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Six Nations 2017: Scotland's Hamish Watson replaces John Hardie for England match - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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The introduction of Hamish Watson for the injured John Hardie is Scotland's only change for Saturday's visit to Twickenham to face England.
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Last updated on .From the section Scottish Rugby
Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 live & BBC Radio Scotland, plus live text commentary via the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app
Head coach Vern Cotter has brought Edinburgh flanker Hamish Watson into Scotland's starting XV for Saturday's Calcutta Cup match against England.
In the only change to the team, the back-rower replaces club-mate John Hardie, who is injured, while Cornell du Preez comes on to the bench.
It means the backline is unchanged for the trip to Twickenham, a venue where Scotland have not won since 1983.
Ali Price again deputises at scrum-half for injured skipper Greig Laidlaw.
He and stand-off Finn Russell are likely to be key figures as the Scots seek a third win in this year's championship following Murrayfield successes against Ireland and Wales.
While Scotland seek their first Triple Crown since 1990, England are aiming to equal New Zealand's record of 18 straight Test wins for a tier-one nation.
Watson started the first two matches of the campaign and, to earn his eighth cap, replaced Hardie in the first half of the game against Wales when he damaged his knee.
Glasgow Warriors provide the entire Scotland front row of Gordon Reid, Fraser Brown and Zander Fagerson, backed by locks Jonny and Richie Gray and with captain John Barclay and number eight Ryan Wilson completing the back-row.
• None Listen: Could the Twickenham crowd turn on England?
"There's a lot to play for and several reasons why we should be able to get up for this game," said Cotter in his penultimate match as head coach.
"We've rested, recovered and prepared as best we can for this game. We've asked some questions of ourselves and the areas we think we can improve and we're confident we can play better as a team.
"The challenge is for us to combine the best parts of our performances so far in this campaign in to one excellent performance at Twickenham this Saturday.
"We'll need that to put us in a position to win this game and will enjoy the challenge of doing that against an England team that hasn't lost in a while."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39215973
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Arsene Wenger: Is Arsenal's Bayern Munich defeat end of the road? - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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There was no mutiny at Arsenal, but there were ominous signs that Arsene Wenger has reached the end, writes Phil McNulty.
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Arsene Wenger stood in isolation and desolation in his technical area as the pain he suffers this time every year nagged away at him once more - but now it was accompanied by an inescapable feeling of finality.
As his Arsenal side dissolved and were brutally dispatched by Bayern Munich - once they awoke from 45 minutes of complacency - Wenger will have felt every goal, every added humiliation, like a blow to the solar plexus. Five second-half goals. Five more questions to ponder.
A proud man, Wenger will have surveyed the thousands of empty seats that increased in number at Emirates Stadium with every Bayern strike on the way to a humiliating 10-2 aggregate loss and surely questioned what more he can do at Arsenal.
The Gunners were out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage for the seventh successive season. However, few nights could have been more chastening than this one for the man who has known such glory, but who now may be contemplating the end of the road.
Once the German champions were prodded into life by a generous penalty award and a red card after Laurent Koscielny fouled Robert Lewandowski, they delivered a ruthless verdict on just how far Arsenal have been marginalised from the elite European group they once occupied with style and with regularity. It underscored a dramatic fall from grace.
Wenger was not subjected to widespread rebellion or mutiny inside the stadium, but there were ominous signs that can often be used as indicators that a manager's future has reached its defining moment.
A group of Arsenal fans, not huge in number but noisy, led a protest march on Emirates Stadium from their old Highbury home, brandishing banners that read "Enough Is Enough", "No New Contract", "All Good Things Come To An End" - and what looked like a rather hastily assembled affair that read: "Stubborn. Stale. Clueless."
They chanted "Arsene Wenger - You're Killing Our Club" - harsh and heartbreaking words aimed at a man who, whatever even his fiercest critic will say, loves Arsenal and has done so much to enrich them.
It was strictly a minority. But an even more significant indicator may have been the large number of empty seats inside the Emirates. It was announced that 59,911 tickets had been sold - but it was fair to say 59,911 had not pitched up, many clearly deciding they had better things to do despite having shelled out hard-earned cash.
Arsenal equipped themselves well for 45 minutes, but the whole night and performance had the stench of too little, too late - and there is no good news, no consolation, no hard luck story about successive 5-1 defeats in the Champions League.
The manner in which Arsenal collapsed once Bayern equalised was an alarming barometer of fragile confidence, belief and morale. It was understandable heads would go down as hope was snuffed out, but the manner in which they were picked apart was horrendous. Players were stretched hopelessly out of position and Bayern almost scored at will.
Alexis Sanchez was even robbed by Arjen Robben, hardly a tackling heavyweight, on the edge of his own area for one goal in an incident that summed up the Chile forward's night after the controversy of his exclusion at Liverpool.
Sanchez was a central figure amid stories of training ground unrest but he was restored here as Arsenal went in search of a miracle.
He was greeted warmly by Arsenal's fans when his name was announced, but he was not able to make a point to Wenger or anyone else on this night and his wave as he was substituted late on could even have been construed as the start of a long farewell between now and the end of the season.
After taking his seat on the bench, Sanchez was pictured chuckling briefly, something that riled some supporters on social media, despite it being impossible to determine precisely what he had found humorous.
The backdrop to this dead rubber - there was never any realistic chance of this Arsenal side in their current condition reviving it even when they took the lead on the night - was a cloud of uncertainty over the club that is becoming increasingly toxic.
There are no guarantees about the future of arguably the three highest-profile figures at Arsenal, a state of affairs creating a mood of chaos around Emirates Stadium.
Wenger is giving no clues as to whether he will sign a two-year deal that is on the table, amid mounting criticism of his methods. Sanchez looks certain to depart in the summer as his relationship with the club fractures. And Mesut Ozil's stock has fallen as his own contract situation is shrouded in mystery.
This would be a situation to prey on the nerves and frustrations of Arsenal's fans even before it is set alongside a team that look further away than ever from a Premier League title challenge and now suffering from one of their most humiliating, harrowing Champions League experiences.
The double figures aggregate loss actually might have been worse and this latest last-16 exit is made even more painful by being cloaked in the feeling of an end of an era after a Champions League story that has increasingly become one of diminishing returns for Wenger and Arsenal.
They were made to look light years away from Europe's elite by Bayern. Wenger may have cursed the luck of the draw once more - and even the officials - but there was no escaping a seventh straight exit at the last-16 stage.
The Gunners are the first side to lose five consecutive home knockout ties in Champions League history. Arsene Wenger's side suffered the joint second heaviest aggregate defeat in Champions League history (2-10), and the highest for an English team. This is the first time Arsenal have conceded five goals at home since November 1998 (against Chelsea in League Cup - a 5-0 loss).
As Arsenal fans gathered on Holloway Road and around Emirates Stadium before kick-off the pervading emotion was gloom. There was no sense this Arsenal could frighten Bayern in the same way they frightened AC Milan here almost five years ago to the day, when they had the Italian giants rocking at 3-0 down after losing the first leg 4-0.
And so it proved. Not this time. Wenger's Arsenal, in this Champions League context at least, now find even a gallant near-miss beyond them.
If there is the growing sense that this is Wenger's final fling, there was also an ominous feeling of an extra layer of fear to add to the frustration of Arsenal's supporters. Is this finally the time they end up without Champions League football for the first time this century?
Wenger's sense of pride would be damaged enough by an elimination as wounding as this, an exit that left no room for debate about Arsenal's reduced status. It might hurt even more if he had to start life outside the European footballing environment that has become his and Arsenal's natural home.
The Gunners have always managed to find a place in the Premier League's top four but this now faces its most serious threat, with Chelsea the champions-elect and Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool (and arguably even Manchester United) all looking in better shape.
Wenger, who wrote about "our pride and our honour" being at stake in his match notes, might have to swallow his own pride should Arsenal end up with only a Europa League place at the end of this season. There was no pride or honour to take away from this night.
Would Wenger, at 67, have the desire to effectively start again and rebuild in Europe's second-tier tournament, or would that be a timely cue for him to step aside for a successor?
There is still time for Wenger to salvage a measure of success and respectability from Arsenal's season and either stay or go on a high of sorts.
Arsenal will be overwhelming favourites to reach the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley with a last-eight tie against non-league Lincoln City awaiting them this weekend, while there is still the top-four place on offer.
The FA Cup has been the only silverware sustaining Wenger and Arsenal in the barren years since the title triumph of "The Invincibles" in 2003-04.
If - and it is still a big "if" - he wins it, it will allow Wenger, Arsenal and their supporters a celebration. But even that may not prove to be enough to soothe the atmosphere of unease in this part of north London.
Chastening nights like these, when the cavernous gap between Arsenal and those they wish to challenge was cruelly exposed, may carry more weight when it comes to Wenger's verdict on his own future and that of the supporters on him.
Wenger was spared at the final whistle, with only a few jeers to be heard because so many had left. It looked and felt like a lonely existence for Arsenal's manager.
He simply shook his head, a mixture of disappointment at the result and what he later said he felt was an injustice at the hands of officials - which carried a note of desperation and straw-clutching when examined through the prism of both legs.
"Every Good Story Has An Ending" read one large banner being paraded outside the stadium before kick-off.
And as Wenger headed down the tunnel and Arsenal's fans headed out into the night, it was hard to escape the growing belief that this one is moving towards its final chapter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39201620
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Indian Wells: Heather Watson wins to set up Johanna Konta tie - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Heather Watson sets up an all-British second round tie against Johanna Konta by beating American Nicole Gibbs at Indian Wells.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Heather Watson came from a set down to win her first round tie against Nicole Gibbs at Indian Wells Heather Watson set up an all-British second round tie against Johanna Konta by beating American Nicole Gibbs at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. Gibbs took the first set 6-4 before Watson won the next two sets 6-2, including 10 of the final 12 games. Friday's match will be the first meeting between world number 11 Konta and Watson on the WTA Tour. Their only previous match was a second-tier event in 2013, when Watson retired after losing the first four games.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39213739
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How India's 'Real Marigold Hotel' changed my life - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Sheila Ferguson joined a group of celebrities in Kerala to see what it would be like to retire there.
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Magazine
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Sheila Ferguson made her name singing in The Three Degrees in the 60s and 70s. She's one of eight famous people who went to Kerala to film the TV programme The Real Marigold Hotel, which is designed to make people think about growing old in India. She says the experience completely changed her life.
I went to India as a sceptic. I'd never been there before. I did some research, saw that they've got arranged marriages, they've got snakes, they've got mosquitoes and I thought, "What the hell do I want to go to India for?"
But I believe in the philosophy that you should try everything once, to see if you like it. So I found myself in Kerala riding sleeper trains - which I will never do again as long as I live - and living in a communal home with seven other OAPs. I got more than I bargained for.
The first thing that struck me was how busy it was. The city was crowded and smelly but there wasn't as much poverty as I expected from watching the film Gandhi! It turns out that there's a good quality of life in Kerala. When we first got there I was behaving like the problem child, I was a real handful. I even asked Bill to swap rooms and he was gentleman enough to agree.
The Three Degrees in 1974 - Sheila Ferguson with Valerie Holiday and Fayette Pinkney
But that didn't last too long. I met some fascinating people and got some valuable perspective on my life back home. India entirely changed my attitude towards my life.
Until I went to India I never realised that I was lonely. I thought I was just fine. But living with seven other people communally in India held a magnifying glass to how solitary my life actually is.
In some respects, I've not had human contact for years. It's really the emotional and mental stimulation of talking to other people that I'm missing.
I live on my own, one daughter's in Dubai, one's in England and I'm in Majorca. My partner Jon died in 2010 and it's time I got the hell out of here!
My social life really dips in the winter because everybody hibernates. My cleaner comes to my house on Thursdays but other than that, I could go all week without seeing another soul.
I could fall down on the steps in my house, or in the swimming pool and nobody would know for a week. I think my family are concerned about me living alone, but I never thought of it until now. Now I understand their worry.
Residents of The Real Marigold Hotel: Amanda Barrie, Paul Nicholas, Bill Oddie, Lionel Blair, Dr Miriam Stoppard, Dennis Taylor, Rustie Lee and Sheila Ferguson
In The Real Marigold Hotel, eight celebrities visit India to see how retiring there would differ from growing old in the UK.
You can watch the programme on BBC One at 21:00 on Wednesday 8 March or catch up later online.
In India, at the dinner table the seven of us would be talking, Bill Oddie telling us about his grandchildren, Paul Nicholas showing pictures of his daughters and his wife. I would be thinking, "They all have families to go back to and I'm going back to an empty house." That's when it really sank in. If I'm not careful I will end up sitting alone, at the head of my 14-seater dining table in a wedding dress, like Miss Havisham.
When my daughter, Alex, came out to visit me in India from her home in Dubai I realised just how much I missed my family. I want to see them more and now, thanks to my time in India, I am ready to find a new love.
I hadn't been on a date since Jon died so I was shocked to be asked out by a gentleman at a drinks party in Kerala. Usually I'm the one asking a guy out, so when he just came out with it at first I thought it was a joke, I thought that the crew had put him up to it! He was very upfront, no nonsense. It's been so long since anyone has said things like that to me, it was really lovely.
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Since then I have been on another date in England. I think once you open up inside, your aura looks different to other people, so it may be that I was blocking myself off before.
I have been threatening to move back to England for the past four years. Soon after Jon died, I realised I didn't suit living alone but I didn't do anything about it. I kept putting it off, procrastinating. Probably because I wanted to stay here in Majorca in memory of the life I had built with him.
I threw myself into work. But this year, because of my trip to India, I am putting my house on the market so that I can move back to England in the spring. My two daughters grew up in Berkshire and I love it there. I'm really looking forward to being near my friends and family again.
In India, families are a close-knit unit, they do not disown their elders as we do in Western culture. They take responsibility and take care of one another. India has also helped me to become more understanding and patient with my mother, who turns 95 this year.
It calmed me down too. I've always been hyperactive and my work requires constant energy and enthusiasm - live now, sleep later. Being in a more spiritual place, where I had to give up control to others, helped my mind to open and to realise that the small things don't matter so much.
I found that when I was rehearsing a panto in Ipswich everything was going awry, everything was late, it was a tech rehearsal, we opened the next day and everything was a mess. I just sat there and looked and said, "Well OK they'll get it together. I know my lines." And I just calmly went back to my dressing room. Any time before India I would have thrown a fit and I'm known for it.
The Marigold Hotel changed me and I've carried that lesson into my everyday life.
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39184023
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Six Nations: England's Owen Farrell should be fit to face Scotland despite leg injury - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Owen Farrell should be fit for England's Calcutta Cup meeting with Scotland on Saturday, while Billy Vunipola returns to the bench.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Coverage: Live on BBC Radio 5 live & BBC Radio Scotland, plus live text commentary via the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app
Owen Farrell should be fit for England's Calcutta Cup meeting with Scotland at Twickenham on Saturday despite injuring his leg in training.
The 25-year-old centre left training early on Thursday, but is expected to feature in Friday's captains' run.
"He ran into someone at training, simple as that," said head coach Eddie Jones, who initially joked Farrell had collided with the Australian's dog.
"He's in doubt but we will see. He should be right."
Victory for England over Scotland would give the defending Six Nations champions a record-equalling 18th consecutive win and put them one win away from a second straight Grand Slam.
"It's the oldest international fixture and it means a lot to both countries," said Jones.
"I feel honoured and humbled to be part of such a historic occasion. I treasure the experience."
• None Listen: Could the Twickenham crowd turn on England?
Number eight Billy Vunipola has been named on the bench against Scotland after making his comeback from a knee injury last weekend.
Nathan Hughes will continue in the position in an unchanged England pack.
The backline shows three changes, with scrum-half Ben Youngs, centre Jonathan Joseph and wing Jack Nowell returning.
Loose-head prop Joe Marler will lead the team out on his 50th cap, while fit-again wing Anthony Watson also returns to the matchday squad.
"I congratulate Joe," Jones added. "I've coached a lot of good players and he is certainly one of the best. He is an honest and committed team man and a fine individual."
On Vunipola, he explained: "He's one of our best players, but he's not ready to start yet."
• None Vunipolas to 'aim higher' on return from injury
England's replacements have repeatedly salvaged games so far in the Six Nations and Jones admits he is unsure why his side have yet to start well.
"If I knew, I would fix it," he said. "But we have been ahead in the 80th minute - and that's all that counts."
After the fitful display against Italy, Jones says England have prepared to deliver their best performance of the Championship against Scotland.
"We have varied [the preparation] up a bit, we have changed the way we have trained considerably," he said.
"The intensity of training has improved, we are moving towards our best performance. We are in excellent condition."
Listen to England v Scotland on BBC Radio 5 live, 16:00 GMT on Saturday, 11 March.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39216391
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Six Nations 2017: Wales and Ireland kick off weekend's action - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Wales v Ireland in Cardiff kicks off round four of the 2017 Six Nations while England host Scotland on Saturday.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Coverage: Live on BBC One, S4C, Radio 5 live, BBC Radio Ulster, Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru, plus live text commentary via the BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app
Ireland visit Wales on Friday knowing anything less than victory could signal the end of their chances of securing a third Six Nations title in four years.
Joe Schmidt's men are second in the table, three points behind unbeaten England, having beaten Italy and France after an opening defeat in Edinburgh.
Fourth-placed Wales are out of title contention after back-to-back defeats by England and Scotland.
Both sides have named unchanged starting XVs for the game in Cardiff.
Ireland can set up a title decider with England in Dublin on 18 March with victory in Cardiff.
Leaders and defending Grand Slam champions England host Scotland in the Calcutta Cup in Saturday's second game (kick-off 16:00 GMT), while Italy and France meet earlier in the day (13:00 start).
Ireland coach Schmidt is known to value continuity and the tournament's leading try scorers - they have 13, four more than the second most prolific team, England - have used just 19 players in their starting line-up so far.
The previous time he was able to field the same side in the Six Nations was the third round in 2014.
The only change in the match-day 23 is winger Tommy Bowe's recall for his injured Ulster team-mate Andrew Trimble.
Schmidt has stuck with exciting young centre Garry Ringrose, as there were doubts over the fitness of the more experienced Jared Payne.
Number eight Jamie Heaslip will make his 100th Test appearance on Friday as he wins his 95th Ireland cap in addition his five appearances for the British and Irish Lions.
Wales coach Rob Howley's selection of an unchanged match-day 23 was more of a surprise, with Wales in danger of losing three matches for the first time since the 2010 tournament.
It has fuelled claims of a conservative attitude in the Wales camp from pundits and on social media.
Number eight Taulupe Faletau and lock Luke Charteris remain on the bench and Dan Biggar retains the number 10 shirt despite pressure from his Ospreys team-mate Sam Davies.
Wing George North, singled out and criticised by defence coach Shaun Edwards over his defensive display against Scotland, is also retained in a team given a chance to atone for the second-half capitulation at Murrayfield last time out.
Confidence is high in the Irish camp following their workmanlike 19-9 victory over France, but Schmidt believes the Welsh team's disappointing results will have them highly determined.
"They are so used to competing on the last day of the championship to win or lose the championship," said the Ireland coach.
"So for them not to be in that position will certainly provide extra motivation."
Wales forwards coach Robin McBryde believes there will be more pressure on Ireland under the closed roof in Cardiff.
"They've had a great season, beaten the All Blacks in Chicago and pushed them at home as well," he said.
"They've got aspirations for the title - they've got a big finish against England next week.
"We have to be be at our best in whatever they throw at us.
"If we can match that and build on our experience against England we won't be far off."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39220889
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Joe Hart: Man City keeper says he is 'surplus to requirements' - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Manchester City keeper Joe Hart - on a season-long loan at Torino - says he does not see himself playing for the Premier League club again.
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England goalkeeper Joe Hart says he is "surplus to requirements" at Manchester City and does not see himself playing for the Premier League club again.
The 29-year-old added that he saw the Spaniard's decision to drop him coming.
"If you're not going to win there is no point in fighting, especially someone as powerful as that," Hart said.
However, Hart believes the decision was "nothing personal" and said he respected Guardiola's honesty.
"He didn't do it to ruin my life, he did it because he thought that was what was right for him to win as a manager," he told the BBC's Premier League Show.
Guardiola was asked about the situation at his Friday news conference, but reiterated his stance that no decision had yet been made.
"I have said many times, at the end of the season we will see which players are happy or unhappy," the manager said. "He is a Man City player. We will decide at the end of the season."
Hart's 33-year-old replacement, Claudio Bravo has been criticised for his performances since his £15.4m arrival from Barcelona in August, with Willy Caballero, 35, preferred in the Premier League and Champions League since 21 January.
Guardiola has said he will not make a decision on Hart's future until the end of the season - but it is expected the keeper will leave the club for good in the summer.
Hart, who has 68 England caps, has been linked with various Premier League and European clubs but said he has had "no communication with anyone" about a transfer after his loan spell at Torino ends in May.
When asked about a return to the Premier League, Hart replied: "I know it really well but I wouldn't say it was top of my wish list.
"Top of my wish list is to play for a club that wants me to be their goalkeeper."
Hart on Man City, England and the future
Match of the Day commentator Steve Bower: How difficult was it to discover Pep Guardiola didn't want to make you number one and you would have to go somewhere else?
Joe Hart: I want to say it was really bad but it wasn't because I saw it coming.
SB: From the moment Guardiola walked through the door?
JH: No but you just pick up vibes and it certainly wasn't a surprise to me. It was something that I wanted to change and felt I was more than capable of changing - but to get results he needed to have a team he felt comfortable with and a team he wanted.
I didn't fall into that category and that's no problem. I'd have loved to have stayed and fought and shown what I can do, but I don't have that time. You don't have that time to do it - especially as a goalkeeper. You can't come off the bench for 10 minutes and prove your worth - it's either you're in or you're out.
I'm up for a fight - I'll fight my corner all day - but if you're not going to win then there is no point in fighting, especially someone as powerful as that at Manchester City.
I know it's nothing personal on me, he's not that kind of guy.
SB: Do you respect his honesty?
JH: Yes of course. He did what he had to do, he did what he felt was right. He didn't do it to ruin my life, he did it because he thought that was what was right for him to win as a manager. So I had to look elsewhere and here I am.
SB: What did you say when your agent said Torino were interested?
JH: I said, 'look into it'. I didn't have many options - things happened very late with Manchester City. For a goalkeeper that's difficult, everyone is pretty settled with goalkeepers, it's an early bit of business and there is only one spot.
My name wasn't necessarily out in the transfer market because people probably presumed that I would be at Manchester City - like I did. But I wasn't going to play at Manchester City, that was pretty obvious - I was third, if not fourth choice at the time so I wanted to play football and Torino gave me the opportunity and I just thought, 'I'm going to go for it.'
SB: There will be Manchester City fans thinking, 'Will you ever play for our team again?'
JH: I'd say I'm pretty much surplus to requirements at my parent club at the moment.
SB: Do you see that changing?
JH: Not really. I've got to be realistic. I love that club and I've always said that as long as they wanted me, I would be there.
But I was always cautious when I said that because I'm aware that at the big, big clubs stuff can change quickly, as can opinions and people in charge. Not everyone is going to like you, not everyone is going to want to play you and that's the business side of it, which I've grown into and I'm certainly not going to take personally.
I want to play football, I love to play football so if that opportunity is not going to be given there then I'm going to have to look elsewhere and may have to make somewhere else my home.
SB: Where you at in terms of a transfer at the moment?
JH: It's frustrating to see my name thrown around so much when I'm just trying to get on with what I'm doing for now and then whatever needs to be taken care of will hopefully be taken care of one way or another.
I've still got a parent club that I need to respect and I need to work with. I understand that's the football business now - everyone has got an opinion, a small comment can be used in an article. I don't know where my future lies - I've certainly had no communication with anyone.
The best thing I can do is work hard, be ready to train every day, do my best for Torino, do my best when I represent my country and then hopefully the rest will take care of itself.
SB: How important is it for you to be playing regular football next season to keep your position as England goalkeeper?
JH: [England boss] Gareth Southgate is not the kind of guy to say: 'You need to be doing this or that or you're out.' He's such a positive, interesting person. He came to see me out here, which was good of him, just for an afternoon, just to check in and he wants what's best for the country. The only way I can be a part of that is if I'm playing well, playing regularly and improving.
We've got some really good, strong English keepers at the moment. I'd like to think we're pushing each other and if my levels drop then I'm gone and I understand that. I don't need any threats, I know how the game works as I've been a part of it for a while now.
SB: As a goalkeeper do you have to wait for someone to leave a club for a place to go?
JH: Yes, unfortunately. Especially the top teams because every top team has got at least one top keeper. You need people to move, managers to change. You need something to happen for something to happen. You can't just charge in somewhere.
SB: Would returning to the Premier League be top of your wish list?
JH: I'm open. I love the Premier League, I absolutely love Premier League games. Removing myself a footballer, I watch the Premier League. It's a great league, fantastic football is played in it.
I know it really well but I wouldn't say it was top of my wish list. Top of my wish list is to play for a club that wants me to be their goalkeeper.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39224757
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FC Rostov 1-1 Manchester United - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Manchester United are held to a draw by FC Rostov in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie in Russia.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Manchester United were held to a draw by FC Rostov in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 tie in Russia.
On a challenging pitch at the Olymp-2 Stadium - which was criticised by United manager Jose Mourinho before the match - midfielder Paul Pogba miscued from inside the box early on.
But United grabbed a vital away goal through Henrikh Mkhitaryan's close-range finish following excellent work by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Swedish striker shot over the crossbar in the second half, before Rostov forward Aleksandr Bukharov latched on to Timofei Kalachev's pass for the equaliser.
Aleksandr Erokhin stabbed a shot wide for the hosts from a promising position and United's Marouane Fellaini headed straight at the goalkeeper from a corner.
The return leg takes place at Old Trafford next Thursday (kick-off 19:45 GMT).
The Red Devils faced a difficult 3,750-mile round trip for the game in south Russia - and they were cheered on by 238 travelling supporters, who each had their visas paid for by the club and were given blankets on entering the ground.
Mourinho set up with three centre-backs and Ashley Young and Daley Blind acting as wing-backs in a change of formation for the Premier League side.
The Portuguese manager spoke before the game about deploying a more "direct" approach because of the dreadful pitch, but he may also have had Monday's FA Cup quarter-final against his old club Chelsea in mind.
As well as a dry and bobbly surface, the stop-start game - which had a total of 38 fouls - made for a poor spectacle. However, Mourinho will surely be confident his players can go back to Old Trafford and complete the job next week.
For their goal, Fellaini held off a home defender before feeding Ibrahimovic, whose quick feet allowed him to poke the ball into team-mate Mkhitaryan's path and the Armenia international struck for the third time in this season's competition.
Rostov entered the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group behind Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich. In fact, they managed to beat the German champions at home - though that was their only victory from six games.
A team without any household European names, they struggled to impose themselves against far superior opponents in the opening period.
But on 53 minutes, Kalachev's raking pass sailed between defenders Phil Jones and Chris Smalling and Bukharov calmly controlled the ball on his chest and slotted in.
Skipper Aleksandr Gatskan struck a long-range shot straight at Sergio Romero late on, but the draw meant Rostov have lost just one of their past eight games at home in Europe.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho, speaking to BT Sport: "It was a very good performance in relation to the conditions. It was impossible to play better, impossible to play a passing game.
"We played what the game demanded and we played well. We made one defensive mistake.
"l remember as a kid some matches like this in Portugal - non-league and amateur pitches. To see my players coping with it and the humility to fight for every ball is a good feeling for me.
"We have an open result for the second leg with a little advantage for us. There are no injuries."
Manchester United goalscorer Henrikh Mkhitaryan, speaking to BT Sport: "It does not matter if you are leading 1-0, you have to be ready for everything.
"We conceded the goal and there was a mistake - but we have a second game to come."
Rostov are back in league action when they take on Terek Grozny on Sunday, while Manchester United visit Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final on Monday (kick-off 19:45 GMT).
Referring to the cup game against his old club, Mourinho said: "Monday we don't go with a Nicky Butt [head of youth academy] team. We cannot go with Nicky Butt's team.
"Manchester United is too big. Manchester United is the winner of the competition."
• None Manchester United have drawn four of their five away trips against Russian opponents in Europe.
• None Jose Mourinho's sides have scored an away goal in the first leg of a European tie in 11 of the 13 games he has overseen.
• None Aleksandr Bukharov's 53rd-minute strike was the first goal United have conceded in 443 minutes in the Europa League.
• None The Red Devils recorded their lowest pass accuracy of the season in this match (61.17%).
• None Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the first United player to score in three successive European games since Wayne Rooney in March 2010.
• None The Armenian has been directly involved in six goals in his past seven appearances for the club (four goals, two assists).
• None Zlatan Ibrahimovic provided the assist for the first goal - he has been directly involved in 40% of Manchester United's 82 goals this season.
• None Attempt missed. Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Antonio Valencia with a cross.
• None Attempt blocked. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Manchester United) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Anthony Martial.
• None Attempt saved. Aleksandru Gatcan (FC Rostov) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Sardar Azmoun.
• None Timofei Kalachev (FC Rostov) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Offside, FC Rostov. Denis Terentjev tries a through ball, but Sardar Azmoun is caught offside. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39155369
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West Indies v England: Joe Root & Alex Hales hit centuries as tourists win - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Alex Hales and Joe Root hit centuries as England steamroller West Indies by 186 runs in Barbados to complete an ODI series whitewash.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Alex Hales and Joe Root struck stunning centuries as England steamrollered West Indies by 186 runs in Barbados to complete a one-day series whitewash.
The pair put on a record 192 for the second wicket, with Hales the more aggressive of the two and Root happy to play the anchor role.
West Indies were never in contention and meekly surrendered with the bat - being bowled out for just 142.
Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes took three wickets apiece with the ball.
Two teams which are worlds apart
If the West Indies showed glimpses of ability in the first two matches of the series, there was very little of it on show at the Kensington Oval.
The gulf in class between the two teams was striking.
While England's batting order is rich in both talent and depth, the Windies' top order gifted their wickets with a succession of dolly catches offered up to close fielders.
It was a similar story from a bowling perspective as England's pacemen bullied and harassed. The hosts' options lacked penetration in the absence of the injured Shannon Gabriel and proved to be cannon fodder for the likes of Root, Hales and Ben Stokes.
England's morale will be boosted by such victories, but it should be tempered with the realisation their opponents have failed to qualify for this summer's Champions Trophy and now face an uphill challenge to earn automatic entry to the 2019 World Cup.
Both opener Hales and number three Root can lay genuine claim to being among the world's leading top order batsmen in this format of the game.
Their respective innings were poles apart in style, but almost identical in terms of both runs scored and balls faced by the time they returned to the pavilion.
Hales - back in the team after injury - began how he so often does, in a circumspect manner. He nudged the ball into gaps before exploding into life once the spinners were introduced to the attack.
Four of his five sixes came off the slow bowlers, who went for a combined 60 runs in 48 painful deliveries.
The Notts right-hander, who successfully overturned an lbw decision when he was on 93, was particularly strong on the leg side where he scored 73 of his runs.
Root was his usual busy self at the crease and almost paid with his wicket early on, only to be dropped when he had made both 1 and 12.
Once set, however, he dropped anchor and finally registered three figures after eight half-centuries in his previous 11 ODI innings.
Platform laid, England were pushed beyond 300 by Stokes. The Durham all-rounder was reminiscent of former South Africa all-rounder Lance Klusener as he time and again cleared his front leg and muscled the ball to the boundary in his 20-ball 34.
Faced with a strip much quicker than the one which the two teams duelled on in Antigua, England's quicker bowlers relished the extra pace and bounce.
Pitching the ball just back of a length, they induced some horrible dismissals from the West Indies top order.
Only Jonathan Carter (46) offered any real resistance and backbone as the England quicks left their opponents battered and bruised - both in a mental and physical sense.
Plunkett finished the three-match series with 10 wickets at less than 10 runs each, ensuring his name will remain prominent in the selectors' minds when Mark Wood, Jake Ball and David Willey regain full fitness.
Speaking on BBC Test Match Special, former West Indies fast bowler Tino Best said the collapse to 45-6 had been "embarrassing", adding: "It's quite disappointing the way the guys have been dismissed. We call it primary school dismissals.
"Guys have to go back to their hotel room and reflect. Do you want to be an average player or do you want to be a superstar?"
England have just two ODIs against Ireland before opening their Champions Trophy campaign against Bangladesh at The Oval on 1 June.
England captain Eoin Morgan: "I'm extremely satisfied. Over the course of the series we have displayed different skills. Root and Hales put on an outstanding partnership and our bowling performance was outstanding.
"It's a great position to be in. We had guys coming into the side who maybe didn't expect to play and made big contributions, match-winning ones.
"It was an outstanding effort from Alex Hales. A bit of time off has done him the world of good."
England all-rounder Chris Woakes - the man of the series - is asked which part of his game he is most pleased with: "Ball, I suppose. It's always nice to contribute with the bat when required but bowling is my primary skill.
"The more you play and gain experience in international cricket, the more you feel at home. We've got some great players in the team and there are always players pushing for places."
West Indies captain Jason Holder: "Our performance wasn't up to scratch, we gifted a lot of free runs - although the bowlers were decent - and then we didn't put up a good fight with the bat at all.
"I'm frustrated, I thought we were moving in the right direction. We've got to be lot sharper in the field and take our chances, we didn't do that throughout the series.
"This group of players is what we have, I'm comfortable with what we have, we have a lot of talented players in the squad but it's about making the most of it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39220763
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic: LA Galaxy want Manchester United forward in MLS - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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LA Galaxy tell Zlatan Ibrahimovic they are prepared to make him the highest paid player in MLS history if he joins them this summer.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
LA Galaxy have told Zlatan Ibrahimovic they are prepared to make him the highest paid player in Major League Soccer history if he joins them from Manchester United this summer.
Ibrahimovic only joined United on a one-year deal last summer.
There is an option for the Swede to stay longer but while the club are desperate to keep him, the 35-year-old is yet to agree.
Ibrahimovic has scored 26 goals for United this season.
He will start Thursday's Europa League last-16 first-leg tie with Russian side Rostov but is about to serve a three-match domestic ban after accepting a charge of violent conduct for elbowing Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings in the face at Old Trafford on Saturday.
In 2016, Brazilian forward Kaka was the highest paid player in MLS, with a published annual salary from Orlando City of $7.167m (£5.89m).
LA Galaxy paid former England midfielder Steven Gerrard $6.1m (£5.01m) last season. He has since retired.
Sources have told BBC Sport that Galaxy see Ibrahimovic as having the potential to make as big an impact on soccer in the United States as David Beckham did when he joined the club from Real Madrid in 2007.
It is not known what contract length Galaxy - winners of three out of the last six MLS titles - would be willing to offer Ibrahimovic but the club feels it has a realistic chance of signing the veteran frontman.
With his contract expiring in the summer, LA Galaxy could sign Ibrahimovic in advance of a move to MLS during the July transfer window. That is what they did with Beckham in 2007, a signing that was announced in the January prior to his Real Madrid contract coming to an end on 30 June.
However, United will almost certainly have other ideas.
Following their EFL Cup final win over Southampton, when Ibrahimovic scored United's late winner, manager Jose Mourinho said that while he would not beg the forward to stay at Old Trafford, he thought United fans would be willing to camp in the striker's garden in an attempt to persuade him.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39213267
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Arsene Wenger says view of Arsenal fans will influence decision over whether to stay - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Arsene Wenger says the opinion of the club's fans will influence his decision over whether to remain as Arsenal manager.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the opinion of fans will influence his decision over whether to remain in charge next season.
A group of Arsenal supporters protested after Tuesday's 5-1 Champions League home defeat by Bayern Munich.
"It will not be the most important factor but you consider it, of course," Wenger said of the fans' reaction.
"I worked very hard for 20 years to make our fans happy and when you lose I understand they are not."
In a statement released on the club website, Arsenal chairman Sir Chips Keswick echoed those sentiments but was non-committal on Wenger's future.
"We are fully aware of the attention currently focused on the club and understand the debate," he said.
"We respect that fans are entitled to their different individual opinions but we will always run this great football club with its best long-term interests at heart.
"Arsene has a contract until the end of the season. Any decisions will be made by us mutually and communicated at the right time in the right way."
Wenger, who has been Arsenal boss since October 1996, is expected to announce in the next month whether he will stay on next season, but denied he had already told the players of his decision.
"My decision is to focus on the next game and be absolutely sure we respond well on Saturday," the 67-year-old said.
Arsenal are currently fifth in the Premier League, 16 points behind leaders Chelsea, and host non-league Lincoln in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup this weekend.
England international winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, 23, is one of several Arsenal players reported to be unhappy, with suggestions he could leave this summer.
"I haven't seen that," Wenger said of the reports. "I'm surprised by that because I believe he is developing well and has been given his chance.
"I wish that he stays at the club, he is a very promising player and has the values we rate at this club."
Record signing Mesut Ozil has reportedly rejected an improved contract offer and Chile international Alexis Sanchez was left out of the starting XI at Liverpool last weekend following a reported row with Wenger, which the manager denied.
Forward Theo Walcott hinted at disharmony in the ranks when he revealed "things had happened" between the players.
"They need to stay in the dressing room and the players and staff need to sort it out. We are in it together. We can't be fighting each other," the England international added.
But Wenger countered: "We have a good united group, determined group and when you have disappointing results you always have disagreements."
Wenger presided over two league and cup doubles within the first six years of his Arsenal reign, but his team have not won the league title since 2004 and two FA Cups represent their only major silverware in the last 12 years.
When asked by BBC sports editor Dan Roan whether staying at the club would taint his legacy, the Frenchman said: "I don't work for my image I work for this club, with full commitment.
"How I will be judged in one way or the other is not my problem. I love this club, I am loyal to this club and I make the right decisions for this club and I will continue to do that."
The humiliating 10-2 aggregate defeat against Bayern Munich saw Arsenal eliminated at the last-16 stage of the Champions League for the seventh successive season.
When asked about that record, Wenger responded: "In the last nine years only once have we been the worst performing English club in the Champions League."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39216760
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Drug gang infiltrator: I had Samurai sword held to my throat - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Neil Woods's undercover work led to drug gang members getting more than 1,000 years of jail time.
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UK
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"I've had a samurai sword to my throat, a knife in my groin, stripped naked at gun point." For 14 years, Neil Woods infiltrated UK drug gangs for the police, at great personal risk.
Posing as an addict to infiltrate some of the UK's biggest drug gangs is not for the faint-hearted.
It takes resolve, courage, and an ability to think on your feet in the most high-pressure of environments.
But for Neil Woods, it was not a life calling that led him to devote 14 years to this cause, but a failure to perform in his normal role.
"I wasn't a very successful uniform cop," he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.
"I struggled, so I got an attachment with the drugs squad. They suggested trying one of the undercover jobs of buying crack cocaine."
It was 1993, and this form of undercover work was rare in the UK.
For Mr Woods, however, it was a niche that played to his strengths.
"I really enjoyed the work, I found I was good at it," he says.
"I was developing the tactics for it - such as building a cover story, but not acting. Learning to play a different version of yourself.
"It all relies on empathy - 'weaponising' empathy to get close to them."
A shot of Neil Woods undercover, in around 1995
Mr Woods admits he had a "completely prejudiced view" of drug users when he first took the job, but as he began to meet addicts, he saw a different side to those who had been caught up in that world.
"Beforehand, I saw them as people who had made the wrong decision, who didn't have willpower. I thought that it was their fault," he says.
"But then you start to realise some of their life stories - that they had been self-medicating for child abuse, for example.
"Two-thirds of heroin users have a history of abuse."
At the time, however, this did not alter his approach to work.
"I still carried on manipulating them," he says.
"They would get wrapped into the investigation and end up in jail.
"I justified to myself that the end would justify the means."
The reason for this becomes clear when you consider the type of gang members he was looking to put behind bars.
In 2004, he helped bring six members of the notorious Burger Bar Boys to justice.
They operated in the Birmingham area, and were "horrendous criminals", according to Mr Woods.
"They were raping people as punishment for drug debt," he says.
Mr Woods worked across inner cities around the UK, and often found himself in dangerous situations.
"I've had a samurai sword to my throat, a knife in my groin, stripped naked at gun point," he says.
"Once, my hidden camera was found by a particularly vicious gangster.
"He brought two mates to a meet-up who didn't know me.
"They searched me and found the camera.
"I had to react quickly, I just launched into a torrent of abuse.
"It created confusion so I could escape.
"Then they came after me in the car and they tried to run me over.
"I later learned that they had a gun in the car."
Mr Woods says his work has led to more than a combined 1,000 years of jail time for the criminals he helped to lock away.
When he became a father, however, he says he found it difficult to juggle his job with his family life.
"I would do this work in the week, then at the weekends be a dad. I would go swimming with my kids," Mr Woods says.
Eventually, after 14 years, he decided to leave the profession.
He came to see his work as futile, given the greater picture.
"I interrupted the drug supply for no more than two hours in any city. So what's the point?" he says.
"Some of those arrested were organised criminals - but many were just victims of the 'war on drugs', the vulnerable problematic users."
For several months, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of what he had seen undercover.
Mr Woods is in favour of Durham Police's plans to provide heroin to addicts in medically supervised conditions
Despite leaving the police, however, he still feels "duty bound" to continue to stop the spread of drugs on UK streets.
Mr Woods is now the chairman of Leap UK, which campaigns for drugs policy reform.
It supports Durham Police's plan to give heroin addicts the class-A drug in supervised "shooting galleries" in a bid to tackle drug-related crime.
Opponents say trials suggest such initiatives do not have significant, long-term benefits, but Mr Woods argues the move will enable police to "get a grip on heroin, get it away from criminals".
"The drug supply is currently in the hands of organised criminals," he says, "it's so dangerous."
It is very different from his former job, but - as he explains - his time undercover has made a lasting impression.
"I have this unique experience," he says. "Now, I just use it in a different way."
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39207718
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Manchester City 0-0 Stoke City - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Manchester City miss the chance to move to second in the Premier League as their game in hand ends goalless against Stoke City.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Manchester City's title hopes suffered a potentially-decisive blow after they were held by a resolute Stoke side and missed the chance to cut Chelsea's lead at the top of the table.
A win for City would have moved them above Tottenham and into second place but they could not find the attacking spark required to break down a well-drilled Potters side.
City boss Pep Guardiola had said before kick-off that his team could not afford any more slip-ups in their pursuit of the leaders, who remain 10 points clear of the chasing pack with 11 games left.
Guardiola's side were sluggish before the break and, although they improved when David Silva came off the bench in the second half, he could not make the difference.
Silva had City's best effort when he drilled a low shot a fraction wide after a one-two with Fernandinho but, despite a flurry of late chances, Stoke keeper Lee Grant's only save came from a first-half free-kick by Aleksandar Kolarov.
City are still, in theory at least, chasing silverware on three fronts and head to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup on Saturday before travelling to Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday.
It is a pivotal week in Pep Guardiola's first season in English football, but this result means it has started in frustrating fashion.
The attacking verve that had carried City to four straight league wins and seen them hit five goals past Monaco and Huddersfield in the last month was, initially, nowhere to be seen.
Too many misplaced passes meant Stoke were under little pressure for much of the match, and City's finishing was also wide of the mark when they did create chances late on.
Sergio Aguero had scored five goals in his previous three games but did not find the target with any of his three efforts.
Leroy Sane flashed a shot over the bar, Nicolas Otamendi headed over from a corner and City's last chance came and went when Kelechi Iheanacho met an inviting cross at the near post but steered the ball wide.
Raheem Sterling was not involved while Guardiola opted to start with both Silva and defender John Stones on the bench.
"The rotations are good when you have a successful result but, when they are not, always we miss those people," said the City boss.
"It is almost impossible to play the same 11 players. When you have one game a week you can play the same 11 players no problem. We have a lot of games, we have to make a rotation - if not it will be so difficult."
The Potters are still to beat a top-eight Premier League team this season but the performance that earned them this point deserves plenty of credit.
Mark Hughes said before kick-off that his side would be less open than normal but although they were indeed extremely disciplined at the back, they did more than defend in numbers.
The outcome could have been worse for the home side had Mame Biram Diouf not scuffed an early shot from close range following Gael Clichy's slip.
Bruno Martins Indi and Saido Berahino also had sniffs of goal when City left space at the back, but Stoke's main aim appeared to be a clean sheet and they accomplished that comfortably enough.
They were helped by City's lack of spark for much of the match, but this was still a significant defensive improvement on their last trip to play one of the top four, which ended in a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham last month.
The commitment and industry of Stoke's entire side stood out but their defensive masterclass was superbly marshalled by Ryan Shawcross, who was a rock at centre-half and helped keep Sergio Aguero, among others, quiet.
'The gap was big and is still big' - manager reaction
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola: "They defended deep and it was complicated to find the players between the lines. We were there in the last minutes. I don't have regrets about how they ran, how they fought.
"We created a lot of situations for the last pass and sometimes we missed it. When you analyse the chances we had, I don't really remember more than one Stoke chance."
On the title race: "The gap was big and is still big. We have to focus game by game."
Stoke boss Mark Hughes: "Not many teams come here and restrict Manchester City to so few chances.
"We didn't rely on luck. We made our own luck and were difficult to break down. You can see what it meant tonight and that shows the honesty of the group."
Another clean sheet for Caballero - the stats
• None Willy Caballero has now kept one more clean sheet for Man City this season (7) than Claudio Bravo (6) despite playing eight games fewer (17 v 25).
• None This was the first time Pep Guardiola has drawn a Premier League game 0-0 and his first in league competition since Dortmund 0-0 Bayern in March 2016.
• None In fact, this was the first time that Manchester City have failed to score at the Etihad Stadium under Pep Guardiola in all competitions (19 games).
• None Manchester City mustered just one shot on target in this game - their lowest tally in a competitive home game since April 2016 v Real Madrid (Champions League).
• None Stoke City have scored just one goal in their nine Premier League visits to the Etihad Stadium to face Man City.
City's FA Cup quarter-final with Middlesbrough is on Saturday at 12:15 GMT, then they head to Monaco for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday (19:45 GMT). They hold a 5-3 lead from the first meeting in Manchester.
This game was originally scheduled for the coming weekend, so Stoke do not play again until Saturday 18 March, when they host leaders Chelsea (15:00 GMT).
• None Attempt missed. Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Kevin De Bruyne with a cross.
• None Ramadan Sobhi (Stoke City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt missed. Sergio Agüero (Manchester City) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Gaël Clichy with a headed pass.
• None Jonathan Walters (Stoke City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt missed. Jonathan Walters (Stoke City) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Phil Bardsley with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Nicolás Otamendi (Manchester City) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by David Silva with a cross following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. David Silva (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Bacary Sagna. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39136972
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The 'robot lawyer’ giving free legal advice to refugees - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A technology used to fight parking fines is now helping asylum seekers apply for emergency housing.
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BBC Trending
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A technology initially used to fight traffic fines is now helping refugees with legal claims.
When Joshua Browder developed DoNotPay he called it "the world's first robot lawyer". It's a chatbot - a computer program that carries out conversations through texts or vocal commands - and it uses Facebook Messenger to gather information about a case before spitting out advice and legal documents.
It was originally designed to help people wiggle out of parking or speeding tickets. But now Browder - a 20-year-old British man currently studying at Stanford University - has adapted his bot to help asylum seekers.
In the US and Canada, it's helping refugees complete immigration applications, and in the UK, it can aid asylum seekers in obtaining financial support from the government.
Browder developed the chatbot through the help of lawyers from each of the countries.
"It works by asking a series of questions to determine if a refugee is eligible for asylum protection under international law," he tells BBC Trending, "for example: 'are you afraid of being subjected to torture in your home country?'
"Once it knows a user can claim asylum, it takes down hundreds of details and automatically fills in a completed immigration application. Crucially, all the questions that the bot asks are in plain English and artificial intelligence generated feedback appears during the conversation."
The bot suggests ways the asylum seeker can answer questions to maximise their chances of having applications accepted, for example: "The best answer for your situation will include a description of when the mistreatment started in your home country."
In addition to a completed application, a refugee also receives location specific submission instructions, details of additional documentation needed and resources for further help.
Currently, the lawyer bot is available via the Facebook Messenger app, making it accessible to Android and Apple device users. Browder says that he hopes to roll the service out to more languages and apps in the future, including Whatsapp.
DoNotPay got plenty of attention after it was first launched in March 2016, and Browder says hundreds of thousands of people have used the app to challenge parking tickets. His own brushes with traffic police inspired him to create the bot.
"When I started driving at 18, I began to receive a large number of parking tickets and created the the service as a side project," he says, "I could never have imagined that just over a year later, it would successfully appeal over 250,000 tickets."
He expanded the service to help with emergency housing in August of last year.
DoNotPay creator Joshua Browder says he was moved to work on legal advice for asylum seekers because his grandmother was a refugee from Austria during the Holocaust
However, some tech industry experts say that Browder's creation may struggle to achieve the same level of popularity with asylum seekers.
"Browder's chatbot is a great example of tech to help those in need," says Oliver Smith, senior reporter at tech and business site The Memo. "However, as refugees are often among the least internet-connected groups in society, a Facebook chatbot may not be the best way to help them.
"While governments moving their services online and into digital formats is a boon for people living in a country with consistent wifi or internet-connected smartphones, those who have fled their home countries often struggle to get online in refugee camps or when travelling across countries."
The UN has said that for refugees, connectivity is "as vital to them as food, water, or shelter", but just 39% have mobile internet access.
Next story: The Swedish Trump fans who secretly record journalists
A far-right Swedish website is secretly recording phone calls with journalists and academics - and then posting the edited versions online. READ MORE
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-39205935
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The thorny question of what pupils should learn in school - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Lib Dem manifesto argues for creative subjects alongside academic subjects.
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Education & Family
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The Lib Dems want to stop primary school tests narrowing learning
Is there such a thing as a "curriculum for life" ?
That's what the Lib Dems want to offer for children in England.
If you have a child at school you'll know how much what they learn is already changing.
The end of primary school tests known as Sats have been made tougher, with more complex grammar and maths among the changes.
And if your household is going through the agony of GCSE revision, you'll know this is the first year of the new English and maths exams which are also designed to be more challenging.
There has been so much change that schools have been complaining they can barely keep up.
The unglamorous, but important issue of what children learn at school rarely features in election campaigns.
Yet subjects matter because it influences the choices your child can make about their future job, or what they want to study at college and university.
So it's striking that the Lib Dems have chosen to make the subjects taught in schools, the curriculum, a large part of their education election offer.
Their manifesto says this would mean a shorter list of core subjects all state funded schools would have to teach.
But they also want learning about money, and mental health to be included alongside age appropriate sex and relationship lessons.
It is only weeks since a change in the law to make sex and relationship education compulsory for all secondary schools in England, with primary schools teaching just about relationships.
There is a promise too to protect creative subjects like music, art and drama amid concerns that tightening budgets and a focus on results are squeezing them out.
Quite how they would be protected isn't clear, although the party is likely to argue that promising extra money will help.
So should politicians be deciding what your kids learn at school?
An interesting question as some recent Education Secretaries have had very definite views.
The Lib Dems are making a bid to take the politics of changing governments out of these decisions.
They want to set up what looks like a new quango - an Educational Standards Authority - which would bring in changes after consulting teachers.
But in the end, when there are issues in schools, just like in hospitals, the buck stops with politicians.
Voters tend to have little time for a senior politician trying to outsource the blame for any decisions.
So, as the Lib Dem manifesto delicately puts it - there would have to be some way of retaining "legitimate democratic accountability".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39204674
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Barcelona 6-1 Paris St-Germain (6-5 agg) - BBC Sport
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2017-03-09
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Barcelona make Champions League history by becoming the first team to overturn a first-leg 4-0 deficit to reach the quarter-finals.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Barcelona made Champions League history by becoming the first team to overturn a first-leg 4-0 deficit as they knocked out Paris St-Germain to reach the quarter-finals for the 10th successive season.
The Spanish champions were 5-3 down on aggregate in the 88th minute, but scored three goals in the final seven minutes in one of the greatest European ties of all time.
Neymar's free-kick and penalty followed by Sergi Roberto's 95th-minute winner sealed victory on an incredible night at the Nou Camp.
Barcelona had led 2-0 at the break courtesy of Luis Suarez's header after just three minutes and Layvin Kurzawa's own goal.
And they added another shortly after half-time when Neymar fell over Thomas Meunier in the box and Lionel Messi converted the penalty.
Edinson Cavani lashed home for PSG on 61 minutes and the quarter-finals looked beyond Barca, but they obviously had not read the script.
Neymar curled a sumptuous free-kick into the top corner before Suarez won a controversial penalty and gave it to the Brazilian to convert - which he did, leaving Barca with one goal to find in injury time.
And Neymar, who delivered a stunning performance, turned provider for substitute Roberto, who poked home his first goal of the season as the Nou Camp exploded.
'Deep, instinctive passion at its most authentic and unrefined'
All around me, people were hugging, jumping, screaming. Grown men were crying and strangers were leaping into each other's arms.
Unlike so much of modern sport, there was nothing contrived or orchestrated about those celebrations, about that moment.
This was deep, instinctive passion at its most authentic and unrefined. Just pure, wordless, thoughtless exhilaration. And it is surely for moments like this, which come along once every few years if you're lucky, that sport is so compelling.
From a personal point of view, being there was a privilege. Two decades of attending sporting events in a professional capacity have hardened me, to the extent that I thought nothing can move me.
Read more from Andy here
Greatest European comebacks of all time - the stats
Does anything compare to Barca's achievement on Wednesday night?
Their exploits at the Nou Camp surpassed the previous best second-leg comeback in Champions League history, which was achieved by Deportivo La Coruna against reigning champions AC Milan in 2004.
Trailing 4-1 from the first leg of their quarter-final tie, Deportivo raced into a 3-0 lead in the return leg and, with 14 minutes remaining, clinched a 5-4 aggregate win when Fran volleyed in the Spanish side's fourth goal of the night.
A four-goal first-leg deficit has been overturned in other Uefa competitions by three other clubs:
Real welcomed Borussia Monchengladbach for the second leg of a third-round Uefa Cup tie after the German side had won 5-1 at home, and the Spanish club secured a thrilling 4-0 victory to advance to the last eight.
Leixoes were crushed 6-2 at La Chaux-de-Fonds, but the Swiss side buckled 5-0 at the Estádio do Mar in the return leg.
QPR won the first leg 6-2 - which was played at Highbury as they couldn't use the plastic pitch at Loftus Road - but lost 4-0 in Belgrade and went out on away goals.
PSG stunned Luis Enrique's men in the first leg as they completely outplayed the Spanish champions - 16 shots on goal with 10 on target as they inflicted a 4-0 defeat.
Angel di Maria, Cavani and Julian Draxler were in superb form as manager Unai Emery masterminded his first victory over Barca in 23 attempts.
But their attacking threat from three weeks ago was replaced by a nervous and clumsy defence as PSG looked resigned to a night of toil from the off.
The defence were a shambles - Marco Verratti and Marquinhos let the ball bounce for the first goal, Marquinhos again failed to deal with the second, and Meunier got in the way of Neymar to concede a penalty for the third.
Pressed back to the edge of their penalty box, they were unable to assert any dominance in midfield and with Di Maria on the bench, still feeling the effects of an injury, there was no outlet for the passes.
Cavani, in prolific goalscoring form, gave his side a hope of holding on in the 62nd-minute, but will inevitably face criticism after missing vital chances to put the tie to bed.
Emery, who led Sevilla to three consecutive Europa League titles from 2014-2016, got his tactics very wrong in what was a disastrous result for PSG.
The domestic title is far from safe - they are three points behind Monaco in Ligue 1 and will need to recover quickly to keep up their challenge for a domestic double.
They have lost in the last eight in each of the past four years of the Champions League, but did not even make it that far this season thanks to Barcelona's brilliance.
He curled in a free-kick and scored a penalty when Barcelona looked dejected and out.
Then, with time slipping away and the clock on red, he clipped a superb ball into the box for Sergi Roberto to toe into the net and send his team into the quarter-finals.
'It was a horror movie not a drama' - what the managers said
"It is a difficult night to explain with words. It was a horror movie, not a drama, with a Camp Nou that I have seen very few times as a player or coach.
"What defines this victory is the faith that the players and fans had."
"The truth is we have let a huge opportunity get away and we are aware of that. In the last two minutes we lost everything we had recovered in the second-half.
Barcelona are capable of this in their stadium. In the last few minutes they played all or nothing and they have beaten us."
• None Goal! Barcelona 6, Paris Saint Germain 1. Sergi Roberto (Barcelona) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Neymar with a through ball following a set piece situation.
• None Marco Verratti (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt saved. Gerard Piqué (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Samuel Umtiti.
• None Goal! Barcelona 5, Paris Saint Germain 1. Neymar (Barcelona) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
• None Marquinhos (Paris Saint Germain) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Penalty conceded by Marquinhos (Paris Saint Germain) after a foul in the penalty area.
• None Goal! Barcelona 4, Paris Saint Germain 1. Neymar (Barcelona) from a free kick with a right footed shot to the top left corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Neymar (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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The growth in unusual business qualifications - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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A look at the rise in the number of specialist MBA business courses, with qualifications now available in everything from horse racing to football.
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Business
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You can now do an MBA in horseracing
Steve Gibson says he has made it clear that people should never approach him for any betting advice.
The 36-year-old does, however, often get asked for tips because of the university course he is enrolled on - an MBA (Master of Business Administration) in thoroughbred horseracing industries.
Launched in 2015, the two-year course at Liverpool University has been specially designed for people who want to take up a senior administrative or leadership role in the sport.
A sister MBA at the college is called football industries.
While the two courses sound like a most enjoyable way to spend your time at university, they are in fact part of a growing trend - the rise of specialised MBAs.
MBAs have long been considered a must-have for ambitious young people seeking a fast-tracked and successful career in business.
The celebrated post-graduate qualification is supposed to teach you all you need to be a future company leader, and places on MBA courses at the world's most prestigious universities are highly sought after, and therefore very difficult to get accepted on.
Mr Gibson is juggling the MBA with working for the British Horseracing Association
Yet while it used to be the case that having a standard MBA was all you needed, such has been the rise in the number of colleges offering them, and people gaining the qualification, that specialised MBAs are now being increasingly offered with the aim of giving people an advantage in the industry they wish to join.
"Specialisation gives universities and students a way to stand out," says Anke Arnaud, associate professor of management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University in Florida.
"If everyone is offering an MBA programme, you have to find a way to differentiate, to innovate.
"It starts with attracting lecturers who have a depth of knowledge, and courses that are hip, in the now, and sexy.
"There's a need to offer something different to cater to specific careers."
At Liverpool University the horseracing MBA includes the study of marketing, sponsorship, the media, sports law, regulation, and horse welfare, explains the head of the course, Neil Coster.
Students also go on a number of field trips, including seeing behind the scenes at a race day at Haydock Park, near Liverpool, and a visit to the UK's National Stud in Newmarket, in the east of England, the country's centre of racehorse breeding.
The idea for the course came from industry bodies the British Horseracing Authority and the Horseracing Betting Levy Board.
Mr Coster says: "They saw a need for a master's level education programme that would assist people already working in the industry to prepare and upskill for senior management positions, and help career changers to facilitate a move into the industry."
Neil Coster, left, says the horseracing MBA covers all aspects of the industry
Those enrolled on the football MBA at Liverpool get to visit the headquarters of European football governing body Uefa, which is based in the Swiss town of Nyon.
And if that wasn't prestigious enough, last year they also visited nearby Tranmere Rovers.
Liverpool's football MBA is in fact one of the oldest specialised versions of the qualification, and is now in its 20th year.
The football MBA can be a big help in the big business world of football
"There was clearly a need for graduates with an excellent knowledge of management disciplines and their applications to football," says Babatunde Buraimo, a senior lecturer on the course.
The football MBA takes one year to complete full time, and costs £15,000 for UK nationals, or £21,500 for overseas students. The horseracing qualification costs from £7,500 per annum for two years.
Marie-Pierre Serret says she knows all about the value of a specialised MBA because without one she had struggled to secure a fulfilling job in the aviation industry.
Despite having a masters degree in international business and marketing, the 43-year-old Frenchwoman says she spent a number of years being bumped from job to job, including working as a flight attendant and a check-in clerk.
Marie-Pierre Serret says the aviation MBA helped her secure a good job
So a few years ago she sold her house and enrolled on an MBA in aviation management at Florida's Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University. It wasn't cheap, costing £33,000 for the course, which takes between one-and-a-half and two years.
"This specialised MBA is the missing link," says Ms Serret, who now works as a research assistant for an Embry-Riddle aviation business professor. Projects she has been involved in include working out the marketability of an aeroplane prototype, and advising the Puerto Rican government.
Some 1,200 miles (2,000km) north of Florida, Schulich Business School in Toronto, Canada, offers a 16-month MBA in global mining.
Marcia Annisette, associate professor of accounting at Schulich, says: "A cookie cutter MBA is so popular now that there's a push to have a strong subset of skills."
Despite the rising popularity of specialist MBAs, they do have their critics, who argue that as so much time is dedicated to focusing on the specific industry, not enough hours are dedicated to teaching business fundamentals.
Schulich Business School says the mining industry asked for its specialist MBA
"With only so much classroom time, taking a focused MBA would lead one to miss valuable lessons," says John Paul Engel, lecturer of entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa.
Meanwhile, Michal Strahilevitz, marketing professor at Duke University in North Carolina, cautions that she has seen scores of individuals who have pursued specialisation only to then discover that the specific profession wasn't quite for them.
Others warn that holders of specialised MBAs may struggle to secure the really senior jobs because the qualifications don't yet have the kudos of a general MBA.
Marlena Corcoran, chief executive of Athena Mentor, an international university admission counselling company, says: "A person with a specialised MBA is likely to wind up working for a person with a [general] MBA."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39191135
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Laura Marling: 'I'm unsure of my femininity' - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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Folk star Laura Marling explores what it means to be a woman on her new album, Semper Femina.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Laura Marling's latest album was recorded in her adopted home of Los Angeles, so coming back to London to promote it in mid-February has been something of a rude awakening.
"I stupidly got on my bike this morning and got the sleet right in my face," she winces.
Having dried off and freshened up, she settles down to chat. Marling has a reputation for being a shy, sometimes reluctant interviewee - but LA clearly has rubbed off on her.
She chews gum as we talk, laughing bawdily as she discusses her penchant for dating drummers. ("What do they bring to a relationship? Rhythm!")
The 27-year-old also reveals her mum keeps a "very meticulous scrapbook" of her career, and admits to cooking up her own brand of Halloumi cheese.
"I'm aiming for direct competition with Alex James," she says, referring to the cheese-making Blur bassist. "But bloody hell, what a boring thing to talk about".
Marling released her first album - Alas, I Cannot Swim - in 2007
So instead we circle back to that new album.
It's her sixth, and possibly best, record since she emerged at the age of 17 as part of the indie folk movement that also spawned Mumford and Sons, Lucy Rose and Noah and the Whale.
Sumptuous and sensual, Semper Femina adds a hint of West Coast sheen to her delicate, acoustic melodies. Marling generously credits her band and producer Blake Mills for the progression.
"All of the musicality of the album is down to them," she says. "I wanted to be in the middle of it, but for someone else to be painting the picture around it."
If you don't have a Latin textbook to hand, the album's title is taken from a line in Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid.
The line is "varium et mutabile semper femina", which translates as "woman is always fickle and changeable". "I thought that was very jolly," says Marling, apparently without sarcasm.
She came across the phrase years ago and had a truncated version - "Semper Femina", or "always a woman" - tattooed on her leg when she was 21.
The singer has Virgil's phrase tattooed on her leg
It's a fitting title for a record that explores femininity in all its forms, from the archetypal wild teenager to the artist's muse, while reflecting on female friendships and betrayals.
Marling prompted a lot of speculation when she announced in a press release that the album was written during a "masculine time" in her life, after she had "gone on this trip of abandoning any sexuality".
She clarifies that today, saying she was simply trying to write about women from a "neutral perspective". But she admits LA prompted a period of androgyny.
"People there are just a bit more far-out," she explains. "Nobody's got a job, they can dress however they want. A lot of my friends are queer or gender-fluid. So I was picking up on that.
"Then there was also my natural relationship with [womanhood]. I'm unsure. I'm unsure of my own femininity or masculinity.
"There are some circumstances in which I employ more of a masculine approach in order to protect myself; and there are circumstances where I indulge in my more feminine side because that vulnerability seems more important.
"I'm interested in the differences between men and women, of which there are plenty, and they need to be understood better."
"Well, I was talking to my producer, Blake, and he said he started playing guitar to impress girls. I think when I started playing guitar, it was to impress my dad.
"So Blake's relationship to his instrument is very different to mine and his reason for writing songs is very different to mine but, at the same time, he is extraordinary. And so those differences can be great.
"You can reduce it down to an Eastern idea that men expend energy and women are self-perpetuating."
One of the album's big themes is how women are observed - both by men and each other.
On Wild Fire, Marling talks about a friend who keeps a "pen behind her ear" and constantly jots down her thoughts in a notepad.
"Of course the only part that I want to read is about her time spent with me," the singer drawls.
"Wouldn't you die to know how you're seen? Are you getting away with who you're trying to be?"
That's a perennial question for a performer - especially one who seems so cautious of the limelight.
"Would I die to know how I'm seen?" she asks herself, when the lyric is brought up. "I don't know!
"I'm aware, obviously, that I'm looked at and considered and reviewed and criticised. But I'm pretty good at steering pretty clear of those [articles], unless they're delivered to me by my mother."
On Nouel, she turns the tables - objectifying one of her real-life friends as a classic muse.
"Oh Nouel, you sing so well / Sing only for me?" Marling pleads, going on to compare her friend to Gustave Courbet's Origine Du Monde - an 1866 painting of a woman sprawled naked on a bed.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Laura Marling performs Nouel, from her new album Semper Femina, for BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes.
"I was interested in what it is like to be made a muse," says Marling. "Nouel is a person who exists, a visual artist I know in Los Angeles, and I took her essence and I exaggerated it into a fantasy.
"She [Nouel] was very flattered by it - but then again she was able to remove herself from it.
"It's her but it's not her. I haven't painted a picture of her - it's my projection of my feelings about how extraordinary I feel she is."
In black and white this all seems very intellectual and, well, pretentious.
Marling is quite aware of how it comes across, poking fun at the "pseudo-science" and "pop psychology" she espouses.
On the album she even sings, "Lately I wonder if all my pondering takes up too much ground?"
But the music breathes warm life into these high concepts, resulting in a romantic, confessional suite of songs.
By the last track, Nothing Not Nearly, Marling has put all the contemplation aside to observe: "Nothing matters more than love. No nothing. Not nearly."
It reflects her current, contented state of mind.
"I'm loving my late twenties," she says. "The closer I get to 30, the more at ease I feel with myself."
Each of her albums has contributed to that sense of self, she continues.
"This one was about understanding femininity and masculinity. The last one was understanding solitude.
"Before that was heartbreak, before that was freedom and before that was anger. It's like I'm tackling the world one emotion at a time!"
"Possibly. Or fear, given the era that we're seemingly stepping into," she says. "It's not been good."
Marling won a Brit award for best British female in 2011
She talks about the "horrifying but unbearably addictive quality" of President Trump, saying she's constantly checking her phone for the latest update.
While the Trump era has already prompted a surge in political protest songs, Marling has trouble viewing this as a positive.
"I don't think anyone would wish that on the world for the sake of writing a good song. That's not the purpose of art - to encounter animosity for the sake of having something to do.
"A singer, who's now a big singer, once said to me: 'It'd be so cool to be really heartbroken because it'd be good for my songwriting."
"I was like, 'You silly, naive wally!' Never wish that on yourself. It's unbearable."
Semper Femina is out on 10 March. Laura Marling is currently on tour around the UK.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
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Indyref2: A question of when, not if - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Nicola Sturgeon tells me the "common sense time" for a second independence referendum would be in the autumn of 2018.
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UK Politics
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Nicola Sturgeon has hardly made a secret of her belief that Scotland's different attitude to the EU possibly justifies a second independence referendum.
At Westminster and Holyrood in recent months there's been a building sense that she has made up her mind to call a vote.
Those close to her are careful to emphasise that there is no final decision. She, herself, is at pains to say she has not reached a conclusion. But even if it's still an "if", she seems clearer on the "when".
In a documentary tonight, the first minister told me the "common sense time" for such a vote would be in autumn 2018. Others have speculated as much, but she is in charge. And her more explicit remarks display how expectation is building.
If Ms Sturgeon is now willing to discuss the timing of a second vote in public, consideration of another independence referendum is far beyond the hypothetical.
The crucial facet of that calculation is that the SNP believes its best chance of winning is before the EU negotiations are complete.
Senior sources suggest Theresa May will be at her most vulnerable when the UK government is consumed with the Brexit negotiations, and that if Scotland is to be offered independence again, that choice must be made before the UK has actually left the European Union.
There is though not just the problem that just as her supporters may be enthused, many other Scots will be enraged by being asked to go there again.
Just as the first independence referendum galvanised Scottish politics, for others it was divisive, even distressing.
But also, it's up to the Westminster government to permit another referendum.
There are huge risks for them in denying it, but ministers in London certainly would not grant a vote at the time of the SNP's choosing without a fight.
My interview with Nicola Sturgeon will be broadcast on Britain's Biggest Deal on BBC 2 at 21.00 GMT. I have also spoken to Boris Johnson, David Davis and Tony Blair among others.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39214115
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Thatcher to inspire UK's Brexit 'divorce bill' talks? - BBC News
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2017-03-09
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Boris Johnson says the UK has an "illustrious precedent" and should reject any Brexit bill demands.
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UK Politics
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
As Theresa May arrived at her last Brussels summit before pushing the button on Brexit, it is enough to give you a splitting headache.
Not just the complexity of actually getting a deal done, but the ceiling of the brand new European Council HQ in Brussels, decked out in a crazy patchwork of rainbow colours.
The architect told the BBC he hopes his design will lead to "joyful meetings" in a space "where politicians' deep talents can be expressed like poets".
Harsh words and hard bargaining are more likely to be a feature of the next two years despite the architect's dreams.
Even if there is goodwill on both sides, as British ministers increasingly hope, the technicalities of doing a deal are impossible to dismiss.
First off there's an exit process to negotiate, with a likely exit bill of as much as £50bn.
Ministers have been careful so far not to say too much.
But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told me Britain has an "illustrious precedent" and should reject the demands - just as Margaret Thatcher did at the fabled summit in 1984 when she wielded her handbag and didn't just ask for money back, she threatened to walk out if she didn't get her way.
He told me: "We have illustrious precedent in this matter... I think you can recall the 1984… summit in which Mrs Thatcher said she wanted her money back and I think that is exactly what we will, we will get."
A rather more provocative way of telling the rest of the EU that the contentious demands expected to be made just aren't going to happen and - by mentioning the Fontainbleu incident - implying at least that it is possible the UK could walk out over the cash.
That's before we start to untangle four decades when our countries, laws, rules and regulations have been becoming more and more enmeshed.
Then there are the prospects of getting a deal on the future of our relationships done.
What happens to security arrangements, information sharing, rules and regulations, our entire legal system, our future immigration system, fishing, farming, air traffic control, water quality rules, Europol, continent-wide arrest warrants? The list goes on and on.
Theresa May has arrived at her last Brussels summit before pushing the button on Brexit
Then, as our interview with Nicola Sturgeon makes plain, the constitutional implications at home are only starting to be understood.
There are fights too for powers in Northern Ireland with risks of destabilising the peace process, argues Tony Blair.
And if those two nations are fighting for more powers as control returns from Brussels, can Wales sit and just play along?
The hardest solutions to find though are on trade.
It's true that those who were ardent Remainers now in government say privately they are more hopeful.
A senior figure told me: "It's like a divorce. At the start you say, I hate you, I never want to see you again. Then you say, I still don't like you, but we need to talk about the kids."
There is no question that, in Westminster at least, the expectation is that individual members of the EU are softening their resistance.
That's why part of the UK government's strategy is unquestionably to divide and conquer.
But there isn't much sign of any softening, or at least anyone willing to say so in public.
That's why, despite their optimism, there is a realism in government too, and they are preparing to think about having to walk away, with the Brexit Secretary David Davis admitting to me, he is very hopeful of "Plan A", but that ministers "have to do the work for the so-called Plan B or C".
He also reiterated the government's position that there is no way they will agree to a deal on EU citizens in Britain without agreement from the other side of the table.
He claims the "highest probability" is of getting a deal done.
For the many ministers and officials we've spoken to, they believe - for some of them it's more accurately a hope - that a good deal can be reached because in the end, money talks.
Just as Vote Leave argued, the belief at the highest levels of government is that whether it's German cars or Italian prosecco, European politicians will come willingly to an agreement because they rely on the buying power of the British consumer.
That is the argument that's continually cited and the ultimate irony.
Britain's politicians are relying on the EU to put economics before politics.
One of the reasons Britain chose to leave the EU is the perpetual frustration felt on our side of the Channel that continental politicians are incapable of doing just that.
It's a gamble perhaps that Theresa May didn't have much choice but to take.
But if she's wrong, the government, arguably the country, will need Mr Davis' Plan B. And the dreams of an architect might in fact be the start of a nightmare.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39217083
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Peter Taylor: How has terror changed in 50 years? - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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The threat from terrorism is always evolving, but some things are constant, writes Peter Taylor.
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UK
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The Enniskillen bombing killed 11 people but became a turning-point
The threat from terrorism is always evolving, but some things remain constant - the emotions of loss and the risks taken by those who want peace, writes Peter Taylor.
When I first started working in television 50 years ago, I never imagined that I would spend much of the next half century reporting the phenomenon of terrorism.
From those early days I have tried to understand the roots of violence and explain not what happens but why it happens.
Gradually I got used to reporting death. But I never became insensitive to it.
During Northern Ireland's Troubles, I got to know a loyalist assassin - Billy Giles - well and grew to like him. I first met him when making a documentary in the Maze Prison in 1989.
I talked to Billy in his cell. He was doing life for the murder of his Catholic workmate. He had lured him into a car and then shot him in the back of the head.
"The only way to stop them was to terrorise them. It was them and us," he said. But the act of pulling the trigger had a profound effect on Billy.
"Before I was a decent young man. It [the conflict] turned me into a killer. It felt like someone had reached down and ripped my insides out. You hear a bang and it's too late. [I] never felt a whole person again."
He was released the year before the Good Friday Agreement - which established peace in Northern Ireland - and I met him again. He was a man transformed from the gaunt, haunted figure I'd met in the Maze. He was now wearing a suit, collar and tie and carrying a briefcase.
He looked every inch a businessman and not a loyalist killer. Billy was upbeat and optimistic as he told me about starting a new life. But his ambition proved illusory.
I later heard that he'd hanged himself. I was shattered. I couldn't believe that he'd taken his own life. He left a suicide note. He said he'd ordered a Chinese takeaway, prepared the noose and sat down to write a letter.
"I was a victim too, now hopefully I'll be the last. Please don't let any kid suffer the history I have. Please let our next generation live normal lives. Steer them towards a life that is Troubles free. I've decided to bring this to an end now. I'm tired."
I remember reading Billy's suicide note, hoping that his final wish would come true. At least some of it has.
The emotion that has never left me is the profound sadness I feel for some of those whom I have met, got to know and interviewed. One interview affected me personally above all others.
Peter Taylor covered the early years of the Troubles
The blanket protest by the IRA prisoners in the Maze started in 1977. They refused to wear prison uniform, insisting they were political prisoners and not criminals. The protesters resorted to wearing only a blanket to try and force the issue.
To try and understand the situation from the other side of the cell doors, I met Desmond Irvine, the secretary of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers Association.
As a unionist prison officer, what he said came as a surprise. He agreed to do an interview despite the Northern Ireland Office advising him against it. I felt he wanted to get his message across.
I asked if he respected the prisoners for their protest. "I don't think they just do it mainly for publicity but because it's their belief. I suppose one could say a person who believes sincerely in what he is doing, and is prepared to suffer for it, [deserves] a certain measure of respect which you give to him."
Normal life was disrupted for many years in parts of Northern Ireland
After transmission, he wrote me a letter saying how pleased he was with the positive reaction he had had to the interview.
Then a few days later, the IRA shot him dead.
Deeply shocked, I felt sick. At his funeral I cried. And I remember the prison governor telling me not to blame myself, saying he was murdered because he was a prison officer and not because I had interviewed him.
But I'm still haunted by what happened. I was called by a Belfast journalist who asked how it felt to have blood on my hands. Death had come too close to home and I seriously considered stopping reporting Northern Ireland. In the end, I decided to carry on.
The pain I felt was nothing compared with that suffered by loved ones long after victims are forgotten.
Joan Wilson was one of the most unforgettable people I met. She lost her 20-year-old daughter, Marie, a nurse, in the IRA bomb attack on Enniskillen's Remembrance Day parade in November 1987.
Eleven people died, all of them Protestants, and all civilians, apart from one police reservist. Over 60 were injured.
Joan was at home when the bomb went off. "I thought, well, Gordon [her husband] and Marie are there. I hope nothing terrible has happened."
Both were buried under 6ft of rubble. Gordon managed to reach Marie's hand. "Daddy, I love you very much," were the last words she uttered.
Joan rushed to the hospital knowing little of what had happened. "I was absolutely horrified to see Marie on the bed, wired up. I took her hand, and it was cold. "As we stood there watching her life ebbing away, it ebbed away, and she passed over to our heavenly father in our presence."
The attack did incalculable damage to the IRA and the beginning of the peace process can be traced from that day.
At the time, British and Irish intelligence services believed that Martin McGuinness was the acting head of the IRA's Northern Command - in whose operational area the attack took place - although when I put it to him, he denied it.
I interviewed Joan after McGuinness had become Ian Paisley's partner in the Stormont government's devolved power sharing executive - a sight you might think Joan would find hard to stomach. But that wasn't the case.
"I'm very pleased to see Dr Paisley, whom I regard as a great man of God, sharing with Martin McGuinness, and I think each will be good for the other.
I've spoken to many victims of the IRA's campaign and many, like Lord Tebbit, whose wife Margaret was paralysed in the Brighton bomb, would profoundly disagree.
Tebbit is excoriating in his condemnation of Martin McGuinness and furious at the media hagiography that he believes followed McGuinness's death.
Peace eventually came to Northern Ireland, but other conflicts have proved more intractable.
The 1983 Lebanon barracks bombings presaged the widespread modern use of suicide attacks
Going through my archive of over 100 documentaries reminds me of how chillingly prophetic many interviewees have been.
In Lebanon, 25 years ago, I talked to Col Bill Cowan, the US undercover soldier sent to identify the masterminds behind two devastating truck bomb attacks carried out by Islamist suicide bombers in Beirut in 1983.
The first reduced the US Embassy to rubble, killing 63 people including most of the CIA station. Six months later, the second suicide bomber killed 241 US Marines at their base south of Beirut. Many perished in an avalanche of concrete and masonry.
I later interviewed Cowan by one of the few walls left standing - it had been part of a bar and you could still see a Playboy bunny drawn on it. He warned: "Unless we find a way of working with Islamic fundamentalism, we are going to face much, much greater threats over the next decade."
The attack on the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam brought notoriety to al-Qaeda
The threats went far beyond the next decade. In 1998, al-Qaeda suicide truck bombs shattered two of America's east African embassies, massacring more than 200 people, most of them Muslims.
Then three years later, 9/11 claimed the lives of almost 3,000 - it was a dramatic wake-up call to the world that Cowan's dire warning had come true.
In another interview shortly after 9/11, Dewey Claridge, the spy who helped set up the CIA's Counterterrorism Centre, described what he wanted to see happening to Osama Bin Laden.
"I don't want him brought to trial. I don't want to see a dead body because that just makes him a martyr. I just want him to disappear. Concrete shoes dropped into the Indian Ocean takes care of the dead part of 'dead or alive'."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. When British troops went into Northern Ireland
Bin Laden's fate was exactly as Dewey Claridge's crystal ball had predicted.
In Northern Ireland it was a military stalemate that persuaded the British and the IRA to talk.
That stalemate, in which the SAS and its covert intelligence arm, known as the "Det" (for Detachment), left the IRA in no doubt that the "Brits" were not going to allow the IRA to win.
Between 1983 and 1992 the SAS and the Det shot dead 35 IRA suspects.
I remember doing an interview with one "Det" operator, a young woman, who described the celebrations back at base after the killing of IRA volunteer, William Price in 1984. To some of the team, the permanent removal of an IRA man from the battlefield was cause for a party.
"They [the IRA] make no secret of the fact that they celebrate the death of a soldier or policeman," she told me. "We celebrated in the same way. If a terrorist was shot, there was a cake made with their name on it."
Wasn't that macabre? "Possibly," she replied, "but the saying is live by the sword and die by the sword."
I finally found a photo of the cake - in the shape of a cross, with icing round the edges and "RIP" etched above the place where Price was killed.
Perhaps the most uplifting stories in the midst of seemingly endless atrocities are about those who have the courage to take great personal risks to work towards peace.
I found that the Derry businessman, Brendan Duddy, displayed extraordinary generosity of spirit. For over 20 years, he was the vital secret back channel intermediary between the MI6 officer Michael Oatley (and later his MI5 successor) and the IRA's ruling Army Council, via Martin McGuinness.
This top secret channel of communication cultivated for so long in the shadows ultimately led to the IRA ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement.
It took me many months to discover the identity of the mysterious intermediary and when I finally did, to my astonishment, his first words were: "I've been waiting to hear from you."
A long night followed at Duddy's home, in the tiny parlour where many of the secret meetings were held. He told me his remarkable story.
Extraordinarily, IRA leaders were being smuggled over the border and brought in from Belfast for negotiations with the British government via MI6 and MI5.
It was 10 years after our first contact before Brendan finally agreed to an interview.
The emotional stress he had suffered in his efforts to bring peace were apparent in his voice.
He described being present at the seminal first meeting in his parlour between the MI6 officer, Michael Oatley, and Martin McGuinness in 1991.
I asked why he had taken the risks he had. "When you ask questions like that I choke. I get emotional. I find it hard to answer. I had no choice."
But can the principle of engaging with the enemy be applied to other conflicts?
After 9/11 a long and exhaustive hunt for Osama Bin Laden was launched
The former director of MI5, Eliza Manningham Buller, believes that it can. I interviewed her when the main threat came from al-Qaeda, in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings.
The so-called Islamic State was yet to emerge. I asked if the "war on terror" was winnable. "Not in the military sense," she said.
"There won't be a Waterloo or an El Alamein. The terminology about winning the 'war on terror' was not something that I ever subscribed to. It's always better to talk to the people who are attacking you than attacking them. I would hope that people are trying to reach out to the Taliban, to people on the edges of al-Qaeda to talk to them."
So after 50 years what are the lessons to be learned about defeating terrorism?
It has to be tackled on both the military and political front, with both security forces and their political masters being sensitive to the delicate balance between alienating communities and gaining their support.
In the absence of the elusive military victory, governments also need to be ready to engage with the enemy as the British did with the IRA, the Spanish have tried with Eta and most recently the Colombians have achieved with the Farc.
All these were possible because the enemy had a political agenda around which there could be dialogue.
The problem with al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State is that their agenda embraces a thousand years not 50. And al-Qaeda and IS are infinitely more ruthless and indiscriminate than the IRA ever was.
It is even difficult, as last week's attack in Westminster shows, to establish whether or not an attacker is genuinely one of their adherents or supporters.
Although victory over IS may be declared in Mosul and Raqqa, the final victory lies not in crushing its armies on the battlefield but in defeating its ideology.
Correction 3 April 2017: This report has been amended to clarify that Billy Giles was released in 1997, not under the Good Friday Agreement a year later.
Peter Taylor's documentary, Fifty Years Behind the Headlines - Reflections on Terror, is on Saturday 1 April at 20:00 BST on BBC Radio Four. Catch up later on iPlayer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39432041
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Burnley 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Tottenham cut the gap on Premier League leaders Chelsea to seven points as they overcome a stubborn Burnley at Turf Moor.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Tottenham cut the gap on Premier League leaders Chelsea to seven points as they overcame a stubborn Burnley at Turf Moor.
The visitors struggled in a drab first half as Dele Alli fired wide when well-placed and both central midfielders Victor Wanyama and Harry Winks were withdrawn through injury.
Winks suffered a particularly nasty fall, tumbling into the Burnley dugout after trying to tackle Stephen Ward, before he was carried off on a stretcher at the interval.
Despite a lack of attacking fluency, Spurs continued to exert pressure on the Clarets from corners, with Eric Dier firing in after the hosts failed to properly clear Christian Eriksen's delivery.
Vincent Janssen, making his first Premier League start of 2017, became the third Tottenham player forced off injured but that allowed the introduction of Son Heung-min.
And the South Korea striker made sure of victory as he tapped in Alli's squared pass on 77 minutes as Spurs controlled the final stages.
Victory, coupled with Chelsea's shock 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, ensures Mauricio Pochettino's side stay in contention for the title with nine games remaining.
• None Reaction as Chelsea lose and Spurs close the gap on the leaders
A perennial worry with Tottenham is whether they possess the depth required to match the undoubted quality of their starting side and sustain a season-long challenge.
Victory over Southampton in the absence of injured striker Harry Kane last time out suggested those concerns could be consigned to the past, only to reappear in the first half at Turf Moor.
Kyle Walker's deputy Kieran Tripper made several mistakes against his former club, Winks was guilty of trying to force passes in midfield and Janssen was again ineffective, lacking the pace and guile to test the organised duo of Michael Keane and Ben Mee.
While not in the circumstances Spurs would have wanted, the added quality of Mousa Dembele and especially Son ultimately ensured a more comfortable afternoon.
The Korean's movement was vital in opening up a tiring Burnley as Alli made amends for his earlier uncharacteristic miss to calmly find the striker free to side-foot in.
After the game, Pochettino said Kane could be back "in a few weeks," yet in the meantime Son could again prove a stellar stand-in, while Janssen's spell on the sidelines looks set to resume.
Burnley's feted home form this season had seen them only lose to Arsenal, Manchester City and Swansea before this game and they once again followed a similar blueprint of pressing and cutting off lines of passing to frustrate superior opposition.
Andre Gray and Ashley Barnes kept the Tottenham defence honest through the first half, while Keane and Mee easily repelled much of what Spurs attempted.
Yet the Clarets were undone by a rare lapse in concentration at a set-piece as Jeff Hendrick failed to firmly decide whether to let Eriksen's corner run or hack it clear, only to put the ball straight into Dier's path for the opener.
The hosts looked notably tired and bereft of ideas in the final 20 minutes as they fell to 15th, five points above the relegation zone.
Home games against Stoke City, Manchester United, West Brom and West Ham during the run-in should see Sean Dyche's side pick up enough points to avoid a relegation scrap, but they may rue a missed opportunity to secure a point here.
After this season had started to look like a procession to the title for Chelsea, Saturday's results hint that a coronation of Antonio Conte's side remains premature.
Tottenham's challenge is tough - but not unprecedented.
In 2012, Manchester City overhauled an eight-point gap in six games to beat Manchester United to the title on goal difference.
If Spurs are to pull off a miraculous comeback, this victory could be the first step in a crucial week that sees Chelsea host Manchester City and Tottenham travel to relegation-threatened Swansea.
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino: "We showed great character and I'm very proud and pleased because the performance in the second half was very good.
"This win is massive for us - we have to be there if Chelsea fail and we are there. We are fighting for the Premier League.
"When you reduce the gap to seven points it's completely different to 10 points - we just have to be there if Chelsea fail and want to be there until the end of the season."
Burnley boss Sean Dyche: "Up until the first goal we were solid and kept them from using the lines of passing that they like.
"We created some good positions but not good chances and then gave away a really poor goal.
"That lifted them and they looked more assured after that and showed what a tope side they are."
• None Tottenham have won more points than any other Premier League team in 2017 (26).
• None This was Burnley's first home defeat by two or more goals in the Premier League since losing 1-3 against Everton in October 2014 (eight home defeats by a one-goal margin since).
• None Son Heung-Min has scored eight goals in 25 Premier League games this season, doubling his tally from last season (four goals in 28 games).
• None Dele Alli has been involved in 11 goals in 11 Premier League games for Tottenham in 2017 so far (eight goals, three assists).
• None Eric Dier's goal was his first in the Premier League since December 2015 (vs Newcastle), and first away from home in the competition since August 2014 (vs West Ham).
• None Burnley have now gone six Premier League games in April without scoring.
Burnley host Stoke City at Turf Moor on Tuesday, with kick-off at 19:45 GMT, while Tottenham travel to Swansea on Wednesday, with kick-off also at 19:45 GMT.
• None Offside, Burnley. Stephen Ward tries a through ball, but Sam Vokes is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Son Heung-Min.
• None Offside, Tottenham Hotspur. Moussa Sissoko tries a through ball, but Dele Alli is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right.
• None Ashley Barnes (Burnley) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt blocked. Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kieran Trippier.
• None Goal! Burnley 0, Tottenham Hotspur 2. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Dele Alli.
• None Attempt missed. Son Heung-Min (Tottenham Hotspur) left footed shot from a difficult angle on the left misses to the left. Assisted by Christian Eriksen.
• None Attempt missed. Scott Arfield (Burnley) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Ashley Barnes. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39390125
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Cold War fake news: Why Russia lied over Aids and JFK - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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KGB political officers in the field had to spend up to a quarter of their time on "active measures".
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Europe
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In the early 1980s, the Aids virus seemed to emerge from nowhere.
There was no cure and its origins were a mystery. But one theory began to surface - that it was the product of secret US military research at the Fort Detrick Laboratory.
What was the source for this piece of fake news? The answer was the KGB, the Soviet intelligence service.
"The Aids disinformation campaign was one of the most notorious and one of the most successful Soviet disinformation campaigns during the Cold War," argues Thomas Boghardt, a historian at the US Army Center of Military History who has studied the case in detail.
KGB political officers in the field were tasked with spending up to a quarter of their time on what were called "active measures".
Mr Boghardt believes the KGB station in New York first came up with the idea, which played into distrust in US institutions and rumours of covert biological warfare programmes.
"Intelligence meant not only gathering but using - or weaponising - that intelligence for influence operations," he explains.
The aim of these "active measures" was to sow confusion and distrust either within a country or between allies. He says that in 1980, the Soviets spent an astonishing $3bn (£2.4bn) a year on active measures.
It was not the only time the KGB successfully pushed a conspiracy theory.
Within weeks of the assassination of President Kennedy, it tried to circulate stories of official CIA involvement.
The Russians tried to implicate the CIA in the assassination of President Kennedy
It even covertly financed a book on the subject published in America within a year of the killing.
Many attempts at disinformation were amateurish and failed. The main challenge was crafting something plausible. Those that succeeded either blended fact with fiction or worked with the grain of existing conspiracies.
When it came to targeting Britain, Moscow had help in the shape of former MI6 officer and KGB spy, Kim Philby.
"He would provide advice on how to do it," General Oleg Kalugin - formerly of the KGB and Philby's ex-colleague - told me. "He said 'this would not work, that sounds too Soviet'."
Typically this would involve taking genuine documents from Western countries which spies had stolen and then adding in a few fake paragraphs to twist the meaning.
"We preferred to work on genuine documents with some additions and changes, and Philby in that sense was [the] number one guy," says Kalugin, now based in the US.
In the 1980s, the US tried to counter the tide of KGB disinformation by setting up an "Active Measures Working Group", with experts from across government agencies.
"The only way you could counter active measures was by coming back with the truth," explains David Major, a former FBI official who served on the group.
Gordon Corera presented Subversion: West on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 31 March at 11:00 BST.
You can listen to it, and the previous episode Subversion: East on the BBC Radio 4 website.
It would try and identify fake stories and then advise the media about their source. "We were saying which one of these stories turns out to be fake news." Major says.
It tried to counter one claim that Americans were going to South America, ostensibly to adopt children but actually to harvest their body parts.
The challenge in the Cold War was getting out a story.
In the case of the Aids virus, it was planted in a small journal in India which was funded by the KGB.
The story - on 17 July 1983 - warned that Aids might invade India and was the product of US experiments, with an anonymous US scientist linking it to Fort Detrick.
Scientists at the US Army's Fort Detrick Laboratory were falsely accused of generating AIDS
Initially, there was not much pick-up. But two years later, Soviet news outlets ran the story, citing the Indian reports. That meant they could claim they were not the source.
The story then spread rapidly over the next few years and can still be found in the wilder edges of the internet.
The KGB placed great emphasis on not just recruiting people who had access to secrets but people who could influence opinion, so called "agents of influence".
"The Soviet and Soviet Bloc intelligence agencies were very good at cultivating contacts with journalists for instance, or intellectuals, who sometimes knowingly and sometimes unknowingly would be used as launching platforms for fake or leaked stories," explains Prof Thomas Rid of King's College, London.
Sometimes documents would also be mailed anonymously to journalists.
But did active measures stop at the end of the Cold War?
"The Soviet Union may have dissolved in 1990-91 but Soviet intelligence stayed virtually intact both in terms of its organisation and the goals it pursued - and that includes active measures," says Mr Boghardt.
There were also new opportunities thanks to technology.
"In the 1990s when the Internet slowly emerged, it was really a no-brainer to start to use a platform that made it a lot easier to leak anonymously, to give information anonymously to the public," argues Prof Rid.
The KGB did allegedly try and influence American elections in the past - for instance by pushing the "Reagan means War" line in the 1984 US election - and the US intelligence community believes that it did so again in 2016 through a wide-ranging influence operation.
FBI Director James Comey has confirmed there was an open investigation over the links between the Trump campaign and Russia
This included hacking into organisations like the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign officials' emails and feeding information to websites.
"What we've seen during the Cold War, somewhat counter-intuitively, is artisanal active measures - very labour intensive at the front end, down to using white gloves when you sign the letter in order to avoid fingerprints, the letter that you then mail anonymously," says Prof Rid.
"It really required good tradecraft. But what we see in 2016 is the opposite: lazy industrial scale hacking and dumping."
The leaking of real information is different from the creation of fake news stories, but they too are alleged to have appeared in 2016 although it is harder to trace their origins in the online world.
In the current environment, the term fake news has taken on many meanings. Russian intelligence's active measures may well be part of a chaotic mix.
But in a world in which accusations of fake news and conspiracy are bandied around freely, even exposing such measures can be swept up in a whirlwind of claim and counter-claim.
The result is confusion. And more divisions which any future active measures can then exploit.
Gordon Corera presented Subversion: West on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 31 March at 11:00 BST. You can listen to it and the previous episode Subversion: East on the BBC Radio 4 website.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39419560
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15 big changes to your finances in April - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Those on benefits are about to be squeezed further, while many people in work will be better off.
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Business
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 1 April brings changes to some important rates and taxes
Household budgets are likely to be further stretched in the first week of April, as dozens of items including water bills, council tax, NHS charges, and some broadband and energy charges all rise.
Those on welfare will feel the squeeze especially, as payment rates are frozen for the second year in succession, and the generosity of some benefits are reduced.
However, those in work are likely to become better off, as tax rates become more generous, and the National Living Wage also rises.
Some of these changes will occur on 1 April, at the start of the government's financial year, while others occur on 6 April, the start of the tax year.
From 6 April the personal allowance - the annual amount you can earn before paying tax - rises from £11,000 to £11,500. This should save over 20 million people £100 a year, and take thousands out of tax altogether.
At the same time the starting point for paying the higher, or 40%, rate of tax will move from £43,000 to £45,000. This will save higher rate taxpayers a further £400 a year.
However, in Scotland the higher rate threshold has been frozen at £43,000, so better-off taxpayers north of the border will see no benefit.
Millions of people over the age of 25 will receive a 4% pay rise from 1 April, as the National Living Wage (NLW) increases from £7.20 an hour to £7.50.
However, those between the ages of 21 and 24, who receive the National Minimum Wage (NMW), will get a rise of only 1.4% - well below the current 2.3% CPI inflation rate.
Savers can apply to open a new Lifetime Isa (Lisa) from 6 April. The government will add a 25% bonus to your savings after a year, up to a maximum of £1,000. The Lisa is designed for people who want to buy a property, or need a retirement income.
Anyone nearing the age of 40 is advised to consider opening a Lisa soon, as those over that age cannot start an account.
More details about the Lisa here.
The allowance for saving into an ordinary Individual Savings Account (Isa) goes up from £15,250 to £20,000 from 6 April.
The money can be invested in a cash Isa, or in stocks and shares.
There is no tax to pay on income from an Isa, or on any capital gain.
Anyone buying a new car from 1 April will pay a different rate of Vehicle Excise Duty (VED).
This is because car emissions have got so much cleaner that most of them would no longer qualify for VED at all.
New buyers will pay a special rate in the first year, depending on engine emissions, followed by a fixed rate in one of three categories thereafter: zero emission, standard or premium.
The standard rate will be £140. Luxury cars, costing more than £40,000 will pay an extra £310.
Rates for existing car owners will not change.
Inheritance tax will become less onerous for people who want to leave property to their children.
Currently, any estate worth more than £325,000 carries a tax liability of 40% on anything above that threshold.
But from 6 April there will be a new transferable main residence allowance on property within the estate, enabling individuals to pass on an extra £100,000 tax free.
Couples who are married, or in a civil partnership, will now be able to pass on £850,000 in total without paying tax, an amount that will rise to £1m by 2021.
People living in England will see the steepest general rise in council tax. From 1 April the rise will average 4%, equating to £61 for a typical Band D property. The rise will be smaller in district councils, which do not have responsibility for social care, and up to 4.99% in those that do.
In Scotland the average rise is 3%, equating to about £32 for a Band D property. However, householders in the top four bands (E to H) will see extra increases, due to MSPs deciding to increase the "multiplyer". Those with properties in band E will see typical rises of £105 a year, while those in band H are likely to pay £517 more.
Council taxpayers in Wales will see a rise of 3.1% on average, equal to about £35 a year on a Band D property.
Rate-payers in Northern Ireland have still not been told what their bill will be, due to political issues.
From 6 April there will be cuts to future child tax credits. Where a first child is born after this date, claimants will no longer receive the family element of the payment, worth £545 a year.
Those whose first child was born before 6 April will see no change.
In addition, those who have a third or subsequent child after this date will no longer receive a payment for that child - limiting future tax credits to two children only.
The same will apply to people claiming universal credit. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculates that as a result of this change alone, 600,000 three-child families will on average be £2,500 worse off than under the old system.
But in practice no existing parent, and no existing claimant, will actually lose money.
From Monday 3 April new claimants for the Work Related Activity Group (WRAG) of ESA will receive £29 a week less than existing claimants. These are people whom the government judges may be capable of working at some stage in the future.
They will receive £73 instead of £102, to bring them into line with claimants for Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA).
The IFS has estimated that half a million future claimants will receive £1,400 a year less than current claimants.
April 2017 sees the start of the second year in which many state benefits will be frozen. This includes JSA, ESA, child benefit and some housing benefit payments.
Given that CPI inflation is currently running at 2.3%, this will amount to a real terms cut for tens of millions of people.
The freeze is due to last until March 2020.
From 10 April, those people who claim universal credit (UC) will be allowed to keep more of what they earn from a job before their benefits are reduced.
Previously those in work were allowed to keep 35p out of every pound they earned, before their UC payment was cut.
Now they will be allowed to keep 37p in every pound. This is as a result of the so-called taper rate being reduced from 65% to 63%.
The cost of an NHS prescription in England rises on 1 April from £8.40 to £8.60. However the cost of pre-payment cards has been frozen.
Dental charges in England are also rising. The cost of a check-up will go up by 90p to £20.60, the cost of a filling goes up by £2.40 to £56.30, and the most complex work will go up by £10 to £244.30.
From 1 April, four million consumers who use pre-payment meters for their gas and electricity will see their charges capped. The regulator, Ofgem, says they should each save around £80 a year.
However, on average they were paying £220 more than other consumers, so they will still be paying a higher charge than others.
Water and sewerage bills will go up on 1 April. The average rise in England and Wales is 2%, making a typical annual bill £395. In Scotland the rise will be 1.6%, or around £5 per household.
Residents of Northern Ireland pay for water through their rates bills.
Some energy bills will rise significantly. SSE customers on standard tariffs will see electricity prices rise by 14.9% on 28 April. E.On will increase electricity prices by 13.8%, and gas prices by 3.8%, on 26 April. Most other suppliers increased their prices in March.
Several telecoms companies, including BT, EE and Vodafone are putting up prices. The cost of BT broadband, for example, will go up by £2.50 a month.
On 1 April the cost of a TV licence goes up by £1.50, to £147.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39441970
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Would you risk jail for a cup of tea? - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How a 119% tax on tea imports in the 1750s helped smuggling become a vital part of the UK economy.
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Business
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Smugglers being chased by the Royal Navy. Virtually every seaside community in Britain saw its share of smuggling in the 18th Century
A boat beaches in a lonely cove at night, the crew hurriedly unloading its cargo of tea to waiting men and pack horses while armed lookouts stand guard against a surprise swoop by the revenue men.
It may be a stereotypical image, but in the 18th Century, a cuppa was in such high demand that many Britons were willing to risk jail for the privilege.
In fact, this kind of smuggling was a vital part of Britain's economy for some 200 years.
It was a trade triggered by increasingly high tariffs or duties, taxes a merchant would have to pay to legally import tea.
The duties on importing tea reached a staggering 119% in the 1750s - which meant that if you could avoid paying the tax, the cost of your brew dropped by more than half.
Tea became hugely popular in Britain in the 1700s
Not surprisingly many customers turned to the smugglers, who were willing to risk imprisonment or have their ships destroyed and goods seized if they were caught.
When import taxes or tariffs are low, there's not much profit to be made from smuggling.
Conversely, when a government makes it expensive to legally import items it encourages smugglers who can undercut the official price.
Tea was one of the most important items illegally brought into Britain in the 18th Century - everybody wanted to drink it, but most could not afford it at the official price.
Tea chests in London in the 1950s - the nation's love affair with the drink has endured
In an age before income tax, tea duties accounted for 10% of government revenues, which was enough to pay for the Royal Navy, but as tariffs on it reached 119% it gave smugglers their chance.
"If you had high tariffs and goods people wanted, it gave smugglers a business opportunity," says Exeter University historian Helen Doe.
More than 3,000 tonnes of tea was smuggled into Britain a year by the late 1700s, with just 2,000 tonnes imported legally.
In some areas whole communities were dependent on smuggling, from landowners who might finance the operation down to the fishermen who might be crewing the boats.
There were three main types of smuggling, says Robert Blyth, senior curator at the National Maritime Museum in London.
A romanticised view of the smuggling trade; in reality smugglers often used threats of violence against customs men
"There's small-scale smuggling, where you might row your boat out to meet a ship and take off some of its cargo to sell illegally, the ship's captain declaring the missing cargo as 'spoiled at sea' when it gets to port to officially unload the rest," he says.
"Then there are commercially organised groups bringing contraband into harbours across the UK in a sophisticated operation.
"Finally, you have simple theft and pilfering in major ports like London from ships that have already moored, but have not yet been checked by the revenue."
It wasn't just the British who were developing a taste for tea. The popularity of the drink in Sweden meant the country also played an important role in 18th Century smuggling into Britain.
Gothenburg was the base for the Swedish East India Company's operations
Swedish East India Company merchants were able to buy the best quality Chinese tea because unlike other European countries they were prepared to pay in silver - rather than seeking to barter or trade.
Quite a few were actually Scottish, political refugees who had fled to Sweden after the failure of the 1745 Jacobite uprising, and who thus saw little wrong in avoiding paying tax to Britain's Hanoverian government.
So popular was this trade that newspapers in Scotland and northern England openly carried adverts for this smuggled tea, called "Gottenburgh Teas".
Building specialised docks with guarded warehouses helped cut down stealing of goods once ships had reached London
For many tea traders in Britain, buying smuggled tea made sense, says Derek Janes, a history researcher at Exeter University.
"Britain's own East India Company had a monopoly on tea imports, so if an Edinburgh merchant wanted to buy it you had to go to London, you had to pay to bring it back to Scotland - and you had to pay upfront.
"But if you bought it from the smugglers it would be half the price - with no tax to pay - they would deliver to your door and you would get up to four months credit. A much better service!"
One of those involved in this trade was John Nisbet, who became rich enough to commission architect John Adams to design his harbourside mansion in Eyemouth in the Scottish borders, complete with hidden partitions for the smuggled tea.
Often when the customs officials got a tip-off about his ship it was too late - the cargo had already been smuggled ashore. And if a smuggler did have his goods seized, he could sometimes negotiate a price to buy it back from the government.
"John Nisbet had a ship and cargo seized, but you can see the lawyer for the board of customs in Edinburgh say that the witnesses had disappeared, so the customs did a deal. He paid £250 to get it all back, which still left him in profit," says Mr Janes.
By 1784, the government realised high tariffs were creating more problems than they were worth and cut tea duties to just 12.5%, making tea affordable for most people. The change meant smugglers switched to bringing in spirits and wine instead.
The end of the Napoleonic wars saw the Royal Navy in undisputed command of the Channel, making it much harder for smugglers to avoid detection
The Napoleonic wars saw an upsurge in smuggling, but after 1815 with the Royal Navy in undisputed command of the sea, its days were numbered.
Ultimately, many smugglers failed. In the long run, the business did not generate enough cash to compensate for the risks of losing stock or ships to the customs. John Nisbet may have been able to afford a fine house but even he went bust eventually, the result of one too many cargo seizures.
In the end, it was economics that finally put an end to the smuggling era. Britain's adoption of a free trade policy in the 1840s reduced import duties significantly, making smuggling no longer viable.
And thanks to that shift in policy, you can now sit back, relax and enjoy a nice cup of tea without any fears of going to prison.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38910968
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Chelsea 1-2 Crystal Palace - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Chelsea's lead at the top of the Premier League is cut to seven points after they suffer a shock home defeat to Crystal Palace.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Chelsea's lead at the top of the Premier League was cut to seven points after they suffered a shock home defeat by Crystal Palace and Tottenham beat Burnley.
Antonio Conte's side had won their past 10 league games at Stamford Bridge and had not lost there in any competition since 16 September, but saw that run ended by a battling Eagles side.
The Blues struck first, when Cesc Fabregas turned home Eden Hazard's cross after five minutes, but they were quickly behind.
Wilfried Zaha produced a fine solo finish to turn and fire home from the edge of the box and, 91 seconds later, set up Christian Benteke to put Palace ahead with a delicate dinked effort.
Chelsea piled on the pressure and had 24 shots at goal, their second-highest total in 29 league games this season.
But they could find no way past Eagles keeper Wayne Hennessey, who made 11 saves in total to ensure his side won a fourth successive game.
Chelsea cannot find a way through
The international break cannot have helped Chelsea's rhythm but that did not seem a problem when Hazard, back from a calf injury, and Fabregas combined early on.
Putting Pedro in as right wing-back in place of the absent Victor Moses did not seem to cause the leaders too many issues either, as many of their best attacks came down that flank.
A drop in energy levels might have played a part in places, however. N'Golo Kante, who played 90 minutes for France against Spain in midweek, was noticeably below par in the centre of midfield.
More than 10 minutes of stoppage time was played before the game ended, but Chelsea did not appear any more likely to score and were reduced to hopeful balls into the box as Hazard's influence faded.
Antonio Conte's side remain in a strong position at the top of the table but, if tiredness was an issue against the Eagles, it could affect them again in the next few days.
Chelsea's lack of European involvement means they are not used to playing in midweek, and only 13 different players have started 22 league games for them since 1 October.
With two games in the next seven days, at home to Manchester City and away at Bournemouth, Conte may have to test the strength in depth of his squad for the first time.
Despite their lack of sparkle, Chelsea's defeat was not down to a lack of chances - but, when they did break down Palace's determined defence, they found Hennessey in inspired form.
His best save was an instinctive stop from Diego Costa in the first half but every facet of the Wales international's game was tested as Chelsea tried to find a way back into the game after going behind.
Hennessey had to move quickly to keep out Marcos Alonso's dangerous cross-shot, dash from his line to prevent Costa from stretching to poke the ball home, and was also tested from distance by Nemanja Matic.
He was helped by his defenders when dealing with the sheer number of crosses from the home side - 35 in total, 12 more than they have previously made in any league game under Conte - but superbly marshalled a back-line that changed twice during the game because of injuries to James Tomkins and then Scott Dann.
'We must accept this result' - what the managers said
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte speaking to Match of the Day: "This is football. We must accept this result.
"We scored our goal after five minutes and then we conceded two in a few minutes. When you concede goals in that way you must understand the situation and improve on these mistakes.
"In every game in England, anything can happen. The league is so strong. We faced a team today with strong players. I think they showed they were a good team.
"Now we have to think about the next game. If we had won we would have been happy but now it's important to focus on Manchester City."
Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce: "I think our performance is typical of what seems to be the character of the side. It's the first time we've gone behind so early. The determination has shone through. We knew we were going to be pegged back.
"The defence was outstanding, the goalkeeper was outstanding. We could have scored more.
"It's a sweet three points, to come to the champions - or who I think are going to be champions - and win. This is what the Premier League is about. There can be a shock anywhere. It will make people sit up and say wow."
What next? Man City come to Stamford Bridge
Palace remain four points clear of the relegation zone, with a game in hand on third-bottom Hull, and a vastly superior goal difference. They are on the road again in midweek, and travel to Southampton on Wednesday (19:45 BST).
Chelsea have a chance to make immediate amends on home turf when they host Manchester City on the same night (20:00).
Allardyce beats Chelsea again - the stats you need to know
• None Allardyce is the first manager to win a Premier League game against Chelsea with four different clubs.
• None Fabregas scored in his 43rd Premier League game, but this was the first time he had been on the losing side.
• None Benteke has scored in his past three Premier League appearances at Stamford Bridge, each with a different club (Aston Villa, Liverpool and Crystal Palace).
• None Chelsea conceded two goals in the opening 11 minutes of a Premier League home game for the first time since October 1995 (v Manchester United).
• None Offside, Chelsea. Willian tries a through ball, but David Luiz is caught offside.
• None Offside, Chelsea. David Luiz tries a through ball, but Pedro is caught offside.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Mamadou Sakho (Crystal Palace) because of an injury.
• None Attempt missed. Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Jeffrey Schlupp following a set piece situation.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Mamadou Sakho (Crystal Palace) because of an injury.
• None Attempt missed. Diego Costa (Chelsea) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Cesc Fàbregas. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39390083
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Breaking superstitions with a 'longtail' infestation - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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BBC reporter Rick Faragher takes a look at superstitions after he is forced to break one when covering a story about an infestation of "longtails".
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Northern Ireland
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An infestation of "longtails" caused a rather unusual problem for Rick Faragher
Rick Faragher is no pied piper - he is from the Isle of Man and people there are deeply superstitious about using the three-letter "r" word for vermin.
But the BBC News reporter had to face his fears when he was sent to cover a story in Belfast that made his blood run cold.
I winced the moment I got the nod.
I'd covered some difficult stories for the BBC but this was the most daunting in terms of subject matter.
It's not that I have an issue with the creatures themselves, it's just their name.
For the first 29 years of my life, I had never actually used the word.
But that was about to change in 2015. It was unavoidable. I had a professional obligation to utter the dreaded word - RAT.
A rat by any other name - ringie, joey or roddan are acceptable in the Isle of Man
Like any self-respecting Manxman - Isle of Man native - I had opted for other terms - "longtail" is the most common.
Others such as "ringie", "joey" or the native Gaelic word "roddan" are also acceptable.
I was out of my homeland and out of my comfort zone. I honestly thought I could hear the creatures sniggering at my plight.
But I went out and I mumbled my way around the word with the owner of the infested house.
This was a disaster. I felt embarrassed already.
Even people who move to the Isle of Man often dodge the term, whether through genuine fear of bad luck, or to avoid shock and outrage from the locals.
Some say it began with fishermen who brought their superstitions back to shore.
I knew there were three ways to stop a jinx if ever I was forced to say it: Whistle immediately afterwards; touch a piece of wood while saying it, or cross my fingers.
There's an ancient belief that killing a wren on St Stephen's Day is good luck for you... not such great luck for the wren
The interviews with the owner and environmental health officer were soon filmed and it was time for my piece to camera - almost three decades of superstition about to end.
I fidgeted, cleared my throat, and slowly climbed the ladder to the attic.
After a couple of seconds the time had come… "Rats."
Rats: "They fought the dogs and killed the cats and bit the babies in the cradles"
I said it without hesitation in an attempt to sound convincing.
My right hand squeezed the ladder. My left hand was out of shot, fingers firmly crossed.
We Manxmen are not alone.
Dr Andrew Sneddon, from Ulster University, said superstitious beliefs about rats were commonplace in Ireland in the early 20th Century.
"In County Galway, people believed that if you were plagued by rats you could get them to move on by getting an owl's quill and dipping it in raven's blood while saying 'rats be gone'," he said.
In the Middle Ages, people believed fairies could "blast" cattle and humans
"In County Cavan, there were people who used charms to banish rats for you, and in County Laois, rats were believed to be a sign of an enemy or bad luck."
It seems it is not just rats that gave our ancestors sleepless nights.
"From the Medieval period onwards, Ireland, in common with the Highlands and islands of Scotland, and the Isle of Man, fairy belief is very strong in the sense that you try not to upset the fairies because they are dangerous," said Dr Sneddon.
"They can whisk away healthy children and leave sickly changelings in their wake. They can fairy blast or elf-shoot your cattle and make them ill, they can also blast humans.
"They can also abduct you and take you away to their land. This can also happen if you step into a fairy ring, either made of mushrooms or a Neolithic stone circle.
"In Ireland, as a precaution, traditionally you don't mention the name fairy, you say gentry or good people."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39293529
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Man Utd 0-0 West Brom: Jose Mourinho extraordinary rant at BBC reporter - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho questions whether the game was evenly matched, despite BBC Sport's Conor McNamara insisting he was only asking the Red Devils' manager's opinion.
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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho questions whether the game was evenly matched, despite BBC Sport's Conor McNamara insisting he was only asking the Red Devils' manager's opinion.
Watch highlights of all of the day's Premier League action on Match of the Day on BBC One and this website from 22:30 BST.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39468699
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Tales of deportation in Trump's America: Week Three - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A look at the men and women affected by President Trump's deportation strategy.
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US & Canada
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The Trump administration's immigration enforcement priorities are beginning to affect legal residents as well as undocumented men and women.
This week, a number of visa and green card holders were faced with the prospect of deportation, which stirred debate about what crimes should disqualify an immigrant from staying in the US.
One man is fighting to have his case retried because he claims his lawyer failed to instruct him that a guilty plea would initiate the deportation process. The case is currently being heard by the US Supreme Court.
Here's a look at some of the people making news for facing deportation this week.
Drs Satija and Ummat, a married couple, both had legal status to live and work in the US as neurologists.
Both have green card applications sponsored by their employers. Because of a backlog in processing green card requests going back to 2008, the doctors have been granted provisional legal status to be in the US until their applications are officially approved.
When Dr Satija's father fell ill in October, the couple flew to India. A Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent stamped their travel paperwork despite the fact that it had expired the previous year. No one noticed the mistake until the doctors tried to return to the US, when another CBP agent noticed the document had expired four months earlier.
Initially, immigration agents allowed Dr Satija and Dr Ummat to re-enter the US and attempt to correct their paperwork. However, a few weeks ago they were informed that they would have to leave the US and would not be granted temporary permission to stay.
Their lawyer, Gordon Quan, says his clients were able to secure a 90-day extension to fix their paperwork.
"We were just trying to get some time for the sake of the patients because people had surgeries, were in the middle of operations," says Mr Quan.
"I got a call from the hospital saying that some patients may even die if the doctors are forced to leave during that time."
An Arizona State University student from China, Mr Zhang was convicted of illegally filming women in a campus bathroom in January. Mr Zhang was in the country on a student visa.
After his conviction, Mr Zhang received a sentence of 10 years of supervised probation and was prohibited from contacting any of the victims he filmed.
However, Mr Zhang now faces deportation because an immigration judge decided his legal basis for being in the US ended when he was convicted for felony voyeurism.
He remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody at the Florence Correctional Center in Arizona, awaiting arrangements to be deported to China.
Mr Perez is a dairy farm employee and an advocate for migrant workers. He was working on a campaign to allow undocumented residents of New York to apply for driver's licenses before Ice agents arrested him in February.
Born in Mexico, he has lived in Livingston County, New York, for 17 years and has four children, three of whom are US citizens.
Mr Perez had a deportation case against him that was administratively closed in September 2016. He had no criminal record, and possessed a social security number, and a work permit.
Having an immigration case administratively closed "is essentially like being in limbo," says Fox. "You're not on a path to citizenship, but you're not going to be deported as long as you comply with the conditions."
When Ice officials asked him to come into a local office for a routine check-in this year, he was subsequently detained.
"I was part of the community and represented my colleagues and I felt free finally, after living in fear for so long," Mr Perez said in a written statement.
"People know me, I speak up, I am not hiding, and when they called me to go in and sign I went, I didn't hide."
Mr Perez is scheduled to have a hearing to set his bail on 19 April.
Two weeks ago, Sanchez-Reyes's son, Henry Sanchez-Milian, was arrested on rape charges in Rockville, Maryland, after allegedly assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a high school bathroom.
On 24 March, officers looked into Mr Sanchez-Reyes' immigration status as part of their investigation into his son's alleged crime. He was arrested for residing in the US illegally.
Mr Sanchez-Reyes has been issued a notice to appear in immigration court. He is currently detained at the Howard County Detention Facility in Maryland and could face deportation to Guatemala.
Mr Rodriguez Dominguez, a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was detained by Ice agents at his Portland home on 26 March. He has lived in the US since he was 5 years old.
In December, Mr Rodriguez Dominguez faced charges for drunk driving, but a judge allowed his to enter a diversion program that would clear the charge from his record. If the charge remained, Mr Rodriguez Dominguez's Daca status could have been revoked.
After protests demanding his release, Mr Rodriguez Dominguez left Ice custody on bond on Monday. His immigration case will still move forward through the court system.
An Ice spokesperson told Willamette Week that the agency still considered Mr Rodriguez Dominguez a deportation priority because of his guilty plea on the drunk-driving charge.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39461852
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Liverpool 3-1 Everton - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Liverpool boost their prospects of a top-four place by beating Everton, whose hopes of a Champions League qualification spot are severely damaged.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Liverpool enhanced their prospects of a top-four place by beating derby rivals Everton, whose own hopes of breaking into the battle for a Champions League qualification spot were severely damaged by the defeat.
Sadio Mane gave the hosts an early lead when he played a one-two with Roberto Firmino and finished off an angled run with a shot into the far corner.
A Philippe Coutinho shot was palmed up by Toffees keeper Joel Robles and headed off the line by Phil Jagielka before the visitors equalised.
Jagielka flicked on a corner at the near post and, after Ashley Williams got a touch, Matthew Pennington arrived to slot in his first Everton goal on his first appearance of the season.
However, the match was level for just two minutes and 57 seconds before Coutinho beat two players and curled a shot into the top corner, and he then set up substitute Divock Origi - on for the injured Mane - to power in Liverpool's third.
The result leaves the Reds six points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United - who have two games in hand - while Everton are seven points off the top four having played more matches than their rivals.
Liverpool hired a private jet to bring Coutinho and fellow Brazil international Firmino back after their country's win over Paraguay in midweek and will feel the move was worth it after the forward returned to form in style.
Coutinho has struggled since recovering from an ankle injury in January but provided an assist as well as his goal as the Reds extended their unbeaten run against their Merseyside neighbours to 14 games in all competitions.
The 24-year-old was a picture of feints, shimmies and attacking runs at the Blues defence, and might have scored earlier if Robles and Jagielka had not combined to deny him.
Mane, who scored the winner in the reverse fixture, set the Reds on their way with his 13th goal of the season - but an injury in the second half will be a concern for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, who is already without attacking midfielder Adam Lallana for up to a month.
Senegal winger Mane, Liverpool's top scorer this season, hurt himself trying to win the ball off Leighton Baines and, when he tried to put weight on his leg after treatment, collapsed.
"I've met Mane in the dressing room. It doesn't look too good," said Klopp.
Everton striker Romelu Lukaku has been accused of going missing in the big games, despite being the Premier League's top scorer with 21 goals this season.
The Belgium international may have scored against top-four sides Manchester City and Tottenham during the present campaign, but he gave his critics further fuel after an ineffective display at Anfield.
He did not have his only touch in the Liverpool area until the 70th minute and he also failed to have a shot - on or off target - on the opposition goal.
"On today's showing, what you saw was a striker who didn't do enough to keep himself on the pitch," BBC Sport pundit Jason Roberts told Final Score.
"In these games where you need him to do a little bit more of the dogged work, he didn't offer that to his team. His head went down and that was the story of Everton."
Midfielder Ross Barkley is also a key player for the Goodison Park club. However, he was also disappointing as he tested referee Anthony Taylor's patience with challenges on James Milner and Emre Can, before being booked for a late tackle on Dejan Lovren.
Everton have not won at Anfield since September 1999 and they did little to alter the view that they have a psychological barrier at the home of their neighbours.
Even having gone into the match with one defeat in 12 league games and four clean sheets in their past five games, they could not stop their hosts doing the double over them this season.
However, there were mitigating circumstances with injuries to defenders Seamus Coleman and Ramiro Funes Mori forcing manager Ronald Koeman to replace them with right wing-back Mason Holgate, 20, and centre-back Pennington, 22.
Pennington did have the joy of scoring but was also caught out for Coutinho's goal as Liverpool widened the gap between the two teams to nine points.
What they said:
Liverpool manager Klopp on Barkley's challenge on Lovren: "I'm still a kind of a guest in this country. How can I decide what is OK and what is not OK?
"My opinion is that the players should leave the pitch healthy and fit but not injured.
"It's not my job to judge it. If you saw something, say it. If not, be quiet."
Everton boss Koeman: "Maybe one or two tackles were a little too much. It's football, a derby.
"From both sides I saw tackles that were maybe more than a yellow. According to the bench of Liverpool - I don't mean the manager - the referee should have shown eight red cards."
Klopp record - the stats you need to know
• None Klopp is the first Liverpool manager to win his first three league Merseyside derbies against Everton.
• None Mane has scored in both Merseyside derbies this season, the first player to do that since Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge in 2013-14.
• None Mane has now been involved in 18 league goals this season (13 goals, five assists), his best return in a Premier League campaign.
• None Pennington became the fifth player - following Duncan Ferguson, John Arne Riise, Raul Meireles and Steven Naismith - to score his first Premier League goal in a Merseyside derby.
• None Only Olivier Giroud (seven) has scored more goals as a substitute than Divock Origi's six since the Belgium international's Premier League debut in September 2015.
There is a fast turnaround in the top flight with a midweek programme in which Everton visit Manchester United on Tuesday for a 20:00 BST kick-off and Liverpool host Bournemouth on Wednesday, also at 20:00.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Ashley Williams (Everton) because of an injury.
• None Attempt missed. Kevin Mirallas (Everton) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Idrissa Gueye.
• None Attempt saved. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Georginio Wijnaldum.
• None Offside, Liverpool. James Milner tries a through ball, but Roberto Firmino is caught offside.
• None Attempt saved. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Emre Can. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39390276
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Joyciline Jepkosgei: Kenyan breaks four world records at Prague Half Marathon - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Kenya's Joyciline Jepkosgei breaks four world records as she storms to victory at the Prague Half Marathon.
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Last updated on .From the section Athletics
Kenya's Joyciline Jepkosgei broke four world records as she stormed to victory at the Prague Half Marathon.
The 23-year-old completed what was just her fifth half marathon in one hour, four minutes and 52 seconds - 14 seconds quicker than the record set by Peres Jepchirchir earlier this year.
And she also clocked splits of 30:05, 45:37 and 1:01:25 to break the 10km, 15km and 20km world records on the way.
"I only wanted to improve my time. This is a surprise for me," Jepkosgei said.
"I didn't know I would break the world record today.
"But the conditions were good for me because I'm used to training at this time of day."
Defending champion Violah Jepchumba finished second - 30 seconds back - and Fancy Chemutai third, with America's sixth-placed Jordan Hasay the only non-Kenyan in the top 10.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/39469056
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Miami Open: Roger Federer beats Nick Kyrgios to set up final against Rafael Nadal - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Roger Federer wins a three-hour contest against Nick Kyrgios to set up a final against Rafael Nadal at the Miami Open.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Roger Federer won a thrilling three-hour contest against Nick Kyrgios to set up a final against Rafael Nadal at the Miami Open.
The Swiss, 35, won 7-6 (11-9) 6-7 (9-11) 7-6 (7-5) to take his 2017 record to 18 wins and one defeat.
Federer will take on Nadal for the 37th time on Sunday, and the second final this year after beating the Spaniard at January's Australian Open.
Nadal, 30, beat Italy's Fabio Fognini 6-1 7-5 in the first semi-final.
Fognini, 29, had become the first unseeded player in 10 years to make the last four but was no match for Nadal, who will try to win a first Miami title in his fifth final on Sunday.
"It's great to be in the final for me," said Nadal after winning the first of the semi-finals. "I am excited to play another final of an important event.
"If it's Roger, it's going to be another one for both of us, and that's it. Just another one."
Federer made sure that there will be another episode to his rivalry with Nadal, which began in Miami 13 years ago.
The 18-time Grand Slam champion maintained his spectacular run of results with victory over the in-form Kyrgios.
"It felt very good," said the Swiss, who last won the Miami title in 2006. "You don't very often play three breakers in a match.
"Winning breakers is always such a thrill. I tried to really fight for it. I can't always show my fighting skills, it is great winning this way."
Despite playing in front of a heavily pro-Federer crowd, Kyrgios extended the former champion over three hours and 10 minutes, with the 21-year-old Australian showing his frustration by smashing his racquet after losing match point.
"I had some ups and downs, bit of a rollercoaster," said Kyrgios.
"Ultimately I think I put in a good performance. I thought the crowd would've enjoyed watching it, people at home would've enjoyed watching it. But I wouldn't be surprised if they found something bad, though."
On Saturday, British number one Johanna Konta plays Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in the women's final at 18:00 BST - with live text commentary on the BBC Sport website.
Konta, 25, became the first British woman to reach the Miami Open final with a 6-4 7-5 victory over Venus Williams in the last four on Thursday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39461280
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Juan Mata, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones: Man Utd trio out with injuries - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have sustained "long-term" injuries, while Man Utd team-mate Juan Mata has had groin surgery.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Manchester United's injury problems have worsened, with midfielder Juan Mata joining defenders Chris Smalling and Phil Jones on the sidelines.
United announced on Friday that Mata, 28, has had surgery on a groin problem.
Jones, 25, injured a toe in an innocuous training-ground tackle, with reports claiming it involved Smalling.
Smalling, 27, has been pictured wearing a leg brace , and United manager Jose Mourinho said both central defenders would be out "long term".
The club are yet to reveal how long Mata will be out for, and said updates on his recovery "will follow in due course".
Captain Wayne Rooney returns for Saturday's Premier League game against West Brom (15:00 BST) after recovering from a knee injury.
The 31-year-old has missed the Red Devils' past four games.
But United will be without striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and midfielder Ander Herrera, who are both suspended, and midfielder Paul Pogba, who has a hamstring problem.
Asked how long he expects to be without Jones and Smalling, Mourinho: "I don't know. I think clearly they are long-term injuries, and Pogba I have no idea."
'One defeat and we're out of it'
Mourinho has previously said he would concentrate on United's Europa League campaign and a two-legged quarter-final against Belgian team Anderlecht next month, rather than the league.
However, as United are four points behind Liverpool, who occupy the fourth Champions League qualifying place and have two games in hand, he is not abandoning the league.
"Every match now for us is a big match," he said.
"Europa League is play quarter-final or go home, in the Premier League one more match, one more victory we are in the run, one defeat maybe you are not in the run any more."
'I am sorry for what I did to him'
Mourinho also said he regretted the way he treated Bastian Schweinsteiger, and added he apologised to the midfielder before his move to the Chicago Fire.
The German World Cup winner, who joined United in 2015, trained with the reserves following Mourinho's arrival in the summer, but was brought back into the first team in late October.
However, last week the 32-year-old was permitted a move to join the MLS side.
"He's in the category of players that I feel sorry for something that I did to him," Mourinho said.
"The last thing I told him before he left: 'I was not right with you once, I have to be right with you now.'
"So when he was asking me to let him leave, I had to say 'yes, you can leave' because I did it once, I cannot do it twice.
"I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a good influence in training - a very good influence."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39454470
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James McCarthy: Martin O'Neill criticises Ronald Koeman in escalating row - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill labels Ronald Koeman a "master of the blame game" in their escalating row over James McCarthy.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Republic of Ireland boss Martin O'Neill described Ronald Koeman as a "master tactician of the blame game" as their row over James McCarthy escalated.
McCarthy, 26, missed Everton's past two matches but linked up with the Republic squad during the international break.
After he injured a hamstring, Toffees boss Koeman accused O'Neill of "not protecting" the midfielder.
Koeman later reiterated his point in an ironic tweet, signing it: "From the master tactician."
In his news conference on Friday, Koeman was clearly angered as he read out a prepared statement saying: "Clearly James was not fit to play. We advised extreme caution. He was not fit to play.
"In my opinion, the Ireland manager in this instance was not protecting the player. I am not surprised but I am disappointed."
In response, O'Neill issued his own statement.
It read: "Once again the Everton manager, master tactician of the blame game, has struck out in his comments, criticising both myself and James McCarthy.
"Perhaps a review of Everton's pre-season programme might provide some enlightenment.
"James had a magnificent tournament for the Republic of Ireland last summer during at Euro 2016, playing his last game in very late June.
"He then returned to Everton after a very short break, but only 11 days later, he played his first of three games, all within an eight-day period, against Real Betis, Manchester United and Espanyol. Overloading?
"It should be added that James last played for his country on 9 October - almost half a year ago. Since that time he has been totally under Everton's supervision.
"James is diligent and conscientious in his professional preparation. Perhaps, in this instance, quiet introspection may serve the Everton manager and his medical staff better."
McCarthy was named in O'Neill's starting line-up for the 0-0 draw against Wales but pulled out of the team after suffering an injury in the warm-up.
In October, Koeman said McCarthy, who has been struggling with a hamstring injury for several months, had been "massively overloaded" by the Republic.
That came in response to O'Neill's claim the Dutchman was "bleating" about the matter.
Former Republic midfielder Roy Keane, O'Neill's assistant, then said Everton players must "toughen up".
'This is not the first time' - Koeman's full statement
"James had an injury when he reported for Ireland duty last week and our medical team made the Ireland medical team aware of this.
"Everton's medical team advised extreme caution, not only due to the current injury but also due to previous injuries.
"The assessment by the Ireland medical was that it would be a high risk for James to play against Wales.
"But of course James has a strong desire to play for his country so when asked if he was fit to play he said he felt he was fit. And he was selected to start the game but withdrawn.
"In my opinion, in this instance it was not protecting the player. James was clearly not fit to play. He only trained for two days with Ireland and broke down in the warm-up.
"He has only played only one game from the start in 2017 and he did not play for three weeks before the Wales game. In my opinion he would need at least one full week of training sessions to be declared fit.
"I spoke to James, he needs to take responsibility for this. But this is not the first time."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39457298
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St Johnstone: Red card pair Swanson & Foster set for 'severe' punishments - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright says Danny Swanson and Richard Foster face severe punishments for brawling with each other.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
St Johnstone players Danny Swanson and Richard Foster are set to face "severe" punishments for brawling with each other in the 1-0 defeat at Hamilton, manager Tommy Wright says.
The Perth club has suspended the team-mates pending a club investigation, which will start on Monday.
Wright told BBC Scotland that "if what's alleged" to have occurred did in fact happen "we'll come down severely hard on both".
Referee Don Robertson sent off both players during the break.
Wright, whose side confirmed their top six place due to results elsewhere, says he did not see the incident as he had already started walking up the tunnel following the half time whistle.
BBC Scotland reporter Jonathan Sutherland saw Foster throw a punch at Swanson, who retaliated by aiming a kick at the defender after he had slipped.
"I haven't seen it with my own eyes but obviously something happened," said Wright.
"I'm going to wait and see for myself. The players have been told they let themselves down, and let the team down. We should be celebrating confirming our top six place tonight.
"Under no circumstance will they get off lightly if what is alleged to have happened has happened. The hardest punishment I can do legally with them, I'll do it."
Wright was angry that the incident left his side up against it in the second half, and that the shine was taken off the Saints confirming a top six berth.
"It's another great achievement getting the top six," he added. "We showed a lot of character and should have had a penalty. (Georgios) Sarris has got arms all over Murray Davidson and that should have been a penalty kick.
"The boys were magnificent and probably deserved a point but they didn't get it."
Hamilton player Ali Crawford was shown a yellow card and assistant manager Guillaume Beuzelin sent to the stand after becoming involved in the chaotic scenes that followed the incident between Foster and Swanson.
However, manager Martin Canning told BBC Scotland: "I would rather be talking about us. It is not something you want to see, but it is a passionate game and sometimes it spills over.
"My players acted well. I think Darian MacKinnon was just trying to separate them and calm things down.
"I don't think I have to take any action against my players."
Hamilton moved off bottom spot in the table thanks to the win, sealed by a late Alex D'Acol goal. They are 11th on 27 points, two clear of bottom club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
"With 11 against 11 in the first half, I thought we were excellent and we kept going and got a huge three points," Canning added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39467430
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Serbian satirist on white horse and in white suit shakes up vote - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What does it say about a country when one of the three main election contenders is a satirist?
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Europe
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Serbian spoof election candidate Luka Maksimovic may attract more than 10% of the vote
What does it say about a country, specifically its politicians, when one of the three leading election contenders is a satirical candidate?
Going into the final days of campaigning, Ljubisa Preletacevic is vying with well-established political players in the race to become Serbia's next president.
They include a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic; the ultranationalist leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj; and a former minister of the economy, Sasa Radulovic.
Preletacevic has been consistently out-polling all of them. Not bad for a man who does not actually exist.
Posters of ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj (L) vie with those of favourite Aleksandar Vucic
For all the considerable publicity about his presidential bid, it would take an upset of unprecedented scale for him to prevent Aleksandar Vucic from becoming head of state.
The incumbent prime minister looks a reasonable bet to pass the 50% threshold and win in the first round. But the man on the white horse is an irresistible story.
The creator of Ljubisa Preletacevic is a 25-year-old student, Luka Maksimovic. He came up with the character for last year's local elections in Mladenovac, a suburb of Serbia's capital, Belgrade.
The student and his friends were as stunned as everyone else when Preletacevic led a coalition (known as "Hit It Hard" or "Keep It Strong", depending on the translator) to 20% of the vote.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The character was supposed to be a joke - a parody of an opportunist politician. The name Preletacevic is a pun: prelatac is a word used to describe a political figure who switches parties for political gain.
The ever-present white suit and his nickname, "Beli" (white), also cock a snook at politicians who promise probity on the campaign trail, but head straight for the trough once elected.
In contrast, Preletacevic and his cohorts brazenly commit to making false promises. One particularly eyebrow-raising proposal was a plan to open a euthanasia department for pensioners in a local hospital, to cut down on the cost of care for the elderly.
The parody struck such a chord that Preletacevic's SPN party, which stands roughly for "Have You tasted the sauerkraut?" has become the biggest opposition grouping on Mladenovac council, with 12 seats.
His appeal appears to be spreading nationwide, to the considerable chagrin of economic reformers and ultranationalists alike.
His alter-ego, Luka Maksimovic, has responded with grim satisfaction to double-digit poll ratings, accusing Serbian politicians of being "dirty and corrupt" and declaring that it is time "at least to try to do something to change that".
Whether a comedy candidate with little-to-nothing in the way of serious policies can promote a meaningful analysis of the shortcomings of Serbian politics is another question.
Among the main candidates are: ex-foreign minister Vuk Jeremic (L), former ombudsman Sasa Jankovic and ex-economy minister Sasa Radulovic
"He does have two effects. He can encourage young voters who don't want to go to the polls. So he can, with his satire, mobilise them.
"But the second effect is that he is counting on those who are dissatisfied."
It is not favourite Aleksandar Vucic who is losing votes, he believes, but his most serious challengers, ex-ombudsman Sasa Jankovic and former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic.
"This is a serious moment and it's not time for games and humour," he warns.
Aleksandar Vucic will, in all probability, complete a smooth transition from the prime minister's office to the presidency. And the power base in Serbia will go with him.
But perhaps, as well as raising laughs, Ljubisa Preletacevic will raise awareness that Serbian politics has problems that need serious consideration.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39442216
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Chelsea's defeat by Crystal Palace makes title race interesting, says Antonio Conte - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Chelsea's surprise defeat by Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge makes the title race 'ore interesting', says Blues boss Antonio Conte.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Chelsea's surprise defeat by Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge makes the title race "more interesting", says Blues boss Antonio Conte.
The Premier League leaders suffered only their second home defeat of the season as Palace boosted their survival hopes with a 2-1 win.
Tottenham's win at Burnley means they are seven points behind Chelsea.
"For (the media) it's a good result, because it makes this more interesting in the championship," Conte said.
"But I always said the league finishes when you have the mathematical certainty that you won. Otherwise you must fight, you must play every game to try to win."
'Spurs will fight for the title'
Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino says he and his players still believe they can catch Chelsea following their 2-0 win at Burnley.
"It's an important, a massive three points for us to still believe we can fight for the title," said the Argentine.
"We showed great belief and character and faith. That makes us proud."
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown on Match of the Day
"I don't think it can be done. But Tottenham have been brilliant since the turn of the year. They're the two best teams and let's see what they can do."
Prior to Palace's visit, Chelsea had not lost in any competition since a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham on 4 January.
It looked like they were on course for another victory when Cesc Fabregas struck early on, but two quick goals from Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke secured a fourth successive win for Palace.
The Eagles, having looked in real danger of going down earlier this season, are now four points clear of the relegation zone.
"Nobody expected it," said Palace boss Sam Allardyce, who has never been relegated from the Premier League as a manager.
"It's an absolutely outstanding victory for us, particularly in the position we're in."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39469628
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Tiger Woods: Masters too early for four-time champion's return - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Tiger Woods will not play in this year's Masters at Augusta because he is "not tournament ready" and does not know when he will return.
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Coverage: Watch highlights of the first two days before live and uninterrupted coverage of the weekend's action on BBC Two and up to four live streams available online. Listen on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live sports extra. Read live text commentary, analysis and social media on the BBC Sport website and the sport app.
Four-time champion Tiger Woods has confirmed he will not be fit for next week's Masters and has not put a timetable on his return.
The American, 41, winner of 14 majors, has not played since withdrawing from the Dubai Desert Classic on 3 February with ongoing back spasms.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of his first Masters win and he said: "I did about everything I could to play."
Woods also missed the 2014 and 2016 Masters tournaments because of injury.
He won the last of his 14 major titles at the US Open in June 2008 and has since had surgery on his knee and back.
After an absence of 17 months, he returned to the PGA Tour in January but missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open after rounds of 76 and 72 and was injured again after an opening round of 77 in Dubai the following week.
"My back rehabilitation didn't allow me the time to get tournament ready," Woods said in a statement on his website.
"I'm especially upset because it's a special anniversary for me that's filled with a lot of great memories.
Find out how to get into golf with our special guide.
"I have no timetable for my return, but I will continue my diligent effort to recover, and want to get back out there as soon as possible."
Woods said he would still be at Augusta National's clubhouse on Tuesday for the annual Champions Dinner ahead of the year's opening major, which starts on Thursday.
"Woods has been struggling with back injuries for quite some time now. There was an awful lot of optimism that this would be the year he would make a successful comeback to competitive golf.
"But having played only three rounds before succumbing to yet more back problems, no surprise he has not managed to make it in time for what is always an arduous test at the Masters.
"It's always a blow for golf when Woods doesn't play because he remains the biggest calling card in the game but there are a crop of young players who are at the very top of the game who are really driving it forward.
"But it would have been a huge boost for the game if Tiger Woods had been back at Augusta - and competitive - at the first major of the year."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39465448
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Arsene Wenger: Arsenal boss says 'retirement is dying' as he vows to continue - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger repeats his desire to manage next season as "retirement is dying" for people of his age.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has reiterated his desire to manage next season as he believes "retirement is dying" for people of his age.
Wenger, 67, has been criticised by some fans after the Gunners slipped to sixth in the Premier League following four defeats in their past five games.
A 10-2 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League added to the pressure on the Frenchman.
But Wenger, who has been at Arsenal since 1996, said: "I will not retire."
His contract expires at the end of the season but the club has offered a new two-year deal. Wenger has said he will make a decision on his future "very soon".
"Retiring is for young people," said Wenger, speaking before Sunday's league match at home to Manchester City.
"For old people retirement is dying. I still watch every football game. I find it interesting."
Wenger is into his 21st year as Arsenal manager but he has not led the Gunners to a Premier League title in 13 years.
"Of course I'm as hungry," he said. "I carry a bit more pressure on my shoulders than 20 years ago - but the hunger is exactly the same.
"When you see what the club was and what it is today - when I arrived we were seven people [members of staff], we are 700 today."
He added: "I hate defeat. I can understand the fans that are unhappy with every defeat but the only way to have victory is to stick together with the fans and give absolutely everything until the end of the season, that's all we can do."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39470336
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Is it foolish for a woman to cycle alone across the Middle East? - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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When Rebecca Lowe set off solo from the UK for Iran by bicycle, friends thought she had taken leave of her senses.
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Magazine
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When Rebecca Lowe set off solo from the UK for Iran by bicycle, her friends thought she had taken leave of her senses. But although she had to endure gropers, extreme heat and heavy-handed police, most of the people she met were a long way removed from stereotypes.
The day I left London to embark on a 6,000-mile (10,000km), year-long cycle to Tehran, I was deeply unprepared.
I wasn't fit. I had never used panniers. I had no sense of direction. It was six years since I had last ridden up a hill.
But for all my doubts, I was dedicated to the task at hand. My aims were simple: develop enviably shapely calves, survive and shed light on a region long misunderstood by the West.
Mostly, I wanted to show that the bulk of the Middle East is far from the volatile hub of violence and fanaticism people believe. And that a woman could cycle through it safely.
Not everyone had faith in my ability to do so, however. "We think you'll probably die," one friend told me before I left. "We've put the odds at about 60:40."
Others were less optimistic.
A man in the pub said I was a "naive idiot who would end up decapitated in a ditch - at best". A good friend sent me a copy of Rudyard Kipling's If, stressing the importance of keeping "your head when all about you / Are losing theirs".
Yet I remained tentatively confident. The region may be politically precarious, but the people I knew from experience to be warm and kind.
Crime rates were low and terrorist strongholds isolated and avoidable. Even exposed on a bike, I felt my odds of staying alive weren't bad.
I'd chosen a bicycle for its simplicity and slowness of pace, and its immersive, worm's-eye view. On a bike you don't just observe the world but are absorbed within it. You are seen as unthreatening and endearingly unhinged, and are welcomed into people's lives.
I set off in July 2015. Over the next four months I inched my way with sluggish determination across Europe.
As summer bled into autumn, my stamina gradually grew - along with my thighs. By Bosnia they were formidable. By Bulgaria they had developed their own gravitational field.
But leaving Europe was nerve-wracking. I was now outside my comfort zone, in the relative unknown.
In front of me lay Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, the UAE and Iran. Pre-warned about men, terrorists and traffic, I began the next leg of my journey with caution.
I swiftly relaxed, however. A truck driver stopped just to hand me a satsuma. A cafe owner gave me his earmuffs. Dozens of others offered food, water, lifts and lodgings, and endless varieties of kebab.
Throughout the Middle East, it was the same. Doors were forever flung wide to greet this strange, two-wheeled anomaly who was surely in need of help, and possibly psychiatric care.
My hosts varied widely: rich and poor, mullahs and atheists, Bedouin and businessmen, niqab-clad women and qabaa-robed men. Every person and community was different, but certain traits linked them all: kindness, curiosity and tolerance.
In Sudan, families fed me endless vats of ful (bean stew) and let me sleep in their modest mud-brick houses. One Nubian family gently restored me to health after I ran out of water in the Sahara and collapsed, vomiting and delirious, on their doorstep: the lowest point of the trip, and the only time I experienced true panic.
Iranian hospitality felt like a soft protective cloak, omnipresent and ever-reliable. So much wonderful, impractical food was given to me by passers-by - watermelons, bread, bags of cucumbers - that much had to be discarded.
Persian culture pulsed with contradictions. On my first day, the police admonished me for removing my headscarf in blazing heat under a tree. Minutes later the officer's sister-in-law was serving me khoresh gheimeh (lamb and split pea stew) in her nearby bungalow.
The trip was not all blissfully trouble-free, of course.
There were the sex pests, for a start. In Jordan, Egypt and Iran, I was groped, ogled and propositioned with disappointing regularity.
In Egypt, one randy tuk-tuk driver got his comeuppance following a juicy bum squeeze by being beaten to a pulp by the police convoy on my tail - my horror at their brutality only outdone by my undisguised glee.
In Jordan, a truck driver who'd picked me up following a puncture repeatedly asked for kisses and grabbed my breasts. Fortunately his bravado ceased abruptly at the sight of my penknife wafting ominously close to his crotch.
Such incidents angered me intensely, and were often frightening and unsettling. Lechery is hardly a preserve of the Middle East, but there were areas where strains of patriarchy and entitlement ran deep.
I realised quickly, however, that these men were not monsters. They were ignorant and often ill-educated. Not to mention severely sexually frustrated within a culture where physical intimacy is shameful and stigmatised.
They were more cowardly opportunists than malicious aggressors, and it was usually easy enough to send them scuttling cravenly on their way.
There were certain things no-one could help with, however. The traffic was obscene by Turkey and got progressively worse. The heat was obscene by Sudan - upwards of 40 C - and also got progressively worse.
Toilets were a serious concern. In the remote gold mining regions of northern Sudan, where few women ventured, there simply weren't any.
"Look around you," a man at one roadside shack told me, gesturing to the entirely exposed desert behind him. "The Sahara is your toilet."
The most worrisome issue, however, was political. Across the region, repression was palpable, and foreign journalists clearly weren't welcome.
Don't tell the authorities your profession, I was told, or others would pay the price too. I took this advice - yet it was hard to feel at ease.
In Egypt, ruled by a heavy-handed military regime, tourists were tightly controlled and protected. The police were suffocating in their oversight, escorting me 500 miles (800km) down the Nile and aggressively grilling everyone I met.
In Iran, I was given more freedom. Yet foreigners are not permitted to stay with locals without permission, and several of my hosts endured an intense grilling by police. Some of those aware of my profession declined any contact at all due to fear of repercussion.
Everywhere I went, security and oppression continually curbed freedom and dissent.
In Turkey, pro-Kurdish human rights lawyer Tahir Elçi was killed by an unknown gunman a few days after we met. In Sudan, two students were killed in clashes with regime forces and supporters during my brief stay in Khartoum.
In Jordan and Lebanon, refugee camps were visibly struggling to cope with the growing numbers of Syrians fleeing war.
The enduring impression was a region in crisis, stretched hopelessly between tyranny and terror. Yet there was light along the way - and that light was the people.
"The world shouldn't judge us by our politics," a member of the Center for Civil Society and Democracy, a Syrian activist group I spent Christmas with, told me. "We hate our politics. We should be judged by ourselves."
And that, for me, is the nub of the matter.
The Middle East is a risky place, but the risks are primarily political. Beyond the pockets of conflict and terror highlighted daily in the media lies a broader reality: that of warm, compassionate communities living normal, everyday lives.
So is it safe for a woman to cycle alone across the Middle East? With the right precautions, yes.
Would I let my daughter do it? Absolutely not in a month of Sundays - are you mad?
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-39351162
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Masters 2017: Danny Willett - inside the ropes with a Masters winner - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Masters champion Danny Willett and his caddie Jonathan Swift talk us through their sensational back nine at Augusta to win the 2016 title.
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Coverage: Watch highlights of the first two days before live and uninterrupted coverage of the weekend's action on BBC Two and up to four live streams available online. Listen on BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live sports extra. Read live text commentary, analysis and social media on the BBC Sport website and the sport app.
We've all done it.
With darkness falling, and your parents calling you in for tea, you squeeze in one last penalty to win the FA Cup, one last drop-kick to win the Rugby World Cup, one last putt to win The Masters.
Two Yorkshiremen had those same moments growing up around Sheffield in the early part of the century. This time last year, they made one a reality.
Danny Willett may have hit the drives and holed the putts that made him the first Englishman since Nick Faldo in 1996 to win the Masters and don the famous Green Jacket, but his caddie Jonathan Smart is claiming a bit of the credit.
In a documentary - When Danny Won The Masters, to be shown on BBC Two at 15:00 BST on Sunday, 2 April - the friends share their memories of an unforgettable Sunday afternoon playing the back nine at Augusta National.
Willett, playing with fellow Englishman and friend Lee Westwood, began the final round three shots adrift of defending champion Jordan Spieth, who was four groups behind him on the course.
The 29-year-old, who was only playing in the tournament because his son Zachariah was born a week early, takes up the tale on the 10th tee...
Danny: We were two under through the first nine but we were still three shots behind Jordan.
Jonny: We made an unbelievable par save on the ninth; it was the smelliest nine-footer down the hill and it kept us going. Then we had our funniest moment of the week walking down the 10th fairway. Danny said: "We're in contention on Sunday at the Masters." We were like little kids. We were laughing, not in disbelief, but at realising the situation we were in.
Danny: I hit two lovely shots on 10 and made par.
Danny: Everyone knows how difficult 11, 12 and 13 are with the wind swirling between the trees. I hit two lovely shots on 11 and made par, found the front edge on the par-three 12th and made par. We stepped on to the 13th tee and Jordan had birdied the eighth and ninth and stretched out to a five-shot lead.
The tee shot on the par-five 13th is really difficult for me because I hit a fade and it needs a draw. We hit three wood all week and almost played it as a three-shotter, but on Sunday Jonny and I said, 'If we're going to do anything we need to try and force it a little bit'. So I stepped up and gunned it. A little five-yard draw with the driver round the corner.
Jonny: Dan is adamant that was his best shot of the week.
Danny: I then hit five iron to the middle of the green and had a two-putt birdie but while I was doing that, Jordan had bogeyed 10.
Willett gets within one
Danny: I hit a nice drive down the right on 14 and a wedge to four feet and made birdie again. Jordan bogeyed 11.
Jonny: It was a four-footer that was straight downhill but I wasn't sure if it was going to break, it wasn't obvious. Nothing is said, we both know we've got to keep pushing. Those two holes were massive for us.
Danny: The next time we see the leaderboard, Lee Westwood has just chipped in for eagle from the back of the 15th green to get within one of us.
Jonny: Everything went ballistic. We had another birdie chance but that shot from Westy brought another player into it. I had goosebumps because the fans on the 16th can also see everything and the sound was ridiculous.
Danny: I had a 10-12-footer from the back edge. I thought that was to tie the lead. I missed it but tapped in for par. John put the flag in, walked back, said 'that was a good effort' and then we heard all the oohs and aahs from the gallery.
Jonny: I'll never forget walking to the 16th tee. I saw people in the gallery putting their head in their hands and we turned around and saw they were changing the big scoreboard.
Danny: It's just off the back right of 15 and Jordan had gone from five under to one under on the par-three 12th and we were at four under. So we looked at each other and waited for them to change the score because we thought they've got it wrong. After five or 10 steps, we realised we were at four, Westwood at three and Jordan at one.
Jonny: That's when things got a little bit more interesting.
Danny: I'd been dying for the bathroom so I ran down past the 16th tee and everyone's saying 'look at the leaderboard, you're leading the Masters'. I'm in the bathroom and my hands are shaking and I'm nervous but thinking 'this is what you practise for'.
I kept telling myself, five good swings, see if you can hole a couple of putts and we'll see what happens. When I came out, I was in the best frame of mind I'd been in for a long time. Mentally I was seeing everything as it happened and I wasn't getting too far ahead.
Jonny: There was no discussion. If we acknowledge the position we're in, we're admitting we're nervous, so how is that going to help? We stick to our routine. We had 181 yards to the flag. An eight iron. We created a picture, just like we do on every shot.
Danny: I hit a lovely eight iron to about 10 feet.
Jonny: I walked off ahead as soon as he hit it. I'm pretty excitable and I didn't want him to see any emotion I'm giving off. Walking to the green there was no discussion. Everyone's telling Danny 'this is yours' but he probably didn't hear any of it. He was ridiculously focused.
Danny: We rolled in our birdie putt.
Jonny: The putt on 16 was all him. When he has a good line, why would he call me in? It only creates doubt.
Danny: Westy hit it to 35 feet and three-whacked, so all of a sudden we've opened a bit more of a gap. In the past 45 minutes, we'd gone from five behind to two in front. It was bonkers.
Jonny: On the 17th tee, I consciously said to Dan that these guys behind us are good and capable of making four birdies in a row.
Danny: I hit not a bad tee shot but was a bit hindered by a tree for the second and I hit eight iron long left. Looking back, I left myself a really tricky chip.
Jonny: I was thinking 'there's loads of green to work with' and it was a bog-standard chip shot. It got to the top of the hill and I thought 'he's not hit that hard enough' but it rolled over and then I thought 'that's quick' but it finished stiff and I thought that wasn't an easy chip shot!
Danny: I chipped it pretty much stone dead, which, round Augusta, you don't do. I'm going to go back this year and put a ball down and just see how difficult it is.
Danny: We'd hit a little cut driver off the 18th tee all week but we were pretty pumped with adrenaline and Jonny called three wood.
Jonny: My book said 296 yards to reach the bunker, so it's not hard to hit a good drive straight into it. He's got a low ball flight so he couldn't have done what Sandy Lyle did out of that bunker and reach the green.
Danny: He said: 'You can hit three wood as good as you like and you're never ever going to reach those bunkers.'
Jonny: Everyone was hustling to get a place to stand.
Danny: There was a lot of commotion. I stepped off the tee twice because people are moving up the sides, through the leaves, through the trees.
Jonny: That tee shot to me looks like hitting down a hotel corridor and I'm thinking it's getting narrower. Third time he's pulled the trigger.
Danny: I hit it 295 yards, straight down the middle of the fairway. Again, the hands were shaking, everything was shaking, but the walk up to the second shot was pretty enjoyable.
Jonny: There's a dip down before you walk up the hill to the green. As we got to the bottom, he took a massive deep breath. I knew he was nervous so I just said to him: 'You don't need to take that deep a breath, it's not that big a hill.'
Danny: I'd done 80% of the job I told myself I had to do - to make five good swings. One more to go. I think we had 183 yards, Jonny will still know. Can't miss the green left, can't miss it short, can't miss it long. I've seen it millions of times on the television, where it's impossible to get up and down from, and where you can give yourself a bit more margin. I pushed the seven iron a bit but it pitched on the collar of the green and worked off the bank back down exactly as I'd seen it before.
Jonny: The walk up to the green was an unbelievable experience. We were having a little giggle to ourselves, saying 'this is pretty cool'. I wish I'd taken it in more.
Danny: It was almost job done. We've got a 13-footer to get to six under, which I thought would be a difficult number for anyone to get to. But we get up on the green and look at the putt and you think it would be nice to get to six but I don't want to drop to four. So I cosied it down there and tapped in for par.
Jonny: The walk from the green to the clubhouse was bonkers. It was bizarre, surreal. It's stuff you watch on television and don't do yourself. We're walking off 18 and half-thinking we've won the Masters.
Danny: My father-in-law was at the back of the green, giving me a hug. You walk up to the cabin, sign your card [a bogey-free five-under-par 67], making sure you've got all that right and then it's a waiting game. We had 45, 50 minutes of waiting.
Jonny: I didn't know what to do with myself. I was half-watching, half-wondering if we should go the practice range in case there's a play-off.
Danny: We sat outside the recorders' hut and I'm trying to call [wife] Nic. The signal's not great, I'm just trying to get through to her. And I'm texting my mum and dad and brothers. But I'm constantly looking at the television to see what Jordan does.
Spieth birdies the par-five 15th to go three under with three to play.
Danny: You're going over all the scenarios where you can get beat. And then he made bogey on 17. He dropped back to two under and it's a physical impossibility to tie.
Jonny: I didn't realise the cameras were there and I just jumped on him.
Danny: I was on the phone to Nic, and Jonny jumped on me on the sofa. Everyone's seen that on the TV. That was the moment you realise that's what you've worked for and what you've just achieved. It isn't a dream. It's come true.
Danny: Every major trophy is significant in its own way but the Green Jacket is special. It's having your locker in the champions' locker room. It's your jacket being in there for the rest of your life. It's being able to go back to Augusta forever, until you don't want to play any more. The ceremony in Butler Cabin. You don't get to go inside the places I got to see at Augusta unless you win at Augusta. I'm honoured to be part of that now.
Jonny: We were whisked round the back of the clubhouse to Butler Cabin. That was cool. You've watched it on TV and then we're doing it. Dan's putting a Green Jacket on. I remember them fitting it because they've got them all lined up. Before he went in the room he looked across at me, just laughing. It was nuts. We've all had putts as juniors to win the Masters. I always dreamt about doing it but it was mega to be as close as I was to it and have some sort of contribution to Dan winning it.
Danny: When you walk through the door at home, you're not Masters champion any more. You're dad, or Dan. You're straight back to changing nappies and you take the jacket off so you don't get anything on it. The only time I've watched it back was that evening. I opened a beer and sat on the sofa with Nic. Watched it for an hour and a half. Highlights of what we'd done two days before. Just a crazy old few days really.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39420176
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European Rugby Champions Cup: Leinster 32-17 Wasps - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Leinster put four tries past Premiership leaders Wasps at the Aviva Stadium to reach the European Champions Cup semi-final.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
Leinster put four tries past Premiership leaders Wasps to reach the European Champions Cup semi-final.
A sparkling first half by the three-time champions had them in control at 22-3 ahead with Isa Nacewa, Jack Conan and Robbie Henshaw scoring tries.
Shellshocked Wasps rallied with Christian Wade and Jimmy Gopperth closing the gap to 25-17 with 20 minutes remaining at the Aviva Stadium.
But Fergus McFadden halted their charge with a late try to settle it.
The game was billed as a show-case for players aiming for a place in the British and Irish Lions squad, which is announced on 19 April.
Leinster dominated the first half, but the scoreboard didn't reflect their superiority until Conan and Henshaw's tries in the closing moments of the opening period.
Two-time champions Wasps, nervous and slow to settle, conceded an early penalty which Sexton converted after six minutes to get Leinster up and running.
Leinster full-back Joey Carbery set up two first-half tries and his first significant contribution was a superb flat pass out wide to Nacewa, who touched down in the corner.
Wasps inflicted a record 33-6 defeat on Leinster at the RDS last season, and also won 51-10 at home, but this was a horror show by the under-performing Premiership leaders.
They blew their one big chance to establish a foothold in the game when Willie Le Roux's showboating cost them a try after 24 minutes.
Kurtley Beale's footwork created the opening for the South African but he lost control of the ball as he dived over the line and his effort was disallowed.
Jimmy Gopperth's penalty finally got Wasps on the scoreboard after 32 minutes and Dai Young's side, who had no continuity and struggled to take the ball through the phases, were fortunate to only trail by five points.
Leinster were excellent with the ball in hand and enjoyed over 70% possession in the opening half, which eventually led to two tries within six minutes of half-time.
Again, Carbery was the architect. He exchanged passes with Fergus McFadden and then put Conan away, the number eight's arcing run taking him over the line. Sexton added the extras to make it 15-3.
Wasps needed half-time but Leinster stole the ball from a driving maul by the visitors and and three passes later it was try number three for the home side.
Dan Leavy popped it up to Sean O'Brien who off-loaded to Sexton, and Henshaw was on his shoulder to crash over for a well-worked try leaving it 22-3 at the interval.
Sexton's early second-half penalty stretched Leinster's lead but from 22 points down, Wasps somehow found another gear to almost get back on terms.
Leinster switched off with full-back Carbery coming into the line leaving acres of space in the back field and Christian Wade exploited it as he won the race to touch down his own grubber kick to earn Wasps an opening try after 53 minutes.
Gopperth spent two seasons at Leinster before joining Wasps in 2015 and he was instrumental in their much-improved second half performance.
The Kiwi's direct run punched holes in the Leinster midfield and an excellent one-handed finish suddenly had Wasps right back in the game, with his conversion making it 25-17 with 20 minutes still remaining.
But Leinster resumed control of territory and possession and McFadden's converted short range try with six minutes to go ensured it is Leinster who will face either Clermont or Toulouse in the semi-finals.
'We looked like rabbits in the headlights'
Wasps' Director of Rugby Dai Young: "In these games you can't give yourself a mountain to climb like we did in the first half.
"We knew we had to be at our best and we didn't need to help them along the way.
"Le Roux is really disappointed [with his botched try attempt]. You expect a player of that quality to score but we also gave away two tries.
"We looked like rabbits in the headlights in that first half and the biggest disappointment is we didn't do ourselves justice."
Leinster fly-half Johnny Sexton: "Wasps are the best team around at capitalising on mistakes and we're disappointed with some of the mistakes we made.
"We wanted to show we had a physical backline but conditions were awful out there. The ball was like a bar of soap and there was a swirling wind."
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39418873
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The Boat Races: William Warr set to face ex-Cambridge team-mates with Oxford - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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William Warr is the third person in the history of the Boat Races to switch sides, and his ex-Cambridge team-mates won't talk to him.
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Coverage: Watch live on BBC One, BBC Sport website and the sport app.
There are supposed to be only two options. In or out. Cambridge or Oxford. You can't be both.
In the long history of one of sport's most enduring rivalries, just two men have crossed the line.
When the the 163rd Boat Race gets under way on the river Thames on Sunday, William Warr will be going up against his old team-mates, rowing for Oxford against his former Cambridge team.
"It hasn't been easy. It was a decision I had to make, but guys I was really close with now barely speak to me any more," he told BBC Sport.
"Some have said they really hope I lose, that they completely disagree with what I'm doing, which I understand. It is a very strong bond.
"But life does go on. You need to think about your career - we are students, sometimes people forget that - and the research I am doing can help save lives, so to not go and do that because of some old rivalry would be selfish."
• None Read more: The Beeb and the Boat Race
Warr, 25, rowed for Cambridge in the 2015 event. They lost, as Oxford claimed their 11th success since 2000.
But Cambridge did win last year - without Warr, who is now doing a PhD at Oxford.
He knew it was the only place where elite rowing could live alongside his field of study. And he knew it when he was still on speaking terms with the Cambridge fold.
"I came to Oxford to do this PhD on how to prevent chronic disease in some of the poorest parts of the UK," he explains.
"I also want to go to the Olympics in 2020, so the only way to combine the two aspirations was to come here.
"I spoke to Cambridge's president, we talked through the options, laid everything out, and really it was only way to go."
It could have been worse, you might say. Warr was only at Cambridge for nine months. Nine months is a long time in comradeship and toil, but the silent treatment will feel like a price worth paying if Oxford slide through Sunday's 6.8km Championship Course the quicker. Especially because of the history involved.
The Dark Blues (Oxford) trail the Light Blues (Cambridge) by 79 victories to 82 since the race began, in 1829.
But nearly two centuries on, there is no suggestion of inside knowledge tipping the scales.
"The Oxford people aren't interested in knowing what Cambridge are doing, and nor would I tell them anything," he says.
"They trust the coach, Sean Bowden, and they've been very successful over the past 15 years. I think they know enough not to worry too much.
"The two coaching programmes are slightly different on techniques, but there are similarities, and we train pretty much the same hours at both Oxford and Cambridge. The weekly timetable is really similar.
"But it will be a bit strange for me on the start-line. Because it's a special race."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rowing/39424011
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The enduring appeal of Adrian Mole, aged 50 - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The fictional diarist has reached his half-century, but what is the secret behind his success?
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Leicester
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Adrian Mole, the angst-ridden diarist created by the late Sue Townsend, reaches his 50th birthday on 2 April. His diaries, over eight volumes, made Townsend one of the best-selling British authors of recent decades. But what made the character so compelling?
Stephen Mangan played Mole in the 2001 TV adaption of Townsend's The Cappuccino Years and worked closely with the writer on bringing him to life on screen.
Now aged 48, he began reading the Secret Diary as a teenager.
"Obviously when you read it as a 13 or 14-year-old you miss some of the nuances, but what's so clever about the books is that you get so many different perspectives," he says.
"It's written from the point of view of a 13-year-old boy, but it's also there's the story of [his separating] parents. It's a very clever trick, because through his lack of awareness you learn so much about marriage, parenting and life.
"A lot of the poignancy and depth of the book is revealed to you later when you're a little bit older."
Mole's waspish observations of the politics of the day are another feature of Townsend's books. He criticises Margaret Thatcher, the Falklands War and - in later editions - New Labour and Tony Blair.
"Sue was very engaged politically and socially tuned in to what was going on, and Adrian was her way in to discuss that," Mangan adds.
"She deals with big cultural phenomena through the books and with characters you love and sympathise with.
"We can be very entrenched in our attitudes, and with comedy, especially one based on a dweeby and nerdy loser like Adrian, bypasses this.
"We still read Jane Austen today, despite those books being a satire of the social scene at the time - if it's done with that amount of wit, warmth and intelligence it becomes universal."
In the early 1980s, while Mole was worrying about his spots and dreaming about his beloved Pandora, author Nina Stibbe was leaving their hometown of Leicester for London.
Then a young nanny - and now a successful novelist in her own right - she instantly recognised the problems occupying Mole.
"I read it when it first came out and - although I was 19 not 13 and had just moved to London - it was interesting because it was like a vindication," she says.
"He was neurotic, he was anxious, but he didn't mind about it, he just got on with worrying, and it was the same stuff that I was worrying about.
"He was worrying about his family, his mother's drinking and promiscuity, and I think it was the first time there was a character doing this sort of thing in such a charming way."
Stibbe's collection of letters Love, Nina chronicles her time observing the London literary scene of the 1980s (she was employed as a nanny by Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, and frequent visitors to the houses included Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller).
"When the first diary came out I was living in London, I was a nanny, and I was around all these very accomplished writers and playwrights, and they were all loving [Mole]," she adds.
"I think people can identify with him - the way he worries about things that might go wrong is something that affects us all, whether it's health or what's happening next year.
"I wrote about divorce once, and I thought about [Mole's parents] George and Pauline's marriage, because it's so interestingly done - my parents had lots of friends like that.
"It was all so real, and Sue was writing from experience. The main thing is that it's hilarious, that's the nub and the magic of it."
Louise Moore grew up reading the Mole diaries - and years later wrote a fan letter to Townsend which led to a long-lasting friendship.
When Townsend asked Moore to publish The Cappuccino Years, in which Mole has a brief stint as a celebrity chef before moving back to his native Leicestershire, she described it as "like winning the Lottery".
"I'd just left school [when I read the Secret Diary...] and I loved it," she said.
"It's the quintessential humour that I love.
She says Mole's "everyman" qualities kept fans on his side throughout his struggles with life.
"Sue was very clear that she didn't want Adrian to grow up and be unappealing," she adds.
"She knew him so well, she'd said that when she was writing other books she'd start to think about him, and he followed her through her life.
"He was her mouthpiece in a way. He's very ridiculous and naïve, but he also has a great wisdom and empathy for the human condition.
"He quietly triumphs in the face of almost constant adversity - he's one of the world's unsung, ordinary heroes."
Leicester is the backdrop for much of the Mole books, but it's importance to the character - and Townsend - is often overlooked, says Dr Corinne Fowler, an associate professor at the University of Leicester.
"Sue was very connected to the region," she says.
"At her funeral one of the actors who was involved in the first production said she insisted she took the local actors with her when it transferred to London because of her commitment to the local arts scene.
"Apparently there were a few references to Leicester in the early manuscripts, but it seems the editor must have asked them to be removed. I think that tells you something about literary culture... anywhere outside London risked being seen as parochial if it includes the local references for a region. Later on I would imagine she had that authority to put those [references] in."
Mole's appeal has always been much wider, though, and to mark his half-century, three new radio plays featuring the character have been commissioned by the university's Centre for New Writing.
"[Townsend] would have had a field day with Brexit," adds Dr Fowler. "She would have given a voice to the grievances of the Remainers and the political developments across the decade.
"But I think it's interesting how it transcends places. Much of it's a comment on Thatcher's Britain, about growing up in poverty in the UK, about so many national things pertinent to the UK.
"So it's incredible to have someone growing up in Sao Paulo, for example, and understanding and liking it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-39290618
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Dundee 0-7 Aberdeen - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Defender Andrew Considine scores a hat-trick as Aberdeen hammer Dundee 7-0 to ensure Celtic must wait to be crowned champions.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Defender Andrew Considine scored a hat-trick as Aberdeen hammered a dismal Dundee side to ensure Celtic must wait to be crowned Premiership champions.
A win for Dee would have handed the title to Celtic, but their visitors put that prospect to bed in the first half.
A Considine double and goals from Adam Rooney and Kenny McLean had Derek McInnes' men 4-0 up at the break.
Ryan Jack hit the fifth before Niall McGinn tapped home and Considine completed his hat-trick.
Celtic will clinch the title on Sunday if they beat Hearts at Tynecastle (12:30 BST kick-off)
Aberdeen are 11 points clear of Rangers in third, while Dundee are eighth.
The Dons are in a very strong position to finish second behind Celtic, with their showing here throwing the gauntlet down to Rangers before their meeting next weekend.
Their performance was even more dominant than the scoreline suggests.
Aberdeen bossed it from the first whistle and Considine nodded over the bar with a great early chance.
He made up for that miss soon after, powering home a header from Jonny Hayes' perfect delivery.
Rooney drew a good stop from Dee keeper Scott Bain, but the striker did not have to wait long to add his name to the scoresheet, headed in Shay Logan's exquisite cross.
McLean slammed in number three with his right foot before Considine cashed in on sloppy defending to nod his second.
There was no let-up after the break as Jack slotted the fifth in off the post, McGinn tapped home and Considine slid in to seal his hat-trick.
What a horrible evening this was for Paul Hartley's side.
Not many teams would have contained Aberdeen in this form, but Hartley will be furious at some of his side's defending.
They have been depleted by injury but that does not account for such a display.
The absence of injured striker Marcus Haber seemed to have a major impact as his replacement Faissal el Bakhtaoui was unable to hold the ball up and bring team-mates into the game.
Weekend results will determine how damaging this has been for Dundee, whose next game away to Ross County takes on added significance as they look to avoid being dragged into the relegation scrap.
Every player in red did themselves proud, but Considine and McLean deserve special mention.
McLean stood out all night and it was significant that he was removed after an hour, with some key games coming up for the Pittodrie outfit.
Considine, of course, takes the majority of the headlines thanks to his first hat-trick as a professional.
Individually and collectively, the Dons were sensational.
It seems this Aberdeen team is going from strength to strength, which promises much for the remainder of the season.
• None Goal! Dundee 0, Aberdeen 7. Andrew Considine (Aberdeen) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ryan Christie following a set piece situation.
• None Cameron Kerr (Dundee) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Graeme Shinnie (Aberdeen) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Attempt missed. Faissal El Bakhtaoui (Dundee) right footed shot from outside the box is too high.
• None Goal! Dundee 0, Aberdeen 6. Niall McGinn (Aberdeen) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Ryan Christie. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39376258
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UK faces tough divorce from the EU - BBC News
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2017-04-01
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What calculations will come into play as the union reveals its negotiating stance with the UK?
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Europe
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It is clear that the UK will face a tough divorce from the European Union after European Council President Donald Tusk characterised the forthcoming talks as "difficult, complex" and possibly "confrontational".
From the outset it is clear that the EU side will control the agenda.
That was underlined again on Friday in an early skirmish over procedure. Theresa May wanted divorce talks to run in parallel with negotiations about a future trading relationship. That won't happen.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been quick to rule that out and was given swift backing by the French president Francois Hollande. That was reinforced again on Friday with the leak of the European Council's negotiating guidelines.
Why is this so important?
Europe's leaders want to ensure that Britain agrees to the principles governing the terms of Brexit as a condition for talks continuing. As Mr Tusk said, the UK cannot just walk away without paying debts.
Angela Merkel insists the principles of Brexit should be negotiated before a trade deal with the UK can be considered
On the EU side there is another calculation: it will be easier to ensure unity among the 27 member states on the terms of the divorce, rather than on trade, when different national interests could come into play.
Preserving unity is a fundamental concern and Mr Tusk insisted that the EU "will act as one".
By insisting that the principles of the divorce bill be settled first, the leaders of the 27 are also stopping Mrs May using payments as a bargaining chip over the future trading relationship.
There were, however, some hints at flexibility, with Mr Tusk saying that the EU would monitor the negotiations and determine when "sufficient progress had been achieved to allow talks to proceed to the next phase of a future relationship".
Of course, it is the EU that will decide what progress has been made but those negotiations on trade could begin as early as the autumn.
For the EU there are four priorities in the talks: settling the divorce bill which some in Brussels have estimated at €60bn (£50bn), establishing the future status of EU citizens living in the UK, keeping open Northern Ireland's borders and agreeing which laws companies will operate under post-Brexit.
But EU leaders have opened the door to holding trade talks before Brexit has been completed and some in the UK will see that as a promising gesture.
The negotiating guidelines allow for a transition period before a future trading agreement is in place. In Brussels there is an expectation that some kind of transition period will be needed after the divorce talks have been completed.
A trade deal can only be formally concluded once the UK has ended its membership.
EU leaders are expected to finalise the union's negotiating position on 29 April
The EU sees that transitional period as being "limited" and will insist that the UK continues to abide by Union rules during this period. That could prove very controversial because it means there is a very real prospect that, come the next UK general election in 2020, some payments to the EU are still being made with a continuing role for the European Court.
There are differences among Europe's leaders over how constructive they are willing to be in the talks. Some want to demonstrate that leaving the EU is not easy, that divorce must hurt.
The French believe there must be an element of pain to deter others, although the prospect of other countries leaving is currently very remote. Mr Tusk's perspective is that the process of leaving is "punitive" enough without further punishment being necessary.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Friday that in calls he had made over the past two days there had been "lots of goodwill' from European Union ministers.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has emphasised the "goodwill" shown by other EU members
The wider reaction is that the UK, by triggering Article 50, has stepped into the unknown and taken a huge risk. "A highly indebted Britain has most to lose from uncertainty," was one assessment.
The mood in the European press has been generally gloomy, seeing departure as an act of self-harm, of Britain being tied up in Kafkaesque procedures, of British citizens being worse off by €5,000 (£4,300) a year.
Some papers focused on the UK's future isolation, repeating what passes for accepted wisdom in Brussels that in a global world countries are better off in larger blocs. Among some commentators there was the scarcely veiled hope that at some stage the UK will return to the European fold, tail between legs.
The British strategy is to be constructive towards the EU project and to deliver on the "sincere co-operation" it has promised Angela Merkel.
It has accepted that some payments will have to be made to meet existing obligations, that EU citizens will have to retain rights during the negotiating period and that there may be some limited role for the EU's courts in settling trade disputes.
Theresa May will have to balance her room for manoeuvre with the demands of her own party
The UK has some cards: it can offer help with security and intelligence but, by tying that assistance to the future trading relationship, it prompted German MPs to cry "blackmail". Mr Johnson responded by saying that Britain's commitment to EU defence was "unconditional".
But it is clear that every time the UK tries to play its cards there will be voices, particularly from the European Parliament, in full complaint. Mrs May and her team will have to handle the parliament with great skill, as it will have a say on any eventual deal.
Europe will be on alert for any attempt by Britain to divide and rule the remaining 27 EU countries. Mrs Merkel has set out the German interest: despite intensive lobbying from German car manufacturers it is the unity and integrity of the European Union that will be the priority - the EU must not be damaged or weakened by these negotiations.
These guidelines will be fleshed out into a more comprehensive negotiating document that will be presented to Europe's leaders at the end of April.
Mrs May knows compromises will have to be made to avoid the talks breaking down, but her room for manoeuvre is limited by sections of her own party who are determined to ensure a clean break with the EU.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39448444
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Johanna Konta: Miami Open winner is targeting world number one spot - BBC Sport
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2017-04-01
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Britain's Johanna Konta will move to seventh in the rankings after claiming the biggest title of her career at the Miami Open.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Britain's Johanna Konta is targeting the world number one ranking after claiming the biggest title of her career at the Miami Open.
The 25-year-old British number one beat Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3 to claim £940,000 in prize money and is set to climb to seventh in the world.
Konta was the world number 146 in June 2015, but she believes a Grand Slam title and further progress is possible.
"The belief has been there since I was a little girl," she said.
"I'd like to be the best player in the world but there's a lot of work to be done between now and then.
"Everybody's journey is different. I needed a little more time and a little more experience to accumulate the knowledge that I have and re-use it in my matches.
"I play smart tennis and calmer tennis I think. It just took time. On paper it looks like a quick turnaround but it's been a long time coming."
Former Fed Cup captain Judy Murray - mother of Andy - has previously suggested the turnaround began with a heavy defeat in a match against Belarus in February 2015.
Murray put that down to Konta's "really bad performance anxiety", describing the result as "a bit of a horror".
But her skill at handling the pressure of elite-level sport is now one of her biggest assets.
Konta herself has credited the influence of former mental coach Juan Coto, who died in December.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live following his death, Konta said: "Everything that I do, he will be a part of. He left me with some incredible tools to deal with my profession and also life. He is still very much a part of my journey."
She is working with a new coach this season - having made a surprise decision to replace Spaniard Esteban Carril towards the end of 2016, the most successful year of her career so far.
Under the guidance of Wim Fissette, Konta won January's Sydney International without dropping a set, before now claiming her first success at a higher level - the top 'Premier Mandatory' rung of the WTA Tour - in Miami.
"She has big ground strokes, not many weaknesses, and I also saw her as somebody who is very hard-working and very disciplined," Fissette told BBC Sport during the Australian Open, where Konta made the quarter-finals.
"I started working with her because I really believe she can win a Grand Slam if she keeps getting better like this."
In October, Konta became only the fourth British woman to make the top 10 since the WTA rankings began in 1975 - after Jo Durie, Virginia Wade and Sue Barker.
"I think it was probably a combination of everything, but also a question of maturity," Konta said of her rise on Saturday.
"I was very fortunate that throughout the years I've managed to have some very, very good people around me.
"The more I was able to absorb from them, their knowledge and wisdom, and the more I was able to reinvest that into the matches that I played, that's the reason I'm here now."
Only one other player has gathered more ranking points in 2017 than Johanna Konta, but more importantly the new world number seven has now successfully negotiated the perfect dress rehearsal for a Grand Slam.
Six victories over 10 days against the very best in the world in one of the WTA's Big Four tournaments is the perfect stepping stone to Grand Slam success.
Wimbledon should provide Konta with as good an opportunity as the Australian and US Opens - where she has already had so much joy - but now it is time for the clay: a surface on which Konta is still to prove herself.
BBC Sport's Piers Newbery: Konta continues to amaze. Last year was the first time she was ranked high enough to even play in Miami. And not at her best this week.
BBC tennis commentator David Law: Hope Konta can crack it at Wimbledon where she would fully enter the general public's consciousness. Can be a powerful positive role-model.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39470072
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Tony Adams: Granada name ex-Arsenal and England captain head coach - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Former England and Arsenal captain Tony Adams is appointed head coach of Granada until the end of the season.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Former England and Arsenal captain Tony Adams has been appointed head coach of Granada until the end of the season.
Adams replaces Lucas Alcaraz, who was sacked on Monday after a 3-1 home defeat by Valencia that leaves them 19th in La Liga.
The 50-year-old had been working at the Spanish club since November and is vice president of the company owned by Granada's club president.
His first game will be at home to Celta Vigo on Sunday.
Adams left Azerbaijan side Gabala in 2011 and previously managed Wycombe Wanderers and Portsmouth.
He has worked alongside Granada's president John Jiang in his role as vice president of the Chinese businessman's DDMC company and has been sporting director for Chinese Super League club Chongqing Dangdai Lifan.
Adams played 669 times for Arsenal between 1983 and 2002, spending 14 years as captain, and won 66 England caps.
"It would make much more sense for Adams' new role to be a temporary one, buying some time while the club makes longer-term plans for next season and beyond.
"Certainly, Adams being named permanent manager would not fit very well with the 'Spanish structure' he spoke about in his interview last month.
"And until today, everything Adams had said about his role at Granada suggested that he was happy to take a backroom director's role rather than holding ambitions to become first-team manager, and that remains the most likely scenario beyond the current season.
"But considering his strong relationship with the club's owner, of course he could end up getting the job on a permanent basis."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39557191
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Lewis Hamilton: The 2017 Formula 1 season could be most of exciting of my career - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Chinese Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton believes 2017 could go down to the wire between Mercedes and Ferrari.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton believes the 2017 Formula 1 season could be "the most exciting" of his career.
The Mercedes driver is tied on points with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel after his victory in the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton predicted the initiative would swing back and forth between the two teams throughout the season.
"It is close," he said. "I am down for it. I am looking forward to the fight with Sebastian and the other guys are going to be in amongst it."
Hamilton's win in Shanghai means he and Vettel have a victory and a second place apiece after the first two races.
Hamilton gained the advantage in China through early strategy calls in a chaotic opening few laps but the race eventually distilled to a battle between him and Vettel in the closing laps, the two cars separated by about eight seconds.
Hamilton said: "We are both pushing. It's great, last 20 laps, exchanging times, he was closing the gap a little bit, but I managed to stay ahead."
The 32-year-old won two of his three titles in last-race showdowns, beating Ferrari's Felipe Massa in 2008 only when he passed a car on the last corner of the final lap of the last race.
Hamilton also tied on points with then-McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso in 2007, the pair finishing one point behind champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari.
But Hamilton said he believed this year's battle could be the toughest he has yet had.
"It is going to be one of the closest ones - if not the closest - I have ever experienced," he said.
• None Listen: Vettel out of position at the start
Vettel told his team over the radio on the slowing-down lap the he believed they again had the fastest car, two weeks after winning in Australia by pressuring Mercedes into an early pit stop.
The four-time champion said: "It felt like we were the quickest, man. We couldn't prove that, but next time we will."
But the German, whose team failed to win a race in 2016, played down talk of a season-long fight between Ferrari and Mercedes.
"It would be great news for us," Vettel said. "They are the ones to beat, they have a very strong team, doing very well the last three years being flawless and smashing a lot of records.
"So for us it is really good news we had another race where we were really close and were able to put some pressure on.
"It is just race two. I really enjoyed it and at this point I don't care about the rest of the year."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39545971
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Yorkshire v Hampshire: Hants complete remarkable run-chase to win - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Hampshire successfully chase 320 to complete a remarkable comeback win over Yorkshire at Headingley.
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Hampshire chased a target of 320 on day three to complete a remarkable County Championship win at Yorkshire.
Resuming on 10-0, the away side began well, Michael Carberry (41), Jimmy Adams (72) and James Vince (44) all contributing to take them to 176-3.
Further runs from Rilee Rossouw (47) and Liam Dawson (37) edged them closer to their target.
Tim Bresnan (3-73) struck to give hope, but Lewis McManus (30 not out) and Gareth Berg (33 not out) saw them home.
Having collapsed to 75-8 in the first innings, a target of 320 - the largest total of the match - appeared a difficult ask, but Hampshire's openers made the most of some fortune to give their side a strong start.
Adams was dropped by Adam Lyth at second slip on 11, while Peter Handscomb was guilty of spilling Carberry in the gully when the opener had scored just six runs.
Carberry was eventually caught at long leg by Steven Patterson off Ben Coad's bowling and Adams was trapped lbw by Azeem Rafiq's first ball before Vince became Coad's second victim, offering a low return catch.
Bresnan had Sean Ervine caught behind, and while Rossouw and Dawson put on a partnership of 57, both were dismissed by the Yorkshire seamer - Rossouw caught by Andrew Hodd and Dawson by a diving Bresnan.
Hampshire rallied with a crucial stand of 58 between 22-year-old McManus and Berg, whose six off Coad assured victory for former Yorkshire and England all-rounder Craig White's side against his old club.
It is a fine start to the 2017 campaign for Hampshire, who finished eighth last season and only avoided relegation from Division One due to Durham's demotion for financial troubles.
"It was a good game of cricket for the neutral, wasn't it? But it's disappointing to be on the wrong end of it because I felt we had opportunities to win.
"We could have put the game to bed on Saturday afternoon. I didn't think it was a 180-odd all out pitch. We could have applied ourselves a little bit better.
"If we'd have got 220-250 and they'd have been chasing 400, it's a different game. Also, a couple of catches went down, and it's a different game at 20-2. But fair play to Hampshire, it was a good chase. Not many teams come here and chase over 300 in the fourth innings."
"That was a great win. You don't win many games being 58-5 in the first innings. To claw it back and come out of that situation with a victory is pretty special, so I'm proud of the lads.
"Every win's special, but this one perhaps a little more so. Everyone was so determined. It wasn't an easy pitch. There was a little bit in it. So the way the boys worked hard and got stuck in was outstanding.
"We've had a great start, but we know in two weeks when Yorkshire come down to Hampshire, they will be like wounded animals. They will come at us hard. So we need to prepare ourselves for that."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39542066
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Masters 2017: Sergio Garcia pips Justin Rose to win at Augusta - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Spain's Sergio Garcia ends his long wait for a first major title with a thrilling play-off win over England's Justin Rose at the Masters.
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Spain's Sergio Garcia ends his long wait for a first major title with a thrilling play-off win over England's Justin Rose at the Masters.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39550387
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Lewis Hamilton-Sebastian Vettel rivalry could lead to classic F1 season - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel's burgeoning rivalry is proof we could have the most intense title battle for a decade, says Andrew Benson.
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Two races down, a win and a second place apiece for Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, and the prospect of the most exciting championship fight for many years. Formula 1 has been waiting for this for a long time - arguably too long.
The last three years of Mercedes domination led to existential questions about the state of the sport, and at least in part to the decision to change the rules to produce faster, more demanding cars this year.
That move now looks to have been one of great foresight. Mercedes find themselves locked in a battle with a Ferrari team whose car appears to be at least as fast, and Hamilton faces a fight with a rival who he truly respects as being close to an equal.
The three-time British world champion's excitement at this is palpable.
He was talking after victory in China about the "hugely respectful competitiveness" between himself and Vettel of Germany - of this being the "most exciting" season of his career.
He also said this championship fight could be "one of the closest ones, if not the closest, I have ever experienced".
That is really saying something considering he lost out by a single point to Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 - a year he scored exactly the same number of points as his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso - and that he won the 2008 title on the last corner of the last lap of the last race.
To put what appears to be in store in 2017 in perspective, it is almost 10 years since F1 was in a similarly enviable position of having two world-class drivers, in apparently equal cars, provided by two different teams facing off for the title.
In 2014 and 2016, Hamilton's rivalry with former Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg went down to the wire - but in both cases it was because Rosberg had the better of the reliability. When all things were equal, Hamilton beat the German two races to every one.
In 2012, Alonso and Vettel took it to the final race for Ferrari and Red Bull. But that was the Spaniard performing heroics in a car that was not really up to the job. Fights on the track between the two were rare as a result.
Probably 2010 was the most recent equivalent to what F1 has in 2017 - when Vettel and Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, Alonso in a Ferrari, and Hamilton and Jenson Button in McLarens fought a five-way battle for much of the season. Alonso, Webber and Vettel were all still realistic contenders at the final race - and even Hamilton still had a mathematical chance.
Before then, the breathless McLaren v Ferrari battles of 2007 and 2008 were the closest to what appears to be developing in 2017.
Potentially, then, this is a year for the ages in the making. Two men, seven world titles between them, racing for two of the most iconic names in motorsport history, their cars evenly matched on pace, but with enough differences to guarantee competitive swings through the season.
How do Mercedes and Ferrari match up?
After only two races, it is a little early to be making definitive judgements on the respective qualities of the two frontrunning cars - but some patterns are emerging.
In qualifying, the Mercedes appears to have a small edge - at least in Hamilton's hands. In the races, there is little to choose between the two cars.
The change to faster, more demanding cars this season has allowed Ferrari to close the performance gap on Mercedes, helped by a big step forward by the engine department in Maranello, too.
In the race in China, once Vettel had worked his way up into clear air behind Hamilton - thanks in part to a quite outstanding outside pass of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo at Turn Five - the two were exchanging lap times, albeit seven or eight seconds apart.
Hamilton said: "It is very, very close and there were times when Sebastian put laps in and it was hard to even match the time. The last 10 or 12 laps he was doing a 1:35.6 and I was doing a 35.8 and it was very hard to get to where he was. Then there was other times in the race when I was quicker."
The pattern was the same in Australia two weeks ago. Vettel was quicker on the softer tyres in the opening stint, and Ferrari pressured Mercedes into an early stop that cost Hamilton the race. Then there appeared to be nothing between them on the harder tyres in the second stint.
• None Listen: Vettel out of position at the start
• None We've got to keep pushing - Hamilton
The cars have varying strengths and weaknesses. The Mercedes is slightly over the minimum weight limit, a problem that affects performance and which the team are trying to address as a matter of urgency, while the Ferrari has no such problem.
And they have different design philosophies.
Hamilton said: "Our car is longer so it's probably more stable in the higher-speed corners. Theirs is shorter, more nimble."
This could mean the Ferrari has the advantage in slower, more technical places, the Mercedes at high-speed tracks.
In theory, it should also mean the Mercedes is kinder to its tyres. But that was not the case in Australia, and would be a turnaround from the general trend in recent years, when the Ferrari has had more gentle tyre usage - sometimes to their detriment, in qualifying especially, but sometimes to their advantage, such as in Vettel's victory in Malaysia in 2015.
All in all, though, as long as Ferrari can keep pace in the development war - another weakness of recent years - the advantage should ebb and flow through the season.
The last 20-odd laps we were just pounding around as fast as we can, exchanging lap times... that's what racing is all about
And what of Bahrain this coming weekend? At least 20C hotter than the 12C in China, it is a race where Ferrari have been very competitive in the past two seasons, even when overall they have not been.
"Being that it's often a warmer race, Ferrari is very good in hotter conditions," Hamilton said. "These were quite good conditions for me today with our car. When it steps up in temperature… so far in the first race it's been shown as not the greatest for us just yet, so we're just learning on the tyres.
"Hopefully it will be better... It will definitely be better than it was in Melbourne. I think they will be very, very quick in the next race but there's a lot of straights there as well and we've obviously got, I think, still the strongest power unit on the grid - so that will come into play."
The sport as a whole
Drivers pushing hard throughout, 'real' overtaking moves where the much-maligned DRS overtaking aid helps but is not overly decisive, battles that last many laps. That is a description of what aficionados might call a 'proper' grand prix, something that has been lost in recent years.
"The last 20-odd laps we were just pounding around as fast as we can, exchanging lap times and I think that's what racing is all about," Hamilton said.
"Perhaps in the future there will be times when we won't have a safety car and there won't be that six-second gap, it'll be right on the tail either way. I'm excited for that."
In this, another aspect of the changes for 2017 has played a crucial role. The decision to force Pirelli to design tyres on which drivers can push hard throughout, rather than having to nurse them to stop them overheating, has transformed the racing.
Not only are drivers pretty much flat out through the race, but cars can race close together for many laps at a time, and drivers can still have enough grip left to make passing moves happen.
This was especially clear in the multi-car train of Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Kimi Raikkonen and Vettel in the opening stages of the race.
Overtaking might be a little harder than last year, but after the premature complaints following Australia, China proved it is possible. And as Vettel said: "Overtaking was difficult. But it should be. It should not just be flying or sailing past."
This revived 'hardcore' aspect to F1 is almost certainly a factor in Fernando Alonso producing two unexpectedly strong races in the uncompetitive McLaren-Honda.
A fortnight after holding off two faster cars for most of the race in Australia, Alonso was again in outstanding form in China.
He vaulted from 13th to eighth on the first lap - a feat put in the shade only by Verstappen's brilliant charge from 16th to seventh - but even more impressively was on course for seventh or eighth until his driveshaft failed at half distance. In a car with a power deficit of at least 100bhp, on a track with the longest straight in F1.
The pity is that a driver of Alonso's calibre is having to "drive like an animal", as he put it, to qualify 13th and race for seventh. But at least in F1 2017, driving like that brings rewards, as it should at the sport's highest echelon.
All in all, China was Formula 1 as it is meant to be, and has not been for some time. And already this is looking like a season to savour.
• None 'We've got to keep pushing' - Hamilton
• None 'Oh, and off has gone Giovinazzi!'
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39545282
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Claudio Ranieri: Former Leicester City boss thinks he may have been pushed out - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Former Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri believes someone within the club was working against him, but does not think the players got him sacked.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri believes that someone within the club was working against him, but does not think the players got him sacked.
The Italian led the Foxes to the Premier League title last season but was dismissed in February.
"I can't believe my players killed me. No, no, no," he told Sky Sports.
"Maybe it was someone behind me. I had a little problem the year before and we won the title. Maybe this year, when we lose, these people push a little more."
When Ranieri was sacked, Leicester were one point above the Premier League relegation zone.
Assistant manager Craig Shakespeare was placed in charge and presided over five successive league victories and a Champions League last-16 win against Sevilla.
"I listen to a lot of stories," added 65-year-old Ranieri, who refused to identify who he was referring to.
"I don't want to say who it is. I am a loyal man. What I had to say, I said face to face," he told the broadcaster's Monday Night Football show.
• None Ranieri and more in the latest Football Daily podcast
In the aftermath of Ranieri's exit, some reports suggested players had been instrumental in his dismissal, with striker Jamie Vardy and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel among those to publicly deny the squad were involved.
Ranieri's final game in charge was a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla, with the Foxes winning the return leg under Shakespeare 2-0 to earn a Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid.
"I thought the Sevilla match was a turning point," said the former Chelsea manager. "Everyone was fighting together, Jamie Vardy scored a goal.
"But I found out on the way home that I would be sacked. It was a shock for me and for a lot of other people."
Ranieri's dismissal sparked a wave of support from fellow managers, pundits and supporters, with former Leicester and England striker Gary Lineker saying he "shed a tear".
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho wore Ranieri's initials on his shirt and said the Leicester players were "selfish".
The Italian said he received support from all across the world.
"It was amazing," he said. "When we won the title I received gifts and cards, bottles of wine and Champagne. When I was sacked, my house was full.
"In case I don't have the time to reply to all of them, I want to thank all the fans.
"I have won trophies around Europe, but never the title. Three times I was runner-up. Leicester and the fans will be in my heart for all of my life."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39558439
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Masters 2017: Sergio Garcia pips Justin Rose to win at Augusta - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Spain's Sergio Garcia ends his long wait for a first major title with a thrilling play-off win over England's Justin Rose at the Masters.
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Last updated on .From the section Golf
Spain's Sergio Garcia won his first major title at his 74th attempt with a thrilling play-off victory over England's Justin Rose at the Masters.
Both players finished on nine under par after 72 holes at Augusta, setting up a sudden-death play-off on the 18th.
Garcia, 37, holed a birdie putt for victory after his European Ryder Cup team-mate could only manage a bogey.
Charl Schwartzel was third on six under with England's Paul Casey and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy in the top 10.
Jordan Spieth, one of the pre-tournament favourites, and fellow American Rickie Fowler both fell away badly on the final day.
Spieth, champion in 2015, signed for a three-over-par 75, while playing partner Fowler carded a 76 to finish tied in 11th on one under.
Garcia finally won one of golf's four majors - the Open Championship, the US Open and the US PGA Championship are the other three - after 22 previous top-10 finishes.
He became the third Spaniard to win the Masters - after Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal - on what would have been the 60th birthday of Ballesteros, who died in 2011.
"To join Seve and Jose - my two idols - is amazing," said Garcia.
• None I will have many more chances - Rose
• None Relive all the drama of Garcia's win at Augusta
Shot one: Rose teed off first on the 18th, pushing his drive right into the trees, only for his ball to bounce back towards play and reappear in the pine needles.
Garcia thumped his drive almost 300 yards down the fairway.
Shot two: Rose could only punch his way out of trouble onto the fairway, while Garcia landed his approach on the green, 12 feet from the hole.
Shot three: The Englishman responded by hitting his ball about 15 foot to the right of the hole - on a similar line to his putt in regulation play about 15 minutes earlier.
Rose missed his par putt to the left of the hole, leaving Garcia two shots for victory and the Spaniard rolled in his first attempt, with his ball circling the cup before dropping in.
Garcia dropped to his knees in celebration, and Rose instantly walked over to congratulate him as they shared a warm embrace on the green.
Garcia and Rose, who started playing against each other as teenagers and have become firm friends since, went out as Sunday's final pairing after sharing the overnight lead on six under.
Rose has long craved a follow-up victory to his 2013 US Open win, in order to go down in history as a multiple major champion. For Garcia, the stakes were even higher.
Not only was the Spaniard aiming to win his first major, he was also trying to prove that he had the mental resilience to triumph.
What followed was an intense battle filled with drama and tension.
Garcia started strongly with birdies on the first and third, opening up a three-shot lead on Rose after he bogeyed the fifth.
But the Englishman replied with three straight birdies to rejoin his playing partner on eight under at the turn.
Garcia bogeyed the 10th to give Rose the outright lead, then appeared to lose his composure when he pulled his tee shot into the trees on the par-five 13th. He was forced to take a one-shot penalty because of an unplayable lie, but scrambled well to save par.
This sparked his revival, A remarkable eagle on the par-five 15th - his first in 452 holes at Augusta - followed by a Rose birdie, meant the pair were tied on nine under with three to play.
Garcia pushed a short birdie putt right on the par-three 16th after Rose had holed his to open a one-shot lead, only for the Englishman to bogey the 17th.
Both players missed birdie putts on the last, Garcia from four feet, setting up the first Masters play-off between two European players, which Garcia nicked in fading light.
"It has been such a long time coming," said the world number 11, who will rise into the top 10 on Monday.
"I knew I was playing well. I felt the calmest I ever felt in a major."
While Garcia was being presented with the Green Jacket in the Augusta clubhouse, Rose was left rueing another near miss.
The Olympic champion has not claimed a major since winning the 2013 US Open, but lifted himself into contention for a first Masters title with five birdies in the final seven holes on Saturday.
But Rose, who also finished second behind Spieth in 2015, had to settle for a fifth top-10 finish at Augusta National.
"It is disappointing to come so close," said the world number 14. "I felt in control until the end.
"But I'm really happy for Sergio. I'd love to be wearing the Green Jacket but if it wasn't me then I'm glad it is him."
World number two McIlroy's ambition of becoming only the sixth man to win all four majors must wait for at least another year.
The 27-year-old, who has already won the Open, US Open and two US PGA Championship titles, battled back from three over par after eight holes on Thursday to finish three under after a closing 69.
"It wasn't quite good enough. I felt like I had an opportunity on Saturday to shoot something in the mid-60s which would have got me closer to the lead and I didn't quite do that," said McIlroy.
"I gave a decent account of myself and will come back next year and try again."
Casey, 39, carded four birdies in a bogey-free front nine to move into contention at four under, but could not improve that score as he shot 68 to earn his fourth top-10 finish at Augusta.
South Africa's Schwartzel, the 2011 champion, holed five birdies in the final 10 holes to finish with a 68, while American Matt Kuchar aced the 16th - the only hole-in-one of the week - on his way to the day's joint best round of 67.
He finished tied fourth on five under with Belgian Thomas Pieters, who impressed on his Masters debut.
Two-time major winner Spieth was hoping to banish memories of last year's spectacular final-day collapse at the 12th by winning his second Masters.
But the 23-year-old American, who was already three over for the day and well down the leaderboard, saw his challenge completely disappear on the iconic par-three when he again knocked his tee-shot into the water guarding the green.
It is the first time in his four Masters appearance the 2015 champion has not finished in the top two.
Spieth's playing partner Fowler started one shot off the lead as he targeted his first major, only to rack up seven bogeys in a disappointing round.
Fellow American Fred Couples, the 57-year-old who won the Masters in 1992, ended up tied 18th at one over.
"It was an electrifying final day. It was a duel of the highest quality, top sportsmanship and both Sergio and Justin take great credit.
"I think the golfing world thinks 'well, Justin has a major, it is time for Sergio to win one'.
"He thoroughly deserves it, he has been a champion golfer and in the top 20 of the world for virtually 20 years."
'Who writes these scripts?' - reaction to Garcia's win
Find out how to get into golf with our special guide.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39549330
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Dele Alli: Better than Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham combined? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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The Tottenham midfielder is enjoying a remarkable season – and his stats suggest he is on course to surpass the feats of some of the Premier League's greats.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Is Dele Alli among England's greats? How good was that Manchester City team goal? Is Philippe Coutinho now Brazil's greatest export?
We try to answer those questions and take a look at some of the other interesting stats from the weekend.
Could Alli be 'The Greatest'?
The stat: Dele Alli (40) has been involved in as many Premier League goals before turning 21 as Frank Lampard (15), Steven Gerrard (13) and David Beckham (12) combined.
He floats across the pitch like a butterfly and stings like a bee, as Watford discovered during Saturday's 4-0 defeat at White Hart Lane.
Alli's stunning opener for Spurs, scored three days before his 21st birthday, further underlined the precocious talent of the youngster who, it is worth remembering, was scoring for MK Dons against Leyton Orient less than two years ago.
That is now an incredible 19 goals in all club competitions for the attacking midfielder this season, following on from the 10 he managed in his debut season for Spurs. He has now also scored more league goals (16) this season than any other under-21 player in Europe's top five leagues.
So what transfer fee would you attach to him now? £50m? £60m?
Find out how to get into football with our special guide.
Well, you could conceivably multiply that by two because the attacking midfielder has had a hand in as many Premier League goals before turning 21 as fellow Englishmen Frank Lampard (15), Steven Gerrard (13) and David Beckham (12) combined.
But wait, this is what former Premier League midfielder Robbie Savage had to say about Alli on BBC Radio 5 live's 606:
"What is world class? I think to be world class you have to affect big games, do it on a regular basis and win games on your own. To say he is world class now is a huge statement. Name me big games he's affected, particularly in Europe and the Champions League. Potentially yes, but is he now?"
Will the table below change Robbie's thinking?
The best team goal this season?
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola must have had Barcelona flashbacks as he watched Sergio Aguero's goal during the 3-1 win over Hull on Saturday.
All 11 players touched the ball in the build-up, including keeper Claudio Bravo three times, as City put 21 passes together before the Argentine tapped in.
Painfully for Guardiola, the fact Raheem Sterling's cross was parried into Aguero's path by Eldin Jakupovic means the official statisticians class this one as having zero passes in the build-up.
It was a stunning goal but, even if this had gone down as a 21-pass move, it still would not have featured in the top-five longest build-ups of the season.
Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass etc etc etc GOAL!
What this does suggest, however, is that if you want to score a great team goal, Hull are the team to do it against.
Bravo - will he ever save a shot?
Opposition players scanning Manchester City's team-sheet before kick-off might be inclined to first check who is in goal.
"Brilliant. Claudio Bravo," could be how they react. After all, the 33-year-old Chile player has let in all the past seven shots on target on his goal.
He also has the worst save percentage in the Premier League season so far - stopping only 54.39% of the efforts he has faced. Crystal Palace's Steve Mandanda (58.54%, but has only played nine league games) and Swansea's Lukasz Fabianski (58.64%) have the second and third worst records.
Coutinho - the Premier League's best Brazilian ever?
He showed his potential at Inter Milan, but it is at Liverpool where Coutinho has blossomed.
The 24-year-old midfielder's well-taken equaliser in the Reds 2-1 win at Stoke on Saturday was his 30th in the Premier League, which saw him overtake former Middlesbrough forward Juninho as the highest scoring Brazilian in the competition's history. Parabéns!
Incidentally, former Arsenal defensive midfielder Gilberto Silva has played the most games (170) and has the best win percentage - an impressive 61.8%. Coutinho's is currently at 53.8%.
Just how boring are Middlesbrough?
Yes, some would say we are kicking a team while they are down - down, not relegated Boro fans - but this BBC weekly statistics piece takes no prisoners.
Middlesbrough - you are definitely not in the running for the Premier League 'Entertainers' award.
The Teesside club have been involved in SEVEN goalless draws in the Premier League this season - three more than any other side.
And their Riverside Stadium has also seen fewer goals than any other Premier League ground this season (29 - 12 scored and 17 conceded).
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But they do not hold the unwanted honour of the most 0-0s in a season - that goes to Sunderland (2014-15), Sheffield United (1993-94) and Leeds United (1996-97) who took part in a mind-numbing NINE goalless draws.
And the fewest goals at a ground was when Manchester City's City of Manchester stadium witnessed a paltry 26 in 19 games during the 2006-07 season. Manager Stuart Pearce was sacked at the end of that campaign.
Bournemouth's Norwegian forward Joshua King is proving to be a thorn in the sides of the Premier League elite.
In fact, the 25-year-old's strike against Chelsea in Saturday's 3-1 defeat means he has now scored eight goals against teams currently in the top 10 - the most of any player featuring in a team outside the top half.
And only Everton's Romelu Lukaku (13) and Tottenham's Harry Kane (11) have scored more Premier League goals in 2017 than King, who has 10 - level with Spurs' Alli.
Sunderland have now failed to score in seven successive Premier League games - the joint-second worst run in Premier League history.
Crystal Palace hold the record of nine games (1994-95), with Derby (2007-08) and Ipswich (1994-95) also going seven games without scoring.
All three of those teams were relegated during those seasons.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39546664
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Garth Crooks' team of the week: Coutinho, Alli, Ibrahimovic, Luiz, Hazard - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Dele Alli's form causes contention in the BBC studio and who do England need in midfield? It's Garth's team of the week.
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Chelsea beat Bournemouth 3-1 to stay seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, while Tottenham remain second after a 4-0 win at home to Watford.
Liverpool stay third with a 2-1 win at Stoke City, Manchester City remain fourth following a 3-1 victory over Hull City, and Manchester United climb up to fifth as they beat bottom club Sunderland 3-0.
Elsewhere, there are wins for Southampton away to West Brom, West Ham against Swansea and Everton at home to Leicester, while Middlesbrough v Burnley ended goalless.
Do you agree with my team of the week or would you go for a different team? Why not pick your own team of the week from the shortlist selected by BBC Sport journalists and share it with your friends?
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He's taken a fair amount of stick during his time at Liverpool but the hug from Jurgen Klopp at the end of the match seems to suggest goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was not just in good form but had done something quite special. It was the save from Saido Berahino that did it - costing Stoke a point while keeping Liverpool on course for a Champions League spot.
Moments before, Mignolet also made a point-blank save from Charlie Adam when he and Berahino practically apologised to each other for taking the strike. However, in my view, Klopp has failed to address the most obvious issue facing Liverpool since the start of the season - that is their back four.
Mignolet has recovered his season with some sparkling performances since being dropped earlier in the campaign. Yet if the German manager had got his back four right it's difficult to see how Chelsea could be 12 points clear of the Reds with six games left to play. Hugging Mignolet in sheer relief that his keeper has kept him in with a massive shout of Champions League football next season is a bit of a cop out for me. Liverpool should have been challenging for the title.
Matthew Lowton's headed clearance off the line from Stewart Downing's free-kick was absolutely sensational. For the full-back to recognise that keeper Tom Heaton was vulnerable and Downing was about to put the free-kick over the wall and into the top right-hand corner was intuitive genius.
Lowton left the wall having spotted the danger. But if that wasn't enough he almost immediately afterwards cleared off the line again - this time from Daniel Ayala's header. These two clearances were not just brilliant but game-changers. I've seen defenders panic in those positions and head the ball into the roof of their own net or get their feet in a tangle at the crucial moment.
Lowton was as steady as a rock and kept his eye on the ball - clearing his lines and the danger. It's these moments in games that define seasons for teams like Burnley. This was a fixture that produced no goals but, in the final analysis, Burnley didn't care. They have begged, borrowed and stolen points this season and Lowton - like their entire back five - did a superb job.
West Ham boss Slaven Bilic was manic throughout this affair and understandably so. The Hammers had lost five games on the bounce and rumours were rife that West Ham's directors had a contingency in place - whatever that meant - had Bilic suffered a sixth consecutive defeat.
There was so much riding on this result and Bilic did well to put his faith in an old head with a lot of experience. James Collins was that man and he did everything that needed to be done. He was magnificent in the air and needed to be, particularly when Fernando Llorente came on in the second half for Swansea.
The Spanish centre-forward raised the stakes for the Hammers and it forced Collins to put his body on the line on a number of occasions.
Swansea, on the other hand, seemed like a team who were suffering from stage fright and paralysed by fear. It would appear their 3-1 drubbing at home to Spurs in midweek had a far bigger impact on the team's confidence than they realised.
What a wonderful ball from David Luiz to Victor Moses. It resulted in Diego Costa's superb turn and Chelsea's fortuitous opening goal. I'm not in the least bit surprised by Luiz's ability to knock a 40-yard pass. This is a defender with so much ability he can do that and much more.
However, as the season draws to a close and Chelsea put a date in the diary for a trip to the Premier League engravers, I would like to commend manager Antonio Conte and technical director Michael Emenalo for having the foresight and courage to bring Luiz back to Stamford Bridge.
The Brazil international is unrecognisable from the irrational player we saw during his first period at the club. Since his return, he has played some glorious football and been a unifying figure in a new era at the Bridge.
If Chelsea are serious about winning the Champions League next season they must do whatever it takes to keep Luiz. There aren't many great centre-backs out there, and those who do exist are with the biggest clubs in Europe. With a couple of strong additions to their squad, Chelsea could be serious Champions League candidates.
I didn't know who was going to take Chelsea's free-kick - David Luiz, Victor Moses or Marcos Alonso. In the end it was Alonso who bent it past Artur Boruc with extraordinary accuracy.
The harsh truth for Bournemouth, and the rest of the Premier League, is any one of those players could have planted the free-kick past Boruc, such is the quality and confidence that exists in the Chelsea ranks at the moment. The truth is I couldn't leave Alonso out of my team of the week having scored a goal like that.
Alonso has done this sort of thing before, of course, and I have no doubt he will do it again before Chelsea lift the Premier League trophy. Which they will.
Philippe Coutinho didn't feel great on the morning of the match and arrived in the Potteries by car feeling OK before deciding to declare himself fit for the game against Stoke City. That was the beginning of the end for the Potters. From the moment Coutinho came on the pitch at the start of the second half, I knew it was a game-changer.
The Brazilian had already warned Lee Grant he was on the prowl, having forced the Stoke keeper to produce a fantastic save just after he arrived on the pitch. It was at that moment you knew whatever symptoms Coutinho had before the game had well and truly passed. However, it was his one-touch finish on the edge of the box that I thought was so impressive.
Coutinho hung around waiting for something to happen - anything that might give him an opportunity to pounce. When it came he was equal to it. All credit to Coutinho for getting to Stoke. The easy option would have been not to play and no-one would have blamed him. Instead he put himself on the line for his team-mates and his manager. I hope Jurgen Klopp remembers that in the future when Coutinho is having a bad time.
I saw Fabian Delph play against Chelsea in midweek and, considering it was his first start of the season, he looked in great shape and played like it. All credit to him. Delph has been plagued with injuries and had such little first-team game time, yet still has the presence of mind and the right attitude to keep himself in such tip-top condition.
He ran out of steam at Stamford Bridge, but not so against Hull. For Delph to retain the level of fitness at this stage of the season, and go on to have such an impact on Manchester City's victory over Hull, is a credit to his professionalism.
There will be those who will argue that professional players should keep themselves in the best shape ever - after all, it's their job. Those cynics have no idea of the mental discipline required to keep yourself at the top of your game in mind and health when you have no fixture to look forward to.
At the end of the game against Hull you could see how delighted Manchester City's backroom staff were for him. They have also played a part in the recovery. Hopefully Delph can now start to think of playing for his country again. Heaven knows we could do with him.
What a goal by Roberto Firmino. The ball from Georginio Wijnaldum was wonderful but the finish even better. It's one thing your team-mate delivering the pass of the match. It's something entirely different having received the ball at your feet and having the technical ability to put it into the back of the net. Firmino finished the move so emphatically. If the referee had decided to blow the full-time whistle there and then, no neutral observer would have complained - the quality of the finish was worthy of winning any match.
However, watching the goal in real time does not do the execution of the finish justice. The replay clearly identifies how Firmino takes a look at the ball as it arrives over his shoulder, watches it bounce in front of him, then takes a look at where Grant is positioned before deciding to hit the ball on the volley. Grant, who is slightly off his line in case Firmino decides to take him on, almost dares his opponent to take the volley due to the degree of technical difficulty required to execute the skill.
All this being played out, of course, in a couple of seconds. So imagine Grant, when the Brazilian calls his bluff and goes for the volley and smashes it into the back of the net, having left the Stoke keeper clutching fresh air. That's why the finish was so good and we all said 'wow'.
The moment Dele Alli bent his super shot around the well-beaten Heurelho Gomes in the Watford goal, former Spurs midfielder Jermaine Jenas said: "He's the player of the season for me."
Jermaine, preparing for Football Focus in the BBC green room, instigated a frightful debate prior to the programme around who deserved to win the PFA Player of the Year. Dion Dublin, Dan Walker, Martin Keown and myself immediately engaged in the argument with differing opinions but generally agreed the prize would probably go to either to Eden Hazard or N'Golo Kante.
Jermaine seemed incredulous that none of us had mentioned Alli and said that he wanted more flair from his midfield players which suggested Kante came up short in that department as far as he was concerned. A fair point and a perfectly reasonable assertion under the circumstances.
It did seem odd at the time bearing in mind Alli was having a terrific game against Watford and Spurs were second in the table largely due to Alli's contribution this season. That said, I don't think Alli will win the PFA Player of the Year even though Jermaine put together a very credible case.
There have been some notable performances this week, from strikers in particular, who would have, under normal circumstances, made my team of the week. However, this wasn't a normal week. Romelu Lukaku and Son Heung-min scored twice for Everton and Tottenham respectively, but it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic who impressed me the most.
Playing up front on your own is always a task but it never seems to bother the Manchester United striker. Against a Sunderland side sporting 11 men at the time, the Swede produced a goal out of nothing. He set up Marcus Rashford's goal and you can see how his team-mates respond to his presence.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Luke Shaw has timed his return to the team with Ibrahimovic's return. The lad has been put under immense pressure by United boss Jose Mourinho and, if the game against Sunderland is anything to go by, he has stood up to Mourinho's bully-boy tactics very well. I'm not sure Mourinho would get away with such a public condemnation of an employee in any other form of employment.
Nevertheless, this was a very important victory for United and keeps them in the hunt for a fourth-place finish. I would have liked to have seen the outcome of this game against Sunderland with a referee who recognises the difference between a tackle that looks dangerous and one that actually is dangerous. Sebastian Larsson's tackle on Ander Herrera neither looked dangerous nor was dangerous. So why the player received an automatic red card from referee Craig Pawson is a total mystery to me.
If David Luiz's presence at Chelsea is central to any future Champions League campaign, then Eden Hazard is imperative. Real Madrid will know all about Hazard's potential but will most certainly have noted his form this season. This is without doubt his best season in the Premier League. His performance against Bournemouth was wonderful to watch.
I haven't seen a player for sometime enjoy his football as much as Hazard is at the moment. He is playing with such freedom and confidence that makes me think that an audacious offer from Madrid is almost certain. There are not many players who can resist playing at the Bernabeu Stadium on a regular basis.
So it is crucial that Chelsea boss Antonio Conte removes the rumours circulating the game about his possible return to Italy and starts focusing on the Champions League with Chelsea next season. That must be the next stage in Chelsea's development.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39547967
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Sadio Mane: Liverpool forward to have knee surgery and will miss the end of the season - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Liverpool forward Sadio Mane will undergo an operation on a knee injury on Tuesday and is expected to be out for two months.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Liverpool forward Sadio Mane will have an operation on a knee injury on Tuesday and will miss the rest of the season.
He damaged cartilage in his left knee in a collision with Leighton Baines in a 3-1 home win over Everton.
Manager Jurgen Klopp had said Mane, 25, needed surgery, leaving it "pretty much impossible for him to play again this season".
Liverpool are third in the Premier League and have six games left.
The injury is expected to rule him out for two months.
Mane joined the club for £34m from Southampton last summer and has started all but six of Liverpool's league games this campaign.
Of those, one was won, three were drawn and two were lost.
Klopp, speaking before Saturday's win at Stoke, also said Adam Lallana was "much better but is not in training" as the midfielder continues his recovery from a thigh injury suffered on England duty in March.
Captain Jordan Henderson, who has been out since February, is "in a good way, but I don't know when he can be part of training again", the German added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39504885
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Decoding Russia's response to Johnson's cancelled trip - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What does Moscow's reaction to the foreign secretary's no-show say about Anglo-Russian relations?
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UK Politics
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The Russian embassy in London called Mr Johnson's cancellation deplorable and absurd
The Russians have reacted with a mixture of contempt and fury to the cancellation of the foreign secretary's trip to Moscow.
It suggests they do, perhaps surprisingly, care quite a lot about it.
In a series of tweets, the Russian embassy in London mocked the foreign secretary, calling his decision "deplorable" and "absurd" and linking to an image of the Charge of the Light Brigade and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
That was the year that a minor war between Britain and Russia, provoked by a Russian alliance with France, came to an end, when Napoleon invaded Russia. The US was on the French side. The message is a little hard to decode, beyond poking fun at Boris.
The Kremlin is less mischievous, and more straightforward.
It "doubts in the presence of added value in speaking to the UK, which does not have its own position on the majority of present-day issues, nor does it have real influence on the course of international affairs, as it remains 'in the shadow' of its strategic partners. We do not feel that we need dialogue with London any more than it does."
One of the Russian embassy's tweets referred to the Charge of the Light Brigade
This has both the whiff of wounded pride and the smell of an unpalatable truth. Both interpretations have something in them, but disguise a more profound method in their mockery.
Russia's intervention in Syria had many fathers, but no doubt part of President Putin's purpose was to establish that modern Russia, just as much as the old Soviet Union, matters on the world stage - a force to be reckoned with, on a par with China and the US.
So a snub from Britain, definitely lower down the league table of powerful nations, stings a little bit. It is also easy to take a tilt at the UK and Boris Johnson.
We do, in military, intelligence and diplomatic terms, in that old cliche, punch above our weight. We matter more, in those terms, than Sweden or Brazil, Spain or Italy. But the weight of our history makes many of us think we matter more than we do.
We have lost an empire and don't particularly like finding ourselves in a subordinate role, perhaps not always as important as France and Germany. Absurdly, our media and politicians sometimes like to pretend we are almost on a par with the United States, nearly equal partners rather than occasionally useful allies.
The Russians are deeply aware of how much power they have lost. We in Britain simply pretend it's not the case. So the Kremlin prodding a finger in this wound makes us shiver a little bit.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Moscow on 12 April
I have no idea whether US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked tentatively and politely that Boris should call off his visit, virtually ordered it, or whether the proposal came from the Foreign Office. But there's no doubt we are doing what the Americans want, and waiting for them to explain what they want to happen next.
This is what the Russians really hate. Like the Chinese, they would rather have one-on-one, bilateral relations, with other smaller nations. It is why they would love to see the European Union collapse, and support parties which wish to see that too. They don't like other countries acting against them in concord, matching their mass.
If they don't like the EU, they feel even more strongly about European nations acting together with the US. Bundle in the G7 nations of Japan and Canada, and you have something that amounts to '"the West" - the Soviet Union's old adversary.
Though the faces may change, the G7 group remains, to some, the face of "the West"
If they had hoped the US would turn inward, not even leading from behind, but wandering off in a disinterested daze, then recent developments seem to suggest they won't get their wish.
So Boris Johnson's cancelled trip to Moscow makes diplomatic sense and shows a due sense of proportion about our nation's power. But it is still not great for the man himself. Hanging over all this is the feeling that he's not to be trusted, that he'd somehow make a mess of it all.
The Russians keep using the term "clown" and hinting that he is out of his depth. Some in the Foreign Office seem to agree. So do opposition politicians.
It may be desperately unfair, based on the fact he makes a few broad jokes in a world where many others have carefully crafted pokers inserted somewhere about their person.
But Boris has become a politician it is easy not to take seriously, a doddle to ridicule. President Trump's example suggests that's not entirely a bad place to be, but at the moment it has made it easier for people at home and abroad to deride an entirely standard diplomatic response.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39554369
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World Cup 2026: USA, Canada & Mexico to make joint bid - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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The USA, Canada and Mexico say they will make a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup - the first after expansion from 32 to 48 teams.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
The United States, Canada and Mexico have announced they will make a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup.
It will be the first tournament after the expansion from 32 teams to 48 and, if successful, would be the first time a World Cup has been shared by three hosts.
The proposal would be for the USA to host 60 matches, with 10 games each in Canada and Mexico.
The decision on who will host the event will be made in 2020.
That is three years later than originally scheduled because of corruption allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
The USA staged the 1994 World Cup, which had the highest average attendance in the tournament's history, while Mexico was the first nation to host the event twice, in 1970 and 1986. Canada hosted the 2015 women's World Cup.
US President Donald Trump has promised to build a border wall between the USA and Mexico but Sunil Gulati, president of the US Soccer Federation, said Trump is "supportive" of the bid and had "encouraged" it.
"The United States, Mexico and Canada have individually demonstrated their exceptional abilities to host world-class events," added Gulati.
"When our nations come together as one - as we will for 2026 - there is no question the United States, Mexico and Canada will deliver an experience that will celebrate the game and serve players, supporters and partners alike."
European and Asian countries cannot bid for the 2026 World Cup due to world governing body Fifa's rotation policy, which means the previous two host confederations - Europe in 2018 and Asia in 2022 - are excluded.
The new-look tournament will begin with an initial round of 16 three-team groups, with 32 qualifiers going through to the knockout stage.
Fifa's executive committee is no longer responsible for the final say on which country is awarded a World Cup.
Instead, it will establish a shortlist before the 209 member nations of Fifa cast a vote for their preferred choice.
The 2026 tournament will be the first to be decided under the new system.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39544868
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Ross Barkley: Everton manager Ronald Koeman warns midfielder he could be sold - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Everton midfielder Ross Barkley should be sold if he does not sign a new contract, says manager Ronald Koeman.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Everton midfielder Ross Barkley should be sold if he does not sign a new contract, says manager Ronald Koeman.
The 23-year-old England international, who set up the first of Romelu Lukaku's two goals in Sunday's 4-2 victory over Leicester, has a year left on his deal.
"We offer him a new contract, and there are two possibilities," said Koeman.
"One, he signs that contract. If he doesn't sign that contract then we need to sell the player. It's simple, it's not so difficult in my opinion."
Barkley, who was born in Liverpool and came through the Everton academy, has scored five goals and provided eight assists this season.
Team-mate Lukaku, the Premier League's top scorer with 23 goals, last month turned down a new five-year deal thought to be worth about £140,000 a week.
The Belgian, whose contract expires in 2019, recently stated his desire to play in the Champions League next season.
The Toffees are seventh in the table - seven points shy of a Champions League spot.
"We try to keep the best players," said Koeman. "We spoke a lot about Ross and Rom because they are really important.
"Most of the time the quality of the players can be the difference between Everton and the opponent, and they played really well.
"We know Rom is a great finisher but Ross played really good football between the lines.
"I think he should have scored one but it is what you like to see - your best players performing like they showed, because they were outstanding. The whole team was outstanding."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39548977
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Microdosing: The people taking LSD with their breakfast - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Users say it boosts creativity and can have medicinal benefits, despite a lack of scientific research.
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Health
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Simpa says microdosing helps to alleviate his mental health problems
There is a small community of people in the UK who "microdose" - or take small amounts of psychedelic drugs as part of their daily lives. They say it boosts creativity and can have medicinal benefits, despite a lack of scientific research.
On a table in his house in Durham, Simpa shows me a tab of LSD he has cut into about 10 pieces.
The whole thing would be enough for a trip he says, but today he's taking just a tiny dose of it.
On the days he does this, Simpa says it's just part of his morning routine.
"I take it with a cup of tea, my toast and my vitamins," he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.
In another part of the UK, "Dylan" - whose name we have changed - is going through a similar ritual with some magic mushrooms, weighing out a tiny dose and eating it with his cup of tea.
Some people use microdosing simply to "improve their day", others to enhance their creativity and some use it in a therapeutic manner - arguing it helps with their mental health problems.
Both LSD and magic mushrooms, the drugs most commonly used to microdose, are illegal Class A drugs carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for possession.
A small number of people we spoke to had tried it with MDMA, also a Class A drug.
Dylan says the law is not much of a deterrent for him. He argues he is "not hurting anyone or creating a trail of devastation by doing this".
He has a very ordinary, respectable job. The fact that he goes to work having taken illegal drugs is not something his colleagues know, although his friends do.
He says the microdoses make him better at his job; more able to concentrate.
"It just gives you that very kind of calm and relaxed sense of being centred," he says.
Simpa takes LSD with a cup of tea and vitamins in the morning
Simpa is one of the people using microdosing for therapeutic purposes.
At 28, he is living with quite severe mental health problems - "depression and anxiety as a result of childhood trauma, that led to borderline personality disorder and PTSD".
He says the prescription medication he has been given results in more side-effects than benefits.
"I've found that these substances, psychedelics, give me the benefits without any of those drawbacks. Me using these substances means I've been able to view my trauma so that it's just an experience, a memory like any other."
Such individual experiences are, of course, anecdotal. There is no scientific proof behind claims of the medicinal benefits of microdosing.
James Rucker, a psychiatrist, is one of a number of people carrying out scientific experiments into the potential medical applications of psychedelic drugs.
He was recently involved in a trial at Imperial College London looking at the use of magic mushrooms in clinical depression. It did not, however, look at microdosing
James Rucker says a lack of research means scientists do not know what the long-term risks of microdosing might be
"Microdosing at a medical level, we know absolutely nothing about," he explains.
"The only way that we can sort out whether or not it works is by doing a blinded, placebo-controlled randomised trial."
He says the dangers of people self-medicating like this are currently completely unknown, and that is where the problem lies.
"The definition of a microdose is that you don't notice the subjective effect, but that doesn't mean it's not having any effect on you.
"We don't know what the risks in the long term might be.
"There was some concern before 1970 - when the drugs were being used clinically - that in people who were liable to develop schizophrenia and psychotic disorders, the drugs might actually uncover those problems in some people.
"Some studies showed that that might be a risk, some studies showed that it wasn't. So again, it's another area where we don't know."
Those who microdose, however, argue its benefits go beyond alleviating mental health issues.
In Silicon Valley in the US, home to thousands of start-up businesses and some of the world's largest technology companies, some entrepreneurs have claimed it makes them more creative.
Dr James Fadiman, who has been researching psychedelics since the 1960s, runs a website on microdosing where he asks people to report back to him about their experiences.
He says more than 900 people have responded so far.
"The most consistent result is people saying, 'My life seems to be working better.' [They are] more effective, their sleeping habits improve, their eating habits improve, they feel better in social situations."
"Anna", who lives in the UK, says she has tried microdosing in the past, both with LSD and more recently with magic mushrooms picked from the hills near where she lives with her two children.
She says the experience wasn't very dramatic, but on the days she microdosed she felt more productive.
"It's just like having a slightly better quality of life.
"Anna" used to microdose with both LSD and magic mushrooms
"I would have quite an ordinary day - I just felt quite happy, calm and grounded and I would sleep better."
There is, however, a further danger to microdosing - the risk of taking too much.
Psychedelics are very powerful drugs and Dylan admitted accidentally tripping at work when he took too big a microdose.
James Rucker says he knows he cannot stop people using drugs recreationally. "That's something we have to work with," he says.
He argues it is all the more reason to conduct research into the effects of these drugs.
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
• None 'I've been taking ketamine for my depression'
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39516345
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Rhys Webb: Past troubles temper Wales scrum-half's Lions hopes - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Touring New Zealand with the Lions would be the pinnacle of Rhys Webb's career, but injury experience prompts caution over his hopes.
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Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Coverage: Scrum V Live on BBC Two Wales, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app, plus live scores online
Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb says being selected for the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand would be the pinnacle of his career.
But he is philosophical about the prospect after missing the 2015 Rugby World Cup through injury.
Webb is a leading contender to be named in the Lions squad on 19 April and said: "If it happens, it happens, and it would be a dream come true.
"But I know what it's like to miss out on these big competitions."
Webb suffered a serious ankle injury in September 2015, a matter of weeks before the start of the World Cup, and played no part in Wales reaching the quarter-finals.
And the 28-year-old says such experiences are helping him stay focused on helping his region the Ospreys in the Pro12.
"The Lions is obviously the best of the best, but I've missed out on the World Cup and I know what it's like," Webb told 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
"Don't get me wrong, as the time is getting closer, the more motivational videos from past Lions are popping up on Twitter, and I would love to bits to be a part of it.
"But we've got to win the league first.
"It would be the pinnacle of my career, but we've got the Blues on Saturday, and that is the final game ahead of the announcement next week."
Ospreys are third in the Pro12 table - seven points adrift of second-placed Munster - and face Cardiff Blues this weekend as part of Welsh rugby's Judgment Day double-header at the Principality Stadium.
"We've had three disappointing results - Treviso, the [Challenge Cup] quarter-final [against Stade Francais], and Leinster on the weekend - so we are on a bit of a tricky losing streak," Webb added.
"But we are in total control of where we are in the league, the boys have a had a great season so far.
"It's about trying to stay positive and get that momentum now this weekend, in a full Principality Stadium against our local rivals the Blues."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39559062
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Why do University Challenge contestants go viral? - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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This series has seen Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull find fame on social media.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Seagull (left) and Monkman have been the stars of the Jeremy Paxman-fronted current series
University Challenge is, quite simply, the most fiendishly difficult quiz show on TV.
Most of us can just about get a few questions right on Eggheads or The Chase - but few of us would have a chance against Jeremy Paxman.
With many of its viewers totally flummoxed by the questions - perhaps it's not surprising that the BBC Two quiz show tends to go viral for other reasons.
Namely, the quirks of its contestants.
Eric Monkman and Bobby Seagull have been the breakout stars of the current series (more on them in a minute), but they're far from the first to find fame on the show.
The invention of social media has given the programme a new lease of life and helped many contestants develop their own cult following.
Gail Trimble (second right) became a viewer favourite in 2009
"University Challenge works extremely well for this YouTube generation," says Tom Eames, senior TV reporter at Digital Spy.
"One funny moment or question can be so easily shared on Twitter now - it's the same when something rude happens on Countdown or someone makes a fool of themselves on Pointless."
Eames thinks another reason the show has found a new audience is how much more fashionable it has become to be super-smart.
"In the last few years, everyone loves calling themselves a geek or a nerd, even though in the real world they might not be," he says.
"Shows like The Big Bang Theory have recently flourished. So when someone genuinely seems to have some geeky superpowers like Monkman, we like to big them up."
Ahead of this season's final on Monday evening, let's take a look back at a few of University Challenge's viral sensations:
Monkman and Seagull finally came head-to-head at the semi-final
The current series saw two contestants - both captains of rival teams from Cambridge University - find social media fame.
As a show which normally features a lot of upper class English voices, Seagull's east London accent caught the attention of viewers, as did his wonderful surname.
Monkman, meanwhile, inspired a legion of online fans who identified themselves with the hashtag #monkmania.
His facial expressions and tendency to deliver answers with an upward inflection won him a place in the hearts of many viewers.
He and Seagull each went viral in their own right before they finally faced each other on screen in the semi-final, where Monkman narrowly edged victory.
Monkman and Seagull have become friends since appearing on the show
"I would say Monkman is in the all time top five [contestants]," The Independent's James Rampton told the BBC.
"There's a tendency in our culture to be very homogeneous, everyone must be cool, be good looking. But Monkman, I hope he wouldn't mind me saying, is a bit of a geek."
Monkman and Seagull, it later transpired, were friends off-air and caught the train down to London together when they appeared on The One Show last month.
At this point we'd usually demand they be given their own TV show - but we're pretty sure we'd never understand anything they were saying.
Gail Trimble went viral in 2009 after her appearance on the show
One of the most memorable University Challenge contestants of recent years was Gail Trimble, of Corpus Christi, Oxford.
She answered around two thirds of the questions on her own, winning more points than all three of her teammates combined.
Her performances quickly caught the attention of viewers, with many suggesting she was the smartest-ever contestant.
She was particularly popular with a certain genre of men's magazines, who at one point asked whether she would ever consider a career change.
"My brother received a Facebook message from Nuts, saying 'Can we have your sister's email address, we want her to do a tasteful shoot,'" Trimble told BBC Breakfast.
"So he sent them a reply saying 'Seriously mate, would you send your sister's contact details to Nuts?'"
The name might not ring a bell - but Ralph Morley was the bravest contestant of them all: the man who spoke back to Jeremy Paxman.
Here's how the glorious exchange went:
Paxman: "During the 20th Century, who held the position of prime minister of the United Kingdom for the..."
Paxman: [Looking shocked] "How did you know I was going to ask for the longest period of time?"
Morley: "Well what else was it going to be?"
Paxman: "Okay well let's see if you get these bonuses right. They're on French land borders, you smart arses."
In 2015, Oscar Powell of Peterhouse, Cambridge took the concept of facial expressions to a whole new level.
The geological sciences student, who looks a little bit like Michael Gove, had one of the most animated human faces in the history of human faces.
If he was struggling to answer a question, his jaw would drop, his face would scrunch up or his tongue would poke out as he tried to arrive at the answer.
After huge reaction on social media, Powell tweeted: "Yes, I know I'm odd." But his fanbase continued to revel in his performances and declare their love for him.
Eames says: "It used to be rare for normal people to become famous off the back of a TV show, but the line between celebrity and non-celebrity is so blurred now.
"Ten years ago, someone could appear on the programme but be forgotten again the next day, but that's not the case anymore.
"As a result, people who appear on shows like this fall under the celebrity bracket, so there's a potential for them to become fair game to viewers."
Stephen Fry, Miriam Margolyes and David Starkey all appeared on University Challenge
Long before they were famous, some of Britain's most distinguished brains made their first TV appearances on University Challenge.
Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, historian David Starkey, and general national treasure Stephen Fry are among the quiz show's alumni.
Actress Miriam Margolyes even claims her appearance on the programme in 1963 marked the first time anybody had ever said the f-word on TV.
In 2011, she told Graham Norton: "I got a question wrong, and I [swore], and they bleeped me out so you saw my face [saying the word], but nothing actually came out."
Had Twitter been around in the 1960s, we're pretty sure that would've gone viral.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39482317
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Keiron Cunningham: St Helens part company with head coach - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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St Helens part company with head coach Keiron Cunningham after 24 years as a player and coach at the Super League club.
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby League
St Helens have parted company with head coach Keiron Cunningham with the club seventh in Super League.
He has spent 24 years at the club as a player and on the coaching staff, and has a statue outside their home ground.
Cunningham, 40, played 496 times for Saints during his career and had been in charge for more than two years.
"It is both upsetting and disappointing for us all that it has ended at this point in time," St Helens chairman Eamonn McManus said.
Saints will be led by assistants Sean Long and Jamahl Lolesi, as well as under-19s coach Derek Traynor, on an interim basis until a new head coach is appointed.
"The commitment that he has shown to the club throughout, and in every capacity, has been without equal," McManus said.
"Keiron nevertheless understands the position and, as a mark of the man that he is, wishes only well and good to the club, its players and everyone associated with it."
Cunningham was assistant to Nathan Brown when Saints last won the Super League title in October 2014 and succeeded the Australian later that month.
The former Great Britain hooker, who signed a contract extension in January 2016, was in charge for 76 games and his tenure included two Super League semi-final appearances and one Challenge Cup semi-final.
St Helens have won only three of their eight Super League matches this season and are seven points behind leaders Castleford.
McManus' programme notes before Friday's home game with Huddersfield left no doubt about the pressure on Cunningham.
Saints were 14-0 ahead at half-time but produced, according to Cunningham, a "really weak" second-half display to draw 14-14.
Before that match, McManus wrote: "Given the quality and depth of the squad that we have, we should realistically be aiming for the top of the league and therefore we need to start stringing games together.
"Because of the unexpected losses already against Leigh, Wakefield and Salford, the room for further slips-ups is now very limited and the block of four games against Huddersfield, Wigan, Castleford and Widnes will go a long way to giving us a good indication of how our overall season is likely to unfold.
"Silverware must be our objective in 2017."
Keiron Cunningham the player will forever remain the ultimate idol at St Helens.
But Keiron Cunningham the coach never quite connected with the Saints fans.
The team's style of rugby under his stewardship was deemed dour by supporters who remember the often electrifying performances of the teams that he played in.
The growing disquiet amongst those fans began last year when Saints went out of the Challenge Cup early with a whimper and only a late surge took them into the top four after a mediocre season.
This year, defeats to Wakefield, Leigh and Salford and the most recent draw with Huddersfield have been rated calamitous by those connected with the club.
It will be interesting to see if Cunningham comes back into the game and, if so, where. And also where Saints find their replacement, with no obvious candidate standing out at the moment.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/39554106
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One For Arthur wins the Grand National for Scotland, injured jockeys and 'golf widows' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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One For Arthur's victory is one for Scotland, one for injured jockeys and one for 'two golf widows'.
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Last updated on .From the section Horse Racing
One For Arthur. One for Scotland, one for a jockey back from injury and two golf 'widows' on the weekend of the Masters.
In the great tradition of the famous race, the 170th edition of the Grand National at Aintree delivered a story with many strands.
The 14-1 winner One For Arthur, thought to be named after the famous Irish brewer Arthur Guinness, held off the challenge of Cause Of Causes to triumph, with Saint Are third and favourite Blaklion fourth.
It was only a second Scottish-trained winner of the National, with Lucinda Russell the fourth woman to saddle the victor.
Jockey Derek Fox was having his first ride in the marathon contest over 30 fences and four-and-a-quarter miles, and just his sixth since breaking his left wrist and right collarbone in a fall last month.
Owners Belinda McClung and Deborah Thomson bought the horse and gave their syndicate a cheeky name as their partners were often away playing golf.
The feel-good story was capped with all 40 runners returning safely for the fifth year running.
• None Where did your horse finish?
Russell wore a wide grin as she received widespread congratulations and declared: "He's done us proud and he's done Scotland proud."
After a 38-year wait since Rubstic's triumph, she had helped deliver another victory for her homeland and a third in nine years for female trainers.
"It means everything, of course it does," said the 50-year-old, who is based at Kinross, Tayside, north of Edinburgh, and follows Jenny Pitman, Venetia Williams and Sue Smith as National winners.
Russell is assisted by her partner Peter Scudamore, the eight-time champion jockey who missed out on National success as a rider - coming closest to winning from 12 rides when third on Corbiere in 1985.
"I don't like the word 'small' but we are not one of the more fashionable places and, from about Christmas-time, I felt confident things were going well," he said.
Scudamore advised Fox to steer clear of taking an inside track so he could avoid trouble and the race plan worked to perfection.
Fox did not sit on a horse for three-and-a-half weeks after being injured in a fall at Carlisle on 9 March.
Following intensive rehabilitation at the Injured Jockeys Fund's Jack Berry House in Malton, North Yorkshire, he returned to action three days before the National.
"Winning is the best feeling I've ever had, and probably ever will have. He's such a brave horse," said the 24-year-old Irish rider.
"For the first two weeks after I was injured I was very hot and cold. I was very low some days and thought I wouldn't make it."
His jubilant mother Jackie, from Sligo, watched from the winner's enclosure and said he had always been destined for this moment.
"At every parent teacher evening I went to, they were giving out, but I knew he was going to be a jockey," she said.
She said Derek had dressed as a cowboy riding a pony called Reggie in a St Patrick's Day parade when he was four years old.
"Aged nine, he went to riding school. The instructor said: 'You'll never make it as a showjumper, but I can see you going over the fences at Aintree'," added his mother.
With their partners spending weekends on the golf course, friends Belinda McClung and Deborah Thomson wanted to get their own sporting interest.
"We had a lot of gin and decided to get a horse together. We went to Cheltenham sales and got One For Arthur," said Belinda.
After forking out £60,000 for the horse in December 2013, the pair registered their ownership as 'The Two Golf Widows".
Their silks contain a Scottish flag and the purchase has paid off - with the owners earning about £500,000 in prize money from the £1m contest.
Deborah, close to tears, said: "We always hoped he'd be a National horse in the making.
"Our dream was to get him here but to actually win, well I'm lost for words.
"The syndicate name is slightly tongue-in-cheek as my partner Colin is on the golf course every single weekend. There's probably two weekends when he's not."
This, perhaps not surprisingly, was one of those two weekends.
"They are both here today, of course," she said. "They weren't going to miss out."
Fraser, the husband of Belinda, confirmed: "This is miles better than golfing."
What's in a name? - the horse
Two false starts in warm sunshine led to 31 of the 40 jockeys, including Fox, being referred to the British Horseracing Authority for approaching the starting tape before the flag was raised.
Fox went on to give One For Arthur an impeccable ride, sending his mount to the front approaching the last and winning by four-and-a-half lengths.
Russell had been unsure he would appreciate the drying ground, but there was no stopping the Irish-bred gelding, who was following up his win in the Classic Chase at Warwick.
So where does the name One For Arthur come from?
"We're not totally sure. We think he was named after Arthur Guinness," said the trainer.
"His name is still on the Guinness cans and people say I'll have 'One For Arthur' or one for the road."
Victory in the world's most famous steeplechase was one for the almanac. One brewed in Ireland and toasted in Scotland.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/39541910
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Reanne Evans' World Championship bid over after defeat by Lee Walker - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Reanne Evans says she was "gutted" to lose a marathon in the World Championship second qualifying round tie to Lee Walker.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Reanne Evans said she was "gutted" to lose a marathon World Championship second qualifying round tie to Lee Walker.
The 11-time women's world champion fought back from 6-1 down to 9-6 before Welshman Walker sealed it.
"I was in control of most of the frames," Evans told BBC Sport. "I think I should have won every frame in the second session.
"It was 3-3 and it should have been 6-0 easily."
• None See the qualifying draw and results in full
Evans, bidding to become the first woman to reach the main draw, was five behind when the match resumed on Monday, but only six shared frames were possible until the afternoon session was timed out.
When the pair returned in the evening, Evans clawed two more back only for Walker to move within one round of the main draw at the Crucible.
"I think if I'd have pulled one more back I'd have been the favourite," added Evans, who beat Robin Hill in the first qualifying round.
"The buzz off winning that was immense and I couldn't wait to play again. Maybe if it was a day later I'd have been more on the ball. I still felt really good out there."
Evans will not be eligible to qualify for the 2018 World Championship because the 2017 women's event was won by Hong Kong's Ng On Yee.
"Being in this environment make you want to play," said Evans. "Hopefully I'll get to play in them a lot more. At least I know I can compete, even if I'm not playing at my best."
Former world champion Peter Ebdon is also through to the final qualifying round after a 10-9 win over Jack Lisowski.
Another former champion, Mark Williams, scraped through by the same scoreline against Liam Highfield.
However, 1997 winner Ken Doherty was beaten 10-4 by Ben Woollaston and will lose his tour card for next season.
The 2017 World Championship takes place at the Crucible from 15 April until 1 May with world number one Mark Selby looking to retain his title.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39546825
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The bad news that inspired a woman's sparkling success - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Karen Lynch was inspired to quit the corporate rat race and take over at bottled water firm Belu.
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Business
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It was the double blow of the death of a best friend and a health problem that made Karen Lynch decide to quit the corporate rat race.
"Losing my close friend made me realise life is too short," says Karen, now the boss of bottled water business Belu. "I wanted to do something more personal."
So in 2008, then aged 38, Karen resigned from her senior role at banking group Barclays.
Also learning to live with type 1 diabetes, she and her husband travelled around the Caribbean, Vietnam and Thailand for six months.
Upon returning to the UK Karen applied for and got a job as marketing director at Belu, the UK's first carbon-neutral bottled water firm and a social enterprise that gives all its profits to charity.
Unfortunately, at the time it wasn't actually making any money. Set up in London in 2004, by 2008 it was saddled with debts of £1.9m.
Karen realised that Belu needed a major shake-up if it was going to be a success, and after knocking up a business plan outlining her vision, eight months later she was promoted to chief executive.
Her plan was to pivot the business away from targeting the supermarkets and their low margins, to instead focus on supplying the more lucrative hotels, restaurants and offices.
Belu gives its profits to the charity WaterAid
Belu had been founded by filmmaker Reed Paget, who stepped down from the top job for Karen to replace him.
"Clearly it wouldn't have been the easiest time for either of us, but we did lunch and cleared the air. And Reed wanted nothing more than to see Belu become successful in a sustainable way," says Karen.
"When I joined Belu it was in debt and it wasn't sustainable. We could have wound up completely - it was time to move on. So we kept the name, but everything changed."
Her business plan was so successful that sales have since soared, with annual revenues of £5.9m in 2015. And since 2011 Belu has donated more than £1.5m to WaterAid, the global charity that aims to give more people in the developing world access to safe drinking water and good sanitation.
Karen decided to move Belu away from supermarkets to restaurants and hotels
Karen says that hotels and restaurants were keen to come on board because they welcomed Belu's commitment to environmental best practice, which she decided to strengthen and promote as much as possible.
In addition to being carbon neutral, and donating to WaterAid, the company's bottles are made from recycled glass and plastic.
"It was important to demonstrate we're doing this properly. First and foremost about our social and environmental mission, and secondly through building sustainability by giving our profits to WaterAid," says Karen.
She adds that Belu forms relationships with restaurateurs who "buy into our mission", and whose customers are pleased to see the Belu name because they understand and appreciate the work it does.
Karen says that this is better than "fighting for [supermarket] shelf space, and having to fund promotions to move goods from the shelves".
WaterAid works to prevent people from having to drink unclean water
While Belu continues to grow, Karen had to deal with another health scare in 2016.
"Last year was the year from hell. I had breast cancer - thankfully I didn't have chemo, and I kept my hair," she says. "I was exhausted and knackered over the summer, but my team really stepped up."
The cancer was successfully removed, and she says her work was a welcome distraction. "I clearly needed a few days at home, but when your job is your passion and purpose it keeps you going."
She adds that when she was really exhausted during that difficult time, she would remember that life was still worse for a "six-year-old walking eight hours a day to collect water". This made her realise that having to deal with her bad news was "no big deal".
Belu's partnership with WaterAid also aims to provide safe sanitation
To help limit Belu's carbon footprint, Karen encourages her 34-strong workforce to work from home when possible, to remove the need to commute. She herself lives in rural Warwickshire, and usually goes into the office in London only two or three days a week.
"The rule is not to go into the office when you can work at home."
Ryan Doherty, an industry analyst at research group IbisWorld, says that Belu has "garnered a reputation as one of the leading eco-friendly brands among bottled water producers".
He adds: "Its targeting of the hospitality sector and its innovative approach to reducing the environmental impact of its products has driven demand from clients eager to improve their image through corporate sustainability."
When not leading Belu, which bottles in water in Shropshire, Karen spares the time to help young start-ups who also want to achieve positive social change.
She recently took part in a panel discussion for the Chivas Venture, a competition for aspiring social entrepreneurs organised by whisky brand Chivas Regal.
"I love this part of my job," says Karen, who is married with two children. "It reminds me that I'm not a complete disaster, and reminds me of the progress we have made."
She adds that she is keen to educate people about the reality of running a not-for-profit business.
"Launching and running a social enterprise is a wonderful, aspirational thing to do. It's using your skills to do something amazing, but in reality it's harder than you think."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39513159
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Masters 2017: Justin Rose positive on Augusta hopes after Sergio Garcia play-off - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Masters runner-up Justin Rose believes he will contend again at Augusta National after losing a play-off to Sergio Garcia.
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Masters runner-up Justin Rose believes he will have "many more chances" to win at Augusta National in the wake of his play-off defeat by Sergio Garcia.
Rose, 36, held a two-shot lead with five holes to go but lost when Garcia birdied the first extra hole on Sunday.
He had a one-shot lead on the 17th but made bogey and both parred the last.
"I feel it is a tournament I can still do well in, said Rose. "It's a course you can get to know and be competitive here for a long, long time."
Rose, who has finished tied second, 10th and second in his last three Masters, was referring to 57-year-old American Fred Couples, winner of the Green Jacket in 1992, who has had six top-20 finishes in his last seven appearances.
"I see myself having many more chances to come," the world number 14 told BBC Sport.
'An unhappy month to come'
Rose claimed his only major win at the US Open in 2013 but was in the clubhouse at Merion as contender Phil Mickelson finished his round.
At Augusta, where he has now finished in the top 10 on five occasions, he was alongside Garcia in the final pairing as the pair wrestled to land the first major of the season.
Rose fought back after Garcia had taken a three-shot lead early on and appeared to have control with five to play, only for the Spaniard to follow birdie on 14 with what was his first eagle at Augusta in 452 holes, ending a wait dating back to 2011.
Both men missed putts for birdie when at nine under par on 18 before Garcia landed his first major in the play-off.
"I felt in control all day," added Rose. "Sometimes the rub of the green is for you and sometimes it isn't. I hit a really good putt on 18 in regulation and thought it was going in.
"I am really happy for Sergio. I would love to be wearing the Green Jacket but if it wasn't me I am glad it is him.
"We have been friends for a long time and playing golf against each other since we were 14 years old. We will get up and he will be happy for a month and then golf will take over, I will be unhappy for a month and golf will take over for me."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39548059
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Crystal Palace 3-0 Arsenal - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Crystal Palace boost their survival hopes to leave Arsenal struggling to maintain their run of top-four finishes under Arsene Wenger.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Crystal Palace continued their recent revival to boost their Premier League survival hopes and leave Arsenal struggling to maintain their run of top-four finishes under Arsene Wenger.
Palace led through Andros Townsend's close-range finish, doubling their lead when Yohan Cabaye's shot looped in.
Luka Milivojevic clinched victory with a firm, low penalty as Palace moved six points clear of the relegation zone.
Sixth-placed Arsenal did not manage a shot on target in a poor second half.
Some travelling Gunners fans again called for manager Wenger, who has led Arsenal to top-four finishes in each of his previous 20 seasons at the helm, to leave the club.
The Frenchman's side are seven points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester City with eight games remaining.
• None Follow all the post-match reaction from Selhurst Park
The manner of Arsenal's performance - disorganised, devoid of attacking ideas and lacking fight - will increase the scrutiny on Wenger yet again.
The 67-year-old has already faced protests from some supporters urging him to leave, with more calls clearly audible - along with the barracking of his players in the latter stages - at Selhurst Park.
Wenger's contract expires at the end of the season and the club has offered him a new two-year deal, although he is still to announce whether he intends to carry on.
Arsenal had 72% possession against Palace but that mattered for little as the hosts broke quickly on the counter-attack, exploiting space down the flanks and taking their chances clinically.
The Gunners looked defensively vulnerable whenever Palace went forward, lacking leadership without injured captain Laurent Koscielny.
And when the visitors did attack, Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey was only required to make saves from Mohamed Elneny and Alexis Sanchez.
After the break, Hennessey did not even face a shot on target as Arsenal suffered a fourth straight away defeat for the first time under Wenger.
"Palace wanted it more. You could sense that from the kick-off," Theo Walcott, Arsenal's stand-in captain, said.
While Wenger has never led Arsenal to a finish outside the top four, opposite number Sam Allardyce has a proud record of not being relegated from the top flight.
On this evidence, Allardyce looks much likelier to maintain his achievement than his long-time adversary.
The former England manager, who has previously kept up Bolton, Blackburn and Sunderland, took a while to improve Palace's fortunes after replacing Alan Pardew in December, but the Eagles are starting to reap the rewards of his methods when it matters.
Palace had too much pace, power and passion for a lifeless Gunners side.
Although Arsenal dominated possession in the first half, Palace had the better chances and deservedly led when Townsend drilled in Wilfried Zaha's cross from the right.
Palace leaked goals under Pardew, but have discovered defensive resilience under Allardyce - leading to four clean sheets in their past six league games.
That run has coincided with the arrival of centre-back Mamadou Sakho, the loan signing from Liverpool who again led their backline with a determined and disciplined performance.
It laid the platform for Palace to go on and secure victory after the break.
Cabaye clipped Zaha's pass into the top corner before Gunners keeper Emiliano Martinez clumsily brought down Townsend, allowing Milivojevic to confidently tuck in his first Palace goal.
"Tactically the players were aware of what had to happen to beat Arsenal," said Allardyce.
"Arsenal have been weak defensively - they leave the centre-backs exposed."
What the managers said
Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce, speaking to Sky Sports: "Tactically the players were aware of how to beat Arsenal. The first thing was to defend and frustrate them, keep them playing sideways, then use the space behind the full-backs. Arsenal have been weak defensively, they leave the centre-backs exposed.
"We won a lot of possession off them and created lots of chances. Cabaye's goal, what a finish - and that was down to us pressing them. It wasn't a shock for me because we played Chelsea and won that game. The result might be a shock, but we did that again and did it better.
"We all know Arsenal are going through their worst spell for years, but the only way to take advantage is by playing well. Everything worked perfectly for us today."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, speaking to BBC Sport: "We lost too many duels and we paid for that. There is no obvious reason why. We prepared well. It's difficult to explain just after the game.
"I don't think my players didn't want it, but we lost duels in decisive moments and that's how games are decided at this level.
"I understand our fans are disappointed and we all are deeply tonight. It's very worrying and disappointing the way we lost the game. Palace were sharp, they beat Chelsea the other day, and that shows they have quality.
"We are in a difficult position. The game doesn't help."
• None Arsene Wenger has suffered four consecutive away Premier League defeats for the first time as Arsenal manager.
• None This is Arsenal's worst away Premier League run since April 1995 (also four defeats in a row) when they were managed by Stewart Houston.
• None Wenger lost for the first time against Palace in 12 top-flight matches.
• None Arsenal conceded three goals in four consecutive away league games for the first time since September 1929.
• None In the past eight Premier League games, only Sunderland (six) have lost more games than Arsenal (five).
• None Wilfried Zaha has had a hand in five goals in his past five Premier League games (two goals, three assists).
• None Zaha now has nine Premier League assists for the season, matching the record held by Wayne Routledge in 2004-05.
• None Sam Allardyce has won three consecutive home Premier League games for the first time since he was West Ham boss in December 2014.
Crystal Palace will look to earn the one win Allardyce believes they need to be assured of safety when they host Leicester on Saturday. Arsenal travel to Middlesbrough next Monday in a game with significant implications at both ends of the table.
• None Attempt missed. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Granit Xhaka.
• None Attempt blocked. Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Jeffrey Schlupp.
• None Offside, Crystal Palace. Joel Ward tries a through ball, but James McArthur is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Andros Townsend with a cross.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Mamadou Sakho (Crystal Palace) because of an injury. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39475561
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Ross Barkley: Everton midfielder was victim of unprovoked attack, says lawyer - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Everton's Ross Barkley was the victim of an "unprovoked attack" in a bar, his lawyer says, as police investigate footage of the alleged incident.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Everton midfielder Ross Barkley was the victim of an "unprovoked attack" in a Liverpool bar, his lawyer has said.
CCTV footage circulating on social media shows the 23-year-old England player being hit in the face by a man.
Barkley was not seriously injured in the incident, which came hours after he played the full match for the Toffees in their win over Leicester on Sunday.
Everton have not commented and no complaint has been made to police, who are viewing the footage.
"Ross was the victim of an unprovoked attack by a stranger who approached him on Sunday evening," said Matt Himsworth, managing director of Himsworths Legal.
Barkley, who trained as normal with his team-mates on Monday, has played 22 times for England and was part of Gareth Southgate's most recent Three Lions squad.
The Liverpool-born player joined Everton as an 11-year-old and has made 173 first-team appearances.
After Sunday's match, manager Ronald Koeman said Barkley should be sold if he does not sign a new contract.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39552207
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Sergio Garcia: Masters winner delighted to join idols Ballesteros and Olazabal - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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Sergio Garcia pays tribute to fellow Spaniards Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal after becoming a major champion by winning the Masters.
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Sergio Garcia said it was "amazing" to join his Spanish idols Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal as a Masters champion by winning at Augusta.
Garcia beat England's Justin Rose in a play-off on Sunday to finally end a run of 73 majors without a victory.
The Spaniard won on what would have been the 60th birthday of compatriot Ballesteros, the 1980 and 1983 winner of the Green Jacket, who died in 2011.
"It has been such a long time coming. I am so happy," said Garcia, 37.
"To do it on Seve's 60th birthday and to join him and Olazabal, my two idols in golf, it's something amazing.
"Jose sent me a text on Wednesday telling me how much he believed in me and what I needed to do, believe in myself, be calm and not let things get to me as I had in the past."
From 'not good enough' to a champion
Five years ago, Garcia claimed he was not good enough to win a major after shooting a three-over-par 75 at the 2012 Masters to drop out of contention.
Prior to Sunday's victory he was on the longest run of majors without a win of any active player - the closest he had previously come was a tie for second at the Open (in 2007 and 2014) and the US PGA Championship in 1999 and 2008.
He revealed he had identified the Masters as his most likely chance of a major after he tied for 38th and was the leading amateur in 1999, the year Olazabal won for the second time.
And he finally made the breakthrough by winning the first hole of a sudden-death play-off after he and Rose had tied at nine under after 72 holes.
"I felt like this course was probably going to give me one major," he said. "That thought changed over the years as I started feeling uncomfortable on the course but I came to peace with it and accepted it."
On Sunday's performance, the world number 11 added: "I knew I was playing well. I felt the calmest I ever felt in a major.
"Even after a couple of bogeys I was still positive that there were a lot of holes I could get to. I am so happy."
Garcia and European Ryder Cup team-mate Rose produced a thrilling final day at the Augusta National.
Starting the final round level with Rose on six under par, the Spaniard moved three ahead after five holes but trailed by two after 13 before missing a four-foot putt to win it on the last.
However, he kept his nerve in the play-off, winning with a birdie to Rose's bogey.
"We are both trying to win but we are all people," added Garcia. "We have to represent our game.
"We are good friends so we were very respectful of each other. We were cheering each other on. We wanted to beat the other guy, not the other lose it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39548075
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Quebec's maple syrup producers seeking global domination - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Maple producers in the province are aggressively marketing the syrup abroad as a sugar alternative.
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US & Canada
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Martin Picard looks at a test batch of his maple syrup at his sugar shack
Maple syrup isn't just for pancakes anymore, thanks to a group of maple syrup producers in Quebec who are trying to turn a cottage industry into a global empire.
Montreal chef Martin Picard says maple syrup runs through the veins of Quebecers like the sap that flows from the trees each spring in sugar bushes across the countryside.
In an annual communal gastronomic ritual, Quebecers flock to sugar shacks - casual restaurants where maple syrup is also produced - to fill their plates with pea soup, meat pie, baked beans and crispy pork rinds, all served with ample amounts of maple syrup.
"When we taste the maple syrup we taste all our souvenirs (memories)" says Picard, who opened a sugar shack nine years ago. It remains one of the toughest reservations to get in the region and was voted one of the top 100 restaurants in Canada.
Sap being turned into syrup at the Au Pied de Cochon Sugar Shack
He says people who have never tasted the golden syrup might be surprised by its unique flavour, which can have hints of toffee and spice, herbs and flowers.
"But this is the best sugar in the world," says Picard.
The idea that maple syrup could indeed be seen as the world's best sugar is the driving ambition of the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
The Federation and its efforts have helped turn a provincial cottage industry into big business.
Prior to the 1930s, maple syrup was made mostly in the United States, says Michael Farrell, director of Cornell University's maple syrup research centre. It used to be that every farm in the US northeast and Canada would tap their own sugar maples and produce syrup - some to sell, some to keep.
Widespread industrialisation in New England and the rise of cheap white sugar meant that maple production in the US fell into decline. Meanwhile in Canada, production stayed relatively stable, in part because of local governmental support of the industry, Mr Farrell said.
But things really took off in the 1990s, about the same time that the Federation got the go-ahead from the Quebec government to start selling their syrup together.
The decision by Quebec producers to work collectively, and later to establish the global maple reserve, gave them more market power, said Federation spokeswoman Caroline Cyr.
"Since that time they were able to develop new market, to make an industry of maple syrup," she says.
"Before that, it was something they did on the side."
Quebec's maple reserve contains thousands of barrels like this one
By the end of the millennium, Canada would be the reigning king of maple syrup, producing about 80% of the world's supply. Over the next two decades, Canadian maple syrup production would triple, largely due to the increasing demand worldwide spurred by the Federation's intense marketing efforts.
About 85-90% of all maple syrup produced in Canada comes from Quebec, or about 70% of the world's supply, depending on the year.
The Federation controls nearly every aspect of maple production in the province, assigning quotas to the province's 13,500 farmers and selling the syrup to licensed wholesalers.
It is a fine-tuned machine, with the Federation backed by provincial legislation.
Having a lock on the industry in Quebec has allowed the Federation to establish the strategic maple reserve that contains upwards of 78 million pounds of syrup at a time and allows them to prevent production-based annual price fluctuations.
The Federation also sets prices and quotas for the product that all commercial Quebec sugar bush owners must follow.
Angele Grenier has been fighting the Federation for years to freely sell her syrup
Its executive director Simon Trepanier says control over supply is important given that maple production can swing massively from year-to-year, from "swimming in a big pool of syrup" to barely meeting market demand.
By establishing prices, the Federation helped boost production not only in Quebec, but in the rest of Canada and the US as well, Farrell says.
Maple became a more reliable crop, and that encouraged farmers all over to invest in equipment.
Not all Quebec producers support the Federation. Some, like maple producer Angele Grenier, see it as a bureaucratic cartel.
Grenier is involved in a long-running legal battle with the Federation over whether she can independently sell her syrup to other provinces.
Last year was the Quebec maple industry's biggest year on record, producing more than 11.2m gallons of maple syrup worth more than C$435m (US$327m/£262m) total.
A large portion of that was shipped abroad in 2016, to places like the UK, Germany, and Japan.
UK-based marketing firm Liquid is helping push maple in Britain with "We Love Maple", a multi-pronged campaign geared towards getting the product in kitchens across the country.
The firm's research suggested that older Britons knew little about the product while younger demographics saw it as "something big fat Americans put over pancakes at breakfast", says Elisabeth Lewis-Jones, Liquid's chief executive.
They decided to rebrand it instead as a healthy and versatile alternative to white sugar. It is natural and, unlike honey, vegan.
It contains minerals like manganese and zinc, unlike trendier sugar alternatives like agave. The campaign began sponsoring two women's soccer teams as part of their health and wellness pitch.
The maple campaign has also been courting the country's top chefs, and the Federation is the first foreign organisation to be named an associate member of the Royal Academy of Culinary Art.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'It becomes illegal syrup': Battling the maple syndicate
Exports to the UK jumped 36% in 2015.
"We've been really surprised at how the British public has embraced maple," says Lewis-Jones.
Quebec is now ramping up production, adding five million taps in the next two years to meet the growing appetite for the syrup worldwide.
The Federation has been spending about C$5m (US$3.7m/£3m) a year promoting maple in the UK, India, Japan, and the US.
And they are preparing for it to continue growing in global popularity. The Federation wants Quebec to study how much maple could be produced in the province if the trees were tapped to capacity.
They believe production could be doubled.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39375257
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Masters 2017: Is Sergio Garcia winning at Augusta the perfect sporting story? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-10
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After convincing himself throughout his career that he was only good enough for second, is Sergio Garcia's Masters win the perfect sporting story?
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"I'm not good enough. I don't have the thing I need to have. I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place."
Sport is supposed to be all about unbreakable self-belief and unshakeable mental fortitude. Vulnerabilities are tucked away for dark private moments with family and coaches, or alone with nothing for company but demons and deep regret.
In public you are always good enough. You are there because you have that thing. Admitting you are weak is the biggest weakness of all.
When Sergio Garcia made those comments at Augusta, five years ago after 13 seasons of not-quites and might-have-beens, it both subverted the protocol and confirmed what lots of people feared anyway: the kid who began as El Nino was destined to play out his career as El Nearly-Man, a beautiful ball-striker but imperfect with his putter, indomitable in Ryder Cup but fragile in the final-day shootouts in strokeplay, loved for those flaws and the anguish they brought him as much as others were admired for cold-eyed closing out of the biggest moments.
Seventy-three appearances at majors. Four times a runner-up. Twelve top fives, 22 top tens, a habitual bridesmaid who could be relied upon to drop the bouquet every time it was thrown his way.
You play every shot with Garcia when you're watching him, his hopes and doubts and fears running across his face and through his body language. Which is why, when he birdied the first hole of his final round on Sunday to go a shot clear of Justin Rose at the top of the Masters leaderboard, and then rolled in an eight-foot birdie on the fourth to go two clear, it felt less like a march towards victory than a man climbing a ladder he will shortly fall off.
Going into Sunday, Garcia was a cumulative 35 over par on Augusta National's back nine in his 18 previous appearances. Rose was an aggregate 11 under.
As they went to the turn, there were those watching at home wondering if they should turn off their televisions, go to bed and just live the rest of their lives pretending Garcia had won. It would be easier that way. Inevitably, the Spaniard then bogeyed the 10th, stuck his tee shot on the 11th behind a pine tree and then went deep into the azalea bushes on the 13th.
Different day, customary script. Rose all control and precision, no emotion visible behind sunglasses and cap and dark clothing; Garcia with a desperation in his eyes, face pale from sunblock, grimacing and twitching and going down in flames.
Two shots down, out to 10-1 with the bookies, playing for second or third place once again.
When Garcia first came close at a major, there was joy in his eventual defeat. While he lost the 1999 US PGA Championship to Tiger Woods, his shot from behind a tree on the 16th and the chase he gave it - dashing down the fairway, jumping high to see if it had somehow made the green - spoke of certain promise and special talent as much as it did his compatriot and mentor Seve Ballesteros.
As the teenager became a man, the exuberance and expectations fell away. At Hoylake in 2006, he began the final round of The Open in the final pairing with Woods a shot back only to finish seven behind, Woods relentless in red, Garcia's pastel lemon outfit as faded as his form. The following year at Carnoustie it was worse by a margin: in the lead after all of the first three rounds, three shots clear of second going into the final day, three bogeys in four holes throwing that away, missing an eight-foot putt on the 18th for the win, losing the subsequent four-hole playoff with Padraig Harrington by a single painful stroke.
And so it went on. The US PGA Championship, 2008, sticking his second shot on the 16th on the final Sunday into the water to hand Harrington another golden moment, joint runner-up at Hoylake in 2014 as Rory McIlroy turned his own youthful promise into record-breaking success.
Over those years Garcia went from youngest swinger in town towards comfortable middle age: hair shorter and thinner, irons still pristine, putter still cold as often as hot. So much to his game, that thing, that undefinable difference, still never there.
Until Sunday. From the drop-zone on the 13th he scrambled an unlikely par. At the 14th his approach brought a birdie; another outrageous iron on the 15th led to a first eagle for the Spaniard at Augusta in 452 holes.
On the par-three 16th, his US rivals Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler falling away and forgotten up ahead, he struck his tee shot to six feet. Rose, alone alongside him at nine under, fired his own over the fringes of the green to eight.
Rose's putt curled to the cup and then, almost with a sigh, dropped in. Garcia's fell apologetically off the club-face and dribbled wide, a two-second study in doubt and trepidation. Not good enough. Playing for second or third.
On the 18th, a more bountiful chance still: Rose back level after wobbling on the penultimate green, his own birdie putt ghosting past the lip, Garcia with a straight four-footer to end it all.
Started right, stayed right. The thing, condensed into a single shot, one putt that could haunt a man for a lifetime ahead.
Sport isn't fair. There is no karmic rebalancing to reward the unlucky or the pleasant. You looked at Garcia, eyes clenched shut, behind him a spectator with his arms outstretched and palms turned upwards in disbelief, and you thought you saw a man stuck in his own cruel destiny, desperate for victory but almost scared to seize it, not embracing that defining moment but wanting it all over as soon as possible.
And you were wrong. For this time, on this day, Garcia would be the one to stay strong. Rose into the pine straw with his tee shot on the first sudden-death play-off hole, Garcia crushing his drive, firing his approach to eight feet.
Two putts for the title, only one needed. A near-perfect sporting story, and the perfect Sergio way to win it - leading, collapsing, coming back, blowing it, rallying, a nerveless putt.
The week before Garcia's first Open as a professional, 18 years ago at Carnoustie, I was sent to the east coast of Scotland to interview him for a now-defunct magazine called Total Sport. He was 19, considered to be part Tiger, part Seve, the hottest talent in town, a story every journalist wanted to write.
I drove a day to get there and arrived an hour early for our 7.30am rendezvous. When there was no sign of him at 8am, I sent the first text. At 8.30am I phoned. At 9am I tried both again.
At 10am I had hope, at 11am some anger, at midday an intense hunger and thirst. Staying until 3pm made little sense, but I did it anyway. I may as well have done. Carnoustie on a Sunday offers limited alternative entertainment.
That eight-hour wait in a cold marquee came, over the next decade, to define how I thought of Garcia: enough talent to drive the length of a country to witness, a habitual inability to deliver on a promise, enough charm to leave your opinion of his character unaltered.
1999 to 2017 seems a long time to wait for anyone. But at last Garcia has delivered.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39553279
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Eta's violent campaign ends with hardly a whisper - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC's Lyse Doucet witnesses a quiet end to a once highly violent separatist campaign.
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Europe
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Eta still exists even though it has now closed an important chapter of its history
In the final days before the Basque separatist group Eta gave up its guns, mediators spoke of "jitters" over whether this long-awaited moment would go according to plan.
And as we drove into San Sebastian, in the heart of Spain's Basque region, we were halted by road blocks and stern faced police in black uniforms, guns pressed against their chests.
For a moment it felt like days of old when this picturesque town was an epicentre of Eta's bloody campaign for independence.
But then cyclists sped past, in a blaze of bright colours, in the warm spring sunshine.
It was the Tour of the Basque Country.
The traffic jam also held up one of the mediators' Eta contacts for more than a hour. Decades ago, when Spanish and French security forces were locked in a brutal confrontation with Eta fighters, his delay would have been a cause for concern.
Irish Methodist preacher Harold Good has played a key role in the peace process
Pressure from within Basque society had been instrumental in sketching a new future for a region where there's still a strong yearning for independence
But on Saturday morning, just after sunrise, a dark chapter came to an end in a short simple ceremony in Bayonne City Hall in south-west France.
As the world confronts a new wave of extreme Islamist violence, the last insurgency in the heart of Europe has effectively ended. Eta's move was largely symbolic since much of its arsenal is obsolete. But symbolism matters in a conflict which has left a deep wound, particularly in Spanish society.
I and two other journalists were allowed to sit in on the ceremony.
In a statement handed to me through an intermediary two days before, the "Basque Socialist Revolutionary Organisation for National Liberation" announced their "Disarmament Day".
Like so much about this moment, it was a study in contrasts.
Shafts of sunlight streamed through the heavy drapes drawn across long windows in an elegant high ceilinged room.
History was made around a small square table which brought together international mediators who had worked toward this day for many years, along with members of an association called "Artisans of Peace".
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"Very significant" quantities of explosive materials have been handed over by Eta to the authorities
Anger and antagonism over a half a century of Eta car bombings and assassinations haven't gone away
Pressure from within Basque society had been instrumental in sketching a new future for a region where there is still a strong yearning for independence.
But anger and antagonism over a half a century of Eta car bombings and assassinations haven't gone away either. The Spanish and French governments still refuse to negotiate with a proscribed terrorist group.
Eta tried for years to open a secret channel. Sources say that in the past year there were high-level contacts with senior French officials. Spain blocked them on at least three occasions.
So unlike in Northern Ireland and Colombia, where governments played a role, Eta's disarmament came about through a unique collaboration between international organisations and an array of civil society actors ranging from churches to trade unions.
Eta had warned in their statement, with palpable bitterness, that "enemies of peace" could attack their event.
But, on the day, Spanish authorities "looked the other way", and the French "actively looked the other way", in the words of one of the international organisers. French forces discreetly secured Bayonne City Hall on a quiet Saturday morning.
It fell to French Basque environmentalist, Txetx Etcheverry, dressed in casual attire, to hand over a black dossier bulging with blue files.
Eta's announcement was followed by a mass demonstration in favour of peace
This was Eta's inventory with details of their remaining weaponry including locations of their last arms dumps which are all in France.
The file then rested for a moment in the hands of two leading men of the cloth: Archbishop Matteo Zuppi of Bologna and The Reverend Harold Good from Northern Ireland who had also witnessed the IRA's weapons decommissioning more than a decade ago.
From where I sat, I could see there was text and photographs about what was later described as "very significant" quantities of explosive materials - nearly three tons worth - and about 120 guns.
The white bearded Reverend Good, who's been visiting this region since 2005, later told me it was a "wonderful day".
And then, the documents were passed to Ram Manikkalingam, a mediator who decided the occasion merited a suit and tie, who heads the Amsterdam-based Dialogue Advisory Group.
"There were many moments when we doubted this would happen," he admitted when we sat down in the same room after he had deposited Eta's file in the French prosecutor's office in City hall.
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"There were steps forward, and steps backward," recalls Mr Manikkalingam who, as chair of the International Verification Commission, has also been monitoring Eta's unilateral ceasefire declared in 2011.
It has taken since then to convince Eta fighters to give up their weaponry without getting anything in return. Tracking down what's left also took time in a highly secretive organisation with a myriad of small cells.
And not everyone is on board. Sources estimate Eta dissidents include about 100 hardline fighters, including prisoners and their family members and gunmen still underground.
"This worried us constantly," admits Mr Manikkalingam. "As we know from the Northern Ireland experience, one of the worst bomb attacks took place after the Good Friday Agreement."
Sources say lessons were drawn from IRA history to try to ensure bomb makers are under control, and any signs of dissatisfaction are addressed.
And Eta still exists. Hence, the only reaction from Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his governing People's Party (PP) was to call on "terrorists" to "dissolve... and disappear" but not before apologising to its many victims.
"As a long-time observer - and I never thought I would say this - I have to say that the PP's hardline, 'no talks, this is a law-and-order matter' has worked," remarked journalist and historian Giles Tremlett who also sat in on the handover ceremony. "Eta has been defeated."
But the mood was still buoyant at a packed "Peace Rally" in the Old Town of Bayonne. A video on a big screen showed Eta's arms dumps being guarded by volunteers before French police arrived to carry away their contents.
"There are issues which need to be addressed on the road to peace," explained Gorku Elejabarrieta of the pro-independence Basque party Sortu, who was still beaming after attending a rally he said gathered people from all parts of society.
"Every victim has to be acknowledged, including more than 300 Eta prisoners," he said, "But we must work on this together."
The day before, I met his party leader, Arnaldo Otegi, who once headed Eta's political wing. It had earned him the nickname "Gerry Adams", in another nod to Northern Ireland.
"The armed conflict should have ended earlier," he conceded. "Our society wanted us to take this step earlier and we should have listened.
"Everyone needs to understand it is not easy to convince militants, after many years of armed struggle, to take this step," added the prominent politician who played a key role behind the scenes. "The past finished late but we want a different future."
As "Disarmament Day" drew to a close, a video of the handover ceremony was made available. But all the audio was removed. An armed group which first emerged with a very big bang closed this chapter without even a whisper.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39550731
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What do Europeans really think about British culture? - BBC Three
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2017-04-10
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Queuing, tea and talking about the weather. Are us Brits really that predictable? A few UK-based Europeans who we spoke to (before the referendum) seemed to think so. What's more, they wouldn't have it any other way. We'll say 'cheers' to that.
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What do Europeans really think about British culture?
Queuing, tea and talking about the weather. Are us Brits really that predictable? A few UK-based Europeans who we spoke to (before the referendum) seemed to think so. What's more, they wouldn't have it any other way. We'll say 'cheers' to that.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/b709255f-ce11-4ccc-bd44-45f976d503c3?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=stiffupperlip&intc_linkname=bbcthree_ent_vidclip1
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Six Supreme Court cases Justice Neil Gorsuch could rule on - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As Neil Gorsuch is confirmed to the Supreme Court, here are six hot-button issues he could have a say on.
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US & Canada
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Mr Gorsuch will be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice on Monday
Neil Gorsuch has been confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, following a bitter and partisan battle over his nomination by President Trump.
The conservative judge could be required early on to weigh in on several hot-button issues due before the court, including religious freedoms, gun rights and Mr Trump's travel ban.
Other cases which deadlocked between the eight current justices may be reheard now that there is a ninth justice in place to break the tie on America's highest court.
Here are some of the key cases he may have a hand in deciding in the coming weeks and months.
One of the first cases Justice Gorsuch will hear, with oral arguments due to begin next week, concerns separation of church and state.
A school run by Trinity Lutheran Church in Missouri sought to take part in a state programme that resurfaces playgrounds with rubber from recycled tires.
But the Missouri Department of Natural Resources denied the request, arguing that the state constitution prohibited funding of religious organisations.
Representing the church, the Alliance Defending Freedom said the denial infringed the church's First Amendment rights.
The case was accepted by the court in January last year but delayed a hearing for 15 months.
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The Supreme Court is due to decide this week whether to accept the case of a baker in Colorado who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, on religious grounds.
The lower courts found that the owners of Masterpiece Cakeshop had violated Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), and the decision was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals.
The case has been under consideration for acceptance by the Supreme Court since January, suggesting that Judge Gorsuch could tip the balance either way.
He has previously found in favour of religious freedoms in the workplace, including in two of his most well-known cases.
In Burwell v Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor v Burwell, Judge Gorsuch ruled that a requirement for employers to cover contraception under their health insurance plans infringed their religious freedoms.
This takes up a lower court ruling that said the second amendment alone did not grant California gun owners the right to carry a concealed weapon in public places. The ruling granted counties the right to apply additional tests before granting a permit, including whether the applicant showed "good cause" to require it.
The argument essentially boils down to whether the existing right to gun ownership for self defence at home extends to carrying a concealed weapon in public places.
"Any prohibition or restriction a state may choose to impose on concealed carry - including a requirement of 'good cause,' however defined - is necessarily allowed by the [Second] Amendment," said the lower court ruling.
The ruling led to variation across counties, with some sheriff's offices denying nearly all concealed carry applications. The restrictions are being challenged by a group of Second Amendment campaigners.
President Trump's controversial executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries is probably heading to the Supreme Court later this year.
Justice Gorsuch repeatedly declined to comment on the issue during his confirmation hearings, but a Supreme Court case would provide a public test of his independence from Mr Trump, who nominated him for the court.
The order is due to go before the Fourth Circuit and Ninth Circuit court in May.
Another immigration issue which could make its way to the court at some point is Mr Trump's attempt to strip federal funding from so-called "sanctuary cities" - cities that refuse to comply with federal orders to detain immigrants.
This is the case of a 15-year-old unarmed Mexican boy who was on the Mexican side of the border when he was shot dead in 2010 by a US border patrol agent, in disputed circumstances. Sergio Hernandez's family want to sue the agent for infringing the boy's constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court has already heard oral arguments in the case but the justices did not reach any conclusion. That opens the way for the case to be reheard with Justice Gorsuch on the bench.
In July, judges on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a North Carolina voting overhaul that they said targeted African Americans "with almost surgical precision".
The case went to the Supreme Court in August but split the justices 4/4 over whether to prevent the overhaul coming into effect before November's general election.
With the case due to go before the court again, Judge Gorsuch could swing the result either way.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39556904
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'Why I'm crowdfunding to adopt an orphan boy' - BBC News
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2017-04-10
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Emilie Larter, 25, hopes to legally become Adam's mum and bring him from Uganda to the UK.
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UK
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When Emilie Larter held a five-day-old orphan in her arms, it set her on a journey to becoming a mum.
The 25-year-old was volunteering for a children's charity in Uganda when staff received news that a woman had died - leaving behind seven children.
The youngest was a baby boy who didn't even have a name.
With no-one to take care of him, he was given over to staff at the charity.
Emilie, from Leigh Sinton, Worcestershire, became the baby's sole carer and had sleepless nights looking after the boy, who became known as Adam.
Now, she is fundraising to help cover the costs of formally adopting the youngster and bringing him back to live in the UK.
She has received more than £15,000 in donations, with the majority being raised since her story was shared online on Sunday.
Emilie held Adam for the first time when he was just five days old
She says the response has been "amazing" and it takes her on the next step to finally becoming Adam's mum.
Emilie told BBC News: "I've raised far more than I ever thought I would.
"I thought I'd be pestering family and friends, so it's insane but amazing at the same time.
"I'm so grateful. I've been getting messages from people in China, Australia and Germany.
"People have been telling me how inspiring I am and how it's lovely to read something nice.
"But this is just my life."
Emilie became the sole carer for Adam after his biological mum died
Emilie's journey started in September 2014 when the charity she was volunteering for in Uganda received a call about a newborn boy in need.
They arrived at the burial of a woman who had died because of excessive bleeding after birth. Her children included baby Adam.
"He had not received any breast milk or formula and there was no one able to care for him. His mum left this world before even giving him a name," said Emilie.
"We took him in and I became the little one's sole carer. The sleepless nights were down to me, but they were no bother. I felt privileged to do it.
"I didn't do much but never a day went by where I was bored. I could sit and watch him for hours."
Over the next two years, Emily visited Adam as often as she could while working in a teaching job in the UK.
But the short visits were not enough and she moved back to Uganda in August 2016 after finding work at an international school.
Now Adam, who is two-and-a-half, lives with her full time while she tries to adopt him.
Emilie said: "I feel like his mum already. We had such a strong bond every time I was coming out but especially now since he's been living with me.
Emilie has been living with Adam full time since August
Emilie has to foster Adam until August before she can apply to the Ugandan courts to legally become his parent.
She will then need to get permission from the UK to bring the little boy back to Britain.
She is hopeful that they will be living together in the UK by the end of the year.
Emilie said she had planned to fund the adoption herself until she lost her job in December, prompting her to set up a Go Fund Me crowdfunding page to pay for the process.
Her parents help support her living costs and she has taken another teaching position to cover Adam's school fees.
Emilie admits becoming a mum at the age of 25 had not been on her agenda, but she doesn't regret the path she has taken.
"It was not in my plan, but for the last two-and-a-half years Uganda is all I've thought about. I'm either talking about it or thinking about it.
"I imagined I wouldn't have kids for another 10 years but I don't regret it.
"It will be amazing to bring Adam home."
Emilie has raised more than £15,000 to help adopt Adam
While Emilie has received overwhelming support for her decision, some online comments have questioned why she wants to remove Adam from his home country.
"I've been coming back to Uganda for him and I want to continue to do that," she said.
"I've done my best to keep him in touch with the village he came from so he can see his neighbours.
"I do my best. But a mother's love is one of the most important things and he's never going to have that here."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39552891
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Five things cosmetic surgeons think you should know - BBC Three
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2017-04-11
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Weighing up a facial filler, Brazilian butt-lift or one of the many other cosmetic procedures available? Here are five things you might want to consider beforehandWith thanks to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
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Five things cosmetic surgeons think you should know
Weighing up a facial filler, Brazilian butt-lift or one of the many other cosmetic procedures available? Here are five things you might want to consider beforehandWith thanks to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/b1c65ced-4964-4e7e-986b-58994fcf05f0?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=nipandtuck&intc_linkname=bbcthree_fac_vidclip1
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Marc Bartra: Borussia Dortmund defender injured in bus attack 'doing much better' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Borussia Dortmund defender Marc Bartra thanks people for messages of support after being injured in the bomb attack on the team bus.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Borussia Dortmund defender Marc Bartra says he is "doing much better" after being injured when his side's bus was damaged by explosions in Germany.
Bartra, 26, fractured his wrist in the incident, which led to Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first-leg against Monaco being postponed.
The match has been rescheduled for Wednesday, with a 17:45 BST kick-off.
"Thank you everybody for all your support and your messages," Spaniard Bartra posted on social media.
"All my strength to my team-mates, supporters and fans and to [Dortmund] for tonight's match."
The German club said Bartra had an operation on Tuesday after "breaking the radial bone in his arm and getting bits of debris lodged in his hand".
The centre-back, who has 12 international caps, joined the Bundesliga side from Spanish champions Barcelona in June last year.
Captain Marcel Schmelzer said: "We're all in shock and our thoughts are with Marc. We hope that he will make a speedy recovery."
Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said the club will "not bend before terror" after the attack.
"We want to show that terror and hatred can never dictate our actions," he said chief executive.
"This is perhaps the most difficult situation that we have faced in the past decades," he added.
Watzke said he he had spoken to players in the dressing room, urging them "to show society that we do not bend before terror".
He added: "We do not just play for us today. We play for everyone - no matter whether Borussia, Bayer or Schalke supporters. And of course we play for Marc Bartra, who wants to see his team win."
Watzke earlier confirmed the "explosive strike on the bus" happened as it left the team hotel, with "three explosive devices placed and triggered on the edge of the road".
Goalkeeper Roman Burki, who was sitting at the back of the team bus alongside Bartra, told Swiss newspaper Blick: "We left the hotel and went down the street. The bus turned down the main street, and there was a giant explosion.
"After the bang, we all ducked in the bus and those who could threw themselves to the ground. We did not know what had happened.
"We're all shocked - nobody thought of a football match in this moment."
The bus was damaged at 18:15 BST on Tuesday - 90 minutes before kick-off - about six miles from the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund.
Police said there were three explosives hidden in a nearby hedge. They called it "a targeted attack" and found a letter at the scene claiming responsibility for the attack.
Federal prosecutors revealed on Wednesday that an Islamist suspect had been arrested in connection with the incident.
Police are preparing for a "large deployment" at the rescheduled game, and security at Wednesday's other Champions League ties - Atletico Madrid v Leicester City and Bayern Munich v Real Madrid - is being stepped up.
"Measures are being reviewed and stepped up wherever and whenever it is needed," Uefa competitions director Giorgio Marchetti told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"The security risk is the top priority element which is included in the preparation of matches."
• None 'Every player was shocked and it was silent' - German reporter on scene
Tuesday's match was initially delayed and, with thousands of fans already inside the stadium, was postponed 15 minutes before the scheduled kick-off, with Monaco fans chanting in support of their opponents.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino condemned the incident, while Uefa counterpart Aleksander Ceferin said he was "deeply disturbed" and praised the decision to postpone the game.
Watzke said: "I have to express a huge compliment to our fans, who have dealt with it very well, objectively, reasonably and solidly.
"It will not be easy to get that out of the mind. I think the team will feel it on Wednesday."
With the second leg in Monaco set for 19 April, Watzke said there was no choice but to play the game on Wednesday, as Monaco have a domestic game against Dijon on Saturday.
Soon after the match was rearranged, people in the Dortmund area offered to host Monaco fans who chose to stay in Germany for an extra night or two, using #bedforawayfans.
And Monaco offered to reimburse their supporters staying in Germany with up to £67 (80 euros).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39573310
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United Airlines incident: What went wrong? - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Overbooking flights is a common practice. Why did this incident turn violent?
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US & Canada
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A common seating problem on a United Airlines flight on Sunday ended with a man being bloodied and dragged from his seat and an already troubled airline earning more bad press. How did it all go so wrong?
Overbooking on flights happens all the time. Airlines boost their profit margins by overselling, betting against the number of passengers who will miss their flights.
In this case, the problem arose because United decided at the last minute to fly four members of staff to a connection point and needed to bump four passengers to make way for them.
When there's a seating issue the first step is to offer an inducement to the passengers to take a later flight. On Sunday passengers were offered $400 (£322), a hotel room for the night and a flight the following afternoon.
When no-one took the offer, the amount was upped to $800. Still no-one bit, so a manager boarded the flight and informed passengers that four people would be selected to leave the flight.
That selection is based on several factors, but frequent fliers and higher fare-paying passengers are given priority to stay aboard, a spokeswoman for United confirmed.
A couple who were selected agreed to leave the plane voluntarily. A third passenger, reportedly the wife of the man who was forcibly removed, also agreed. The man, who said he was a doctor and had to see patients in the morning, refused.
At this point, the airline could have identified another passenger for removal or raised its offer anywhere up to a maximum of $1,350.
Erin Benson, a spokeswoman for United, could not confirm whether other passengers were sought. She did confirm that no offer was made above $800, but could not comment on why.
According to eyewitnesses, the man who refused to be ejected said he was a doctor and he had appointments to keep the following day, though this has not been confirmed. This was a Sunday night flight; the next flight on offer didn't leave until 15:00 on Monday.
An eyewitness said the man was "very upset" about the possibility of being bumped and attempted to call his lawyer. An airline manager told him that security would be called if he did not comply.
At this point, security officers came to speak to him, first one then two more. As the video shows, their conversation ended with the man being yanked from his seat onto the floor and dragged off, blood visible on this face.
United is technically within its rights to forcibly remove the man for refusing to leave the flight, and the step is part of the airline's carriage guidelines, but such instances are extremely rare.
Of the 613 million people who flew on major US carriers in 2015, 46,000 were involuntarily denied boarding, according to data from the Department of Transportation - less than 0.008%.
The majority of those would have been informed before they boarded the flight, said Charles Leocha, the founder of passenger advocacy group Travelers United. He could not remember seeing a passenger violently dragged off a plane. "It turned my stomach," he said.
Removing passengers at the last minute to make way for staff was also highly unusual, he said. Staff transport should be identified ahead of time and factored into bookings.
US fliers have become resigned to chronic delays and poor service, according to Mr Leocha, and a lack of readily available information about their rights meant they were too dependent on the airline managers in situations like these.
"Our expectations have been driven so low that passengers have begun to accept it," he said. "What they shouldn't have to accept is being dragged off the flight to make way for an employee."
Oscar Munoz, CEO of United, said in a statement: "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers."
Mr Munoz said the airline would review the event and "reach out" to the passenger, though a spokeswoman could not confirm whether United was in touch with him yet.
One of the security officers involved in the incident was suspended on Monday afternoon, pending a review, said the Chicago Department of Aviation in a statement.
The actions of the officer were "obviously not condoned by the Department", the statement said.
Whatever happened on the flight - and the details will undoubtedly emerge in the coming days - it was a bad day for United, Mr Leocha said. The airline had only recently been at the centre of another controversy, when a fortnight ago it refused to let two girls board because they were wearing leggings.
"This isn't really a lesson for passengers it's a lesson for airlines," he said. "The only lesson here for passengers is when security get on throw up your hands, because otherwise you're going down the aisle with a fat lip."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39556910
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Sam Warburton: Blues flanker faces six- week lay-off - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Lions captaincy contender Sam Warburton facing six-week lay-off after suffering a medial knee ligament injury against Ulster.
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Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Sam Warburton: How the Lions captain injured his knee Wales' Sam Warburton has been ruled out for the rest of the domestic season after suffering a medial knee ligament injury against Ulster on 7 April. But the Cardiff Blues flanker is likely to be fit for the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in June. Lions head coach Warren Gatland names his tour party on 19 April, with Warburton tipped to be captain. "Sam has a low grade strain which will put him out for approximately six weeks," said Blues coach Danny Wilson. "It won't interfere with the Lions. "If we were fortunate enough to make the second European [Champions Cup qualifying] play-off game, we would envisage him being available for that. "So he shouldn't have any problems regarding the Lions." Former Blues, Wales and Lions flanker Martyn Williams expressed mixed feelings over Warburton's injury. 'As long as he's up and running for the first Test' He said: "There will be a concern I'm sure in the back of Sam's mind. "It's not ideal even though you always look at the positive side of things that there is a break before the tour. "But Sam Warburton is as professional as they come and I'm sure he'll be fine. "Ideally as long as he's up and running for that first Test, that's all it's about." Sam Warburton captained the British and Irish Lions on their 2013 tour of Australia However, another former Wales and Lions flanker, Colin Charvis, said: "It's horrendous timing. "He's spent a couple of years and then a couple of years building for the Lions and he is in great form at the moment. "But it's not just Warren Gatland who will look at this - it's the whole Lions management team and will wonder about what they are going to do with Sam Warburton." Cardiff Blues will be involved in a play-off for a place in European Champions Cup in late May - with the Lions not due to play the first game of their tour until 3 June. Wilson is confident Warburton - who captained the Lions in 2013 but missed the third Test v Australia with a shoulder injury - will recover in time for the tour. "You see players who get back quickly if they follow protocol through religiously and get a bit of luck and I am sure that will be the case with Sam, knowing how diligent he will be. "Sam is very experienced and a good pro. He knows his body and knows if he works hard to get that right he will be back relatively quickly. "He has been fine today. I think it's relatively good news considering how it could have been."
• None Get all the latest rugby union news by adding
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39566606
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France election: South-west voters eye Brexit with envy - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Emma Jane Kirby finds voters ready for something different in the forthcoming presidential election.
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Europe
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Pensioner Genevieve is excited to meet someone from "Brexit Britain" and wishes France could also leave the European Union
To find out what French voters make of their forthcoming presidential election, I am following the route of the Tour de France and this week I've reached the south-west of the country.
Pensioner Genevieve has just ordered the plat du jour as I walk into the beautiful Veloc cafe in Perigueux and, as this is her birthday lunch, she's telling the cafe owner with a flirtatious wink, she's already got her eye on one of his bottled prunes afterwards as a "special little treat for a special little old lady". She turns her infectious smile to me.
"Ooh!" she says when I tell her who I am. "How lovely, a lady from Brexit Britain. I think Brexit's great. I'd like France to get out of Europe so she could find her own identity again."
All the way down the Dordogne valley, Britain's influence is hard to ignore. The region is home to so many British expats that it's often dubbed Dordogne-shire.
They may not have got the French eating Marmite quite yet but they certainly have got the locals chewing over the results of last June's referendum and wondering what a Frexit might taste like.
Unlike some of his customers, cafe owner Christophe Constantin feels thoroughly European
Cafe owner Christophe Constantin shakes his head firmly when I ask whether he sees France's future outside Europe.
Since opening his cafe six months ago he explains, 27 different nationalities have walked through his door. And he feels thoroughly European, he adds.
His neighbour Thomas listens in as he sips coffee at the bar. "I think there's a strong current pushing for France to leave the EU actually," he says.
"I think there's a strong possibility that we'll be out - perhaps not in these elections but maybe after the next. The EU needs to reform to avoid this total divorce."
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has made renegotiating France's membership of the EU one of her key campaign promises. She has vowed to pull France out of the euro and to hold a referendum on a new deal.
Since France has a constitution that states that the "Republic is part of the European Union" however, any Frexit would require a constitutional change.
The two uniformed men on the street opposite the cafe laugh when I suggest that it is unlikely that the Front National would be able to get such a constitutional change approved.
"Don't worry, we'll watch how Britain does it first," says one.
Back inside the cafe, Genevieve's charm has won over Christophe and she's contentedly tucking into her freebie birthday prune. She beckons me over.
"I'm voting Le Pen," she says. "Because she wants to close the borders, just like Trump is doing in America."
She licks the last of the syrup from her spoon. "Let's make France great again!"
The castle at Pau, one of the stages on the route of the Tour de France cycling race
Three hundred kilometres (186 miles) further south and in his office in Pau's town hall, centrist Mayor Francois Bayrou looks out on to the imposing snowy peaks of the Pyrenees.
For years, he's been trying to tell the French that they have been imprisoned by a two-party system - between a Left and a Right that will never concede there might be a third way.
"But that has to change now," says Mr Bayrou who has stood as a centrist candidate in the last three presidential elections.
"We need to unite people and we need to reform. The Socialist Party is decomposing and the Republican right is in civil war."
Francois Bayrou, a former centrist presidential candidate and Mayor of Pau, says he will now support Emmanuel Macron
This year it won't be Mr Bayrou who is representing the centrists. It is the younger, staunchly pro-European Emmanuel Macron with his brand new movement En Marche.
Emmanuel Macron borrows creeds from left and right and his centrist approach has already won him more than 100,000 supporters nationally but it has left others suspicious and confused.
"What does he really stand for?" asks a woman on her way to work. "I'm not sure I trust him."
"I will probably vote Macron, but with no enthusiasm or conviction," says a retired man strolling through the park. "But maybe we should try something a little bit different."
Residents of Mirail, a poor suburb of Toulouse, believe the neighbourhood carries a stigma that is hard to live down
My next stop is Mirail, a poor and largely immigrant suburb of Toulouse. In this "sensitive neighbourhood," as the French call it, they need a political solution that is radically different. The police won't even come here let alone the politicians.
"If you want to talk about Islam or about terrorism, I'm off," warns a young man in a grey hoodie at Kada's burger stall.
"We need to talk about jobs - that's what we need to talk about - work is the problem here, not Islam."
His friend shouts over him. "Politicians know damn well what we need. They've known for years.
"Why would I vote when no-one represents my neighbourhood or me?"
Young men in Mirail want jobs and opportunities and a president who could offer them those
Kada, who runs the burger stall, nods at the groups of men clustering round him.
"If you come from a sink estate like this, believe me you're stigmatised. But give us jobs and watch what we can do."
Kada believes it's his civic duty to vote but he understands why so many of his customers won't be voting.
"Look at this social collapse, this poverty. People don't want us to feel as French as everyone else. I want a president who can lift us up from all this."
Shopkeeper Klams says he has never voted and has seen no sign of change in 20 years
In his telephone repair shop, Klams sorts through tiny screws on his workshop counter as he hums along to his latest rap song about divisive politics.
Although he has left-wing sympathies, he has never voted because, as he says, even the Socialists seem to want to clamp down on Muslims - always banging on about Muslim women wearing headscarves.
He searches my face for traces of irony when I suggest that perhaps he needs to vote so his voice will be heard.
"In 20 years, nothing's changed in this neighbourhood," he says. "Politicians just forget us the minute the elections are over."
He picks up a screwdriver. "That's why I vote God."
You can listen to Emma Jane Kirby's full radio reports as she tours France on BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39437388
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MCC confirms sendings-off and other laws to come in on 1 October - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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The MCC confirms that a series of law changes - including the introduction of sendings-off - will come into effect on 1 October.
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Last updated on .From the section Cricket
The MCC has confirmed that a series of law changes - including the introduction of sendings-off - will come into effect on 1 October.
A new law entitled 'players' conduct' gives umpires a range of powers, from imposing penalty runs to ejection from the match.
Bat sizes will be restricted and attaching bails to the stumps, in order to prevent injury, will be permitted.
The laws are also being written in language that is not gender specific.
• None Read more on what offences could result in a player being sent off
Terms such as batsman and third man remain, but the laws will remove previous references to the term "he".
The law regarding handled the ball has been removed, with that form of dismissal merged into obstructing the field.
"MCC has left no stone unturned in researching and redrafting the new Laws of Cricket and has done so in order to make the laws work in a way that makes sense to players, umpires and spectators," MCC laws manager Fraser Stewart said.
"The laws are applicable worldwide so they need to be as simple as possible to understand and inclusive to all.
"The club hopes to encourage interest in the game at all levels and believes these new laws are reflective of the present time and easier for cricketers and umpires to interpret."
Other changes include alterations to running out the non-striker, a batsman being run out if their bat 'bounces' after being grounded, and substitutes being allowed to keep wicket.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39568815
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The Americans volunteering to watch executions - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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In some death penalty states, the law says volunteers with no connection to the crime must watch every execution.
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US & Canada
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Teresa and Larry Clark, from Waynesboro, VA, have witnessed multiple executions
Teresa Clark has watched three strangers die. She held her husband's hand the first time, but after that the experience began to feel normal.
The couple, who run a chimney sweeping business in Waynesboro, Virginia, volunteer to watch executions. Teresa's husband, Larry, 63, went to the first one alone.
"He was very curious. I dropped him off and I asked him all kinds of questions," she says. "Afterwards he said, 'You gotta see this'."
Eventually she did. In 1998 they made the "nervous journey" to watch the execution of Douglas Buchanan, Jr, who had been convicted of murdering his father, stepmother, and two stepbrothers.
Witnesses like Teresa and Larry Clark are a legal necessity. In Virginia, as well as some other death penalty states, the law requires people with no connection to the crime attend each execution.
Volunteers "are considered public eyewitnesses, and go to executions standing in the place of the general public," says Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
"It's a recognition that these proceedings need to take place in public view."
On the night of the execution, Teresa, Larry and the other volunteers were picked up by the prison bus and taken to Greensville Correctional Facility in Jarratt, Virginia. After spending some time mingling with reporters in the cafeteria, they were led into a small room.
The room was brightly lit, and featured a large viewing window. When the curtains opened they saw the gurney. Then Buchanan entered.
When asked if he had any final words, he replied: "Get the ride started. I'm ready to go."
During executions, Teresa says the prisoners look right into the observation gallery, and the room stays silent.
"It's quite weird, watching somebody look at you as they're getting ready to die," she says.
After the execution, the doctor pronounces the inmate dead and the curtains close. The witnesses are thanked for their service and sent home.
The volunteer process made headlines recently when Wendy Kelley, director of the Arkansas corrections department, appealed for volunteers at a community meeting. The state plans to execute a record seven inmates in 11 days, but can't find enough people who are willing to watch.
Arkansas state law says that at least six "respectable citizens" must be at every execution to "verify that the execution was conducted in the manner required by law."
The publicity worked. Arkansas now has a flurry of volunteers.
Beth Viele, 39, from Jacksonville, Arkansas, wrote a letter to Kelley expressing her interest.
"Please accept this correspondence as a formal request to be a volunteer witness for the eight upcoming executions," she wrote.
"I would love to be part in helping the families of the victim(s) see long overdue JUSTICE be carried out."
Frank Weiland, 77, works as a brass works fabricator in Lynchburg, Virginia. He's volunteered to witness four executions. He says he goes as a show of support for law enforcement.
The last execution he witnessed was in 2006, when Brandon Hedrick chose the electric chair over lethal injection.
"This guy didn't live too far from me, and I know some people that knew him."
"They said he was scared of needles," Weiland says with a laugh.
He watched Hedrick get strapped into the chair, and saw the warden put a sponge on his head to help the electrical current travel faster. "The next thing you know - boom!" Weiland says.
"I noticed his hands on the arms of the chair, and I said, well if there's anything as far as feeling goes he'll clench, and he did not clench. The noise is kind of a bump.
"He didn't convulse or anything. As a matter of fact if I had the choice I would take the chair.
"The only thing that told you that he was getting it was the way his legs smoked a little bit."
Eight men the state of Arkansas originally planned to execute over 11 days. Jason McGehee (bottom left)'s execution has been stayed an additional 30 days
Still, witnessing these deaths leaves an impact.
"I've replayed it very much in my mind," he says. "I really don't know why, but I have."
Teresa Clark tells a story about the night following the first execution she attended.
"I was sitting in my car at a red light and I looked in the rear view window, and I swear I saw the man I just saw die," she says.
"The picture kind of sticks with you."
"If they called now and needed somebody, I would go."
"It came across my mind, and it still does, that these people know when they're going to die, and the people they killed didn't. They get to say their goodbyes, so I really can't say I felt sorry for them."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39535957
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'Blood contamination tore my family apart' - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Families of people infected with HIV and hepatitis by NHS treatments still seek a public inquiry.
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Health
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brothers David, Vincent and Barry all died as a result of blood contamination
Thousands of people with haemophilia were infected with HIV and hepatitis as a result of NHS treatments in the 1970s and 80s. But their families are still seeking a public inquiry into the scandal.
Tony Farrugia was just 14-years-old when his father Barry died of Aids.
Over the next 20 years, two of his four uncles would also die in what was perhaps the worst treatment scandal in the NHS's history.
In the 1970s and 80s, thousands of haemophiliacs - like members of Tony's family - were treated with contaminated blood products.
Some 4,670 of them were later diagnosed with hepatitis C, while around 1,200 also contracted HIV.
Many did not live long enough to be treated with modern drugs.
Thirty years later, the survivors and their relatives have told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme they are still fighting for answers.
Some are worried that a new support scheme planned by the government could leave them struggling to pay mortgages and bills.
Tony's father Barry was diagnosed with haemophilia - a genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting - as a baby.
It took Tony almost 25 years to get hold of his father's medical records after his death.
They show that Barry was a mild haemophiliac, whose symptoms could have been managed.
He might not have needed to be treated with the blood clotting agent Factor VIII - the cause of the contamination - but it was prescribed anyway.
The result was that he was infected with hepatitis B in the late 70s and then with HIV as early as 1980.
Entries in the records show that doctors were aware he might have had the virus two years before he was finally told.
Tony, then a teenager, was sent away to live with other family members but the new living arrangements did not work out and he was eventually placed in care.
In the summer of 1986, he visited his father in hospital for the final time.
"He started to lose weight by then," Tony recalls, "a lot of weight - so he was really, really skinny."
"I remember my dad asking me for some of my ice cream. I handed it to him, at which point one of the nurses intervened and said 'you can't give him that'.
"He had blisters in his mouth which were bleeding. I couldn't share an ice cream with my dad because they had given him Aids," he says.
Barry's death in September 1986 split the family apart.
Tony went back into care in Luton while his twin brother David went to a separate care home in North London.
His older teenage brothers were left to fend for themselves.
It was not until 2010 that he was reunited with other members of his family.
"That was the first time since dad died that we were together again," Tony says.
"That's what the [health service] did, they destroyed my dad with these viruses then they watched his family crumble."
In the years after Barry's death the family continued to struggle.
One of Barry's brothers, Vincent, was killed by Aids passed on through contaminated blood.
In 2012, another brother, David, died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage linked to the hepatitis C he had contracted through Factor VIII.
Madeline, David's widow, says the contaminated blood scandal has caused "devastation" to her family.
"I can put my hand on my heart and tell you I am not the same person [since David's death]. I will never be the same person," she said.
"It comes back to haunt you in so many ways."
Madeline says the doctors who prescribed Factor VIII "never, ever" told them there was a risk of blood contamination.
Angie, Barry's sister, adds: "Treatment shouldn't kill you, should it? Medical treatment shouldn't kill you."
The family say they also had to live with the stigma that surrounded Aids in the 1980s.
On one occasion, Vincent had "Aids scum" scratched into his car.
When he walked into his local cafe one day, everyone else got up and walked out.
"It was awful - awful - to see this happen to a person," Angie said.
The family are still looking for answers as to why their relatives died and have called for a public inquiry.
"All we are after is recognition for the harm which was done. We still haven't got the truth and they haven't given us all the answers," says Tony.
"The government can't learn lessons until they face up to what they have done."
Thousands of people in the UK were infected when they were treated with imported blood products in the 1970s and 80s
There have been two previous inquiries.
One was privately funded from donations and could not force health officials or ministers to testify.
The other only looked at a small number of Scottish victims and did not have the power to summon witnesses from England.
The Haemophilia Society is now calling for a full public inquiry into the scandal, something the government has so far ruled out.
Victims and their families are also worried that a new financial support scheme currently being planned could leave some worse off.
Under the proposals, a widow of a haemophiliac who died from Aids in England will receive a one-off sum of £10,000, compared to a lifetime payment of £27,750 a year in Scotland.
A new Welsh scheme announced this month is also significantly more generous than in England and Northern Ireland.
"The whole thing is a shambles, it's shameful," says Sue Threakall, of the campaign group Tainted Blood.
"These are payments which people rely on to pay their mortgages, pay rent and feed their families."
The government says it has doubled the amount it is spending on support payments to those affected since 2015.
"This is significantly more than any previous government has provided for those affected by this tragedy," a spokesman for the Department of Health said.
"We will continue to listen and are currently consulting on new measures to extend the group of individuals who benefit from higher annual payments."
Watch the Victoria Derbyshire programme on weekdays between 09:00 and 11:00 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39516344
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Arsene Wenger: Arsenal boss says future 'not affecting players' despite defeat - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Arsene Wenger says uncertainty over his future is not affecting his Arsenal players, but says their 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace is "a big worry".
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Arsene Wenger says the uncertainty over his future is not affecting his Arsenal players, but admits their 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace is "a big worry".
Wenger is out of contract at the end of the season and has been offered a new two-year deal, although he is yet to announce whether he will continue.
Sixth-placed Arsenal are seven points off the top four with eight games left.
"I've managed over 1,100 games for Arsenal and we're not used to losing like that," said the Frenchman.
"We have to respond very quickly and not accept it."
Some travelling fans told Wenger it was "time to go", also singing "you're not fit to wear the shirt" at the players, as Arsenal were convincingly beaten at relegation-threatened Palace.
Goals from Andros Townsend, Yohan Cabaye and Luka Milivojevic inflicted a fourth straight away league defeat on Arsenal - for the first time during Wenger's 21-season reign.
It leaves the Gunners in serious danger of missing out on a top-four finish for the first time under the 67-year-old.
"I understand our fans are disappointed and we all are deeply disappointed," he said.
"It's very worrying and disappointing the way we lost the game. Palace were sharp, they beat Chelsea the other day, and that shows they have quality.
"We are in a difficult position. The game tonight doesn't help."
• None Listen: It hurts me to say it, but it's time for Wenger to go - Hartson
Palace wanted it more than us - Walcott
Arsenal controlled possession against their 16th-placed hosts, having 72% of the ball, but were unable to make that dominance count.
The Gunners managed just three shots on target, all in the first half.
"That's not Arsenal," said stand-in captain Theo Walcott. "It wasn't us at all.
"All we can do is apologise for that performance.
"Palace just wanted it more. You could sense that from the kick-off.
"We thought we had got out of this little patch and hopefully we haven't been dragged straight back into it. Judging on that performance, it looks like we have."
Arsenal have won only one of their past five Premier League matches, losing three and conceding 11 goals in the process.
Palace boss Sam Allardyce said he had targeted their defensive frailties in the build-up to Monday's game, highlighting the space behind their full-backs for Townsend and Wilfried Zaha to exploit.
"We all know they are in a poor spell of results for the first time for years," said the former England manager.
"The weaknesses with Arsenal have been defensively because they leave Shkodran Mustafi and and Gabriel really exposed.
"Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin play like right and left wingers, the wingers come inside with the centre-forward and they're just left on their own."
Former Blackburn and Chelsea striker Chris Sutton on BBC Radio 5 live:
"At one time, Arsene Wenger managed the Invincibles. He is now managing the Invisibles. He has to go, because the players are not listening.
"The biggest problem with Arsenal is that it's Wenger who makes the decision on his future. I don't get it. It should be up to the owners.
"They must be embarrassed by tonight's performance. It was limp. They were played off the park by a team in danger of relegation.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39561624
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Claudio Ranieri: Former Leicester City boss thinks he may have been pushed out - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Former Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri believes someone within the club was working against him, but does not think the players got him sacked.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri believes that someone within the club was working against him, but does not think the players got him sacked.
The Italian led the Foxes to the Premier League title last season but was dismissed in February.
"I can't believe my players killed me. No, no, no," he told Sky Sports.
"Maybe it was someone behind me. I had a little problem the year before and we won the title. Maybe this year, when we lose, these people push a little more."
When Ranieri was sacked, Leicester were one point above the Premier League relegation zone.
Assistant manager Craig Shakespeare was placed in charge and presided over five successive league victories and a Champions League last-16 win against Sevilla.
"I listen to a lot of stories," added 65-year-old Ranieri, who refused to identify who he was referring to.
"I don't want to say who it is. I am a loyal man. What I had to say, I said face to face," he told the broadcaster's Monday Night Football show.
• None Ranieri and more in the latest Football Daily podcast
In the aftermath of Ranieri's exit, some reports suggested players had been instrumental in his dismissal, with striker Jamie Vardy and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel among those to publicly deny the squad were involved.
Ranieri's final game in charge was a 2-1 defeat at Sevilla, with the Foxes winning the return leg under Shakespeare 2-0 to earn a Champions League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid.
"I thought the Sevilla match was a turning point," said the former Chelsea manager. "Everyone was fighting together, Jamie Vardy scored a goal.
"But I found out on the way home that I would be sacked. It was a shock for me and for a lot of other people."
Ranieri's dismissal sparked a wave of support from fellow managers, pundits and supporters, with former Leicester and England striker Gary Lineker saying he "shed a tear".
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho wore Ranieri's initials on his shirt and said the Leicester players were "selfish".
The Italian said he received support from all across the world.
"It was amazing," he said. "When we won the title I received gifts and cards, bottles of wine and Champagne. When I was sacked, my house was full.
"In case I don't have the time to reply to all of them, I want to thank all the fans.
"I have won trophies around Europe, but never the title. Three times I was runner-up. Leicester and the fans will be in my heart for all of my life."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39558439
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Meet the female entrepreneurs using tech for good - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Philanthropy tech is on the rise, from gaming with a conscience to video ads earning cash for charities.
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Business
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When Jude Ower entered the gaming industry she was one of very few women
Jude Ower loved playing video games as a child, but she never dreamed that her passion would eventually become a force for good and win her accolades and honours.
After 12 years making games for education and training, she went on to create an international games platform with a social conscience - Playmob.
"After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Zynga, the creator of Farmville, launched a campaign to raise funds for the victims by selling an in-game item, with a percentage of each purchase going to help the victims," she explains.
"It was massively successful and raised over $1m in a matter of days. It was then I thought: 'Maybe I could make a platform that connected games and causes?'"
Playmob pairs games developers or businesses with a charity and then sets up in-game advertising campaigns. By clicking on links within the game, players can make donations.
The campaigns have helped more than 3,000 teenagers receive counselling for cyber-bullying, provided protection for 31 pandas, and secured education for 8,500 children in Africa and Asia, the company says.
"With Playmob we can track the social impact, such as number of trees planted, number of meals provided, water wells built, and so forth," she says.
"This allows players to see that the more they play and interact with the branded content, the more good they do."
So far the games platform has raised more than $1m for charities over the past five years, and more than 1.5 million players have interacted with charitable in-game content.
Her success saw her awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2015 for services to entrepreneurship and she's been voted one of the top 100 Women in Tech in Europe.
Ms Ower is just one of a growing number of entrepreneurs - many of them women - exploring how technology can be harnessed in the cause of philanthropy.
This is tech for social good, or "philtech" as it's sometimes called.
Erin Michelson had all the trappings of financial success but felt "terribly unhappy"
Erin Michelson's high-flying banking career took her to Hong Kong, Chicago, New York and San Francisco, where she rose to vice president and director of philanthropic management at Bank of America.
But despite seemingly having it all, she felt there was something missing.
"I realised that even though I had all the trappings of success, I was terribly unhappy," she says.
"So I quit my job, sold everything I owned, set up a charitable fund, and headed out on a two-year around-the-world trip volunteering with humanitarian organisations."
Taking only one suitcase, she spent 720 days travelling to 62 countries across all seven continents - an adventure that helped her find meaning in her life, she says.
After writing a book about her experiences, she returned to San Francisco and founded Summery, a data analytics company that has developed a piece of online software similar to the Myers-Briggs personality test.
Summery helps firms match their charitable projects with their employees' personalities
The program combines behavioural science and analytics to give employers an idea of their staff's social priorities and attitudes towards giving, which she says helps inform companies how to focus their charitable efforts.
"The test matches you with one of 10 'giving' personalities and provides a snapshot of your giving DNA, one of 59,048 possibilities," says Ms Michelson.
By taking the guesswork out of charitable giving, she says it can improve the relationship between employer and staff, to everyone's benefit.
"Engaged employees lead not only to better corporate performance, but also significant cost savings through stronger retention and more targeted recruitment based on cultural appreciation," she says.
Richard Craig, chief executive of the Technology Trust, which helps charitable organisations use tech more effectively, says: "Over the last couple of years there has been a noticeable trend in graduates specifically looking for roles in charities and non-profits who might previously have looked to careers in the City, for example.
"I am seeing the same trend with technology start-ups, with a proportion looking to deliver social good either as non-profits themselves, or commercial organisation with social purpose."
Good-Loop's Amy Williams says she saw "untapped potential" in online advertising
It was while working for an advertising agency in London that Amy Williams had her "philtech epiphany".
"I saw firsthand the huge amount of money that gets passed from one big conglomerate to another, buying and selling the cheap commodity of our attention online," she says.
"The stark contrast between these two worlds really hit me - £4.7bn was spent on online advertising in the UK last year."
She quit and went travelling, working as a volunteer for a small charity in Argentina called Food For Thought, which specialises in nutrition education for kids.
"I started started to see the untapped potential within online advertising to make some real positive impact."
Inspired by her experiences, she founded Good-Loop, a company that rewards viewers of video ads with donations to their chosen charities.
Brands create a video and if the visitor watches it for 15 seconds or more, the advertiser pays 50p - with 50% of that going to the chosen charity, 40% to the content creator, and 10% to Good-Loop.
She says the process makes viewers more engaged with brands because they have opted to watch the content rather than having it forced upon them.
Playmob's Jude Ower believes recent political events in Europe and the US have fired up younger generations to get more involved in socially responsible causes.
"We are seeing people leave well-paid jobs to take a risk and set up on their own, not just in the hope of creating a successful start-up, but to do something with purpose."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39521044
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Atletico Madrid 1-0 Leicester - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Leicester keep Atletico Madrid within reach as they restrict the hosts to one goal in their Champions League quarter-final first leg.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Leicester City kept Atletico Madrid within reach as they restricted the dominant Spaniards to a single goal in their Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Koke had already hit the visitors' post in the first half when the referee judged Marc Albrighton's foul on Antoine Griezmann had been inside the penalty area.
Replays showed contact was made outside the box but Griezmann duly stepped up to send Kasper Schmeichel the wrong way.
Fernando Torres slipped as the goal beckoned in the second half but, that chance apart, Atletico struggled to carve out clear-cut openings against a stubborn Leicester defence.
Robert Huth - who will be banned for the second leg after being booked - saw a shot blocked and Shinji Okazaki narrowly failed to make contact with a low cross in the best of Leicester's rare raids forward.
• None Relive the action at the Vicente Calderon
Despite giving up 68% of possession and failing to register a shot on target, Leicester will take heart from their previous encounter with La Liga opposition.
They were similarly dominated by Sevilla in the first leg of their last-16 tie, but turned round the visitors' 2-1 lead on a tumultuous night at the King Power Stadium.
Having reached the final in two of the last three years, however, Atletico are a team of greater pedigree and expectations than their compatriots.
With the meanest defence in La Liga and Griezmann poised to counter, Atletico are also ideally suited to withstand whatever atmosphere the Foxes fans whip up next Tuesday.
The technical quality of Atletico's players was matched by a shrewd tactical plan from manager Diego Simeone that sought out the space Leicester tried to deny them.
Griezmann - reputedly a summer target for Manchester United - popped up between the lines, with midfield anchorman Wilfred Ndidi and the two centre-backs uncertain who was best placed to pick him up.
It was the France international's more obvious quality that earned Atletico the opener as his searing pace spread panic in the Leicester defence and Albrighton bundled him over.
Referee Jonas Eriksson pointed to the spot despite Leicester's protests and Schmeichel could not produce a third penalty save after his two in the tie against Sevilla.
Almost as important might be the yellow card that Huth received in attempting to contain Griezmann.
The German will be suspended for the second leg and, with captain Wes Morgan not yet back from injury, boss Craig Shakespeare will have to make do and mend in the centre of defence on the biggest night in the club's history.
While the Leicester fans high in the Vicente Calderon weighed up whether they were satisfied with the way the tie was poised at its halfway point, some might have taken time to reflect on the heights the team have scaled in just a few short years.
Eight years ago almost to the day - 11 April 2009 - their team travelled to the less illustrious surroundings of Hereford's Edgar Street ground in League One.
Midfielder Andy King, who played that day in Hereford and came on in the second half in Madrid, is the only Foxes player who connects the two wildly contrasting eras.
Former Manchester United, Everton and England defender Phil Neville on BBC Radio 5 live:
It was an outstanding result. Craig Shakespeare would have taken that before tonight .
Leicester have defended really well and limited Atletico Madrid to shots from distance. It was just a horrendous penalty decision that has cost them the game.
We have no monitor and no television replays and I knew straight away that Marc Albrighton's challenge was outside the box. We must be about 80 yards away from the incident. The referee was right on top of it. It was a diabolical decision.
I didn't expect that sort of defensive concentration from them. I feared the worst after their 4-2 defeat by Everton on Sunday. I keep thinking that the Leicester fairytale can't continue, but the fans here believe.
What I will say however, is that Atletico might prefer playing Leicester at the King Power where they will be forced to come out and attack.
• None Atletico Madrid have won 17 of their 22 Champions League home games under Diego Simeone, with the Spanish club unbeaten in the knockout stages.
• None Leicester have lost on each of their three European trips to Madrid, with Atletico still unbeaten at home against English sides (winning six, drawing five).
• None The Madrid club have progressed in six of their last eight European cup ties against English opposition.
• None Atletico Madrid have also kept a clean sheet in 16 of their last 18 Champions League games at the Calderón.
• None Antoine Griezmann has been directly involved in 10 goals in his last nine Champions League appearances at the Calderon (eight goals, two assists).
• None Attempt blocked. Koke (Atlético de Madrid) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Antoine Griezmann.
• None Attempt missed. Ángel Correa (Atlético de Madrid) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Filipe Luis. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39542734
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Borussia Dortmund team bus involved in explosion before Monaco game - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Borussia Dortmund's Champions League quarter-final with Monaco is postponed after the Dortmund team bus was damaged by an explosion.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Borussia Dortmund's Champions League quarter-final with Monaco has been postponed after the Dortmund team bus was damaged by an explosion.
The German team confirmed that defender Marc Bartra broke his wrist in an incident near their hotel and required hospital treatment.
The match will now be played at Dortmund's Westfalenstadion at 17:45 BST on Wednesday.
Police confirmed there had been three explosions in the area of the team bus.
Dortmund's chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke said: "There has been an attack with explosives on the team bus.
"The whole team is in a state of shock - you can't get pictures like that out of your head."
• None 'Every player was shocked and it was silent' - German reporter on scene of bus explosion
Windows were broken on the bus, which was six miles from the stadium at the time of the incident at around 18:00 BST, and former Barcelona centre-back Bartra was sent to hospital.
Police said the cause of the explosions, at Hochsten outside the city, was unclear, but added there had been no evidence of any threat to supporters.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted his support , wishing Bartra a quick recovery, as did his former club.
The night's other quarter-final between Juventus and Barcelona kicked off as scheduled.
Dortmund president Reinhard Rauball added: "Of course this is an extremely difficult situation for the players.
"But they are professionals, and I am convinced that they will put that away and will bring their performance on Wednesday."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39572434
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Trump’s lack of clarity on foreign policy may prove catastrophic - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The US's lack of clarity on foreign policy could prove catastrophic, the BBC's Jonathan Marcus reports.
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US & Canada
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The lack of clarity with US foreign policy is a cause of concern for America's allies
Just a few days ago the Russian embassy in London responded on its Twitter feed to the British Foreign Secretary's announcement that he was cancelling his planned visit to Moscow.
Accompanying the Russian tweet was a picture of the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimea War - one of the great disasters of 19th Century British military history.
It was, though, a curious choice of subject.
Maybe the Russian embassy should brush up on their own history, for whilst the charge itself was a glorious failure, Britain and France - who had gone to war with Russia ostensibly over an arcane dispute involving the Ottoman Empire and access to holy sites - did in fact win and Moscow had to back down.
But there is another more important lesson from the Charge of the Light Brigade that is relevant to today's diplomatic crisis. The flower of Britain's Light Cavalry charged down the wrong valley directly into the mouth of the Russian guns because the message ordering them into action was not clear.
The US struck at the Syrian airfield from where the Americans say the recent chemical attack was launched with impunity. They did so to reinforce a red line - drawn by the previous Obama administration - but one never acted upon.
Of course the thing about red lines is that they need to be crystal clear. In the immediate aftermath of the strike this seemed to be the case. The message was: use nerve gas again and consequences will follow.
But on Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer muddied the waters.
Asked if air attacks with conventional weapons might also draw US punitive action, he said: "If you gas a baby, if you put a barrel bomb into innocent people, you will see a response from this president."
Barrel bombs, though, tend to be large canisters filled with explosives and shrapnel that are typically dropped by Syrian government forces from helicopters. In other words they are conventional rather than chemical munitions.
So was Mr Spicer broadening the red line? Belatedly the White House had to issue a clarification noting that what he really was saying was that barrel bombs containing chemical weapons would draw a US response.
This lack of clarity would not matter quite so much if it was not characteristic of the Trump administration's whole approach to foreign policy. And the stakes could not be higher.
One crisis in US-Russia relations is already upon us. Another involving the unpredictable North Korean regime is fast building. These are the Trump team's first big foreign policy tests and so far they are gaining a very mixed report card.
In the wake of the US strike on the Syrian air base, Trump administration officials - ranging from the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and US National Security Adviser General H R McMaster, to the White House spokesman Sean Spicer - have suggested a variety of US policy approaches that extend from the relative isolationism of "America First" to a more strident interventionism.
On key questions there seems to be little agreement.
Is the US eager to remove the Assad regime? Does its priority remain the fight against so-called Islamic State? How does the strike against Syria that has enraged not just Russia but also Iran square with US interests in Iraq, where, unlike in Syria, Washington and Tehran find themselves on the "same side" in that they are both giving military backing to the Iraqi Government?
Mr Tillerson will arrive in Moscow without the backing of the G7 for economic sanctions against Russia
The lack of clarity in the message is hampering America's allies as well.
The British Prime Minister Theresa May has spoken of a "window of opportunity" to separate Russia from Syria's President Assad. But Tuesday's G7 group of nations meeting has pointedly failed to agree on the need for additional economic sanctions against Russia.
Mr Tillerson is arriving in Moscow without the strong backing from America's key allies that he had hoped for. Yes, they all agree that Mr Assad cannot be part of the solution. They all agree Russia must exercise its responsibilities in Syria. But in terms of what to do, they are as much at sea as the Trump administration itself.
What is still needed is a broad statement of US policy goals and the instruments that will be used to achieve them. Without that the growing militarisation of US foreign policy - stepped up strikes in Yemen; more troops to Syria and Iraq; and the punitive cruise missile attack in Syria - may worry both friends and potential enemies alike.
There seems to be no central guiding brain behind the evolution of the Trump team's foreign policy. The US president himself has failed to articulate any clear approach.
With regard to Syria that may be unsettling. With regard to North Korea, it could be potentially catastrophic.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39568261
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Masters 2017: Serene Sergio Garcia may have unlocked the secret to winning majors - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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After an 18-year wait for a first major, Sergio Garcia may have discovered the mental strength to add more, writes Iain Carter.
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Last updated on .From the section Golf
Serenity was a word that sprang to mind throughout the epic Masters that spawned Sergio Garcia's maiden major victory.
The 37-year-old broke through thanks to an apparent inner peace that enabled him to cope with all that Augusta and the elements could throw at him.
Whether it was the gusty winds of the first two days or the intimidating last-day surge of Justin Rose as he collected a hat-trick of front-nine birdies, Garcia remained unperturbed in becoming the only man to be sub-par in all four rounds.
It is a state of mind that was beyond the Spaniard in pretty much all of his previous 73 attempts to win a major.
"I felt very calm," Garcia said during his champion's news conference. "I felt very at ease."
• None Watch: The best shots from the 2017 Masters
Sitting there in his newly won Green Jacket, it seemed Garcia had finally found the secret - a key to unlock the major puzzle. And it could equip him well in his quest to ensure he does not become a one-hit wonder at major level.
This was particularly apparent when he recounted the events of the par-five 13th in his final round on Sunday. He had bogeyed the 10th and 11th and now his drive caught a tree and dropped into an unplayable position beneath a bush.
Commentating on BBC Radio 5 live, I suggested we were witnessing another major implosion from a player burdened by a suffocating desire to land the most glamorous of golf's top four prizes.
How wrong can one be? Garcia's response, to conjure a par before going birdie and eagle over the next two holes, was stunning.
"In the past, I would have started going at my caddie," Garcia admitted. "And oh, you know, why doesn't it go through [the tree's branches] and whatever.
"But I was like, well, if that's what is supposed to happen, let it happen. Let's try to make a great five here and see if we can put in a hell of a finish to have a chance.
"And if not, we'll shake Justin's hand and congratulate him for winning.
"So I think I did that very well throughout the whole week, and it's something I need to keep improving and keep getting better at it."
If he is able to regularly harness this new outlook, he will become a formidable force at future majors.
A better mental attitude would work in tandem with impressive physical conditioning that shows no sign of deterioration. Garcia had played 71 consecutive majors heading into the Masters.
That speaks volumes for his longevity and consistency at the top of the game despite several relative troughs before this standout peak in his career graph.
Now he is entitled to feel as though he can swiftly become a multiple major champion in the way Padraig Harrington did a decade ago.
Garcia was twice the fall-guy when the Irishman claimed his three crowns, starting with victory in 2007 at Carnoustie, where the Spaniard narrowly missed a putt for victory.
Harrington retained his Open crown at Birkdale a year later before beating Garcia to the PGA title at Oakland Hills the following month.
This year the Open returns to Birkdale and the Masters champion can draw on another piece of history to fuel his hopes of snatching the Claret Jug.
In 1998, Mark O'Meara, who was four years older than Garcia is now, claimed his first major with a thrilling Masters triumph. Later that year he went to the Merseyside course and doubled his major tally.
Whether Garcia can emulate such a feat is subject to many factors - the form of rivals, the state of his game and how the draw is affected by seaside weather.
But there is no doubt he is better equipped to deal with the mental tests that come during the biggest tournaments.
Already a winner of the Players' Championship, Garcia has now won at every level of the game.
That might be it for him. Darren Clarke found a similar serenity to win the 2011 Open and it proved his crowning moment.
Yet Garcia, I sense, is more likely to kick on from this triumph and find ways to retain this successful state of mind. If he does, prepare for some thrilling jousts against Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and, yes, Sunday's runner-up Rose.
The Englishman, no doubt, feels this was a Masters that got away. His missed putts on the 13th and 17th let open the door to major glory, which Garcia was finally ready to charge through.
It was a thrilling and memorable Masters and one that may leave quite a legacy.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/39560633
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Juventus 3-0 Barcelona - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Paulo Dybala scores twice as Juventus take charge of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Barcelona.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Paulo Dybala scored twice as Juventus took charge of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Barcelona courtesy of a commanding first-leg display in Turin.
The Argentine forward curled home both of his goals before the break, the first from an angle inside the box and the second from a central position on the edge.
Juve turned a dominant lead into one that should see them go on and win the tie when Giorgio Chiellini showed strength and guile to steer home a header from a corner.
For the second European round running, Barca - who were as defensively suspect as they were in losing 4-0 to Paris St-Germain in the first leg of their last-16 tie - must recover from a heavy away defeat to progress.
However, after their record-breaking achievement to overturn that deficit against PSG, they will retain hope heading into the return leg at the Nou Camp on Wednesday, 19 April.
• None Podcast: 'Not the end of an era, but the end of their hopes'
The last time these sides met in the Champions League was in the 2015 final, when Barcelona won 3-1.
The Italians are a much-changed side, with only goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and defender Leonardo Bonucci starting both the game in Berlin and Tuesday's in Turin, but they played like a team with a score to settle.
The opening 20 minutes were a lesson in high-pressing, aggressive play that created a clear headed opening for Gonzalo Higuain to spurn before Dybala's two strikes.
The remaining 70 minutes saw Juve retain a high work-rate but with the luxury of strategically selecting their moments to counter-attack.
This approach twice allowed Higuain to have shots that were saved by Marc-Andre ter Stegen before more lax defending - this time from Javier Mascherano, who had been moved to centre-back from midfield at half-time - allowed Chiellini to head home following a corner.
The win means Juve, who have won their past 32 Serie A home games, are undefeated in 18 European games in Turin.
With the second-best defence of any side in Europe's top-five leagues and having gone 441 Champions League minutes without conceding, the Italians are well-equipped to avoid wilting under second-leg pressure in Spain.
More away woe for fading Barca
Barcelona's heroics in the return leg against PSG papered over the cracks of a terrible first-leg display in the French capital.
After another heavy away defeat - their third in four Champions League games on the road and a second in succession after Saturday's La Liga loss at Malaga - there is no escaping the feeling this is a team in decline.
They are often shambolic at the back, with Samuel Umtiti and Jeremy Mathieu error-prone and Mascherano a fading force.
Andres Iniesta is a class act in midfield and the attacking unit of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar is unrivalled in Europe, but only the talismanic Messi proved a threat in Turin.
He had a goal rightly ruled out for offside, curled a shot just past the post, laid on a defence-splitting pass for Suarez to shoot wide and another to send Iniesta clear only to see Buffon superbly claw his shot past the post.
Buffon's instinctive save not only denied Barcelona a vital away goal, but came just 76 seconds before Dybala made it 2-0.
Luis Enrique's side have come back from a seemingly inevitable exit once in this season's Champions League. They will need all 11 players at the very top of their game if they are to have any chance of repeating the feat.
'It was like the third half from Paris'
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri: "I want to congratulate the lads because, as a team, they did great.
"It isn't easy overcoming a team like Barcelona, but we also dug deep to keep a clean sheet. That was fundamental for us.
"But we have to remain humble, keep our heads down and keep working. PSG scored four, and look what happened.
"In Barcelona, it will be different and we have to try and score a goal."
Barcelona coach Luis Enrique: "We basically gifted two goals to Juventus in the opening half. As coach, for me it's inexplicable how they were so much better than us.
"It's like a nightmare. We've had very little luck of late, and now I can only hope that from tomorrow we get back on our feet.
"In the first half the players were determined, but we made the same mistakes from Paris, and that's a problem. Our second half was much better. But I still have the opening half in my head, like a nightmare.
"Maybe it wasn't [a repeat of] Paris, but it was like the third half from Paris.
"I'm an optimistic person. But I take responsibility for this. I'm the coach and the buck stops at me.
"If we play as well as we can, we can score four goals against anyone."
• None Juventus are unbeaten in their last 18 Champions League home games (W11 D7 L0), their longest ever run without a defeat in the competition on home soil. Their last home defeat in the competition was versus Bayern Munich in April 2013 (0-2).
• None Juventus have now won 16 successive home matches in all competitions and are unbeaten in 48 games there (W42 D6 L0). Their last home defeat in all comps came against Udinese in August 2015.
• None Massimiliano Allegri has equalled Juventus' longest winning streak in the Champions League (five games - previously done by Fabio Capello in 2004-05 and Antonio Conte in 2012-13).
• None Dybala's first two goals in 2016-17 for Juventus were scored away from home, but his 14 goals since then have all been scored at the Juventus Stadium.
• None Barcelona have lost four of their past five Champions League away games in the knock-out stages (W1 D0 L4), conceding 12 goals in these games.
Barcelona host Real Sociedad in La Liga on Saturday before the home leg with Juve. The Italian side travel to Pescara this Saturday and then to Spain four days later.
• None Attempt saved. Sergi Roberto (Barcelona) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Neymar with a cross.
• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.
• None Delay in match Mario Mandzukic (Juventus) because of an injury.
• None Attempt blocked. Dani Alves (Juventus) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Gonzalo Higuaín.
• None Attempt missed. Ivan Rakitic (Barcelona) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Javier Mascherano.
• None Attempt blocked. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39542727
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World Cup 2026: USA, Canada & Mexico to make joint bid - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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The USA, Canada and Mexico say they will make a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup - the first after expansion from 32 to 48 teams.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
The United States, Canada and Mexico have announced they will make a joint bid to host the 2026 World Cup.
It will be the first tournament after the expansion from 32 teams to 48 and, if successful, would be the first time a World Cup has been shared by three hosts.
The proposal would be for the USA to host 60 matches, with 10 games each in Canada and Mexico.
The decision on who will host the event will be made in 2020.
That is three years later than originally scheduled because of corruption allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar.
The USA staged the 1994 World Cup, which had the highest average attendance in the tournament's history, while Mexico was the first nation to host the event twice, in 1970 and 1986. Canada hosted the 2015 women's World Cup.
US President Donald Trump has promised to build a border wall between the USA and Mexico but Sunil Gulati, president of the US Soccer Federation, said Trump is "supportive" of the bid and had "encouraged" it.
"The United States, Mexico and Canada have individually demonstrated their exceptional abilities to host world-class events," added Gulati.
"When our nations come together as one - as we will for 2026 - there is no question the United States, Mexico and Canada will deliver an experience that will celebrate the game and serve players, supporters and partners alike."
European and Asian countries cannot bid for the 2026 World Cup due to world governing body Fifa's rotation policy, which means the previous two host confederations - Europe in 2018 and Asia in 2022 - are excluded.
The new-look tournament will begin with an initial round of 16 three-team groups, with 32 qualifiers going through to the knockout stage.
Fifa's executive committee is no longer responsible for the final say on which country is awarded a World Cup.
Instead, it will establish a shortlist before the 209 member nations of Fifa cast a vote for their preferred choice.
The 2026 tournament will be the first to be decided under the new system.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39544868
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Mike Phillips: Former Wales & Lions scrum-half to quit at end of Sale's season - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Former Wales and British and Irish Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips, a double Grand Slam winner, is to retire when Sale Sharks' season ends.
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Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Former Wales and British and Irish Lions scrum-half Mike Phillips is to retire when Sale Sharks' season ends.
The 34-year-old won two Grand Slams with Wales, in a career that spanned the 2003-2015 World Cups.
In all, he made 99 Test appearances, five of them in two Lions tours, and won three Six Nations with Wales.
"I will attack the next chapters with the same passion, commitment and laughter as I did during my entire career," he wrote on social media.
He also tweeted: "Thanks to the fans, teammates, clubs, coaches, @WelshRugbyUnion the @LionsOfficial, friends & family who have supported me over the years."
The Carmarthen-born player's career has not been without controversy.
He was sacked by Bayonne in October 2013, having been suspended by them a year earlier for off-field misconduct, and by Wales in July 2011 after a confrontation with a doorman in Cardiff city centre.
On the field, Phillips' combative style and imposing physical presence made him Wales' number one scrum-half for much of the era since Warren Gatland took over the national team before the 2008 Six Nations.
Phillips scored a try that helped Wales to victory against England at Twickenham to start that Grand Slam campaign.
He was also part of the 2012 clean sweep and Wales' 2013 title win.
The Lions picked Phillips for the 2009 tour of South Africa, and he played in all three Tests in their 2-1 series defeat.
Two more Lions caps followed in 2013 when Gatland guided the tourists to a 2-1 win in Australia.
Phillips' career: Scarlets to Sale via Welsh rivals and French clubs
Phillips' Wales career began against Romania in 2003 while he was understudy to fellow Wales and Lions cap Dwayne Peel at Scarlets.
His last Wales cap came against Ireland in Cardiff in August 2015 as they prepared for that year's World Cup.
Phillips was initially left out of coach Warren Gatland's squad for the tournament, but recalled as cover for the injured Rhys Webb before the opening game against Uruguay.
However, he played no part as Wales reached the quarter-finals and retired from Test rugby in December that year.
Phillips joined Cardiff Blues from Scarlets in 2005, moved to Ospreys two years later and headed to France to join Bayonne in 2011.
He then played for another French Top 14 side, Racing 92, and joined English Premiership club Sale for the 2016-17 season.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39569874
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Heather Watson and Naomi Broady knocked out of Biel Bienne Open - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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British pair Heather Watson and Naomi Broady are knocked out in the first round of the Biel Bienne Open in Switzerland.
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Heather Watson and Naomi Broady knocked out of Biel Bienne Open Last updated on .From the section Tennis
British pair Heather Watson and Naomi Broady were both knocked out in the first round of the Biel Bienne Open in Switzerland. Watson, world ranked 110th, was beaten 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 by the Estonian Anett Kontaveit, who is the world number 99. The 24-year-old faced 18 break points - compared to just one for her opponent - on the way to losing. World 124 Broady was beaten 6-4 6-2 by German Julia Goerges, who is 46 in the women's rankings.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39567933
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Rhys Webb: Past troubles temper Wales scrum-half's Lions hopes - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Touring New Zealand with the Lions would be the pinnacle of Rhys Webb's career, but injury experience prompts caution over his hopes.
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Last updated on .From the section Welsh Rugby
Coverage: Scrum V Live on BBC Two Wales, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru & BBC Sport website and BBC Sport app, plus live scores online
Wales scrum-half Rhys Webb says being selected for the 2017 British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand would be the pinnacle of his career.
But he is philosophical about the prospect after missing the 2015 Rugby World Cup through injury.
Webb is a leading contender to be named in the Lions squad on 19 April and said: "If it happens, it happens, and it would be a dream come true.
"But I know what it's like to miss out on these big competitions."
Webb suffered a serious ankle injury in September 2015, a matter of weeks before the start of the World Cup, and played no part in Wales reaching the quarter-finals.
And the 28-year-old says such experiences are helping him stay focused on helping his region the Ospreys in the Pro12.
"The Lions is obviously the best of the best, but I've missed out on the World Cup and I know what it's like," Webb told 5 Live's Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
"Don't get me wrong, as the time is getting closer, the more motivational videos from past Lions are popping up on Twitter, and I would love to bits to be a part of it.
"But we've got to win the league first.
"It would be the pinnacle of my career, but we've got the Blues on Saturday, and that is the final game ahead of the announcement next week."
Ospreys are third in the Pro12 table - seven points adrift of second-placed Munster - and face Cardiff Blues this weekend as part of Welsh rugby's Judgment Day double-header at the Principality Stadium.
"We've had three disappointing results - Treviso, the [Challenge Cup] quarter-final [against Stade Francais], and Leinster on the weekend - so we are on a bit of a tricky losing streak," Webb added.
"But we are in total control of where we are in the league, the boys have a had a great season so far.
"It's about trying to stay positive and get that momentum now this weekend, in a full Principality Stadium against our local rivals the Blues."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39559062
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Turkey referendum: Critics abroad fear Erdogan's reach - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How do Turks in the Netherlands feel about Turkey's controversial referendum on 16 April?
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Europe
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Protests gripped Rotterdam in March when a Dutch ban on visits by Turkish ministers enraged Ankara
How do Turks in the Netherlands feel about Turkey's controversial referendum on 16 April? Turks living abroad are already voting - deciding whether to give President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers.
The BBC's Anna Holligan looks at the tensions gripping the Dutch-Turkish community.
A convivial mood emanates from the crowds flashing ID cards and smiles, as they stream through metal barriers outside a temporary polling station, set up inside a convention centre in a suburb of The Hague.
Families link arms, children catch melting ice-cream with the tips of their tongues. Some women wear headscarves, others let their bleached hair flow, men hug and share jokes in their mother tongue.
Plain-clothes police officers keep a cautious watch across the street.
About 250,000 Dutch-Turks are eligible to vote. Along with the millions in Germany, a politically-engaged diaspora could swing what is expected to be a tight result.
Two young men made the one-hour round trip from Rotterdam to mark their ballot because "it's the motherland'. The 25-year-old grins - one day he will go and live there forever. He voted "yes" because "Erdogan is a good man who can make the country better".
Erdogan critic Sinan Can: "Every day it's getting worse. I'm afraid someone will get killed"
But those who hold different views take a risk by expressing them.
Sinan Can's documentary work has made him unpopular with the pro-Erdogan lobby based in the Netherlands.
"When I went to vote they called me a traitor, if you're critical of Erdogan you're considered disloyal to Turkey. Fear is the biggest problem among Turks here.
"They say if I go to Turkey they'll get me and lock me up. Gulenists have a lot of death threats, every day it's getting worse. I'm afraid someone will get killed," he said.
He has not been home for three years.
And last week's detention of 10 Dutch-Turkish holidaymakers was evidence that this isn't paranoia.
Mr Erdogan's AK Party says the botched military coup last July was instigated by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally turned enemy.
Turks first moved to the Netherlands as "guest workers" during the post-war economic boom in the 1960s and 1970s.
Now they are third- and fourth-generation.
Many of those who were born and educated in this secular society feel a greater affinity with the Islamic country of their ancestors. And this romanticised nostalgia is buoyed by propaganda pumped out by satellite TV and other state-funded channels.
The long arm of Mr Erdogan is felt through the Turkish government's influence on the diaspora.
Hakan Buyuk works for the Dutch-Turkish weekly newspaper Zaman Vandaag - he has been told by police to keep a low profile after reporting threats to his life.
"The Union of European Turkish Democrats functions as the AKP in Europe. Diyanet - the directorate of religious affairs - is funded by the Turkish government and runs about 150 mosques in the Netherlands," he says.
Turks are deciding whether to give President Erdogan sweeping new powers
Last month Dutch police fired water cannons to disperse a pro-Erdogan crowd outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, protesting after two Turkish ministers were barred from addressing a rally.
Mr Erdogan fired back with insults, calling the Dutch "Nazi remnants" and accusing them of presiding over the genocidal slaughter of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995.
"It just makes them more passionate about him," says Thijl Sunier, professor of cultural anthropology at the Free University of Amsterdam. He tells me Dutch-Turks see Mr Erdogan through rose-tinted glasses.
"They don't experience the negatives caused by his policies, all the economic crumbling... they're looking at him from a distance, they're impressed by the macho way he does politics."
"We are very concerned," says Han Ten Broeke, the liberal VVD party's foreign affairs spokesman.
"We are a free and open society. This monitoring makes people silent. We get diversions, intimidation and violence. We simply cannot tolerate that in this country.
"There's been a surge in police reports of Turks who feel threatened by other Turks - these are Dutch people and it's happening in the midst of our society."
The Dutch government believes these ties to a country led by someone seen as the authoritarian antithesis of Dutch liberal tolerance is one of the greatest impediments to Turkish integration.
Schilderswijk in The Hague: Many Dutch-born Turks show strong loyalty to Turkey
Some working-class neighbourhoods are divided along ethnic lines - places like Feijenoord, a Rotterdam district, and Schilderswijk in The Hague.
There it is "proud Turks" versus nationalist white Dutchmen, like Erwin, who tells me the Turks need to "get more Dutch - we're not trying to make them walk in clogs, but they have to stop trying to grab onto the past".
Prof Sunier says this push is more influential than the pull Dutch-Turks feel from Ankara.
"If we continue to see people with a Turkish background as foreigners, even when they are born and raised here, it creates this feeling that even when they have a Dutch passport, speak Dutch, have a Dutch education, still they cannot reach higher levels - this is more important than all the efforts of Erdogan."
The AKP - enjoying very solid support in Turkey - is even more popular among foreign-born Turks. In Turkey's November 2015 election 70% of Dutch-Turks voted Erdogan.
Such powerful political influence over a large ethnic minority poses challenges not only for the Netherlands but for Europe in general.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39556934
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Scout leaders: 'It's the best non-paid job in the world' - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Volunteers who have donned a woggle and neckerchief share the ups and downs of leading Scouting groups.
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UK
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A shortage of leaders has left thousands of children stuck on a waiting list to become Scouts, Beavers, Cubs or Explorers, the Scout Association says.
Here, two people to have donned the Scouts' woggle and scarf describe the ups and downs of being a volunteer.
Lynn Dredge, who leads her local Beaver group for six- to eight-year-olds in Surrey, says she really enjoys her role.
"You're able to do things you would have as a child but with your adult's head on - you still get that level of fun," she says.
"We do sleepovers in the Scout hut and sing songs - all the old traditional things which the kids love.
"Because we're a village I sometimes see old Beavers who are now grown up - they'll say 'Hi Kingfisher!' which is my scouting name."
The 52-year-old, a teaching assistant in a primary school, has led the group for 16 years. She began as a parent volunteer after her son Stephen joined.
Now, she runs a weekly meeting during term-time that lasts for an hour-and-a-quarter, and plans sessions with two other leaders.
To organise this summer's term, "I met the other leaders at the pub and within a couple of hours we'd planned from now until July."
Each weekly evening has a different theme, where children may be taught to tie knots, how to light a campfire or learn computer skills.
And there are the trips. A camp-out on Dorset's Brownsea Island nature reserve and a jamboree in Holland where Scouts meet counterparts from across the world are on the agenda for Lynn's Beaver Scout Colony.
"The adults are Scouts as much as the children," Lynn says.
"If they go abseiling, or perform a talent show, we do it too - I'd never ask them to do something I'm not prepared to do myself."
On the shortage of volunteers, she says parents often "love the idea" of their children scouting - but that they are rarely prepared to give their own time.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Scout Katie Ainscough tells the Today programme why the group is still important
"They forget that it's run by volunteers, week in and week out."
She said some parents put their children on waiting lists up to four years before they are old enough to join, especially for oversubscribed groups.
"A group in Ashford has to run two evenings a week, of around 20 children each, and there is still a waiting list," she says.
"I've had to tell parents that unless you're prepared to help we won't be able to carry the group on."
But she adds: "For the people who say that they don't have anytime to volunteer, I say, it's about juggling life."
But with the activities come responsibilities. Training, health and safety rules and planning can be onerous, some leaders say.
Jim Godden, 52, was a Scout leader in Bristol for eight years, but says he became "disillusioned" with bureaucracy by the time he left in 2015.
"I was a very active Scout, leading a successful troop," he says.
"We regularly went mountain walking, climbing, water-skiing, kayaking, biking and wild swimming, among many other activities."
But it gradually became more difficult to authorise activities with senior leaders, he says, "even with the correct levels of leader ability and adhering to all safety factors".
He adds: "The only way the Scout movement can really move on is to attract those people who already take part in adventurous activities."
Jim says children want "adventure and excitement," rather than sitting at a campfire singing songs.
He says some leaders are old-fashioned and "still see it from their 'good old days' when they were Scouts."
For its part, the Scout Association said it was making it easier for those with limited time to join up by being flexible about how much time they can give and the sorts of jobs they do.
It says they are responding to people wanting "much more flexible volunteering arrangements" than in the past.
It said people could take up administrative and trustee roles, as well as being group leaders. They can help once a fortnight, month or term or at special events or camps.
But this has to be balanced with training leaders, who with one other adult can be responsible for around 20 young people at a particular time.
Everyone who signs up has a criminal record check and an appointment to assess if they are suitable for leading.
After this, volunteers have five months to complete an initial training which includes essentials like first aid and leadership training.
Once complete, they get a "Gilwell woggle" to show they are a learner leader.
But it can take up to five years to finish training and get a Wood Badge - the recognised insignia given to adult scouters across the world.
It looks like two wooden beads threaded onto a leather thong, and is modelled on a necklace given out by Robert Baden-Powell's at the first Scoutmasters' training camp in 1919.
Lynn says: "It sounds like a lot, but you fit in learning over the weekend. We all enjoy teaching the children, but it's about us learning too."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39567860
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Aboriginal Australian rules players demand end to racial abuse - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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Aboriginal Australian rules players write an open letter to the sport's fans calling for an end to racial abuse.
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Last updated on .From the section Sport
Aboriginal players from Australian rules football's AFL have written an open letter to the sport's fans calling for an end to racial abuse.
It comes after Port Adelaide Power's Paddy Ryder and Adelaide Crows player Eddie Betts were racially abused during a match at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
In the letter, the AFL players' indigenous advisory board said it had "had enough".
"Racial vilification has been a part of our game for too long," it added.
"That both Eddie and Patrick were abused because of the colour of their skin is absolutely unacceptable."
The latest incident follows a Port Adelaide Power member being banned after she was filmed throwing a banana at Betts last year.
"These are more than just words and the impact these slurs have on the player, their family, their children and their community is profound," continued the statement.
"There's no room in our game for any form of vilification, whether it's based on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
"Anyone who thinks that this is an acceptable way to act is no football fan."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/39563070
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