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Stakeknife: Spy linked to 18 murders, BBC Panorama finds - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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BBC Panorama reveals that a classified report has connected the spy Stakeknife to at least 18 murders.
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Northern Ireland
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Fred Scappaticci denies he was an Army agent within the IRA
The British spy Stakeknife - described by an Army general as "our golden egg" - is now the subject of a £35m criminal inquiry called Operation Kenova.
The inquiry has been triggered by a classified report which Northern Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions Barra McGrory QC has told Panorama "made for very disturbing and chilling reading".
What Stakeknife actually did has been wreathed in speculation since he was identified in 2003 as Belfast bricklayer Freddie Scappaticci.
The one stand-out fact, however, has not been in doubt: for over a decade Scappaticci maintained his cover in the IRA by interrogating fellow British agents to the point where they confessed and were then shot.
One British spy was preparing other British spies for execution.
And there were a lot of executions: 30 shot as spies by the IRA's so-called Nutting Squad which, I am told, Scappaticci eventually came to head.
Panorama has learned that Scappaticci is linked to at least 18 of those "executions".
Not all the victims would have been registered agents like him who produced the best intelligence.
Some were akin to "informers" - people with close access to IRA members, or who passed on what they saw and heard to the security forces.
A few were innocent of the IRA's charge of spying.
Still, the spectacle of one British agent heading an IRA unit dedicated to rooting out and shooting other British spies is so extraordinary that I've often wondered how exactly the state benefitted by the intelligence services having tolerated this for the whole of the 1980s.
The obvious person to ask is Scappaticci himself - but a draconian injunction stops journalists from approaching him, even to the point of making any enquiries about where he now lives or what he does.
Jon Boutcher (left), chief constable of Bedfordshire Police, is leading Operation Kenova, with the authority of PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton
Scappaticci was recruited by a section within military intelligence called the Force Research Unit, or FRU.
I'm told the Army have assessed his intelligence as having saved some 180 lives.
Can Scappaticci's intelligence have been so valuable that the sacrifice of other agents was a price worth paying to maintain his cover?
It's not quite that simple.
Had the cavalry been sent in every time Scappaticci tipped off his handlers about who was at risk, he himself wouldn't have lasted long.
Yet protecting him also meant the murders he knew about - or was even involved in - were never properly investigated, driving a "coach and horses" through the criminal justice system, according to Mr McGrory.
Barra McGrory said the report made for "disturbing and chilling reading"
Also, the Army's assessment that Stakeknife saved 180 lives doesn't translate to the number of actual lives saved as a direct consequence of actioning Stakeknife's intelligence by, for example, interdicting an IRA unit on active service.
I understand that figure of 180 is partly the army's guesstimate of lives that would have been lost had Stakeknife's intelligence not led to arrests and the recovery of weapons.
Of course Stakeknife also contributed significantly to "building a picture" of the IRA, an insight much valued by the intelligence services.
An ex-FRU operative with access to his intelligence told me: "He knew all of the main players and picked up a tremendous amount of peripheral information.
"As the [IRA] campaign changed and the political side became more important again he was highly placed to comment on that."
No doubt, but it's hard to quantify "picture building" in terms of actual lives saved.
One thing is for sure: leading a double life at the heart of an IRA unit with a Gestapo-like hold over its rank and file would have required cunning - and resilience.
Especially since Scappaticci told his army handlers he disliked gratuitous violence.
He seems to have managed the violence bit though, even when it was close to home.
I'm told that in January 1988, Scappaticci sent a young boy up to the home of Anthony McKiernan, asking him to call by to see Scappaticci.
The Scappaticcis and McKiernans were friends - children from both families had sleepovers.
That was the last McKiernan's wife and children saw of him. Accused by Scappaticci's Nutting Squad of being a spy - something the family strongly deny - some 24 hours later, he was shot in the head.
Unsurprisingly, Scappaticci's ex-IRA comrades paint a less flattering picture than his handlers.
They say he was a prodigious consumer of pornography, loved James Bond movies and - although he was on the IRA's Belfast Brigade staff - was never a "true republican."
That might explain why, after Scappaticci was released from detention without trial in December 1975, he drifted away from the republican movement and got involved in a building trade VAT scam.
There were family holidays in Florida.
But then he was arrested by the police and agreed to work for the fraud squad as an informer.
His former IRA comrades also speak of a man with an intimidating manner, handy with his fists and a large ego who liked to be at the centre of things.
His appointment to the IRA's Nutting Squad - a job most IRA members ran a mile from - certainly gave him that opportunity.
It provided Scappaticci with unrivalled access to what the IRA high command were thinking and their war plans.
Mr Scappaticci left Northern Ireland when identified by the media as Stakeknife, in 2003
It also gave him access to the names of new IRA recruits on the pretext of vetting them, plus details of IRA operations on the pretext of debriefing IRA members released from police custody to establish whether they gave away too much to their interrogators.
That explains why military intelligence was so eager to recruit Scappaticci when, in September 1979, he graduated to the FRU from spying for the fraud squad.
He got an agent number - 6126 - and a codename. Stakeknife.
His luck ran out in January 1990 after police agent Sandy Lynch was rescued from the clutches of the nutting squad.
The police thought Lynch was about to be shot, Scappaticci having got him to confess. The ordinary CID who did not know Scappaticci was a spy found a thumb print in the house where Lynch had been held.
Scappaticci fled to Dublin. However, a senior police officer who was in the know advised the FRU to get Scappaticci to concoct an alibi for his thumbprint.
It worked. On his return to Belfast in the autumn of 1992, Scappaticci was arrested and then released without charge.
His handlers hoped he could return to spying. But by now the IRA were suspicious and removed him from the security unit.
With Scappaticci's access to IRA secrets gone, the FRU formally stood him down as an agent in 1995.
How did he escape the same treatment at the hands of the IRA that he had helped mete out to others?
Probably because the sight of his body dumped on a roadside would have provoked a slew of questions about those IRA leaders who appointed him to protect the IRA from spies like him - and who also ignored warnings from their more sceptical comrades along the border that "Scap" was not to be trusted.
That did not stop the IRA in Belfast from putting Scap in his place.
After being sidelined, he agreed to help the staunchly republican Braniff family clear the name of a brother, Anthony, who was shot as a spy in 1981. He was eventually exonerated by the IRA.
But when Scappaticci spoke up for Anthony at a private meeting of republicans, to his embarrassment, the IRA's most senior man in Belfast, Sean "Spike" Murray suddenly appeared and slapped him down.
When Scap was eventually outed as Stakeknife by a former FRU operative in 2003, he was spirited to England where MI5 told him the IRA knew he had been a spy.
He rejected MI5's offer of protective custody, flew straight back to Belfast and sought a meeting with the IRA.
He gambled on not being shot because he calculated the IRA now had every reason to support a denial that he was a spy - even though he knew they didn't believe him.
His gamble was based on the fact that the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein were now engaged in the peace process.
Scappaticci calculated that were the IRA to admit they'd long suspected he was a spy, it would undermine the official line that they'd fought the British to an honourable draw.
Any such admission would provoke the rank and file into questioning whether the IRA had been pushed into peace, paralysed by the penetration of agents like him.
After meeting two of the most senior representatives of the IRA leadership, Martin "Duckster" Lynch and Padraic Wilson, I'm told Scappaticci and the IRA came to an understanding: Scappaticci would issue a firm denial which the IRA would not contest.
To this day, that's been the IRA's official position - even though, as they say in Belfast, the dogs in the street know it's nonsense.
Once again, Agent 6126 had relied on his wits and native cunning.
Whether the 71-year-old Scappaticci now outwits the 50 detectives trawling over everything he did, what his handlers allowed him to do, and what the IRA leaders authorised him to do, is another question.
You might say he's the spy who knows too much - because he knows the answers to all these questions.
Panorama is broadcast on Tuesday night and can be watched online after broadcast
• None Panorama - The Spy in the IRA
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39573536
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Crystal Palace 3-0 Arsenal - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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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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Tony Adams takes charge of Granada: How did it happen? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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It appears a strange move, but Tony Adams' appointment as Granada manager makes sense, says Spanish football writer Andy West.
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Arsenal legend Tony Adams has been appointed head coach of Spanish top-flight side Granada until the end of the season.
On the face of it, giving Adams - whose previous managerial experience amounts to ill-fated spells in charge of Wycombe, Portsmouth and Azerbaijani side Gabala - the task of saving La Liga's 19th-placed club from relegation seems a strange decision.
But, as Spanish football writer Andy West explains, the appointment is a more logical one than it might first appear.
Adams a La Liga manager - how has that happened?
Although Adams' elevation to manager of La Liga strugglers Granada looks extremely bizarre, upon closer inspection it makes a reasonable amount of sense.
Granada are owned by Chinese businessman Jiang Lizhang (often referred to as John Jiang), also the part-owner of NBA basketball team the Minnesota Timberwolves, who bought the Andalusian club last summer from Italian entrepreneur Gino Pozzo.
Adams is a vice-president of Jiang Lizhang's DDMC Football Club Management Company, and last year he had a spell in China as sporting director for the Chinese Super League team which is owned by DDMC, Chongqing Dangdai Lifan.
After leaving China, Adams moved to Spain midway through the current season, working in a similar role for Granada with the aim of helping Jiang Lizhang construct his plans for the club's long-term future.
So, Adams already had a strong personal involvement at Granada as the chief advisor on all footballing matters to the club's owner.
And when the position of Granada manager Lucas Alcaraz became untenable after Sunday's 3-1 home defeat by Valencia, in many ways Adams was the logical choice to deepen his role by becoming a part-time interim coach before, assumedly, the appointment of a long-term successor in the summer.
What kind of club is he taking over?
It's obvious that Granada have been deeply mired in a painful 'transitional period' since last year's takeover by Jiang Lizhang.
But in fact, the instability at the club goes back much further because former owner Pozzo - who is also in charge of Watford and Udinese - based his recruitment strategy upon an endless recycling of players between his three clubs.
Although that strategy helped earn Granada promotion into the top flight in 2011 and has kept them (just) in the top division ever since, it is hardly an ideal recipe for long-term success when most of your best players are either on loan from - or destined to join - one of the owner's other clubs.
Regular changes on the bench also pre-date the Jiang Lizhang era, with Adams becoming not only the club's third manager of the current season but also their seventh in just over three years.
Interestingly, Adams criticised the approach of the previous regime during a recent interview about his then-advisory Granada role on the club's official website, explaining: "We inherited 106 players, of whom only 44 actually belong to Granada.
"Our aim is to return Granada [Football Club] to Granada so the people here can identify fully with their team and their players.
"I'm here to put the Spanish structure in place, with players who will belong to Granada CF and who will fight for Granada."
Now he'll be putting that structure in place from a lot more close-up than he probably initially envisaged.
Does he have any chance of keeping them up?
Realistically, Granada have very little chance of staying up.
Sunday's defeat against Valencia left them eight points adrift of safety, with just seven games remaining and only one point gained from their last six outings.
Granada will probably need to win at least four of their remaining games to have any chance of survival and, as their upcoming opponents include Real Madrid, Sevilla and fierce local rivals Malaga, that's a major ask.
However, they do have a kind run-in, with the final two games coming away to bottom-placed Osasuna, who will almost certainly already be relegated by then, and mid-table Espanyol, who will have nothing to play for.
If Adams can even extend Granada's season that long it will be regarded as a big success, and an awful lot will depend on his first game in charge: at home to Celta Vigo on Sunday evening.
Celta are the perfect opponents for Adams' La Liga debut. The Galician team's league campaign has more or less ground to a halt while they focus their energies on the Europa League, and their trip to Granada is sandwiched between the first and second legs of their quarter-final meeting with Genk.
Adams, therefore, is highly likely to face a virtual reserve team when Celta come to Granada next weekend, giving him a wonderful opportunity to make a flying start. If he doesn't, it will probably be curtains.
Could this turn into a permanent role?
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.
If he has success in the next few weeks, Adams may acquire a taste for the dugout, and he may convince decision-maker Jiang Lizhang that he is the right man to lead the team's bid to return to top-flight football.
This, after all, is that most illogical of businesses… football. So don't rule anything out.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39558702
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Masters 2017: Is Sergio Garcia winning at Augusta the perfect sporting story? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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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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Taxi to Training with Dele Alli - BBC Three
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2017-04-11
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Check out this content on BBC Three.
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England and Tottenham midfielder Dele Alli jumps in the car with Lloyd for an eventful ride to work.
For more Taxi To Training click here.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/5a9078ee-0263-4a95-861a-85058b3b4928
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Ocean tech: Robot sea snakes and shoal-swimming subs - BBC News
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2017-04-11
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A robot sea snake that could one day "explore the Titanic" makes its debut at an ocean expo.
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Technology
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The self-propelling Eelume robot moves like a snake through the water
In the near future, ocean search-and-repair specialists won't need arms or legs, according to one vision.
In fact, they are destined to be much more slithery.
"We try to get people to move away from the word snake because it's seen as kind of scary but even I find myself all the time calling it a snake," says Richard Mills from marine tech firm Kongsberg.
If the idea of a swimming robot snake doesn't appeal, you might want to skip the next few paragraphs.
I first mentioned Eelume to a friend who asked me whether I would be allowed to have a swim with it.
I was secretly relieved that the answer was no.
What started as a university robotics research project in Norway 10 years ago, has become a commercial prototype - and it is unavoidably snake-like.
It's designed to inspect structures on the sea bed and carry out repairs, and is currently being tested on oil rigs.
ASV Global describes the controller for its remotely operated vessel as being like "an Xbox controller on steroids"
The flexible, self-propelling, tubular device has a camera at each end and is kitted out with sensors.
Because it has a modular design, its parts can be switched to suit different tasks, with swappable tools including a grabber and cleaning brush.
The design allows the robot to work in confined spaces that might be inaccessible to other vehicles, as well as to wriggle its body to stay in place in strong currents.
And because it is designed to connect itself to a seabed dock when not in use, it can be deployed at any time whatever the surface conditions.
It isn't yet on the market, but was recently on show at the Southampton's Ocean Business trade fair.
The Eelume robot sea snake that could one day explore the Titanic
Future plans already include a cheap 3D-printed model and another which can operate in very deep water.
"Something like going inside the Titanic, where divers can't, is a great opportunity that we could look at in the future," said Mr Mills.
"We are only limited by imagination in where we can take this vehicle."
Just as driverless cars are causing excitement on land, autonomous boats are also making a splash.
"Unmanned systems allow you to focus on the data," said Dan Hook from UK firm ASV Global, which was also at the Southampton expo.
The vessel can run for up to five days at a time either autonomously or via remote control
"You stay on board your ship in a warm, dry location, you can focus on the data and where to send the unmanned system next."
The firm's two autonomous vessels - which can also be operated via remote control - currently run on diesel generators rather than battery power.
"We're seeing increasing regulation on the types of engines we can use - it's a good thing to force you into the cleaner engines," he said.
"They are quieter and more efficient... but the future is electric, we're seeing it in cars, it's happening in our industry as well."
Batteries from the specialist battery-maker Steatite's have to function at low temperatures and high pressure, and power deep-sea devices for days at a time.
This is the battery that will be tested on Boaty McBoatface
Lithium-sulfur battery tech, already in the sights of electric car makers, is set to be trialled on board the famous autosub trio collectively known as Boaty McBoatface later this year - and it will be a Steatite creation.
"Lithium-sulfur is the next generation from lithium-ion," said the firm's Paul Edwards.
"It's got a better energy density, so you get more energy for the amount of weight you are carrying."
The Deep Trekker sub can go for six to eight hours - but its operator can't
But if you think that it is battery life that holds marine tech back, then think again.
It is more likely to be your concentration span, said Sam McDonald, president of a Canadian firm called Deep Trekker.
The firm was demonstrating two remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) - the larger of which was about the size of a small child.
Ms McDonald said that the operator would become tired before the ROV did.
"I need to take a break after three or four hours of running it," she said.
"You're looking at a screen the whole time, it takes a great deal of concentration.
"You're trying to hold position under the water, looking at infrastructure or watching tools or divers work, you're constantly moving your hands and eyes," she explained.
If that sounds exhausting imagine being in charge of a whole load of them at once.
Return to sender... rewards will be offered for washed-up ecosubs
Planet Ocean was showing off the ecosub - a small, thigh-sized device that looks a bit like an old shell casing and is designed to "swim" in shoals, with each individual sub packed with different sensors to build up collectively a strong picture of the group's watery environment.
One "pilot" can oversee many simultaneously, and they are so small that each individual sub can only carry four or five sensors, said managing director Terry Sloane.
"If they bump into each other it's not a big disaster," he said.
"They only weigh 5kg [11lb] on land".
Keen to encourage recycling, Mr Sloane is prepared to offer a bounty for washed-up ecosubs that find their way to the beach - there's a hotline number on the casing for eagle-eyed beachcombers to call.
"We don't want to leave things floating around in the ocean, but it doesn't take many hours of searching for one to make it uneconomical to recover," he said.
"We expect people to recover them and claim a reward."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39496255
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Tom Youngs: Leicester Tigers captain says extended season 'fills players with dread' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-11
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The proposed 10-month Premiership rugby season "fills players with dread", says Leicester Tigers captain Tom Youngs.
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The proposed 10-month Premiership rugby season "fills players with dread", says Leicester Tigers captain Tom Youngs.
Following the announcement of the new global calendar in March, Premiership Rugby confirmed the 2019-20 domestic season will start in early September and finish at the end of June.
However, players have voiced their concerns about the schedule.
"I think it fills us all with a bit with dread," Tigers hooker Youngs, 30, told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I know they are trying to look after us a little bit, but that's a long time. It's long enough now."
Premiership Rugby say the 10-month campaign will allow clubs to become "more sophisticated" in their management of players, with chief executive Mark McCafferty insisting player welfare remains the priority.
But Youngs, who has 28 England caps and three for the British and Irish Lions - is among those to stress the need for a long summer break and pre-season, rather than shorter rest periods during the campaign.
"It would shorten pre-seasons, and pre-season is so vital to get us ready to go through the season," he added.
"I know in June, if I don't go on any tours or anything, I have five weeks off and that is nice to know. Even when pre-season games come round, it feels a little bit like you have only played last week.
"I don't know the ins and outs, but I wouldn't be too keen about it to be honest. I do feel the players are going to be the ones to drag it through. To just extend the season, I don't think that will really work."
Senior figures in the club game, such as Northampton forward Christian Day, have not ruled out the option of players going on strike and Youngs says the next few months could be critical.
"It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year or so, and how the players try to get this resolved to where we would like it to be," he said.
"It's probably going to clash at some point and we will have to see how it all unfolds."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39567024
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Borussia Dortmund: Thomas Tuchel says club 'ignored' over Monaco tie - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel says his club felt "completely ignored" over the rescheduling of their Champions League game against Monaco.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Borussia Dortmund felt "completely ignored" over the rescheduling of their Champions League game against Monaco, says manager Thomas Tuchel.
Dortmund lost 3-2 in the first leg of the quarter-final on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after an attack on their bus caused the match to be postponed.
"We were told by text message that Uefa was making this decision," said Tuchel.
"A decision made in Switzerland that concerns us directly. We will not forget it, it is a very bad feeling."
Following Tuchel's comments, Uefa released a statement saying the decision to play the match at 17:45 BST on Wednesday was made in "complete agreement with clubs and authorities".
• None Bartra 'doing much better' after bus attack
European football's governing body added: "We were in touch with all parties today and never received any information which suggested that any of the teams did not want to play."
Three explosions hit Dortmund's team bus as they travelled to their Westfalenstadion home on Tuesday, with the match rescheduled later that evening.
"Of course we have to keep it going, but we still want to be competitive," added Tuchel. "We do not want to use the situation as an excuse.
"We wished we would have had more time to deal with what happened, but someone in Switzerland decided we must play."
Spain defender Marc Bartra suffered a broken wrist and has subsequently had surgery, but no other players were hurt.
"Every player has the right to deal with it in his way. The team did not feel in the mood, in which you must be for such a game," said Tuchel.
"We let the players choose if they wanted to play. But this morning, we found that the training had done good, that it had made us think of something else."
German police have described it as a targeted attack and detained a suspect with "Islamist" links.
"We were attacked as men and we tried to solve the problem on the ground," said Tuchel, who has been in charge of the Bundesliga side since 2015.
"Everyone has their own way of reacting to events. The players had the choice not to play, but no-one chose this option."
Dortmund were 2-0 and 3-1 down to French side Monaco, for whom 18-year-old forward Kylian Mbappe scored twice.
"The team has shown an incredible character," added Tuchel. "We have won the second half, the spirit in the second half was great."
Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim had some sympathy with Tuchel's view, but said the packed fixture calendar contributed to the hasty rescheduling.
"Maybe it should not be played today, but the calendar gave few options to be able to play the match," he said.
"We produced a good result but it's only half-time of the quarter-final."
'I will never forget those faces'
Turkey midfielder Nuri Sahin came on as a second-half substitute for Dortmund.
"It is hard to talk about it and hard to find the right words," he said. "Last evening we felt how it is to be in this situation. I don't wish a feeling like this on anyone.
"I didn't realise what happened and when I got home my wife and son were waiting in front of the door. I felt how lucky we were."
The 28-year-old, who has previously had a loan spell with Liverpool, added: "I know football is very important. We love football, we suffer with football and I know we earn a lot of money and have a privileged life - but we are human beings, there is so much more than football in this world.
"When I was on the bus last night, I can't forget the faces, I will never forget those faces. I was sitting next to Marcel Schmelzer and I will never forget his face. It was unbelievable."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39582284
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Is park next to Parliament the right place for Holocaust memorial? - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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There are some people unhappy with the decision to site the memorial in park next to Parliament.
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UK Politics
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It's a rare piece of green space with the backdrop of Parliament and a commanding view of the Thames.
Victoria Tower Gardens, London's smallest royal park, is a popular haunt for dog walkers, joggers, families - and also picnicking office workers, who use it to soak up the sun and get a breather from the hustle and bustle of city life.
But that could be about to change because this narrow strip of parkland is set to become home to a national Holocaust memorial with an underground learning centre.
By Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, organisers anticipate the £50m scheme will transform the park, which dates back to the 1870s and is fringed by trees and benches, into a tourist destination and education resource attracting more than a million visitors a year.
A shortlist of 10 architects are currently competing in an international design competition launched by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation to create the new structure, with the winning team to be announced by the end of May.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron said the new monument would "show the importance Britain places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust", claiming it would represent "a permanent statement of our values as a nation" and something that would be visited "for generations to come".
But not everyone is happy about the plan. Some local residents, MPs and peers say that while they are fully behind the creation of a Holocaust memorial - and in particular a learning centre - they believe the project will destroy the park.
Barbara Weiss, the architect who refurbished the Russell Square headquarters of the Wiener Library - the oldest institution for the study of the Holocaust and genocide - questioned why it could not be placed with it. "I'm not against the memorial, I just don't want any building in our park, not even a hospital or an art gallery."
Ms Weiss is a leading light in the Save Victoria Tower Gardens campaign. She says the park is "absolutely unique, historic and gorgeous - to put something else there will totally change its character completely".
"It doesn't make a lot of sense to build a learning centre underground in an area beside a river in a flood area.
"The organisers are talking about one million extra visitors there - that's a lot of extra security. We would have people with machine guns and bag checks, and I know people who work in Parliament don't want that. They go to the park to get away from that pressure of feeling constantly monitored."
Lucy Peck, a retired architectural historian who lives nearby, said: "I'm not against a memorial at all, but there are bigger places in London that could take a project of this size much more easily. There's a superb Holocaust gallery less than a mile away at the Imperial War Museum, so why build another fairly similar thing here?"
The Imperial War Museum, a 15 minute walk from Parliament, was one of three locations out of 50 in the running as a Holocaust memorial site - until January 2016 when Mr Cameron named Victoria Tower Gardens as the preferred option.
Lucy Donoughue, the IWM's assistant communications director, said the museum - which is spending £15m on renewing and expanding its renowned Holocaust Exhibition and already attracts a million visitors a year - was not deemed central enough.
"While we were disappointed by this decision, we still remain hugely supportive of the initiatives laid out by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation," she said.
Veteran Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who has lived near Victoria Tower Gardens for more than 25 years, says he is unhappy two other sites - Potters Field on the south bank of the Thames between Tower Bridge and City Hall, and Millbank, next to Tate Britain - were ruled out.
"Somewhere, somehow some unnamed person in Number 10 decided to substitute these three with Victoria Tower Gardens," he said. "You can't have a prominent memorial here - you've got to keep the garden. I would urge the government to pause, reopen the debate and rethink."
The park, which is listed Grade II and is partly inside a Unesco world heritage site, is no stranger to significant structures including August Rodin's bronze The Burghers of Calais, a statue of the Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, and a fountain commemorating the abolition of slavery.
A spokeswoman for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, which is chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette, said its mission had been to find "the most iconic location" for a national memorial and learning centre - and Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament "fulfils that aim better than any of the almost 50 sites we examined".
She declined to say specifically why other sites had not been chosen except that "a lot of those were for commercial reasons".
"With cross-party support, we have made a promise to survivors that in Victoria Tower Gardens we will create a fitting national memorial as a permanent site of remembrance and an education centre to act more broadly as a voice against hatred and prejudice in the modern world, while respecting and enhancing the existing green space," she said.
"There can be nowhere more meaningful for such a powerful statement of our national values than next to Parliament, at the heart of our democracy. We want Britain's Holocaust survivors to know that we will not break our promise."
But Jewish Conservative peer Lord Wasserman, one of David Cameron's closest political allies who lives quite near the gardens, says it is not the right location for such a symbolic and important project.
"In particular, I am concerned that this will lead to massive resentment on the part of those ordinary Londoners who will be seriously inconvenienced by the additional traffic (vehicular and pedestrian) which the museum will generate," he said. "I'm also concerned about the the additional security risk associated with such a site."
Maja Turcan, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, says while a learning centre is needed "particularly at a time where anti-Semitism and hate crimes are increasing" - she questions why it could not be placed somewhere like Manchester "where there's a big Jewish community, but is also multi-ethnic and multi-cultural".
Victoria Park Gardens as it is now
Aviva Trup, who manages Jewish Care's Holocaust Survivors Services - a centre which offers a programme of social, cultural and therapeutic events for Holocaust survivors in the UK - said "legacy and education is of upmost importance to our members".
She would not be drawn on whether Victoria Tower Gardens was the right place for the project, saying that "the most important thing is that the memorial is built in a central London location and is easy to access".
The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation is currently running a public consultation exercise, with exhibitions across the UK featuring the proposed schemes until the end of April.
The winning design will be announced before the end of May by Sir Peter's jury, whose members include: London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid, TV presenters Loyd Grossman - also chair of the Royal Parks - and newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky.
The project should be open to the public by Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2021.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39417714
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Wladimir Klitschko: Anthony Joshua will be 'facing Mount Everest' for heavyweight title - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Wladimir Klitschko warns Anthony Joshua that fighting him for the heavyweight title will be like "facing Mount Everest".
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Wladimir Klitschko has warned Britain's Anthony Joshua that fighting him will be like "facing Mount Everest" when the two meet on 29 April.
The Ukrainian, 41, who lost his heavyweight title to Tyson Fury in November 2015, will fight Joshua for the IBF, WBA Super and IBO titles.
Klitschko's defeat by Fury was the Ukrainian's first loss in 11 years.
"I believe this fight is going to be the most important of my career," Klitschko told BBC Radio 5 live.
"You can climb Mount Everest in a certain period of time in the window of the year. You might make it or you might not.
"But Mount Everest is still there. So am I."
Joshua is the IBF title-holder, while the WBA title was vacated by Fury in October as he sought medical treatment for depression.
Joshua, who visited Klitschko's training camp in 2014, turned professional in 2013 and is unbeaten after 18 fights.
However, Klitschko will be his toughest opponent to date, with 64 wins and 53 knockouts since he turned pro in 1996.
The fight at Wembley is expected to attract over 90,000 spectators, which would rival the all-time British attendance record set in 1939.
"Opportunities are not coming every day. I have one of the rising stars, it's perfect," added Klitschko.
"Who else would I have fought? I have the greatest chance to get the majority of the titles back and fight a guy at the same eye level.
"I think our chances are really looking 50-50."
Listen to 5 live Boxing: Inside Klitschko's training camp on BBC Radio 5 live at 20:00 BST on Thursday, 13 April.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39575186
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Marc Bartra: Borussia Dortmund defender injured in bus attack 'doing much better' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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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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2017-04-12
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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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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
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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Track Cycling World Championships: Elinor Barker pipped for gold - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Britain's Elinor Barker is pipped to gold as Rachele Barbieri wins the scratch race at the Track Cycling World Championships.
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Last updated on .From the section Cycling
Britain's Elinor Barker was pipped to gold at the Track Cycling World Championships as Italy's Rachele Barbieri won the women's scratch race.
Jolien D'Hoore took bronze for Belgium in the 10km race on the opening day of the championships in Hong Kong.
"I went ever so slightly too soon and that probably cost me the win," Wales' Barker, 22, told BBC Sport.
"I was just not fast enough. Congratulations to her but I'm really disappointed."
• None The madison, omnium and other mysteries
Barker won team pursuit Olympic gold alongside Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny and Joanna Rowsell Shand in Rio last summer.
But she just missed out on Wednesday as the medals were decided in a bunch sprint and Barbieri edged home.
Elsewhere, there was disappointment for Britain in the men's team sprint.
Jack Carlin, 19, Ryan Owens, 21, and Joseph Truman, 20, were third-fastest in qualifying but failed in their first-round match-up with the Netherlands.
The trio had taken two gold medals from two World Cup meetings in November - their first at senior level - but defeat meant they will miss out on a medal race.
"We've had a dream run up to now and we were close to our best time ever, it's really disappointing," Owens said.
"We came here in the form of our lives, and if a few technical things had gone differently it would have been a different story."
New Zealand retained their title with victory over Netherlands, while France won bronze from Poland.
In the men's team pursuit, Andy Tennant, Mark Stewart, Ollie Wood and Chris Latham qualified for Thursday's bronze-medal race against Italy. Australia and New Zealand will contest the gold medal.
Russia won gold in the women's team sprint, beating Australia, while Germany won bronze from China. Great Britain did not have a team competing in the race.
What a fantastic ride that was from Elinor Barker. First she had us on the edge of our seats, then she had us out of our seats, but in the end it wasn't quite her day.
With one lap to go, Elinor had got around the Dutch favourite and she probably thought she'd nailed it. The Italian just won it, but El looks so strong and I think we have got a lot more to see from her this week. Starting with a silver will only make her hungrier.
New Zealand were immense in the men's team sprint. It was tough on the British team, but this will inspire them to work harder.
They shouldn't be disappointed though. It's frustrating, but these are the first steps towards the Tokyo Olympic Games and they should be proud of what they have achieved so far. It's been a fantastic breakthrough on the elite international level from them this year.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39578699
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Liverpool launches bid to host 2026 Commonwealth Games - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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City wants to host the event either in 2026 or in 2022, following Durban's recent withdrawal.
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Liverpool
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Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson is helping to spearhead the project alongside other advisers
Liverpool has officially launched a bid to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, with a team of advisers appointed to spearhead the project.
The bid also sets out the city's interest in hosting the event in 2022, following Durban's withdrawal in March.
Sports executive Brian Barwick will chair the bid alongside teams employed to design branding and plan logistics.
Liverpool City Council said it could potentially involve Everton's planned new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock.
A council spokeswoman said plans were at an early stage, but the possibility of building a running track at the ground was likely to be discussed.
The city already has a 50m Olympic-standard pool in Wavertree, but no diving or training pool.
Liverpool Arena would be one of the venues that could be used to host events
A velodrome would also have to be built to accommodate cycling, while Liverpool Arena could be used to host other events.
A budget of £500,000 has been set aside for the campaign, and an "intense 3-6 month period of activity" would now begin under the banner Team Liverpool, the council said.
Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said the city had sent out "a powerful message that we are deadly serious about bidding for the games".
"The Commonwealth Games has the potential to be a game changer in further driving forward the city's regeneration and renaissance," he said.
Liverpool would be prepared to host the games in either 2026 or 2022, after Durban pulled out
Mr Barwick, 62, is chairman of the Rugby Football League, a member of the FA Council, and has worked on previous international bids for sports events including the Olympic Games and the World Cup.
The former head of BBC Sport said: "The chance to lead the work for my home city of Liverpool to host the Commonwealth Games is a huge privilege."
Local sporting stars including heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, boxer Tony Bellew, gymnast Beth Tweddle and former footballer Jamie Carragher have backed the campaign.
London and Birmingham have expressed interest in staging the event, while Manchester, which hosted the games in 2002, has said it would be "ready to help".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-39568602
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Didier Drogba: Ex-Chelsea striker joins Phoenix Rising as player and co-owner - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba joins United Soccer League side Phoenix Rising as a player and co-owner.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba has joined United Soccer League side Phoenix Rising as a player and co-owner.
Drogba, 39, has not played since leaving Major League Soccer club Montreal Impact in November.
He will start out as a player but has also joined Phoenix's "MLS expansion franchise ownership group".
"To own a team and be a player at the same time is unusual but it's going to be very exciting," Drogba said.
"It's a good transition because I want to carry on playing but I'm almost 40 and it's important for me to prepare for my later career."
Phoenix have just started their fourth season in the Western Conference of USL, which forms part of the second tier of the American league system.
The Arizona club hope to become one of four planned expansion teams in MLS over the next three years.
"I had offers from China, from England - in both the Premier League and even the Championship - but they were only as a player," Drogba told The Premier League Show.
"This was the right offer because it was important for me to think about playing, because I enjoy it, but also to get to the next stage of my career."
Drogba scored 157 goals in 341 appearances during his first spell at Chelsea from 2004 to 2012, winning three Premier League titles and the Champions League.
Following moves to Shanghai Shenhua in China and Turkish side Galatasaray, Drogba returned to the Blues for the 2014-15 season, scoring seven goals in 40 appearances, helping Jose Mourinho's side to the title, before 18 months with Montreal.
He joins former Chelsea team-mate Shaun Wright-Phillips at Phoenix, who have one win and two defeats from three games this season.
"I'm still a player but it's important to respect the decision of the manager," added Drogba, who is Ivory Coast's record goalscorer.
"When we're on the pitch, he's going to be the one who decides and when we go to board meetings, it's a different thing."
Watch the full interview with Didier Drogba in The Premier League show on BBC Two on Thursday, 13 April (22:00 BST) .
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39584158
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Urban Burqa: An artist's striking critique of Islamophobia - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Why a photographer's series sets a garment of Afghanistan against scenes of everyday Australia.
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Australia
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When Tony Abbott, as Australian prime minister in 2014, appeared to support a ban on the burka being worn in Parliament House, award-winning photographer Fabian Muir had one response. He trekked 1,600km (1,000 miles) across his homeland, camera in hand.
Muir's resulting series pitted a cobalt-coloured garment of Afghanistan, alternatively spelled burqa, against Australia's most forbidding, and beautiful, terrains.
Blue Burqa in a Sunburnt Country features a lone figure standing against swirling skies on a ridge of yellow sand; reflected in clear water; and walking amongst a forest of dead trees.
Now Muir has made a follow up sequence - Urban Burqa.
Rather than pictured in the outback, a woman in blue stands, contrastingly, against the white of milk bottles in a supermarket. Other images include the figure outside a fluorescent McDonald's sign and in a concrete basement covered in graffiti.
The series is a critique of the rising far right and Islamophobia, Muir says.
Muir says his series deals with "confrontation and adaptation"
"Tragically, [anti-immigrant sentiment] has only become more magnified since 2014," says Muir, pointing out that 49% of Australians in a 2016 poll supported a ban on Muslims entering the country.
"The refugee crisis… is always such an easy target for politicians. There's always going to be a percentage of the population who swallows that because it seems like an easy solution to problems."
In Blue Burqa in a Sunburnt Country, Muir wanted to show how the burka complemented - and even enhanced - the landscapes: "It hinted or suggested a potential symbiosis of this country and immigrants, that runs counter to the narrative making the headlines at that time."
Urban Burqa, by contrast, touches more on a cultural clash. "It's still about simulation but there's also a sense of confrontation and adaptation, hence this darker, edgier feel to it," he says.
Born in a household of Australian creatives - Muir's mother was a director at Opera Australia, his father a director at the Australian Broadcasting Corp - Muir turned to photography after completing a law degree at Sydney University. He has since lived in Estonia, Lithuania, France, Spain and Germany.
Muir, who is in his 40s, credits his success to a lack of formal training.
The subject is photographed against the Aboriginal flag
"I personally think it's unnecessary and potentially dangerous for an aspiring photographer [to attend photography school]," he says. "Especially if they're young. They're going to potentially lack the fortitude to resist their teacher's vision."
Muir taught himself, learning on film. "The trial and error was quite expensive," he laughs. "Each shot cost me a dollar!"
Still, he appreciates the ability to pursue his own ideas "untrammelled and unburdened by someone else's vision".
Last year Muir completed his series Intimate Perspectives on North Korea, selected as a finalist in the Magnum Photography Awards.
"It's a time capsule," says Muir of the nation, which he visited five times over the course of two years.
Shepherded around by guides, he was only allowed to walk unaided - and unwatched - on a handful of occasions.
One of Muir's photos from North Korea
The photographer was first inspired to travel to North Korea after coming across Tomas van Houtryve's 2009 photo essay The Land of No Smiles.
He says Houtryve's images are powerful but bleak. "His descriptions are very acid, of children fleeing at the sight of him," he says. "What I saw was very different."
"The bleakness is part of the narrative," continues Muir. "But it's not the sole element. Almost more interesting was my experience of street level North Korea. They're really very warm and have a sense of humour, and enjoy very normal things."
In order to document this, Muir took photographs of picnics in the park, kids in a playground, and bathers at a beach resort. One of his most hard-hitting images is of young children in an orphanage sitting beneath portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
It works because of "the structural composition, which says something about North Korean society - this strict structure of children lined up under the presence of the leadership there," he says.
"For me it also raises questions: these infants, where are they going to be in the future? It asks questions about the future, it illustrates the present, and it also says something about the past."
Muir says his series ends on a hopeful note
Key was showing that there was more to the story than "unthinking robotic people and their hatred for America and Japan".
This hit home in 2015. "Out of nowhere I sensed this figure cannon balling towards me and arms were thrown around me. It was this guide I had on previous visits - he was in his sixties, quite eccentric and has fantastic sense of humour," Muir says.
"He was almost in tears to see me again. It was absolutely genuine - no one put him up to that."
With regards to Urban Burqa, Muir believes it ends on a hopeful note.
The last image shows a woman in a burka standing in a bright blue skate park. The shadow from a skater in a T-shirt and shorts skirts the crown of her covered head, his hand almost touching her.
"For me it's a nice closing image, it's optimistic - because of the reaching out," he says. "[But] there's a sense that there are a lot of barriers that have to be overcome."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-39499321
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Farewell to pay growth - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The jobs market is robust, but pay rises have largely stalled and for many are already in reverse.
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Business
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Income growth - or lack of it - has been one of the defining economic and political issues of the last decade.
Average weekly earnings are still £26 below where they were at their peak in 2008.
Employment levels are strong - which is economic good news.
But if people in work feel worse off year on year, then Number 10 knows it has a major issue to fix.
The reasons for Britain's wage stagnation problem are multiple.
The recession following the financial crisis raised the spectre of unemployment, meaning that holding on to your job became more important than asking for a pay rise.
As growth, demand and investment dried up following the banking collapse, inflation in western economies evaporated and in some sectors - such as food - price deflation became the norm.
The cost of living - the usual fuel for wage demands - stopped rising.
Then there is Britain's productivity problem, which will not return to its long-term growth rate of 2% until 2020.
Productivity measures the amount of value (outputs) created in the economy per unit of input - such as labour hours worked, materials used or capital investment spent.
Its increase is directly related to income: if productivity rises, wealth is created more rapidly than costs rise, and increased profit and wage rises are the result.
If productivity is poor - and the UK lags far behind America, France and Germany on this measure - that wealth is harder to come by.
As Philip Hammond put it at the time of the Autumn Statement last November: "It takes a German worker four days to produce what we make in five, which means, in turn, that too many British workers work longer hours for lower pay than their counterparts."
By the time a British worker has earned £1, a German worked has earned £1.35.
When inflation is low or non-existent, stagnant real income growth is less of an issue for the people affected.
But over the past six months, inflation has risen markedly, from 1% in September to 2.3% last month.
Some of that is down to the fall in the value of sterling, but global inflationary pressures are also rising as more solid growth returns, as I've written before.
Today's figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that earnings growth is travelling in the opposite direction - down to 2.2% last month from 2.3% in February.
And that, of course, is an average figure.
For some areas of employment - such as public sector workers - the picture is far grimmer.
The Resolution Foundation says that more than a third of the workforce are already in sectors where pay is falling in real terms.
"Britain's brief pay recovery has come to an end," said Stephen Clarke, economic analyst at the think-tank.
"Forty per cent of the workforce are experiencing shrinking pay packets according to the latest figures, in sectors ranging from finance to the public sector. Many more will join them in the coming months as inflation continues to rise, with pay across the economy as a whole set to have fallen in the first three months of 2017."
Inflation is expected to jump again when the April figures are published next month - price rises associated with the later Easter holiday this year (increased air fares for example) will feed through as will plans by the major energy companies to raise prices.
At the same time, wage increases are set to continue slowing. It is likely that next month, falling real incomes will be back with us for the first time since September 2014.
As I have said before, Britain's income squeeze is one of the most difficult political and economic issues facing the government.
Many will argue that an economy that works for everyone would not be expected to be one where people are worse off at the end of the year than they were at the beginning.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39578270
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The Americans volunteering to watch executions - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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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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2017-04-12
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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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Fernando Alonso: McLaren driver to miss Monaco Grand Prix for Indianapolis 500 - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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McLaren's Fernando Alonso is given permission to miss this year's Monaco Grand Prix so he can race in the Indianapolis 500.
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McLaren driver Fernando Alonso will miss the Monaco Grand Prix in May so he can race in the Indianapolis 500.
The double world champion has the full approval and support of McLaren and engine partner Honda, who are having a difficult season in Formula 1.
Alonso, 35, will race for the Honda-powered Andretti team on 28 May, and the car will be branded a McLaren.
McLaren are yet to decide who will replace him in Monaco that weekend, but Jenson Button is a possibility.
The 2009 world champion has retired from F1 but is contracted to McLaren as an ambassador. It is not known whether the Briton would want to come back to drive an uncompetitive car.
Why does Alonso want to race at Indy?
Alonso said he had long held an ambition to win the so-called 'triple crown' of Monaco, the Indy 500 and Le Mans.
Only one man has won all three in his career - the late Graham Hill in the 1960s.
Alonso, who won the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006 and 2007, said: "It's a tough challenge, but I'm up for it.
"I don't know when I'm going to race at Le Mans, but one day I intend to. I'm only 35. I've got plenty of time for that."
The Spaniard added he would definitely race for McLaren for the rest of the season, dismissing speculation he could quit part way through the year because of the Honda F1 engine's poor performance.
"It's of course a regret that I won't be able to race at Monaco this year," he said. "But Monaco will be the only 2017 grand prix I'll be missing, and I'll be back in the cockpit for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in early June.
"I've never raced an IndyCar car before, and neither have I ever driven on a super-speedway, but I'm confident I'll get to grips with it fast.
"I've watched a lot of IndyCar action on TV and online, and it's clear that great precision is required to race in close proximity with other cars on the far side of 220mph [354km/h]."
Alonso acknowledged he would be on "a steep learning curve".
But he added: "I'll be flying to Indianapolis from Barcelona immediately after the Spanish Grand Prix, practising our McLaren-Honda-Andretti car at Indy from 15 May onwards, hopefully clocking up a large number of miles every day, and I know how good the Andretti Autosport guys are.
"I'll be proud to race with them, and I intend to mine their knowledge and expertise for as much information as I possibly can."
McLaren have supported Alonso's wishes because they recognise the efforts he has been putting in - and the frustration he is feeling - after three uncompetitive seasons since joining the team in 2015.
How will Alonso do?
McLaren executive director Zak Brown said: "Could Fernando win this year's Indy 500? Well, I wouldn't be so silly as to make any such rash prediction, but I expect him to be in the mix.
"Put it this way: the team he'll be racing for won the race last year, using the same Honda engine, and he's the best racing driver in the world. That's quite a compelling combination.
"He'll have his work cut out to acclimatise to running at super-speedway velocities, but ultimately it's quality that counts in all forms of motorsport, and Fernando is very definitely quality. He's ballsy and brave too."
Alonso joined McLaren-Honda with the intention of winning a third world title, but the package has been uncompetitive, with the vast majority of the blame lying with the Honda engine. His best results have been three fifth places.
He has won 32 grands prix - sixth in the all-time list - but has not stood on top of the podium since the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix in a Ferrari.
Alonso's contract runs out at the end of this season. McLaren want him to re-sign and there is a hope this will help persuade him to do so.
The unexpected development marks McLaren's return to the Indy 500 for the first time in 38 years. They won the race with their own car in 1974 and 1976.
IndyCars is now a 'spec' formula, where all teams use the same car, though the different engine manufacturers are allowed to design their own aerodynamic bodykits.
The Indy 500 is the most prestigious race in the USA and the blue riband event of the IndyCar Series.
The unique practice schedule gives Alonso more than the usual amount of time to prepare for a race.
There is a full week of practice, six hours a day for five days, before the qualifying weekend on 20-21 May, and two more days of practice before the race on 28 May.
The Andretti team, run by former IndyCar and grand prix driver Michael Andretti, is one of the leading teams in the championship and won the event last year with American Alexander Rossi, who raced five times in F1 for the Manor team in 2015.
Andretti raced for McLaren in F1 in 1993 as Ayrton Senna's team-mate, completing 13 races with one podium finish before being replaced by Finn Mika Hakkinen and returning to race in the US.
Andretti said: "Fernando's lack of experience on super-speedways is not of concern to me.
"I do believe that the Indianapolis 500 is one of the best places for a rookie to start because there is the opportunity for so much practice time on the track - and, as we have demonstrated, it can be won by a rookie.
"Fernando is a great talent and I have full confidence that he will represent very strongly for McLaren, Honda and Andretti Autosport."
'Unlike anything he has yet experienced' - analysis
This is a bold and exciting move by Alonso but one with plenty of risks.
The Spaniard remains in the very highest echelon of Formula 1 drivers and has more than enough talent to succeed in any car, but the type of racing he will encounter at Indianapolis is unlike anything he has yet experienced.
If he was racing on a road course - what Americans call F1-type tracks - he would be expected to be absolutely competitive straight away.
But Indianapolis is a so-called 'super-speedway' - an ultra-fast oval track where average lap speeds can exceed 230mph.
Not only does Alonso have to get used to the intricacies of racing on a banked oval, including all the technical challenges involved, he will also have to learn the art of the 'draft' - using the slipstream of another car to gain speed - which is critical to oval racing.
And because of the high speeds involved and the proximity of the cars, IndyCar racing has a reputation for being notably more dangerous than F1, and any accident can have serious consequences.
But what he is doing is not without precedent.
Hill, Jim Clark and Emerson Fittipaldi all won the F1 world title and the Indy 500, while Nigel Mansell switched to IndyCars in 1993 after failing to agree terms with Williams following his title success in 1992.
Alonso will be able to count on advice not only from team owner Andretti, but also team-mate Takuma Sato, who raced in F1 in the mid-2000s.
And former Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who is also in this year's field, also raced against Alonso in F1 from 2001-2005.
'Racer' Alonso up for the challenge
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39576099
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Dylan Hartley: British & Irish Lions call-up would be a 'bonus' for England skipper - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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England captain Dylan Hartley says British & Irish Lions selection for the summer tour of New Zealand would be a "bonus".
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
England captain Dylan Hartley says it would be a "bonus" to be selected for the British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand this summer.
Hartley, 31, led Eddie Jones' side to the Six Nations championship last month and will finish the Premiership season with club side Northampton.
"I'm not building myself up for possibly what would be a setback in my eyes," Hartley told BBC Sport.
"So I'm taking it as it comes. I'm happy where I am at the moment. If it comes it is a bonus. If not then I have got other things to play for and other things to look forward to.
"For anyone selected I'm sure it's a great honour and I have been previously selected, so, yes, it is a great honour, but to tour I'm sure is a great experience."
'It's my job to play well'
The immediate focus for the New Zealand-born hooker is guiding Saints at least to a European Champions Cup position in the Premiership.
Northampton are seventh in the table but level on points with Harlequins, in sixth, after losing their last two games.
And Hartley said he would not allow Gatland's imminent announcement to impact on his performance level.
"It's an uncontrollable," he added. "The selectors have got a pretty difficult job.
"What I can control is what I do this weekend against Saracens, every other player is thinking that as well.
"[Representative rugby] is the bonus of playing well off the back of club rugby or for your international side. It's not my job to worry about selection, it's my job to play well."
Hartley need only look back to 2013 to recall how much of an honour it was to be selected for a Lions tour, but also to remember the frustration of missing out.
His Premiership final sending off for Northampton that year, made doubly painful by a defeat by East Midlands rivals Leicester at Twickenham, culminated in an 11-week ban which ruled him out of the tour to Australia.
However, he dismissed any talk of additional motivation ahead of the 2017 squad announcement.
"What motivates me is embracing what I'm doing at this stage of my life," added Hartley.
"Playing professional sport for a living is a great thing to say and do, the opportunity I've got for my family to provide and set ourselves up.
"I still enjoy it, I love the environment, whether it's the Saints dressing room or England. When you enjoy your work it's not work.
"Set-backs always refocus me but, ultimately, because I missed out on the Lions in 2013 doesn't motivate me to get up in the morning."
Get all the latest rugby union news by adding alerts in the BBC Sport app.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39583184
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Mark Cavendish: Glandular fever diagnosis for Team Dimension Data rider - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Mark Cavendish is diagnosed with glandular fever, caused by the Epstein Barr virus, and faces an uncertain timescale for his recovery.
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Last updated on .From the section Cycling
Britain's Mark Cavendish has been diagnosed with glandular fever and faces an uncertain timescale for his recovery, say Team Dimension Data.
The 30-time Tour de France stage winner, 31, has not raced for the team since Milan-San Remo on 18 March.
"Unfortunately, there is no effective specific treatment," team doctor Jarrad van Zuydam said.
"His training and symptoms will be monitored very carefully and he will make a gradual return."
In a message on social media, Cavendish said he was "sad to be out of action", adding: "Hopefully I can manage this effectively and be back in a few weeks."
Glandular fever, also known as infectious mononucleosis, is caused by the Epstein Barr virus.
"Mark has been experiencing some unexplained fatigue during training. Recent blood analysis has revealed him to have infectious mononucleosis caused by the Epstein Barr virus," Van Zuydam added.
"It is difficult to give an accurate estimate of when we can expect him back at full fitness but we are hopeful of a significant improvement of his symptoms over the next two weeks."
The South Africa-based team insisted that Isle of Man rider Cavendish's "main goal" remained to race at this year's Tour de France.
Cycling's most prestigious stage race gets under way in the German city of Dusseldorf on 1 July, and finishes in Paris on 23 July.
Cavendish has the second highest number of stage wins in its history - four fewer than legendary Belgian rider Eddy Merckx.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39578254
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Atletico Madrid 1-0 Leicester - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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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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Meet the female entrepreneurs using tech for good - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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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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Borussia Dortmund 2-3 Monaco - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Teenager Kylian Mbappe scores twice as Monaco edges the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie at Borussia Dortmund.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Teenager Kylian Mbappe scored twice as Monaco edged the first leg of the rescheduled Champions League quarter-final tie at Borussia Dortmund.
In a match delayed by 24 hours after a bomb attack on the hosts' bus, Mbappe diverted in Thomas Lemar's cross before Sven Bender's own goal made it 2-0.
Ousmane Dembele slotted in from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's flick to pull one back for Dortmund, but Mbappe curled home to restore the two-goal cushion before Shinji Kagawa added a late second for the hosts.
Kagawa showed great skill to dribble past Jemerson and slot in, and there was almost even more late drama when Aubameyang headed over from yards out.
But Monaco survived and will take a slender advantage into a highly anticipated second leg at Stade Louis II on 19 April.
• None Bartra 'doing much better' after bus attack
Monaco's free-wheeling attack has scored 88 goals in 31 Ligue 1 games this season, and Dortmund were the latest to be disorientated by their movement and slick passing.
Mbappe gave early notice of his muscularity and pace as Sokratis Papastathopoulos gave away an early penalty attempting to get back on the right side. The Greek was relieved to see Fabinho drag the spot-kick wide, but the let-off was brief.
Less than three minutes later, Bernardo Silva broke free and picked out the overlapping Lemar with a sublime outside-of-the-foot pass. The full-back's cross from a prime shooting position seemed to catch his team-mates by surprise, but the ball ricocheted off Mbappe's thigh and rolled in.
Bender - playing in defence after Marc Bartra fractured his wrist in Tuesday's bomb attack - contrived to head Andrea Raggi's cross past his own goalkeeper for the second, but it was the third that fuelled the growing hype around Mbappe.
The 18-year-old's emergence has been sudden - he played only 25 minutes in the group stage - but he showed the anticipation and composure of a veteran as he pounced on Lukasz Piszczek's under-hit backpass, raced in on goal and barely broke stride in burying a curling shot into the top corner from 20 yards.
While it is impossible to say whether Tuesday's attack contributed to Dortmund's slow start, manager Thomas Tuchel's double change at half-time was undoubtedly the spur to their recovery.
The introduction of Christian Pulisic - like Mbappe only 18 years old - was particularly effective. The United States international shredded left-back Raggi with pace and skill as Monaco were forced deeper and deeper.
The pressure soon told as Dembele side-footed home to give Dortmund hope.
But Mbappe's breakaway second meant that, despite Tuchel's exhortations on the sidelines and Kagawa's neat strike, the hosts will continue playing catch-up in next week's return leg.
The Dortmund fans invited visiting Monaco supporters into their homes after Tuesday night's postponement, and a sell-out crowd of 65,849 was characteristically loud and proud when the tie belatedly got under way amid heightened security.
A huge 'tifo' greeted the teams as they strode out and for the rest of the evening the home fans in the Kop end of the Westfalenstadion displayed club badge by wearing coordinated coloured ponchos.
There were also messages of support for the injured Bartra in the stands and on the shirts of his team-mates.
• None Mbappe is the youngest player to score a brace in a Champions League knockout game (18 years 113 days).
• None Mbappe has now scored in three successive Champions League games for Monaco (four goals).
• None He is the fifth player to score in his first three Champions League knockout stage appearances after Christian Karembeu, Steffen Effenburg, Luis Garcia and Leroy Sane.
• None Fabinho had scored all nine of his penalties for Monaco this season in all competitions prior to his miss in this game.
• None Attempt missed. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund) header from very close range is too high. Assisted by Ousmane Dembélé with a cross following a corner.
• None Attempt missed. Christian Pulisic (Borussia Dortmund) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left following a corner.
• None Attempt blocked. Lukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
• None Goal! Borussia Dortmund 2, Monaco 3. Shinji Kagawa (Borussia Dortmund) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Nuri Sahin with a cross.
• None Fabinho (Monaco) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Ousmane Dembélé (Borussia Dortmund) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Goal! Borussia Dortmund 1, Monaco 3. Kylian Mbappe (Monaco) right footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39542720
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Trump’s lack of clarity on foreign policy may prove catastrophic - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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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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Helping or intruding: On patrol with India's anti-harassment squad - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Vikas Pandey spends a day with a squad in Allahabad to see how the new initiative is being received.
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India
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The squads patrol areas where there are most reports of harassment
In Uttar Pradesh, a special police squad has been set up to fight eve teasing - a local term for sexual harassment. But the move has led to allegations of moral policing. The BBC's Vikas Pandey spent a day with the squad in Allahabad city.
In a public park, a young couple try to hide as they spot the squad.
"Please come out. We are here for your safety," Niraj Kumar Jadaun, assistant superintendent of police and head of the squad, tells them.
The boy emerges and asks for forgiveness, only to be reassured by Mr Jadaun that he has done nothing wrong.
After a brief conversation, the couple manage a faint smile before disappearing into the park.
"Some people are scared of cops. And that's the perception we have to fight against," he says. "But eve teasing is another reality that we need to fight against."
Niraj Kumar Jadaun wants to win the trust of young people
Police in Uttar Pradesh established the squad due to rising reports of sexual harassment. There are no reliable statistics and police say that in most cases women don't report harassment. But most women have a story, or several, to tell about inappropriate or abusive groping, language or behaviour.
A total of 1,400 officers have been deployed to anti-harassment squads across the state. Each squad includes three uniformed officers and a female officer in plain clothes. They patrol in cars and on foot, targeting areas where they get most complaints about harassment.
So far there have been mixed results. Some squads have made headlines for "moral policing" and there have been reports of couples being harassed and even beaten up.
But Rahul Srivastava, chief spokesperson of the police, said that only "a handful" of officers were making mistakes.
"We are repeatedly training our staff about the dos and don'ts," he said. "We have suspended nine officials so far for violations. Our instruction is clear that consenting adults should not be disturbed."
Mr Jadaun says upbringing can be to blame. "In some cultures it's still a taboo for a boy and a girl to sit together in public places. So some cops who think on similar lines end up indulging in moral policing," he says. "But their number is very small."
The police have strict instructions to not disturb consenting couples
Back in the park, Mr Jadaun is stopped by a young man who wants to talk.
"My name is Abhilash Denis and I want to thank you for this initiative. But I also have some issues," he says.
Mr Denis says that he likes to go to public parks with his girlfriend.
"But it's always a risk. Eve teasers are always around. They make nasty remarks and make rude gestures. The squad's presence has made sure that such people are less visible in public places," he says.
"But that doesn't mean that cops have a right to disturb us any time."
Mr Jadaun assures him that police will only disturb him to ask about their safety.
Abhilash Denis supports the initiative but wants it to work better
Police officers say they also visit rural areas to make women feel safe
Elsewhere in the park a woman, who didn't want to be identified, seems angry with the police.
"It's the police's responsibility to make us feel safe. But I don't want random police to question me just because I am sitting in a public place with my male friend," she says.
"Yes, I agree that eve teasing is a problem. And I am happy the police are doing something about it. But they need to get better at what they do."
In another part of the city, police approach two couples sitting on a bench.
Kritika Singh says she appreciates the work the police are doing, and didn't mind having a conversation with them.
"You have to know how big a problem eve teasing is in this state. Every girl can tell you horrific incidents they have faced in public places," she says.
"Abuse, filthy gestures from men are very common. Sometimes they also end up touching us inappropriately in public places."
Kritika Singh says eve teasing is rampant in Uttar Pradesh
Police constable Santosh Paul talks to two young women as the squad moves through the city
"I have seen reports about moral policing and that must stop. But the squad should not be shut. I have seen it making a difference. We feel a bit safer now, though not 100%."
She says she has grown up accepting harassment as a reality. "For the first time something is being done, I am willing to accept it despite its imperfections."
I witnessed similar conversations between the squad and people across the city. We stopped at schools, malls and shopping districts.
The squad questions many men, but nobody is detained. "Our purpose is not to arrest people. We want eve teasers to know that the police are out there to catch them. We want them to change," Mr Jadaun says.
Each squad shares its experiences each day with senior police officers
As the day finishes, the jury still seems to be out on whether the initiative is a success.
In some places people, mostly women, appreciated the squad's work. But some still have doubts about its methods.
I put this question to the state's top police official, Javeed Ahmed.
"Eve teasing is a reality," he said. "We needed to send a signal that women would be protected and people who harassed them would be dealt with in a strict manner."
He acknowledges that there is a long way to go. "But I am glad we have made a start," he says. "We can't become a progressive state if women don't feel safe here."
Back at base, the squad hold a briefing to go over the day's events.
Superintendent of Police Vipin Tada says it is a chance to identify mistakes. "They are learning fast. Just remember it's a new initiative for them as well," he says.
Allahabad's top police officer Shalabh Kumar Mathur says he does not regret putting resources into this initiative.
"Eve teasing is a menace. If the choice is between doing nothing and doing something with scope for improvement, I would pick the latter," he says.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-39499844
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Juventus 3-0 Barcelona - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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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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Why is Harvard ditching the puritans? - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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Harvard wants to change the words of its university song to make it more inclusive.
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Business
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Harvard University has defended plans to remove a reference to "puritans" from its ceremonial song, as part of a project promoting "inclusion and belonging".
The proposal to change the fusty lyrics of a 19th Century song, "Fair Harvard", has started a very contemporary argument about identity and how universities represent their own past.
Harvard's "presidential task force on inclusion and belonging" has announced a competition to find a replacement for the song's ending, which praises the university's puritan heritage: "Be the herald of Light, and the bearer of Love, Till the stock of the Puritans die."
They want this symbol of Harvard's identity, sung at university ceremonies, to refer to something broader and more inclusive than the starchy New England colonialists.
But according to the Harvard Crimson university newspaper, the decision to ditch the reference to puritan founders seems to have had a lukewarm response among students.
There were questions raised about the relevance of changing a song from the 1830s that has never really been a source of contention.
On Twitter, there were complaints about "editing history" and censorship.
Academic and social commentator Frank Furedi described it as "morally disoriented".
How open are the gates to Harvard University? And will song lyrics change that?
Even if puritans had once been a dominant force, there was no suggestion that the frugal religious reformers were still getting an unfair advantage in what is now the world's wealthiest university.
About half the most recent intake is from an ethnic minority with close to equal proportions of male and female students.
But Professor Danielle Allen, co-chair of the university's inclusion task force, said in a statement that the symbols and mottos had to be appropriate for everyone "regardless of background, identity, religious affiliation or viewpoint".
She said the current university song lyrics suggested that "the commitment to truth, and to being the bearer of its light, is the special province of those of puritan stock. This is false".
More stories from the BBC's Global education series looking at education from an international perspective, and how to get in touch.
You can join the debate at the BBC's Family & Education News Facebook page.
Prof Allen also pointed out that the song had been changed before, with a reference to "sons" being changed to something more gender neutral in 1998.
And as well as looking for different words, the university is considering an alternative tune or style for the song, with the suggestion of a hip-hop version.
This is the latest university battle over emblems and language, with arguments over how institutions should balance their historic roots with the need to appeal to a modern, diverse range of students.
These come alongside strongly-contested debates about "safe spaces" and "no-platforming", with arguments over whether students have a right to block views they find offensive.
What does a Harvard student look like? And how should the university reflect its past?
But some student campaigners have brought about changes.
After a long-running protest, Yale University announced earlier this year that it would re-name Calhoun College, named after a 19th Century advocate of slavery.
It is now to be named after a female computer scientist, Grace Murray Hopper.
Harvard is dropping the title of "house master" because of connotations of slavery, and ending the use of a seal that includes the family crest of a notoriously brutal slave trader.
The university was once an owner of slaves and has held a series of events and commemorations to examine its own connections to the slave trade.
Oxford University has a project to create more diversity in the paintings on display
Georgetown University, in a bid to come to terms with its own legacy of slave owning, has promised extra support in the admissions process for any descendants of slaves sold by the university in the 1830s.
In the UK, there have also been questions about public symbols and memorials.
Students at the University of Bristol have called for the re-naming of a building because of claims of historic links with wealth derived from slavery.
Oxford University's Oriel College had a high-profile controversy over whether a statue of the Cecil Rhodes should be removed, with protestors arguing that the Victorian magnate's views on race made him an unsuitable figure to be commemorated.
But the call for the statue's removal was rejected.
Oxford University last month announced that it was putting up more than 20 portraits to ensure more images of women and people from ethnic minorities were represented on its walls.
The competition at Harvard to find new words for the university song is open until September.
But the debate about university symbols is going to last much longer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39559232
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Scout leaders: 'It's the best non-paid job in the world' - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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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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Boris Johnson: A weakened foreign secretary? - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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It has not been a great week for Boris Johnson. Where does he stand at the end of it?
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UK Politics
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There is, to use Boris Johnson's own lingo, a "whinge-o-rama" raging among the foreign secretary's political opponents and in parts of the press about his performance in the current Syria crisis.
He faces a number of charges. First, he pulled out of a long-planned trip to Moscow after the US missile strike on a Syrian airfield. It was agreed the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should go instead.
Next, Team Boris briefed journalists that the foreign secretary wanted to get the G7 to agree new sanctions against Russia at its meeting in the Italian city of Lucca. But Mr Johnson entirely failed to persuade other countries to agree.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said there was no consensus new sanctions would help and argued they could push Russia into a corner.
Mr Johnson's own view of the Syrian conflict seems to have swerved around like a shopping trolley since he became the UK's chief diplomat in July.
Giving evidence to a House of Lords committee at the start of 2017, he signalled a shift in UK policy towards Syria. Mr Johnson said the "mantra" of calling for President Assad to go had not worked and the military space had been left open to Russia to fill.
The Foreign Secretary told peers President Assad should be allowed to run for election as part of a "democratic resolution" of the civil war.
Now, however, Mr Johnson believes the Syrian leader has to go.
How much of this is fair? And what might the episode say about Boris Johnson's standing in Theresa May's government?
First, the UK was a bystander to the Trump administration's missile strike on Syria. The government was given a courtesy call to say it was coming but the UK was not asked to be involved.
Mr Johnson's trip to Moscow (which would have been the first by a British foreign secretary to Russia for five years) was long planned and quickly binned. I understand Mrs May told Mr Johnson it was his call whether he wanted to go or not. After speaking to Rex Tillerson, Mr Johnson and his US opposite number agreed it was best for one man to deliver a single message to Moscow.
Mr Johnson then spent a weekend hitting the phones to other G7 countries trying to get a united position agreed ahead of the meeting in Lucca. In its final communique, the G7 did agree to state the Assad regime had to end.
But further sanctions - an idea endorsed by Number 10 - got nowhere. It was clearly a snub to Mr Johnson although government sources insist sanctions have not been taken off the table.
On Wednesday, the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, said other countries were "less forward-leaning" than the UK on the issue.
Diplomacy is tough. But it may have been unwise for the Foreign Office to suggest sanctions were an ambition when key G7 nations clearly didn't agree.
At the weekend, I was told by Team Boris that he was very relaxed about the sniping and criticism being lobbed his way in recent days. And Mr Johnson has provoked quite a lot since he became foreign secretary, largely because of his use of decidedly undiplomatic language.
He was taken to task by a Swedish MEP in February for calling Brexit a "liberation". A month before that, Mr Johnson warned the French president not to respond to Brexit by administering "punishment beatings" in the manner of a World War Two film.
Guy Verhofstadt, who speaks for the European Parliament on Brexit, branded the remarks "abhorrent and deeply unhelpful". It was several days after President Trump's election that Boris Johnson said it was time for Mr Trump's critics to get over their "whinge-o-rama" - a comment I know left some officials in Brussels agog.
Mr Johnson is always keen to speak with the swashbuckling pluck of the newspaper columnist he once was. His many fans in the Tory party might love it. But even Mrs May has hinted at exasperation.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May jokes about Boris Johnson the FFS
At the Conservative Party conference last autumn, the prime minister said: "Do we have a plan for Brexit? We do. Are we ready for the effort it will take to see it through? We are. Can Boris Johnson stay on message for a full four days? Just about."
It was a joke. But not many prime ministers joke about their foreign secretary's erraticism. Then in December, Mrs May described Boris Johnson as an FFS - saying that in this case it stood for being a Fine Foreign Secretary (and not the punchy abbreviation for a term of exasperation).
When Mrs May was home secretary and Mr Johnson was London mayor they had a prickly relationship. She then beat him to the job he craved.
Her appointment of the Brexit campaign's most prominent champion to the job of foreign secretary stunned Westminster and it remains one of the most intriguing political relationships within the government.
While happy to clip his wings publicly from time to time, Theresa May also needs Boris Johnson on board as she embarks on Brexit.
A force so effective in persuading Britain to vote to leave the EU is not a politician the prime minister wants sniping from outside the cabinet as the negotiating trade-offs begin.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39580761
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Fed Cup: Great Britain name unchanged team - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Great Britain name a Fed Cup team of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Laura Robson and Jocelyn Rae for their tie against Romania.
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Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Great Britain have named an unchanged Fed Cup team of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Laura Robson and Jocelyn Rae for their tie against Romania.
Britain travel to the Black Sea city of Constanta for the World Group II play-off on outdoor clay on 22-23 April.
They are looking to return to the elite level of the competition for the first time since 1993, but will go into the tie as heavy underdogs.
Britain set up the tie with a 2-1 victory over Croatia in February.
World number five Simona Halep was named in Romania's squad, alongside Irina-Camelia Begu, Monica Niculescu and Sorana Cirstea.
Konta, who claimed the biggest title of her career at the Miami Open earlier in April, is the highest-ranked British female at number seven in the world. Watson, at 110, is next.
"Romania have a first-class team and will have home advantage on their best surface. We are very much the underdogs," British captain Anne Keothavong said.
"But we have an excellent team spirit with lots of combined Fed Cup experience and Johanna is playing the best tennis of her career."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/39577162
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Stakeknife: Spy linked to 18 murders, BBC Panorama finds - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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BBC Panorama reveals that a classified report has connected the spy Stakeknife to at least 18 murders.
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Northern Ireland
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Fred Scappaticci denies he was an Army agent within the IRA
The British spy Stakeknife - described by an Army general as "our golden egg" - is now the subject of a £35m criminal inquiry called Operation Kenova.
The inquiry has been triggered by a classified report which Northern Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions Barra McGrory QC has told Panorama "made for very disturbing and chilling reading".
What Stakeknife actually did has been wreathed in speculation since he was identified in 2003 as Belfast bricklayer Freddie Scappaticci.
The one stand-out fact, however, has not been in doubt: for over a decade Scappaticci maintained his cover in the IRA by interrogating fellow British agents to the point where they confessed and were then shot.
One British spy was preparing other British spies for execution.
And there were a lot of executions: 30 shot as spies by the IRA's so-called Nutting Squad which, I am told, Scappaticci eventually came to head.
Panorama has learned that Scappaticci is linked to at least 18 of those "executions".
Not all the victims would have been registered agents like him who produced the best intelligence.
Some were akin to "informers" - people with close access to IRA members, or who passed on what they saw and heard to the security forces.
A few were innocent of the IRA's charge of spying.
Still, the spectacle of one British agent heading an IRA unit dedicated to rooting out and shooting other British spies is so extraordinary that I've often wondered how exactly the state benefitted by the intelligence services having tolerated this for the whole of the 1980s.
The obvious person to ask is Scappaticci himself - but a draconian injunction stops journalists from approaching him, even to the point of making any enquiries about where he now lives or what he does.
Jon Boutcher (left), chief constable of Bedfordshire Police, is leading Operation Kenova, with the authority of PSNI Chief Constable George Hamilton
Scappaticci was recruited by a section within military intelligence called the Force Research Unit, or FRU.
I'm told the Army have assessed his intelligence as having saved some 180 lives.
Can Scappaticci's intelligence have been so valuable that the sacrifice of other agents was a price worth paying to maintain his cover?
It's not quite that simple.
Had the cavalry been sent in every time Scappaticci tipped off his handlers about who was at risk, he himself wouldn't have lasted long.
Yet protecting him also meant the murders he knew about - or was even involved in - were never properly investigated, driving a "coach and horses" through the criminal justice system, according to Mr McGrory.
Barra McGrory said the report made for "disturbing and chilling reading"
Also, the Army's assessment that Stakeknife saved 180 lives doesn't translate to the number of actual lives saved as a direct consequence of actioning Stakeknife's intelligence by, for example, interdicting an IRA unit on active service.
I understand that figure of 180 is partly the army's guesstimate of lives that would have been lost had Stakeknife's intelligence not led to arrests and the recovery of weapons.
Of course Stakeknife also contributed significantly to "building a picture" of the IRA, an insight much valued by the intelligence services.
An ex-FRU operative with access to his intelligence told me: "He knew all of the main players and picked up a tremendous amount of peripheral information.
"As the [IRA] campaign changed and the political side became more important again he was highly placed to comment on that."
No doubt, but it's hard to quantify "picture building" in terms of actual lives saved.
One thing is for sure: leading a double life at the heart of an IRA unit with a Gestapo-like hold over its rank and file would have required cunning - and resilience.
Especially since Scappaticci told his army handlers he disliked gratuitous violence.
He seems to have managed the violence bit though, even when it was close to home.
I'm told that in January 1988, Scappaticci sent a young boy up to the home of Anthony McKiernan, asking him to call by to see Scappaticci.
The Scappaticcis and McKiernans were friends - children from both families had sleepovers.
That was the last McKiernan's wife and children saw of him. Accused by Scappaticci's Nutting Squad of being a spy - something the family strongly deny - some 24 hours later, he was shot in the head.
Unsurprisingly, Scappaticci's ex-IRA comrades paint a less flattering picture than his handlers.
They say he was a prodigious consumer of pornography, loved James Bond movies and - although he was on the IRA's Belfast Brigade staff - was never a "true republican."
That might explain why, after Scappaticci was released from detention without trial in December 1975, he drifted away from the republican movement and got involved in a building trade VAT scam.
There were family holidays in Florida.
But then he was arrested by the police and agreed to work for the fraud squad as an informer.
His former IRA comrades also speak of a man with an intimidating manner, handy with his fists and a large ego who liked to be at the centre of things.
His appointment to the IRA's Nutting Squad - a job most IRA members ran a mile from - certainly gave him that opportunity.
It provided Scappaticci with unrivalled access to what the IRA high command were thinking and their war plans.
Mr Scappaticci left Northern Ireland when identified by the media as Stakeknife, in 2003
It also gave him access to the names of new IRA recruits on the pretext of vetting them, plus details of IRA operations on the pretext of debriefing IRA members released from police custody to establish whether they gave away too much to their interrogators.
That explains why military intelligence was so eager to recruit Scappaticci when, in September 1979, he graduated to the FRU from spying for the fraud squad.
He got an agent number - 6126 - and a codename. Stakeknife.
His luck ran out in January 1990 after police agent Sandy Lynch was rescued from the clutches of the nutting squad.
The police thought Lynch was about to be shot, Scappaticci having got him to confess. The ordinary CID who did not know Scappaticci was a spy found a thumb print in the house where Lynch had been held.
Scappaticci fled to Dublin. However, a senior police officer who was in the know advised the FRU to get Scappaticci to concoct an alibi for his thumbprint.
It worked. On his return to Belfast in the autumn of 1992, Scappaticci was arrested and then released without charge.
His handlers hoped he could return to spying. But by now the IRA were suspicious and removed him from the security unit.
With Scappaticci's access to IRA secrets gone, the FRU formally stood him down as an agent in 1995.
How did he escape the same treatment at the hands of the IRA that he had helped mete out to others?
Probably because the sight of his body dumped on a roadside would have provoked a slew of questions about those IRA leaders who appointed him to protect the IRA from spies like him - and who also ignored warnings from their more sceptical comrades along the border that "Scap" was not to be trusted.
That did not stop the IRA in Belfast from putting Scap in his place.
After being sidelined, he agreed to help the staunchly republican Braniff family clear the name of a brother, Anthony, who was shot as a spy in 1981. He was eventually exonerated by the IRA.
But when Scappaticci spoke up for Anthony at a private meeting of republicans, to his embarrassment, the IRA's most senior man in Belfast, Sean "Spike" Murray suddenly appeared and slapped him down.
When Scap was eventually outed as Stakeknife by a former FRU operative in 2003, he was spirited to England where MI5 told him the IRA knew he had been a spy.
He rejected MI5's offer of protective custody, flew straight back to Belfast and sought a meeting with the IRA.
He gambled on not being shot because he calculated the IRA now had every reason to support a denial that he was a spy - even though he knew they didn't believe him.
His gamble was based on the fact that the IRA's political wing Sinn Fein were now engaged in the peace process.
Scappaticci calculated that were the IRA to admit they'd long suspected he was a spy, it would undermine the official line that they'd fought the British to an honourable draw.
Any such admission would provoke the rank and file into questioning whether the IRA had been pushed into peace, paralysed by the penetration of agents like him.
After meeting two of the most senior representatives of the IRA leadership, Martin "Duckster" Lynch and Padraic Wilson, I'm told Scappaticci and the IRA came to an understanding: Scappaticci would issue a firm denial which the IRA would not contest.
To this day, that's been the IRA's official position - even though, as they say in Belfast, the dogs in the street know it's nonsense.
Once again, Agent 6126 had relied on his wits and native cunning.
Whether the 71-year-old Scappaticci now outwits the 50 detectives trawling over everything he did, what his handlers allowed him to do, and what the IRA leaders authorised him to do, is another question.
You might say he's the spy who knows too much - because he knows the answers to all these questions.
Panorama is broadcast on Tuesday night and can be watched online after broadcast
• None Panorama - The Spy in the IRA
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39573536
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Why this Easter egg is so difficult to sell overseas - BBC News
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2017-04-12
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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UK firms are rushing to take advantage of growing global demand for chocolate eggs.
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Business
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There's nothing but air in the middle of most chocolate eggs
Cracking open a large chocolate egg to find nothing in the middle is one of life's perennial disappointments.
Yet for some chocolate firms the fact that most Easter eggs are hollow is more than just disappointing, it's problematic.
"It sounds ridiculous, but there is a lot of air in Easter eggs relative to their value in weight," says Helen Pattinson, co-founder of boutique British chocolate chain Montezuma's.
The oval shape of eggs and the boxes required to keep them intact means that, compared to the amount of space they take up in a shipping container, it is impossible for Montezuma's to charge the end customer enough to make a decent profit.
Foreign sales account for about a fifth of the company's overall sales and for this financial year, ending in May, it expects exports to hit the £1m mark for the first time.
Despite the strong demand from abroad, the firm is yet to send its chocolate eggs overseas.
"The economics just haven't added up so far," says Mrs Pattinson, who co-founded the firm in 2000 with her husband Simon.
More than three-quarters of Montezuma's chocolate exports go to the US, but it is yet to send any eggs
The company has six shops in the South East of England and sells directly to customers in the US and Europe via its website, and further afield via export arrangements. So far most of its overseas customers have come via a partnership deal with a large US retailer.
Despite the more established reputation of Swiss and Belgian chocolatiers, Mrs Pattinson says she is seeing a growing demand for British-made chocolate.
"The most contemporary artisan foodies are beginning to realise Britain is a fantastic producer of chocolate," she says.
Last year, the UK exported a whopping £245m worth of chocolate, up by almost a quarter on 2015.
Exports of unfilled chocolates and chocolate products, which include Easter eggs, totalled just over £30m, up 3% on 2015. While the vast majority of these went to EU countries, the biggest growth was in exports to non-EU countries which increased by almost a fifth, according to the Department for International Trade.
An "element of snob value" is helping British chocolate egg exports in some markets, says Sean Ramsden
It is a trend that hasn't escaped the notice of Sean Ramsden, chief executive of Ramsden International.
The family firm specialises in exporting British food overseas and Mr Ramsden says Easter is its busiest period after Christmas.
The awkward shape of chocolate eggs isn't a problem for the company because it supplies a much wider range of products, enabling it to mix Easter eggs with other food orders.
"Easter eggs are a popular UK product and they're very exportable. They [Easter eggs] are not as advanced in other countries," he says.
When the Grimsby-based firm first started exporting in 1970, business was largely driven by expats. Marmite, brown sauce and baked beans were the items most in demand in the company's markets in Spain, Portugal, France, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.
Now it delivers to 130 countries and turnover last year was £50m. Mr Ramsden says the company's growth reflects demand from a growing global middle class.
"The food becomes premium by virtue of being imported. There is an element of snob value in certain markets," he says.
Hong Kong-based Sharan Gill always buys imported eggs for her daughters Eysha and Elyna
Particularly in Asia, he says, customers are keen to have "something a little bit different or a bit more exclusive" such as a foreign brand.
But he says many of its customers also have an international outlook, with second homes in the UK, for example, and a genuine affection for British food.
Sharan Gill, who lives in Hong Kong, says she always buys imported chocolate eggs for her children at Easter.
"It's a tradition amongst my friends too, both Western and Asian. I spend between 100 to 150 Hong Kong dollars (£10-£15; $13-$19) on chocolates for the annual Easter egg hunt, which my kids thoroughly enjoy.
"Easter seems to be a growing trend, partly because clubs and restaurants promote it extensively.
"Plus Hong Kong has a large expat community, a large proportion of which consists of Westerners, for whom Easter is an established tradition. It is also celebrated by the predominantly Catholic Filipino community who form a large part of the domestic helper workforce," she says.
Good Housekeeping magazine included Easter crackers on its Easter dinner table photo shoot for the first time this year
The fervour surrounding the Christian festival has reached such fever pitch that the home and lifestyle gurus at Good Housekeeping magazine recently declared the occasion "a second Christmas".
It is not just small firms benefiting from the growing sense of occasion. Marks and Spencer says it exports a number of its popular eggs to its 468 shops overseas, with them selling particularly well in Hong Kong, Western Europe and the Czech Republic.
"We're seeing double-digit growth on sales of our Easter eggs internationally - with people buying into both our large 'giftable' eggs as well as impulse purchasing small bags of chocolate foiled eggs and bigger bags of eggs for Easter egg hunts - an event which is increasing in popularity," says a spokeswoman.
People really like the licensed character eggs and Star Wars' R2D2 is currently the best seller internationally, she adds.
Marks and Spencer's R2D2 egg is its most popular internationally
While market research firm Mintel doesn't track British chocolate exports, its figures show people around the world are eating more chocolate eggs.
"In Brazil, for example, the trade association ABICAB reported that 95 million chocolate Easter eggs were sold in 2016, a 19% increase over 2015. In that country, Easter eggs make up a major percentage of annual chocolate revenues," says global food and drink analyst Marcia Mogelonsky.
"In Ireland, consumers spent more than 40m euros (£34m; $42m) on Easter eggs in 2016, while the UK Easter egg market was valued at £220m."
It is a market that Montezuma's Mrs Pattinson is obviously keen to exploit.
"It's about putting our new product development heads on to find ones that don't have so much air inside," she laughs.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39422930
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Atletico Madrid v Leicester: How do Foxes win Champions League quarter-final? - BBC Sport
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2017-04-12
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Driven by the pain of two final defeats, Atletico Madrid are fearsome Champions League opponents for Leicester, writes Andy West.
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Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live, plus text updates on the BBC Sport website and app
Premier League champions Leicester City are aiming to prolong their fairytale as they head into this week's Champions League quarter-finals, but they are heavy underdogs against an in-form Atletico Madrid team who have reached the final twice in the past three years.
Here BBC Sport explains exactly what the Foxes must do to defy the odds once again.
It has regularly been suggested that Leicester have focused on the Champions League at the expense of their Premier League campaign, but they will be hard pushed to match the motivation of an Atletico team who have more reason than anyone to chase success on the European stage.
Losing two finals in three years was extremely hard for Atletico to take, especially as both were against bitter rivals Real Madrid and could have very easily yielded a different outcome: the 2014 final was decided in extra time after Real equalised deep in stoppage time, and last season's went to a penalty shootout.
Manager Diego Simeone came close to leaving the club after the agony of last year's loss, admitting he did not know whether he would be able to muster the energy and passion to recover from such soul-destroying disappointment.
But, after a summer he has since described as "mourning", he elected to stay, and the Argentine is looking more intense than ever in his fierce pursuit of the only trophy he has not won since rejoining a club he had previously played for.
Although they have never explicitly stated it, there is a strong sense Atletico have collectively prioritised the Champions League this season, focusing their considerable energies on giving themselves another opportunity to secure the trophy that has so cruelly eluded them in recent years.
Defender Juanfran, whose penalty shootout miss gave Real the trophy last season, has expressed his belief that skipper Gabi will lift the trophy with a sense of sheer certainty that goes way beyond the optimism usually exuded by players.
Atletico do not merely think they can win the trophy; they appear to know they will. This time they are determined to leave nothing to chance, and Leicester's task in overcoming that furiously purposeful intent cannot be overestimated.
By far Atletico's likeliest match-winner is striker Antoine Griezmann, who has made stunning progress since joining the club from Real Sociedad in 2014 and now surely deserves to be regarded as one of the very best players in the world.
Thanks to his rapid development under Simeone, the 26-year-old is the complete package. He is versatile, capable of playing through the middle or on either flank. He is fast, skilful, decent in the air, a good passer, possesses a velvet-smooth first touch and intelligent movement. In short, he does everything well and some things superbly.
Those qualities have helped Griezmann score 23 goals in all competitions this season, including four in the Champions League and a late leveller in Saturday's morale-boosting Madrid derby draw at the Bernabeu.
But the importance of the Frenchman's contribution cannot be measured by statistics alone, because his team-first mentality and relentless work-rate make him an ideal fit for this Atletico side, and his elusiveness will make life very uncomfortable for a Foxes backline missing skipper Wes Morgan.
The silver lining for the English team, however, is that Griezmann's preferred strike partner and fellow Frenchman Kevin Gameiro looks likely to miss at least the first leg with a hamstring strain.
Gameiro was initially slow to settle after joining Atletico from Sevilla last summer, but he has improved since the turn of the year and produced his best performance yet to torment Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of the last-16 tie.
He was injured during the recent international break and will probably be replaced by old warhorse Fernando Torres, who is still hard-working but far more limited than Gameiro, and increasingly inaccurate, with just seven goals this season and none in his past six outings.
Penetrate one of the world's finest defences
Leicester's task at the other end of the field is no more straightforward, because they somehow have to breach an Atletico defence which is arguably the best in the world - especially when it really matters.
If you think that's an exaggeration, how about this for a statistic: Atletico have not conceded a single goal in their past eight home knockout ties.
The last visiting player to score at the Vicente Calderon in a tie in the last 16 or later was Kaka in AC Milan's 4-1 loss in March 2014, and Leicester's challenge is to succeed where Chelsea, Barcelona (twice), Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have all failed.
In addition to the brilliant collective discipline and organisation instilled by Simeone, two players are chiefly responsible for Atletico's defensive excellence.
Firstly, there's Uruguayan central defender Diego Godin, an old-fashioned, hard-nosed stopper who sometimes appears to enjoy conceding throw-ins and corners because it gives him the chance to make yet another clearance.
And the second star of the backline is Slovenian goalkeeper Jan Oblak, recruited from Benfica in the summer of 2014 with the significant task of filling the gloves of Thibaut Courtois. He has more than answered that call to become one of the game's top keepers, equalling an all-time La Liga record last season by conceding just 18 goals in 38 league outings.
Craig Shakespeare has certainly made an impressive start to his managerial career, but the Foxes boss faces by far his biggest challenge as he confronts the fearsome Simeone.
The ex-Argentina midfielder has won almost everything there is to win since taking over at Atletico in late 2011, and he has done it by giving his team a clear vision of how they should play.
Simeone is able to maximise his team's strengths and minimise their weaknesses by combining motivation with organisation, creating a true team structure where every player pulls in the same direction and has a clear understanding of their precise role.
Tactically, he generally prefers a 4-4-2 formation but also regularly employs a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1. He is similarly versatile in his style of play, with Atletico equally capable of pushing high up the pitch and dominating possession, or sitting deep and waiting to strike on the counter-attack.
Whichever approach he takes, Simeone is a master at achieving balance. The 10 outfield players move together like clockwork, hardly ever allowing themselves to become stretched or shapeless, and always ensuring every player is supported rather than isolated both with and without the ball.
The Argentine has summed up his tactical beliefs by stating that, whereas other coaches like to control the ball, he attempts to control the space.
He has been implementing that deep-thinking philosophy with great success at Atletico for more than five years and, for an opposing manager with just seven games and one Champions League match to his name, confronting Simeone's meticulously prepared team will present a major test.
Griezmann might be the star while Oblak and Godin form the immovable barrier, but the motor of Atletico's machine is their midfield trio of Gabi, Koke and Saul.
Lion-hearted captain Gabi and understated playmaker Koke, in particular, have been key elements of Simeone's masterplan ever since he took over, with the duo barely missing a game during the past five years and providing the perfect link between defence and attack.
Saul is the most individually gifted player of the three, with his goals against Bayern Munich in last season's semi-final and Bayer Leverkusen in February among the finest individual efforts the competition has seen in recent years.
From a tactical perspective, the fact Simeone's midfield trio occupy very narrow positions is important, allowing them to protect the penalty area in defence and create space for full-backs Juanfran and Filipe Luis to come forward in attack.
More generally, their defensive diligence and unselfish willingness to do the dirty work without complaint allows them to epitomise the qualities Simeone demands from his team.
Their vast experience also speaks volumes about the scale of the task awaiting Leicester, with Gabi, Koke and Saul making a combined total of nearly 150 appearances in continental competitions under Simeone, during which time they have won five different trophies.
That statistic makes it abundantly clear just how strong Atletico are. They have been here many times before, they know exactly how they want to play, and they know exactly how they can win… against any opposition.
The question now is whether Leicester can do anything to stop them.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39558996
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Borussia Dortmund: Thomas Tuchel says club 'ignored' over Monaco tie - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel says his club felt "completely ignored" over the rescheduling of their Champions League game against Monaco.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Borussia Dortmund felt "completely ignored" over the rescheduling of their Champions League game against Monaco, says manager Thomas Tuchel.
Dortmund lost 3-2 in the first leg of the quarter-final on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after an attack on their bus caused the match to be postponed.
"We were told by text message that Uefa was making this decision," said Tuchel.
"A decision made in Switzerland that concerns us directly. We will not forget it, it is a very bad feeling."
Following Tuchel's comments, Uefa released a statement saying the decision to play the match at 17:45 BST on Wednesday was made in "complete agreement with clubs and authorities".
• None Bartra 'doing much better' after bus attack
European football's governing body added: "We were in touch with all parties today and never received any information which suggested that any of the teams did not want to play."
Three explosions hit Dortmund's team bus as they travelled to their Westfalenstadion home on Tuesday, with the match rescheduled later that evening.
"Of course we have to keep it going, but we still want to be competitive," added Tuchel. "We do not want to use the situation as an excuse.
"We wished we would have had more time to deal with what happened, but someone in Switzerland decided we must play."
Spain defender Marc Bartra suffered a broken wrist and has subsequently had surgery, but no other players were hurt.
"Every player has the right to deal with it in his way. The team did not feel in the mood, in which you must be for such a game," said Tuchel.
"We let the players choose if they wanted to play. But this morning, we found that the training had done good, that it had made us think of something else."
German police have described it as a targeted attack and detained a suspect with "Islamist" links.
"We were attacked as men and we tried to solve the problem on the ground," said Tuchel, who has been in charge of the Bundesliga side since 2015.
"Everyone has their own way of reacting to events. The players had the choice not to play, but no-one chose this option."
Dortmund were 2-0 and 3-1 down to French side Monaco, for whom 18-year-old forward Kylian Mbappe scored twice.
"The team has shown an incredible character," added Tuchel. "We have won the second half, the spirit in the second half was great."
Monaco boss Leonardo Jardim had some sympathy with Tuchel's view, but said the packed fixture calendar contributed to the hasty rescheduling.
"Maybe it should not be played today, but the calendar gave few options to be able to play the match," he said.
"We produced a good result but it's only half-time of the quarter-final."
'I will never forget those faces'
Turkey midfielder Nuri Sahin came on as a second-half substitute for Dortmund.
"It is hard to talk about it and hard to find the right words," he said. "Last evening we felt how it is to be in this situation. I don't wish a feeling like this on anyone.
"I didn't realise what happened and when I got home my wife and son were waiting in front of the door. I felt how lucky we were."
The 28-year-old, who has previously had a loan spell with Liverpool, added: "I know football is very important. We love football, we suffer with football and I know we earn a lot of money and have a privileged life - but we are human beings, there is so much more than football in this world.
"When I was on the bus last night, I can't forget the faces, I will never forget those faces. I was sitting next to Marcel Schmelzer and I will never forget his face. It was unbelievable."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39582284
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Scotland could join Canada, but should it? Your responses - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Readers cite whisky and curling high up on the list of why Scotland and Canada should join forces.
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US & Canada
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The great Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote that "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley."
Or, as they say in Canada, "The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew".
Perhaps that explains how, in the midst of Brexit negotiations and as Scotland weighs a second referendum on independence, an obscure Canadian writer was able to capture people's imagination with his unconventional proposal: Scotland could quit the UK and join Canada instead.
On the surface, it sounds improbable. But as Ken McGoogan told the BBC, "in an ideal world, this might work really well".
His proposal has since been picked up by media outlets as far as China, and he says he's "amazed and gobsmacked" at the level of interest in an idea he initially described as a "flight of fancy".
Some 1,500 readers wrote to the BBC from across the UK and North America to weigh in on whether Scotland should become Canada's 11th province. Some found it was the best idea since chips-and-gravy. Others thought it would be a total disaster, like when they added the letter "e" to whisky.
Here's what both Scots and Canadians had to say about the possibility of joining forces.
"We don't want to be part of another country, we *are* a country... My dream is that we gain our independence and keep our sovereignty, no handing it over to the EU." - Scot Chegg, Ayr, Scotland
"I think leaving the UK is a bad idea to start with, but leaving the UK to join Canada is absurd." - Kyle Richardson, Scotland
No campaign supporters cheer after Scotland voted to stay in the UK - Scotland's leader has proposed a second referendum
"Canada should really be joining with Scotland, as we are the original Canadians and they're basically just a big Scotland anyway." - Rory Watt, Scotland
"Sorry, he's got this in reverse... Canada was part of Scotland 25 million years ago and its about time we re-united. Being Scottish lets us use all those uniquely Scottish phrases, wear kilts on a regular basis, and enjoy a quality of life not otherwise possible. We could even switch to driving on the correct side of the road!" - Martyn Ridley, Canada
"I don't know how we'll be able to squeeze in 40-50 new MPs into our already crowded House of Commons. I do welcome the access to the home of my ancestors, and maybe more choices of whiskys." - Alex Milton, Winnipeg, Manitoba
"While I can't speak for all Canadians, myself and many, many others would happily welcome Scotland to join Canada as a full province. At the very least, we'd have Olympic curling all sewn up." - Kevan Dettelbach, Vancouver, British Columbia
"Joining Canada would be fantastic...They already have Nova Scotia, now they'd also have the original Scotia!" - Colin Groundwater, West Lothian, Scotland
"At last someone has published what I have long thought. I think it makes good sense culturally, emotionally and economically. If they like, the English could ask to become part of the United States." - Alisdair Dale, Orpington, England
"If Scotland and Canada were to join, it would be the perfect matrimony... Not only are Canada and Scotland similar in geographical terms (both being cold and beautiful) but also the friendly people of Canada would be welcomed with open arms in Scotland." - Natalie Rosie, Dunfermline, Scotland
"To hear this idea put forward really makes a Scots descendent day dream about the possibilities! ...I'll gladly open my door and show them our famous Scottish-Canadian hospitality. Free of charge, naturally!" - Jason MacGregor, Montreal, Canada
"At least someone would then listen to me playing the pipes! Besides, I actually like haggis and the Scottish hills. Some of my fondest memories occurred during visits to Scotland as a child to the farm my grandfather worked on." - John McCubbin, Toronto, Ontario
"Geographical boundaries don't matter so much these days. What the people of a nation value does, identity does, and Scotland, for a very long time has not had the same values as England. As a province of Canada, Scotland would be treated better than it is now." - B Whickham, Gloucester, England
"Canada and Scotland has so many deep and historic ties. We would be with our people, and peoples of a like mind, we would have the freedoms we require, yet still be part of a greater community, one that would not throw away or ignore our wishes." - Symon Kielg, Edinburgh, Scotland
Some responses were edited for length.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39570585
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Is park next to Parliament the right place for Holocaust memorial? - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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There are some people unhappy with the decision to site the memorial in park next to Parliament.
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UK Politics
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It's a rare piece of green space with the backdrop of Parliament and a commanding view of the Thames.
Victoria Tower Gardens, London's smallest royal park, is a popular haunt for dog walkers, joggers, families - and also picnicking office workers, who use it to soak up the sun and get a breather from the hustle and bustle of city life.
But that could be about to change because this narrow strip of parkland is set to become home to a national Holocaust memorial with an underground learning centre.
By Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, organisers anticipate the £50m scheme will transform the park, which dates back to the 1870s and is fringed by trees and benches, into a tourist destination and education resource attracting more than a million visitors a year.
A shortlist of 10 architects are currently competing in an international design competition launched by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation to create the new structure, with the winning team to be announced by the end of May.
Former Prime Minister David Cameron said the new monument would "show the importance Britain places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust", claiming it would represent "a permanent statement of our values as a nation" and something that would be visited "for generations to come".
But not everyone is happy about the plan. Some local residents, MPs and peers say that while they are fully behind the creation of a Holocaust memorial - and in particular a learning centre - they believe the project will destroy the park.
Barbara Weiss, the architect who refurbished the Russell Square headquarters of the Wiener Library - the oldest institution for the study of the Holocaust and genocide - questioned why it could not be placed with it. "I'm not against the memorial, I just don't want any building in our park, not even a hospital or an art gallery."
Ms Weiss is a leading light in the Save Victoria Tower Gardens campaign. She says the park is "absolutely unique, historic and gorgeous - to put something else there will totally change its character completely".
"It doesn't make a lot of sense to build a learning centre underground in an area beside a river in a flood area.
"The organisers are talking about one million extra visitors there - that's a lot of extra security. We would have people with machine guns and bag checks, and I know people who work in Parliament don't want that. They go to the park to get away from that pressure of feeling constantly monitored."
Lucy Peck, a retired architectural historian who lives nearby, said: "I'm not against a memorial at all, but there are bigger places in London that could take a project of this size much more easily. There's a superb Holocaust gallery less than a mile away at the Imperial War Museum, so why build another fairly similar thing here?"
The Imperial War Museum, a 15 minute walk from Parliament, was one of three locations out of 50 in the running as a Holocaust memorial site - until January 2016 when Mr Cameron named Victoria Tower Gardens as the preferred option.
Lucy Donoughue, the IWM's assistant communications director, said the museum - which is spending £15m on renewing and expanding its renowned Holocaust Exhibition and already attracts a million visitors a year - was not deemed central enough.
"While we were disappointed by this decision, we still remain hugely supportive of the initiatives laid out by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation," she said.
Veteran Conservative MP Sir Peter Bottomley, who has lived near Victoria Tower Gardens for more than 25 years, says he is unhappy two other sites - Potters Field on the south bank of the Thames between Tower Bridge and City Hall, and Millbank, next to Tate Britain - were ruled out.
"Somewhere, somehow some unnamed person in Number 10 decided to substitute these three with Victoria Tower Gardens," he said. "You can't have a prominent memorial here - you've got to keep the garden. I would urge the government to pause, reopen the debate and rethink."
The park, which is listed Grade II and is partly inside a Unesco world heritage site, is no stranger to significant structures including August Rodin's bronze The Burghers of Calais, a statue of the Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, and a fountain commemorating the abolition of slavery.
A spokeswoman for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, which is chaired by Sir Peter Bazalgette, said its mission had been to find "the most iconic location" for a national memorial and learning centre - and Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament "fulfils that aim better than any of the almost 50 sites we examined".
She declined to say specifically why other sites had not been chosen except that "a lot of those were for commercial reasons".
"With cross-party support, we have made a promise to survivors that in Victoria Tower Gardens we will create a fitting national memorial as a permanent site of remembrance and an education centre to act more broadly as a voice against hatred and prejudice in the modern world, while respecting and enhancing the existing green space," she said.
"There can be nowhere more meaningful for such a powerful statement of our national values than next to Parliament, at the heart of our democracy. We want Britain's Holocaust survivors to know that we will not break our promise."
But Jewish Conservative peer Lord Wasserman, one of David Cameron's closest political allies who lives quite near the gardens, says it is not the right location for such a symbolic and important project.
"In particular, I am concerned that this will lead to massive resentment on the part of those ordinary Londoners who will be seriously inconvenienced by the additional traffic (vehicular and pedestrian) which the museum will generate," he said. "I'm also concerned about the the additional security risk associated with such a site."
Maja Turcan, whose parents were Holocaust survivors, says while a learning centre is needed "particularly at a time where anti-Semitism and hate crimes are increasing" - she questions why it could not be placed somewhere like Manchester "where there's a big Jewish community, but is also multi-ethnic and multi-cultural".
Victoria Park Gardens as it is now
Aviva Trup, who manages Jewish Care's Holocaust Survivors Services - a centre which offers a programme of social, cultural and therapeutic events for Holocaust survivors in the UK - said "legacy and education is of upmost importance to our members".
She would not be drawn on whether Victoria Tower Gardens was the right place for the project, saying that "the most important thing is that the memorial is built in a central London location and is easy to access".
The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation is currently running a public consultation exercise, with exhibitions across the UK featuring the proposed schemes until the end of April.
The winning design will be announced before the end of May by Sir Peter's jury, whose members include: London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid, TV presenters Loyd Grossman - also chair of the Royal Parks - and newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky.
The project should be open to the public by Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January 2021.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39417714
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Reality Check: What are 'ordinary working families'? - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Education Secretary wants to get children from 'ordinary working families' into grammar schools.
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Education & Family
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Reality Check says: The government defines "ordinary working families" as those that are not eligible for pupil premium but have below average incomes. It believes that accounts for about one third of all pupils in England, but this calculation is a work in progress.
Education Secretary Justine Greening on Thursday kicked off a consultation on plans for grammar schools in England, saying that they must do more to help "ordinary working families" as the government pushes ahead with plans to allow more selective schools to open.
There is no official definition of an "ordinary working family" but Ms Greening said on the Today Programme: "They don't perhaps qualify for free school meals - for pupil premium - but actually they are growing up in families that are below median incomes."
The household earning the median income is the one for which half of families have a higher income and half have lower.
The Pupil Premium is a pot of money set aside for children who are in care, eligible for free school meals or have had free school meals at any point in the last six years.
Pupils are eligible for free school meals if their family is on one of a range of benefits or has a household income of less than £16,190.
So, if earning above £16,190 puts you at the bottom end of the "ordinary working families" definition, how is the government defining the top end of the range?
The paper published on Wednesday included the first attempt by government statisticians to come up with figures that set out how many children from different income brackets go to grammar schools.
In the past, the only figures to help with this have been those covering how many children eligible for pupil premium go to particular schools, so expanding these statistics is an ambitious project.
What the statisticians have done is to attempt to match individual pupils in schools with their families' income through looking at tax payments and tax credits details.
These figures have then been adjusted to take into account things like household size, because if there are two families with identical household incomes, one of which has one child and the other has four children, their standards of living will not be the same.
Taking all these adjustments into account, the median household income comes out as £20,000. However, some families earning more than £20,000 in total will still fall within the definition of an ordinary working family.
For example, a single parent's income would be adjusted upwards, so it could be compared directly with the standard of living for a couple.
For a two-parent family with two children, the government considers median income to be £33,000.
The government says 35% of all pupils in England, which is 2.5 million children fall into its definition of coming from ordinary working families, because they fall below the median income but are not eligible for pupil premium.
The government is consulting on how to improve the methodology because, for example, the income figures do not currently include households' earnings from self-employment. They also plan to adjust for housing costs in different parts of England. The consultation closes on 30 June.
This new analysis has been welcomed as providing more detail, although there have been warnings from some education groups that the new work on ordinary working families will reduce the focus on the disadvantaged families who are eligible for pupil premium.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39590198
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Jenson Button set to replace Fernando Alonso for McLaren at Monaco Grand Prix - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Ex-world champion Jenson Button looks set to drive for McLaren in Monaco while Fernando Alonso misses the grand prix to race at the Indianapolis 500.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Britain's Jenson Button looks set to replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren for the Monaco Grand Prix in May.
Alonso will miss Monaco to race in the Indianapolis 500, with full support from McLaren and engine partner Honda.
McLaren executive director Zak Brown says two-time champion Alonso's replacement is "not in place".
But there is no other serious option than Button, 37, who is contracted to McLaren as a reserve driver and will race barring unexpected circumstances.
The 2009 world champion retired from Formula 1 at the end of last season and has spent the winter in California training for Ironman triathlons, his long-time passion.
He signed a contract with McLaren last autumn that committed him to replacing any race driver who was not able to take part in a grand prix this year.
As part of that contract, the team also has an option on signing him to race in 2018.
• None Alonso to race at Indy 500 over Monaco
• None Go ahead for grands prix on British roads
Button tweeted a jokey reaction on Wednesday after the news of Alonso's Indy programme was announced, asking: "Why do I have so many missed calls?"
Meanwhile, Brown told a Bahrain news conference, held to discuss Alonso's Indy programme, that "conversations were ongoing" over the Spaniard's replacement.
"We have a few different options, we will state who that is when we know," he said.
"Eric [Boullier], who runs the F1 team, is ultimately responsible for making the recommendation as to what driver should go in the car and I think he will be here at the weekend so I can save questions for him, he is working on it.
"I wouldn't want to share the conversations he has had with whom."
Button's compatriot and former team-mate, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, said: "I hope Jenson comes back and it will be great for the sport if Jenson comes in.
"Jenson is still one of the best drivers in the world and his calibre and experience make him the best choice."
Hamilton and Button drove together at McLaren between 2010 and 2012.
Are any other drivers in contention?
Button is the only serious alternative McLaren have. Alonso is one of the top three or four drivers in the world and they need an experienced replacement for a race where they have one of their best chances of the season to score decent points.
The McLaren chassis is quite strong, but the car is being let down by its Honda engine, which is said to be at least 100bhp down on the best in F1.
Monaco is one of the tracks on the calendar where engine power is least important in determining lap time. Alonso finished fifth there last year, when Honda also had a power deficit.
On top of that, there are very few available drivers with the required level of skill and expertise.
Mexican Esteban Gutierrez and Brazil's Felipe Nasr both raced last year and are potentially free, but are non-starters for a team such as McLaren needing to find a replacement for a two-time champion.
And Button's deal was struck with exactly this sort of situation in mind.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39589767
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Max Verstappen: Confident, talented, ruthless and with F1's throne in his sights - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Red Bull wunderkind Max Verstappen has ruffled F1's feathers and rewritten the rule book. Literally. Does he care? What do you think...
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Coverage: Practice, qualifying and race on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra (second practice online only). Live text commentary, leaderboard and imagery on BBC Sport website and app.
Max Verstappen does not lack for confidence. Just starting his third season in Formula 1, with one win under his belt, the 19-year-old Red Bull driver has no doubts about his ability.
Could he beat Lewis Hamilton in the same car, he is asked towards the end of a BBC Sport interview before the Bahrain Grand Prix?
"Probably I will sound really arrogant, but for sure," the Dutchman says.
Like all Verstappen's statements, it is not said in an arrogant fashion. He is not an arrogant man. It is a statement of facts as he sees them, founded on a cast-iron self-belief forged by a lightning rise to the top in which he has already proved to have a rare and spectacular talent.
That ability was on show once again at the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend.
From 16th on the grid to seventh on the first lap in slippery, damp conditions; second by lap 12, having passed Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in typically improvisational style; passed by Sebastian Vettel's quicker Ferrari later in the race, but holding on for a podium after fending off heavy pressure from Ricciardo.
For all its wonder, it was the sort of drive that has come to be expected of Verstappen. It was after all just three races previously, in Brazil at the end of last year, that Verstappen produced an even more eye-opening performance, dancing through the rain in Brazil in a manner that brought comparisons with Ayrton Senna.
Where does Verstappen's talent come from?
Verstappen seems to find grip and pace simply not accessible to most other drivers. How does he do it?
"It's always a bit difficult to answer to be honest," Verstappen says. "Just feeling, instinct, knowing where you have to go. You just feel your way into it."
It's not just instinct, though. Verstappen started karting at a very young age, and had a pretty decent tutor - his dad, the former F1 driver Jos Verstappen. He also has racing genes from his mother, the former champion karter Sophie Kumpen.
Jos would take little Max out for kart races, limited to five laps at a time because that was when the race was shaped, he said.
It is better to win a few races and crash in a few than always be second or third
"For sure that helped me a lot," Verstappen says now. "My dad always told me you have to be as quick as you can straight away out of the box.
"Some people say: 'Feel your way into it, build it up.' No, my dad would say: 'Straight away you have to be there.' And I think that helps to warm up your tyres and brakes to be on it a bit more from lap one."
There is nature with the nurture, though. Experience alone cannot explain Verstappen's almost supernatural feel for the limit when braking, the basis for many of his best overtaking moves.
Can Verstappen himself explain it?
"To be honest, I can't," he says. "I don't know. It is just something natural, I guess, to feel your way and control it. I have been practising a lot in the wet and trying not to lock up and stuff but I think it is also a bit natural, when you feel it is starting to lock."
Verstappen's performances since he burst onto the F1 scene as a 17-year-old with the Red Bull junior team two years ago have earned him widespread acclaim and a huge fanbase. But while he is clearly an exceptional talent, he says he does not see himself in that way.
"No, I don't think about things like that," he says. "You also very quickly get an arrogant thing about you when say things like that and I don't want to.
"Of course I am doing a good job, but you can always improve and I just leave it up to people outside, around me or whatever, to judge on that. I just want to do the best I can every time."
Controversy as part of the package
Along with the golden talent, there is a darker side to Verstappen.
His defensive driving tactics angered several more established stars, especially Vettel, last year and there were hard words spoken in a few drivers' briefings. A rule was even created specifically to try to prevent Verstappen doing what is known as 'moving under braking' - although it has been removed again this year to give race stewards more freedom.
Verstappen says he was not bothered by the criticism.
"No, everyone can have their own opinion," he says. "But it is very clear they [F1's bosses] wanted the racing back. Overtaking is one thing. That is an art. But defending as well. You should be able to defend your position. That's what I was doing. I am happy that there is a bit more freedom to it."
Officials were concerned enough, though, for F1 race director Charlie Whiting to have a word with Verstappen and warn him that he was right on the edge of acceptability.
"They basically said they had never seen it before," Verstappen says. "It was all a bit new to them. But I never got a penalty for it. So I never really thought I was doing anything wrong. It was definitely on the limit and hard but that's how racing should be, I think."
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For all his clearly exceptional ability, the fact remains that Verstappen was out-scored in terms of points and out-qualified more often than not by team-mate Ricciardo last year.
Verstappen says he feels no great need to correct the record this year. But there is a hint of a touched nerve in his answer when he points out that the margins were small, and he suffered a number of reliability problems that Ricciardo did not.
Pressed on the fact he must surely want to beat his team-mate, the only man who has the same equipment and therefore the only one with whom he can be directly compared, he adds: "Well, of course it's a positive, but it is not always [about] being ahead [at the end of the season]. It is also stand-out results.
"I prefer to win a few races and crash in a few than always be second or third and be ahead in the championship. That is my approach to racing when you are not fighting for the title."
It is an answer that will remind F1 aficionados of the late Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, who remains a legend for the feats he achieved apparently defying physics, in much the way Verstappen has done.
On a more mundane level is the question of the relationship between Verstappen and Ricciardo. Two bulls in one field is normally a recipe for disaster in F1 - think Alain Prost and Senna, or Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso - but Verstappen insists the relationship is sustainable.
"For the moment, there are no issues at all," he says. "As long as you have a lot of respect for each other, then it should work out."
Verstappen says the relationship with Ricciardo is "actually very good", but does concede: "Of course on track we try to beat each other. That is very normal. There is always a bit of a distance. That's the way it should be. You cannot be best buddies every single minute of the day in racing.
"Off track, in the meetings here we work really well together, and on track we try to beat each other. But it is good for the team because we push each other forward as well and that's pushes the car forward."
Right now, that's exactly what Red Bull need. They have started the season in a kind of no-man's land - not as quick as pace-setters Mercedes and Ferrari but miles ahead of everyone else.
The mixed conditions of China brought them into play close to the front, but that is going to be the exception rather than the norm until the car can be improved.
Red Bull say they are confident chassis improvements along with engine upgrades due over the next few races can bring them closer, but Verstappen is not getting his hopes up.
"I am going to take the approach of just wait and see when the parts come to the car," he says. "I am a realistic person. I don't like to be dreaming and hoping half a second here and 0.6secs here."
At his age, Verstappen has time on his hands. And his long-term ambition is clear. Not just one world title, but "as many as I can get".
As soon as he has said it, though, the realism is back: "But it is not always in your hands. You need to be in the right team at the right time and hope they keep up as well.
"As long as you try to be the best you can, the fittest you are, that's also already a great achievement.
"At the end of my career if I didn't win a championship but I was still very competitive and was always up there and tried to extract the best out of myself, I can be happy with that as well."
And he does admit that his ambition is to be the main man in F1.
"Of course that's the target. But it is really involved with how good the car is - I am 100% sure that if I had the same car as Lewis and Seb for sure I would be challenging them really hard.
"You have to believe in yourself. With the results I have had, or in the wet, or even in the dry, some races with a car that is not as good, to be able to be that close or reality fight for it, I am 100% sure if I had the same car, I can do it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39595327
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Declan McKenna: Bringing back the protest song (without being a bore) - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Teenager Declan McKenna has emerged as a fresh and intelligent voice in indie-pop. Here's his story.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Declan McKenna signed his record deal amid the mud at Glastonbury
Seventeen-year-old Declan McKenna has emerged as a fresh and intelligent voice in indie-pop, unafraid to tackle the big topics.
His breakthrough single Brazil addressed how construction work for the 2014 World Cup destroyed dozens of local communities.
Last year's Paracetamol was inspired by the story of Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teen in Ohio, who committed suicide after being sent for Christian conversion therapy.
"I just didn't realise that stuff like that was still going on," says the singer, who grew up in Hertfordshire.
"Recently, we've had the bathroom bill and all these sorts of things. I wanted to write something against that."
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McKenna got his big break when he won Glastonbury's Emerging Talent Competition in 2015, and signed his record deal at the festival later that year, knee-deep in mud.
Since then, he's released a series of singles tackling religion (Bethlehem), xenophobia in the media (Isombard), and being part of a voiceless generation (The Kids Don't Wanna Come Home).
Crucially, they're all fizzing alt-pop concoctions that never patronise or preach - they simply get on with the business of being top-notch indie anthems.
He's just announced his debut album, What Do You Think About The Car, which will be released on 21 July - and was overseen by producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine, Foals).
Ahead of the release, McKenna sat down to discuss his inspirations, being patronised by the press and his penchant for dungarees.
Why is your album called What Do You Think About The Car?
It's from a home video when I was four years old. We'd just got a new car and I was stood in front of my grandma's house. On the video, my sister goes, "Dec! What do you think about the car?" And I go, "I think it's really good, and now I'm going to sing my new album!"
That was my first reference to making an album - and we've sampled it on the record.
So you've been planning this ever since?
Yeah! I mean, at the end of the video, I start singing a Busted song. I don't think I knew what album meant, but it's just a really funny, cute thing about my roots and where it's all come from. It just made sense.
What were your early songs like?
Not very good! There was about two albums' worth of demos online before I released Brazil - which I took down soon after. I was trying to be Sufjan Stevens but on the most basic music software you can get. I was trying very hard. They're... erm, interesting.
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What prompted you to send Brazil in to Glastonbury's Emerging Talent competition?
I'd been entering competitions forever. It just so happened that this was the one that got picked up - which was awesome because obviously Glastonbury is an enormous festival.
How did you find playing there?
I was pretty young, I was 16, so it was just unreal. I played the shows and got signed to Columbia Records there as well.
Yeah, the guys at Columbia said, "Let's sign at Glastonbury," because it was more exciting than doing it in an office or whatever. And then we just went out and had a bit of a party.
So you have a legally-binding contract that's completely covered in mud...
Well, it was raining at the time! I think they kept it in in some foil or something, and then it was taken out for 10 seconds, like, "Sign this! Sign this!" And then it was done.
A lot of your singles deal with serious topics. What led you down that path?
I think, primarily, just not having much to write about! I was in school, I didn't have a girlfriend, I didn't have anything going on, really, except exams.
So that's what pushed me to write about stuff that doesn't necessarily impact me directly, but which I think needs to be talked about.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Declan McKenna performs Isombard on the BBC Introducing Stage at Radio 1's Big Weekend 2016
I read a lot of articles where the journalist seemed surprised someone your age would write about such serious subjects. That's quite condescending.
Yeah, I think so. A lot of the stuff I'm talking about is politically engaged, but I'm not by any means the most articulate or intelligent young person I know. There's nothing exceptional in talking about these things. I just do it and I put it in pop songs.
Kids Don't Wanna Come Home is an interesting song. You're both cynical about the state of the world and optimistic for it's future.
Yeah, 100%. It's about wanting to be part of a powerful and intelligent young generation - who stand up against these negative things we're shown incessantly on our phones. There's a lot of confusing information out there - but I'd like to be hopeful in a world that's often thought to be in despair.
Were you too young to vote in the referendum?
What did you think of the result?
My friends and I were, to a fair extent, ticked off.
I wouldn't have voted in favour of Brexit if I was able to vote. Now I'm 18, I feel just as informed now to make a decision as I was a couple of months ago.
Just on a personal level, as a touring musician, it's going to be a pain in the arse.
The teenager has been playing guitar since he was nine years old
Musically, who's the gold standard? Who would you like to emulate?
I mean, you have to try and make the best music you can, and you're not going to do that by emulating something you don't believe is the best. And I think David Bowie's music, in a lot of senses, is the peak of music.
Obviously, I don't think I am as good as him but I'd like to be. I'd like to be able to make something as good as Hunky Dory or Young Americans.
Which Bowie album are you on the level of right now?
Probably none of them. Maybe Earthling if I'm lucky. I don't think it's my favourite Bowie album by a long stretch but it's still there, it still deserves a place in my heart.
Finally, I have to ask about the dungarees. You've been rocking them for a while now...
I just like a good pair of dungarees. It's comfortable, it's versatile, it looks good with anything. I'm a fan.
And there's a handy pocket at the front for snacks.
I've got loads of pockets. Pockets galore - that's my nickname on the street.
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Craig Shakespeare: Leicester boss says Atletico Madrid penalty was 'guess' by referee - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare says the decision to award Atletico Madrid their match-winning penalty was "really disappointing".
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare said the referee "guessed" over the penalty decision that led to their defeat at Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Jonas Eriksson awarded a spot-kick for a foul on Antoine Griezmann, with replays showing the offence took place outside the box.
Griezmann scored the penalty to give Atletico a 1-0 victory in Spain.
"It is a really disappointing decision by the referee," said Shakespeare.
"It's a key moment in the game. He has to get that one right, he can't guess on those things. It's a definite free-kick but it's out of the box.
"It's the key decisions you want correct."
'It has ruined our game plan'
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was equally adamant that the decision was the incorrect one.
"It was plain and obvious to see. It has ruined our gameplan," he told BT Sport.
"It is a decision that is tough to take when it is so clear and obvious. We should have had something from this but we have to accept it.
"We made a challenge outside of the box. They might have scored from that free-kick but obviously there is a much better chance of scoring from the penalty - but it was never a penalty."
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."
'The tie is still alive'
The Foxes, who are the last English side left in the competition, were on the back foot for most of the match in Spain and failed to register a shot on target.
However, they remain firmly in the tie going into the second leg, which takes place at the King Power Stadium on 18 April.
"I think 1-0, we would have taken that before the game," said Shakespeare, who took over as boss of the Premier League champions in February following the sacking of Claudio Ranieri. "We came to try and get the away goal but we have seen what a top team Atletico Madrid are.
"The message is that mentally and physically we have been in a game and have given a good account of ourselves.
"We have got a good record at the King Power and the tie is still alive."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39584925
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Surgeon by day, rock star photographer by night - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The people pursuing more than one dream job.
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Business
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Charlie Chan says both of his careers are about people
Why settle for just the day job?
Charlie Chan is a breast cancer and melanoma surgeon. He is also a rock star photographer.
"My patients always come first so I work full-time as a surgeon and photography is my night job," he says. "I decided to become a surgeon at the age of 12 and concentrated on that."
But photography had been a passion of his since he was 15, and so he started smuggling his Leica camera into gigs.
He got his first press pass from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and started music photography work 10 years ago.
His subjects include musicians Jamie Cullum, Gregory Porter and Wilko Johnson, who was encouraged by Mr Chan to seek a second opinion after he had received a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis in 2013.
Mr Chan arranged for Johnson to see surgeon Emmanuel Huguet, who later operated to remove the tumour and save his life.
Charlie Chan with musician Wilko Johnson (c) and Emmanuel Huguet, the surgeon who performed Johnson's life-saving operation
You would think that being a surgeon would be more than enough career-wise for most people, so why pursue another profession?
Mr Chan says he uses similar skills in both professions. When shooting in black and white, he sees "light and composition which helps my day job, when performing a breast reconstruction, as you appreciate light and form in the same way".
For Mr Chan, both careers are about people. He wants his photos to tell a story and for the "viewer to be there in the moment", while he says a rewarding and wonderful part about being a surgeon is being able to share good news with his patients who are "very brave in the face of adversity".
Jamie Cullum and Gregory Porter have been snapped by Mr Chan
Mr Chan is not alone in his "dual career". While some people take more than one job out of financial necessity, many people are doing so out of choice and for the challenge.
Professional networking website LinkedIn has seen a growing trend in the registering of "multiple", "dual" and "portfolio" career descriptions.
Just look at George Osborne: MP for Tatton, adviser at BlackRock Investment Institute, and soon-to-be editor of the London Evening Standard.
Rupert Toovey has been working as an auctioneer for his entire adult life
Rupert Toovey founded Toovey's auctioneers in 1995. Fifteen years later he was ordained as a deacon.
The Reverend Rupert Toovey says his secular work is as vocational as his work as a deacon, with each supporting the other. From his late teens, his faith and auctioneering work went hand in hand.
"To serve and listen to people has been a constant thread," he says. "Each role is simultaneously rewarding and vocational."
On visits to people's homes to view antiques, Mr Toovey says: "The objects reflect the patchwork of their lives and it is a privilege to be invited to share these precious moments with them.
"As with the priestly work, I accompany people in profound moments of change in their lives in a particularly personal and private way."
The Reverend Rupert Toovey finds parallels between his religious and auctioneering work
He says his life has "a wholeness that fits together in a most unexpected way".
The majority of people Mr Toovey attends to, baptises and marries, are people he has met through the network of his business life, including the Lord Mayor of Westminster.
"Modern society too often compartmentalises life. I am at once a father, priest, auctioneer, employer, [and] friend," he says.
Former Chancellor George Osborne has lots of lucrative lines of work
Professional careers adviser Rachel Brushfield says some people look for more than one career because they "want a better work-life balance, more meaning and purpose".
The ability to be "as dynamic as the workplace" and the autonomy of designing your own "stimulating future-proof career" are motivating factors for her clients.
In 2007, New York Times columnist Marci Alboher popularised the term "slash careers" - as in surgeon/photographer - citing creative fulfilment and diverse skillsets as benefits for employers and employees.
But people taking second jobs has been a trend for decades.
According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of people with second jobs has stayed roughly between 1.1 million and 1.3 million since 1993.
Official statistics no longer break out earnings figures. However, looking back, in autumn 2001, men with a second job earned more on average in their main job than those with only one.
Lawyer Duncan McNair: "They aren't jobs, they are component parts of my heart and soul"
One high earner with several jobs is Duncan McNair, a commercial lawyer, author and elephant campaigner.
He founded the charity Save the Asian Elephants in 2015 and has always written creatively.
Taking cases before the European Court of Human Rights, chairing a review of the RSPCA's welfare scheme, and writing satire, all use his advocacy skills, stretching them further than legal practice alone.
Mr McNair finds his skills "built around the law to be hugely useful in campaigning" for elephants.
While working at Cubism Law and undertaking extensive pro-bono work, Mr McNair donates proceeds from his satirical book series, The Morello Letters, to Save The Asian Elephants.
"The practice takes the majority of time and the rest is filled drafting articles, speeches and writing the final third of the latest Morello book," he says.
"Ideas for the letters come to me while waiting for buses, as sparks of the imagination, explaining my fanatical relationship with post-it notes."
The Morello world offers a "nirvana of humans and animals living in humorous harmony", with a rich source of characters he often finds in the legal profession.
"I'm incredibly lucky to be able to advocate for these causes and to have a various workload. They aren't jobs, they are component parts of my heart and soul."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39455807
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Didier Drogba: Ex-Chelsea striker joins Phoenix Rising as player and co-owner - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba joins United Soccer League side Phoenix Rising as a player and co-owner.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Former Chelsea and Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba has joined United Soccer League side Phoenix Rising as a player and co-owner.
Drogba, 39, has not played since leaving Major League Soccer club Montreal Impact in November.
He will start out as a player but has also joined Phoenix's "MLS expansion franchise ownership group".
"To own a team and be a player at the same time is unusual but it's going to be very exciting," Drogba said.
"It's a good transition because I want to carry on playing but I'm almost 40 and it's important for me to prepare for my later career."
Phoenix have just started their fourth season in the Western Conference of USL, which forms part of the second tier of the American league system.
The Arizona club hope to become one of four planned expansion teams in MLS over the next three years.
"I had offers from China, from England - in both the Premier League and even the Championship - but they were only as a player," Drogba told The Premier League Show.
"This was the right offer because it was important for me to think about playing, because I enjoy it, but also to get to the next stage of my career."
Drogba scored 157 goals in 341 appearances during his first spell at Chelsea from 2004 to 2012, winning three Premier League titles and the Champions League.
Following moves to Shanghai Shenhua in China and Turkish side Galatasaray, Drogba returned to the Blues for the 2014-15 season, scoring seven goals in 40 appearances, helping Jose Mourinho's side to the title, before 18 months with Montreal.
He joins former Chelsea team-mate Shaun Wright-Phillips at Phoenix, who have one win and two defeats from three games this season.
"I'm still a player but it's important to respect the decision of the manager," added Drogba, who is Ivory Coast's record goalscorer.
"When we're on the pitch, he's going to be the one who decides and when we go to board meetings, it's a different thing."
Watch the full interview with Didier Drogba in The Premier League show on BBC Two on Thursday, 13 April (22:00 BST) .
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39584158
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Urban Burqa: An artist's striking critique of Islamophobia - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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Why a photographer's series sets a garment of Afghanistan against scenes of everyday Australia.
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Australia
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When Tony Abbott, as Australian prime minister in 2014, appeared to support a ban on the burka being worn in Parliament House, award-winning photographer Fabian Muir had one response. He trekked 1,600km (1,000 miles) across his homeland, camera in hand.
Muir's resulting series pitted a cobalt-coloured garment of Afghanistan, alternatively spelled burqa, against Australia's most forbidding, and beautiful, terrains.
Blue Burqa in a Sunburnt Country features a lone figure standing against swirling skies on a ridge of yellow sand; reflected in clear water; and walking amongst a forest of dead trees.
Now Muir has made a follow up sequence - Urban Burqa.
Rather than pictured in the outback, a woman in blue stands, contrastingly, against the white of milk bottles in a supermarket. Other images include the figure outside a fluorescent McDonald's sign and in a concrete basement covered in graffiti.
The series is a critique of the rising far right and Islamophobia, Muir says.
Muir says his series deals with "confrontation and adaptation"
"Tragically, [anti-immigrant sentiment] has only become more magnified since 2014," says Muir, pointing out that 49% of Australians in a 2016 poll supported a ban on Muslims entering the country.
"The refugee crisis… is always such an easy target for politicians. There's always going to be a percentage of the population who swallows that because it seems like an easy solution to problems."
In Blue Burqa in a Sunburnt Country, Muir wanted to show how the burka complemented - and even enhanced - the landscapes: "It hinted or suggested a potential symbiosis of this country and immigrants, that runs counter to the narrative making the headlines at that time."
Urban Burqa, by contrast, touches more on a cultural clash. "It's still about simulation but there's also a sense of confrontation and adaptation, hence this darker, edgier feel to it," he says.
Born in a household of Australian creatives - Muir's mother was a director at Opera Australia, his father a director at the Australian Broadcasting Corp - Muir turned to photography after completing a law degree at Sydney University. He has since lived in Estonia, Lithuania, France, Spain and Germany.
Muir, who is in his 40s, credits his success to a lack of formal training.
The subject is photographed against the Aboriginal flag
"I personally think it's unnecessary and potentially dangerous for an aspiring photographer [to attend photography school]," he says. "Especially if they're young. They're going to potentially lack the fortitude to resist their teacher's vision."
Muir taught himself, learning on film. "The trial and error was quite expensive," he laughs. "Each shot cost me a dollar!"
Still, he appreciates the ability to pursue his own ideas "untrammelled and unburdened by someone else's vision".
Last year Muir completed his series Intimate Perspectives on North Korea, selected as a finalist in the Magnum Photography Awards.
"It's a time capsule," says Muir of the nation, which he visited five times over the course of two years.
Shepherded around by guides, he was only allowed to walk unaided - and unwatched - on a handful of occasions.
One of Muir's photos from North Korea
The photographer was first inspired to travel to North Korea after coming across Tomas van Houtryve's 2009 photo essay The Land of No Smiles.
He says Houtryve's images are powerful but bleak. "His descriptions are very acid, of children fleeing at the sight of him," he says. "What I saw was very different."
"The bleakness is part of the narrative," continues Muir. "But it's not the sole element. Almost more interesting was my experience of street level North Korea. They're really very warm and have a sense of humour, and enjoy very normal things."
In order to document this, Muir took photographs of picnics in the park, kids in a playground, and bathers at a beach resort. One of his most hard-hitting images is of young children in an orphanage sitting beneath portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.
It works because of "the structural composition, which says something about North Korean society - this strict structure of children lined up under the presence of the leadership there," he says.
"For me it also raises questions: these infants, where are they going to be in the future? It asks questions about the future, it illustrates the present, and it also says something about the past."
Muir says his series ends on a hopeful note
Key was showing that there was more to the story than "unthinking robotic people and their hatred for America and Japan".
This hit home in 2015. "Out of nowhere I sensed this figure cannon balling towards me and arms were thrown around me. It was this guide I had on previous visits - he was in his sixties, quite eccentric and has fantastic sense of humour," Muir says.
"He was almost in tears to see me again. It was absolutely genuine - no one put him up to that."
With regards to Urban Burqa, Muir believes it ends on a hopeful note.
The last image shows a woman in a burka standing in a bright blue skate park. The shadow from a skater in a T-shirt and shorts skirts the crown of her covered head, his hand almost touching her.
"For me it's a nice closing image, it's optimistic - because of the reaching out," he says. "[But] there's a sense that there are a lot of barriers that have to be overcome."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-39499321
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Farewell to pay growth - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The jobs market is robust, but pay rises have largely stalled and for many are already in reverse.
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Business
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Income growth - or lack of it - has been one of the defining economic and political issues of the last decade.
Average weekly earnings are still £26 below where they were at their peak in 2008.
Employment levels are strong - which is economic good news.
But if people in work feel worse off year on year, then Number 10 knows it has a major issue to fix.
The reasons for Britain's wage stagnation problem are multiple.
The recession following the financial crisis raised the spectre of unemployment, meaning that holding on to your job became more important than asking for a pay rise.
As growth, demand and investment dried up following the banking collapse, inflation in western economies evaporated and in some sectors - such as food - price deflation became the norm.
The cost of living - the usual fuel for wage demands - stopped rising.
Then there is Britain's productivity problem, which will not return to its long-term growth rate of 2% until 2020.
Productivity measures the amount of value (outputs) created in the economy per unit of input - such as labour hours worked, materials used or capital investment spent.
Its increase is directly related to income: if productivity rises, wealth is created more rapidly than costs rise, and increased profit and wage rises are the result.
If productivity is poor - and the UK lags far behind America, France and Germany on this measure - that wealth is harder to come by.
As Philip Hammond put it at the time of the Autumn Statement last November: "It takes a German worker four days to produce what we make in five, which means, in turn, that too many British workers work longer hours for lower pay than their counterparts."
By the time a British worker has earned £1, a German worked has earned £1.35.
When inflation is low or non-existent, stagnant real income growth is less of an issue for the people affected.
But over the past six months, inflation has risen markedly, from 1% in September to 2.3% last month.
Some of that is down to the fall in the value of sterling, but global inflationary pressures are also rising as more solid growth returns, as I've written before.
Today's figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal that earnings growth is travelling in the opposite direction - down to 2.2% last month from 2.3% in February.
And that, of course, is an average figure.
For some areas of employment - such as public sector workers - the picture is far grimmer.
The Resolution Foundation says that more than a third of the workforce are already in sectors where pay is falling in real terms.
"Britain's brief pay recovery has come to an end," said Stephen Clarke, economic analyst at the think-tank.
"Forty per cent of the workforce are experiencing shrinking pay packets according to the latest figures, in sectors ranging from finance to the public sector. Many more will join them in the coming months as inflation continues to rise, with pay across the economy as a whole set to have fallen in the first three months of 2017."
Inflation is expected to jump again when the April figures are published next month - price rises associated with the later Easter holiday this year (increased air fares for example) will feed through as will plans by the major energy companies to raise prices.
At the same time, wage increases are set to continue slowing. It is likely that next month, falling real incomes will be back with us for the first time since September 2014.
As I have said before, Britain's income squeeze is one of the most difficult political and economic issues facing the government.
Many will argue that an economy that works for everyone would not be expected to be one where people are worse off at the end of the year than they were at the beginning.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39578270
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Dylan Hartley: British & Irish Lions call-up would be a 'bonus' for England skipper - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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England captain Dylan Hartley says British & Irish Lions selection for the summer tour of New Zealand would be a "bonus".
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Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union
England captain Dylan Hartley says it would be a "bonus" to be selected for the British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand this summer.
Hartley, 31, led Eddie Jones' side to the Six Nations championship last month and will finish the Premiership season with club side Northampton.
"I'm not building myself up for possibly what would be a setback in my eyes," Hartley told BBC Sport.
"So I'm taking it as it comes. I'm happy where I am at the moment. If it comes it is a bonus. If not then I have got other things to play for and other things to look forward to.
"For anyone selected I'm sure it's a great honour and I have been previously selected, so, yes, it is a great honour, but to tour I'm sure is a great experience."
'It's my job to play well'
The immediate focus for the New Zealand-born hooker is guiding Saints at least to a European Champions Cup position in the Premiership.
Northampton are seventh in the table but level on points with Harlequins, in sixth, after losing their last two games.
And Hartley said he would not allow Gatland's imminent announcement to impact on his performance level.
"It's an uncontrollable," he added. "The selectors have got a pretty difficult job.
"What I can control is what I do this weekend against Saracens, every other player is thinking that as well.
"[Representative rugby] is the bonus of playing well off the back of club rugby or for your international side. It's not my job to worry about selection, it's my job to play well."
Hartley need only look back to 2013 to recall how much of an honour it was to be selected for a Lions tour, but also to remember the frustration of missing out.
His Premiership final sending off for Northampton that year, made doubly painful by a defeat by East Midlands rivals Leicester at Twickenham, culminated in an 11-week ban which ruled him out of the tour to Australia.
However, he dismissed any talk of additional motivation ahead of the 2017 squad announcement.
"What motivates me is embracing what I'm doing at this stage of my life," added Hartley.
"Playing professional sport for a living is a great thing to say and do, the opportunity I've got for my family to provide and set ourselves up.
"I still enjoy it, I love the environment, whether it's the Saints dressing room or England. When you enjoy your work it's not work.
"Set-backs always refocus me but, ultimately, because I missed out on the Lions in 2013 doesn't motivate me to get up in the morning."
Get all the latest rugby union news by adding alerts in the BBC Sport app.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/39583184
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Atletico Madrid 1-0 Leicester - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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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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World Championships 2017: Mark Selby faces Fergal O'Brien in first round - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Defending champion Mark Selby will play Fergal O'Brien in the first round of the 2017 World Championship at the Crucible.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Defending champion Mark Selby will face Fergal O'Brien in the first round of the World Championship at the Crucible.
Selby, 33, lifted the trophy for the second time last year with victory over China's Ding Junhui, who comes up against fellow countryman Zhou Yuelong.
Selby begins his campaign on Saturday, 15 April at 10:00 BST.
O'Brien came through qualifying with a final-frame win over David Gilbert, which included the longest frame played in professional snooker history - two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds.
"It was dragging on with so much safety being played," O'Brien, 45, told BBC Sport. "We were on the yellow for about half an hour and there were not many chances to pot it.
"There was so much at stake and we were fearful of making a mistake.
"It is a great occasion to play the defending champion on the opening morning. I need to rest up and relax until then and get some practice in."
World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn described 2005 champion Murphy's tie against China's Yan as his "pick of the opening round".
Yan - who won the snooker World Cup with partner Zhou in 2015 - will become the first player born in the 2000s to compete at the Crucible, which is hosting the tournament for the 40th year.
Meanwhile, Anthony McGill faces Stephen Maguire in an all-Scottish tie and 2010 champion Neil Robertson plays Thailand's Noppon Saengkham, who at 72 is the lowest ranked player in the tournament.
Ryan Day, the only Welshman in the draw, is up against another Chinese player in Xiao Guodong.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39587716
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Chocolate reflection cake recipe - BBC Food
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2017-04-13
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A dazzling cake that's perfect for any celebration. The cake itself is easy to make, so you can put your efforts into the icing glaze.
Equipment: You will need 2 loose-bottomed cake tins, 20cm/8in wide.
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• None Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Line the base of two 20cm/8in loose-bottomed cake tins with baking paper and grease the sides with baking spread.
• None Sieve the cocoa powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the water and stir until you have a smooth paste. Add the remaining ingredients. Whisk together using an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy. Spoon into the two tins and level the tops.
• None Bake for 20–25 minutes, until well risen and coming away from the sides of the tins. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• None To make the icing, put the gelatine leaves in a shallow bowl of cold water for 5 minutes until soft.
• None Put the sugar, cocoa powder, cream and 125ml/4fl oz water into a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir until melted, then bring up to the boil and stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
• None Squeeze any liquid from the gelatine leaves and stir into the chocolate mixture until dissolved. Pour through a sieve into a bowl and leave to cool and thicken in the fridge for about an hour, until it reaches the consistency of thick mayonnaise.
• None Slice each cake in half horizonatally. Put one cake half on a wire rack and smooth a layer of whipped cream on top. Continue this process so you have four layers of cake and three layers of cream. Press the cakes down between each layer so the cream comes right to the edges and the cakes are level at the sides. Smooth around the edges with a palette knife so the excess cream very lightly covers the sides and gives a smooth edge.
• None Gently warm the apricot jam and brush lightly over the cake, covering the sides and top. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• None Put about 100ml/3½fl oz of the icing in a heatproof bowl and gently melt over a pan of simmering water. Dip half of each strawberry in the melted icing. Put on baking paper to set.
• None Once the cake has finished cooling in the fridge, transfer to a wire cooling rack placed on a large baking tray to catch any excess glaze as you pour it over the cake. Pour the remaining icing over the cake and smooth over the top and sides. Be very careful doing this, you want a smooth shiny icing. Leave for an hour or so to set. Arrange the glazed strawberries around the bottom edge of the cake.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolate_reflection_23487?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=easterbaking&intc_linkname=bbcfood_fac_article1
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Nicola Adams: Olympic boxing champion will increase round length for Leeds fight - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Nicola Adams will be allowed to compete over three-minute rounds and wants changes to rules concerning glove size.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Double Olympic champion Nicola Adams will contest three-minute rounds in her next fight, a contrast to the standard two minutes in women's boxing.
Adams won on her professional debut on Saturday but was frustrated to fight over four two-minute rounds.
"Every time I felt I was getting close to a stoppage the bell would go for the end of the round," said Adams, 34.
On Tuesday, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said the organisation "will never allow three-minute rounds".
Sulaiman said some boxing jurisdictions had taken "steps backwards" in allowing longer rounds in the women's sport. He said the organisation would "limit the dehydration and the fatigue elements to lower as much as possible the risk of a tragedy".
Flyweight Adams' next bout in Leeds on 13 May is on the undercard of Josh Warrington's WBC International featherweight title fight with Kiko Martinez.
As Adams' fight is not for a WBC title, the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) have allowed for the extension of the bout to four three-minute rounds.
Ireland's London 2012 Olympic champion Katie Taylor has also called for the move and Adams' management believe it will be the first time a women's bout has featured the same length of rounds as their male counterparts in the UK.
"Female boxing has come a long way since Jane Couch MBE made the sport possible here in the UK in 1998," said Adams.
"However, there is still a way to go until both male and female boxers can campaign under the same competition rules."
Adams is now intent on winning the right for women to wear lighter gloves.
The BBBofC's rules specify women must use 10oz gloves, a factor Adams' management believe is even more limiting than round length as gloves become heavier with perspiration as a fight progresses.
"It's great that the BBBofC has supported this first change and hopefully changes to glove sizes will come next," said Adams.
In the men's game, fighters competing from flyweight to welterweight are allowed to wear 8oz gloves.
BBC Radio 5 live boxing pundit Steve Bunce said a move to 8oz gloves would allow Adams to show her power, adding the current 10oz rule was "not good for business".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39594187
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Track Cycling World Championships: Chris Latham takes bronze in scratch race - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Great Britain's Chris Latham wins a bronze medal in the men's scratch race at the Track World Championships in Hong Kong.
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Last updated on .From the section Cycling
Great Britain's Chris Latham won a bronze medal in the men's scratch race at the Track World Championships.
The 23-year-old earned GB's second medal of the Hong Kong championships following Elinor Barker's silver medal in the women's scratch on Wednesday.
Latham emerged from the pack to take bronze as he chased down Adrian Teklinski of Poland, who won gold, and Lucass Liss of Germany, who got silver.
In the men's team pursuit, GB were beaten to the bronze medal by Italy.
"I am really happy to come away with a medal, finally," Latham told the BBC.
"I wasn't sure that Teklinski was going to hold on there.
"I was in a decent position most of the time. I followed the Irish rider Felix English and I had a good lead out."
• None The madison, keirin and other mysteries
Elsewhere Britain's sole rider in the men's keirin, Joe Truman, was outclassed in his semi-final, having tried to take the race out with two laps to go.
And in the women's team pursuit, GB finished fifth in the heats and failed to make the bronze-medal ride.
"Latham had a fantastic final charge. He timed his effort well there.
"We hardly saw him in the race, he monitored things but that's why. He was waiting for that final sprint. And what a ride that was for him.
"But with three laps to go, I would not have said that Teklinski would make it, but he found something from somewhere to just hang on there.
"More than 2km out, he effectively started to sprint. It will take him some time to recover from that."
"I don't think that would be expected. It's the kind of event you can never be super-confident of winning or winning a medal in.
"But if you ride sensibly, which he did, he positioned himself very well and didn't waste any energy in the first part of the race.
"He marked the danger men and clearly had the legs for the sprint at the end. That's fantastic, a really great result for him and the team."
'Such a good place to be in'
Team pursuit Olympic gold medallist Elinor Barker came into the quartet of Emily Nelson, Manon Lloyd and Ellie Dickinson.
The young squad were unable to compete for a medal but Barker remained positive about their progress.
She told the BBC: "It's the first Worlds for all of these girls and it's made it a lot more exciting.
"The level is so high already physically and technically. We have so much scope for improvement. It's such a good place to be in.
"Four years until Tokyo and we've just come fifth at the Worlds."
Double Olympic gold medallist Joanna Rowsell Shand said on BBC TV: "Coming into the competition, I don't think anyone expected them to medal.
"Until Elinor Barker joined the team today, we had four brand new riders. With an average age of 19, they've all got bright futures ahead of them."
'Not what we expect from a medallist'
Earlier in the day, Olympic bronze medallist Katy Marchant was eliminated from the women's sprint in the first round.
The 24-year-old, who claimed bronze behind Kristina Vogel of Germany and fellow Briton Becky James at Rio 2016, was the only female sprinter to travel to Hong Kong.
The former heptathlete qualified in 16th place but was ousted by 17th-fastest Lin Junhong of China earlier on Thursday.
Marchant is scheduled to compete in two more events - Saturday's 500m time-trial and Sunday's keirin.
"I'm really disappointed. I feel like I'm just missing a little bit of zing, which is something that coming off Rio is to be expected," she said.
"I didn't get the roar when I got the number on my back today - maybe the fact it's not an Olympic Games or something in the back of my mind telling me that I'm not feeling great.
"I know to get knocked out in the first round is not what we expect from a medallist, but the preparation coming into this competition is about the process leading on to Tokyo."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39587051
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West Ham's Michail Antonio out for season with 'significant injury' - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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West Ham winger Michail Antonio is ruled out for the rest of the season with a "significant injury", manager Slaven Bilic says.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
West Ham winger Michail Antonio has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a "significant injury", manager Slaven Bilic says.
The 27-year-old was injured in the Hammers' 1-0 win over Swansea at London Stadium last weekend.
"It's a significant injury and he's out for the season," Bilic confirmed.
Antonio, who has scored nine goals for the Hammers this season, was called up by England for the first time in August.
"It is a big blow. We know what he has been giving. He is one of our best players," Bilic added.
He was again called up for England's World Cup qualifier against Lithuania last month but pulled out of the squad with a hamstring injury and has yet to make his international debut.
He joined West Ham from Nottingham Forest in 2015 and signed a new four-year deal with the club last summer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39586811
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Boris Johnson: A weakened foreign secretary? - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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It has not been a great week for Boris Johnson. Where does he stand at the end of it?
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UK Politics
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There is, to use Boris Johnson's own lingo, a "whinge-o-rama" raging among the foreign secretary's political opponents and in parts of the press about his performance in the current Syria crisis.
He faces a number of charges. First, he pulled out of a long-planned trip to Moscow after the US missile strike on a Syrian airfield. It was agreed the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson should go instead.
Next, Team Boris briefed journalists that the foreign secretary wanted to get the G7 to agree new sanctions against Russia at its meeting in the Italian city of Lucca. But Mr Johnson entirely failed to persuade other countries to agree.
Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said there was no consensus new sanctions would help and argued they could push Russia into a corner.
Mr Johnson's own view of the Syrian conflict seems to have swerved around like a shopping trolley since he became the UK's chief diplomat in July.
Giving evidence to a House of Lords committee at the start of 2017, he signalled a shift in UK policy towards Syria. Mr Johnson said the "mantra" of calling for President Assad to go had not worked and the military space had been left open to Russia to fill.
The Foreign Secretary told peers President Assad should be allowed to run for election as part of a "democratic resolution" of the civil war.
Now, however, Mr Johnson believes the Syrian leader has to go.
How much of this is fair? And what might the episode say about Boris Johnson's standing in Theresa May's government?
First, the UK was a bystander to the Trump administration's missile strike on Syria. The government was given a courtesy call to say it was coming but the UK was not asked to be involved.
Mr Johnson's trip to Moscow (which would have been the first by a British foreign secretary to Russia for five years) was long planned and quickly binned. I understand Mrs May told Mr Johnson it was his call whether he wanted to go or not. After speaking to Rex Tillerson, Mr Johnson and his US opposite number agreed it was best for one man to deliver a single message to Moscow.
Mr Johnson then spent a weekend hitting the phones to other G7 countries trying to get a united position agreed ahead of the meeting in Lucca. In its final communique, the G7 did agree to state the Assad regime had to end.
But further sanctions - an idea endorsed by Number 10 - got nowhere. It was clearly a snub to Mr Johnson although government sources insist sanctions have not been taken off the table.
On Wednesday, the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond, said other countries were "less forward-leaning" than the UK on the issue.
Diplomacy is tough. But it may have been unwise for the Foreign Office to suggest sanctions were an ambition when key G7 nations clearly didn't agree.
At the weekend, I was told by Team Boris that he was very relaxed about the sniping and criticism being lobbed his way in recent days. And Mr Johnson has provoked quite a lot since he became foreign secretary, largely because of his use of decidedly undiplomatic language.
He was taken to task by a Swedish MEP in February for calling Brexit a "liberation". A month before that, Mr Johnson warned the French president not to respond to Brexit by administering "punishment beatings" in the manner of a World War Two film.
Guy Verhofstadt, who speaks for the European Parliament on Brexit, branded the remarks "abhorrent and deeply unhelpful". It was several days after President Trump's election that Boris Johnson said it was time for Mr Trump's critics to get over their "whinge-o-rama" - a comment I know left some officials in Brussels agog.
Mr Johnson is always keen to speak with the swashbuckling pluck of the newspaper columnist he once was. His many fans in the Tory party might love it. But even Mrs May has hinted at exasperation.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Theresa May jokes about Boris Johnson the FFS
At the Conservative Party conference last autumn, the prime minister said: "Do we have a plan for Brexit? We do. Are we ready for the effort it will take to see it through? We are. Can Boris Johnson stay on message for a full four days? Just about."
It was a joke. But not many prime ministers joke about their foreign secretary's erraticism. Then in December, Mrs May described Boris Johnson as an FFS - saying that in this case it stood for being a Fine Foreign Secretary (and not the punchy abbreviation for a term of exasperation).
When Mrs May was home secretary and Mr Johnson was London mayor they had a prickly relationship. She then beat him to the job he craved.
Her appointment of the Brexit campaign's most prominent champion to the job of foreign secretary stunned Westminster and it remains one of the most intriguing political relationships within the government.
While happy to clip his wings publicly from time to time, Theresa May also needs Boris Johnson on board as she embarks on Brexit.
A force so effective in persuading Britain to vote to leave the EU is not a politician the prime minister wants sniping from outside the cabinet as the negotiating trade-offs begin.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39580761
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Lyon v Besiktas: Kick-off delayed by crowd trouble at Europa League match - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Lyon's Europa League quarter-final first-leg win over Besiktas is marred by crowd trouble that saw the kick-off delayed by 50 minutes.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Clashes in the stands that forced some supporters on to the pitch delayed Lyon's Europa League quarter-final first-leg win over Besiktas.
Trouble prompted police involvement outside the ground before violence behind one goal as players warmed up.
"Projectiles and fireworks launched from the stands require fans to take refuge on the pitch," Lyon tweeted.
The game kicked off 45 minutes late with Lyon scoring twice in the closing 10 minutes to win 2-1.
Authorities had categorised the fixture 'high risk', with about 500 police reportedly stationed at Parc Olympique Lyonnais - more than double the usual amount.
Both teams left the field as fans spilled on to the playing surface before kick-off, with Lyon president Jean Michel Aulas going into the crowd in an effort to calm supporters.
When the French and Turkish sides eventually emerged, both sets of players clapped supporters all round the stadium, before going through brief warm-up drills ahead of a 20:50 BST kick-off.
Before Beskitas' fixture against Greek side Olympiakos in the previous round, both clubs worked with Uefa and took the decision to ban away fans in a bid to avoid crowd trouble.
It is the third incident at a Uefa competition this week, following Tuesday's bomb attack on Borussia Dortmund's team bus and Wednesday's clashes between Leicester City supporters and police in Madrid.
When the match got under way, former Liverpool striker Ryan Babel put Besiktas ahead but moments after Corentin Tolisso's equaliser on 83 minutes, Jeremy Morel robbed Spanish goalkeeper Fabri in the area to tap into an empty net.
• None Attempt missed. Corentin Tolisso (Lyon) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Mathieu Valbuena.
• None Attempt missed. Lucas Tousart (Lyon) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Mathieu Valbuena with a cross following a corner.
• None Goal! Lyon 2, Besiktas 1. Jérémy Morel (Lyon) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal.
• None Goal! Lyon 1, Besiktas 1. Corentin Tolisso (Lyon) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal following a set piece situation.
• None Tolgay Arslan (Besiktas) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt saved. Maxwel Cornet (Lyon) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Nabil Fekir.
• None Mathieu Valbuena (Lyon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39548463
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Mother of all bombs: How powerful is US mega-weapon? - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The US GBU-43/B bomb detonates in the air and is said to create a blast wave for a mile in every direction.
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US & Canada
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The US military has just dropped its largest conventional (that is non-nuclear) bomb for the first time in combat, on Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) - or, in military speak, Mother of All Bombs - was launched on Thursday.
The target was said to be a network of tunnels operated by the so-called Islamic State in Achin district.
As a non-nuclear weapon, use of the MOAB does not necessarily require approval by the US president.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch 2003 footage of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) being tested
It is a huge weapon - a 30ft (9m), 21,600lb (9,800kg), GPS-guided munition that is dropped from the cargo doors of an MC-130 transport plane and detonates shortly before it hits the ground.
The MOAB falls from the aircraft on a pallet, which is then tugged aside by a parachute allowing the weapon to glide down, stabilised and directed by four grid-like fins.
Its principal effect is a massive blast wave - said to stretch for a mile in every direction - created by 18,000lb of TNT.
The bomb's thin aluminium casing was designed specifically to maximise the blast radius.
The MOAB is prepared for testing at the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
The bomb is designed to damage underground facilities and tunnels.
The weapon was developed for use in the Iraq war - at a reported cost of $16m (£13m) each - and was first tested in 2003, but never used in action - until now.
And yet, the MOAB is not the US military's heaviest non-nuclear bomb.
That distinction belongs to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, a bunker-buster which weighs a colossal 30,000lb.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. North Korea 'must be well aware' of what else is in the US armoury
Russia has developed its own massive conventional bomb, nicknamed the Father Of All Bombs. The FOAB is a kind of fuel-air bomb, technically known as a thermobaric weapon.
Thermobaric bombs generally detonate in two stages: a small blast creates a cloud of explosive material which is then ignited, generating a devastating pressure wave.
A significant part of the effect of weapons like the MOAB is said to be psychological - to instil terror by the massive force of the blast.
Its development followed the use of similar weapons including the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter, a 15,000lb bomb designed in part to flatten a section of forest to carve out a helicopter landing pad.
The MOAB was developed by the Alabama-based aeronautics company Dynetics.
The 21,600lb (9,800kg) bomb has never been used in combat before
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39596333
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Why this Easter egg is so difficult to sell overseas - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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UK firms are rushing to take advantage of growing global demand for chocolate eggs.
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Business
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There's nothing but air in the middle of most chocolate eggs
Cracking open a large chocolate egg to find nothing in the middle is one of life's perennial disappointments.
Yet for some chocolate firms the fact that most Easter eggs are hollow is more than just disappointing, it's problematic.
"It sounds ridiculous, but there is a lot of air in Easter eggs relative to their value in weight," says Helen Pattinson, co-founder of boutique British chocolate chain Montezuma's.
The oval shape of eggs and the boxes required to keep them intact means that, compared to the amount of space they take up in a shipping container, it is impossible for Montezuma's to charge the end customer enough to make a decent profit.
Foreign sales account for about a fifth of the company's overall sales and for this financial year, ending in May, it expects exports to hit the £1m mark for the first time.
Despite the strong demand from abroad, the firm is yet to send its chocolate eggs overseas.
"The economics just haven't added up so far," says Mrs Pattinson, who co-founded the firm in 2000 with her husband Simon.
More than three-quarters of Montezuma's chocolate exports go to the US, but it is yet to send any eggs
The company has six shops in the South East of England and sells directly to customers in the US and Europe via its website, and further afield via export arrangements. So far most of its overseas customers have come via a partnership deal with a large US retailer.
Despite the more established reputation of Swiss and Belgian chocolatiers, Mrs Pattinson says she is seeing a growing demand for British-made chocolate.
"The most contemporary artisan foodies are beginning to realise Britain is a fantastic producer of chocolate," she says.
Last year, the UK exported a whopping £245m worth of chocolate, up by almost a quarter on 2015.
Exports of unfilled chocolates and chocolate products, which include Easter eggs, totalled just over £30m, up 3% on 2015. While the vast majority of these went to EU countries, the biggest growth was in exports to non-EU countries which increased by almost a fifth, according to the Department for International Trade.
An "element of snob value" is helping British chocolate egg exports in some markets, says Sean Ramsden
It is a trend that hasn't escaped the notice of Sean Ramsden, chief executive of Ramsden International.
The family firm specialises in exporting British food overseas and Mr Ramsden says Easter is its busiest period after Christmas.
The awkward shape of chocolate eggs isn't a problem for the company because it supplies a much wider range of products, enabling it to mix Easter eggs with other food orders.
"Easter eggs are a popular UK product and they're very exportable. They [Easter eggs] are not as advanced in other countries," he says.
When the Grimsby-based firm first started exporting in 1970, business was largely driven by expats. Marmite, brown sauce and baked beans were the items most in demand in the company's markets in Spain, Portugal, France, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.
Now it delivers to 130 countries and turnover last year was £50m. Mr Ramsden says the company's growth reflects demand from a growing global middle class.
"The food becomes premium by virtue of being imported. There is an element of snob value in certain markets," he says.
Hong Kong-based Sharan Gill always buys imported eggs for her daughters Eysha and Elyna
Particularly in Asia, he says, customers are keen to have "something a little bit different or a bit more exclusive" such as a foreign brand.
But he says many of its customers also have an international outlook, with second homes in the UK, for example, and a genuine affection for British food.
Sharan Gill, who lives in Hong Kong, says she always buys imported chocolate eggs for her children at Easter.
"It's a tradition amongst my friends too, both Western and Asian. I spend between 100 to 150 Hong Kong dollars (£10-£15; $13-$19) on chocolates for the annual Easter egg hunt, which my kids thoroughly enjoy.
"Easter seems to be a growing trend, partly because clubs and restaurants promote it extensively.
"Plus Hong Kong has a large expat community, a large proportion of which consists of Westerners, for whom Easter is an established tradition. It is also celebrated by the predominantly Catholic Filipino community who form a large part of the domestic helper workforce," she says.
Good Housekeeping magazine included Easter crackers on its Easter dinner table photo shoot for the first time this year
The fervour surrounding the Christian festival has reached such fever pitch that the home and lifestyle gurus at Good Housekeeping magazine recently declared the occasion "a second Christmas".
It is not just small firms benefiting from the growing sense of occasion. Marks and Spencer says it exports a number of its popular eggs to its 468 shops overseas, with them selling particularly well in Hong Kong, Western Europe and the Czech Republic.
"We're seeing double-digit growth on sales of our Easter eggs internationally - with people buying into both our large 'giftable' eggs as well as impulse purchasing small bags of chocolate foiled eggs and bigger bags of eggs for Easter egg hunts - an event which is increasing in popularity," says a spokeswoman.
People really like the licensed character eggs and Star Wars' R2D2 is currently the best seller internationally, she adds.
Marks and Spencer's R2D2 egg is its most popular internationally
While market research firm Mintel doesn't track British chocolate exports, its figures show people around the world are eating more chocolate eggs.
"In Brazil, for example, the trade association ABICAB reported that 95 million chocolate Easter eggs were sold in 2016, a 19% increase over 2015. In that country, Easter eggs make up a major percentage of annual chocolate revenues," says global food and drink analyst Marcia Mogelonsky.
"In Ireland, consumers spent more than 40m euros (£34m; $42m) on Easter eggs in 2016, while the UK Easter egg market was valued at £220m."
It is a market that Montezuma's Mrs Pattinson is obviously keen to exploit.
"It's about putting our new product development heads on to find ones that don't have so much air inside," she laughs.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39422930
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Nuri Sahin's emotional interview about Dortmund bus bomb - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Borussia Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin gives an emotional interview about the bomb that damaged the team bus and injured some of those on board.
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Borussia Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin gives an emotional interview about the bomb that damaged the team bus and injured some of those on board before their Uefa Champions League tie against Monaco on Tuesday.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39589517
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Festive fun or hopping mad: Is Easter the new Christmas? - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Easter has been dubbed the "second Christmas" as wreaths, trees and crackers appear in shops.
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UK
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There was a time when Easter meant a Sunday roast, strange homemade bonnets, a visit to Church and lots of chocolate. But with shops now offering trees, wreaths and crackers, is it becoming spring's answer to Christmas?
The dinner table for Good Housekeeping's Easter photo shoot was light, bright, and traditional.
But look closely, and there's something unusual on the plates: sky blue Easter crackers.
Carolyn Bailey is homes and garden editor for the magazine. She said more people were buying decorations for Easter than ever before.
"Easter is becoming like a second Christmas," she said.
Retailers have hopped on the trend. A number of supermarkets - including Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose - are stocking Easter crackers this year.
Poundland have also got in on the action, offering everything from bunny banners to carrot-shaped fairy lights.
Meanwhile Tesco, M&S and John Lewis are selling egg-speckled wreaths.
Eggs are no longer just made of chocolate, but are painted and covered in beads, sparkles or pom-poms.
And where do you hang these egg-cellent trinkets? On an Easter tree of course.
Varying arrays of twigs - often painted white - are laden with colourful eggs and bunnies.
There are more than 16,000 posts for #Eastertree on Instagram and thousands more on Pinterest.
And if your garden doesn't have much in the way of Instagram-able branches, a number of High Street stores are selling the skeletal trees ready for decorating.
Decorated eggs are not a new phenomenon. House of Fabergé set the standard back in 1842.
Eggs themselves have been associated with the Christian tradition for even longer. They symbolise both new life and the empty tomb.
Canon Sarah Rowland Jones is from the Church in Wales.
"In many ways Easter is the more important Christian festival," she says. "People should be given cause to remember what it's all about.
"If making more of Easter makes people look beyond the caricature of Christianity - at what is at the heart of what more than two billion people around the world practise - then it's a good thing."
Easter continues to be the second-biggest retail event in the UK after Christmas.
Market researcher, Mintel, estimated Easter to be worth £550 million to UK retailers in 2016.
Craft giant, Hobbycraft has seen sales of its Easter range soar almost 44% compared to last year.
Included in the range is a faux grass bunny which has completely sold out. Meanwhile, fillable egg characters are up 93% compared to 2016.
These green bunnies - for the home or outside - are sold out
Anna Protherough, a seasonal buyer for the retailer, said: "More and more, people are looking for reasons to celebrate and because of this, seasonal events such as Halloween and Easter are becoming bigger and bigger."
Hobbycraft says "decorating the home for Easter is bigger than ever before" and that homeowners are inspired by crafters like American businesswoman Martha Stewart.
Ms Stewart's online project tutorials currently include "cosmic painted eggs" and "How to fold a napkin into a bunny".
But if all this has got you hopping mad, Amazon has just the slogan t-shirt for you: "I don't carrot all."
• None Why this Easter egg is so difficult to sell overseas
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39576494
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8 awkward times musicians forgot something massive - BBC Music
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2017-04-13
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Lyrics, writing an autobiography, an entire decade - these are just some of the things pop stars have failed to remember
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A life spent in the full glare of the spotlight is tough on the memory, especially when you're dredging your brain for inspiration to create new masterpieces on a regular basis. It's small wonder that pop stars can have a few dizzy moments from time to time, and sometimes for quite some time...
[LISTEN] Jess Glynne on forgetting the words to your own song
I was very pleasantly surprised that Cold Water came out and was a No.1, 'cause I didn't remember writing it Ed Sheeran has written so many hits, some are bound to be more memorable for him than others. But he's only had one chart-topper behind his own back. For example, one of his unused demos was a sweet, slow tune that he put aside and promptly forgot. It ended up in Diplo's hands, and the next thing Ed knew, there's a huge hit track by Major Lazer called Cold Water, Justin Bieber is singing it, and it's got his name in the credits. He explained his confusion to MTV: "I didn't know that track existed, like I kept getting emails from Diplo being just like, 'Oh I've found your track Cold Water, can I do something with it?' And I'm like, 'What are you talking about, mate? I don't have a track called Cold Water!' And then he'd be like, 'Yeah, we've got Justin Bieber on the song, do you mind if we release it?' And I'm like, 'Mate, I don't know what you're talking about!' "It came out, but the the song I did was really, really slow... They sped it up... and made it a thing. I was very pleasantly surprised that that came out and was a No.1, 'cause I didn't remember writing it." I was very pleasantly surprised that Cold Water came out and was a No.1, 'cause I didn't remember writing it
3. That their microphone is still on
Wireless headset microphones are a marvellous invention for singers who also dance. They allow a full range of bodily expression without worrying about holding something up to your mouth or tripping over the cable. However, it's vital to remember whether you are onstage or backstage when using a headset microphone, and this is something Britney Spears apparently did not do in 2001, when the following comment was heard through the PA system: "Don't tell me that they're just letting the audience just f****** stand out there like that. Oh my God! This is retarded." Her record company maintains that it was someone else's voice that was heard.
[LISTEN] David Bowie talks about moving to Berlin in 1976
I know it was in LA because I've read it was According to Nicholas Pegg's book The Complete David Bowie, the art-funk masterpiece Station to Station was recorded during a period of artistic upheaval, with Bowie considering multiple projects at the same time, during sessions at Los Angeles's Cherokee Studios. Bowie was filming The Man Who Fell to Earth, was affiliated with the movie's soundtrack, and had started writing a fictitious autobiography called The Return of the Thin White Duke, based on the extremities of his rock star existence. This character became Bowie's new musical persona, which he called "an emotionless Aryan superman". However, all he could recall of that frenzied burst of creativity, even after moving to Berlin and getting his head together, was the location, and even that wasn't even a first-hand account. He ruefully noted: "I know it was in LA because I've read it was." I know it was in LA because I've read it was
I never paid much attention to birthdays, but it's great to finally know how old I really am! It is perfectly understandable that Doris Day would, in the fine tradition of showbusiness, have had something of a mysterious age. "The story I have heard the most is that at one point Doris was up for a role when quite young and her age may have been miswritten on the audition form," her spokesman said in response to a recent story, reported by the Guardian, that Day was two years older than she thought. On what she imagined was her 93rd birthday, it transpired she was 95 and she naturally took the news in good spirit. "I've always said that age is just a number," she said. "I have never paid much attention to birthdays, but it's great to finally know how old I really am!" That other stars have 'forgotten' their age tells us much about the industries they work in. "I think if I'd said I was 27, I wouldn't have got signed - one hundred per cent," Paloma Faith told the Mirror after it was revealed that she had sliced four years off her age at the outset of her career. I never paid much attention to birthdays, but it's great to finally know how old I really am!
On a similar note, the writer and publisher John Blake recently wrote an article in The Spectator in which he reveals that he has the 75,000-word manuscript of Mick Jagger's autobiography, written in the 1980s. It's a book that should not exist, the legend being that it was abandoned due to Mick's inability to recall in sufficient detail the amazing things he has done and seen. But given the success of Keith Richards's book Life, any publisher worth their salt would want to put it out forthwith. Blake describes the arrival of the hitherto unsuspected manuscript as "the rock 'n' roll equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls", and goes on to say: "So far as I have been able to ascertain, a publisher rejected the manuscript because it was light on sex and drugs. In the early 1980s, when it was written, shock and awe was a vital part of any successful autobiography. Read now, however, it is a little masterpiece - a perfectly preserved time capsule written when the Stones had produced all their greatest music, but still burned with the passion and fire of youth and idealism." However, the fact that he'd written it at all had since slipped from Mick's mind. Once reminded, he eventually decided that he didn't want it published.
I often get asked: 'Is it true you snorted a line of ants?' Knowing me, there's a very good possibility. But do I remember it? No way Rock autobiography is a remarkably lucrative business, and what most publishers really want is the inside story from a legendary figure that has done remarkable things. They want to know what it feels like to shout, "Hello Wembley!" and have thousands of people roar a welcome back, and they especially want to know about crazy, debauched rock 'n' roll behaviour, and why it seemed like such a good idea at the time. Ozzy Osbourne would appear to be a perfect candidate, having had a long and distinguished career and done a great many strange things along the way. The only problem is that his memory is so poor he can't remember whether he really did them or not. He told the Independent while compiling his memoirs: "I often get asked: 'Is it true you snorted a line of ants?' Knowing me, there's a very good possibility. But do I remember it? No way." He also claims to have entirely forgotten the 1990s. I often get asked: 'Is it true you snorted a line of ants?' Knowing me, there's a very good possibility. But do I remember it? No way
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But the one thing all performers really, really need to remember is where they are in relation to the lip of the stage; otherwise, as everyone from Olly Murs to U2 will readily admit, there's more at stake than your dignity. Don't go near, The Edge.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/323ee0bf-e454-4e19-9708-1c733fabb80e?intc_type=promo&intc_location=news&intc_campaign=awkward&intc_linkname=bbcmusic_ent_article1
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'Lucky' NHS struggles through the winter - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The health service came under intense strain this winter - even though the weather was mild and there wasn't much flu.
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Health
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As warmer weather and the Easter holidays arrive, the NHS in England is reflecting on what looks like the busiest, some would say the worst, winter on record.
Official figures reveal the stresses and strains being felt during February after torrid times over the previous two months.
February's A&E waiting time performance was slightly better than December's and January's, with 87.6% of patients treated or assessed within four hours.
But it was still one of the worst monthly figures since records began more than a decade earlier, and it came after a fall in the number of people coming in to A&E units.
Once patients got through A&E there could still be long waits.
Adding up the number of patients between December and February, who waited more than four hours for a bed after a decision to admit, there was a total of 196,000, which was a 45% increase on the same period the previous year.
Delayed transfers of patients who were medically fit to leave continued to cause problems for hospitals.
There was a 17% increase in the number of beds not available to other patients in the year to February.
NHS England said that in effect around 1,100 beds had been taken out of normal usage compared with February 2016.
More than 36% of delays were linked to problems with social care services, the highest since the data was first collected in 2010.
With some hospitals reporting that at times over the winter every bed was occupied, it is clear that the service was running flat out and very close to capacity.
This in turn affected routine surgery, with bed shortages causing delays to procedures where an overnight stay was required.
Hardly surprisingly there was a big jump, of nearly 40%, in the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for routine treatment.
This might sound like "same old, same old" and the story of the NHS being under pressure is hardly new.
Whatever the dire warnings, hospitals muddled through.
But it is worth noting that the system came under such strain despite intense contingency planning, and demands by NHS chiefs that non-urgent procedures be cancelled for several weeks to clear the decks for emergency admissions.
What must be worrying for NHS leaders is that hospitals were full at times, and waiting times were rising, even in a mild winter and with no above-average flu or norovirus cases.
A sense of relief must be tempered by concern that the health service may not be so lucky next year.
The system runs on very fine margins and it would not take much to seriously rock it.
Hospitals and local health commissioners are working hard in most areas to manage patient flows into A&E departments and to treat more people in their local communities.
There is a hope that extra investment in social care in England will facilitate the quicker discharge of patients.
But two things are clear as summer approaches.
Firstly, the traditional easing of pressure after winter does not happen any more as patient demand rises relentlessly month by month.
Secondly, it won't be long before hospital managements have to start planning for next winter, aware that they won't be lucky every time.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39591932
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World Snooker Championship: Fergal O'Brien wins longest frame in snooker history to qualify - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Ireland's Fergal O'Brien wins the longest frame in professional snooker history to win the final place at the World Championships.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Ireland's Fergal O'Brien won the longest frame in professional snooker history to take the final place at the World Championship in Sheffield.
He beat David Gilbert 10-9 with the deciding frame lasting two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds - 44 seconds longer than the men's marathon world record in athletics.
Peter Ebdon also narrowly qualified but two-time winner Mark Williams is out.
The championship starts on 15 April with the draw on Thursday at 10:00 BST.
The frame between O'Brien and England's Gilbert comfortably beat the previous pro record of one hour, 40 minutes and 24 seconds, set by Alan McManus and Barry Pinches at the 2015 Ruhr Open.
"Obviously in an ideal world you win a bit quicker than that," O'Brien said.
"The balls went scrappy in the colours and I was so tired, double-checking everything and I'm so, so relieved."
Elsewhere in qualifying, former world champion Ebdon beat Michael Holt 10-9 on the final black to qualify for his 24th World Championship.
Wales' Williams, champion in 2000 and 2003, trailed his English opponent 6-3 going into the final session and was eventually beaten 10-7.
Graeme Dott, the 2006 world champion, recovered from 4-0 down to beat Jamie Jones of Wales 10-8, while fellow Scot Stephen Maguire defeated China's Li Hang 10-5.
• None See the qualifying draw and results in full
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39581570
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PFA awards: Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku up for two prizes - BBC Sport
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2017-04-13
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Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku are nominated for both the Professional Footballers' Association player of the year and young player awards.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku have been nominated for both the Professional Footballers' Association player of the year and young player awards.
They join Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez, Eden Hazard and N'Golo Kante on the shortlist for the main prize.
Michael Keane, Leroy Sane and Jordan Pickford are up for the young player of the year award, alongside 2016 winner Dele Alli.
The winners, voted for by PFA members, will be announced on 23 April.
To be eligible for the young player of the year award, players must be 23 or under at the beginning of the season.
At 24, Burnley defender Keane is the oldest player nominated, followed by 23-year-old forwards Kane and Lukaku, of Tottenham and Everton, and Sunderland goalkeeper Pickford. Spurs midfielder Alli and Manchester City winger Sane are both 21.
Women's Super League champions Manchester City have three players on the shortlist for the women's award, with the City trio of Lucy Bronze, Jane Ross and Jill Scott joined by Karen Carney, Ellen White and Caroline Weir.
City also provide a trio of nominees for the women's young player of the year prize - Nikita Parris, Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh - with Weir, Millie Bright and Jess Carter completing the nominations.
Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez won the 2016 player of the year award, while Manchester City forward Izzy Christiansen won the women's award.
Sunderland striker Beth Mead, 20, was named women's young player of the year.
Pick your Team of the Year Pick your Team of the Year from our list and share with your friends.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39582174
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Parents' anger at baby deaths NHS trust - BBC News
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2017-04-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Bereaved parents criticise the NHS trust at the centre of an investigation into its maternity services.
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Health
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An NHS trust at the centre of an investigation into its maternity services has been accused of failing to properly investigate the deaths of at least two babies.
Jack Burn and Sophiya Hotchkiss died within six months of each other.
Both families say their concerns were dismissed by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.
The trust said it investigates all deaths, and takes appropriate action where necessary.
But a third family was told that their daughter's death had been unavoidable, even though an inquest later found it could have been prevented.
At least seven avoidable deaths occurred at the trust between September 2014 and May 2016, with some families raising concerns about other deaths.
BBC News revealed on Wednesday that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review of deaths and other maternity errors at the trust.
Stephanie Prowse, and her partner, rushed to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in September 2014 because she was feeling unwell.
She was 31 weeks pregnant with her third child.
But the family said they were left in a side room for 40 minutes before staff checked her.
A heart rate monitor showed that the baby, Sophiya, had a weak heart beat, and though she was delivered by emergency caesarean she died after 32 hours.
"If they had checked her heartbeat when I first arrived, I believe she would have had a heartbeat when she was born and so she wouldn't have been born sleeping," Stephanie told BBC News.
"If they had got her out, I truly believe it would have been a whole different story. I'd have a three-year-old running around."
The family asked the trust to look into the circumstances surrounding Sophiya's death but say they have never received a response.
For its part, the trust told the BBC that an internal examination of the incident had indeed taken place though the family had not been involved.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that families are always invited to participate in such investigations.
Those concerns have been echoed by the family of Jack Burn.
He was born in March 2015 but died within hours, of hypoxia and Group B Strep.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hayley Matthews, mother of Jack Burn: "He would have been OK"
His mother, Hayley Matthews, says that throughout her 36-hour-long labour at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, she was refused a caesarean section several times.
Instead, she says, she was forced to have a natural birth during which her son's shoulder was trapped.
By the time Jack was born, he was blue and limp and died shortly afterwards.
"They just expected me to push," said Hayley.
"I asked for a caesarean, they said 'no you'll be fine, you can do it'."
Ms Matthews says the death was never properly examined.
In response, the trust told the BBC that it did investigate the death but admitted it had not included the family in its inquiry.
After we highlighted her case, the local coroner is now considering opening an inquest into Jack Burn's death.
The family of Pippa Griffiths were initially dismissed by the trust too.
Their daughter died last April, around 30 hours after being born at home after contracting the Group B Strep infection.
Her parents, Colin and Kayleigh, had called the trust in the middle of the night to say their daughter was vomiting brown mucus.
No action was taken, no advice was given, and hours later Pippa died.
The trust visited the family to say that nothing could have prevented their daughter's death.
Her parents refused to believe this and forced the trust to fully and properly investigate the death.
Last week, the coroner ruled that Pippa's death was in fact avoidable, and that the trust had failed to provide the family with the information that could have saved her life.
"Why would they not raise that (the death) as a serious incident?" asks Kayleigh.
"They knew what had happened, and they weren't going to do an investigation.
"That's when I said that's not good enough there will be an investigation and we will be involved," Kayleigh adds.
Commenting on Pippa's death, the trust said: "We are truly sorry that we were unable to provide the appropriate care that would have prevented Pippa's death."
"We have apologised to Pippa's parents.
"We have carried out specific actions to address the issues this tragic case has highlighted to ensure we learn from these devastating events," it added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39591929
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Artificial intelligence: How to avoid racist algorithms - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Why do so many algorithms seem to echo human bias?
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Technology
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Only white babies appear in a search for "babies" on Microsoft search engine Bing...
There is growing concern that many of the algorithms that make decisions about our lives - from what we see on the internet to how likely we are to become victims or instigators of crime - are trained on data sets that do not include a diverse range of people.
The result can be that the decision-making becomes inherently biased, albeit accidentally.
Try searching online for an image of "hands" or "babies" using any of the big search engines and you are likely to find largely white results.
In 2015, graphic designer Johanna Burai created the World White Web project after searching for an image of human hands and finding exclusively white hands in the top image results on Google.
Her website offers "alternative" hand pictures that can be used by content creators online to redress the balance and thus be picked up by the search engine.
Google says its image search results are "a reflection of content from across the web, including the frequency with which types of images appear and the way they're described online" and are not connected to its "values".
Ms Burai, who no longer maintains her website, believes things have improved.
"I think it's getting better... people see the problem," she said.
"When I started the project people were shocked. Now there's much more awareness."
...and white hands appear if you type "hands" into Google.
The Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) was launched by Joy Buolamwini, a postgraduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in November 2016.
She was trying to use facial recognition software for a project but it could not process her face - Ms Buolamwini has dark skin.
"I found that wearing a white mask, because I have very dark skin, made it easier for the system to work," she says.
"It was the reduction of a face to a model that a computer could more easily read."
It was not the first time she had encountered the problem.
Five years earlier, she had had to ask a lighter-skinned room-mate to help her.
"I had mixed feelings. I was frustrated because this was a problem I'd seen five years earlier was still persisting," she said.
"And I was amused that the white mask worked so well."
Joy Buolamwini found her computer system recognised the white mask, but not her face.
Ms Buolamwini describes the reaction to the AJL as "immense and intense".
This ranges from teachers wanting to show her work to their students, and researchers wanting her to check their own algorithms for signs of bias, to people reporting their own experiences.
And there seem to be quite a few.
One researcher wanted to check that an algorithm being built to identify skin melanomas (skin cancer) would work on dark skin.
"I'm now starting to think, are we testing to make sure these systems work on older people who aren't as well represented in the tech space?" Ms Buolamwini says.
"Are we also looking to make sure these systems work on people who might be overweight, because of some of the people who have reported it? It is definitely hitting a chord."
Ms Buolamwini thinks the situation has arisen partly because of the well-documented lack of diversity within the tech industry itself.
Every year the tech giants release diversity reports and they make for grim reading.
You get the picture. But what has that got to do with algorithms?
"If you test your system on people who look like you and it works fine then you're never going to know that there's a problem," Joy Buolamwini argues.
Of the 44 winners of a beauty contest last year judged by algorithms, and based on some 6,000 uploaded selfies from 100 different countries, only one was non-white and a handful were Asian.
Alex Zhavoronkov, Beauty.AI's chief science officer, told the Guardian the result was flawed because the data set used to train the AI (artifical intelligence) had not been diverse enough.
"If you have not that many people of colour within the data set, then you might actually have biased results," he said at the time.
On a more serious note, AI software used in the US to predict which convicted criminals might reoffend, was found to be more likely to incorrectly identify black offenders as high risk and white offenders as low risk, according to a study by the website Propublica (the software firm disputed these findings).
Suresh Venkatasubramanian, an associate professor at the University of Utah school of computing, says creators of AI need to act now while the problem is still visible.
"The worst that can happen is that things will change and we won't realise it," he told the BBC.
"In other words the concern has been that the bias, or skew, in decision-making will shift from things we recognise as human prejudice to things we no longer recognise and therefore cannot detect - because we will take the decision-making for granted."
He is however optimistic about tech's progress.
"To say all algorithms have racist manifestations doesn't make sense to me," he says.
"Not because it's impossible but because that's not how it's actually working.
"In the last three to four years what's picked up is the discussion around the problems and possible solutions," he adds.
He offers a number of these:
Ms Buolamwini says she is hopeful that the situation will improve if people are more aware of the potential problems.
"Any technology that we create is going to reflect both our aspirations and our limitations," she says.
"If we are limited when it comes to being inclusive that's going to be reflected in the robots we develop or the tech that's incorporated within the robots."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-39533308
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World Championship 2017: Favourite tag is an 'advantage' - Judd Trump - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Favourite Judd Trump believes he is "the best" and can win the 40th World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Trump is extremely confident of winning his first World Championship this year Favourite Judd Trump says he believes he is "the best" in the world and can win the 40th World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible Theatre. Trump, 27, has been the form player this season, reaching five ranking title finals and winning two - the European Masters and Players Championship. "I honestly believe I can play to a standard which is very rare nowadays," Trump told BBC Sport. The event starts on Saturday at 10:00 BST and runs until 1 May. Defending champion Mark Selby opens play against Ireland's Fergal O'Brien in Saturday's morning session, before five-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan plays Crucible debutant Gary Wilson in the afternoon session at 14:30. Bristol-born Trump, who begins against qualifier Rory McLeod on Tuesday, was runner-up to John Higgins in 2011, but has only reached two semi-finals since. However, he feels the consistency he has shown this season - taking his career ranking victories to seven - puts him among the players to beat in Sheffield. "Being the favourite is a help," said Trump. "When people tip you, a lot put themselves under pressure but I use it as an advantage. "The public are seeing something from me which they have not seen before, and I think I can win it. It is about keeping your foot on the gas. "I have been too inconsistent here in the past but I am at an age where there are no more excuses, I am getting towards the peak of my career and now is the time to really step up and win a lot of titles." The World Championship will be played at the iconic Sheffield venue until 2027 at least after a new 10-year agreement was struck. World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn signed the deal on Friday during the broadcast of 40 Years of the Crucible on the BBC Red Button. Defending champion Selby won the title for a second time by beating Ding Junhui in last year's final. The Leicester man won the most recent ranking event - the China Open - but is aware that no player has won the World Championship in the same year. "The hoodoo needs to be broken at some point. Hopefully this year might be the case," Selby told BBC Sport. "To win it again and be on three just on your own would be very, very special. This year is as hard as it has been to pick a winner with so many players on form. "It is Judd Trump's best chance to win it this year." Selby plays his first match on the opening morning against O'Brien, who claimed the longest frame in professional snooker history in his final qualifier which lasted two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds. World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said last week that China will become the sport's superpower within the next decade. This year's tournament in Sheffield sees five Chinese players competing - last year's finalist Ding, Liang Wenbo and Xiao Guodong as well as teenage debutants Zhou Yeulong, 19, and 17-year-old Yan Bingtao. Yan becomes the first player born after 2000 to appear at the main stages of the tournament and the second youngest ever to do so. But the youthful duo are no strangers to success after their two-man team won the 2015 World Cup in their home country. Englishmen Wilson and David Grace (both 31), plus Thailand's Noppon Saengkham, 24, will also appear at the Crucible for the first time. Wilson faces a tough draw against five-time champion O'Sullivan, Grace plays Kyren Wilson and Saengkham faces 2010 champion Neil Robertson of Australia. Best shots of the 2016 World Championship Will the centuries record be beaten? The stats…
• None For the first time, the World Championship will be broadcast live on World Snooker's Facebook page across 40 countries in North America, South America and Asia.
• None The total prize money is £1.75m, with the winner picking up £375,000.
• None Eighty-six centuries were made in both 2015 and 2016 - a record. All the top 16 players were at the Crucible on the eve of the tournament and were asked by BBC Sport to describe the iconic venue in three words or fewer...
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39602348
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Reality Check: What are 'ordinary working families'? - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Education Secretary wants to get children from 'ordinary working families' into grammar schools.
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Education & Family
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Reality Check says: The government defines "ordinary working families" as those that are not eligible for pupil premium but have below average incomes. It believes that accounts for about one third of all pupils in England, but this calculation is a work in progress.
Education Secretary Justine Greening on Thursday kicked off a consultation on plans for grammar schools in England, saying that they must do more to help "ordinary working families" as the government pushes ahead with plans to allow more selective schools to open.
There is no official definition of an "ordinary working family" but Ms Greening said on the Today Programme: "They don't perhaps qualify for free school meals - for pupil premium - but actually they are growing up in families that are below median incomes."
The household earning the median income is the one for which half of families have a higher income and half have lower.
The Pupil Premium is a pot of money set aside for children who are in care, eligible for free school meals or have had free school meals at any point in the last six years.
Pupils are eligible for free school meals if their family is on one of a range of benefits or has a household income of less than £16,190.
So, if earning above £16,190 puts you at the bottom end of the "ordinary working families" definition, how is the government defining the top end of the range?
The paper published on Wednesday included the first attempt by government statisticians to come up with figures that set out how many children from different income brackets go to grammar schools.
In the past, the only figures to help with this have been those covering how many children eligible for pupil premium go to particular schools, so expanding these statistics is an ambitious project.
What the statisticians have done is to attempt to match individual pupils in schools with their families' income through looking at tax payments and tax credits details.
These figures have then been adjusted to take into account things like household size, because if there are two families with identical household incomes, one of which has one child and the other has four children, their standards of living will not be the same.
Taking all these adjustments into account, the median household income comes out as £20,000. However, some families earning more than £20,000 in total will still fall within the definition of an ordinary working family.
For example, a single parent's income would be adjusted upwards, so it could be compared directly with the standard of living for a couple.
For a two-parent family with two children, the government considers median income to be £33,000.
The government says 35% of all pupils in England, which is 2.5 million children fall into its definition of coming from ordinary working families, because they fall below the median income but are not eligible for pupil premium.
The government is consulting on how to improve the methodology because, for example, the income figures do not currently include households' earnings from self-employment. They also plan to adjust for housing costs in different parts of England. The consultation closes on 30 June.
This new analysis has been welcomed as providing more detail, although there have been warnings from some education groups that the new work on ordinary working families will reduce the focus on the disadvantaged families who are eligible for pupil premium.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39590198
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Max Verstappen: Confident, talented, ruthless and with F1's throne in his sights - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Red Bull wunderkind Max Verstappen has ruffled F1's feathers and rewritten the rule book. Literally. Does he care? What do you think...
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Coverage: Practice, qualifying and race on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra (second practice online only). Live text commentary, leaderboard and imagery on BBC Sport website and app.
Max Verstappen does not lack for confidence. Just starting his third season in Formula 1, with one win under his belt, the 19-year-old Red Bull driver has no doubts about his ability.
Could he beat Lewis Hamilton in the same car, he is asked towards the end of a BBC Sport interview before the Bahrain Grand Prix?
"Probably I will sound really arrogant, but for sure," the Dutchman says.
Like all Verstappen's statements, it is not said in an arrogant fashion. He is not an arrogant man. It is a statement of facts as he sees them, founded on a cast-iron self-belief forged by a lightning rise to the top in which he has already proved to have a rare and spectacular talent.
That ability was on show once again at the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend.
From 16th on the grid to seventh on the first lap in slippery, damp conditions; second by lap 12, having passed Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari and his Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in typically improvisational style; passed by Sebastian Vettel's quicker Ferrari later in the race, but holding on for a podium after fending off heavy pressure from Ricciardo.
For all its wonder, it was the sort of drive that has come to be expected of Verstappen. It was after all just three races previously, in Brazil at the end of last year, that Verstappen produced an even more eye-opening performance, dancing through the rain in Brazil in a manner that brought comparisons with Ayrton Senna.
Where does Verstappen's talent come from?
Verstappen seems to find grip and pace simply not accessible to most other drivers. How does he do it?
"It's always a bit difficult to answer to be honest," Verstappen says. "Just feeling, instinct, knowing where you have to go. You just feel your way into it."
It's not just instinct, though. Verstappen started karting at a very young age, and had a pretty decent tutor - his dad, the former F1 driver Jos Verstappen. He also has racing genes from his mother, the former champion karter Sophie Kumpen.
Jos would take little Max out for kart races, limited to five laps at a time because that was when the race was shaped, he said.
It is better to win a few races and crash in a few than always be second or third
"For sure that helped me a lot," Verstappen says now. "My dad always told me you have to be as quick as you can straight away out of the box.
"Some people say: 'Feel your way into it, build it up.' No, my dad would say: 'Straight away you have to be there.' And I think that helps to warm up your tyres and brakes to be on it a bit more from lap one."
There is nature with the nurture, though. Experience alone cannot explain Verstappen's almost supernatural feel for the limit when braking, the basis for many of his best overtaking moves.
Can Verstappen himself explain it?
"To be honest, I can't," he says. "I don't know. It is just something natural, I guess, to feel your way and control it. I have been practising a lot in the wet and trying not to lock up and stuff but I think it is also a bit natural, when you feel it is starting to lock."
Verstappen's performances since he burst onto the F1 scene as a 17-year-old with the Red Bull junior team two years ago have earned him widespread acclaim and a huge fanbase. But while he is clearly an exceptional talent, he says he does not see himself in that way.
"No, I don't think about things like that," he says. "You also very quickly get an arrogant thing about you when say things like that and I don't want to.
"Of course I am doing a good job, but you can always improve and I just leave it up to people outside, around me or whatever, to judge on that. I just want to do the best I can every time."
Controversy as part of the package
Along with the golden talent, there is a darker side to Verstappen.
His defensive driving tactics angered several more established stars, especially Vettel, last year and there were hard words spoken in a few drivers' briefings. A rule was even created specifically to try to prevent Verstappen doing what is known as 'moving under braking' - although it has been removed again this year to give race stewards more freedom.
Verstappen says he was not bothered by the criticism.
"No, everyone can have their own opinion," he says. "But it is very clear they [F1's bosses] wanted the racing back. Overtaking is one thing. That is an art. But defending as well. You should be able to defend your position. That's what I was doing. I am happy that there is a bit more freedom to it."
Officials were concerned enough, though, for F1 race director Charlie Whiting to have a word with Verstappen and warn him that he was right on the edge of acceptability.
"They basically said they had never seen it before," Verstappen says. "It was all a bit new to them. But I never got a penalty for it. So I never really thought I was doing anything wrong. It was definitely on the limit and hard but that's how racing should be, I think."
More from F1 on the BBC:
For all his clearly exceptional ability, the fact remains that Verstappen was out-scored in terms of points and out-qualified more often than not by team-mate Ricciardo last year.
Verstappen says he feels no great need to correct the record this year. But there is a hint of a touched nerve in his answer when he points out that the margins were small, and he suffered a number of reliability problems that Ricciardo did not.
Pressed on the fact he must surely want to beat his team-mate, the only man who has the same equipment and therefore the only one with whom he can be directly compared, he adds: "Well, of course it's a positive, but it is not always [about] being ahead [at the end of the season]. It is also stand-out results.
"I prefer to win a few races and crash in a few than always be second or third and be ahead in the championship. That is my approach to racing when you are not fighting for the title."
It is an answer that will remind F1 aficionados of the late Ferrari driver Gilles Villeneuve, who remains a legend for the feats he achieved apparently defying physics, in much the way Verstappen has done.
On a more mundane level is the question of the relationship between Verstappen and Ricciardo. Two bulls in one field is normally a recipe for disaster in F1 - think Alain Prost and Senna, or Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso - but Verstappen insists the relationship is sustainable.
"For the moment, there are no issues at all," he says. "As long as you have a lot of respect for each other, then it should work out."
Verstappen says the relationship with Ricciardo is "actually very good", but does concede: "Of course on track we try to beat each other. That is very normal. There is always a bit of a distance. That's the way it should be. You cannot be best buddies every single minute of the day in racing.
"Off track, in the meetings here we work really well together, and on track we try to beat each other. But it is good for the team because we push each other forward as well and that's pushes the car forward."
Right now, that's exactly what Red Bull need. They have started the season in a kind of no-man's land - not as quick as pace-setters Mercedes and Ferrari but miles ahead of everyone else.
The mixed conditions of China brought them into play close to the front, but that is going to be the exception rather than the norm until the car can be improved.
Red Bull say they are confident chassis improvements along with engine upgrades due over the next few races can bring them closer, but Verstappen is not getting his hopes up.
"I am going to take the approach of just wait and see when the parts come to the car," he says. "I am a realistic person. I don't like to be dreaming and hoping half a second here and 0.6secs here."
At his age, Verstappen has time on his hands. And his long-term ambition is clear. Not just one world title, but "as many as I can get".
As soon as he has said it, though, the realism is back: "But it is not always in your hands. You need to be in the right team at the right time and hope they keep up as well.
"As long as you try to be the best you can, the fittest you are, that's also already a great achievement.
"At the end of my career if I didn't win a championship but I was still very competitive and was always up there and tried to extract the best out of myself, I can be happy with that as well."
And he does admit that his ambition is to be the main man in F1.
"Of course that's the target. But it is really involved with how good the car is - I am 100% sure that if I had the same car as Lewis and Seb for sure I would be challenging them really hard.
"You have to believe in yourself. With the results I have had, or in the wet, or even in the dry, some races with a car that is not as good, to be able to be that close or reality fight for it, I am 100% sure if I had the same car, I can do it."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39595327
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Jenson Button will replace Fernando Alonso for McLaren at Monaco Grand Prix - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Jenson Button will drive for McLaren at the Monaco Grand Prix while Fernando Alonso competes in the Indianapolis 500.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
British former world champion Jenson Button will replace Fernando Alonso at McLaren for the Monaco Grand Prix.
Alonso will miss the race on 28 May to compete in the Indianapolis 500, with the full support of both McLaren and the team's engine partner Honda.
"I'm thrilled to be making a one-off return," said Button, 37, who retired from F1 at the end of last season.
"I couldn't think of a better place to make that return than my adopted home grand prix - Monaco."
The 2009 world champion has spent the winter in California training for Ironman triathlons, his long-time passion.
He will learn a lot very quickly but with the amount of talent he has I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls it off
He signed a contract with McLaren last autumn that committed him to replacing any race driver not able to take part in a grand prix this year.
As part of that contract, the team also has an option to sign him to race in 2018.
Button described Monaco as a "tricky street circuit" but said the McLaren may be "more suited" to the venue than the "faster circuits" Alonso and team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne have driven on so far this season.
"I've won the race before, in 2009, and it's one of my all-time favourite racetracks," he added.
McLaren will be credited with any points won by Button. Both the team and Alonso have yet to win a point this season and are unlikely to be in the shake-up for either title.
Alonso said: "To be honest, if we were fighting for a world championship, we cannot afford to lose a 25-points possibility. Yet we are not in that position, unfortunately."
• None Alonso to race at Indy 500 over Monaco
• None Go ahead for grands prix on British roads
McLaren racing director Eric Boullier believes Button is fit enough to cope with rigours of racing in Monaco.
"Jenson spent 17 years in F1. He drove these levels of downforce before and, having gone through the differences in technicalities of driving this year's car and last year's car, we agreed that it would be better to spend a couple of days in the simulator than to test in Bahrain on a different circuit in completely different conditions from Monaco.
"He is fit and ready."
'He loves Monaco, he's a tremendous driver and he'll do well'
Nigel Mansell, another British former world champion, believes Button will do well at Monaco.
Mansell, 63, was the F1 champion when he won the IndyCar series in 1994.
"Jenson is a great world champion and a class act," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "He's probably fitter and more hungry now than he has been for many years.
"He loves Monaco, he's a tremendous driver, and he'll do exceedingly well."
Mansell said the key to succeeding at Monaco was being "incredibly fit and patient", and that Button might "surprise McLaren and himself".
He added: "They are in safe hands with Jenson. He knows the team and they know him very well. The last thing they need is a rookie doing one race, causing problems and crashing the car."
Mansell has no doubt Alonso has the talent to succeed in IndyCars and says he is joining "a great team".
The Spaniard, 35, will race for the Honda-powered Andretti team on 28 May, and the car will be branded a McLaren.
He said he had long held an ambition to win the so-called 'triple crown' of Monaco, the Indy 500 and Le Mans.
"The switch for Alonso will be learning the Indy circuit," said Mansell.
"You have to have the car carefully balanced because if it has any oversteer then it's an accident waiting to happen.
"He will find racing over Indianapolis over 500 miles is fascinating. He will learn a lot very quickly but with the amount of talent he has I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls it off."
Mansell described his time in the United States as a "wild-west experience".
"It's incredible to go across to America and experience that," he said. "It will be fascinating as a racing fan to watch everything unfold next month.
"It's so exciting for racing fans. I think the crossover is wonderful."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39599645
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Trump's trade agenda: Just what are his priorities? - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Trade was one of the dominant themes in Donald Trump's election campaign, but what are his priorities?
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Business
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Trade was one of the dominant themes in Donald Trump's election campaign.
He often focused on particular US trade partners. Mexico and China were most frequently in his sights.
And one of his first actions as president was to withdraw the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a regional trade deal, agreed by his predecessor but which had not come into force.
So what are President Trump's priorities for trade? What does he hope to achieve?
He often focuses on trade imbalances: the US deficit in trade with the rest of the world and bilateral deficits too.
Here are some figures. Last year the US had a deficit of half a trillion dollars in trade in goods and services with the rest of the world. For China, the bilateral deficit was close to $350bn (£280bn). For Japan, Germany and Mexico, the figures were in the range of $60-70bn.
President Trump considers these figures to be evidence that the US has done badly, that it has been treated unfairly.
Mexico, he has said, is "killing us on jobs and trade".
He has expressed similar views on China: "We are like the piggy bank that's being robbed."
His trade adviser Peter Navarro told the Financial Times that Germany uses a grossly undervalued euro to exploit its trade partners, essentially arguing that the exchange rate gives Germany a competitive advantage that's unfair.
Mr Trump has also criticised Japan for barriers to American car exports and for manipulating its currency to gain a competitive advantage.
He wants to see a reversal of the decline in manufacturing employment that the US has experienced. (The number of jobs in manufacturing dropped sharply in the 2000s, though the share of total employment has been falling for decades.)
So where do those concerns lead President Trump's trade agenda?
His bilateral discussions have got off to a somewhat gentler start than his campaign language might have led us to expect.
He held a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping last weekend.
Mr Trump said "tremendous progress" had been made in talks with Mr Xi
They agreed a 100-day programme of talks. The US expects China to offer better access to its market, including for beef and services companies. Mr Trump's campaign language about possibly imposing large tariffs on imports from China, as much as 45%, was not on display this time.
One China critic in the US, Gordon Chang, asked: "Did Trump just roll over on China trade?"
And just days after meeting President Xi, Mr Trump said his administration would not label China a currency manipulator, rowing back on a campaign promise.
China's critics have a wide-ranging list of allegations about unfair practices - subsidies to Chinese industries, dumping underpriced goods, and the theft of patents and copyright.
With Mexico, President Trump wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), a deal that dramatically reduced barriers to commerce between the US, Mexico and also Canada.
Most goods are traded free of tariffs (taxes applied only to traded goods).
He has said that Nafta was the worst trade deal the US has ever done, that it kills American jobs. How would he like to change it? He has threatened a number of carmakers with "border taxes" (that is tariffs) if they expand production in Mexico for export to the US market.
Donald Trump is not popular in Mexico
That would be inconsistent with Nafta as it currently stands and it's hard to see how it would comply with any amendments to Nafta that the Mexican government would be willing to accept. It's also almost certain that such action would be incompatible with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
But there are signs that the administration's approach may in the event be softer. There is a draft letter from the administration to Congress setting out objectives for a renegotiation. National Public Radio described the proposed changes as "tweaks".
There is quite a long list of areas proposed for revision, including a right to re-impose tariffs (probably temporarily) in response to a surge in imports and an effort to remove barriers to US exports to the other two countries.
There is also a call to look at what are called "rules of origin", which specify how much of a product's value has to be added in the Nafta area to qualify for tariff-free treatment. A higher threshold could make it harder to use components made in China, for example.
But what is clear is that this is about revising rather than scrapping Nafta.
It's also unclear exactly what Mr Trump would do about disputes in trade with other countries.
Options include making more aggressive use of the WTO's rules for disputes. There is its judicial dispute settlement system, and there are actions that countries can take unilaterally against subsidised or dumped imports (sold abroad more cheaply than in the producer's home market), provided they do it in a way that is set out in WTO rules.
What worries many trade experts is that the Trump administration might be ready to bypass WTO rules and impose new barriers to imports regardless of the organisation's rules. It would be a very serious, possibly fatal blow for the credibility of the agency if the world's largest economy were not to take it and its rules seriously.
Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at the recent G20 meeting; the G20 dropped an anti-protectionist commitment after opposition from the US
The WTO is at the heart of a system of international trade relations, based on rules that started to take shape soon after World War Two. Although the WTO itself wasn't established until 1995, much of the rulebook that it now manages goes back to the late 1940s.
There is a lot of anxiety among trade officials about just how the global trade system might unravel if the WTO were seriously undermined. The concern is that there could be widespread new restrictions arising and their view - shared by the great majority of economists - is that increased trade protectionism would be bad for living standards around the world.
It certainly caused a lot of anxiety when a recent meeting of finance ministers from the G20 leading economies dropped from its communique a remark that had previously been routinely included about avoiding trade protectionism, something that was done at the insistence of the US delegation.
So we certainly have some new questions about what role the US will take in shaping the future of the global trading system.
President Trump's most strident campaign comments haven't yet been fully reflected in the actions of his administration, with the exception perhaps of the withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But it is still very early days.
• None What is the World Trade Organization?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39584808
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Somerset v Essex: Former England captain Alastair Cook hits unbeaten 39 for visitors - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Ex-England captain Alastair Cook scores 39 not out for Essex in his first game since standing down as Test skipper.
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Last updated on .From the section Counties
Ex-England captain Alastair Cook hit an unbeaten 39 for Essex against Somerset in his first Championship appearance since standing down as Test skipper.
Cook took two slip catches in the first session as the visitors bowled Somerset out for 209 in Taunton.
In bowler-friendly conditions Peter Trego (48) top scored as the home side struggled to deny Essex's bowlers.
Although Nick Browne was bowled cheaply by Craig Overton, Cook held out under heavy cloud cover as Essex closed 60-2.
Cook returned to the hosts' line-up after being sidelined for their first match against Lancashire with a hip injury, and the England opener took two low catches at first slip as Marcus Trescothick and new Somerset captain Tom Abell were both dismissed by Ravi Bopara.
Dean Elgar (34) and James Hildreth (36) shared a 54-run third-wicket partnership, before the former was stumped off spinner Ashar Zaidi.
Trego's lone resistance was ended as he top-edged Simon Harmer to Zaidi but the hosts managed to pick up a solitary batting bonus point as they edged past 200.
After a short delay due to bad light and surviving a tight lbw call, Cook sent Jamie Overton for three consecutive fours as he eased into the match.
Roelof van der Merwe ensured Somerset ended on a high, as he bowled Tom Westley for 10 with the final ball of the day.
"I think it's probably slightly swung in their favour.
"It's the old cricketing cliché: you can only see how good a pitch is when both sides have batted on it and Alastair Cook is a phenomenal player and he's making life look relatively easy out there and I don't think any of us did.
"It's a sporting wicket. There's certainly something there for the bowler, but you get rewarded for quality batting."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39566094
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Blockades leave east Ukraine more isolated than ever - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Tom Burridge travels to the conflict zone where tit-for-tat rows have hit communities on both sides.
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Europe
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Her two brightly-patterned, tattered shopping bags weigh heavily in her hands.
The Russian-backed "republic" where the 78-year-old lives is at war with Ukraine and is not marked on most world maps.
She is travelling west into Ukraine proper to visit her sick husband, who no longer lives with her on the separatist side.
She is proud, almost defiant, and will not accept our offer of a lift.
Nearby, Anatoliy stands waiting for a bus going the other way, back to the separatist side.
Svetlana trudges from separatist territory to visit her sick husband
He has just collected his Ukrainian pension.
He lives in a place where Russian and separatist flags fly above government buildings and Russian roubles buy you mainly Russian goods.
The Kremlin recently said that separatist IDs could be used to travel east over the border into Russia.
A Ukrainian soldier checks a woman's passport as she waits to enter the separatist-controlled east
Despite close financial and military ties with the two so-called separatist republics, Moscow has still not officially recognised them or taken the land as its own.
More from Tom Burridge in Ukraine
And despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary, the Kremlin still denies it has armed, and fought alongside, the separatist armies.
The conflict is entering its fourth year and Anatoliy says life under the separatists "couldn't be worse".
Others complain there are no jobs for the young, that basic goods are expensive and that shooting and shelling never stops.
Anatoliy does not like "what Putin has done" to eastern Ukraine.
"Ukraine used to be whole and undivided. Why the hell did he come here?" he asks.
But one woman does not like what she hears and interrupts. She blames Ukraine for "creating this concentration camp".
The separatist-held east is more cut off from the rest of Ukraine than ever before.
And the crossing point now at least feels like a border.
With the right paperwork, people can move back and forth past a network of military checkpoints on either side.
Now, though, the Ukrainian government has blocked the movement of all commercial goods across the frontline.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I'm so sick of this war' - Ukraine woman tells of loss
It did so because the separatists seized Ukrainian-owned businesses in the territory they control.
The separatists were themselves responding to an initial blockade of rail lines by former Ukrainian soldiers, who said trade with Ukraine across the frontline was funding the separatist armies.
The war had already greatly damaged eastern Ukraine's coal and steel plants.
Now this valuable industrial network has been sliced in two, causing unquantifiable economic pain on either side.
The Avdiikva coke plant is among the biggest in Europe and helps fuel Ukraine's steel industry
Despite the risks so close to the frontline, keeping the plant running is vital for Ukraine
For Ukraine analyst Michael Bociurkiw it is a "set of very bad developments" that makes the chances of eastern Ukraine being incorporated back into the rest of the country less likely.
"It's another nail in the coffin for Minsk."
He means the peace agreement, signed by Russia and Ukraine in the Belarusian capital Minsk in early 2015.
Mr Bociurkiw worked extensively in eastern Ukraine for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The OSCE is responsible for monitoring the conflict, in order to pressure both sides into obeying the still elusive ceasefire.
For him, the war could be resolved in one phone call between Moscow and Washington. "But unless there is political will, I don't think we are going to see peace any time soon."
Ukrainian ex-soldiers began a blockade to stop goods going to and from the separatists
Repeated attempts to implement a lasting ceasefire have failed. And that means more loss of life.
"What are we losing our parents for?" asks Nadia, 22.
Her mother, Katya, was killed in the town of Avdiivka by a mortar round or shell as she walked home.
"Why are people dying?" she says as tears run slowly down her cheeks.
"Make them stop all of this. Make them sign treaties in Minsk or whatever," she says, appealing to those with power on either side of the conflict.
"Do anything so that this is over soon."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39504002
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Never say never again: When celebrities eat their words - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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From John Cleese to Charlie Chaplin - when celebrities make a U-turn.
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Entertainment & Arts
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In 2015, John Cleese said there was "no way" he'd ever work at the BBC again. Now he has changed his mind after announcing he will make a new BBC sitcom that will reunite him with his Clockwise co-star Alison Steadman.
Cleese isn't the first celebrity to go back on his very public word. From Charlie Simpson's Busted to Bond star Sean Connery, it's wise to never say never again.
There are some bands that will never get back together. Abba. The Jam. The Smiths. Then there are those that "will never get back together". Like The Stone Roses. And Busted.
The group that had eight top 10 hits in the 2000s, and sent many a teenage girl all aflutter, split in 2005 when frontman Charlie Simpson left.
Simpson told BBC Newsbeat "not in a million years" would they reform. But some 999,990 years before that date, Simpson announced they were getting back together after all.
Speaking at the time of their reunion in November 2015, Simpson said: "I reckon I said it 20 more times than that, privately and publicly, and I meant it every single time.
"But as I say, I have changed my mind, and that has been down to the circumstances changing. I never thought we would get to a point where we were in a studio writing music we all got behind creatively and that was a huge shock to me."
The band played UK arenas in 2016 with the aptly named Pigs Can Fly Tour.
Gervais returned to the Globes not once, not twice, but three times
When Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globe awards in 2010, offending half of Hollywood in the process, he told the relieved A-list audience: "It's OK folks, I won't be doing this again."
But he returned the following year, and again in 2012, before announcing very publicly he would not be back.
On his blog after the 2012 ceremony, the acerbic comic wrote: "I've told my agent to never let me be persuaded to do it again though. It's like a parachute jump. You can only really enjoy it in retrospect when you realise you didn't die and it was quite an amazing thing to do."
Four years later, he headed back. Employing a good old British turn of phrase, Gervais tweeted: "It's a good job I'm drunk. Otherwise the thought of hosting The Golden Globes again would seem like a real pain in the arse."
Whoopi Goldberg was one of several Hollywood stars who threatened to quit the US
What do Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus, Amy Schumer, Chloe Sevigny and Ne-Yo have in common?
They all should be living in Canada or Europe after vowing to leave the US if Donald Trump was elected President. But they're not.
Some hastily tweeted U-turns when Trump was elected, others went quiet and hoped nobody would remember.
Goldberg said "I'm not leaving the country I was born and raised in," while Schumer used social media to declare her pledge to move to Spain was merely a "joke".
Cyrus released an emotional video the morning after Trump's win saying she "accepted" the new president.
Samuel L Jackson, who had been succinct in his intentions, also backed out. "If that mother... becomes president, I'm moving my black ass to South Africa," he said.
In the early 1950s, Charlie Chaplin reportedly said he had "no further use for America" and "wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President".
After a series of political controversies, personal scandals and falling audiences, he decided to hold the world premiere of Limelight in London, where the film was set, rather than the US, where he had settled.
Boarding the RMS Queen Elizabeth in New York in 1952, he received word that his re-entry permit had been revoked and he would have to be interviewed about his political views and moral behaviour if he wanted to return.
He said: "I have been the object of lies and propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who, by their influence and by the aid of America's yellow press, have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted."
By 1972, feelings had softened on both sides and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences offered Chaplin an honorary Oscar.
Chaplin was given a 12-minute standing ovation, the longest in the Academy's history, as he accepted his award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century".
Daniel Craig (left) and Sean Connery are regularly voted the best Bonds
Daniel Craig famously said he would "rather slash my wrists" than reprise his role as 007 fifth time.
But The Sun reported last week he was "ready to do a final Bond".
It isn't confirmed, but the newspaper said film producer Barbara Broccoli had almost persuaded him to get back on board one last time.
Craig is regarded as one of the best Bonds of all time - and it seems the best Bonds are also the most fickle.
In 1983, Sean Connery returned to the role for the seventh and last time in Never Say Never Again, with the title being more than a subtle nod to Connery's reported remarks that he would "never again" play Bond.
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-39579270
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Track Cycling World Championships: Katie Archibald takes women's omnium gold - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Britain's Katie Archibald wins gold in the women's omnium at the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.
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Last updated on .From the section Cycling
Britain's Katie Archibald won gold in the women's omnium at the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.
The 23-year-old Scot held off Australia's Amy Cure in the points race for her first individual world title.
Britain now have three medals following a silver for Elinor Barker and bronze for Chris Latham in the scratch races.
World Championship debutant Ryan Owens reached the quarter-finals of the men's sprint as fellow Briton and Olympic champion Callum Skinner crashed out.
• None The omnium explained and other mysteries
Archibald won Olympic gold alongside Barker, Laura Kenny and Joanna Rowsell Shand in the team pursuit at Rio 2016 and was world team pursuit champion in 2014.
But with defending world and Olympic omnium champion Kenny pregnant with her first child, Archibald was handed an individual spot and seized her opportunity.
"I feel really privileged to pull it off," she said. "It was an unbelievably grippy race, I really thought I'd lost it in the middle point but I pulled it out of the bag.
"It feels very strange, I'm used to having my girls, my team-mates, around me it's odd to celebrate by yourself but I'm looking forward to catching up with them at the hotel."
European champion Archibald won the first two events - the scratch race and the newly-added tempo race - and led by eight points at the halfway stage.
She finished fifth in elimination race as rival Cure took maximum points, meaning the two were level going into the final event.
Archibald edged two points clear before the final sprint of the points race, and put in a fantastic push down the final straight to secure victory.
It was her first individual success on a world stage and she has had to overcome multiple setbacks on her road to individual glory.
At the end of 2015, a motorbike accident forced her to withdraw from the 2016 World Championships in London and she was heavily criticised by ex-British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton.
In November last year, she fractured her wrist as she partnered Manon Lloyd to victory in the inaugural women's madison at the Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow.
A wonderful performance. I thought she was completely spent in the closing stages; I genuinely didn't think that she had another sprint in her. But she just found something from somewhere to take the sprint from her rivals.
She knew she only had one effort, Cure went too early but nobody could manage the speed of Archibald's final dash.
Some of the big names are out of the British team but it's giving the younger riders a chance to shine and hopefully cement a place in the team come Tokyo 2020.
'I can't be too disappointed'
Earlier, Owens eased into Saturday's quarter-finals of the men's sprint. The 21-year-old, who travelled to Rio 2016 as a reserve, beat Hugo Barrette of Canada.
The 24-year-old Scot, who also won Olympic gold in the team sprint alongside Kenny and Phil Hindes in Rio, was beaten by Max Niederleg of Germany.
"The field were three or fourth tenths ahead of my pace and it makes it difficult when you come up against the second seed," Skinner told BBC TV.
"It's just a reflection of where we are. I can't be too disappointed."
In the men's individual pursuit, Matt Bostock and Andy Tennant finished 13th and 14th while, in the men's points race, Mark Stewart came seventh.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39598821
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Jose Mourinho: Man Utd manager blames forwards for Anderlecht draw - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho blames "sloppy" attackers after Anderlecht fight back for a 1-1 draw in the Europa League.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho blamed his side's "sloppy" attackers after Anderlecht grabbed a late equaliser in the teams' Europa League quarter-final first leg.
United led 1-0 in Belgium until the 86th minute, when the hosts equalised with their first effort on target.
"If I was a Manchester United defender, I would be very upset with the attacking players," Mourinho said.
"They did the serious work. The people who had to kill the game didn't."
• None MOTD analysis: How Conte has taken Mourinho's mantle
Henrikh Mkhitaryan tapped in for United in the 36th minute, but it was the only successful effort of their 16 shots at goal.
The visitors' attack lags well behind the rest of their top-four rivals in the Premier League, having scored only 46 goals. Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal have all managed more than 60.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the team's top-scorer with 28 goals in all competitions, with Mkhitaryan and Juan Mata the only others in double figures.
"It is the same problem," added Mourinho. "We had control, we had chances, but we do not score enough goals.
"In my poor English, I cannot find a better word than sloppy. You have to play more seriously.
"Put the performance of two or three of our attacking players together and you squeeze not much juice out of it. Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Anthony Martial - they were very similar."
How the newspapers saw it
Your reaction - by text on 81111
Phil, Cardiff: Last half an hour the whole United attack just walking around with no desire to break with pace and kill the game off. The fact that they seem to be happy with a 1-0 at Anderlecht says how far United have fallen. And they paid the price with poor finishing as usual this season.
Darragh, Belfast: Same old United this season we go one up and take the foot off the pedal, never look like we're gonna blow a team away! Not great for confidence with Chelsea on Sunday.
Chris Perez: You can spend as much money on a squad as possible but without time they will play as separate pieces of the jigsaw. Jose will make United great again.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39597077
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The next Harry Potter words to join the dictionary? - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As "quidditch" enters the Oxford Dictionary, BBC News reveals the next Harry Potter words on the watchlist.
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UK
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Quidditch is the second word invented by the Harry Potter author to join the English language
Quidditch - the game played by Harry Potter - is now magically appearing in the Oxford Dictionaries, joining that other Potter term "muggle". But what other words dreamed up by author JK Rowling are on the cusp of gaining official recognition?
Potterhead... Wrock... Bellatrix... three terms that muggles may not understand. And if you need to be told what a muggle is in the first place, then you can at least consult a dictionary on that one.
The BBC has learned that another small list of words associated with the Harry Potter book series is on the Oxford University Press watchlist, which decides on the words likely to gain inclusion in its dictionaries.
Potterhead refers to a fan of Harry Potter, while Wrock [short for Wizard Rock] is a genre of Harry Potter-related music.
Bellatrix is the name of a character in the series, which Rowling named after a star in the Orion constellation.
Rowling's word "muggle" made its debut in 1997's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
The Oxford University Press has a vast database of some three billion words ready for editors to consider for publication in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the website Oxford Dictionaries.
The OED is a historical dictionary which records all the core words and meanings in English over more than 1,000 years, while the latter tracks "current" English and includes modern meanings of words.
Most words have to be in circulation for 10 years before they will be considered for the OED, but in the meantime many enter the Oxford Dictionaries website after careful consideration.
Rowling's word "muggle" - which made its debut in 1997's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - was an exception to the rule.
Muggle leapt into the Oxford English Dictionary in less than half the usual time, appearing in 2002 as "a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way".
Charlotte Buxton, an associate editor at Oxford Dictionaries, explained that some words are fast-tracked if they "cross into our world" quickly and are widely used.
She said: "It's fairly unusual for a made-up word to get in. They have to move beyond the book - quidditch is now a real sport, not just a made-up game.
"It is really significant as it shows that Harry Potter has had such a huge impact."
Ms Buxton said she thought "Horcrux" - an object which contains a wizard's evil - might be next on Oxford Dictionaries' radar.
She added: "Harry Potter could be ripe for a project."
Other realms which have crossed into ours include The Simpsons animated comedy show
Previous Oxford University Press projects include last year's focus on Roald Dahl as a celebration of the centenary of his birth.
Almost 8,000 real words - and invented ones - were included in a special Roald Dahl dictionary, which took five years to compile.
Of these words, several do have a place in the OED, including golden ticket, oompa loompa and human bean.
Ms Buxton said it has been children's authors, such as Dahl, who have tended to coin the most new words over the last century because they are the most playful and creative.
"In particular, authors who create their own language - such as [Lord of the Rings author] JRR Tolkien. He created a complete world with its own language.
"Writers who do that - like JK Rowling - really make their mark." she said.
Other realms which have crossed into ours are the fantasy fiction of Twilight, and the animated comedy show The Simpsons.
The Simpsons lays claim to three words in Oxford Dictionaries: Jeebus, cromulent and embiggen. It is also credited for popularising the word "meh" - which has been added to the OED.
"Children's books are read by children and by adults to their children, which leads to words being used within the family and beyond," Ms Buxton said. This gives the words better staying power.
Meanwhile, realist authors, such as the Victorian author Charles Dickens, tend not to create as many new words as they are concerned with reflecting the real world, she said.
It is William Shakespeare who is famously credited for having the biggest influence on the English language - providing the first evidence of more than 1,600 words, from "admired" to "watch-dog" and "night owl".
But Ms Buxton says it is hard to know how many words Shakespeare invented and how many he simply recorded.
What we do know is that not all of them stood the test of time: has anyone met a "flirt-gill" recently?
Superman: A translation of the German Übermensch used by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to denote the concept of an "ideal superior man of the future".
Blatant: Invented by Edmund Spenser in his epic poem The Faerie Queene (1596), where he wrote of a "blatant beast".
Robot: Coined by the Czech author Karel Capek, robot made its first appearance in a 1920 sci-fi play called R.U.R, short for Rossum's Universal Robots.
Cyberspace: Invented by William Gibson for a 1981 science fiction short story called Burning Chrome, which was published in Omni magazine in 1982.
Serendipity: Coined by Horace Walpole in a letter he wrote to Horace Mann in 1754, after the title of the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, the heroes of which 'were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of'.
Eucatastrophe: Coined by JRR Tolkien in a 1944 letter to describe "a sudden and favourable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending".
Doublethink: In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four he created a language called Newspeak which included the word doublethink - which refers to the acceptance of contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time.
Blurb: Coined in 1907 by the American humourist Gelett Burgess, "blurb" was first found on a comic book jacket embellished with a drawing of a young lady whom Burgess dubbed "Miss Belinda Blurb".
Chortle: Introduced by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass, published in 1871, the word is probably a blend of chuckle and snort.
Cloud cuckoo land: In his comedy Birds, the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes named the city built by the birds to separate the gods from mankind - it was translated into English in 1824 as "cloud cuckoo land".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39586989
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Nicola Adams: Olympic boxing champion will increase round length for Leeds fight - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Nicola Adams will be allowed to compete over three-minute rounds and wants changes to rules concerning glove size.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Double Olympic champion Nicola Adams will contest three-minute rounds in her next fight, a contrast to the standard two minutes in women's boxing.
Adams won on her professional debut on Saturday but was frustrated to fight over four two-minute rounds.
"Every time I felt I was getting close to a stoppage the bell would go for the end of the round," said Adams, 34.
On Tuesday, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said the organisation "will never allow three-minute rounds".
Sulaiman said some boxing jurisdictions had taken "steps backwards" in allowing longer rounds in the women's sport. He said the organisation would "limit the dehydration and the fatigue elements to lower as much as possible the risk of a tragedy".
Flyweight Adams' next bout in Leeds on 13 May is on the undercard of Josh Warrington's WBC International featherweight title fight with Kiko Martinez.
As Adams' fight is not for a WBC title, the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) have allowed for the extension of the bout to four three-minute rounds.
Ireland's London 2012 Olympic champion Katie Taylor has also called for the move and Adams' management believe it will be the first time a women's bout has featured the same length of rounds as their male counterparts in the UK.
"Female boxing has come a long way since Jane Couch MBE made the sport possible here in the UK in 1998," said Adams.
"However, there is still a way to go until both male and female boxers can campaign under the same competition rules."
Adams is now intent on winning the right for women to wear lighter gloves.
The BBBofC's rules specify women must use 10oz gloves, a factor Adams' management believe is even more limiting than round length as gloves become heavier with perspiration as a fight progresses.
"It's great that the BBBofC has supported this first change and hopefully changes to glove sizes will come next," said Adams.
In the men's game, fighters competing from flyweight to welterweight are allowed to wear 8oz gloves.
BBC Radio 5 live boxing pundit Steve Bunce said a move to 8oz gloves would allow Adams to show her power, adding the current 10oz rule was "not good for business".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39594187
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World Snooker Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan's record 147, 20 years on - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Twenty years ago, Ronnie O'Sullivan made history with the fastest ever 147 - a record nobody has come close to breaking.
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Twenty years ago, Ronnie O'Sullivan made history with the fastest-ever 147 - a record nobody has come close to breaking.
Watch the 2017 World Snooker Championship live across BBC Sport from Saturday, 15 April.
Available to UK users only.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39577334
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Bahrain Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel sets pace in Bahrain practice - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel ends fastest in second practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Mercedes and Red Bull close behind.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Coverage: Practice, qualifying and race on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra (second practice online only). Live text commentary, leaderboard and imagery on BBC Sport website and app.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel was fastest in second practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix with the Mercedes and Red Bull teams close behind.
The German was only 0.041 seconds quicker than Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas.
Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was third with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes behind him.
We have hopefully closed that gap a little bit
Vettel's session was interrupted when his car shut down out on the track as he began his race-simulation run.
But after managing to crawl back to the pits, Ferrari fixed the car and he was able to complete his work.
The four-time world champion said: "It was not the best day for us, we still need to improve the car. The car feels good. On one lap it was OK. Long run we might be quite a bit behind, but I am sure we can improve for tomorrow."
• None Relive all the action from the second practice session
It was the second technical problem for Ferrari, after Raikkonen broke down with a turbo overheating problem in the first session. The Finn needed a new internal combustion engine to be fitted as well ahead of the second session.
Hamilton's true pace was not seen - he had a messy session and set his lap when his tyres were older than his rivals'.
Hamilton aborted his first lap, was blocked by Renault's Nico Hulkenberg on the next and finally nailed a time on his third attempt, when the edge would have gone from the rubber.
He and Vettel are tied on points at the top of the championship after a win and a second place apiece in the first two races of the season in Australia and China.
The pattern of the season so far in qualifying has been Hamilton on pole by a small margin, with Vettel and Bottas second and third separated by thousandths of a second.
Conditions are very different in Bahrain compared to Melbourne and Shanghai and Hamilton is concerned that Ferrari will be faster in the desert as a result of what he expects to be their lighter demands on the tyres.
On the race-simulation runs, Hamilton appeared to have a small advantage over the other drivers on the super-soft tyres and the soft tyres - other than two very quick laps by Raikkonen on the softs right at the end of the session.
But Hamilton said he had been told Ferrari were quicker than Mercedes in race pace.
"I didn't get to finish my lap. I would hope I would be in amongst [the top three if I had]," he said.
"Ferrari's race pace is a couple of tenths faster than ours. We have to work out how we are going to close that gap.
"The car did not feel spectacular on the long run. There are some things we have to work on just with the tyres. But it could all be different on Sunday."
The stage seems set for a very close race between Mercedes and Ferrari, with Red Bull much closer on raw pace in the dry than they have been so far this season.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told BBC Sport the team had made some changes to the car and it had been "a positive day", especially for Ricciardo.
"We have hopefully closed that gap a little bit. Hopefully we can build on that through the weekend," he added.
Behind the big three, Hulkenberg was an impressive sixth fastest for Renault, ahead of Felipe Massa's Williams.
Hulkenberg's team-mate, Englishman Jolyon Palmer, was a second off the German in 13th place, just ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen was only eighth fastest but on his qualifying simulation his floor was damaged by a small wing that had come off Bottas' Mercedes. The Dutchman looked relatively competitive on his race runs.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39601564
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Lyon v Besiktas: Kick-off delayed by crowd trouble at Europa League match - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Lyon's Europa League quarter-final first-leg win over Besiktas is marred by crowd trouble that saw the kick-off delayed by 50 minutes.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Clashes in the stands that forced some supporters on to the pitch delayed Lyon's Europa League quarter-final first-leg win over Besiktas.
Trouble prompted police involvement outside the ground before violence behind one goal as players warmed up.
"Projectiles and fireworks launched from the stands require fans to take refuge on the pitch," Lyon tweeted.
The game kicked off 45 minutes late with Lyon scoring twice in the closing 10 minutes to win 2-1.
Authorities had categorised the fixture 'high risk', with about 500 police reportedly stationed at Parc Olympique Lyonnais - more than double the usual amount.
Both teams left the field as fans spilled on to the playing surface before kick-off, with Lyon president Jean Michel Aulas going into the crowd in an effort to calm supporters.
When the French and Turkish sides eventually emerged, both sets of players clapped supporters all round the stadium, before going through brief warm-up drills ahead of a 20:50 BST kick-off.
Before Beskitas' fixture against Greek side Olympiakos in the previous round, both clubs worked with Uefa and took the decision to ban away fans in a bid to avoid crowd trouble.
It is the third incident at a Uefa competition this week, following Tuesday's bomb attack on Borussia Dortmund's team bus and Wednesday's clashes between Leicester City supporters and police in Madrid.
When the match got under way, former Liverpool striker Ryan Babel put Besiktas ahead but moments after Corentin Tolisso's equaliser on 83 minutes, Jeremy Morel robbed Spanish goalkeeper Fabri in the area to tap into an empty net.
• None Attempt missed. Corentin Tolisso (Lyon) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Mathieu Valbuena.
• None Attempt missed. Lucas Tousart (Lyon) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Mathieu Valbuena with a cross following a corner.
• None Goal! Lyon 2, Besiktas 1. Jérémy Morel (Lyon) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal.
• None Goal! Lyon 1, Besiktas 1. Corentin Tolisso (Lyon) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal following a set piece situation.
• None Tolgay Arslan (Besiktas) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt saved. Maxwel Cornet (Lyon) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Nabil Fekir.
• None Mathieu Valbuena (Lyon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39548463
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Mother of all bombs: How powerful is US mega-weapon? - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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The US GBU-43/B bomb detonates in the air and is said to create a blast wave for a mile in every direction.
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US & Canada
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The US military has just dropped its largest conventional (that is non-nuclear) bomb for the first time in combat, on Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) - or, in military speak, Mother of All Bombs - was launched on Thursday.
The target was said to be a network of tunnels operated by the so-called Islamic State in Achin district.
As a non-nuclear weapon, use of the MOAB does not necessarily require approval by the US president.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch 2003 footage of the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) being tested
It is a huge weapon - a 30ft (9m), 21,600lb (9,800kg), GPS-guided munition that is dropped from the cargo doors of an MC-130 transport plane and detonates shortly before it hits the ground.
The MOAB falls from the aircraft on a pallet, which is then tugged aside by a parachute allowing the weapon to glide down, stabilised and directed by four grid-like fins.
Its principal effect is a massive blast wave - said to stretch for a mile in every direction - created by 18,000lb of TNT.
The bomb's thin aluminium casing was designed specifically to maximise the blast radius.
The MOAB is prepared for testing at the Eglin Air Force Base, Florida
The bomb is designed to damage underground facilities and tunnels.
The weapon was developed for use in the Iraq war - at a reported cost of $16m (£13m) each - and was first tested in 2003, but never used in action - until now.
And yet, the MOAB is not the US military's heaviest non-nuclear bomb.
That distinction belongs to the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, a bunker-buster which weighs a colossal 30,000lb.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. North Korea 'must be well aware' of what else is in the US armoury
Russia has developed its own massive conventional bomb, nicknamed the Father Of All Bombs. The FOAB is a kind of fuel-air bomb, technically known as a thermobaric weapon.
Thermobaric bombs generally detonate in two stages: a small blast creates a cloud of explosive material which is then ignited, generating a devastating pressure wave.
A significant part of the effect of weapons like the MOAB is said to be psychological - to instil terror by the massive force of the blast.
Its development followed the use of similar weapons including the BLU-82 Daisy Cutter, a 15,000lb bomb designed in part to flatten a section of forest to carve out a helicopter landing pad.
The MOAB was developed by the Alabama-based aeronautics company Dynetics.
The 21,600lb (9,800kg) bomb has never been used in combat before
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39596333
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Man Utd v Chelsea: How Antonio Conte has taken Jose Mourinho's mantle - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Antonio Conte has made the kind of impact at Chelsea that MOTD pundit Chris Sutton expected Jose Mourinho to have at Manchester United.
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You can see highlights of Manchester United v Chelsea on Match of the Day 2 at 22:30 GMT on Sunday on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.
There is pride, as well as points, at stake at Old Trafford on Sunday because Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will not take it well if Antonio Conte beats him in his own backyard.
Conte has not just won both their previous meetings this season, his Chelsea side are 18 points above United and closing in on the Premier League title.
I did not expect the gap between the two teams to be so big but nobody could have foreseen how well Conte would do in what is a highly competitive league - I certainly didn't.
If you are looking for a comparison, you could say his impact in his first season in the Premier League has been Mourinho-esque - the same as when Jose first came to England in 2004 and blew everyone away.
'It's unacceptable for Mourinho to miss out on the top four'
In many ways, Conte is the new Mourinho - he has only been in England for eight months but has already taken over his mantle.
By that, I mean the way Conte has been the outstanding manager this season with his results and how he has implemented his style of play to build a team that is exciting to watch and a threat going forward.
Just as with Mourinho, you would not exactly say that everyone loves him, but most people admire the job he has done at Chelsea, and his enthusiasm and charisma too.
Mourinho may see a bit of himself in Conte and I would understand if he is a bit envious of the success the Italian has had. He has stolen his thunder with what is essentially Mourinho's team, and got so much more out of the group of players he was left with after Mourinho's second spell at the club.
I was one of those who thought Mourinho would quickly transform United in a similar way, but they simply have not made the same transition since he took charge.
Yes, there are signs of improvement from the Louis van Gaal era but I still think United will finish outside the top four, which is pretty unacceptable when you consider how much money they have spent.
If they do not qualify for the Champions League by winning the Europa League, then you cannot get away from the fact that this season will be a distinctly disappointing one.
I am not suggesting Mourinho is going to get the sack in that scenario - or that he should do - but, for United and for him, is winning the League Cup and finishing fifth or sixth really enough?
'United's biggest problem is their lack of goals'
Mourinho has already clashed with Conte on the touchline this season, and he will be absolutely desperate to beat him this time.
I don't think United can play an open game against Chelsea on Sunday because, if they try to go toe to toe with them, the way Conte's team counter-attack will really cause them problems.
So I am expecting a cagey affair. If you asked me to pick a winner I would go with the Blues but I just have a feeling Zlatan Ibrahimovic will play a big part in the outcome.
I would not put it past him to do something special to decide the game - but even if United do come out on top at Old Trafford, they face a huge task to break into the top four now.
Looking at their remaining fixtures, they will need to go on an unbelievable run in some difficult games. At the same time, they have to hope Liverpool or Manchester City slip up because the top two seem to be too far clear now.
You cannot rule United out of winning all of those games, simply because of who they are and the quality they have in their team.
But, on this season's form, I just cannot see it.
United are unbeaten for 21 league games, going back to their 4-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in October, but it is their inability to score goals that has been the determining factor in where they are in the table, because they have not beaten a lot of teams you would expect them to run riot against.
They have scored one more than Bournemouth and have the lowest total in the top six by a significant amount. I don't think anyone imagined them struggling so badly in front of goal.
Van Gaal, Mourinho's predecessor at Old Trafford, was criticised heavily for his brand of football - but his United team scored more goals in his first season, and so did David Moyes' side.
United's trademark style is 'attack, attack, attack' but apart from Ibrahimovic they have been blunt when they have come forward.
Ibrahimovic has had a fantastic season and bailed them out on countless occasions but it feels like they rely solely on him to score, and that has been their biggest problem.
Jose Mourinho vs Louis van Gaal and David Moyes at Man Utd after 30 PL games
'Mourinho has become painful to watch'
Mourinho is right when he says his other attacking players need to be more consistent, but to publicly criticise the likes of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford is a risky tactic.
We have seen something similar with his treatment of Luke Shaw, and now there are rumours he has had a bust-up with David de Gea too.
I can understand what he is saying about Shaw being in the last-chance saloon but, for whatever reason, there is not complete harmony in the United camp at the moment.
That is the other big difference between what Conte has achieved at Chelsea, and the way he has done it - because it appears there is total harmony there, with everyone pulling in the same direction.
Whatever he is talking about, Mourinho's whole demeanour as a manager seems to have changed - he used to be witty and charming when he spoke to the media, but now he is painful to watch.
All of that sort of behaviour seems to be an attempt to deflect attention from some of the issues affecting his team.
For example, when he spoke to the BBC's Conor McNamara after United drew at home to West Brom, his emphasis was on pulling Conor up for his question, rather than concentrating on the matter in hand - which is why his team are not doing well enough in the final third of the pitch.
'United fans have been patient, but will it last?'
The buck has to stop with Mourinho at some point - he will know himself that he has to do better, and he has a lot of work to do.
This is his first season at United and, in his defence, you could argue this is not his team yet.
But that argument does not really work when you think about how quickly Conte has made a difference at Chelsea, and how far United are behind them.
United have already invested heavily in their team in the past three years - Mourinho has spent about £150m, and Van Gaal about another £250m in his time in charge, which is an astonishing amount to lay out and still be outside the top four.
To change that, it looks like they will have to do the same again this summer, but how much more money will they throw at it, and where does the spending stop?
The United fans have been exceptionally patient with Mourinho so far but I am not sure if that will last going into next season if they miss out on the Champions League again.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39595589
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Bahrain Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel fastest in first practice; Lewis Hamilton 10th - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel sets the pace in first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix with title rival Lewis Hamilton down in 10th.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Coverage: Practice, qualifying and race on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra (second practice online only). Live text commentary, leaderboard and imagery on BBC Sport website and app.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel set the pace in first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix as title rival Lewis Hamilton was down in 10th for Mercedes.
Vettel, who shares the championship lead with Hamilton, was 0.4 seconds quicker than Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton was 1.9secs back in 10th, but his time was set earlier in the session and is unlikely to be representative.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen stopped on the track with an engine problem.
Smoke poured from the back of the Finn's car as he pulled off after Turn 13, with Ferrari saying the problem was "overheating in the turbo area".
• None Relive all the action from the first practice session
Hamilton was 0.366secs quicker than team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who has vowed to make amends for the spin behind the safety car in China last weekend that left him sixth as Hamilton won.
Both Mercedes drivers set their fastest times in the hottest part of the day, whereas Vettel's came nearly half an hour later.
First practice in Bahrain is typically not reflective of the rest of the weekend as it is held in the heat of the early afternoon, whereas qualifying and race start at twilight and track temperatures drop dramatically after dark.
It was an uneventful session, and only a harmless spin by Williams driver Felipe Massa punctuated the testing.
Ferrari were not the only team to suffer an engine problem - McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne also stopped out on track when his engine cut out.
The Belgian had just completed his fastest lap of the session, 2.3secs off Vettel's pace.
Team-mate Fernando Alonso, who it was announced on Wednesday would miss the Monaco Grand Prix to race in the Indianapolis 500, was eighth fastest, 1.675secs behind Vettel, setting his time shortly after Vandoorne's problem.
Ricciardo's team-mate Max Verstappen was third fastest, 0.469secs behind the Australian, ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez, Massa and team-mate Lance Stroll, and Perez's team-mate Esteban Ocon.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39600566
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'Lucky' NHS struggles through the winter - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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The health service came under intense strain this winter - even though the weather was mild and there wasn't much flu.
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Health
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As warmer weather and the Easter holidays arrive, the NHS in England is reflecting on what looks like the busiest, some would say the worst, winter on record.
Official figures reveal the stresses and strains being felt during February after torrid times over the previous two months.
February's A&E waiting time performance was slightly better than December's and January's, with 87.6% of patients treated or assessed within four hours.
But it was still one of the worst monthly figures since records began more than a decade earlier, and it came after a fall in the number of people coming in to A&E units.
Once patients got through A&E there could still be long waits.
Adding up the number of patients between December and February, who waited more than four hours for a bed after a decision to admit, there was a total of 196,000, which was a 45% increase on the same period the previous year.
Delayed transfers of patients who were medically fit to leave continued to cause problems for hospitals.
There was a 17% increase in the number of beds not available to other patients in the year to February.
NHS England said that in effect around 1,100 beds had been taken out of normal usage compared with February 2016.
More than 36% of delays were linked to problems with social care services, the highest since the data was first collected in 2010.
With some hospitals reporting that at times over the winter every bed was occupied, it is clear that the service was running flat out and very close to capacity.
This in turn affected routine surgery, with bed shortages causing delays to procedures where an overnight stay was required.
Hardly surprisingly there was a big jump, of nearly 40%, in the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for routine treatment.
This might sound like "same old, same old" and the story of the NHS being under pressure is hardly new.
Whatever the dire warnings, hospitals muddled through.
But it is worth noting that the system came under such strain despite intense contingency planning, and demands by NHS chiefs that non-urgent procedures be cancelled for several weeks to clear the decks for emergency admissions.
What must be worrying for NHS leaders is that hospitals were full at times, and waiting times were rising, even in a mild winter and with no above-average flu or norovirus cases.
A sense of relief must be tempered by concern that the health service may not be so lucky next year.
The system runs on very fine margins and it would not take much to seriously rock it.
Hospitals and local health commissioners are working hard in most areas to manage patient flows into A&E departments and to treat more people in their local communities.
There is a hope that extra investment in social care in England will facilitate the quicker discharge of patients.
But two things are clear as summer approaches.
Firstly, the traditional easing of pressure after winter does not happen any more as patient demand rises relentlessly month by month.
Secondly, it won't be long before hospital managements have to start planning for next winter, aware that they won't be lucky every time.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39591932
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Festive fun or hopping mad: Is Easter the new Christmas? - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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Easter has been dubbed the "second Christmas" as wreaths, trees and crackers appear in shops.
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UK
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There was a time when Easter meant a Sunday roast, strange homemade bonnets, a visit to Church and lots of chocolate. But with shops now offering trees, wreaths and crackers, is it becoming spring's answer to Christmas?
The dinner table for Good Housekeeping's Easter photo shoot was light, bright, and traditional.
But look closely, and there's something unusual on the plates: sky blue Easter crackers.
Carolyn Bailey is homes and garden editor for the magazine. She said more people were buying decorations for Easter than ever before.
"Easter is becoming like a second Christmas," she said.
Retailers have hopped on the trend. A number of supermarkets - including Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose - are stocking Easter crackers this year.
Poundland have also got in on the action, offering everything from bunny banners to carrot-shaped fairy lights.
Meanwhile Tesco, M&S and John Lewis are selling egg-speckled wreaths.
Eggs are no longer just made of chocolate, but are painted and covered in beads, sparkles or pom-poms.
And where do you hang these egg-cellent trinkets? On an Easter tree of course.
Varying arrays of twigs - often painted white - are laden with colourful eggs and bunnies.
There are more than 16,000 posts for #Eastertree on Instagram and thousands more on Pinterest.
And if your garden doesn't have much in the way of Instagram-able branches, a number of High Street stores are selling the skeletal trees ready for decorating.
Decorated eggs are not a new phenomenon. House of Fabergé set the standard back in 1842.
Eggs themselves have been associated with the Christian tradition for even longer. They symbolise both new life and the empty tomb.
Canon Sarah Rowland Jones is from the Church in Wales.
"In many ways Easter is the more important Christian festival," she says. "People should be given cause to remember what it's all about.
"If making more of Easter makes people look beyond the caricature of Christianity - at what is at the heart of what more than two billion people around the world practise - then it's a good thing."
Easter continues to be the second-biggest retail event in the UK after Christmas.
Market researcher, Mintel, estimated Easter to be worth £550 million to UK retailers in 2016.
Craft giant, Hobbycraft has seen sales of its Easter range soar almost 44% compared to last year.
Included in the range is a faux grass bunny which has completely sold out. Meanwhile, fillable egg characters are up 93% compared to 2016.
These green bunnies - for the home or outside - are sold out
Anna Protherough, a seasonal buyer for the retailer, said: "More and more, people are looking for reasons to celebrate and because of this, seasonal events such as Halloween and Easter are becoming bigger and bigger."
Hobbycraft says "decorating the home for Easter is bigger than ever before" and that homeowners are inspired by crafters like American businesswoman Martha Stewart.
Ms Stewart's online project tutorials currently include "cosmic painted eggs" and "How to fold a napkin into a bunny".
But if all this has got you hopping mad, Amazon has just the slogan t-shirt for you: "I don't carrot all."
• None Why this Easter egg is so difficult to sell overseas
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39576494
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Premier League predictions: Lawro v Sting and his son - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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BBC football expert Mark Lawrenson takes on Newcastle fan Sting and his son Joe Sumner in this week's Premier League predictions.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
BBC Sport's football expert Mark Lawrenson is pitting his wits against a different guest each week this season.
Lawro's opponents for this weekend's Premier League fixtures are Sting and his son Joe Sumner, who are both Newcastle fans.
"Football played a big part in my life growing up in Wallsend," Sting told BBC Sport. "The last trophy we won was the Fairs Cup in 1969 and I went to a lot of our home games during that run.
"Bobby Moncur was the captain and he was my hero - he still is.
"My favourite players are from that era - people like Jim Iley, all those old people. Footballers always seemed much older than me, but now they seem like my children. It's strange, it is just an age thing.
"Winning the Fairs Cup is still the best moment I've had as a Newcastle fan - it was fantastic, but we need to win another trophy."
Joe also grew up as a Toon fanatic, although is not a Geordie like his dad.
"I grew up in north London, so it was a strange kind of cultural mix where all my friends were either Tottenham or Arsenal supporters," he said.
"Most of them were Spurs fans so despite supporting Newcastle, who nobody else I knew cared about, I have sort of developed that Tottenham-style dislike of Arsenal - it is them I cannot stand losing to."
You can make your Premier League predictions now and compare them with those of Lawro and other fans by playing the BBC Sport Predictor game.
A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
All kick-offs 15:00 BST unless otherwise stated.
Sting was impressed to hear United fans have used one of his songs for their chant about Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
United fans sing "Whoa Mkhitaryan, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, he's our midfield Armenian" to the tune of Englishman in New York.
"I am very happy about that," Sting said. "I like to see songs repossessed and refitted for different purposes. It is pretty good too.
"As a songwriter I think it is extraordinary the way those chants go around a massive group of people, and suddenly they are all singing the same thing."
*Does not include scores from postponed games.
Lawro's worst score: 20 points (week 28, but only five games played so far) or 30 points (week four v Dave Bautista)
How did Lawro do last time?
From last week's Premier League games, Lawro got five correct results, with no perfect scores, from 10 matches for a total of 50 points.
He was beaten by singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald, who got seven correct results with no perfect scores, for a tally of 70 points.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39582678
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PFA awards: Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku up for two prizes - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku are nominated for both the Professional Footballers' Association player of the year and young player awards.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku have been nominated for both the Professional Footballers' Association player of the year and young player awards.
They join Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexis Sanchez, Eden Hazard and N'Golo Kante on the shortlist for the main prize.
Michael Keane, Leroy Sane and Jordan Pickford are up for the young player of the year award, alongside 2016 winner Dele Alli.
The winners, voted for by PFA members, will be announced on 23 April.
To be eligible for the young player of the year award, players must be 23 or under at the beginning of the season.
At 24, Burnley defender Keane is the oldest player nominated, followed by 23-year-old forwards Kane and Lukaku, of Tottenham and Everton, and Sunderland goalkeeper Pickford. Spurs midfielder Alli and Manchester City winger Sane are both 21.
Women's Super League champions Manchester City have three players on the shortlist for the women's award, with the City trio of Lucy Bronze, Jane Ross and Jill Scott joined by Karen Carney, Ellen White and Caroline Weir.
City also provide a trio of nominees for the women's young player of the year prize - Nikita Parris, Georgia Stanway and Keira Walsh - with Weir, Millie Bright and Jess Carter completing the nominations.
Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez won the 2016 player of the year award, while Manchester City forward Izzy Christiansen won the women's award.
Sunderland striker Beth Mead, 20, was named women's young player of the year.
Pick your Team of the Year Pick your Team of the Year from our list and share with your friends.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39582174
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Parents' anger at baby deaths NHS trust - BBC News
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2017-04-14
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Bereaved parents criticise the NHS trust at the centre of an investigation into its maternity services.
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Health
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An NHS trust at the centre of an investigation into its maternity services has been accused of failing to properly investigate the deaths of at least two babies.
Jack Burn and Sophiya Hotchkiss died within six months of each other.
Both families say their concerns were dismissed by the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust.
The trust said it investigates all deaths, and takes appropriate action where necessary.
But a third family was told that their daughter's death had been unavoidable, even though an inquest later found it could have been prevented.
At least seven avoidable deaths occurred at the trust between September 2014 and May 2016, with some families raising concerns about other deaths.
BBC News revealed on Wednesday that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a review of deaths and other maternity errors at the trust.
Stephanie Prowse, and her partner, rushed to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in September 2014 because she was feeling unwell.
She was 31 weeks pregnant with her third child.
But the family said they were left in a side room for 40 minutes before staff checked her.
A heart rate monitor showed that the baby, Sophiya, had a weak heart beat, and though she was delivered by emergency caesarean she died after 32 hours.
"If they had checked her heartbeat when I first arrived, I believe she would have had a heartbeat when she was born and so she wouldn't have been born sleeping," Stephanie told BBC News.
"If they had got her out, I truly believe it would have been a whole different story. I'd have a three-year-old running around."
The family asked the trust to look into the circumstances surrounding Sophiya's death but say they have never received a response.
For its part, the trust told the BBC that an internal examination of the incident had indeed taken place though the family had not been involved.
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends that families are always invited to participate in such investigations.
Those concerns have been echoed by the family of Jack Burn.
He was born in March 2015 but died within hours, of hypoxia and Group B Strep.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hayley Matthews, mother of Jack Burn: "He would have been OK"
His mother, Hayley Matthews, says that throughout her 36-hour-long labour at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, she was refused a caesarean section several times.
Instead, she says, she was forced to have a natural birth during which her son's shoulder was trapped.
By the time Jack was born, he was blue and limp and died shortly afterwards.
"They just expected me to push," said Hayley.
"I asked for a caesarean, they said 'no you'll be fine, you can do it'."
Ms Matthews says the death was never properly examined.
In response, the trust told the BBC that it did investigate the death but admitted it had not included the family in its inquiry.
After we highlighted her case, the local coroner is now considering opening an inquest into Jack Burn's death.
The family of Pippa Griffiths were initially dismissed by the trust too.
Their daughter died last April, around 30 hours after being born at home after contracting the Group B Strep infection.
Her parents, Colin and Kayleigh, had called the trust in the middle of the night to say their daughter was vomiting brown mucus.
No action was taken, no advice was given, and hours later Pippa died.
The trust visited the family to say that nothing could have prevented their daughter's death.
Her parents refused to believe this and forced the trust to fully and properly investigate the death.
Last week, the coroner ruled that Pippa's death was in fact avoidable, and that the trust had failed to provide the family with the information that could have saved her life.
"Why would they not raise that (the death) as a serious incident?" asks Kayleigh.
"They knew what had happened, and they weren't going to do an investigation.
"That's when I said that's not good enough there will be an investigation and we will be involved," Kayleigh adds.
Commenting on Pippa's death, the trust said: "We are truly sorry that we were unable to provide the appropriate care that would have prevented Pippa's death."
"We have apologised to Pippa's parents.
"We have carried out specific actions to address the issues this tragic case has highlighted to ensure we learn from these devastating events," it added.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39591929
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RSC Anderlecht 1-1 Manchester United - BBC Sport
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2017-04-14
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Man United are left ruing missed chances as Leander Dendoncker's late header salvages a draw for Anderlecht in the Europa League.
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Last updated on .From the section European Football
Manchester United were left to rue missed chances as Anderlecht salvaged a late draw to change the complexion of their Europa League quarter-final tie.
Leander Dendoncker got in front of Matteo Darmian to head an equaliser with the Belgian side's first effort on goal four minutes from time.
Until that moment United had subdued the hosts, and deservedly led when Henrikh Mkhitaryan tapped in from a tight angle after Marcus Rashford's shot was spilled in the first half.
But the Armenian side-footed wide when well placed after the break and Paul Pogba fired into the shins of goalkeeper Ruben to leave Jose Mourinho's side vulnerable to the sucker punch landed by 21-year-old Dendoncker.
• None 'I have no better word than sloppy' - Mourinho blames his attack
United's Europa League odyssey this term has taken in disappointing evenings away to Feyenoord, Fenerbahce and Rostov, and Mourinho's frustration in Brussels will centre on a decent performance undermined by lax finishing and a late defensive lapse.
Since his last foray into second-tier European competition in 2003, the Portuguese has become accustomed to the bright lights of the Champions League, winning it twice and disparaging predecessor Rafael Benitez's Europa League success after taking over at Chelsea in 2013.
But United's position in the Premier League - four points off the top four with games running out - has forced him to revise his attitude.
For most of the match, his team seemed focused on the task. Just five games away from booking a return to the Champions League - Uefa's sweetener for winning the competition - they looked solid in defence and slick in attack.
For their part, Anderlecht's enterprising young team offered little, deprived of possession and restricted to efforts from distance - but all that changed with Dendoncker's late goal.
United will still fancy their chances of finishing the job at Old Trafford next week, but with more dangerous opponents elsewhere in the draw - notably Lyon and Schalke - similar mistakes could easily derail their progress to May's final.
Mourinho claimed that his attackers let down their defensive colleagues in his post-match interview, but it seemed harsh to burden Rashford with a share of the blame after one of his brightest performances of the season.
The 19-year-old - whose goal return was recently questioned by Mourinho - was heavily involved before being replaced by Marouane Fellaini in the 75th minute.
He roamed dangerously from the left, tormenting full-back Dennis Appiah and threatening with a dipping shot from distance before creating the opener as Ruben failed to grasp his sweetly struck shot
His industry in the opposite direction also caught the eye as he diligently tracked Anderlecht's runners.
It was the sort of all-around performance that Mourinho usually demands of his attacking players but, publicly at least, the boss seemed nonplussed.
• None Of players who have scored at least two goals, only Zlatan Ibrahimovic (134) has a better minutes-per-goal rate than Mkhitaryan (212) for Manchester United in all competitions this season.
• None The Red Devils are unbeaten in their last four European away games (W2 D2), after losing each of the five before that.
• None Leander Dendoncker scored with Anderlecht's only shot on target of the game.
• None Paul Pogba attempted 127 passes in the game, the fourth-highest total by a player in a Europa League game this season. He is also second with 130 against Zorya Luhansk on 29 September.
Manchester United play Premier League leaders Chelsea on Sunday before the second leg at Old Trafford next Thursday. Anderlecht play KV Oostende on Sunday in the Belgian top flight.
• None Timothy Fosu-Mensah (Manchester United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt missed. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Anthony Martial.
• None Goal! RSC Anderlecht 1, Manchester United 1. Leander Dendoncker (RSC Anderlecht) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Ivan Obradovic with a cross.
• None Offside, Manchester United. Zlatan Ibrahimovic tries a through ball, but Anthony Martial is caught offside.
• None Attempt saved. Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Henrikh Mkhitaryan with a cross.
• None Attempt saved. Paul Pogba (Manchester United) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic with a through ball.
• None Attempt missed. Sofiane Hanni (RSC Anderlecht) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Alexandru Chipciu. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39446905
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World Championship 2017: Favourite tag is an 'advantage' - Judd Trump - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Favourite Judd Trump believes he is "the best" and can win the 40th World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Trump is extremely confident of winning his first World Championship this year Favourite Judd Trump says he believes he is "the best" in the world and can win the 40th World Snooker Championship to be held at the Crucible Theatre. Trump, 27, has been the form player this season, reaching five ranking title finals and winning two - the European Masters and Players Championship. "I honestly believe I can play to a standard which is very rare nowadays," Trump told BBC Sport. The event starts on Saturday at 10:00 BST and runs until 1 May. Defending champion Mark Selby opens play against Ireland's Fergal O'Brien in Saturday's morning session, before five-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan plays Crucible debutant Gary Wilson in the afternoon session at 14:30. Bristol-born Trump, who begins against qualifier Rory McLeod on Tuesday, was runner-up to John Higgins in 2011, but has only reached two semi-finals since. However, he feels the consistency he has shown this season - taking his career ranking victories to seven - puts him among the players to beat in Sheffield. "Being the favourite is a help," said Trump. "When people tip you, a lot put themselves under pressure but I use it as an advantage. "The public are seeing something from me which they have not seen before, and I think I can win it. It is about keeping your foot on the gas. "I have been too inconsistent here in the past but I am at an age where there are no more excuses, I am getting towards the peak of my career and now is the time to really step up and win a lot of titles." The World Championship will be played at the iconic Sheffield venue until 2027 at least after a new 10-year agreement was struck. World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn signed the deal on Friday during the broadcast of 40 Years of the Crucible on the BBC Red Button. Defending champion Selby won the title for a second time by beating Ding Junhui in last year's final. The Leicester man won the most recent ranking event - the China Open - but is aware that no player has won the World Championship in the same year. "The hoodoo needs to be broken at some point. Hopefully this year might be the case," Selby told BBC Sport. "To win it again and be on three just on your own would be very, very special. This year is as hard as it has been to pick a winner with so many players on form. "It is Judd Trump's best chance to win it this year." Selby plays his first match on the opening morning against O'Brien, who claimed the longest frame in professional snooker history in his final qualifier which lasted two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds. World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said last week that China will become the sport's superpower within the next decade. This year's tournament in Sheffield sees five Chinese players competing - last year's finalist Ding, Liang Wenbo and Xiao Guodong as well as teenage debutants Zhou Yeulong, 19, and 17-year-old Yan Bingtao. Yan becomes the first player born after 2000 to appear at the main stages of the tournament and the second youngest ever to do so. But the youthful duo are no strangers to success after their two-man team won the 2015 World Cup in their home country. Englishmen Wilson and David Grace (both 31), plus Thailand's Noppon Saengkham, 24, will also appear at the Crucible for the first time. Wilson faces a tough draw against five-time champion O'Sullivan, Grace plays Kyren Wilson and Saengkham faces 2010 champion Neil Robertson of Australia. Best shots of the 2016 World Championship Will the centuries record be beaten? The stats…
• None For the first time, the World Championship will be broadcast live on World Snooker's Facebook page across 40 countries in North America, South America and Asia.
• None The total prize money is £1.75m, with the winner picking up £375,000.
• None Eighty-six centuries were made in both 2015 and 2016 - a record. All the top 16 players were at the Crucible on the eve of the tournament and were asked by BBC Sport to describe the iconic venue in three words or fewer...
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39602348
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Lewis Hamilton happy for 'exceptional' Valtteri Bottas after Bahrain pole - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Lewis Hamilton was "genuinely happy" to see Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas score his first pole at the Bahrain GP.
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Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Lewis Hamilton said he was "genuinely happy" to see Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas score his first pole at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Finn, brought in by Mercedes this year as the replacement for retired world champion Nico Rosberg, beat Hamilton by just 0.023 seconds.
"He is a great guy and it is his first pole so he will be struggling to sleep tonight through excitement."
Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix is live on the BBC Sport website and radio 5 live.
Bottas' lap brought to an end Hamilton's run of six consecutive poles dating back to last year's US Grand Prix.
"I've had a decent run," Hamilton said. "I'm very happy with what I've had.
"I'm genuinely very happy for Valtteri. He has done a fantastic job, been inching away at it bit by bit. He did a better job today.
"It could be his first win, and if it's not he will get a win. He's an exceptional driver.
"The first sector was my weak point but the second and third were very good. It wasn't terrible. It was very close, only a quarter of a tenth so I can't be too angry."
Hamilton added: "There's going to be lots of ups and downs throughout the year but Valtteri's definitely keeping me on my toes. He's getting stronger and stronger.
"I know how special it is to have your first pole position. It is just amazing. You dream of it as a kid and I know that he will be enjoying it.
"But obviously I will try my hardest to win the race."
Bottas has bounced back from a difficult race in China last weekend, in which he spun while warming his tyres behind the safety car and finished sixth as Hamilton won.
"It's always nice to have a good result whether you've had a good or bad weekend before but for sure if you've had a bit of a struggle in the last race it's always nice to start the weekend in a good way," Bottas said.
"The race is what matters but it's good. I'd rather be on pole than anything less, so let's see.
"There is no point to start dreaming about anything."
Hamilton fears the pace of the Ferraris in the race, with Sebastian Vettel - who is leading the championship jointly with Hamilton - starting third.
"Ferrari, in their race pace, they are very quick," Hamilton said.
Vettel added: "It's a long race, tyre management will be crucial conditions will be a bit different and a lot of things can change around.
"We were a little bit further back than we hoped. We should have a good car in the race and take it from there."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/39611115
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Somerset v Essex: Former England captain Alastair Cook hits unbeaten 39 for visitors - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Ex-England captain Alastair Cook scores 39 not out for Essex in his first game since standing down as Test skipper.
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Last updated on .From the section Counties
Ex-England captain Alastair Cook hit an unbeaten 39 for Essex against Somerset in his first Championship appearance since standing down as Test skipper.
Cook took two slip catches in the first session as the visitors bowled Somerset out for 209 in Taunton.
In bowler-friendly conditions Peter Trego (48) top scored as the home side struggled to deny Essex's bowlers.
Although Nick Browne was bowled cheaply by Craig Overton, Cook held out under heavy cloud cover as Essex closed 60-2.
Cook returned to the hosts' line-up after being sidelined for their first match against Lancashire with a hip injury, and the England opener took two low catches at first slip as Marcus Trescothick and new Somerset captain Tom Abell were both dismissed by Ravi Bopara.
Dean Elgar (34) and James Hildreth (36) shared a 54-run third-wicket partnership, before the former was stumped off spinner Ashar Zaidi.
Trego's lone resistance was ended as he top-edged Simon Harmer to Zaidi but the hosts managed to pick up a solitary batting bonus point as they edged past 200.
After a short delay due to bad light and surviving a tight lbw call, Cook sent Jamie Overton for three consecutive fours as he eased into the match.
Roelof van der Merwe ensured Somerset ended on a high, as he bowled Tom Westley for 10 with the final ball of the day.
"I think it's probably slightly swung in their favour.
"It's the old cricketing cliché: you can only see how good a pitch is when both sides have batted on it and Alastair Cook is a phenomenal player and he's making life look relatively easy out there and I don't think any of us did.
"It's a sporting wicket. There's certainly something there for the bowler, but you get rewarded for quality batting."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/39566094
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World Championship 2017: Mark Selby beats Fergal O'Brien 10-2 in opener - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Champion Mark Selby hammers Fergal O'Brien 10-2 on the opening day of the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
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Last updated on .From the section Snooker
Defending champion Mark Selby reached the second round of the World Championship by thrashing Fergal O'Brien 10-2 at the Crucible Theatre.
Leicester's Selby, who beat Ding Junhui in last year's final, looked on course for a whitewash by going 8-0 ahead.
Irishman O'Brien claimed the ninth and 11th to avoid becoming only the second player to exit without winning a frame, but Selby wrapped up the match.
He will face either Wales' Ryan Day or China's Xiao Guodong in the next round.
Selby has enjoyed a stellar season - claiming four ranking titles, including this month's China Open, though no player has followed that by winning the world title in the same season.
The world number one made top breaks of 92, 77 and 66 as he began his attempt to win his third title at the Sheffield venue, which is holding the event for a 40th year.
"I'm very happy to get through and happy with the scoreline but my performance could have been better," Selby said. "I was not killing enough frames off in the first visit and would have liked to have capitalised on them.
"I would like to win every tournament I play in. I am confident and I am playing well enough.
"Even if I don't play well, I have a never-say-die attitude and you have to scrape me off the table.
"I was gutted not to go 9-0 because I know the history that there has only been one whitewash here. I was devastated to go in after the first session at 8-1."
Having made light work of O'Brien, Selby has almost a week off, returning to action next Saturday.
Dubliner O'Brien came through qualifying by beating David Gilbert in a final-frame decider - the longest frame in snooker history, timed at two hours, three minutes and 41 seconds.
But he struggled badly in the first-round encounter, managing a high break of just 32, although he avoided the ignominy of joining Eddie Charlton - who lost 10-0 to John Parrott in 1992 - as the only players not to win a frame at the championship.
He has now lost six successive meetings against Selby, claiming just four frames in a run stretching back to 2006.
"When I won my first frame, it was good because the crowd were so supportive and willing me not to get the whitewash," said O'Brien.
In an all-Scottish tie, qualifier Stephen Maguire claimed eight frames in a row to trounce Anthony McGill 10-2.
Maguire, who has won five ranking titles, has fallen to 24th in the world but was in good scoring form, compiling breaks of 97, 66 and 60 to go through.
Meanwhile, five-time champion Ronnie O'Sullivan was pegged back to a 5-4 lead over debutant Gary Wilson.
Former taxi driver Wilson fell 5-1 behind but took the last three frames of the session, including the ninth having needed snookers.
On the other table, Kyren Wilson leads 5-4 against Crucible first-timer David Grace.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39609089
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Chelsea will be nervous after Spurs' winning run - Frank Lampard - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Tottenham's impressive form in pursuit of Chelsea will make the Premier League leaders nervous, according to Blues legend Frank Lampard.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Tottenham's impressive form in pursuit of Chelsea will make the Premier League leaders nervous, according to Stamford Bridge legend Frank Lampard.
Spurs beat Bournemouth for a seventh straight league win and moved to within four points of Chelsea before the Blues meet Manchester United on Sunday.
"Chelsea are very aware that Spurs are there and it'll be a tough game for them tomorrow," Lampard told BBC Sport.
"There will be some nervousness but so there should be."
Lampard was speaking to BBC Final Score and will be a part of the analysis team on Match of the Day on Saturday.
Tottenham were eventual champions Leicester's nearest rivals for much of last season, but fell away, collecting only two points from their final four games and ending below north London rivals Arsenal in third.
Speaking after Tottenham's 4-0 win over the Cherries, boss Mauricio Pochettino insisted his side had "improved a lot" since 12 months ago and were ready for the scrutiny and pressure of a close-fought title run-in.
"That was a very bad period at the end of last season," said the Argentine.
"We expended a lot of energy fighting against Leicester, against Chelsea, against the media.
"We fought against everyone. But now we are focusing on fighting our opponents when we play.
"From the beginning of the season that was our chance to improve our mentality, our belief, and I think you can see the group and the team have improved."
Chelsea will restore their advantage to seven points with only six games to play if they beat Manchester United and former manager Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39610038
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How many bombs has Britain dropped in 2017? - BBC News
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2017-04-15
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Royal Air Force is part of a coalition attacking so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
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UK
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The UK has been bombing so-called Islamic State targets in Iraq since 2014 and in Syria since the year after.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) does not release statistics on the number of bombs dropped, but does release weekly updates of operations in the region.
BBC analysis shows UK forces have dropped bombs on 69 of the 99 days of 2017 to 9 April.
In that time, at least 216 bombs and missiles have been dropped by the Royal Air Force.
The total number is likely to be higher as MoD updates sometimes do not specify the number of bombs or missiles used in a strike.
Where the number was not known, the BBC presumed one bomb was dropped.
The most commonly used weapon is the Paveway IV precision guided bomb. At least 129 have been used against IS targets by the RAF this year.
Through Operation Shader, the RAF is supporting Iraqi ground forces as part of a US-led international coalition.
The current focus of the battle against IS, which the MoD calls Daesh, has been for control of Mosul. It has been held by IS militants since 2014 and is the jihadist group's last major urban stronghold in Iraq.
An MoD update from 6 April details a strike against a "Daesh motor team" in north-western Mosul, where a Brimstone missile was used to destroy the target.
The RAF flight then tracked a truck "carrying a terrorist team who had been planting booby traps" before scoring another "direct hit" on the moving vehicle.
Meanwhile in Syria, RAF Typhoons have been supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The building was destroyed by a direct hit from a Paveway IV
The Ministry of Defence published footage on 18 March of RAF Tornados destroying a building in Syria.
At the time, the MoD said: "A Daesh headquarters was identified at a small building five miles east of Raqqa, this was destroyed by a direct hit from a Paveway IV released by a Tornado flight."
This strike came shortly after the US sent 400 Marines to Syria to support allied local forces in their assault on the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
Exact numbers of casualties from the conflict with IS are not available. The RAF says it takes all steps to minimise civilian casualties.
The UK parliament backed British participation in air strikes against IS in Iraq back in September 2014.
Just over a year later in 2015, MPs authorised air strikes against IS in Syria.
The UK has conducted more than 1,200 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since it became involved - more than any other coalition country bar the United States.
In 2016 alone, the US dropped 12,192 bombs in Syria and 12,095 in Iraq, according to the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations.
The UK is part of the Global Coalition, a body of 68 partners from across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas which has committed to defeating IS using military action among other tactics.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39598979
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Tales of deportation in Trump's America: Week Four - BBC News
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2017-04-15
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Under Donald Trump's new immigration order, even undocumented immigrants with similar circumstances can have opposite outcomes.
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US & Canada
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Immigrants take part in a workshop called "Me Preparo" to plan what happens to their US-born children if they are deported
Under Donald Trump's new immigration order, even undocumented immigrants with similar circumstances can have opposite outcomes.
Under an Obama administration policy, some undocumented immigrants without criminal records and established families and careers in the US were given a temporary reprieve from deportation.
In February, the Trump administration issued new enforcement memos that made virtually anyone residing in the US illegally a priority for removal, removing such considerations.
The new policy leaves the decision who to deport to deportation agents and encourages a "case-by-case" evaluation. Such individual discretion can spur dramatically different results for immigrants with otherwise remarkably similar circumstances.
This week, we looked two cases that illustrate this effect, as well as some of the others making news for facing deportation.
Ms Castro, who was born in Mexico and lives in Lothian, Maryland, is the wife of an Army veteran. She has four children, including a disabled son, who are all US citizens.
She also has a 20-year-old removal order that places her on uncertain ground with immigration officials. Under the Obama administration, Ms Castro had been attending regular meetings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) since 2011 and even had a legal work permit.
When the Trump administration said that it would prioritise deporting anyone with a final order for removal, Ms Castro and her family dreaded their next appointment with immigration officials.
Despite her fears, Ms Castro decided to go to her appointment, hoping that the agency would allow her to stay with her family because she had no criminal record.
On 4 April, Ice granted Ms Castro a "non-detained order of supervision" which means she is required to report her status to immigration officials, said an Ice spokesperson.
Because of this agreement, she will be able to stay in the US for at least one more year until her next check-in with Ice.
Ms Castro's continued order of supervision "doesn't mean someone else in her exact same situation would be granted another year," Joshua Doherty, Ms Castro's lawyer says.
Maribel Trujillo-Diaz's case mirrors Ms Castro's in many ways. She is also a mother to four US citizens living near Cincinnati, Ohio. Under the Obama administration, she too had been attending regular meetings with Ice for several years and had been allowed to stay in the US with her family.
With no criminal record, Ms Trujillo-Diaz also obtained a legal work permit through US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Ms Trujillo-Diaz came to the US in 2002, but she first encountered Ice agents during a workplace raid of the Koch Foods factory where she was working in 2007, before she had her work permit.
She pursued an asylum hearing, as she had fled Mexico after gang members began targeting her family because her brother refused to join the gang, according to her lawyer, Emily Brown.
Ms Trujillo-Diaz's application for asylum was rejected, as was her appeal.
Despite a final order of removal issued in 2014, immigration officials had allowed Ms Trujillo-Diaz to live in the US with the understanding that she would check in with Ice once a year.
At her first check in since the Trump administration issued its new enforcement priorities, Ice agents told Ms Trujillo-Diaz to prepare for deportation proceedings. She returned for a second check in on 3 April, and again Ice agents told her to be ready to be removed from the US.
Two days later, Ice officers arrested her as she was leaving for work.
Ms Trujillo-Diaz is now in a detention centre in Louisiana, and a request for a stay in her case has been denied.
Ice has scheduled her deportation for 19 April, Ms Brown said.
Some of the reasons undocumented immigrants were not deported under Obama administration policy:
Ms Tichelman, a Canadian national, faces deportation after serving a two-year sentence in the Santa Clara County Jail in California.
In 2014, while on board a yacht after being hired as a prostitute, Ms Tichelman injected a 51-year-old Google executive with heroin, causing the man to accidentally overdose and die. She was convicted of felony involuntary manslaughter.
A judge determined that Ms Tichelman's crimes made her ineligible to remain in the US legally and issued an order for her removal on 6 April.
She will remain in Ice custody until arrangements for her deportation are finalised, an Ice spokesperson said.
Mr Ali, a resident of Portland, fled Somalia in 1996 as a seven year old. A year later, he had gained permanent legal status in the US.
According to Ice officials, Mr Ali has an "extensive criminal record" that includes two convictions for misdemeanour assault. None of his criminal charges have been for felonies.
Ice agents arrested Mr Ali while he was visiting a country courthouse to plead not guilty to a drink-driving charge.
The arrest inside the courthouse caused backlash from local immigration lawyers and advocates who worry that such arrests will discourage immigrants from seeking legal help.
Mr Ali remains in Ice custody in the Strafford County Correction facility in New Hampshire.
"I've been here my whole life, and they [are] kicking me out for this one charge," Mr Ali told the Bangor Daily News.
"If I go back to my country, they're going to pretty much kill me. I don't know [anything] about my country. I'm American. I consider myself American."
Beristain, in blue, has been in the US for 20 years
Mr Beristain, whose wife voted for Donald Trump, was deported on 4 April after his family and community in Indiana fought to keep him in the US.
The restaurant owner and father was removed from the US and dropped off in Juárez, Mexico last week, after living in the US for nearly 20 years.
He can apply to have the 10-year ban on entering the US after a deportation waived and try to gain legal residency, but the outcome of such a petition is uncertain.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39584494
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Ricky Burns loses WBA super-lightweight belt to Julius Indongo in Glasgow - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Scotland's Ricky Burns fails to unify the super-lightweight division as IBF and IBO champion Julius Indongo takes Burns' WBA crown on points.
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Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Scotland's Ricky Burns failed to unify the super-lightweight division as his WBA title was taken by IBF and IBO champion Julius Indongo in Glasgow.
Indongo, unbeaten in 21 fights prior to this unification contest, forced his fellow 34-year-old on to the back foot for much of the fight.
Burns rallied in the fifth and sixth rounds but the tall southpaw emerged a worthy winner on points.
That was reflected in the judges' scoring - 120-108, 118-110, 116-112.
"The better man won on the night, no excuses," said Burns. And no-one could argue.
• None What next for beaten Burns?
This was Burns' third fight at the Hydro and 13th at world title level, while Indongo - "on a mission" from Namibia's president Hage Geingob - was fighting overseas for only the second time as a professional.
On his first, in December, he knocked out IBF champion Eduard Troyanovsky in Moscow.
It was clear from early in Saturday's fight that Indongo would try to use his greater height and reach to throw jabs at Burns' head, and he did this to good effect in the opening three minutes.
Burns has started slowly in recent fights before finding his rhythm, and the Namibian began much the livelier, bouncing around the centre of the ring against a hesitant home fighter.
Indeed, he looked to have won the first four rounds by dint of his greater work-rate and accuracy, though Burns was beginning to connect with his right.
With their man having 47 bouts under his belt to Indongo's 21, the home fans may have wondered if the tactic was to use his experience to let his opponent tire himself out.
Rounds five and six signalled an improvement in Burns' form, with his aggression rewarded as Indongo was forced backwards for the first time.
The lead Indongo had built was thanks to the accumulation of cleaner shots rather than anything that badly hurt the Coatbridge fighter in his 17th year as a professional.
And, though Burns was still strong in defence, by the time the ninth round had ended he must have realised he was trailing heavily on the scorecards.
His task in the remaining three rounds had to be to stop Indongo for the first time in his nine-year career.
That looked increasingly unlikely as he struggled to get inside to inflict damage. Too often he was over-stretching to land a meaningful shot, and when he did trouble Indongo his opponent snuffed out the attack with footwork and by holding on.
It leaves Burns' dreams of a further unification bout against Terence Crawford in Las Vegas in tatters, though it would be a surprise if he was considering retiring.
'He was better than we thought' - Burns
Ricky Burns: "He was so so awkward. He was a lot better than we thought he was going to be. He can hit as well.
"I'm going to have all the doubters saying I'm finished - but I'll come again.
"He started the rounds fast and the height and reach advantage meant he was out of my distance."
Julius Indongo: "I feel very proud. My home crowd are watching. It's for the whole of Africa. This is so great.
"I am very proud for opening my doors and now the world can see me."
"It was pretty one-dimensional from Ricky Burns, who was trying to jump in from long distance on a fighter who was bigger, with longer arms and a heavy puncher.
"Indongo was dominant, knew what he was about, kept swinging dangerous bombs and didn't let Burns in at all.
"In the last two rounds, when he had the match won, he still wanted to dominate, and like true champions, wanted to get rid of his challenger.
"He ticks all the right boxes. It is going to take a high-level operator to cope with him. I think Terence Crawford is that kind of guy."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/39611722
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Track Cycling World Championships: Katie Archibald takes women's omnium gold - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Britain's Katie Archibald wins gold in the women's omnium at the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.
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Last updated on .From the section Cycling
Britain's Katie Archibald won gold in the women's omnium at the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.
The 23-year-old Scot held off Australia's Amy Cure in the points race for her first individual world title.
Britain now have three medals following a silver for Elinor Barker and bronze for Chris Latham in the scratch races.
World Championship debutant Ryan Owens reached the quarter-finals of the men's sprint as fellow Briton and Olympic champion Callum Skinner crashed out.
• None The omnium explained and other mysteries
Archibald won Olympic gold alongside Barker, Laura Kenny and Joanna Rowsell Shand in the team pursuit at Rio 2016 and was world team pursuit champion in 2014.
But with defending world and Olympic omnium champion Kenny pregnant with her first child, Archibald was handed an individual spot and seized her opportunity.
"I feel really privileged to pull it off," she said. "It was an unbelievably grippy race, I really thought I'd lost it in the middle point but I pulled it out of the bag.
"It feels very strange, I'm used to having my girls, my team-mates, around me it's odd to celebrate by yourself but I'm looking forward to catching up with them at the hotel."
European champion Archibald won the first two events - the scratch race and the newly-added tempo race - and led by eight points at the halfway stage.
She finished fifth in elimination race as rival Cure took maximum points, meaning the two were level going into the final event.
Archibald edged two points clear before the final sprint of the points race, and put in a fantastic push down the final straight to secure victory.
It was her first individual success on a world stage and she has had to overcome multiple setbacks on her road to individual glory.
At the end of 2015, a motorbike accident forced her to withdraw from the 2016 World Championships in London and she was heavily criticised by ex-British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton.
In November last year, she fractured her wrist as she partnered Manon Lloyd to victory in the inaugural women's madison at the Track Cycling World Cup in Glasgow.
A wonderful performance. I thought she was completely spent in the closing stages; I genuinely didn't think that she had another sprint in her. But she just found something from somewhere to take the sprint from her rivals.
She knew she only had one effort, Cure went too early but nobody could manage the speed of Archibald's final dash.
Some of the big names are out of the British team but it's giving the younger riders a chance to shine and hopefully cement a place in the team come Tokyo 2020.
'I can't be too disappointed'
Earlier, Owens eased into Saturday's quarter-finals of the men's sprint. The 21-year-old, who travelled to Rio 2016 as a reserve, beat Hugo Barrette of Canada.
The 24-year-old Scot, who also won Olympic gold in the team sprint alongside Kenny and Phil Hindes in Rio, was beaten by Max Niederleg of Germany.
"The field were three or fourth tenths ahead of my pace and it makes it difficult when you come up against the second seed," Skinner told BBC TV.
"It's just a reflection of where we are. I can't be too disappointed."
In the men's individual pursuit, Matt Bostock and Andy Tennant finished 13th and 14th while, in the men's points race, Mark Stewart came seventh.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/39598821
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Ross Barkley: Sun suspends Kelvin MacKenzie over Liverpool article - BBC Sport
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2017-04-15
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Columnist Kelvin MacKenzie is suspended by the Sun after he expressed "wrong" and "unfunny" views about the people of Liverpool and Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
Columnist Kelvin MacKenzie has been suspended by the Sun after he expressed "wrong" and "unfunny" views about the people of Liverpool.
In an article published on Friday, MacKenzie compared Everton midfielder Ross Barkley, who has a grandfather born in Nigeria, to a "gorilla".
He said men with similar "pay packets" in Liverpool were "drug dealers".
Merseyside Police are investigating whether his comments constitute a "racial hate crime".
The Sun apologised "for the offence caused" and added that it was "unaware of Barkley's heritage".
In a statement of his own, MacKenzie reiterated the latter sentiment, adding that it was "beyond parody" to describe the column as "racist".
In the article, which has since been taken off the newspaper's website, former editor MacKenzie said:
• None Barkley is "one of our dimmest footballers", also calling him "thick".
• None His eyes make him "certain not only are the lights not on, there is definitely nobody at home", adding: "I get a similar feeling when seeing a gorilla at the zoo".
• None Men with similar "pay packets" in Liverpool are "drug dealers" and in prison.
Alongside the article, the Sun published adjoining pictures of Barkley and a gorilla on their website with the caption "Could Everton's Ross Barkley represent the missing link between man and beast?" The picture was later removed.
Barkley, 23, was punched in a Liverpool bar last weekend in what his lawyer described as an "unprovoked attack".
Police confirmed they were investigating the "full circumstances".
'It's a smack in the face to our city'
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said he had reported the article to the police for a "racial slur".
Speaking to BBC Sport, Anderson said: "Not only is it racist in a sense that he is of mixed-race descent, equally it's a racial stereotype of Liverpool. It is racist and prehistoric."
Anderson later tweeted to say he had given a statement to Merseyside Police and reported the article to the Independent Press Standards Organisation.
And in a further tweet, he said that "ignorance simply cannot be used as a defence" and that apology is "simply not enough".
Furthermore, he criticised Everton for their failure to respond by banning Sun journalists from Goodison Park, calling it "a smack in the face to our city".
And he asked fans attending Saturday's Premier League meeting with Burnley to turn their backs on the pitch at 15:06 BST in protest.
MacKenzie was editor of the Sun when it published a front-page article headlined 'Hillsborough: The Truth' in the aftermath of the 1989 disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's football stadium.
The article claimed Liverpool fans were to blame for the tragedy, in which 96 people died. MacKenzie apologised in 2012.
Last year's landmark Hillsborough inquests recorded that the 96 fans were unlawfully killed and that Liverpool supporters at the FA Cup semi-final had played no role in causing the tragedy.
This Saturday, 15 April, marks the 28th anniversary of the disaster.
Burnley midfielder Joey Barton, who was an Everton youth player, tweeted: "Those comments about Ross Barkley, a young working-class lad, are disgusting. Then add in the fact he is mixed race! It becomes outrageous."
Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore tweeted: "Implied racism at its finest."
Football's equality and inclusion organisation Kick It Out said they had received complaints about the "insulting and offensive" comments.
"We will be contacting Everton and the PFA about their responses in providing support to Ross and his family," they said.
BBC Sport has contacted Everton and Barkley's representatives for comment.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39603942
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