hospital."
Ceylian was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of bone and soft tissue cancer.
He was able to return home to Ashby de la Zouch in January, before undergoing cycles of chemotherapy which he finished in September.
He had also visited the US, in May, to have proton beam therapy.
Mrs Bonnet Bocher said: "He was so brave throughout his treatment and now our energetic boy is back, smiling from morning to evening, cycling and playing football."
The three-year-old was awarded the Cancer Research UK Kids and Teens Star award for bravery.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-42443864 |
N Korea given 'unambiguous message' - Haley - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | null | US ambassador Nikki Haley says a UN Security Council resolution sends a clear warning to North Korea. | null | US ambassador Nikki Haley said a unanimous UN Security Council resolution sent a clear warning to North Korea that further missile tests would invite more punishment. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42462074 |
Peru's ex-President Fujimori taken from jail to hospital - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 79-year-old has low blood pressure and an abnormal heart rhythm, his doctor says. | Latin America & Caribbean | Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori has been taken from prison to a hospital because of low blood pressure and abnormal heart rhythm.
His doctor was quoted by local media as saying cardiologists had advised the 79-year-old needed urgent treatment.
Fujimori - who was in power from 1990 to 2000 - is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses.
He is admired by some Peruvians for combating Maoist rebels. His critics consider him a corrupt dictator.
In 2007, Fujimori was sentenced to six years in jail for bribery and abuse of power.
In 2009, he was sentenced to another 25 years in prison for human rights abuses committed during his time in office, including authorising killings carried out by death squads.
He has been in and out of hospital for a variety of health problems in recent years.
The latest medical emergency comes just days after Fujimori's supporters in Congress helped President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski avoid impeachment over alleged corruption.
Opposition politicians allege that the president had promised the supporters to free Fujimori in exchange for their backing. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-42469854 |
Tropical Storm Tembin: Rescuers search for victims - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | null | This video has been removed for right reasons. | null | This video has been removed for right reasons.
Tropical Storm Tembin brought flash flooding and mudslides to many parts of Mindanao island, in the southern Philippines, before heading west.
Rescuers are searching for survivors and thousands of people have been evacuated. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42465224 |
Philippines Tropical Storm Tembin kills more than 180 on Mindanao - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Tropical Storm Tembin brings flash floods and mudslides to the southern island of Mindanao. | Asia | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The aftermath of Storm Tembin on Mindanao island
More than 180 people are reported to have been killed as a tropical storm swept through the southern Philippines, with dozens more missing.
Storm Tembin brought flash flooding and mudslides to parts of Mindanao island.
Two towns badly hit were Tubod and Piagapo, where a number of homes were buried by boulders.
Tembin, with winds of up to 80km/h (50 mph), has passed across Mindanao and reached the resort islands of Palawan, and will now move further west.
The Philippines suffers regularly from deadly tropical storms, although Mindanao is not often hit.
Tembin, known as Vinta in the Philippines, started lashing Mindanao on Friday, with a state of emergency declared in some areas including the Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur regions.
Regional officials quoted by the Rappler website said there were 127 fatalities in Lanao del Norte, up to 50 in the Zamboanga peninsula and at least 18 in Lanao del Sur.
Tubod police officer Gerry Parami told the AFP news agency that there had been at least 19 deaths in the town, which is in Lanao del Norte. The remote village of Dalama was wiped out by flash floods.
"The river rose and most of the homes were swept away. The village is no longer there," he said.
He said volunteers were digging through mud to try to recover bodies in the village.
Another official told AFP that at least 10 people had died in the town of Piagapo, 10km east of Tubod.
"We've sent rescuers but they're making little progress," Saripada Pacasum said.
More deaths were reported in the towns of Sibuco and Salug.
Power cuts and the loss of communication lines have hampered rescue efforts.
Andrew Morris, from the UN children's agency Unicef in Mindanao, said in some areas there were big risks for disease, particularly for children, and restoring clean water supplies would be a priority.
"Lanao del Sur province is the poorest in the Philippines, and in the past seven months there have been around 350,000 people displaced in that province because of fighting," he told the BBC, referring to battles between government forces and Islamist militants in Marawi.
"So the priority yesterday and this morning has really been to check their situation."
Storm Tembin made a second landfall on Balabac island in the Palawan archipelago and is forecast to travel west, south of the Spratly Islands, reaching southern Vietnam in about three days.
The region is still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 5,000 people and affected millions in 2013. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42464644 |
M40 crash: Two men die and four people injured - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | One vehicle is thought to have overturned in the crash, which happened between junctions 10 and 11. | Oxford | Four people involved in the crash were taken to hospital
Two men have died in a crash involving five vehicles that closed part of the M40 in Oxfordshire for several hours.
One vehicle is thought to have overturned in the crash, which happened between junctions 10 and 11, near Banbury, at 23:40 GMT on Saturday.
A 60-year-old man from Oxfordshire and a 29-year-old man from Warwickshire died.
The M40 was shut in both directions overnight for about three hours but has since reopened.
Thames Valley Police said the victims' next-of-kin had been informed.
Another man was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries, and three people were treated for minor injuries.
You might also be interested in:
The ambulance service, fire service and Highways England all attended the scene with police.
Ch Insp Henry Parsons said: "Our thoughts are with both men's families at this difficult time.
"We would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the collision who has not yet spoken to police."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42469902 |
Field Farm Fisheries' 'no Polish' sign taken down - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The owner of Field Farm Fisheries said the sign went up because he had caught Polish anglers stealing fish. | Oxford | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Polish fisherman Rado Papiewski wants to have the sign removed
The owner of a fishery which displayed a sign banning Polish and "Eastern bloc" anglers says it has been taken down after his family received threats.
Billy Evans of Field Farm Fisheries said the sign went up because he had caught anglers stealing fish. He said he now may also shut the fishery.
Polish fisherman Rado Papiewski raised more than £10,000 for a private prosecution to have the sign removed.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission says the sign was unlawful.
It had warned it would take "enforcement action" if necessary.
Mr Evans told the BBC: "The sign has been removed because of threats to my family.
"I am not in the country. I will decide what to do on my return. I may close it to all public long term."
Mr Evans said the fishery, in Launton, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, was closed as usual for the winter but would remain so until further notice.
He added: "I do not tolerate thieves, wherever they come from."
Billy Evans (pictured in 2009) said there had been threats to his family
Mr Papiewski, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, runs a project called Building Bridges, for the Angling Trust, which aims to "educate and integrate" anglers from other countries.
The project website explains that anglers from countries such as Poland have traditionally caught fish "for the pot", whereas in Britain anglers generally return fish to the water.
He believes the sign was is in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
Writing on his crowdfunding page on Thursday, he called its removal a "big step in the right direction and we are now seeking written confirmation that they have changed their policy and that all anglers are welcome on the site, regardless of their race or nationality".
He said his legal team were taking the matter "forward" and said he would "provide a further update early in the New Year".
An EHRC spokeswoman said it had written to the fishery to advise it to take it down.
"It's right to challenge such out-of-date practices and any business that believes this is acceptable should think again before they find themselves facing legal action," she said.
Rado Papiewski has crowdfunded more than £10,000 to pay for legal fees
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42472722 |
North Korea: How are countries defending themselves? - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | As missile tests become more frequent, how do South Korea, Japan and the US plan to stop an attack? | Asia | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nuclear N Korea: What do we know?
North Korea's nuclear weapons programme has progressed faster than predicted, threatening the security of nearby nations – and potentially the United States.
The US envoy to the United Nations put it simply: "Despite our efforts over the last 24 years, the North Korean nuclear programme is more advanced and dangerous than ever."
Analysts tend to agree that the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, is seeking a nuclear deterrent rather than an all-out war - but other nations are not taking chances.
So how do you defend against a politically isolated state with nuclear ambitions, when diplomacy, it appears, simply does not work?
The other half of the Korean peninsula has a long history of preparing to defend itself from its northern neighbour. The two countries are technically still at war, having never signed a peace treaty when the Korean War ended in 1953.
The Thaad system - seen here in testing - is one of several anti-missile defences
One key part of its defensive line is the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) - a region 250km (155 mile) long and 4km (2.5 mile) wide that separates the two nations, guarded by thousands of soldiers, lined with barbed wire fences, and filled with landmines.
But it is believed that North Korea's People's Army - with more than a million regular soldiers and millions more reserve troops - has drilled extensively on how to invade across the border.
And the heavy land border fortifications do nothing, of course, to prevent a missile strike.
For a while, it was thought that Thaad - the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense - might be South Korea's best counter to a nuclear attack.
Thaad, funded by the South's military ally the United States, is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles as they descend in the final phase of a strike. The complex technology was first deployed in May 2017, and has been successfully tested.
But the politics of South Korea's relationship with the North means its rollout has not been easy.
North Korea and its only ally China both see Thaad as a provocation, and many South Koreans living near the places its was deployed fear it could be seen as a military target.
The South's new president, President Moon Jae-in, suspended the rollout of the system in June, saying an environmental impact analysis was needed.
But in light of recent nuclear tests, the South's defence ministry has now said it will deploy the four remaining Thaad launchers that had been delivered, in addition to the two already operational.
At its closest point, Japan is just a little over 500km (310 miles) from North Korea - well within striking distance.
In August, Pyongyang fired a missile directly over Japan, in what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "unprecedented" threat to his country.
The close proximity of the two nations means that Japan has only minutes to respond to any launch. During the August missile test, people had about three minutes from receiving the emergency warning until the missile flew overhead. Many only learned about the threat later in the day.
In terms of defence options, Japan utilises the Patriot missile system which, like Thaad, is designed to shoot down incoming missiles. But it has a limited operational range, making it effective at defending key locations - and not the entire country.
But Japan does not have to worry about land invasion to the same extent North Korea does, and at sea, it has other options at its disposal.
Japan, South Korea, the United States are among the countries with the Aegis naval defence system.
Aegis is yet another anti-missile system, but unlike Thaad or Patriot defences, it can also be deployed to ships patrolling the seas in the region.
A test missile fired by the US on August 29, left, was shot down by the Aegis system similar to the file photo, right
Those battleships come equipped with powerful radar which could detect the launch when deployed near the North Korean coast. They are also fitted with guided missiles, and could attempt to shoot down the incoming missile - or share its tracking data with another missile defence system closer to the target.
There are a handful of problems with the system, though. Aegis ships need to be deployed in the right place at the right time - and while they have been tested extensively, they have never been used to defend against an actual launch.
For years, the best defence for the US was its sheer distance from North Korea - some 5,000km (3,100 miles) to Alaska and almost 9,000km to San Francisco. But rapid advancements mean that distance might no longer be far enough.
North Korea's military wants the capability to shrink a high-yield nuclear warhead to fit on an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM). In theory, that would allow Pyongyang to strike the United States.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. See the US anti-missile system in action
After its latest test, North Korea claimed it had managed to shrink the warhead, posting photos of what it said was a hydrogen bomb - in keeping with a Washington Post report from early August.
That means the US is now reconsidering its missile defences, with President Trump having ordered a review of the entire system.
It already has detection and interception systems. But critics believe that the US system is far from reliable, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus wrote in July.
In the foreseeable future, only a handful of its interceptor missiles will be available to deal with the potential North Korean threat, he said.
And it also has to worry about its overseas territory of Guam - a key military outpost in the Pacific which has been singled out by North Korea as a threat to be "contained".
That island already has a Thaad system deployed, but state media says Kim Jong-un has already been briefed on strike plans - and is waiting to see the next US actions. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41152424 |
London Zoo fire kills aardvark 'and meerkats' - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Staff from the zoo were treated for injuries and one person taken to hospital in the blaze. | London | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Staff have been injured and an aardvark and possibly four meerkats killed in a fire at London Zoo.
About 70 firefighters tackled the blaze at its height in the Animal Adventure section that spread to a shop.
One person was taken to hospital and eight were treated at the scene.
The zoo said an aardvark called Misha died in the fire and four meerkats were still unaccounted for, presumed dead. The zoo was shut on Saturday but said it would reopen on Sunday.
The cause of the fire is not yet known.
Photographs posted on social media showed orange flames rising from the building
Ten fire engines went to the zoo, which sits in the capital's Regent's Park, shortly after 06:00 GMT and the fire was brought under control about three hours later.
Six people were given help at the scene for the effects of smoke inhalation and two for minor injuries, London Ambulance Service said.
One person was taken to a north-west London hospital, the service said.
Duty staff who live on site were on the scene "immediately" and started moving animals to safety, the zoo said.
In a statement the zoo said it was "devastated" about what had happened.
It said: "Sadly our vets have confirmed the death of our nine-year-old aardvark, Misha. There are also four meerkats still unaccounted for, but we are now presuming these have also died.
"All other animals in the vicinity are being monitored closely by our vets, but early signs suggest they have not been affected. We will continue to monitor them over the coming days.
"We are all naturally devastated by this, but are immensely grateful to the fire brigade, who reacted quickly to the situation to bring the fire under control. "
You might also be interested in:
Adnan Abdul Husein said he saw the blaze from a nearby park when he was out walking his dog, and alerted zoo security.
"It didn't look like smoke just coming out of a chimney - it was quite heavy", he said.
"As I got closer to the zoo I could see that it was actually inside the zoo so I went over to the security and told them, 'there's flames or there's smoke coming from inside there, do you know anything about it?'. And they obviously didn't have a clue."
London Fire Brigade (LFB) station manager Clive Robinson, who was at the scene, said three-quarters of the cafe and shop had been affected by the fire and half of the roof.
He said: "Firefighters worked hard to bring the fire under control as quickly as possible and to stop it from spreading to neighbouring animal enclosures."
The cause of the fire is not yet known, London Fire Brigade said
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-42465094 |
Syria war: Assad 'may evacuate cancer children' from Eastern Ghouta - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Seven children could be brought from a besieged suburb if Syria's president agrees, a charity says. | Middle East | Rama, 4, has lymphoma and last received medication eight months ago
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is considering a request to evacuate seven children with cancer from a besieged area, a British charity says.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, an adviser to the charity, told the BBC that Mr Assad's private office had said he would decide next week.
The children are among more than 130 needing urgent medical treatment in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.
The Damascus suburb has been under government siege for four years.
Earlier this month the Red Cross said life in Eastern Ghouta was becoming "impossible" and the situation there had reached a "critical point".
The UN has been trying for weeks to arrange medical evacuations. Dozens of civilians are reported to have died in recent government bombardments and food shortages have led to severe malnutrition.
"We understand Assad is thinking about it. And we're calling him back on Tuesday morning to speak to him direct," said Mr de Bretton-Gordon, who advises the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organisations (UOSSM), which operates in Eastern Ghouta.
"And if he gives us the go-ahead then the plan is that we will get to Ghouta as quickly as we can, get the children."
The seven children who could be evacuated include Rama, 4, who has lymphoma, is suffering from malnutrition and has a malignant tumour in her throat.
Rama is also malnourished and has a throat tumour
The last time she received the medication she needs was eight months ago, the UOSSM said.
Mr de Bretton-Gordon said the UN had told him that she and the other children could be treated elsewhere in Syria or abroad.
However, an evacuation would not include children in Eastern Ghouta with other medical conditions, such as two-month-old baby Karim, who lost an eye and suffered severe injuries in a reported government attack.
Karim's father, four siblings and aunt have taken care of him since his mother's death
Photos of Karim have sparked a social media campaign to raise awareness about his and the other children's plight. People in Syria and abroad have posted photographs of themselves covering their left eyes.
Last month, UN humanitarian co-ordinator Jan Egeland said nine people with urgent medical needs had died in Eastern Ghouta after requests to evacuate them were denied.
"The men with guns and power on the ground are denying us access to the most vulnerable. They are attacking civilians - including massively schools and hospitals. It's been on both sides," he said.
He called on Iran and Russia to put pressure on Mr Assad to allow the evacuations.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Children in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta are among those suffering
Nearly 12% of children in Eastern Ghouta are suffering from acute malnutrition - the highest level recorded in Syria since the war began - the UN says. Joint UN and Syrian Red Crescent aid convoys have not been able to deliver enough food for all 400,000 civilians trapped there.
Meanwhile limits on electricity, fuel, safe drinking-water and basic sanitation services are increasing the risk of outbreaks of diarrheal diseases, the UN says.
The area has been designated a "de-escalation zone" by Russia and Iran, the government's main allies, along with Turkey, which supports the opposition. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42467306 |
Tropical Storm Tembin: Bridge damage hampers rescuers - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Some 200 people have died in flash floods and mudslides brought by Tropical Storm Tembin. | Asia | Bridges and roads have been destroyed
Badly-damaged infrastructure is hampering relief efforts following a deadly tropical storm in the southern Philippines, the local Red Cross says.
Bridges and roads on the island of Mindanao have been destroyed or blocked by landslides, Richard Gordon told the BBC.
Some 200 people have died and at least 70,000 have been displaced by Tropical Storm Tembin.
Rescuers say people were surprised by the strength of the storm.
Nearly 1,000 houses have been wrecked and many rice-fields washed away, Mr Gordon said. About 150 people are still missing.
Continuing heavy rain, power cuts and blocked roads are creating difficulties for rescuers, who have not yet reached some affected areas.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was saddened by the loss of life, adding that the UN was ready to help.
Police said 135 people had been killed and 72 were missing in northern Mindanao. Forty-seven were killed and 72 missing in the Zamboanga peninsula. In Lanao del Sur, another 18 died.
Between 40,000 and 60,000 people are reported to be housed in evacuation centres.
The mountain village of Dalama was one of the worst affected places. Houses were buried in mud or engulfed in floodwaters.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The aftermath of Storm Tembin on Mindanao island
"The flood was already close and the people were not able to get out from their homes," survivor Armando Sangcopan told local TV.
The bodies of eight children were extracted from thick mud in the town of Salvador in Lanao del Norte, the Inquirer reports.
"It's very painful to see the dead bodies of children, whom we also considered to be our own," the principal, Ricardo Abalo, told the paper.
Aid workers said people had not heeded warnings to evacuate before Tembin arrived, either because they believed the storm would not be severe or they had nowhere else to go.
Many victims were swept away from low-lying residential areas when the flash floods and landslides struck.
More deaths were reported in Bukidnon, Iligan and Misamis Occidental.
Andrew Morris, from the UN children's agency Unicef in Mindanao, said in some areas there were big risks of disease, particularly for children, and restoring clean water supplies would be a priority.
"Lanao del Sur province is the poorest in the Philippines, and in the past seven months there have been around 350,000 people displaced in that province because of fighting," he told the BBC, referring to battles between government forces and Islamist militants in Marawi.
The region is still recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 5,000 people and affected millions in 2013. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42469856 |
Serena Williams to make comeback in Abu Dhabi after giving birth - BBC Sport | 2017-12-24 | null | Former world number one Serena Williams will play her first match since giving birth in September in Abu Dhabi next week. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Serena Williams will return to tennis in Abu Dhabi next week, almost four months after giving birth.
The American, 36, will play world number seven Jelena Ostapenko in an exhibition match on 30 December during the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
Williams, who has won an Open-era record 23 Grand Slams, said she was "delighted to be returning to the court".
She gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian in September.
• None Bumps, boobs and bouncing back - an athlete's path through pregnancy
Former world number one Williams has not played since winning the Australian Open in January.
Coach Patrick Mouratoglou said in November that no decision had been made over whether Williams would play in the season's first Grand Slam.
Australian Open director Craig Tilley has said Williams is "very likely" to defend her title at the 2018 tournament, which starts on 15 January.
Ranked 22nd in the world, she would not need a wildcard.
Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka have pulled out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, which runs from 28-30 December.
Latvian Ostapenko, whose match against Williams will be the first between women to be played at a tournament first staged in 2009, said: "It is a huge honour to be part of that history." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42472273 |
Be 'proportionate' with anti-social powers, councils told - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Home Office tells councils in England and Wales to avoid using anti-social orders on the "vulnerable". | UK | New guidance on the use of anti-social behaviour powers has been issued to ensure they are reasonably applied.
The Home Office told councils and police in England and Wales the laws should not be used on the vulnerable.
It comes amid concerns orders were being used to target buskers, rough sleepers, dog walkers and groups gathering to chat in town centres.
Victoria Atkins, minister for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, said powers should be used proportionately.
She said: "We know that these powers are being used to very good effect by the police and local councils across England and Wales, and we are very keen to encourage their continued use.
"But we are also clear that the powers should be used proportionately to tackle anti-social behaviour, and not to target specific groups or the most vulnerable in our communities."
The guidance follows feedback from charities and other groups that the orders were being used to disproportionately target certain groups, including rough sleepers.
Hundreds of fines have been issued for violations such as playing music too loudly in cars and not having a dog on a lead.
Martha Spurrier, director of campaign group Liberty, said some councils were "compassionless" in applying orders on vulnerable people.
"In the last year, very sadly, six people have been sent to prison for being homeless as a result of these orders," she said.
"They've gone very off-piste and have been used by these local councils in a pretty compassionless way - so that poverty effectively ends up being criminalised."
Local agencies, including councils, police and social landlords, have six powers to tackle anti-social behaviour - the civil injunction, criminal behaviour order, community protection notice, public spaces protection order, closure power, and the dispersal power.
They were introduced in 2014 after the government overhauled old anti-social behaviour powers, believing they were ineffective.
The revised guidelines state orders should be focused on "specific behaviours and are proportionate to the detrimental effect that the behaviour is causing or can cause, and are necessary to prevent it from continuing, occurring or recurring".
The Home Office said parents often cannot do a "great deal" to stop a baby crying
Anyone issuing an order should ask themselves if the behaviour in question is unreasonable, the guidance states.
"For instance, a baby crying in the middle of the night may well have a detrimental effect on immediate neighbours and is likely to be persistent in nature," it said.
"However, it is unlikely to be reasonable to issue the parents with a Community Protection Notice if there is not a great deal that they can do to control or affect the behaviour."
Simon Blackburn, chairman of the Local Government Association's safer and stronger communities board, said: "Many anti-social behaviour offences are serious issues for local residents and businesses, and councils are keen to protect them from offenders who can make the lives of those they target a misery.
"Councils will take a proportionate approach to using the tools at their disposal to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42471062 |
TV dinners: The hidden cost of the processed food revolution - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The industrialisation of food production has saved us time - but we are paying the price in other ways. | Business | It is a typical November Tuesday for Mary, who lives in the north-east of the United States.
She is 44, has a degree, and her family is prosperous - in the top quarter of American households by income. So what has she done today? Is she a lawyer or a teacher?
No. Mary spent an hour knitting and sewing, two hours setting the table and doing the dishes and well over two hours preparing and cooking food.
She is not unusual, because it is 1965 and at that time, many married American women - even those with an excellent education - spent large chunks of their day catering for their families.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world in which we live.
We know about Mary's day - and those of many others - because of time-use surveys conducted around the world. These diaries reveal precisely how different people use their time.
For educated women, the way time is spent in the US and other rich countries has changed radically over the past half a century.
Women in America now spend around 45 minutes per day in total cooking and cleaning up. That's still much more than men, who spend only 15 minutes a day doing such tasks. But it is a vast reduction from Mary's four hours.
Behind this shift is a radical change to the way the food we eat is prepared, as seen by the introduction of the TV dinner in 1954.
Presented in a space-age aluminium tray, and prepared so that everything would require the same cooking time, the "frozen turkey tray TV dinner" was developed by a bacteriologist called Betty Cronin.
She worked for the Swanson food processing company, keen to find ways to keep busy after the business of supplying rations to US troops had dried up.
But of course the TV dinner was only part of a panoply of changes, wrought by the availability of freezers, microwaves, preservatives and production lines.
Food had been perhaps the last cottage industry: something that would overwhelmingly be produced in the home.
But food preparation has been industrialised - outsourced to restaurants and takeaways and to factories that prepare ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook meals.
And the invention of the industrial meal - in all its forms - has led to a profound shift in the modern economy.
How we spend on food is changing.
In 2015, US consumers spent more money on food and drink outside their home than on groceries for the first time
American families spend increasingly more outside the home - on fast food, restaurant meals, sandwiches and snacks. Only a quarter of food spending was outside the home in the 1960s.
That has steadily risen over time and in 2015 a landmark was reached: for the first time, Americans spent more on food and drink outside the home than at grocery stores. The British passed that particular milestone more than a decade earlier.
Even within the home, food is increasingly processed to save the chef time and effort: bagged chopped salad, pre-grated cheese, jars of pasta sauce, individual permeable tea bags, meatballs doused in sauce and chicken that comes plucked and gutted.
Each new innovation would seem bizarre to the older generation.
I have never plucked a chicken and perhaps my children will never chop salad. All this saves time - serious amounts of time.
When the economist Valerie Ramey compared time-use diaries in the US between the 1920s and the 1960s, she found that surprisingly little had changed.
Whether women were uneducated and married to farmers, or highly educated and married to urban professionals, they still spent similar amounts of time on housework across those 50 years.
It was only in the 1960s that this pattern began to shift.
But surely the innovation responsible for emancipating women was not the TV dinner, but the washing machine?
The idea is widely believed and is appealing. A frozen TV dinner does not really feel like progress, compared to home-cooked food.
The washing machine was innovative, but did not save much time
But a washing machine is clean and efficient and replaces work that was always drudgery. How could it not have been revolutionary?
However, the revolution wasn't in the lives of women, it was in how lemon fresh we all started to smell.
As Alison Wolf argues in her book The XX Factor, the evidence is clear that the washing machine did not save a lot of time, because before washing machines, we did not wash clothes very often. When it took all day to wash and dry a few shirts, people used replaceable collars and cuffs or dark outer layers to hide the grime.
In contrast, when it took two or three hours to prepare a meal, someone had to take that time. There was not an alternative. The washing machine did not save much time, and the ready meal did, because we were not willing to starve, but we were willing to stink.
The availability of ready meals has had some regrettable side-effects.
Obesity rates rose sharply in developed countries between the 1970s and the early 21st Century, at much the same time as these culinary innovations were being developed. This is no coincidence, say health economists. The cost of calories has fallen dramatically, not just in financial terms but also in terms of time.
Consider the humble potato. It has long been a staple of the American diet, but before World War Two potatoes were usually baked, mashed or boiled. There's a reason for that: roast potatoes need to be peeled, chopped, par-boiled and then roasted. French fries or chips must be finely chopped and then deep fried.
Over time, however, the production of fried sliced potato chips - both French fries and crisps - was centralised. French fries can be peeled, chopped, fried and frozen in a factory and then refried in a fast-food restaurant or microwaved at home.
Obesity rates have risen sharply since the large scale industrialisation of food production
Between 1977 and 1995, American potato consumption increased by a third, almost entirely because of the rise of fried potatoes.
Even simpler, crisps can be fried, salted, flavoured and packaged to last for many weeks on the shelf. But this convenience comes at a cost.
In the US, calorie intake by adults rose by about 10% between the 1970s and the 1990s. Not as a result of more calorific regular meals but because of increased snacking - usually of processed convenience food.
Psychology - and common sense - suggest this should not be a surprise.
Experiments by behavioural scientists show that we make very different decisions about what to eat depending on how far away the meal is. A long-planned meal is likely to be nutritious, but when we make more impulsive decisions, our snacks are more likely to be junk food than something nourishing.
The industrialisation of food - symbolised by the TV dinner - changed our economy in two important ways. It freed women from hours of domestic chores, removing a large obstacle to them adopting serious professional careers.
But by making empty calories ever more convenient to acquire, it also freed our waistlines to expand.
The challenge now - as with so many inventions - is to enjoy the benefit without also suffering the cost. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39490182 |
UK's Christian heritage stressed in PM's Christmas message - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | In their Christmas messages the prime minister and the Labour leader praise those who help others. | UK Politics | Britons should "take pride" in their country's Christian heritage at Christmas, Theresa May has said.
In her Christmas message, the prime minister said there is a "confidence... that in Britain you can practise your faith free from question or fear".
She also praised the emergency services for their Grenfell Tower and Manchester and London terror attacks responses.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's message says people should help those "cut off and lonely", and in war-torn nations.
The Lib Dem Leader Vince Cable spoke of the need for more affordable housing, and mental health support, while SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon paid tribute to people working as volunteers at Christmas.
Mrs May began her message by thanking "those whose service to others means they will be spending time away from their loved ones this Christmas".
She paid tribute to the "men and women in our armed forces, whose humbling bravery and daily sacrifices help to ensure the security of our nation and our allies around the world.
And she spoke of "the heroes in our emergency services, whose courage and dedication so inspired the nation in response to tragedy at Grenfell Tower and the abhorrent terrorist attacks in Manchester and London."
Mrs May also praised volunteers who give up their time at Christmas to take on faith inspired projects, and aid agency staff working abroad.
The prime minister, who grew up in a vicarage, added: "As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let us celebrate all those selfless acts - and countless others - that epitomise the values we share: Christian values of love, service and compassion that are lived out every day in our country by people all faiths and none."
Mrs May referred to Christians in some parts of the Middle East being denied religious freedoms and the "sickening persecution of the Rohingya Muslims".
She concluded: "This Christmas, whatever our faith, let us come together confident and united in the values we share."
Mr Corbyn said Christmas was "a time of the year when we think about others. Like those who have no home to call their own or who are sleeping rough on our streets.
"We think about those who feel cut off and lonely. Many older citizens to whom we owe so much will be spending what should be a time of joy alone.
"We think of others such as carers who look after loved ones, people with disabilities or dementia."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
He said thoughts were also with those "living in nations like Yemen, Syria and Libya in fear of bombs and bullets, of injury and death".
He said: "None of this is inevitable. We pride ourselves on being a compassionate nation.
"My Christmas wish is that we all do more to help bring about the kind of society and world we want to live in."
In her message, Ms Sturgeon said Christmas was a time of celebration, but also a "time for thinking about and helping others".
The SNP leader added: "For many people - for example workers in our emergency services, our health service and in our armed forces - Christmas isn't a holiday at all.
"Your hard work is appreciated all the year round, but is particularly valued at Christmas time. So over this festive period, let's thank those who are working so hard on our behalf." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42469087 |
China's huge new amphibious aircraft takes flight - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | null | China's AG600 - which is roughly the size of a Boeing 737 - lifted off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong. | null | China's huge new amphibious aircraft has made a successful one-hour maiden flight. China's AG600 - which is roughly the size of a Boeing 737 but with four turboprop engines - lifted off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42473652 |
Army halts plans to ditch 'Be the Best' slogan - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The 'Be the Best' slogan and crest depicting crossed swords, a crown and a lion, will stay. | UK | Plans to ditch the Army's Be the Best slogan and its crest logo have been halted by the defence secretary.
The Mail on Sunday said the Army was considering changing the slogan after market research said it was considered "dated, elitist and non-inclusive".
The Ministry of Defence said the Army-commissioned rebrand had cost £520,000.
But a spokesman told BBC News that Gavin Williamson believed the Army was "the best of the best" and that the rebrand proposals had been put on hold.
According to the newspaper, a leaked document from the department - written by the Army's most senior officer, General Sir Nick Carter - said market research carried out by the MoD showed the slogan "did not resonate with many of our key audiences".
As a result, the Army's executive committee agreed "its use should be phased out as soon as affordably possible", with plans for the "retirement of Be the Best [to] commence immediately".
The research also found the Army's crest - depicting crossed swords, a crown and a lion - to be "non-inclusive" and recommended replacing both with a union jack with the word ARMY in bold underneath.
It is not clear when Mr Williamson became aware of the plans, but he has since put them on hold.
Chairman of the Commons Defence Select Committee, Julian Lewis, told the newspaper that being the best was "nothing to be ashamed of".
He said: "It is a matter for pride and a very positive message to transmit. Why should we be afraid of excellence when we are constantly saying our Armed Forces are the best in the world?"
Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood has tweeted that "whatever the strapline" the force is "the most professional Army in the world", adding: "That makes them the best".
Sorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of UK troops in Afghanistan, added that it was "lunacy to squander money on a futile branding project" when there was already pressure on the defence budget.
In 2016, the government pledged to spend £178bn on new military equipment over the next 10 years.
However, it can only do so if the department can find £7.3bn of efficiency savings - on top of £7.1bn previously announced - by selling off property and making other efficiencies.
Mr Williamson has also been warned of a Tory revolt if any cuts to Army and Navy numbers are announced as part of an ongoing security review. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42469901 |
Why did we use leaded petrol for so long? - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The arguments nearly a century ago over the use of leaded petrol. | Business | Leaded petrol was safe. Its inventor was sure of it.
Facing sceptical reporters at a press conference in October 1924, Thomas Midgley dramatically produced a container of tetraethyl lead - the additive in question - and washed his hands in it.
"I'm not taking any chance whatever," Midgley declared. "Nor would I... doing that every day."
Midgley was - perhaps - being a little disingenuous. He had recently spent several months in Florida, recuperating from lead poisoning.
Some of those who'd made Midgley's invention hadn't been so lucky, which is why reporters were interested.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world in which we live.
On the Thursday of the week before Midgley's press conference, at a Standard Oil plant in New Jersey, a worker named Ernest Oelgert started hallucinating. By Friday, he was running around the laboratory, screaming in terror.
On Saturday, with Oelgert dangerously unhinged, his sister called the police. He was taken to hospital and forcibly restrained. By Sunday, he was dead. Within the week, so were four of his colleagues - and 35 more were in hospital.
None of this surprised workers elsewhere in Standard Oil's facility. They knew there was a problem with tetraethyl lead.
As Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner note in their book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, the lab where it was developed was known as "the loony gas building".
Nor should it have shocked Standard Oil, General Motors or the DuPont Corporation, the three companies involved with adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline.
An aerial photograph of DuPont's Deepwater factory site, where tetraethyl lead was developed
The first production line in Ohio had already been shut down after two deaths. A third plant elsewhere in New Jersey had also seen fatalities. Workers kept hallucinating insects - the lab was known as "the house of butterflies".
Better working practices could make tetraethyl lead safe to produce. But was it really sensible to add it to petrol, when the fumes would be belched out on to city streets?
About a century ago, when General Motors had first proposed adding lead to petrol - in order to improve performance - scientists were alarmed. They urged the government to investigate the public health implications.
Midgley breezily assured the surgeon general that "the average street will probably be so free from lead that it will be impossible to detect it or its absorption", although he conceded that "no actual experimental data has been taken".
General Motors funded a government bureau to conduct some research, adding a clause saying it had to approve the findings.
The bureau's report was published amid the media frenzy over Oelgert's poisoned workmates. It gave tetraethyl lead a clean bill of health and was met with some scepticism.
Under pressure, the government organised a conference in Washington DC in May 1925. The debate there exemplified the two extremes of approach to any new idea that looks risky, but useful.
In one corner: Frank Howard, vice-president of the Ethyl Corporation - a joint venture between General Motors and Standard Oil. He called leaded petrol a "gift of God", arguing that "continued development of motor fuels is essential in our civilization".
Dr Alice Hamilton argued the benefits of adding lead to petrol were outweighed by the risks
In the other corner: Dr Alice Hamilton, the country's foremost authority on lead.
She argued leaded petrol was a chance not worth taking. "Where there is lead," she said, "some case of lead poisoning sooner or later develops, even under the strictest supervision."
Hamilton knew that lead had been poisoning people for thousands of years. In 1678, workers who made lead white - a pigment for paint - were described as suffering ailments including "dizziness in the head, with continuous great pain in the brows, blindness, stupidity".
The Romans used lead in water pipes. Lead miners often ended up mad or dead - and some correctly intuited that low-level, long-term exposure was also unwise.
"Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead," wrote the civil engineer Vitruvius, 2,000 years ago. "This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid colour."
Many societies still grapple with the general question on which Howard and Hamilton disagreed: how much pollution is a price worth paying for progress?
There's some evidence that as countries get richer, they tend initially to get dirtier and later clean up.
Economists call this the "environmental Kuznets curve", and it makes intuitive sense. If you're poor, you prioritise material gains. As your income grows, you may choose to spend some of it on a nicer, safer environment.
The Roman civil engineer Vitruvius warned against the dangers of lead 2,000 years ago
But was lead-free petrol really such an expensive luxury? True, the lead additive solved a problem: it enabled engines to use higher compression ratios, which made cars more powerful.
However, it was not the only way to solve the problem.
Ethyl alcohol had much the same effect and wouldn't mess with your head, unless you drank it. Midgley knew this, having combined petrol with practically every imaginable substance, from iodine to camphor to melted butter.
Why did the petrol companies push tetraethyl lead instead of ethyl alcohol? Researchers who have studied the decision remain puzzled. Cynics might point out that any old farmer could distil ethyl alcohol from grain. It couldn't be patented, or its distribution profitably controlled. Tetraethyl lead could.
The US didn't tax lead in petrol until the 1970s, then finally banned it as part of clean air legislation, as the country moved down the far side of the environmental Kuznets curve.
Two decades later, in the 1990s, rates of violent crime started to go down. There are many reasons why this might have happened, but the economist Jessica Reyes had an intriguing thought.
Children's brains are especially susceptible to chronic lead poisoning. Is it possible that kids who didn't breathe leaded petrol fumes grew up to commit less violent crime?
Reyes could test her hypothesis: different US states phased out leaded petrol at different times.
By comparing the dates of clean air legislation with subsequent crime data, she concluded that more than half the drop - 56% - was because of cars switching to unleaded petrol.
Other researchers have found similar links between lead water pipes and urban homicide.
You can put a dollar figure on the value of crime reduction, Reyes found. It's about 20 times higher than the cost of de-leading petrol - and that's before you count other downsides of children breathing lead, like worse performance in school.
How did the US get this so wrong for so long?
Asbestos continued to be widely used in construction despite the emerging evidence of its dangers
It's a tale of disputed science and delayed regulation, much like you could tell about asbestos, or tobacco, or other products we now know slowly kill us.
The problem is that people who want to ban things aren't always disinterested visionaries like Hamilton. Sometimes they're obstructive cranks. The only way to tell the difference is by conducting studies.
And, as Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner point out, "For the next four decades, all studies of the use of tetraethyl lead were conducted by laboratories and scientists funded by the Ethyl Corporation and General Motors".
And what of the scientist who first put lead in petrol?
By all accounts, Midgley was a genial man who may even have believed his own spin about the safety of a daily tetraethyl lead handwash.
But, as an inventor, his inspirations seem to have been cursed. His second major contribution to civilisation was the chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC, which improved refrigerators, but destroyed the ozone layer.
In middle age, afflicted by polio, Midgley applied his inventor's mind to lifting his weakened body out of bed. He devised an ingenious system of pulleys and strings. They tangled around his neck, and killed him. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40593353 |
Lost Mac the monkey returned to toddler for Christmas - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | People began a race to unite toddler Finn with Mac the monkey in time for Christmas. | Sussex | Mac was flown to Knock to join Finn who is spending Christmas in Ireland
A lost toy monkey has been returned to its two-year-old owner after a race to reunite the pair for Christmas.
Finn Regan-Alexander left the toy on an Aer Lingus plane after the family flew from Gatwick to Knock to visit relatives on 19 December.
After Finn's mother Louise tweeted an appeal, "sightings" of Mac were reported in pubs, planes and lost and alone in Glasgow.
The real Mac was found and flown to Knock by the airline.
The tweet appealing for help in finding Mac was shared more than 1,500 times - with many sharing their own experiences of lost cuddly toy heartbreak.
Some children, including a seven-year-old boy, offered to send their own soft toys to Finn.
Mac went missing when the family, from Camberwell, south London, travelled to visit Mrs Regan-Alexander's parents.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Louise This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Architect Mrs Regan-Alexander said a TV producer saw the appeal on the BBC News website and realised she had seen Mac - who wears a green tunic made out of an old sock and has two sticking plasters to match his owner's grazes - on the plane.
After that sighting, airline staff alerted to Mac's plight managed to trace the toy and arrange its belated holiday trip to Ireland.
Mrs Regan-Alexander said: "Mac was flown back in time for Christmas.
"Thanks to everyone who provided their online support and shared their own stories of love and loss.
"To all the children who offered Finn their monkeys, I hope Santa is listening."
Mac the monkey has clothes made out of a sock and sticking plasters to match his owner's grazes
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-42472062 |
The iPhone at 10: How the smartphone became so smart - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Tim Harford tells the surprising story of how the iPhone became a truly revolutionary technology. | Business | On 9 January 2007, one of the most influential entrepreneurs on the planet announced something new - a product that was to become the most profitable in history.
It was, of course, the iPhone. There are many ways in which the iPhone has defined the modern economy.
There is the sheer profitability of the thing, of course: there are only two or three companies in the world that make as much money as Apple does from the iPhone alone.
Apple may not have sold the first smartphone, but the iPhone represented a quantum leap compared with earlier models, and its version became an object of desire for most of humanity.
There's the way the iPhone transformed other markets - software, music, and advertising.
But those are just the obvious facts about the iPhone. And when you delve more deeply, the tale is a surprising one. We give credit to Steve Jobs and other leading figures in Apple - his early partner Steve Wozniak, his successor Tim Cook, his visionary designer Sir Jony Ive - but some of the most important actors in this story have been forgotten.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world we live in.
It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.
Ask yourself: what actually makes an iPhone an iPhone? It's partly the cool design, the user interface, the attention to detail in the way the software works and the hardware feels. But underneath the charming surface of the iPhone are some critical elements that made it, and all the other smartphones, possible.
The economist Mariana Mazzucato has made a list of 12 key technologies that make smartphones work: 1) tiny microprocessors, 2) memory chips, 3) solid state hard drives, 4) liquid crystal displays and 5) lithium-based batteries. That's the hardware.
Then there are the networks and the software. So 6) Fast-Fourier-Transform algorithms - clever bits of maths that make it possible to swiftly turn analogue signals such as sound, visible light and radio waves into digital signals that a computer can handle.
At 7) - and you might have heard of this one - the internet. A smartphone isn't a smartphone without the internet.
At 8) HTTP and HTML, the languages and protocols that turned the hard-to-use internet into the easy-to-access World Wide Web. 9) Cellular networks. Otherwise your smartphone not only isn't smart, it's not even a phone. 10) Global Positioning Systems or GPS. 11) The touchscreen. 12) Siri, the voice-activated artificial intelligence agent.
Apple's designer Sir Jony Ive has been widely lauded for his contribution to the iPhone's success
All of these technologies are important components of what makes an iPhone, or any smartphone, actually work. Some of them are not just important, but indispensable. But when Mariana Mazzucato assembled this list of technologies, and reviewed their history, she found something striking.
The foundational figure in the development of the iPhone wasn't Steve Jobs. It was Uncle Sam. Every single one of these 12 key technologies was supported in significant ways by governments - often the American government.
A few of these cases are famous. Many people know, for example, that the World Wide Web owes its existence to the work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He was a software engineer employed at Cern, the particle physics research centre in Geneva that is funded by governments across Europe.
And the internet itself started as Arpanet - an unprecedented network of computers funded by the US Department of Defense in the early 1960s. GPS, of course, was a pure military technology, developed during the Cold War and opened up to civilian use only in the 1980s.
Other examples are less famous, though scarcely less important.
Smartphones have all benefited from government investment in technology
The Fast-Fourier-Transform is a family of algorithms that have made it possible to move from a world where the telephone, the television and the gramophone worked on analogue signals, to a world where everything is digitised and can therefore be dealt with by computers such as the iPhone.
The most common such algorithm was developed from a flash of insight from the great American mathematician John Tukey. What was Tukey working on at the time? You've guessed it: a military application.
Specifically, he was on President Kennedy's Scientific Advisory committee in 1963, trying to figure out how to detect when the Soviet Union was testing nuclear weapons.
Smartphones wouldn't be smartphones without their touchscreens - but the inventor of the touchscreen was an engineer named EA Johnson, whose initial research was carried out while Johnson was employed by the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a stuffily-named agency of the British government.
The work was further developed at Cern - those guys again. Eventually multi-touch technology was commercialised by researchers at the University of Delaware in the United States - Wayne Westerman and John Elias, who sold their company to Apple itself.
Touchscreen technology has gone on to drive the development of tablet computers
Yet even at that late stage in the game, governments played their part: Wayne Westerman's research fellowship was funded by the US National Science Foundation and the CIA.
Then there's the girl with the silicon voice, Siri.
Back in the year 2000, seven years before the first iPhone, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, Darpa, commissioned the Stanford Research Institute to develop a kind of proto-Siri, a virtual office assistant that might help military personnel to do their jobs.
Twenty universities were brought into the project, furiously working on all the different technologies necessary to make a voice-activated virtual assistant a reality.
Seven years later, the research was commercialised as a start-up, Siri Incorporated- and it was only in 2010 that Apple stepped in to acquire the results for an undisclosed sum.
Increasingly sophisticated lithium-ion batteries have been essential for smartphone growth
As for hard drives, lithium-ion batteries, liquid crystal displays and semiconductors themselves - there are similar stories to be told.
In each case, there was scientific brilliance and plenty of private sector entrepreneurship. But there were also wads of cash thrown at the problem by government agencies - usually US government agencies, and for that matter, usually some arm of the US military.
Silicon Valley itself owes a great debt to Fairchild Semiconductor - the company that developed the first commercially practical integrated circuits. And Fairchild Semiconductor, in its early days, depended on military procurement.
Of course, the US military didn't make the iPhone. Cern did not create Facebook or Google. These technologies, that so many people rely on today, were honed and commercialised by the private sector. But it was government funding and government risk-taking that made all these things possible.
That's a thought to hold on to as we ponder the technological challenges ahead in fields such energy and biotechnology.
Steve Jobs was a genius, there's no denying that. One of his remarkable side projects was the animation studio Pixar - which changed the world of film when it released the digitally animated film, Toy Story.
Even without the touchscreen and the internet and the Fast-Fourier-Transform, Steve Jobs might well have created something wonderful.
But it would not have been a world-shaking technology like the iPhone. More likely it would, like Woody and Buzz, have been an utterly charming toy.
Tim Harford is the FT's Undercover Economist. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy was broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.
Correction: An earlier version of this story suggested the iPhone was the first smartphone, but other smartphones had predated its launch in 2007. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38320198 |
'Lonely' WW2 veteran's Christmas card plea answered - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | null | Former Royal Marine Ted Owens gets dozens of cards after a friend's Facebook plea. | null | A "lonely" World War Two veteran has been made "very happy" after being inundated with Christmas cards following a friend's Facebook plea.
Ted Owens, 93, a former Royal Marines Commando from Pembroke Dock, Pembrokeshire, has received dozens of cards, which he said made him "feel young again".
Author Mark Llewhellin, a former Army Commando, met Mr Owens a year ago when he interviewed him and posted the request on Facebook on Wednesday.
The pair have since thanked everyone who sent the cards. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-42467663 |
Rachel Johnson to take part in Celeb Big Brother - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Journalist Rachel Johnson, who is the sister of Boris Johnson, will take part in the first all female Celeb Big Brother. | Newsbeat | Journalist Rachel Johnson's been confirmed as the first celebrity to enter the Big Brother house on 2nd January 2018.
The 52-year-old is the sister of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and daughter of politician, author and I'm a Celebrity contestant Stanley Johnson.
The new series will feature an all female house for the first time.
It marks 100 years since women won the right to vote.
It will be called Celebrity Big Brother: Year Of The Woman, but men will be slowly introduced throughout the series.
Rachel confirmed the news in her column in the Mail on Sunday, writing: "I'm going into the actual Big Brother House. For real. I know. Believe me, I know.
"I am a firm believer that you only regret the things in life you don't do, not the things you do do."
It's only been a few weeks since her dad left the Australian jungle, after appearing in I'm a Celeb.
She even said that when she told her husband about her new role, he joked "Are the Johnsons the new Kardashians?"
Stanley Johnson was the fifth celeb to leave the jungle
Rachel hinted at the other celebs that may appear alongside her in the house saying it's a "classy all-female line-up" and will include "female politicians, performance artists, broadcasters".
"Big names were duly dropped, and the emphasis on 'empowerment' rather than 'ritual humiliation' promised," she added.
Channel 5 promises the series will "test their - and our - assumptions, challenge gender stereotypes and reveal fascinating truths about what it is to be a woman - and man - in the 21st century".
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat | http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/articles/42471142 |
Military keeping UK safe, PM says in Christmas message - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | PM recalls navy's hurricane relief efforts and fight against IS in Christmas message to troops. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The PM praised troops for their high standards and devotion to duty
The prime minister has used her Christmas message to the armed forces to pay tribute to the "valiant hearts" of British servicemen and women who are working to keep the UK safe.
Theresa May said the RAF, and soldiers training and supporting Iraqi forces, have helped tackle the threat of the so-called Islamic State group in 2017.
And she referenced troops on UK streets after terror attacks.
She praised the sacrifice of those who could not be home for Christmas.
Mrs May also paid tribute to the Royal Navy for helping to bring disaster relief to people in the Caribbean in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by UK Prime Minister This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Mrs May began her message by referring to the centenary commemorations for the World War One battle of Passchendaele in Belgium.
She said the nation remembered the hundreds of thousands of young men who died "in the cause of freedom".
"Through a century of great change since, the high standards and devotion to duty of our armed forces have remained constant," she said.
The prime minister added: "Whenever you are called upon - regulars or reserves - you always give of your best and inspire us all with your service."
But she said the achievements of the armed forces were "made possible by the love and support of your families".
"Partners and children are often called on to make huge sacrifices of their own - from a change of school or job, to coping with extended periods of separation," she said.
"That separation is especially difficult at Christmas time, and we should all be immensely grateful for that sacrifice."
She added: "This Christmas, as people across the United Kingdom celebrate this special time of year with their families and friends, we will do so secure in the knowledge that the valiant hearts of our servicemen and women, many far away from their own loved ones at this special time of year, are working to keep us safe."
On Friday, Mrs May visited troops at the RAF base in Cyprus, where operations against IS have been launched, and last month she met UK military personnel stationed in Iraq. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42468209 |
Tesco: No edible food will go to waste by February 2018 - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The supermarket giant says its 2,654 stores will no longer throw away food that is fit to be eaten. | UK | No food fit for human consumption will be wasted by Tesco's UK stores by the end of February, the retail giant says.
Chief executive Dave Lewis told the Daily Telegraph food waste had been "talked about for years" as he unveiled the plans for all 2,654 stores.
Urging other chains to follow suit, he said edible food should be used for people, not go to waste.
Tesco, with all major UK supermarkets, has signed a commitment to cut food waste by one-fifth within a decade.
The voluntary agreement is known as the Courtauld Commitment 2025.
Many supermarkets have introduced initiatives to tackle waste - such as moving away from "buy-one-get-one-free" offers that have been criticised for potentially increasing the amount of food thrown away in the home.
East of England Co-op recently became the first major retailer to sell food beyond its "best before" dates.
But Mr Lewis, who joined Tesco in 2014 from consumer brand Unilever, said the contrast between the amount of wasted food in the UK and the situation in countries suffering food shortages was "really stark".
He said: "Last year we sold 10 million tons [10.2 million tonnes] of food to the British public. But even if our waste is just 0.7% of the food, that's still 70,000 tons [71,100 tonnes] of food.
"And so long as that food is fit for human consumption, I'd much prefer it to go to people than animal feed or fuel."
The UK throws away 8.1 million tons [8.2 million tonnes] of food a year, according to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Tesco says it cuts waste by selling surplus groceries with "reduced to clear" stickers and running a scheme giving unsold items to local charities.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
It uses an app, FoodCloud, to scan and upload surplus food that stores have at the end of the day, which is shared with registered charities that collect the food.
"That goes a long way in reducing charities' bill burdens, so they can spend the money on other things, like the cost of housing two more addicts, or providing much more needed services," Mr Lewis said.
But he admitted it was "impossible" to prevent food surpluses in supermarkets.
"In retail there will always be some surplus food," he said.
"No matter how sophisticated the ordering systems are, it will be impossible to perfectly match the supply and demand for every one of our shops, 365 days a year, when there's so much volatility.
"Food waste has been talked about for years but if Tesco can make this work, with all of our different stores across the country, then why can't everybody," he added. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42464912 |
Russia elections: Hundreds vote to nominate Navalny - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | null | Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gather to nominate him for presidential elections. | null | Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have gathered in Moscow to nominate him for presidential elections.
But the authorities say that because of a criminal conviction, which he says is politically motivated, he will not be allowed to stand. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42473667 |
Strictly's Bruno Tonioli in tears on Desert Island Discs - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Strictly judge breaks down as he dedicates a Beatles song to lost friends and relatives. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Strictly Come Dancing judge Bruno Tonioli has broken down in tears as he recalled losing his mother, as well as friends and relatives, as a young man.
Speaking on the Christmas edition of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he dedicated Rod Stewart's version of the Beatles' In My Life to his loved ones.
He said: "They are still part of me... I'm getting emotional".
The star also told how he avoided Italian military service by telling a top official he was gay.
Tonioli joined the BBC TV dance contest show when it first aired in 2004 and has become one of its best-known faces.
His first break was in theatre with a touring Parisian company and he then went on to work in London in the 1980s as a choreographer for stars including Bananarama, the Rolling Stones and Elton John. His mother died in 1994.
He told presenter Kirsty Young that In My Life was "one of the best poems ever written" - citing its lyrics "All these places had their moments/With lovers and friends I still can recall/Some are dead and some are living/In my life I've loved them all."
Tonioli said: "This song is dedicated to all the people that have passed away....
"In spite of what has happened in my life, I might have moved away - hopefully I will keep moving - but they are still part of me, they are still... I'm getting emotional."
Tonioli said filming Strictly at the same time as the US version of the show, Dancing With The Stars, in Los Angeles, had taken its toll on his health.
The schedule forced him to miss a weekend of this year's Strictly, but he defended himself against reports that the absence was connected to his personal relationship.
"It was a total overlap all the way through," Tonioli said.
"I said, 'You have to give me a week off because I don't have time for my body to re-energise,' and it was agreed. I didn't just say I didn't want to do it. I would never do that, I'm a pro."
Tonioli also talked about avoiding military service after telling a top official he was gay, which was not permitted in the Italian armed forces at the time.
He said: "He was actually very nice and said he understood I was not pretending.
"What happened, and I have never told anybody, was that somebody got a whiff and said they would call my parents' house and tell them I'm a queen. So I said, 'Well, do it, who cares?'."
Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 at 11.15 GMT on Sunday, or listen later on iPlayer | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42467471 |
Catalonia election: Spain's King Felipe warns separatists - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Felipe VI of Spain says separatist leaders must act responsibly after their election success. | Europe | The king of Spain has issued a renewed call for unity amid the ongoing fallout from Catalonia's outlawed independence referendum.
In his Christmas message, Felipe VI urged the people of Catalonia to choose coexistence rather than confrontation.
He did not directly mention the leaders of the Catalan separatist movement.
In the wake of October's referendum in the region, the king heavily criticised those spearheading Catalonia's independence movement.
Some Catalans were angered by this, and the fact that he made no mention of the heavy-handed Spanish police operation to block the vote.
BBC Europe correspondent Kevin Connolly says the king's core underlying message about the importance of national unity remains unchanged, but his Christmas broadcast was more cautious and conciliatory.
The king said the politicians elected to the Catalan parliament this week - which included a narrow separatist majority - had to "face the problems that affect all Catalans, with respect to plurality and bearing in mind their responsibility to the common good".
"The road cannot lead again to confrontation and exclusion, which as we already know generate nothing but discord, uncertainty and discouragement," he said from his Madrid residence.
He praised what he called Catalonia's openness and creative spirit.
Carles Puigdemont is calling for talks with the Spanish leadership
The leader of the bloc of separatist parties which won a majority in Thursday's election, Carles Puigdemont, remains in Brussels - a fugitive from the Spanish judicial authorities who have arrested and tried several key separatist leaders in the wake of the illegal referendum.
Mr Puigdemont has called on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to meet him.
Our correspondent says Mr Rajoy clearly has no intention of responding to this. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42474835 |
Bob Givens: Bugs Bunny animator dies aged 99 - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Bob Givens was behind the design of many of the 20th Century's most famous animated characters | US & Canada | Bob Givens redesigned the Bugs Bunny character for Warner Bros. in 1940
Bob Givens, the animator best known for his redesign of Bugs Bunny, has died aged 99.
Givens' career spanned over 60 years and he worked as an animator for companies such as Disney, Warner Bros, and Hanna-Barbera.
Givens also drew cartoon characters such as Tom & Jerry, Daffy Duck, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Popeye.
His daughter, Mariana Givens confirmed his death on her Facebook page earlier this month.
Givens' first role, in 1937, was at Disney where he worked on Donald Duck and Snow White cartoons.
He joined Warner Bros in 1940 where he became famous for his work on the Bugs Bunny character.
Previous drawings were said to be "too cute" for the cartoons the company wanted to produce.
Givens' redesign became the first official design for the lead character of the Looney Tunes franchise, making him a famous name in the industry.
He served in the US army during the World War Two, before returning to the animation industry. Givens' career spanned over 60 years.
On social media, many paid tribute to Givens' work.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Josh Cogan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Other Twitter users responded by posting GIFs of their favourite Givens animations.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by FilmNoirHolland This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
• None What we learned from the Disney expo | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42474282 |
MPs hit back at abusive Christmas messages - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Tory Zac Goldsmith tweeted a card he received which wished him a "cancerous New Year". | UK Politics | MPs have revealed some of the abusive, threatening and racist messages sent to them in the build-up to Christmas.
They include a racist card targeting shadow home secretary Diane Abbott which said "stop Labour stealing our white Christmas".
Tory Zac Goldsmith tweeted a card he received which wished him a "cancerous New Year".
Last week a watchdog raised concern about the "vile and shocking abuse" of politicians.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life said an "intensely hostile online environment" had been created and warned people would be put off from entering politics because of the abuse.
Its report found that Ms Abbott received more online abuse than any other female MP.
The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP has previously described receiving a torrent of "mindless" racist and sexist abuse, which has been "turbocharged" by the speed and anonymity of social media.
Her Labour colleague Clive Lewis shared the racist Christmas card that attacked her, which was received by leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Mr Lewis tweeted: "I'm not keen on sharing racist propaganda but I think it's important folk see the kind of hate Diane is subjected to for doing nothing more than standing up for her beliefs."
Several other MPs have since tweeted expressing their support for Ms Abbott.
Another MP on the receiving end of abuse is Labour's David Lammy, who shared an email he received giving a "friendly warning" he could "suffer the same fate as Jo Cox", the Labour MP who was murdered last year.
"If this is meant to be a subtle way of intimidating me, scaring me or stopping me raising important issues as an elected representative it isn't going to work," he said.
Mr Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, shared more abusive mail he received on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Mr Goldsmith, who represents Richmond Park, tweeted what he said was a "sweet message" from people criticising his support for Brexit.
As well as wishing cancer on him, it included abusive language, branding him "nasty" and "a total disgrace".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs are 'never mutineers nor traitors'
At the weekend, rebel Conservative MPs revealed the threats they had received after the government was defeated on its Brexit bill.
Two of them, Anna Soubry and Nicky Morgan, said they had contacted the police.
Abusive emails seen by the BBC included one which said "you should hang for your crimes" and another saying, "I hope you do live the rest of your life looking over your shoulder in fear".
Publishing his report earlier this month, Lord Bew, the chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said: "The increasing prevalence of intimidation of Parliamentary candidates, and others in public life, should concern everyone who cares about our democracy.
"This is not about defending elites from justified criticism or preventing the public from scrutinising those who represent them: it is about defending the fundamental structures of political freedom." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42434283 |
Trump Turnberry will no longer get business rates relief - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The US president's golf resort in South Ayrshire had previously received business rates relief of more than £100,000. | Scotland politics | Donald Trump's Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire is now above the cut-off point for tax relief
A Scottish golf resort owned by US President Donald Trump will no longer qualify for a controversial tax break.
A change in the Scottish government's recent budget will remove Trump Turnberry in South Ayrshire from a business rates relief scheme.
The Sunday Herald revealed the resort is now above the cut-off point with a rateable value of £1,650,000.
Scotland's finance secretary Derek Mackay introduced measures in February to help hospitality businesses.
The move was in response to growing pressure to intervene to help struggling restaurants and hotels cope with the first revaluation of the rateable value of businesses since 2010.
Mr Mackay faced calls to reform the transitional business rates relief scheme after it emerged in August that Trump Turnberry had benefited by £109,530 for 2017/18.
In response to a wider review of the business rates system, Mr Mackay announced in September that the transitional scheme would continue next year for "all but the very largest hospitality properties".
Documents published alongside the draft Scottish budget earlier this month state it will only apply for hospitality properties with a rateable value up to £1.5m.
According to the Scottish Assessors Association website, Trump Turnberry is now above the cut-off point with a rateable value of £1,650,000.
Mr Trump bought Turnberry in 2014 but stepped away from the family business empire after being elected US president.
His other Scottish golf course, on the Menie estate in Aberdeenshire, did not qualify for relief because it is defined as a golf course rather than a hotel. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-42472775 |
London Zoo reopens after aardvark and meerkats die in fire - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | An aardvark and probably four meerkats died and staff needed medical treatment. | London | The zoo reopened on Sunday after being shut on Saturday after the fire
London Zoo has reopened following a fire which killed a number of animals and left several staff needing medical attention.
An aardvark called Misha died and it is thought meerkats Robbie, Norman, Billy and Nigel were also killed.
One person was taken to hospital and eight were treated at the scene.
The zoo said families had offered to help clear up and local builders were offering help with rebuilding enclosures.
About 70 firefighters tackled the blaze in the Animal Adventure section that spread to a shop. The cause of the fire is till unclear.
Families who had tickets for the zoo's Meet Santa experience on Saturday will be offered refunds, the zoo said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Photographs posted on social media showed orange flames rising from the building
London Zoo reopened on Christmas Eve following the fire
Ten fire engines went to the zoo, which is in Regent's Park, shortly after 06:00 GMT on Saturday.
The fire was brought under control about three hours later.
In a statement the zoo said it was devastated about what had happened but was overwhelmed by the support of the community.
"While it's been heartening to hear the chatter of excited children back in the zoo again today, our work investigating all aspects of the fire continues", Dominic Jermey, director general at ZSL said.
"One important update is that our vets completed an initial post-mortem on Misha, the aardvark; they have concluded that she most likely died from smoke inhalation whilst asleep in her den.
"Sadly though, after a thorough search of the site, we must presume that our four meerkats - brothers Robbie, Norman, Billy and Nigel - have died.
"We've been overwhelmed by the hundreds of emails, phone calls and letters of support from all over the country - these kind and generous messages range from families offering to give up their Christmas Day to help us clean up, to offers from local builders to rebuild the enclosures for us."
The blaze, which broke out in the children's area, damaged the Adventure Cafe roof
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42469949 |
Free boarding school places for care system pupils - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Local authorities will work with charities to put forward pupils for bursaries and scholarships. | Family & Education | Boarding schools in England are to offer free places to children with links to the care system, the Department for Education has announced.
Local authorities will work with children's charities to put forward pupils for bursaries and scholarships.
It is part of a government pledge to get independent and state schools working more closely together and help students from "vulnerable" backgrounds.
About 1,000 young people are already being supported by similar schemes.
The DfE said the Boarding School Partnerships aimed to help children of both primary and secondary age who have previously been in care or are at risk of going into care.
It says research shows a correlation between the boarding environment and improved educational outcomes for vulnerable children.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System Lord Agnew said: "Children who have previously been in care or are at risk of care have often gone through difficult, challenging experiences that can have a lasting impact throughout their lives.
"These placements won't be right for every child, but the pastoral care and educational support provided by our top boarding schools can have profound benefits for some young people."
Both independent boarding schools and state boarding schools - those funded by local authorities but where fees are charged for accommodation - are taking part in the scheme, which is backed by the Boarding Schools' Association.
The charities involved are the Reedham Children's Trust, Buttle UK and the Royal National Children's Springboard Foundation.
Two Surrey schools, King Edward's Witley, and the Royal Alexandra & Albert in Reigate, have been named as participants, with others across the country also said to be involved.
John Attwater, headmaster of King Edward's Witley, said boarding could provide a "life-transforming opportunity for vulnerable children and their families and it is core to our founding mission as a school".
It is understood that some local authorities could save money in the long-run because the cost of an annual boarding school placement is much cheaper than foster care.
Labour, however, has called the announcement "flimsy" and says the government has already taken money out of children's services.
The announcement comes after Education Secretary Justine Greening announced a £23m fund to support bright children from poorer backgrounds in England whose talent might otherwise be "wasted". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42467208 |
Tunisia bans UAE Emirates airline from landing in Tunis - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The move comes after Tunisian women reported being stopped from boarding flights to the Gulf nation. | Africa | Tunisia has banned Emirates airline from landing in the capital Tunis after a number of Tunisian women were prevented from boarding its flights.
The move comes amid widespread anger in Tunisia, with rights groups condemning "racist and discriminatory" measures.
The transport ministry said the measure would stay in place until Emirates was able to "operate flights in accordance with law and international agreements".
The UAE said "security information" had caused the delays.
"We contacted our Tunisian brothers about security information that necessitated taking specific procedures," Emirati Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said on Twitter on Sunday.
"We highly value Tunisian women and respect them," he added.
Tunisian government officials said the UAE had banned Tunisian women from flying to or transiting through its territory.
On Friday the Tunisian government said it had asked the UAE ambassador to clarify what was happening and had been told that the measures had been temporary and had already been lifted.
Local media reported that Tunisian women had been blocked from boarding Emirates flights to Dubai over several days.
According to AFP news agency, some Tunisian women said their journeys to the UAE had been delayed and some that their visas had to undergo additional examination.
Tunisia has been trying to improve relations with the UAE that were damaged by its 2011 revolution.
Tunisia's Ennahda party - part of the governing coalition - also has links to Qatar, which has been cut off by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain over its alleged support for terrorism. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42474716 |
Philippines country profile - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Provides an overview of Philippines, including key facts about this South East Asian country. | Asia | More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines, but the bulk of its fast-growing population lives on just 11 of them.
Much of the country is mountainous and prone to earthquakes and eruptions from around 20 active volcanoes. It is often buffeted by typhoons and other storms.
The Philippines - a Spanish colony for more than three centuries, and named after a 16th Century Spanish king - was taken over by the US in the early 20th Century after a protracted rebellion against rule from Madrid.
Spanish and US influences remain strong, especially in terms of language, religion and government. Self-rule in 1935 was followed by full independence in 1946 under a US-style constitution.
The US is a close ally and has provided military aid to help combat Islamist and communist insurgencies.
The son of authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos won a landslide victory in the May 2022 election.
He took over from firebrand Rodrigo Duterte, who came to power in 2016 after winning over voters with promises of a no-holds-barred campaign to take on crime, drugs and corruption.
President Marcos, known by the nickname Bongbong, enlisted Sara Duterte, the daughter of the outgoing president, as his vice-president, thereby uniting two populist right-wing dynasties.
Powerful commercial interests control or influence much of the media.
The lively TV scene is dominated by free-to-air networks ABS-CBN and GMA. There are hundreds of radio stations and a vigorous newspaper scene.
The constitution guarantees press freedom, but the Philippines is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
Spain's fabled galleons plied the Pacific trade route between Manila and Acapulco
Some key dates in The Philippines' history:
900AD - Laguna Copperplate Inscription, mostly written on Old Malay, is the earliest record of a Philippine language and the presence of writing in the islands.
11th Century - Some areas become part of China's tributary system.
14th Century - Indian cultural traits such as linguistic terms and religious practices began to spread in the Philippines.
15th Century - Islam is first established in the Sulu Archipelago.
1542 - Spanish expedition claims the islands and names them the Philippines after the heir to the Spanish throne. Three centuries of Spanish rule fail to conquer Muslim areas in the south.
1896-98 - Philippine Revolution: Filipino revolutionaries fight against the Spanish colonial authorities in an attempt to win the archipelago's independence.
1897 - Spanish authorities and revolutionaries sign the Pact of Biak-na-Bato, which temporarily reduces, and revolutionary officers exile themselves to Hong Kong.
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, the US navy destroys the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. Spain cedes the Philippines to the US, which proclaims military rule and begins to forcibly incorporate Muslim areas.
1898-1902 - Philippine-American War: Tensions arise after the US annexes the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris at end of the Spanish-American War rather than acknowledging the Philippines' declaration of independence. The war can be seen as a continuation of the Philippine struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution.
1916 - Jones Act, or Philippine Autonomy Act, which has the first formal declaration by the US to grant eventual independence to the Philippines.
1935 - Commonwealth of the Philippines: Philippines gains internal self-government, with the US responsible for foreign relations.
1941-1945 - The Philippines are occupied by Japan during the World War Two, but are retaken by the US in bitter fighting. More than 500,000 Filipinos die during the war.
1946 - The islands are granted full independence and renamed the Republic of the Philippines.
1942-1954 - Hukbalahap Rebellion: Rebellion by former Hukbalahap or Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon ("People's Army Against Japan") soldiers against the Philippine government. During the Japanese occupation the Huk guerrillas created village strongholds against the Japanese. After 1945, the new Philippine government, prompted by the US disarmed and arrested the Huks for allegedly being communists. The rebellion eventually petered out in the 1950s.
1965 - Ferdinand Marcos is elected president; he declares martial law in 1972.
1983 - Anti-Marcos lawyer Benigno Aquino is assassinated at Manila's airport as he returns from exile.
1986 - Marcos ousted in "people power" revolt after claiming victory over Aquino's widow in an election that many believe was stolen.
2001 - President Joseph Estrada is forced out by a military-backed "people power" uprising.
2014 - The Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel group signs a peace deal with the government, ending one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts.
2017 - Islamic State jihadists attack the city of Marawi in Mindanao.
2022 - Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the previous dictator, is elected president.
The Philippines capital Manila is among the most-populous and fastest-growing cities in South East Asia
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15521300 |
How the humble S-bend made modern toilets possible - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Designed in 1775, the S-bend was key to the flushing toilet, and public sanitation as we know it. | Business | "Gentility of speech is at an end," thundered an editorial in London's City Press, in 1858. "It stinks!"
The stink in question was partly metaphorical: politicians were failing to tackle an obvious problem.
As its population grew, London's system for disposing of human waste became woefully inadequate. To relieve pressure on cess pits - which were prone to leaking, overflowing, and belching explosive methane - the authorities had instead started encouraging sewage into gullies.
However, this created a different issue: the gullies were originally intended for only rainwater, and emptied directly into the River Thames.
That was the literal stink - the Thames became an open sewer.
Cholera was rife. One outbreak killed 14,000 Londoners - nearly one in every 100.
Civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette drew up plans for new, closed sewers to pump the waste far from the city. It was this project that politicians came under pressure to approve.
The sweltering-hot summer of 1858 had made London's malodorous river impossible to politely ignore, or to discuss obliquely with "gentility of speech". The heatwave became popularly known as the "Great Stink".
If you live in a city with modern sanitation, it's hard to imagine daily life being permeated with the suffocating stench of human excrement.
For that, we have a number of people to thank - but perhaps none more so than the unlikely figure of Alexander Cumming.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.
A watchmaker in London a century before the Great Stink, Cumming won renown for his mastery of intricate mechanics.
King George III commissioned him to make an elaborate instrument for recording atmospheric pressure, and he pioneered the microtome, a device for cutting ultra-fine slivers of wood for microscopic analysis.
Alexander Cumming's S-bend was crucial in the development of the flushing toilet
But Cumming's world-changing invention owed nothing to precision engineering. It was a bit of pipe with a curve in it.
In 1775, Cumming patented the S-bend. This became the missing ingredient to create the flushing toilet - and, with it, public sanitation as we know it.
Flushing toilets had previously foundered on the problem of smell: the pipe that connects the toilet to the sewer, allowing urine and faeces to be flushed away, will also also let sewer odours waft back up - unless you can create some kind of airtight seal.
Cumming's solution was simplicity itself: bend the pipe. Water settles in the dip, stopping smells coming up; flushing the toilet replenishes the water.
While we've moved on alphabetically from the S-bend to the U-bend, flushing toilets still deploy the same insight.
Rollout, however, came slowly: by 1851, flushing toilets remained novel enough in London to cause mass excitement when introduced at the Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace.
Use of the facilities cost one penny, giving the English language one of its enduring euphemisms for emptying one's bladder, "to spend a penny".
Hundreds of thousands of Londoners queued for the opportunity to relieve themselves while marvelling at the miracles of modern plumbing.
If the Great Exhibition gave Londoners a vision of how public sanitation could be - clean, and smell-free - no doubt that added to the weight of popular discontent as politicians dragged their heels over finding the funds for Joseph Bazalgette's planned sewers.
More than 170 years later, about two-thirds of the world's people have access to what's called "improved sanitation", according to the World Health Organization, up from about a quarter in 1980.
But that still means two and a half billion people don't have access to it, and "improved sanitation" itself is a relatively low bar.
It "hygienically separates human excreta from human contact", but it doesn't necessarily treat the sewage itself.
Fewer than half the world's people have access to sanitation systems that do that.
The economic costs of this ongoing failure to roll out proper sanitation are many and varied, from health care for diarrhoeal diseases to foregone revenue from hygiene-conscious tourists.
The World Bank's Economics of Sanitation Initiative has tried to tot up the price tag.
Across various African countries, for example, it reckons inadequate sanitation lops one or two percentage points off gross domestic product (GDP), in India and Bangladesh over 6%, and in Cambodia 7%.
Open sewers are a common sight in Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya
The challenge is that public sanitation isn't something the market necessarily provides. Toilets cost money, but defecating in the street is free.
If I install a toilet, I bear all the costs, while the benefits of the cleaner street are felt by everyone.
In economic parlance, that's a "positive externality" - and goods that have positive externalities tend to be bought at a slower pace than society, as a whole, would prefer.
The most striking example is the "flying toilet" system of Kibera, in Nairobi, Kenya.
The flying toilet works like this: you defecate into a plastic bag, and then in the middle of the night, whirl the bag around your head and hurl it as far away as possible.
Replacing a flying toilet with a flushing toilet provides benefits to the toilet owner - but you can bet that the neighbours would appreciate it, too.
Contrast, say, the mobile phone. That also costs money, but its benefits accrue largely to me. That's one reason why, although the S-bend has been around for 10 times as long as the mobile phone, many more people already own a mobile phone than a flushing toilet.
If you want to buy a flushing toilet, it also helps if there's a system of sewers to plumb it into, and creating one is a major undertaking - financially and logistically.
Joseph Bazalgette, standing top right, views the Northern Outfall sewer being built below the Abbey Mills pumping station in 1862
When Joseph Bazalgette finally got the cash to build London's sewers, they took 10 years to complete and necessitated digging up 2.5 million cubic metres (88 million cubic ft) of earth.
Because of the externality problem, such a project might not appeal to private investors: it tends to require determined politicians, willing taxpayers and well-functioning municipal governments.
And those, it seems, are in short supply. According to a study published in 2011, just 6% of India's towns and cities have succeeded in building even a partial network of sewers. The capacity for delay seems almost unlimited.
London's lawmakers likewise procrastinated- but when they finally acted, they didn't hang about. As Stephen Halliday recounts in his book The Great Stink of London, it took just 18 days to rush through the necessary legislation for Bazalgette's plans. What explains this sudden, impressive alacrity?
The Houses of Parliament, photographed in 1858, the year of the Great Stink
A quirk of geography: London's Parliament building is located right next to the River Thames.
Officials tried to shield lawmakers from the Great Stink, soaking the curtains in chloride of lime in a bid to mask the stench.
But it was no use. Try as they might, the politicians couldn't ignore it.
The Times described, with a note of grim satisfaction, how MPs had been seen abandoning the building's library, "each gentleman with a handkerchief to his nose".
If only concentrating politicians' minds was always that easy. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41188465 |
Ashes: Mitchell Starc hits back at James Anderson comments - BBC Sport | 2017-12-24 | null | Injured Australia pace bowler Mitchell Starc hopes that his replacement Jackson Bird "sticks it up" England in the fourth Ashes Test. | null | Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra, Radio 4 LW, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app. Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app
Injured Australia bowler Mitchell Starc hopes his replacement Jackson Bird "sticks it up" England in the fourth Test, which starts on 26 December.
Starc, the leading wicket-taker in the series with 19, misses Melbourne's Boxing Day Test with a bruised heel.
Last week England's James Anderson said Ashes winners Australia have "problems" beyond their first-choice attack.
Starc hit back: "I think they have got bigger things to worry about than the depth of Australia's fast bowlers."
Australia have been helped to their unassailable 3-0 lead in the series by the pace of Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood - bowlers who have been bowling in excess of 90mph.
England have not managed to take the full 20 wickets in any of the first three Tests.
But Anderson told his BBC Tailenders podcast: "They've had three bowlers who all can bowl 90mph. They've stayed fit for all three games. But you look beyond that, they've got problems.
"They've not got much other than these three that are bowling at the minute. We've got some very skilful bowlers, we've just come up against a team that are better than us this series."
Starc was ruled out of the fourth Test on Sunday and, in endorsing right-arm bowler Bird, responded to Anderson.
"I'm really happy for Jackson to get a go," he said. "I hope he takes five wickets and sticks it up for those daft comments from the Poms.
"They haven't taken 20 wickets so far in the series and we have and they are having a crack at our depths. I certainly don't like facing Jacko in the nets. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do to the English batters in this Test."
'Sometimes you go into your shell like a turtle'
Australia opener David Warner also took aim at Anderson, England's all-time leading wicket-taker with 518.
Anderson took five wickets in the second innings of the second Test in Adelaide, while also discomforting home captain Steven Smith with some on-field chatter.
In the third Test in Perth, Australia racked up 662-9 declared, with Anderson taking four more wickets.
"Conditions must have suited Jimmy in Adelaide," said Warner. "That's generally what happens. He talks about us being up all the time when we're in front, but it's a different story when he's firing shots at the captain.
"He went very quiet as soon as he saw the wicket quite flat at the Waca. Sometimes you pick your times when you want to go at people, sometimes you go into your shell like a turtle.
"We've probably shut them up a little bit at the moment. Hopefully this gets them up and going and they fire some barbs at us, because I love that. I love when we're in a contest and I feel like they were quite flat in Perth."
England all-rounder Chris Woakes said he would not rise to Warner's challenge.
"He won't be getting any barbs from me personally, but David can go about his business the way he wants to," said Woakes.
"Maybe that contest will fire him up and make him score a few more runs, so we'll probably keep quiet, to be honest.
"The amount of chat that goes on in an Ashes series in ludicrous, to be brutally honest. The thing that is most important is how you perform. We haven't performed well enough and we'll try to put that right at the MCG."
England will definitely be without pace bowler Craig Overton, who has a fractured rib. They could hand a debut to fellow seamer Tom Curran or leg-spinner Mason Crane.
Australia wicketkeeper Tim Paine has arrived in Melbourne and will play, despite his father-in-law suffering a stroke.
Captain Smith is fit despite taking a blow on the hand during net practice. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/42471258 |
Wagamama apology for 'don't be sick' staff notice - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Noodle chain manager took "highly unusual approach" over festive staff shortage fears in London branch. | UK | Restaurant chain Wagamama has apologised after a manager warned workers they face disciplinary action for calling in sick over Christmas.
A note on a rota at one of its London branches said it was the responsibility of ill staff to find colleagues to cover shifts.
Wagamama said the manager "feared team member shortages" and "regrettably decided to take this highly unusual approach", which is not company policy.
A note beneath the rota states: "No calling in sick! may I remind you that if you are unable to come in for your shift it is your responsibility [underlined] to find someone to cover your shift (as per contract and handbook).
"Calling in sick during the next 2 weeks will result in disciplinary action being taken".
Wagamama insisted the rule was "strictly not company policy", and said it was an "isolated incident" at its North Finchley restaurant.
A spokesman for the Unite Hospitality union said: "To threaten workers with disciplinary action for being sick is not just morally reprehensible, it may be unlawful under the Health and Safety Act and Equality Act as it discriminates against those with long-term physical or mental health conditions."
The pan-Asian chain, which has been owned by the London-based private equity firm Duke Street Capital since 2011, has more than 100 branches across the UK.
A Wagamama spokesperson said: "Following reports of a notice posted in our North Finchley restaurant we can confirm this was an isolated incident and is strictly not company employment policy.
"The manager involved feared team member shortages over the festive period and regrettably decided to take this highly unusual approach.
"As a company we treat all our team with the greatest respect and understand and appreciate the hard work they all do. We sincerely apologise for what has happened and wish all our team members and customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
The person who brought the rota to Unite Hospitality's attention is a friend of someone who works at Wagamama in North Finchley.
"They sent me that picture," he told the BBC. "They didn't want me to share it at all. But my blood was boiling. I needed to do something about it.
"I don't believe it is company policy. It might have been an idea of the manager because he doesn't know the law."
The rota was put up at Wagamama's branch in North Finchley
He said the note attached to the rota could be "dangerous for the health and safety of people".
"If you force people to work when they are sick they can poison the food. There is something very wrong."
He said many of the staff at that branch were young workers from Eastern Europe and "maybe they are scared to lose their jobs or they don't know the law themselves".
The Green MSP for the West Scotland region, Ross Greer, was one of the first people to post a photograph of the rota on Twitter, writing: "That's the end of my custom with @wagamama_uk. Treat your staff with some respect."
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ross Greer This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
@dtaylor5633 also expresses concern about the potential health risks.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Taylor This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The rota note has led a #boycottwagamama campaign on Twitter, with people voicing concern the policy may lead to sick workers undertaking shifts.
However, other people say customers should not "vilify a whole company" because of an issue related to a single branch. Former employees in other branches have also taken to social media to say they have not experienced similar practices. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42473679 |
Miss America leaked emails: CEO Sam Haskell and three others quit - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Four executives resign after the leaking of misogynistic emails about contestants. | US & Canada | Sam Haskell (pictured on the front row) watches the 2017 contest
The Miss America Organization CEO, Sam Haskell, has resigned over leaked emails that disparaged pageant contestants.
The organisation said it would accept Mr Haskell's immediate resignation. Its chairperson, Lynn Weidner and two other executives are also leaving.
The emails reportedly include vulgar references to past winners and comments about their sex lives.
The organisation's president and chief operating officer, Josh Randle, has also resigned "in light of recent and new developments", a spokesperson confirmed to the BBC.
Announcing the resignation of Mr Haskell in a statement posted on its Twitter account, the Miss America Organisation (MAO) said Ms Weidner would help install a new leadership before leaving.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Miss America Org This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The announcement of Mr Haskell's resignation came only hours after the MAO put out a statement saying he had been suspended.
The Huffington Post published the alleged contents of three years of emails between Mr Haskell and other pageant officials.
Some of the emails referred to Mallory Hagan, the winner of the 2013 contest
The internal emails include name-calling, slut-shaming and fat-shaming of some of the contestants who had taken part in the pageant.
The revelations caused Dick Clark Productions, MAO's television sponsor, to cut ties with the long-standing pageant.
Dick Clark Productions said in a statement on Friday they had been made aware of the emails "several months ago" and were "appalled by their unacceptable content".
Pressure for the resignation of Mr Haskell also came from 49 former Miss Americas in an open letter.
A former Miss America winner, Mallory Hagan, who was mocked in some of the emails said she "wasn't shocked, but [felt] validated by the emails".
"For the longest time, I've tried to explain to people around me that this is happening or these things are being said," the winner of the 2013 pageant told NBC.
Gretchen Carlson, a former Miss America and a television presenter, said the alleged emails contained "disgusting statements about women" and "vulgar slurs".
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Gretchen Carlson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
In a statement, Mr Haskell said he had been "under stress from a full year of attacks by two Miss Americas, and while I don't ever want to offer an excuse, I do want to offer context".
But he also said the original story was "vicious" with "conveniently edited emails". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42466526 |
Leaders pay tribute to festive workers - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Scotland's party leaders use their Christmas messages to thank emergency service workers and volunteers. | Scotland politics | Scotland's political leaders have paid tribute to people working over the holidays in their Christmas messages.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon visited a community cafe in Glasgow and hailed those "thinking about and helping others".
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson thanked armed forces personnel and organisations like the Samaritans.
Labour's Richard Leonard asked people to "spare a thought" for those who cannot spend Christmas with loved ones.
And Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said his party had "turned a corner" in 2017.
During a visit to Woodlands Community Cafe, the first minister paid tribute to volunteers who give up their own time to help other people.
She said: "This cafe, and the volunteers here, are among thousands of organisations and individuals throughout Scotland who do so much for our local communities - not just at Christmas, but all throughout the year. They exemplify the solidarity and compassion which is so important to our society.
"I also know that for many people - for example workers in our emergency services, our health service and in our armed forces - Christmas isn't a holiday at all. Your hard work is appreciated all the year round, but is particularly valued at Christmas time.
"So over this festive period, let's thank those who are working so hard on our behalf. And let's also - like the people here at Woodlands - do our bit to help others, and to spread some Christmas cheer."
Ruth Davidson gave a special mention to people who lost a loved one over the last year.
"The first Christmas without a spouse, sibling, child, parent or friend is always difficult and I hope they find comfort in the company of loved ones," she said.
"For many of us, Christmas is one of the few moments of the year when we get a chance to disengage from work and take a step back for a few days.
"After a year in which we've often seen more heat than light in our public debate, I hope the holiday season will provide us with a moment to remember what we have in common."
The party leaders got into the festive spirit for Christmas jumper day earlier this month
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said he hoped that the homeless have shelter and respite from the cold and those who rely on food banks were able to eat well over Christmas.
"Those of us who are fortunate enough to celebrate Christmas with our loved ones should spare a thought for those who are not so lucky," he added.
"We should think of those who cannot take time off, those who work in our emergency services over Christmas, those who devote their lives to public service, to taking care of us all, from hospitality workers to nurses, firefighters and all emergency workers, to the people keeping the lights on.
"And we should think of those refugees who have come to Scotland for sanctuary and to build a new life, and all those who are fighting to survive in too many countries riven with war or internal unrest."
Meanwhile Willie Rennie was optimistic about the future of the Scottish Liberal Democrats after success in 2017.
"We started winning elections again with more MPs and in charge of more councils," he said. "I believe that winning is not just good for the Liberal Democrats but is also good for the country.
"It means that we have moderate, outward looking, optimistic voices making the case for change and challenging authority and government.
"With a bigger team of Liberal Democrats we can stand up for people who benefit from the police service, mental health services, education services and a stronger economy."
The Scottish Green Party is expected to issue its leaders' message at New Year. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-42466140 |
Drug dealer arrested after mistaking police car for taxi - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A man carrying 1,000 joints jumped in the back of a police car looking for a ride, Danish police say. | Europe | Police said the man was carrying about 1,000 joints
An alleged drug dealer in Copenhagen received an unwanted surprise for Christmas when he jumped into the back of a taxi with about 1,000 joints on him, only to find it was a police car.
Danish police said the man was rushing home when he made the grave error.
The mistake occurred in Christiania, a semi-autonomous district of the capital founded by hippies in the 1970s and known as a centre for the drug trade.
Police said the man could face a custodial sentence.
The full statement from the force earlier in the week read: "Last night a cannabis dealer from Christiania who wanted to get home quickly got into a taxi. He received a big surprise when he realised it was actually a police car he was sitting in.
"The police officers were happy to see him, since he was carrying around 1,000 joints."
Cannabis is illegal in Denmark, with prohibitions on dealing and possession.
Police have carried out a number of raids in the Christiania district in recent months, mostly seeking out drug dealers rather than the other way around. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42471543 |
Philippines mall fire: Bodycam shows blaze inside - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | null | At least 37 people are feared dead in the blaze that swept through a shopping centre in Davao. | null | At least 37 people are feared to have died in a fire that swept through a shopping mall in the Philippines. It happened in the southern Philippine city of Davao. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42471962 |
Vice admits 'boy's club' culture fostered sexual harassment - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The punk magazine-turned-media empire faces accusations of workplace harassment and sexism. | US & Canada | Digital media company Vice has admitted to a "boy's club" culture that failed to protect women staff from harassment.
Co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi said in a statement that the company had taken action over "multiple instances of unacceptable behavior".
The statement came in response to an in-depth New York Times investigation.
Vice began life as a free magazine with a reputation for edgy coverage of youth culture, but has since been backed by major corporations including Fox.
But Mr Smith and Mr Alvi acknowledged in their statement that the company's roots had contributed to unprofessional conduct that persisted though its rapid growth.
They said: "Cultural elements from our past, dysfunction and mismanagement were allowed to flourish unchecked. That includes a detrimental "boy's club" culture that fostered inappropriate behavior that permeated throughout the company."
More than two dozen women told the New York Times they had "experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct," including unwanted kisses, lewd remarks, propositions and groping.
"There is a toxic environment," said Sandra Miller, a former Vice executive, "where men can say the most disgusting things and... where women are treated far inferior than men."
The revelations make Vice the latest in a long list of companies and public bodies, including Ford car company and the US Congress, to face sexual harassment allegations against members and staff, triggered by revelations about the film producer Harvey Weinstein.
The New York Times report on Vice outlines four settlements reached by the company with staff who alleged sexual harassment or defamation. One involved a 2003 interview by a freelance journalist, Jessica Hopper, with the rapper Murs, in which Ms Hopper wrote that the rapper propositioned her for sex and she said no.
Before her article was published however, the magazine changed her response to "Yes" and printed it. According to records seen by the Times, Vice reached a settlement with Ms Hopper and printed a retraction.
The company statement outlined steps it had taken to reform its workplace culture, including the hiring of a new HR director, a commitment to pay equity, and an advisory board including feminist icon Gloria Steinem.
First published in Canada in 1994 and distributed for free in clothing shops, Vice expanded rapidly with investment from major corporations. The Walt Disney Company now owns an 18% stake in Vice Media. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42471133 |
GP warns Santa to 'give sherry a miss' - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The head of the Royal College of GPs said we can all help Father Christmas get fitter this year. | UK | A leading doctor tells Santa to swap his mince pies for some of Rudolph's carrots this Christmas
Father Christmas could be doing serious harm to his health by overloading with mince pies and sherry, a leading doctor has warned.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, head of the Royal College of GPs, said Santa could face a raft of health issues because of his diet and busy schedule.
Some of his conditions could include gout, sleep deprivation and alcoholism.
But we can all help Santa get a bit fitter, and inspire ourselves too, she says.
Professor Stokes-Lampard said: "He's overweight, and all of us do our bit to add to his obesity by leaving mince pies and cookies out for him, and milk or alcohol.
"If Mr Claus was a patient at my practice, I would be encouraging him to adopt a vastly healthier diet and take more exercise in the new year."
Santa could risk 'mixing up important presents' if he has too much sherry
As well as running between houses, rather than riding on his sleigh, the professor thinks he should "give the sherry a miss" and share some of Rudolph's carrots instead.
"The human body can only process one unit of alcohol per hour, which means excessive consumption could make Santa drunk very quickly," she said.
"This not only increases the likelihood of him slipping in the snow or mixing up important presents, but could also lead to long-term issues affecting his mood and mental health."
So now Prof Stokes-Lampard thinks it is time for Saint Nicholas to take better care of himself and lead by example.
"Although he sets a brilliant example of good behaviour and teaches the importance of giving rather than receiving, he could probably do more to encourage healthy lifestyles - something youngsters and adults alike can benefit from," she says. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42464803 |
Garry Monk: Middlesbrough part company with manager despite victory - BBC Sport | 2017-12-24 | null | Championship side Middlesbrough part company with manager Garry Monk despite a victory hours earlier. | null | Last updated on .From the section Middlesbrough
Championship side Middlesbrough parted company with manager Garry Monk hours after a 2-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday.
The former Swansea and Leeds United boss has been replaced by academy manager Craig Liddle on an interim basis "while a successor is appointed", the club said.
Middlesbrough are ninth in the league and have won 10 of their 23 games.
News of Monk's departure was announced on the club's Twitter feed and comes just six months after he was appointed.
Monk took charge of the club in June and was tasked with leading the side back to the Premier League following relegation last season.
He oversaw just four wins in Middlesbrough's first 13 league games but the club won six of their next 10 games to move to within three points of the play-off places.
Speaking after Saturday's win at Hillsborough, Monk said: "That was our best away performance of the season and I thought it was a thoroughly deserved win.
"They are a good team with some quality players, but overall we dealt with their moments pretty well.
"We have to build on this and use it as a springboard. There are more things to work on and improve."
"I'm certain there will have been talks behind the scenes, certain someone is lined up.
"It's still an attractive job, people will be really thinking about this job because they know the chairman [Steve Gibson], he's is one of the best in the business.
"Don't get me wrong though, when things need to be changed, the chairman is ruthless and Middlesbrough Football Club comes first." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42468443 |
Philippines mall fire: At least 37 feared dead in Davao - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | At least 37 people are believed to have been trapped in a burning mall in the city of Davao. | Asia | Employees of a call centre were trapped on the fourth floor, officials said
At least 37 people are feared to have died in a fire that tore through a shopping mall in the southern Philippine city of Davao, local officials say.
Firefighters battled for hours to extinguish the blaze that started on the third floor and spread to the floor above, trapping call centre employees.
Their chances of survival were "zero", Davao's Vice-Mayor Paolo Duterte said.
President Duterte, a Davao native, met families of the missing outside the burning NCCC mall.
The cause of the fire, which began on Saturday morning, is being investigated.
The mall's marketing manager, Janna Abdullah Mutalib, said the blaze started on the third floor, where clothes, appliances and furniture were sold, the Philippines Star website reports.
Davao lies about 800km (500 miles) south-east of the capital Manila.
The fire comes as the country is coming to terms with a deadly tropical storm. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42469853 |
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Husband 'sitting by the phone' - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband says he hopes she could be freed within a fortnight. | UK | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian mother who has been held in Iran for 20 months, could be freed within a fortnight, her husband says.
Richard Ratcliffe told BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House programme that the "best case" was a 25 December release.
"We are sitting by the phone hoping", he said, days after an Iranian database listed her as eligible for release.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who turns 39 on Boxing Day, is being held in Iran on spying charges - which she denies.
Her lawyer had visited her in prison, Mr Ratcliffe said, and expected her to be released within the next two weeks.
"She's still in prison today, so best case is tomorrow," he said.
"It's her birthday on Boxing Day so we were sort of hoping she'd be out for then".
The charity worker travelled to Iran last year with her daughter Gabriella, but maintains she was on holiday there.
Mr Ratcliffe initially hoped for his wife's return to the UK before Christmas, after learning of a status change in her case from "closed" to "eligible for release".
He said "there's no sign of a new court case" and that he was "sitting by the phone hoping".
But Iran's spokesman for the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, refused to rule out a second charge for "spreading propaganda".
Speaking on Sunday, he said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who is serving a five-year prison sentence for alleged spying, had only received a final verdict on this charge.
On 3 April 2016, she was arrested at an Iranian airport while travelling home with her young daughter and accused of plotting against the Iranian government.
She says she took her daughter Gabriella, three, to Iran to celebrate the country's new year and visit her parents.
Before her arrest, she lived in London with accountant husband Richard Ratcliffe and worked as a project manager for the charity Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Mr Ratcliffe said he would light the candles on a birthday cake for his wife whatever happens, and telephone three-year-old Gabriella who is being looked after by her grandparents in Iran.
"She quite likes to watch a birthday cake having its candles blown out," he said.
"[We] sort of try and defiantly celebrate if we can, and keep spirits up."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Richard Ratcliffe tells the BBC: "Formally, on the system, she's eligible to be released at any point."
Mr Ratcliffe said his wife's prospects had improved since her case was taken up by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson - after he apologised for a gaffe which appeared to contradict claims she was on holiday.
He admitted to being "critical" of Mr Johnson, but said: "He's been making every effort in the past couple of weeks and his visit to Iran was profoundly important."
He admitted the progress of his wife's case in Iran was "bewildering", adding: "We're trying not to get too up or too down and just keep battling on".
"We're just watching everything now," he said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42471982 |
Skiers in French Alps lift ordeal at Chamrousse - BBC News | 2017-12-24 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | At least 150 people are evacuated after being trapped for several hours in gondolas in Chamrousse. | Europe | The cause of the breakdown has not been established
At least 150 people have been rescued after being trapped for several hours in ski lift gondolas in the resort of Chamrousse in the French Alps.
A vast rescue operation was launched after the lift broke down at about 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and was completed by 17:30, AFP said.
No-one was injured during the incident.
Rescuers reached the top of each gondola and released the skiers through the roof hatch before lowering them to the ground.
The skiers had been suspended around 25m (82ft) above the snow before ropes were used to bring them down.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Morgane Goulot This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Each gondola has space for about 10 people.
The cause of the breakdown has not been established.
The ski lift - built in 2009 to replace a cable car and two chairlifts - connects the town of Chamrousse to the summit of the Croix de Chamrousse, 2,250m above sea level. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42474834 |
Swimmers brave icy sea in Porthcawl on Christmas Day - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Porthcawl Christmas morning swim is in its 53rd year and takes place on Sandy Bay. | South East Wales | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Swimmers went in all types of fancy dress
About 1,200 people braved icy sea waters to take part in one of the UK's largest Christmas Day swims.
The Porthcawl Christmas morning swim is in its 53rd year, and took place on Sandy Bay.
This year's theme is "Father Christmas" in memory of Jack Bridge, who was the swim's original Santa.
Dave King, who is the chairman of the committee which organises the event, said: "We are very pleased with how it went." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-42442265 |
Queen's message pays tribute to London and Manchester - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | In her Christmas broadcast, she hails emergency service workers and those caught up in 2017 tragedies. | UK | The Queen has paid tribute to London and Manchester in her Christmas Day message for their handling of this year's terror attacks.
She said it was a "privilege" to meet the concert attack survivors in May and stressed both cities' "powerful identities".
The monarch also remembered the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire.
In the year of her 70th wedding anniversary she praised the Duke of Edinburgh's support.
Despite missing the Christmas morning service last year due to illness, the Queen spent this year at Sandringham with the Royal Family including Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle.
Looking back over 2017, the Queen reflected fondly on her relationship with Prince Philip amid his decision to "slow down a little".
She said: "I don't know that anyone had invented the term 'platinum' for a 70th wedding anniversary when I was born. You weren't expected to be around that long."
This summer Prince Philip retired from his programme of public engagements, although he has continued to attend some events involving the Queen.
In the broadcast, the Queen also praised her husband's "unique sense of humour".
She recorded this year's Christmas message to the Commonwealth a few days ago in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace.
The message's main theme is the importance of home, which she describes as a place of "warmth, familiarity and love", with a "timeless simplicity" and "pull".
Surrounded by family photographs and a picture of newly engaged Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Queen said her family "look forward to welcoming new members into it next year".
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child in April. while the prince and Ms Markle will wed in May.
On a table, alongside photographs of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, were two pictures of the Queen with the Duke of Edinburgh, one of which was taken on their wedding day in 1947 and the other from their anniversary in November this year.
The Queen was dressed in an ivory white dress by Angela Kelly, which she first wore for the Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant in 2012.
The Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in November
She also expressed gratitude towards emergency service workers in a year of "appalling attacks" and highlighted the "extraordinary bravery and resilience" of survivors.
Referencing the Grenfell Tower fire which claimed the lives of 71 people, the Queen described it as "sheer awfulness".
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who died and those who lost so much, and we are indebted to members of the emergency services who risked their own lives this past year saving others," the Queen said.
Five people: four pedestrians and a police officer, were killed in the Westminster Bridge attack in March.
In May, the Queen visited victims of the bombing at Manchester Arena, in which 22 people died. A suicide bomber struck as they left the venue following a performance by US singer Ariana Grande.
"I describe that hospital visit as a 'privilege' because the patients I met were an example to us all," she said.
The Queen visited victims of the bombing at Manchester Arena in May
The following month, eight people died when three men in a van ploughed into pedestrians on London Bridge before going on a knife attack in nearby Borough Market.
Later that June, a man died when a hired van ran into worshippers near the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, north London.
The Queen's Christmas message was broadcast at 15:00 GMT on BBC One, and can be watched again on iPlayer. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42475052 |
Mum hopes royal photo can pay for university - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Karen Anvil's image, which she put on Twitter, was liked almost 4,000 times and stoked media interest. | UK | A mother who snapped a lucky photograph of four smiling royals is hoping its sale will help her fund her daughter's university education.
Karen Anvil, 39, from Watlington in Norfolk captured a beaming Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Sandringham.
The image, which was posted on Twitter, was liked almost 4,000 times and stoked mainstream media interest.
Ms Anvil told the BBC reaction to the picture has been "bizarre and bonkers".
Ms Anvil and her 17-year-old daughter, Rachel, have been to spot the Royals at their annual Christmas Day service a couple of times before.
She said that, while suffering from an illness last year, she promised her daughter they would go to St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham this Christmas.
She said: "Sky News was on and we were looking at the crowds. My daughter said 'I'd love to do that'.
"'I said 'next year, when I'm better we'll go'. And so I took her."
Ms Anvil admitted she had a "fan-girl" moment while with her daughter Rachel, 17
Asked how she got the Royals to look at the camera and capture the shot every photographer dreamt of, Ms Anvil admitted her secret was attracting their attention,
"I'm just very bubbly by nature and I was with my daughter and I got a bit excitable, I suppose.
"I was just sort of shouting and I just went 'Merry Christmas!' like an idiot. I was fan-girling.
"That's all I said and got them to look."
Ms Anvil posted the image on Twitter at about 11:00 GMT and got thousands of likes. Her previous record was just five likes.
Four hours later she was still receiving messages asking for permission to use the picture - and advice from other Twitter users telling her to negotiate a price.
She said: "At first I said oh yeah sure. Have the photo. I know nothing about that."
But soon afterwards she was flooded with suggestions to copyright the photograph and earn some Christmas Day cash.
"The thing is - and I hate to play the single mum card - I'm a single parent, I work two jobs, which I'm proud of and I've always worked.
"Now I want to save money for my daughter for uni and if I can do that, and can get that opportunity that's amazing." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42480224 |
Pope Francis pleads for migrants at Christmas Eve Mass - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Pope will give his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and the world") address on Monday. | Europe | Many migrants, the pontiff said, were being forced to flee from leaders who "see no problem in shedding innocent blood"
Pope Francis has urged Roman Catholics not to ignore the plight of millions of migrants "driven from their land", during Christmas Eve Mass.
The pontiff compared them to Mary and Joseph, recounting the Biblical story of how they travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem but found no place to stay.
He has made defence of migrants around the world a major theme of his papacy.
The Pope is set to give his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" ("to the city and to the world") Christmas address on Monday.
"So many other footsteps are hidden in the footsteps of Joseph and Mary," he told worshippers who gathered in St Peter's Basilica on 24 December.
"We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Church of the Nativity hosts pilgrims on Christmas Eve
Pope Francis, the leader of roughly 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, is himself the grandson of Italian migrants. He said many of today's refugees were fleeing from leaders who "see no problem in shedding innocent blood".
There are more than 22 million refugees worldwide. The latest cross-border influx involves the Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar. The Pope visited Myanmar last month and later met members of the Muslim minority who had sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Pope stressed that faith demanded that foreigners be welcomed everywhere.
Nuns watch a Christmas Eve procession at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
Christians celebrated Christmas morning Mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, built on the site where tradition says Mary gave birth to Jesus.
There were fewer pilgrims than usual in the West Bank town this year. The town has seen clashes in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli army, after President Donald Trump's contentious decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
At Midnight Mass in Bethlehem, local Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa condemned President Trump's decision and said Jerusalem could not be a city of peace if people were excluded. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42475252 |
Skiers in French Alps lift ordeal at Chamrousse - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | At least 150 people are evacuated after being trapped for several hours in gondolas in Chamrousse. | Europe | The cause of the breakdown has not been established
At least 150 people have been rescued after being trapped for several hours in ski lift gondolas in the resort of Chamrousse in the French Alps.
A vast rescue operation was launched after the lift broke down at about 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and was completed by 17:30, AFP said.
No-one was injured during the incident.
Rescuers reached the top of each gondola and released the skiers through the roof hatch before lowering them to the ground.
The skiers had been suspended around 25m (82ft) above the snow before ropes were used to bring them down.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Morgane Goulot This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Each gondola has space for about 10 people.
The cause of the breakdown has not been established.
The ski lift - built in 2009 to replace a cable car and two chairlifts - connects the town of Chamrousse to the summit of the Croix de Chamrousse, 2,250m above sea level. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42474834 |
M40 crash: Two men die and four people injured - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | One vehicle is thought to have overturned in the crash, which happened between junctions 10 and 11. | Oxford | Four people involved in the crash were taken to hospital
Two men have died in a crash involving five vehicles that closed part of the M40 in Oxfordshire for several hours.
One vehicle is thought to have overturned in the crash, which happened between junctions 10 and 11, near Banbury, at 23:40 GMT on Saturday.
A 60-year-old man from Oxfordshire and a 29-year-old man from Warwickshire died.
The M40 was shut in both directions overnight for about three hours but has since reopened.
Thames Valley Police said the victims' next-of-kin had been informed.
Another man was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries, and three people were treated for minor injuries.
You might also be interested in:
The ambulance service, fire service and Highways England all attended the scene with police.
Ch Insp Henry Parsons said: "Our thoughts are with both men's families at this difficult time.
"We would like to speak to anyone who may have witnessed the collision who has not yet spoken to police."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42469902 |
Field Farm Fisheries' 'no Polish' sign taken down - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The owner of Field Farm Fisheries said the sign went up because he had caught Polish anglers stealing fish. | Oxford | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Polish fisherman Rado Papiewski wants to have the sign removed
The owner of a fishery which displayed a sign banning Polish and "Eastern bloc" anglers says it has been taken down after his family received threats.
Billy Evans of Field Farm Fisheries said the sign went up because he had caught anglers stealing fish. He said he now may also shut the fishery.
Polish fisherman Rado Papiewski raised more than £10,000 for a private prosecution to have the sign removed.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission says the sign was unlawful.
It had warned it would take "enforcement action" if necessary.
Mr Evans told the BBC: "The sign has been removed because of threats to my family.
"I am not in the country. I will decide what to do on my return. I may close it to all public long term."
Mr Evans said the fishery, in Launton, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, was closed as usual for the winter but would remain so until further notice.
He added: "I do not tolerate thieves, wherever they come from."
Billy Evans (pictured in 2009) said there had been threats to his family
Mr Papiewski, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, runs a project called Building Bridges, for the Angling Trust, which aims to "educate and integrate" anglers from other countries.
The project website explains that anglers from countries such as Poland have traditionally caught fish "for the pot", whereas in Britain anglers generally return fish to the water.
He believes the sign was is in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
Writing on his crowdfunding page on Thursday, he called its removal a "big step in the right direction and we are now seeking written confirmation that they have changed their policy and that all anglers are welcome on the site, regardless of their race or nationality".
He said his legal team were taking the matter "forward" and said he would "provide a further update early in the New Year".
An EHRC spokeswoman said it had written to the fishery to advise it to take it down.
"It's right to challenge such out-of-date practices and any business that believes this is acceptable should think again before they find themselves facing legal action," she said.
Rado Papiewski has crowdfunded more than £10,000 to pay for legal fees
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42472722 |
Moscow subway bus crash kills four people - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It ploughed into a subway entrance, leaving at least four people dead, Russian media say. | Europe | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The bus hit the entrance of a pedestrian underpass in Moscow
A bus left a road in Moscow before ploughing into a subway entrance, leaving four people dead and 11 injured, Russian officials say.
Footage shows people scattering as the bus ran down wide steps before being brought to a halt by the tunnel's roof.
There is no suggestion it was a terror attack. Russian investigators said the driver told police the vehicle had started to move suddenly.
He tried to apply the brakes but they did not work, the investigative committee said. The crash happened in icy conditions.
All those killed in the crash were knocked down by the bus, which had been at a standstill before it drove on to the pavement and careered down the steps of the underpass.
The victims included a woman in her thirties and a teenager. Health officials said two of the injured were in a serious condition.
Interfax news agency reported that the bus was not even a year old. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin told reporters at the scene that an inspection of the entire Moscow bus fleet had been ordered.
The driver is being held by police
It is not the first deadly incident at the station
Security camera footage broadcast on Russian television showed a number of people being struck by the bus as it went down the steps of the metro station in the west of the city.
A preliminary examination showed the driver of the bus was sober, news agencies said. He has been held by police.
In July 2014, 21 people were killed when a train derailed near the same station after braking abruptly.
Monday is a normal working day in Moscow, where the Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated on 7 January. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42479316 |
Tembin: Storm weakens as it nears southern Vietnam - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Storm Tembin killed at least 240 people when it battered the Philippines on its way to Vietnam. | Asia | People were earlier evacuated from the Vietnamese province of Ben Tre
A tropical storm that was threatening southern Vietnam has weakened and is expected to dissipate within 48 hours.
The Weather Prediction Center says Storm Tembin, with wind gusts up to 58mph (93km/h), is 170 miles south-southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, and is moving westward.
Nearly a million people were earlier told to prepare for evacuation and some 70,000 were moved from low-lying areas.
Tembin killed at least 240 people as it swept through the Philippines.
Rescuers are searching for more than 100 people still missing.
Bridges and roads on the southern island of Mindanao were destroyed or blocked by landslides, while nearly 1,000 houses were wrecked and many rice fields washed away.
In Vietnam, the government earlier ordered oil rigs and vessels to be secured and warned that about 62,000 fishing boats should not go out to sea, Reuters news agency reports.
"Vietnam must ensure the safety of its oil rigs and vessels," Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was quoted as saying. "If necessary, close the oil rigs and evacuate workers."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The aftermath of Storm Tembin on Mindanao island
In the southern province of Bac Lieu, residents from a fishing village were moved to different schools that have been turned into shelters. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42477268 |
Twitter #joinin campaign by comic Sarah Millican helps lonely - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Launched by comedian Sarah Millican, the hashtag hopes to bring people together on Christmas Day. | UK | People spending Christmas Day alone are finding company thanks to a Twitter campaign called #joinin.
Launched by comedian Sarah Millican several years ago, it encourages people to use the hashtag and link with one another so as not to feel lonely.
People from around the world have already begun to tweet with their experiences.
"The main rule is to be kind," said Millican. "We're all here for each other."
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Millican This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
A number of tweeters explained why they were on their own on Christmas Day.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Spanna This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Anth This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by QuirkyT This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 5 by Jessica This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 6 by Maggie is NOT Merry 🎄 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 6 by Maggie is NOT Merry 🎄
Whilst some shared their sadness, others were positive about their situation.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 7 by rbaldy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 8 by ❄ mrs snow ❄ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 9 by Tim.A.Roberts This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 10 by ° This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
And there were reminders of the people spending Christmas Day alone to help us all.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 11 by Cat This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The campaign will run throughout the day. Just use the hashtag #joinin when tweeting to be part of it. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42477266 |
White Christmas for some areas of UK - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Light snowfall has been recorded by the Met Office in Cumbria and parts of south Scotland. | UK | A white Christmas in Peebles, in the Scottish Borders
It has officially been a white Christmas in the UK for some, with areas of Cumbria and the south of Scotland recording light snowfall.
The Met Office confirmed the snowfall in Spadeadam, Cumbria, at about 22:00 GMT.
In a tweet, the forecaster added that parts of the south of Scotland were "also seeing rain turn to snow".
More wintry showers are expected, with the chance of up to 10cm of snow on the highest ground in Scotland.
The last officially white Christmas was recorded in 2014, when parts of the Northern Isles in Scotland had some snowfall.
A white Christmas used to be defined as the sighting, by a professional meteorologist, of one snow flake falling on the roof of the London Weather Centre.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
The Met Office has widened the rule to include other parts of the country.
However, the snow still must be seen by a professional to count.
The Met Office has warnings covering southern, central and eastern Scotland and the most northern parts of England.
Met forecaster Mark Wilson said the temperature would turn colder on Boxing Day, with averages of 2C and 4C in Scotland, and between 7C and 9C in the south of the UK.
It is also alerting people in Wales and central England to expect rain and snow from 18:00 GMT on Boxing Day until 11:00 GMT on Wednesday.
Persistent rain moving east, from Wales into England, is likely to turn to snow early on Wednesday.
Most of the UK enjoyed a mild Christmas Day, although it has been wet in some areas.
The highest temperature - of 12.5C - was recorded in Hawarden, Flintshire, in north-east Wales.
It failed to match the Christmas Day record of 15.6C in Killerton, Devon in 1920. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42479735 |
Serena Williams to make comeback in Abu Dhabi after giving birth - BBC Sport | 2017-12-25 | null | Former world number one Serena Williams will play her first match since giving birth in September in Abu Dhabi next week. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Serena Williams will return to tennis in Abu Dhabi next week, almost four months after giving birth.
The American, 36, will play world number seven Jelena Ostapenko in an exhibition match on 30 December during the Mubadala World Tennis Championship.
Williams, who has won an Open-era record 23 Grand Slams, said she was "delighted to be returning to the court".
She gave birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian in September.
• None Bumps, boobs and bouncing back - an athlete's path through pregnancy
Former world number one Williams has not played since winning the Australian Open in January.
Coach Patrick Mouratoglou said in November that no decision had been made over whether Williams would play in the season's first Grand Slam.
Australian Open director Craig Tilley has said Williams is "very likely" to defend her title at the 2018 tournament, which starts on 15 January.
Ranked 22nd in the world, she would not need a wildcard.
Rafael Nadal, Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka have pulled out of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, which runs from 28-30 December.
Latvian Ostapenko, whose match against Williams will be the first between women to be played at a tournament first staged in 2009, said: "It is a huge honour to be part of that history." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/42472273 |
Police watchdog investigates fatal crash - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A man dies after a BMW being followed by a police car crashes into a bus stop in Liverpool. | Liverpool | The BMW was being followed by police when it crashed into a bus stop killing the front seat passenger
The police watchdog is investigating after a man died when the BMW in which he was a passenger crashed into a bus stop when being pursued by police.
It happened at the junction of Prescot Road and Bell Street in Old Swan, Liverpool, at 04:35 GMT on Monday.
The man in his 30s was the front seat passenger and later died in hospital. The driver was detained at the scene.
Merseyside Police said officers were working to confirm the passenger's identity and tell his next of kin.
The case has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
An IPCC spokeswoman said: "We were notified of a fatal road traffic incident in Liverpool this morning by Merseyside Police.
"We have begun an independent investigation as initial information suggests the collision was preceded by a short police pursuit.
"We have deployed an investigator to the scene and police post incident procedures."
The BMW crashed at the junction of Prescot Road and Bell Street in Old Swan, police said
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-42478027 |
Burglars steal £2,000 of Christmas presents - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Children's toys, games, clothes and food were among the items stolen from an Oxford house. | Oxford | Thieves stole £2,000 worth of Christmas presents and dumped the wrapping paper in the street, police have said.
The burglars took children's toys, games, food and clothes from an unoccupied bedroom in a property in Walton Street, Oxford.
The goods were stolen in the early hours of Christmas Eve and police have appealed for witnesses.
Thames Valley Police officers said the men would have been carrying five large bags of items at the time.
PC Rebecca Nightingale said: "Christmas presents were opened and wrapping paper dropped in the street following the burglary."
The police did not release a description of the culprits. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42475284 |
Carles Puigdemont: The man who wants to break up Spain - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Catalonia's sacked President, Carles Puigdemont, has bet everything on a split from Spain. | Europe | Mr Puigdemont is not the first Catalan leader forced to leave the region
Catalonia's sacked President Carles Puigdemont has spearheaded the region's peaceful drive for independence from Spain.
In defiance of the law and Spain's constitution, he has pushed forward in the hope of international recognition.
But his zeal for secession has put him on a collision course with Spain's authorities, which outlawed the independence referendum held in Catalonia on 1 October.
But the result on 21 December was bad news for Madrid. The separatists won a slim majority, even though a pro-unity party came top.
"[Rajoy] has only demonstrated a greater mobilisation of Catalans, greater votes," Mr Puigdemont said, calling for negotiations with the Spanish PM.
He was speaking in Brussels, having fled there with four ministers after declaring independence.
The election result proved that his campaigning via videolink from Brussels had worked.
But the village baker's son from Girona faces the weight of Spanish law if he returns to Spain. The separatist leaders are accused of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
Born in Amer in 1962, Carles Puigdemont grew up under the dictatorship of Gen Francisco Franco and was taught in Spanish at a Church-run boarding school, but spoke Catalan at home like others of his generation.
Joan Matamala, a few years his senior at the school, remembers the boy everyone got on with, even the older pupils.
Bookseller Joan Matamala went to school with Carles Puigdemont
Mr Matamala runs a bookshop, Les Voltes, that has been promoting Catalan language and culture in Girona for 50 years.
The young Mr Puigdemont did not come over as a natural leader at the time, but he was someone you did not forget, he says.
"Despite the difference in age, he was a role model for others," Mr Matamala remembers.
As a young man, Mr Puigdemont had a passion for his native tongue, going on to study Catalan philology at the local university and polishing colleagues' copy when he first found work at the city's newspapers.
Miquel Riera worked with him, often late into the night, at the fiercely pro-independence paper now known as El Punt Avui.
Miquel Riera worked with Carles Puigdemont at the pro-independence newspaper now known as El Punt Avui
"Right from the start he was very interested in new technology and the internet," says Mr Riera. This may have fed Mr Puigdemont's awareness of social media, which was crucial in promoting the referendum campaign.
"He's a man who makes friends easily and remembers them," says Mr Riera, whose 25-year-old son, he says, was bruised on the chest by a police rifle butt at a polling station at the 1 October referendum.
Mr Puigdemont served as mayor of Girona from 2011 until 2016 when he was elected regional president of Catalonia.
There is no denying his star appeal among his supporters, who clamour to take selfies with him at rallies and avidly follow his social media accounts, which he curates himself.
"Mr Puigdemont has been absolutely key to bringing Catalonia to where we are now," said Montse Daban, international chairperson of the Catalan National Assembly, a grassroots pro-independence movement.
"An absolute and positive surprise for Catalan citizens" - Montse Daban describing the impact of Puigdemont
But in the eyes of Spain's government, the Catalan leader has ruthlessly created a crisis, burning all the bridges in order to make a unilateral declaration of independence.
"Democracy is not about voting - there are referenda in dictatorships too," a Madrid government source told the BBC. "Only when you vote with guarantees according to the law is it a democracy."
Images of violence at the polling stations in October's banned referendum caused an international outcry.
But the source said this was "150% part of Puigdemont's plan".
"It's unfortunate because it was a trap. There's no doubt it looks bad for the Spanish government."
Mr Puigdemont talks the language of independence in a way his more cautious predecessor, Artur Mas, did not during the dry-run referendum of 2014, which was also banned by Madrid.
Speaking to the BBC after the 1 October referendum, Mr Puigdemont said: "I think we've won the right to be heard, but what I find harder to understand is this indifference - or absolute lack of interest - in understanding what is happening here. They've never wanted to listen to us.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police were filmed violently tackling voters and appearing to pull a woman by her hair
"How can we explain to the world that Europe is a paradise of democracy if we hit old women and people who've done nothing wrong? This is not acceptable. We haven't seen such a disproportionate and brutal use of force since the death of the dictator Franco."
He calls for mediation - something the Spanish government says is unacceptable.
A Madrid source dismissed the idea, telling the BBC it would be "mediation between the Spanish government and part of the Spanish state".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
From Brussels, Mr Puigdemont has watched as his Catalan allies back home have been placed in Spanish custody to face trial.
He has been mocked by some for not going to Madrid along with them and placing himself in the hands of Spanish justice.
One cartoon apparently being circulated on the Whatsapp messaging app shows him, with his distinctive mop of hair and glasses, hiding out in a box of Belgian chocolates.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Pascal Hansens This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
But Mr Puigdemont told Belgian TV he was not hiding from "real justice" but from the "clearly politicised" Spanish legal system.
Last year Spain issued then dropped European arrest warrants against him and his four colleagues in Belgium.
But he was arrested in Germany on 25 March while travelling back to Brussels from a conference in Finland. The European arrest warrant against him had been reissued two days earlier, apparently taking him by surprise.
Germany must now decide whether to extradite him to Spain.
Meanwhile, the man from Girona is keeping the cause he holds so dear, Catalan independence, squarely on the doorstep of the European Union. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41508660 |
TV dinners: The hidden cost of the processed food revolution - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The industrialisation of food production has saved us time - but we are paying the price in other ways. | Business | It is a typical November Tuesday for Mary, who lives in the north-east of the United States.
She is 44, has a degree, and her family is prosperous - in the top quarter of American households by income. So what has she done today? Is she a lawyer or a teacher?
No. Mary spent an hour knitting and sewing, two hours setting the table and doing the dishes and well over two hours preparing and cooking food.
She is not unusual, because it is 1965 and at that time, many married American women - even those with an excellent education - spent large chunks of their day catering for their families.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world in which we live.
We know about Mary's day - and those of many others - because of time-use surveys conducted around the world. These diaries reveal precisely how different people use their time.
For educated women, the way time is spent in the US and other rich countries has changed radically over the past half a century.
Women in America now spend around 45 minutes per day in total cooking and cleaning up. That's still much more than men, who spend only 15 minutes a day doing such tasks. But it is a vast reduction from Mary's four hours.
Behind this shift is a radical change to the way the food we eat is prepared, as seen by the introduction of the TV dinner in 1954.
Presented in a space-age aluminium tray, and prepared so that everything would require the same cooking time, the "frozen turkey tray TV dinner" was developed by a bacteriologist called Betty Cronin.
She worked for the Swanson food processing company, keen to find ways to keep busy after the business of supplying rations to US troops had dried up.
But of course the TV dinner was only part of a panoply of changes, wrought by the availability of freezers, microwaves, preservatives and production lines.
Food had been perhaps the last cottage industry: something that would overwhelmingly be produced in the home.
But food preparation has been industrialised - outsourced to restaurants and takeaways and to factories that prepare ready-to-eat or ready-to-cook meals.
And the invention of the industrial meal - in all its forms - has led to a profound shift in the modern economy.
How we spend on food is changing.
In 2015, US consumers spent more money on food and drink outside their home than on groceries for the first time
American families spend increasingly more outside the home - on fast food, restaurant meals, sandwiches and snacks. Only a quarter of food spending was outside the home in the 1960s.
That has steadily risen over time and in 2015 a landmark was reached: for the first time, Americans spent more on food and drink outside the home than at grocery stores. The British passed that particular milestone more than a decade earlier.
Even within the home, food is increasingly processed to save the chef time and effort: bagged chopped salad, pre-grated cheese, jars of pasta sauce, individual permeable tea bags, meatballs doused in sauce and chicken that comes plucked and gutted.
Each new innovation would seem bizarre to the older generation.
I have never plucked a chicken and perhaps my children will never chop salad. All this saves time - serious amounts of time.
When the economist Valerie Ramey compared time-use diaries in the US between the 1920s and the 1960s, she found that surprisingly little had changed.
Whether women were uneducated and married to farmers, or highly educated and married to urban professionals, they still spent similar amounts of time on housework across those 50 years.
It was only in the 1960s that this pattern began to shift.
But surely the innovation responsible for emancipating women was not the TV dinner, but the washing machine?
The idea is widely believed and is appealing. A frozen TV dinner does not really feel like progress, compared to home-cooked food.
The washing machine was innovative, but did not save much time
But a washing machine is clean and efficient and replaces work that was always drudgery. How could it not have been revolutionary?
However, the revolution wasn't in the lives of women, it was in how lemon fresh we all started to smell.
As Alison Wolf argues in her book The XX Factor, the evidence is clear that the washing machine did not save a lot of time, because before washing machines, we did not wash clothes very often. When it took all day to wash and dry a few shirts, people used replaceable collars and cuffs or dark outer layers to hide the grime.
In contrast, when it took two or three hours to prepare a meal, someone had to take that time. There was not an alternative. The washing machine did not save much time, and the ready meal did, because we were not willing to starve, but we were willing to stink.
The availability of ready meals has had some regrettable side-effects.
Obesity rates rose sharply in developed countries between the 1970s and the early 21st Century, at much the same time as these culinary innovations were being developed. This is no coincidence, say health economists. The cost of calories has fallen dramatically, not just in financial terms but also in terms of time.
Consider the humble potato. It has long been a staple of the American diet, but before World War Two potatoes were usually baked, mashed or boiled. There's a reason for that: roast potatoes need to be peeled, chopped, par-boiled and then roasted. French fries or chips must be finely chopped and then deep fried.
Over time, however, the production of fried sliced potato chips - both French fries and crisps - was centralised. French fries can be peeled, chopped, fried and frozen in a factory and then refried in a fast-food restaurant or microwaved at home.
Obesity rates have risen sharply since the large scale industrialisation of food production
Between 1977 and 1995, American potato consumption increased by a third, almost entirely because of the rise of fried potatoes.
Even simpler, crisps can be fried, salted, flavoured and packaged to last for many weeks on the shelf. But this convenience comes at a cost.
In the US, calorie intake by adults rose by about 10% between the 1970s and the 1990s. Not as a result of more calorific regular meals but because of increased snacking - usually of processed convenience food.
Psychology - and common sense - suggest this should not be a surprise.
Experiments by behavioural scientists show that we make very different decisions about what to eat depending on how far away the meal is. A long-planned meal is likely to be nutritious, but when we make more impulsive decisions, our snacks are more likely to be junk food than something nourishing.
The industrialisation of food - symbolised by the TV dinner - changed our economy in two important ways. It freed women from hours of domestic chores, removing a large obstacle to them adopting serious professional careers.
But by making empty calories ever more convenient to acquire, it also freed our waistlines to expand.
The challenge now - as with so many inventions - is to enjoy the benefit without also suffering the cost. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39490182 |
Meghan Markle to spend Christmas with Queen at Sandringham - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Recently engaged Ms Markle and Prince Harry will attend the church service at the Sandringham estate. | UK | Meghan Markle will spend Christmas at Sandringham with the Queen and other senior members of the Royal Family, Kensington Palace has confirmed.
Ms Markle and Prince Harry, who announced their engagement last month, are expected to attend the traditional Christmas Day church service on the Queen's private estate in Norfolk.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will also spend Christmas Day there.
The prince and American Ms Markle are due to marry in May next year.
It is tradition for the Royal Family to attend the morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church on 25 December.
The Royal Family will gather for Christmas lunch at Sandringham House
Typically, hundreds of well-wishers gather along the route to the church to catch a glimpse of the Queen and other royals.
Some of the younger members of the family speak to the public and receive bouquets of flowers.
Later, they all return to Sandringham House for Christmas lunch, before watching the Queen's Christmas Day address in the afternoon.
In step with German tradition, the family exchanges presents on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42336684 |
China's huge new amphibious aircraft takes flight - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | null | China's AG600 - which is roughly the size of a Boeing 737 - lifted off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong. | null | China's huge new amphibious aircraft has made a successful one-hour maiden flight. China's AG600 - which is roughly the size of a Boeing 737 but with four turboprop engines - lifted off from Zhuhai airport in the southern province of Guangdong. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-42473652 |
Bethlehem Christmas: Church of the Nativity hosts pilgrims - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | null | Christians from around the world gather at the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Eve. | null | Christian pilgrims from around the world have attended a Christmas Eve Mass at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built on the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
Fewer people than usual were in the West Bank town because of increased tensions between Palestinians and the Israeli army since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
During the Mass attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa said: "Jerusalem is a city of peace, there is not peace if someone is excluded."
Earlier, Palestinian scouts played bagpipes during an annual march towards the church. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-42475225 |
Vitaly Mutko: Russia football head steps aside amid doping ban - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Vitaly Mutko, who has stood down temporarily, was banned from the Olympics for life over doping. | Europe | Vitaly Mutko will remain the chief organiser of the 2018 football World Cup
Russia's most senior football official has temporarily stood down as he fights a ban given for state-backed doping.
Vitaly Mutko was banned from the Olympics for life in early December having been accused of running a huge Olympic doping programme.
Mr Mutko said he would stand down as president of the Russian Football Union while he contests the ban.
He has always denied taking part in doping but Russia was banned from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Mr Mutko will continue to carry out his role as the chief organiser of next summer's football World Cup in Russia.
Whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov, a former Russian anti-doping agency worker, told the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that Mr Mutko, a former sports minister, "created and ran" Russia's "state-directed" doping programme.
Mr Mutko, he said, "received help from other state officials" including "Vladimir Putin's authorisation of a decree that required urine and blood samples carried by foreign anti-doping inspectors to be approved".
Mr Mutko was also directly implicated in the McLaren report, an independent investigation looking into whether the Russia state backed doping in sport.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. IOC president: An 'unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympics'
Mr Stepanov's testimony, made public in early December, led to Russia's ban from the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Russian athletes who can prove they are clean would be allowed to compete in the Games under a neutral flag.
Mr Mutko, one of Russia's deputy prime ministers, said that he would step down "so that our organisations are not disturbed during the legal investigation". He said he was appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42480603 |
Why did we use leaded petrol for so long? - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The arguments nearly a century ago over the use of leaded petrol. | Business | Leaded petrol was safe. Its inventor was sure of it.
Facing sceptical reporters at a press conference in October 1924, Thomas Midgley dramatically produced a container of tetraethyl lead - the additive in question - and washed his hands in it.
"I'm not taking any chance whatever," Midgley declared. "Nor would I... doing that every day."
Midgley was - perhaps - being a little disingenuous. He had recently spent several months in Florida, recuperating from lead poisoning.
Some of those who'd made Midgley's invention hadn't been so lucky, which is why reporters were interested.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world in which we live.
On the Thursday of the week before Midgley's press conference, at a Standard Oil plant in New Jersey, a worker named Ernest Oelgert started hallucinating. By Friday, he was running around the laboratory, screaming in terror.
On Saturday, with Oelgert dangerously unhinged, his sister called the police. He was taken to hospital and forcibly restrained. By Sunday, he was dead. Within the week, so were four of his colleagues - and 35 more were in hospital.
None of this surprised workers elsewhere in Standard Oil's facility. They knew there was a problem with tetraethyl lead.
As Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner note in their book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, the lab where it was developed was known as "the loony gas building".
Nor should it have shocked Standard Oil, General Motors or the DuPont Corporation, the three companies involved with adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline.
An aerial photograph of DuPont's Deepwater factory site, where tetraethyl lead was developed
The first production line in Ohio had already been shut down after two deaths. A third plant elsewhere in New Jersey had also seen fatalities. Workers kept hallucinating insects - the lab was known as "the house of butterflies".
Better working practices could make tetraethyl lead safe to produce. But was it really sensible to add it to petrol, when the fumes would be belched out on to city streets?
About a century ago, when General Motors had first proposed adding lead to petrol - in order to improve performance - scientists were alarmed. They urged the government to investigate the public health implications.
Midgley breezily assured the surgeon general that "the average street will probably be so free from lead that it will be impossible to detect it or its absorption", although he conceded that "no actual experimental data has been taken".
General Motors funded a government bureau to conduct some research, adding a clause saying it had to approve the findings.
The bureau's report was published amid the media frenzy over Oelgert's poisoned workmates. It gave tetraethyl lead a clean bill of health and was met with some scepticism.
Under pressure, the government organised a conference in Washington DC in May 1925. The debate there exemplified the two extremes of approach to any new idea that looks risky, but useful.
In one corner: Frank Howard, vice-president of the Ethyl Corporation - a joint venture between General Motors and Standard Oil. He called leaded petrol a "gift of God", arguing that "continued development of motor fuels is essential in our civilization".
Dr Alice Hamilton argued the benefits of adding lead to petrol were outweighed by the risks
In the other corner: Dr Alice Hamilton, the country's foremost authority on lead.
She argued leaded petrol was a chance not worth taking. "Where there is lead," she said, "some case of lead poisoning sooner or later develops, even under the strictest supervision."
Hamilton knew that lead had been poisoning people for thousands of years. In 1678, workers who made lead white - a pigment for paint - were described as suffering ailments including "dizziness in the head, with continuous great pain in the brows, blindness, stupidity".
The Romans used lead in water pipes. Lead miners often ended up mad or dead - and some correctly intuited that low-level, long-term exposure was also unwise.
"Water conducted through earthen pipes is more wholesome than that through lead," wrote the civil engineer Vitruvius, 2,000 years ago. "This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid colour."
Many societies still grapple with the general question on which Howard and Hamilton disagreed: how much pollution is a price worth paying for progress?
There's some evidence that as countries get richer, they tend initially to get dirtier and later clean up.
Economists call this the "environmental Kuznets curve", and it makes intuitive sense. If you're poor, you prioritise material gains. As your income grows, you may choose to spend some of it on a nicer, safer environment.
The Roman civil engineer Vitruvius warned against the dangers of lead 2,000 years ago
But was lead-free petrol really such an expensive luxury? True, the lead additive solved a problem: it enabled engines to use higher compression ratios, which made cars more powerful.
However, it was not the only way to solve the problem.
Ethyl alcohol had much the same effect and wouldn't mess with your head, unless you drank it. Midgley knew this, having combined petrol with practically every imaginable substance, from iodine to camphor to melted butter.
Why did the petrol companies push tetraethyl lead instead of ethyl alcohol? Researchers who have studied the decision remain puzzled. Cynics might point out that any old farmer could distil ethyl alcohol from grain. It couldn't be patented, or its distribution profitably controlled. Tetraethyl lead could.
The US didn't tax lead in petrol until the 1970s, then finally banned it as part of clean air legislation, as the country moved down the far side of the environmental Kuznets curve.
Two decades later, in the 1990s, rates of violent crime started to go down. There are many reasons why this might have happened, but the economist Jessica Reyes had an intriguing thought.
Children's brains are especially susceptible to chronic lead poisoning. Is it possible that kids who didn't breathe leaded petrol fumes grew up to commit less violent crime?
Reyes could test her hypothesis: different US states phased out leaded petrol at different times.
By comparing the dates of clean air legislation with subsequent crime data, she concluded that more than half the drop - 56% - was because of cars switching to unleaded petrol.
Other researchers have found similar links between lead water pipes and urban homicide.
You can put a dollar figure on the value of crime reduction, Reyes found. It's about 20 times higher than the cost of de-leading petrol - and that's before you count other downsides of children breathing lead, like worse performance in school.
How did the US get this so wrong for so long?
Asbestos continued to be widely used in construction despite the emerging evidence of its dangers
It's a tale of disputed science and delayed regulation, much like you could tell about asbestos, or tobacco, or other products we now know slowly kill us.
The problem is that people who want to ban things aren't always disinterested visionaries like Hamilton. Sometimes they're obstructive cranks. The only way to tell the difference is by conducting studies.
And, as Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner point out, "For the next four decades, all studies of the use of tetraethyl lead were conducted by laboratories and scientists funded by the Ethyl Corporation and General Motors".
And what of the scientist who first put lead in petrol?
By all accounts, Midgley was a genial man who may even have believed his own spin about the safety of a daily tetraethyl lead handwash.
But, as an inventor, his inspirations seem to have been cursed. His second major contribution to civilisation was the chlorofluorocarbon, or CFC, which improved refrigerators, but destroyed the ozone layer.
In middle age, afflicted by polio, Midgley applied his inventor's mind to lifting his weakened body out of bed. He devised an ingenious system of pulleys and strings. They tangled around his neck, and killed him. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40593353 |
The iPhone at 10: How the smartphone became so smart - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Tim Harford tells the surprising story of how the iPhone became a truly revolutionary technology. | Business | On 9 January 2007, one of the most influential entrepreneurs on the planet announced something new - a product that was to become the most profitable in history.
It was, of course, the iPhone. There are many ways in which the iPhone has defined the modern economy.
There is the sheer profitability of the thing, of course: there are only two or three companies in the world that make as much money as Apple does from the iPhone alone.
Apple may not have sold the first smartphone, but the iPhone represented a quantum leap compared with earlier models, and its version became an object of desire for most of humanity.
There's the way the iPhone transformed other markets - software, music, and advertising.
But those are just the obvious facts about the iPhone. And when you delve more deeply, the tale is a surprising one. We give credit to Steve Jobs and other leading figures in Apple - his early partner Steve Wozniak, his successor Tim Cook, his visionary designer Sir Jony Ive - but some of the most important actors in this story have been forgotten.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world we live in.
It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.
Ask yourself: what actually makes an iPhone an iPhone? It's partly the cool design, the user interface, the attention to detail in the way the software works and the hardware feels. But underneath the charming surface of the iPhone are some critical elements that made it, and all the other smartphones, possible.
The economist Mariana Mazzucato has made a list of 12 key technologies that make smartphones work: 1) tiny microprocessors, 2) memory chips, 3) solid state hard drives, 4) liquid crystal displays and 5) lithium-based batteries. That's the hardware.
Then there are the networks and the software. So 6) Fast-Fourier-Transform algorithms - clever bits of maths that make it possible to swiftly turn analogue signals such as sound, visible light and radio waves into digital signals that a computer can handle.
At 7) - and you might have heard of this one - the internet. A smartphone isn't a smartphone without the internet.
At 8) HTTP and HTML, the languages and protocols that turned the hard-to-use internet into the easy-to-access World Wide Web. 9) Cellular networks. Otherwise your smartphone not only isn't smart, it's not even a phone. 10) Global Positioning Systems or GPS. 11) The touchscreen. 12) Siri, the voice-activated artificial intelligence agent.
Apple's designer Sir Jony Ive has been widely lauded for his contribution to the iPhone's success
All of these technologies are important components of what makes an iPhone, or any smartphone, actually work. Some of them are not just important, but indispensable. But when Mariana Mazzucato assembled this list of technologies, and reviewed their history, she found something striking.
The foundational figure in the development of the iPhone wasn't Steve Jobs. It was Uncle Sam. Every single one of these 12 key technologies was supported in significant ways by governments - often the American government.
A few of these cases are famous. Many people know, for example, that the World Wide Web owes its existence to the work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He was a software engineer employed at Cern, the particle physics research centre in Geneva that is funded by governments across Europe.
And the internet itself started as Arpanet - an unprecedented network of computers funded by the US Department of Defense in the early 1960s. GPS, of course, was a pure military technology, developed during the Cold War and opened up to civilian use only in the 1980s.
Other examples are less famous, though scarcely less important.
Smartphones have all benefited from government investment in technology
The Fast-Fourier-Transform is a family of algorithms that have made it possible to move from a world where the telephone, the television and the gramophone worked on analogue signals, to a world where everything is digitised and can therefore be dealt with by computers such as the iPhone.
The most common such algorithm was developed from a flash of insight from the great American mathematician John Tukey. What was Tukey working on at the time? You've guessed it: a military application.
Specifically, he was on President Kennedy's Scientific Advisory committee in 1963, trying to figure out how to detect when the Soviet Union was testing nuclear weapons.
Smartphones wouldn't be smartphones without their touchscreens - but the inventor of the touchscreen was an engineer named EA Johnson, whose initial research was carried out while Johnson was employed by the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a stuffily-named agency of the British government.
The work was further developed at Cern - those guys again. Eventually multi-touch technology was commercialised by researchers at the University of Delaware in the United States - Wayne Westerman and John Elias, who sold their company to Apple itself.
Touchscreen technology has gone on to drive the development of tablet computers
Yet even at that late stage in the game, governments played their part: Wayne Westerman's research fellowship was funded by the US National Science Foundation and the CIA.
Then there's the girl with the silicon voice, Siri.
Back in the year 2000, seven years before the first iPhone, the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, Darpa, commissioned the Stanford Research Institute to develop a kind of proto-Siri, a virtual office assistant that might help military personnel to do their jobs.
Twenty universities were brought into the project, furiously working on all the different technologies necessary to make a voice-activated virtual assistant a reality.
Seven years later, the research was commercialised as a start-up, Siri Incorporated- and it was only in 2010 that Apple stepped in to acquire the results for an undisclosed sum.
Increasingly sophisticated lithium-ion batteries have been essential for smartphone growth
As for hard drives, lithium-ion batteries, liquid crystal displays and semiconductors themselves - there are similar stories to be told.
In each case, there was scientific brilliance and plenty of private sector entrepreneurship. But there were also wads of cash thrown at the problem by government agencies - usually US government agencies, and for that matter, usually some arm of the US military.
Silicon Valley itself owes a great debt to Fairchild Semiconductor - the company that developed the first commercially practical integrated circuits. And Fairchild Semiconductor, in its early days, depended on military procurement.
Of course, the US military didn't make the iPhone. Cern did not create Facebook or Google. These technologies, that so many people rely on today, were honed and commercialised by the private sector. But it was government funding and government risk-taking that made all these things possible.
That's a thought to hold on to as we ponder the technological challenges ahead in fields such energy and biotechnology.
Steve Jobs was a genius, there's no denying that. One of his remarkable side projects was the animation studio Pixar - which changed the world of film when it released the digitally animated film, Toy Story.
Even without the touchscreen and the internet and the Fast-Fourier-Transform, Steve Jobs might well have created something wonderful.
But it would not have been a world-shaking technology like the iPhone. More likely it would, like Woody and Buzz, have been an utterly charming toy.
Tim Harford is the FT's Undercover Economist. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy was broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.
Correction: An earlier version of this story suggested the iPhone was the first smartphone, but other smartphones had predated its launch in 2007. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38320198 |
Lost Mac the monkey returned to toddler for Christmas - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | People began a race to unite toddler Finn with Mac the monkey in time for Christmas. | Sussex | Mac was flown to Knock to join Finn who is spending Christmas in Ireland
A lost toy monkey has been returned to its two-year-old owner after a race to reunite the pair for Christmas.
Finn Regan-Alexander left the toy on an Aer Lingus plane after the family flew from Gatwick to Knock to visit relatives on 19 December.
After Finn's mother Louise tweeted an appeal, "sightings" of Mac were reported in pubs, planes and lost and alone in Glasgow.
The real Mac was found and flown to Knock by the airline.
The tweet appealing for help in finding Mac was shared more than 1,500 times - with many sharing their own experiences of lost cuddly toy heartbreak.
Some children, including a seven-year-old boy, offered to send their own soft toys to Finn.
Mac went missing when the family, from Camberwell, south London, travelled to visit Mrs Regan-Alexander's parents.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Louise This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Architect Mrs Regan-Alexander said a TV producer saw the appeal on the BBC News website and realised she had seen Mac - who wears a green tunic made out of an old sock and has two sticking plasters to match his owner's grazes - on the plane.
After that sighting, airline staff alerted to Mac's plight managed to trace the toy and arrange its belated holiday trip to Ireland.
Mrs Regan-Alexander said: "Mac was flown back in time for Christmas.
"Thanks to everyone who provided their online support and shared their own stories of love and loss.
"To all the children who offered Finn their monkeys, I hope Santa is listening."
Mac the monkey has clothes made out of a sock and sticking plasters to match his owner's grazes
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-42472062 |
Heather Menzies-Urich, The Sound of Music's Louisa von Trapp, dies - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Heather Menzies-Urich's son Ryan said she was diagnosed with brain cancer four weeks ago. | Entertainment & Arts | Heather Menzies, second right next to Julie Andrews, has died aged 68
Heather Menzies-Urich, who played Louisa Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, has died aged 68.
Her death was announced by the estate of the musical's creators, Rodgers & Hammerstein, on Monday.
She was diagnosed with brain cancer four weeks ago and died on Christmas Eve, news site TMZ quoted her son Ryan as saying.
"She was an actress, a ballerina and loved living her life to the fullest," he told TMZ.
Born Heather Menzies in Toronto, she was 15 when the musical film was released in 1965. It went on to win 10 Oscars, including best picture.
She played the mischievous third Von Trapp child Louisa, but her later television and film appearances did not hit the same heights.
At 23, she posed nude for Playboy magazine under the headline The Tender Trapp, a decision she said horrified her Presbyterian parents, who were originally from Scotland.
She married actor and film producer Robert Urich in 1975, but he died in 2002.
Among those to pay tribute were Kym Karath, who played Gretl in the film.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kym Karath This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by The Sound of Music This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post 2 by The Sound of Music
"Heather was part of 'the family'," Ted Chapin, of the Rodgers & Hammerstein estate, said.
"Heather was a cheerful and positive member of the group, always hoping for the next gathering. We are all lucky to have known her, and she will happily live on in that beautiful movie. We will miss her."
Her death comes 14 months after that of Charmian Carr, who played the eldest Von Trapp daughter Liesl.
From L to R: Heather Menzies-Urich (Louisa von Trapp), Debbie Turner (Marta) and Kym Karath (Gretl) at the 50th anniversary of the film in 2015 | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42479649 |
Russia elections: Hundreds vote to nominate Navalny - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | null | Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gather to nominate him for presidential elections. | null | Supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have gathered in Moscow to nominate him for presidential elections.
But the authorities say that because of a criminal conviction, which he says is politically motivated, he will not be allowed to stand. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42473667 |
SPD crash: Car rammed into German political party's HQ - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A man crashed into the entrance of the SPD's headquarters in Berlin on Christmas Eve. | Europe | The driver crashed into the entranceway of the Social Democratic Party's Berlin headquarters
A man rammed a car into the headquarters of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin on Christmas Eve, police have said.
The crash happened at around midnight local time (23:00 GMT). The driver, a 58-year-old man, was believed to be the only person injured.
The driver told police he had intended to kill himself, Berlin police said.
Officers found petrol canisters and lighter fluid inside the car, according to local reports.
Investigators were treating the incident as a possible arson attempt and also revealed that the man had earlier left a bag containing gas canisters in front of the headquarters of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, the Christian Democrat CDU, a few minutes' drive away.
There was no indication that the man, who was slightly injured in the crash, was an extremist, Berlin media said.
It was unclear whether the Social Democrats had been holding a function inside the building, known as the Willy Brandt House, at the time.
Although a fire broke out, the building's sprinkler system put it out.
The SPD governed in a "grand coalition" with Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats between 2013 and 2017, but its leaders vowed to end the alliance in September, when the party got its worst results since 1949.
Chancellor Merkel has since been unable to form a majority government with other parties, and the SPD has agreed to "open-ended" talks on a possible new coalition. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42477077 |
Archbishop Welby condemns populist leaders in Christmas sermon - BBC News | 2017-12-25 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Church of England's most senior cleric focuses on terrorist atrocities and deceitfulness of "populist leaders" in 2017. | UK | The Archbishop of Canterbury has used his Christmas Day sermon to focus on terrorist atrocities and deceitfulness of "populist leaders" in 2017.
Preaching to worshippers at Canterbury Cathedral, the Most Rev Justin Welby compared the Holy Family to modern-day refugees.
He also contrasted Jesus with "populist leaders that deceive" their people.
His Catholic counterpart, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, called for a rejection of "radical individualism" in society.
Preaching at the Sung Eucharist service, the Archbishop said that the nature of power meant those who have it, seek to hold on to it.
He said: "In 2017 we have seen around the world tyrannical leaders that enslave their peoples, populist leaders that deceive them, corrupt leaders that rob them, even simply democratic, well-intentioned leaders of many parties and countries who are normal, fallible human beings."
He condemned terrorist atrocities and those who claimed that terror was "the path to freedom in God".
Like the Pope the Archbishop drew parallels between the Nativity story and the migrant crisis.
He said: "[The Holy Family] flee as refugees, like over 60 million people today.
"Yet their story is the beginning of ours, it is an invitation to lives of freedom, found through God's freely offered love."
In his midnight homily, the Roman Catholic Church's most senior cleric in England and Wales warned of "radical individualism" in society and said there was "conflict in the air, not dialogue".
Cardinal Nichols added he hoped Christmas would bring "green shoots of hope".
Speaking to the BBC before the Christmas midnight Mass in Westminster Cathedral, London, Cardinal Nichols said: "In social media there's a barrage of views and once a statement or claim is made there's immediately a counterclaim, and the mode of exchange is conflict."
He added that society needs "to get over that notion that faith in God and reason are somehow opposed".
He said "the heart has reasons that the mind doesn't always understand".
When asked about the part that religion plays in conflicts, he maintained faith was not the primary reason for unrest in places like the Middle East.
"Even the conflict in Northern Ireland; reading of it it that it was essentially about religious faith, is an inadequate rather superficial meaning.
"Most conflicts are about power and territories and borders and wealth," the cardinal said.
"Often religious identity is in there in the mix but I don't think for the most part it is the key issue." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42475285 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.