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Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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In the early hours the government won its vote on the EU withdrawal bill. But ministers can't relax, not for a moment.
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UK Politics
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In the early hours the government won its vote on the behemoth-like task of transferring laws incorporated from the EU on to a new statute book.
In the end Labour doubts and a strict hand from the Tory whips won the day and the numbers were more comfortable than the squeaky feeling at the start of the political week suggested.
But ministers can't relax, not for a moment.
Tories with unease about the withdrawal bill have already drawn up proposed amendments, changes to the bill and here's the rub - they say they already have at least a dozen colleagues signed up, including four influential chairs of Westminster committees.
Why does that matter? Remember, the government's majority (with the DUP) is so slim only six grumpy Tories can sink a bill.
So a dirty dozen, as ministers might see them, can force them to change their position or lose.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41237745
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Hurricane Irma: Quarter of Florida Keys homes 'destroyed' - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Hurricane evacuees return to scenes of devastation as President Trump prepares to visit Florida.
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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. The Florida Keys was one of the US areas hit hardest by Irma
Hurricane Irma evacuees are returning to scenes of devastation in the Florida Keys with reports of a quarter of homes destroyed on the low-lying islands.
The latest images show homes torn apart after the storm pummelled the region with winds of up to 120mph (192km/h).
Search and rescue teams are moving through the worst affected areas with emergency supplies of food and water.
US President Donald Trump will visit Florida on Thursday to view the damage caused as Irma tore through the state.
It will be Mr Trump's third trip related to hurricanes in two weeks and he will be joined this week by his wife Melania, the first lady.
Residents of Vilano Beach in Florida are returning to find their homes destroyed
About 90,000 residents returning to the Florida Keys and Miami Beach have been warned that most fuel stations remain closed and mobile phone signals are patchy.
Some residents were allowed into the towns of Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada on Tuesday morning.
"Returning residents should consider that there are limited services. Most areas are still without power and water," authorities in Monroe Country said.
Irma is being linked to at least 18 deaths in the US since it struck as a category four storm on Sunday, including 12 in Florida.
Nearly 6.9 million homes were left without power in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama.
Parts of the Florida Keys, the low-lying islands which bore the brunt of Hurricane Irma, have since reopened.
But entry is being restricted to residents and business owners as work continues to clear roads and check the state of bridges linking the islands.
Some of the trailer properties in the Florida Keys were completely torn apart
Residents have been returning to mobile homes that have been torn apart, boats grounded in the streets and debris piled high after police lifted roadblocks on Tuesday.
Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long said at least 25% of homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65% suffered significant damage.
"Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted," he said.
Florida Governor Rick Scott said: "So many areas that you would never have thought have flooded, have flooded."
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The storm earlier left a trail of destruction in the Caribbean, where nearly 40 people were killed.
The BBC's Laura Bicker and Paul Blake on Tortola island say many neighbourhoods have been flattened, and their residents can be seen trying to cook and clean amidst the rubble.
Many homes in the main town, Road Town, have been badly damaged.
Hurricane Irma also battered Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
European countries have been boosting relief efforts in their Caribbean territories amid criticism over their response to Hurricane Irma.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who is visiting French islands that took the full force of the storm, said his government had responded with "one of the biggest airlifts since World War Two".
UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson is also due to visit the British Virgin Islands and Dutch King Willem-Alexander is touring the Dutch side of St Martin, where at least four people were killed.
"I have seen proper war as well as natural disasters before, but I've never seen anything like this," King Willem-Alexander told Dutch radio on Tuesday.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's correspondents in the region chart Irma's path of destruction
Irma killed at least 23 people in the three countries' overseas territories. The victims include 10 on the French island of St Barts and on the French part of St Martin.
Thousands of people ignored calls to evacuate last week, and clung on in the dangerously exposed islands during the storm.
Teams are still working to clear Highway 1, the road connecting most of the inhabited islands, and bridge inspections are continuing.
The US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has arrived off Florida and other navy ships were in the area on Tuesday to help distribute food to the Keys and evacuate residents.
In Jacksonville, Mayor Lenny Curry said 356 people had to be rescued amid record-high storm surges and flooding, the Florida Times-Union reported.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Aerial footage shows the damage to homes in Orlando, Florida
Other parts of the state escaped the storm lightly compared to the Caribbean islands.
"The storm surge flooding in Miami is a mere fraction of what would have happened if the core of the storm had been further east," Rick Knabb, former director of the National Hurricane Center, said in a tweet.
Another hurricane, Jose, has been weakening over the western Atlantic, with swells due to affect parts of Hispaniola (the island split into Haiti and the Dominican Republic), the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, later this week.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41247063
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Police pay: Was the prime minister right about salaries? - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Theresa May says an officer starting in 2010 would, by now, have received a 32% increase in pay in real terms.
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UK Politics
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The claim: A police officer starting in 2010 would, by now, have received a 32% increase in pay in real terms.
Reality Check verdict: That's right, but it is not representative of police officers as a whole.
Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons on Wednesday that a police officer who had started in 2010 would, by now, have seen their pay rise by 32% in real terms.
Now, 32% over seven years is 4% a year, which sounds high. The Police Federation initially said her statement was a "joke" and a "downright lie".
Downing Street gave the figures behind the claim. A typical police officer joining the force in 2010 would have earned £23,259, taking home £17,972 after deductions for tax and national insurance.
After seven years' service, the same officer would earn £35,478, taking home £27,405 after tax and national insurance. This is an increase of £9,433.
When you adjust for inflation, the increase is just under £6,000, which is indeed an increase of 32%.
The Police Federation confirmed that a new officer starting in 2010 would have earned about £23,000, rising to about £35,000 today.
But the Police Federation stressed that this was not a typical example and that those who had started in 2010 made up less than 4% of all officers.
It also said that most officers were now at top of their pay scale and so would not benefit from progression payments.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41252392
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Government wins committee change vote - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Opposition MPs said the motion was a "constitutional outrage" but it was backed by 320 to 301.
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UK Politics
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Controversial changes giving the government control of key Parliamentary committees have been agreed by MPs.
The vote gives the Tories a majority on the public bill committees in charge of the detailed scrutiny of legislation.
Opposition MPs said it was a "constitutional outrage" and a "power grab" from a government lacking a Commons majority.
But ministers said they should be able to make progress on getting legislation through Parliament.
Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said the Tories had a "working majority" due to their arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party, which was agreed after June's general election left the UK with a hung Parliament.
The public, she said, "rightly has an expectation for government to deliver business through the House in a timely fashion".
But Labour's Angela Eagle said the DUP deal did not entitle the government to "gerrymander the selection of standing committees in order to make life easier".
The SNP's Pete Wishart said it was an "incredible, totally undemocratic power grab from a government that does not command a majority in this House".
The DUP had already confirmed it would be supporting the government in Tuesday night's vote, and the motion was passed by 320 votes to 301.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41245903
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South Africa student fights to keep thesis during robbery - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Noxolo Ntuli had the only copy of her master's thesis on a hard drive in her bag.
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Africa
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ms Ntuli was attacked as she returned from work
The prospect of losing the only copy of her master's thesis during a robbery was just too much for one South African student to bear.
Noxolo Ntuli, 26, grappled with armed attackers to hold on to it during the incident in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
"There's no way I will let them take it," she told the BBC.
But she also said her actions were "not very smart" and advised others to give robbers what they ask for. "You can always write again," she said.
Ms Ntuli, a medical scientist at the National Health Laboratory Service, had her molecular zoology master's thesis on a hard drive when a car drew up beside her and two men jumped out, one brandishing a gun.
But while the attackers were able to take her lunch bag, Ms Ntuli refused to let go of the bag containing the hard drive.
"I was thinking about my masters. I'm almost done with what I'm writing, there's no way I will let them take it," she said.
"I was just pulling myself into a ball. They were trying to put me in the car, I think, but I made myself so heavy that they just gave up."
During the attack, one of the robbers pressed a gun to her head and repeatedly threatened to shoot her.
The alleged robbers were later arrested
But Ms Ntuli held on. Losing the thesis would have meant having to ask for an extension until next year, she said.
"I really want to finish so badly, I want to do it now. Nothing got in the way of that, but it was very dangerous," she said.
Footage of the struggle was recorded on security cameras attached to nearby homes in the suburb of Auckland Park.
Ms Ntuli has since backed up her work and said she would not advise others to follow her example.
"You can always write again if you are worried about your work," she said.
The alleged robbers were later arrested and found to be in possession of a gas gun.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-41257344
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Storm Aileen: Winds bring travel disruption - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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Gusts of 70mph cause damage to parts of the UK, bringing down trees and cutting power.
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UK
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The worst of Storm Aileen's winds have rattled off towards the Netherlands, says BBC Weather's Matt Taylor
Strong winds have caused travel disruption and power cuts across parts of the country.
Aileen, the first named storm this season, has now eased away but caused problems on rail routes and left thousands without power overnight.
The Met Office said gusts of 74mph hit Mumbles Head in south Wales, with southern parts of northern England and the north Midlands also badly affected.
Lorry drivers and motorcyclists were warned of the risk of being blown over.
Throughout the morning, rail travellers faced slower journeys and cancellations, but services now seem to be returning to normal.
On its website, National Rail said falling trees and large branches, power cuts and debris blown onto the tracks had caused difficulties.
By lunchtime, only Southern rail and Thameslink were still reporting difficulties. Other services were also affected during the morning rush hour.
A car is dented by a branch in Sheffield
In south Wales, the Taff Trail, between Radyr and Cardiff, takes a battering
At its height, the storm cut power to 60,000 homes in Wales - some for 10 minutes, others for several hours.
Western Power Distribution, which provides electricity to homes in south and west Wales, said all affected areas, from Pembrokeshire to Monmouthshire, were back up and running.
Northern Powergrid, which covers north-east England, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, said 7,400 homes had lost power overnight, and it was still working to restore power to 800 customers.
Electricity North West said about 1,300 homes were affected.
Police forces in Staffordshire, Cheshire and Gloucestershire all reported trees being blown over by the winds during the night.
The Met Office said there was no connection between high winds in the UK and the recent extreme weather in the Caribbean and the US.
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The UK's weather system came from the north, in the Atlantic, the Met Office added.
By late morning, all weather warnings had been lifted and Storm Aileen was heading for the Netherlands.
The Environment Agency lifted two flood warnings, but 7 alerts remain in place for areas where flooding "is possible".
By contrast, on this day last year, the temperature in Gravesend, Kent, reached 34C (93F).
Storm Aileen is the first storm to be given a name since they were announced for the 2017/18 season.
Other names on the list include Dylan, Octavia, Rebecca and Simon.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41241014
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Rohingya crisis: How much power does Aung San Suu Kyi really have? - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What is the relationship between the leader, her government and the military?
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World
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For 20 years the military and Aung San Suu Kyi were bitterly opposed, but must work together
The huge exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar's Rakhine State, and the brutal tactics of the security forces, have stirred up strong condemnations of the Nobel Laureate and de-facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has defended her government's actions as a legitimate response to terrorism. As it emerges Ms Suu Kyi will miss next week's UN General Assembly debate, how much power does she really have inside her country?
Aung San Suu Kyi's formal title is "state counsellor". It is a position she created to get around a clause in the constitution - aimed specifically at her - that bars anyone with a foreign spouse or foreign children from the presidency.
Ms Suu Kyi is by far the most popular political figure in Myanmar and she led her National League for Democracy (NLD) to a landslide victory in the 2015 election. She makes most of the important decisions in her party and cabinet. She also holds the position of foreign minister.
In practice, the actual president, Htin Kyaw, answers to her.
The constitution was drafted by the previous military government, which had been in power in one form or another since 1962. It was approved in a questionable referendum in 2008. At the time, it was not recognised by the NLD or Ms Suu Kyi.
It was the key to the military's declared plan to ensure it still had a guiding role in what it called a "discipline-flourishing democracy". Under it, the armed forces are guaranteed one quarter of the seats in parliament.
Although Htin Kyaw is Myanmar's president, in practice he answers to Aung San Suu Kyi
The military retains control of three vital ministries - home affairs, defence and border affairs. That means it also controls the police.
Six out of 11 seats on the powerful National Defence and Security Council, which has the power to suspend democratic government, are military appointees.
Former military personnel occupy many top civil positions. The military also still has significant business interests. Defence spending is still 14% of the budget, more than health and education combined.
For more than 20 years the military and Aung San Suu Kyi were bitterly opposed. She spent 15 of those years under house arrest.
Ms Suu Kyi addresses supporters after her temporary release from house arrest in 1995
After the election, they had to find ways to work together. She had the mandate. The generals had the real power.
They still disagreed on important issues, like amending the constitution, which she wants, and the pace of peace talks with the various ethnic armies that have been fighting the government from Myanmar's borders for the past 70 years.
But they agreed on the need to reform and improve the economy and the need for stability - "rule of law" is Ms Suu Kyi's favourite mantra - at a time when rapid change has been stirring up social tension.
But on the issue of the Rohingya, Ms Suu Kyi must tread carefully. There is little public sympathy for the Rohingya.
Much of the Burmese population agrees with the official view that they are not citizens of Myanmar, but illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many Rohingya families have been in the country for generations.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Who are the Rohingya?
That hostility has increased markedly after the attacks on police posts by militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in October last year and this August.
Inside Rakhine State, the local Buddhist population are even more hostile. Conflict between them and the Rohingya - who they refer to as Bengalis - goes back many decades.
Many Rakhine Buddhists believe they will eventually become a minority, and fear that their identity will be destroyed. The Rakhine nationalist party, the ANP, dominates the local assembly, one of the few not controlled by Ms Suu Kyi's NLD.
Gen Mn Aung Hlaing has made it clear he has little sympathy for the Rohingyas
There is strong sympathy for them among the police - almost half of whose officers are Rakhine Buddhist - and the military.
The military is the real power in northern Rakhine State, along the border with Bangladesh, where access is tightly controlled.
And the powerful armed forces commander, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, has made it clear he has little sympathy for the Rohingya.
He has referred to the current "clearance" operations there as necessary to finish a problem that dates back to 1942, a period of shifting front lines between Japanese and British forces that saw bitter communal fighting between Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists.
The military sees itself now as fighting an externally funded terrorist movement, a view shared by much of the public.
It seems to be applying its "four cuts" strategy, used in other conflict areas, in which soldiers destroy and terrorise communities thought to be giving support to insurgencies.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Who is burning down Rohingya villages?
The media is also a factor. One of the biggest changes in Myanmar over the past five years has been the proliferation of new, independent media outlets, and the dramatic growth of mobile phone and internet use, in a country that scarcely had landlines a decade ago.
But very few media have shown what is happening inside Bangladesh, or the suffering of the Rohingya. Most have focused instead on displaced Buddhists and Hindus inside Rakhine, who are far fewer in number. The popularity of social media has allowed disinformation and hate speech to spread quickly.
So Aung San Suu Kyi has very little power over events in Rakhine State. And speaking out in support of the Rohingya would almost certainly prompt an angry reaction from Buddhist nationalists.
Whether, with her immense moral authority, it might start to change public prejudice against the Rohingya, is an open question. She has calculated that it is a gamble not worth taking. She is known to be very stubborn once she has made up her mind.
Ms Suu Kyi has been widely condemned internationally over the Rohingya crisis
Is there a risk that the military might step in and replace her, should she challenge what they are doing in Rakhine? They have the power to do so. In the current climate, they might even have some public support.
But it is worth remembering that the current power-sharing arrangements with the NLD are more or less what the military was aiming for when it announced its Seven Stage Roadmap to Democracy back in 2003.
At the time this was dismissed as a sham. But it turns out Myanmar's political development over the next 14 years followed that roadmap closely. Even after its own political party was trounced in 2015's election, the military remains by far the most powerful institution in the country.
Only this time, it has Aung San Suu Kyi as a shield, to be battered by the international outcry over its actions.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-41243635
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Booker Prize: Novelist and bookshop worker Fiona Mozley on shortlist - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Fiona Mozley, who works part-time in a York bookshop, is one of six novelists up for the prize.
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Entertainment & Arts
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fiona Mozley says she finds selling customers her own novel "strange and embarrassing"
A 29-year-old writer who works part-time at a bookshop in York has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for her debut novel.
Fiona Mozley, the second-youngest author to be up for the prestigious literary prize, wrote Elmet while commuting between London and York.
Emily Fridlund, another debut novelist, is also up for the £50,000 award.
So are fellow Americans Paul Auster and George Saunders, Britain's Ali Smith and Pakistan-born Mohsin Hamid.
The winning book will be announced on 17 October.
In a nutshell: A young man growing up in New Jersey in the 1950s and 60s leads four parallel lives.
Judges' comment: "An ambitious, complex, epic narrative... that is essentially both human and humane."
In a nutshell: A 14-year-old girl living on a commune in the US Midwest befriends some new arrivals.
Judges' comment: "A novel of silver prose and disquieting power that asks very difficult questions."
In a nutshell: A boy and girl fall in love, move in together and consider leaving their unnamed country.
Judges' comment: "A subtle, compact piece of writing about a relationship, its blossoming and digressions."
In a nutshell: A boy remembers his life in a house his father built with his bare hands in an isolated wood.
Judges' comment: "Timeless in its epic mixture of violence and love, it is also timely... with no punches pulled."
George Saunders (above), Lincoln in the Bardo
In a nutshell: President Abraham Lincoln goes to a Georgetown cemetery to grieve following his young son's death.
Judges' comment: "Daring and accomplished, this is a novel with a rare capriciousness of mind and heart."
In a nutshell: A dying 101-year-old man is watched over by his closest and only friend.
Judges' comment: "An elegy for lost time, squandered beauty but also for the loss of connections."
Mozley, a PhD student at the University of York's Centre for Medieval Studies, is one of three female writers on a shortlist evenly divided between the sexes.
The author told Woman's Hour the issue of home ownership was on her mind while writing her novel, which takes its title from the old name for the West Riding in Yorkshire.
Veteran writer Paul Auster has been shortlisted at the age of 70 for 4 3 2 1. The book, which runs to 866 pages, is Auster's first novel in seven years.
Hamid is best known for his 2007 novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Smith, who has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, makes the cut again with Autumn, the first in a quartet of books named after the seasons.
Hamid, shortlisted in 2007 in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is once more in contention thanks to Exit West.
US writer Saunders, best known for his short stories and novellas, is shortlisted for Lincoln in the Bardo, his first full-length novel.
The shortlist is completed by History of Wolves, the first novel from US writer Fridlund.
The prize has been open to American writers since 2014 and was awarded to its first American winner, Paul Beatty, last year.
Auster's 4 3 2 1 took him more than three years to write
This is a really interesting shortlist - a good mix of established literary names and newer voices.
At the top of the tree is Paul Auster, the oldest and most high-profile author. 4 3 2 1 took him three-and-a-half years to write, working six-and-a-half days a week.
Do not be put off by its 866 pages. It is a richly rewarding and entertaining novel, though probably easier to follow in physical book form than on an E-reader.
He is joined by his compatriots George Saunders and Emily Fridlund. Those who feared American dominance of the prize may raise eyebrows that half the authors on this year's list are from the United States. No room, yet again, for Indian, African or Australian writers.
It is a huge achievement for Fiona Mozley to be shortlisted for her debut novel. It is a coup too for her editor Becky Walsh. It was the first book she acquired when she joined the small imprint JM Originals.
Four-times nominated Ali Smith is catching up with the perpetual Booker bridesmaid Beryl Bainbridge, who was shortlisted five times without winning.
Her novel Autumn is a timely book - a response, in part, to Brexit - while Mohsin Hamid's Exit West is also topical, imagining a world where mass migration is the norm.
This is the fourth time Ali Smith has been shortlisted for the prize
Baroness Lola Young, chair of the 2017 judging panel, said the six shortlisted novels "collectively push against the borders of convention".
She said: "The emotional, cultural, political and intellectual range of these books is remarkable, and the ways in which they challenge our thinking is a testament to the power of literature."
Her fellow judges include novelist Sarah Hall, artist Tom Phillips and the travel writer Colin Thubron.
The shortlist was whittled down from a longlist of 15 novels that was announced in July.
Sebastian Barry, Arundhati Roy and Zadie Smith are among the big-name writers whose works were on the longlist but have not made the final cut.
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-41251661
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The mothers who infiltrated an online paedophile group - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A group of Indonesian mothers identified and then reported a paedophile Facebook group.
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Asia
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When a group of Indonesian mothers sharing pictures of their children stumbled upon news of an online paedophile group earlier this year, they decided to infiltrate it to expose those behind it. The BBC's Christine Franciska followed the story.
Capturing and posting the funny, sweet and memorable moments of children on social media is common for many proud parents in Indonesia and around the world.
Risrona Simorangkir has been uploading photos of her seven-year-old daughter and toddler son on Facebook ever since they were born.
But one day in March she stumbled across a blog about a group that shares child abuse pictures.
"This [Facebook] group has thousands of members, they share pictures and videos. Some of them said they produce the materials by themselves - taken from neighbour's children or even relatives," the article said. The group's members called their victims "lolly" - short for lollipop candy.
Mrs Simorangkir, 29, warned her friends immediately and they decided to find out more by joining the group - which the BBC is not naming.
"We have an online community for mothers talking about parenting, life, and anything. After I posted [the article], some of us tried to get into [the group] to collect evidence and we discussed the findings," says Mrs Simorangkir.
"I joined the group for only four hours. I could not stand it. The content was so horrible. They are not human [for posting like that]," says Mrs Simorangkir.
"They talk about how you can approach and seduce a kid to have sex with you, what you can do to make sure those kids don't say anything to their parents, and how you can have sex with children without making them bleed."
"One person told a story about his victim and how he has been doing it to his nephew. It was terrifying."
Michelle Lestari, Mrs Simorangkir's friend, says they began to save and screen capture evidence, including conversations, administrators' profile links, and even phone numbers.
"I reported it to the police," said Mrs Lestari.
Other parenting groups had been reporting the group to Facebook, said Ms Lestari, and the social media giant took it down. A Facebook spokesperson also told the BBC that further investigations were conducting into the individuals.
The case was heavily discussed in the local media and the efforts of the parents have been widely praised. "The power of mothers," said one Twitter user.
This group had more than 7,000 members, who produced and distributed at least 400 videos and 100 photos of child abuse, Indonesian police said after the arrests.
The police said that they were co-ordinating with United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as they suspected some members were linked to international networks.
"One of the suspects joined 11 WhatsApp groups that linked 11 countries. They exchange pornographic material between countries. Indonesia sends one and someone in North America sends another," said Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono to the BBC.
Child sex abuse online is a real threat in Indonesia, but society's reaction in tackling online child sex abuse is still too lax, said the head of Indonesia's Child Protection Commission (KPAI) Arist Merdeka Sirait.
"In Indonesia's cultural context, people still think that paedophilia or sexual abuse is only related to penetration -committing rape. They have to realise that grabbing a child's bottom is also considered molestation, for example," said Mr Sirait.
Last year, the country's parliament passed controversial laws authorising chemical castration and execution for convicted paedophiles.
But what Mrs Simorangkir and many internet users have done, by infiltrating the paedophile group, is dangerous because they are exposing their own identities, activists say.
"It is the equivalent of neighbourhood patrols, which is great but you need to realise the danger," said the executive director of Indonesia's civil society organisation ICT Watch Donny B.U.
"It is best if you just report it to the police. What you can do is be actively involved in building digital literacy in your community and take preventive action by being knowledgeable about data privacy," he explains.
And this kind of action won't necessarily solve the larger problem, he says. "This particular case is just the tip of the ice berg. People easily found it because they used Facebook as a platform, which is quite amateur. There are more threats in the dark web, encrypted."
Mrs Simorangkir says she doesn't regret what she did.
Her four-hour experience in the paedophile group makes her more afraid of the people around her family, but it also "opened my eyes to be more careful and teach my children about their private parts".
"But I still have this disgusted feeling when I remember the kinds of thing they posted."
She says she has now changed her Facebook setting to private mode. But before that, "I uploaded maybe thousands of pictures of my children online," she says.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39300320
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Hope Hicks named White House Communications Director - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The long-time Trump aide will be the fourth person to fill the White House role.
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US & Canada
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Twenty-eight-year-old interim White House Communications Director Hope Hicks will serve in the role on a permanent basis.
The longtime Trump aide is the fourth person to fill the position, replacing Anthony Scaramucci, who was fired in July after just 10 days on the job.
Ms Hicks has served as President Donald Trump's strategic communications director and campaign press secretary.
The ex-Trump Organization employee is one of his most trusted aides.
As White House communications director she will be responsible for shaping the administration's message - although in a less visible way than press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The appointment of Ms Hicks - a former Ralph Lauren fashion model - comes after a summer of staff shake-ups at the White House.
Mr Scaramucci was fired after he raised eyebrows for calling a reporter to give a profanity-laced tirade against his own colleagues.
President Trump's chief of staff, Reince Priebus, and spokesman, Sean Spicer, both left their posts after Mr Scaramucci's appointment.
General John Kelly, who replaced Mr Priebus, sacked Mr Scaramucci after he was sworn in.
Mike Dubke, who was first appointed as communications director, resigned in May.
Mr Spicer also filled in as communications director while the post was open over the summer.
Reporters say mean things about Hope Hicks. They complain that she's not qualified for the job, and they say she's in over her head.
It's true that she did not come from the Washington establishment or the political world. A former Ford model, she started working for Trump in 2015.
Still, she has something valuable - the president's trust. Among those in the West Wing, she's the closest to Trump and knows how he wants to achieve his goals.
That seems like a good background for someone who's handling his communications strategy.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41245690
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Frank Vincent: Sopranos and Goodfellas actor dies at 78 - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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The actor, who also starred in several Scorsese films, had complications during heart surgery.
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US & Canada
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Frank Vincent, seen here in a party for his book in 2006, reportedly had heart complications
Veteran American actor Frank Vincent, known for roles in the TV series The Sopranos and several Martin Scorsese films, has died at the age of 78.
He had complications during open heart surgery in a New Jersey hospital, TMZ reports.
In HBO's The Sopranos, he portrayed gangster Phil Leotardo, the nemesis to the main character Tony Soprano.
He also played tough guys for Scorsese in Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Casino.
He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts and was introduced to show business at an early age by his father, an amateur actor.
He made his acting debut in 1975 in Death Collector, by director Ralph DeVito, his website said. Scorsese saw his work and cast him for Raging Bull, in 1980.
During his 41-year career, Vincent often played mafia characters, most notably in Goodfellas, in 1990, when he portrayed Billy Batts, who famously ended up beaten to death by Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito.
Vincent was also a musician, comedian, producer and author - he wrote A Guy's Guide to Being A Man's Man.
Actor Vincent Pastore, who co-starred with Vincent in The Sopranos, said in an email quoted by website The Blast: "We lost a great character actor and great man... May he always stay in our memory."
• None The Sopranos - the new Shakespeare?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41262423
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'Despicable' wedding planner jailed for £130k fraud - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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He took money from 39 couples for bookings at an Angus castle before fleeing to Ibiza.
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Tayside and Central Scotland
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Craig Williamson used some of the money to pay off gambling debts
A wedding planner who defrauded £130,000 from couples booking ceremonies at an Angus castle has been jailed for 30 months.
Craig Williamson, 42, diverted money from 39 couples who had booked weddings at Guthrie Castle into his own accounts before fleeing to Ibiza.
The castle's owner had to cover the cost of refunding the couples defrauded by Williamson.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told previously that some couples' events were double booked and others left in limbo weeks before their weddings.
Williamson had used some of the money to finance his gambling habit.
One bride paid £19,000 to Williamson and found out her wedding was not on the books only a week before the event, but it went ahead after the castle's owner Dan Pena met the cost.
Guthrie Castle's owner had to cover the cost of refunding the couples Williamson defrauded
Williamson was hired as castle and estate manager in November 2014.
In early April this year he told colleagues he was going to visit his father in Glasgow, but did not return their calls.
A missing person's inquiry was launched and it was established Williamson had withdrawn £6,000 in cash and boarded a Eurostar train to Paris before travelling to Ibiza.
The court heard that Guthrie Castle stopped taking bookings for weddings at the venue after December 2017 as a result of Williamson's fraud.
Williamson, a prisoner at HMP Perth, admitted a charge of fraud committed between July 2015 and April 2017.
Solicitor Billy Rennie, defending, said Williamson had developed a gambling addiction which led to the "initial temptation".
Mr Rennie said: "The losses began and he ended up robbing Peter to pay Paul and ends up in this sorry mess.
"He realises it will be a different world facing him on his release from prison."
Sheriff Alastair Carmichael told Williamson: "It was despicable to take money in good faith from people who made wedding bookings.
"One couple have had to move their wedding to 2019.
"As a result, a successful business of 12 years has been closed down due to this crime.
"Jobs have been lost and couples left in doubt about weddings."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-41253633
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Nick Clegg reveals son's cancer diagnosis - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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Nick Clegg and his wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, speak about their son's treatment for blood cancer.
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UK Politics
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nick Clegg tells ITV's Lorraine Kelly that advances in chemotherapy are remarkable "but it is still a very brutal thing"
Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his wife, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, have spoken for the first time about their son's treatment for cancer.
Antonio, now 15, was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma last September.
After treatment at University College Hospital in London, including chemotherapy, he is now in remission.
His parents told ITV's Lorraine programme how telling their eldest son he had blood cancer was one of the "toughest things" the family had faced.
"It is like a word bomb - certainly if you are not familiar with it, as we were not," said Mr Clegg.
"Your initial reaction, as we found, was like any mum or dad - it is irrational but you almost have this physical wish to take it off your kid and take it yourself."
Ms Gonzalez Durantez said Antonio had gone to his GP after finding a small lump on his neck, which had not been particularly painful.
"We were very lucky that he [the GP] spotted that it could be something more serious," she told host Lorraine Kelly.
"We dealt with it by carrying on and trying to keep things as close to the routine that we had beforehand and also being very open.
"The day that he was told, and I think that probably us telling him is one of the toughest things that we have ever done, the following day he went to school, he stood up and he told everybody, 'I have cancer.'
"That's the way he dealt with it, but other children and other families deal with it in a different way, you have to find your way."
Mr Clegg said: "His lymphoma was all over his chest and his neck and he gets tested every three months, I think for a couple of years, so there is always a slight spike of anxiety with us every three months, but basically he is on the road to recovery.
"Interestingly, the thing he was most concerned about was sort of falling behind his classmates. His anxiety was more about keeping up with his classmates, keeping up at school. So, it was very impressive actually."
He added the couple's other children, Alberto and Miguel, had taken the news well.
"Once they heard from us that he will be OK, again they are just so, so practical - just, 'OK then,'" he said.
Mr Clegg praised the way Antonio had handled the diagnosis and treatment, which resulted in severe side effects including hair loss, vomiting and fatigue.
The Cleggs are trying to raise awareness of the charity Bloodwise, which launched a report on Wednesday urging more research into less toxic treatments for children with cancer.
Ms Gonzalez Durantez said: "[With] chemotherapy, they poison your body so that you can get cured and it's a shock to see it happen.
"We do realise how incredibly lucky we are both with the fact that the treatment has worked and how well he seems."
Dr Alasdair Rankin, Bloodwise's director of research, said: "The reality is that one in five children diagnosed with the most common type of leukaemia still do not survive, and that those who do often experience devastating side effects both during and after treatment.
"This is simply not good enough. We need to save every child's life, make the treatment process much kinder and give them the life they would have had without cancer."
• None The teenagers growing up with cancer
• None Sailing to a better future after cancer
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41253123
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Man-of-war spotted along coast in Cornwall and Wales - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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The RNLI closed Perranporth beach to swimmers because of large numbers of jellyfish-like creatures.
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Cornwall
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A Portuguese man-of-war, which was one of a group of six, washed up at Gwithian
Large numbers of potentially fatal Portuguese man-of-war have washed up on a Cornish beach, prompting its closure.
RNLI lifeguards erected do not swim red flags at Perranporth beach earlier because of the "unusually large number" of the creatures.
The jellyfish-like organisms, which have long purple tentacles, have also been seen in Wales this month, says the Marine Conservation Society (MCS).
With mild sea temperatures of 16C there were fears of swimmers being stung.
The RNLI said it placed red flags at Perranporth beach between 10:00 and 13:30 BST to signal that the water was out of bounds, while lifeguards took advice on the level of danger to beachgoers.
Man-of-war were spotted at Newgale, Pembrokeshire, on 8 September and the next day on beaches near the holiday destination of Newquay.
A leatherback turtle was found washed up at Portreath
They have also been seen at Porthmelon Beach on the Isles of Scilly and on the Cornish beaches of Portheras Cove and Summerleaze, Widemouth, Perranporth, Hayle, Holywell Bay and Praa Sands.
Six were also reported at Gwithian.
Dr Peter Richardson from the MCS said a man-of-war's tentacles, which are usually about 10m (30ft) long, "deliver an agonising and potentially lethal sting".
"They are very pretty and look like partially deflated balloons with ribbons but picking one up could be very nasty," he said.
The man-of-war retain their sting when they are wet, even if they look dead, he warned.
He advised anyone who was stung to get the tentacles away from the body as soon as possible.
The man-of-war can be tempting to children because it looks like a deflated balloon
Leatherback turtles have also been washed up, Dr Richardson said.
A leatherback turtle was found at Portreath on 9 September and another one has been reported in Pembrokeshire.
The NHS recommends using tweezers or a clean stick, and gloves if possible, to remove man-of-war tentacles.
If symptoms become more severe, or a sensitive part of the body has been stung, you should seek medical help.
The MCS is asking people to report any sightings which could rise as man-of-war are driven across the Atlantic by recent storms.
The RNLI said it wasn't uncommon to see man-of-war after windy conditions
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-41237286
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What's it like to start reading at 60? - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Adult learners in Kenya get to read their first words, after a library opens in their village.
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Business
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Florence Cheptoo began to learn to read when her grandchild brought home a library book
What's it like to read your first words at the age of 60? What difference does it make after a lifetime of getting by without reading?
If you think about how much written information we consume every hour - going through emails at work or flicking through messages on mobile phones - it's hard to imagine being without these ways of communicating.
But Florence Cheptoo, who lives in an isolated rural village near Chesongoch, in Kenya, has turned her first page as a 60-year-old.
Her path to reading began when her granddaughter brought home books from primary school.
The school had been given a small lending library of books, through the Book Aid International charity that distributes books donated by UK publishers.
But many of the parents and grandparents of the schoolchildren were themselves unable to read, and teachers began literacy lessons for adults.
Florence, forwarding her answers to the BBC through a local librarian, said she now felt "part of those who are in the modern world".
Adult literacy classes began after the library was opened
When she had been younger, there had been no support for her to become literate, she said.
Her parents had wanted her to marry and to get a dowry and stay tending livestock - and there had never been a chance to learn.
"My parents did not value the need for education," she said.
It meant that she couldn't sign her name or read any legal documents or check if she was being cheated over payments.
Now, Florence has begun reading and lists the practical differences it has made in her life.
She can read the information on medicine she is prescribed, she can look at newspapers and find out about the outside world and take charge of her own personal records.
Florence says that learning to read has brought more control over her life, as well as pleasure
There are things she said she particularly enjoyed: reading storybooks for the first time, getting letters from her family and being able to read the Bible for herself.
The world of maps has been opened up. "I like knowing where other parts of the country are located," she said. And she has been getting books on agriculture "so that I can learn how to farm".
When her grandchildren get school reports, she can see how they are progressing.
It had given her a new confidence, she said, letting her feel more knowledgeable and able to have an opinion alongside people, either literate or illiterate.
"I am able to identify what is good and bad in society."
Florence wasn't the oldest member of this adult literacy class.
There was also a man in his 80s. His eyesight wasn't very good and he didn't really think he would become much of a reader - but he told the teachers that he wanted to be seen regularly at the class to send a message to the rest of the village that this was important.
Ideas for the Global education series? Get in touch.
The Book Aid International charity distributes a million free books a year, new from publishers, with further grants to buy books locally and to train librarians and teaching staff.
Most of the books go to projects in Africa, where they are shared in libraries.
The village is in a remote part of Kenya
Emma Taylor, from Book Aid International, has visited the scheme in Kenya where Florence is learning and says there is a great demand for learning there - which the library helps to serve.
"It's an incredibly powerful experience," she said, seeing people reading for the first time.
"It opens the door to so many different things that we take so much for granted."
Setting up libraries in deprived communities had a particular value, she said.
In the slums of Nairobi, she said, libraries had become a place of safety for young people, where they could feel protected, and then could begin exploring the books around them and opening up their minds to ideas.
"There's something really special about a library. It's not just putting books in a room," she said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41204118
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Brexit: Next round of talks delayed a week 'for consultation' - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The latest negotiating round is postponed by a week to give both sides "flexibility to make progress".
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UK Politics
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David Davis and Michel Barnier are currently meeting once a month
The next round of Brexit talks has been postponed by a week to "allow more time for consultation".
The fourth round of UK-EU negotiations, due to begin on 18 September, will start on the 25th instead.
The government said a short delay "would give negotiators the flexibility to make progress".
There had been been speculation that the talks could be moved to accommodate a major speech by Prime Minister Theresa May on the issue of Europe.
"The UK and the European Commission have today jointly agreed to start the fourth round of negotiations on September 25," the Department for Exiting the European Union said in a statement.
"Both sides settled on the date after discussions between senior officials in recognition that more time for consultation would give negotiators the flexibility to make progress in the September round."
Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, has emphasised the need to be flexible while also warning that the "clock is ticking" if an agreement is to be reached by the time the UK is scheduled to leave at the end of March 2019.
Talks between the two sides, led on the British side by Brexit Secretary David Davis, have been taking place once a month since June.
The UK is keen to intensify their pace and open discussions on the country's future relationship with the EU, including trade, as soon as possible.
At the moment, the focus is on core separation issues, including the rights of EU nationals in the UK and British expats on the continent, the future of the Irish border, and financial matters.
Speculation about the delay was fuelled when European Parliament chief negotiator Guy Verhofstadt claimed an "important intervention" would be made by the PM "in the coming days", although this has not been confirmed by Downing Street.
Reuters also quoted diplomatic sources as suggesting that there could be a hold-up in the talks to allow for an event in the UK's "domestic political calendar".
The PM's loss of her Commons majority following June's snap election caused turmoil in the party and has made her more vulnerable to possible rebellions over key Brexit legislation.
Mrs May - who has insisted her Brexit strategy is unchanged and that she wants to stay as leader for the "long term" - is due to address the Conservative Party conference at the start of October.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41246573
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Hurricane Irma: UK pledges extra £25m for relief effort - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The prime minister made the announcement amid criticisms of the UK's response to the disaster.
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UK
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: "You can't but be affected by the scale of the devastation"
The UK is to give an extra £25m of funding to help with the recovery effort following Hurricane Irma, Theresa May has said.
The prime minister pledged the extra money in the Commons amid criticism of the government's response to the disaster in the Caribbean.
The announcement came as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrived in the region to visit affected communities.
He has defended the UK's response saying it was "extremely fast".
The extra funding will be in addition to the £32m already pledged by the government.
Mr Johnson said the UK would be there for Anguilla for "the long term" after the island's "hellish experience".
His trip follows criticism from Caribbean residents and senior MPs that the UK's response was too slow.
Mr Johnson visited Anguilla's worst hit areas, before heading to the neighbouring British Virgin Islands.
Anguillan chief minister, Victor Banks, said the visit by Mr Johnson "sends a very positive signal to Anguillians that the British are serious about their response to this very severe hurricane".
But he said the money offered by the government so far was "not enough".
"I am talking about real capital infrastructure development by the British government.
"At the end of the day, the £10-15 million which is going to come to us is not going to be sufficient," he said.
The former attorney general of Anguilla, Rupert Jones, told the Guardian the £32m hurricane relief fund was a "drop in the Caribbean Sea".
The foreign secretary visited the British Virgin Islands where communities suffered devastating damage
Irma caused widespread damage across the island of Anguilla
Royal Marines clearing up the damage at Princess Alexandra Hospital on the island of Anguilla
Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) are among 14 British overseas territories which are all self-governing but the British government is responsible for their defence and security, with a duty to protect them from natural disasters.
Anguilla suffered extensive damage, and at least one person there has been confirmed dead.
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Mr Johnson visited Anguilla's Princess Alexandra Hospital, which suffered 60% damage, where Royal Marines have been helping to clear up and make repairs.
He said: "You can't be but affected by the scale of devastation the people of Anguilla have endured."
Mr Johnson called it the "biggest operation our armed forces have conducted since Libya".
The Foreign Office said that more than 1,000 UK military personnel in the region helping with the relief effort, with 200 more arriving the next few days.
Speaking at the home of Anguilla governor Tim Foy on Tuesday, Mr Johnson praised the community's response to the hurricane.
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He added: "Talking to you all, it is clear this place has been through an absolutely hellish experience, and it is no doubt at all that you need help with power generation, with getting the hospital back up and running, getting the airport back up and running, and schools properly set. We are here to help."
Hundreds of UK troops have been sent to the British Virgin Islands and Mr Johnson said more would be joining them.
"The military presence is really ratcheting up now," he said. "There were about 700 troops in the region, that has now gone up to 1,000. It will go up to 1,250 in the course of the next few days."
The Royal Navy's HMS Ocean is on its way from Gibraltar to the Caribbean loaded with emergency supplies including timber, buckets, bottled water, food, baby milk, bedding and clothing.
So far, 40 tonnes of UK aid have arrived in the region, including over 2,500 shelter kits and 2,300 solar lanterns, the Ministry of Defence said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. British holidaymakers describe how they coped with Hurricane Irma when it hit the US
Meanwhile, British holidaymakers have begun to return to the UK from Florida, where around 10 million people were still without power on Wednesday morning.
Julie Doyle landed at Manchester Airport after a flight from Orlando. She said her hotel, among others, had been ordered to accept dogs along with evacuated residents.
"Our hotel was full of dogs because people with dogs who'd abandoned their homes brought them all to our hotel, which was so bizarre," she said. "So you'd go down to reception and there was just dogs, everywhere."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41251594
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Officer probed over Rashan Charles police chase death - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Rashan Charles died as he tried to swallow a package during an arrest by police in east London.
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London
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Rashan Charles died after being apprehended by police in Dalston
A Metropolitan Police officer is being investigated for gross misconduct over the death of Rashan Charles in London, the police watchdog has said.
Mr Charles, 20, died after being apprehended by police officers in Dalston, east London, on 22 July.
He became ill after trying to swallow an object and was later pronounced dead in hospital.
The Met Police said it was vital to establish the truth of how Mr Charles died as quickly as possible.
A post-mortem examination found a package containing "a mixture of paracetamol and caffeine" in Mr Charles' throat.
Mr Charles' death led to angry clashes in Hackney with protesters hurling fireworks and bottles at riot police, blocking parts of Kingsland Road and setting mattresses alight.
On Wednesday the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it had formally notified the police officer that he was being investigated for gross misconduct.
Violence broke out in Kingsland Road during a protest over the death of Mr Charles
IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts said: "The officer may have breached the police standards of professional behaviour regarding the detention and restraint of Rashan as well as how he dealt with Rashan's medical emergency.
"Our investigators have analysed the CCTV and body-worn video evidence we gathered and considered the officer's detailed statement as well as statements from other witnesses to the incident.
"We have also considered the relevant policies and procedures."
She added that while the IPCC investigation was moving into a new phase it did not "necessarily mean misconduct proceedings will follow".
In a statement the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said: "It is absolutely vital that the facts of what took place are thoroughly established as quickly as possible through an independent examination of all the available evidence.
"The thoughts of the MPS are with the family of Mr Charles at this incredibly difficult time for them.
"All police officers are fully aware that they will be asked to account for their actions. No officer is above the law and they would not wish to be."
The Met said the officer and other colleagues were fully co-operating with the IPCC investigation.
It added it was now reviewing what restrictions, if any, should be placed on the officer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41258009
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Serena Williams shares pictures of her new baby girl - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The 23-time Grand Slam winner uses social media to share first pictures of her baby girl.
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US & Canada
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Serena Williams posted the first picture of baby Alexis on Wednesday
Tennis star Serena Williams has posted the first photo of her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr on social media, almost two weeks after her birth.
Williams and her fiancé Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder, welcomed their little girl on 1 September at a clinic in Florida.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner shared a video clip on her Instagram Stories, Facebook and website.
Williams announced the name of her baby daughter on her Instagram Stories profile. She also shared a montage of memorable moments from her pregnancy, including winning the Australian Open while pregnant and her first ultrasound.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Reddit This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Serena Williams and her fiancé used social media to welcome their daughter to the world
Her Instagram post has attracted more than 270,000 likes within an hour of posting and her tweet was retweeted more than 1,300 times (at time of writing).
Earlier this year, Williams won her 23rd grand slam tournament at the Australian Open while pregnant.
According to her coach, she hopes to return to court in time for next year's Australian Open.
In December 2016, Williams used the social platform Reddit to announce that she is engaged to its co-founder, Mr Ohanian.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41258642
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Ian Paterson: Victims of disgraced surgeon get £37m - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Disgraced breast surgeon Ian Paterson carried out hundreds of botched operations on his patients.
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Birmingham & Black Country
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About 750 victims of rogue breast surgeon Ian Paterson are to be paid compensation from a new £37m fund.
Private healthcare firm Spire has agreed to pay £27.2m, with £10m coming from Paterson's insurers and the Heart of England NHS Trust.
Paterson was found guilty of 17 counts of wounding with intent in April after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court.
In August, he had his 15-year jail term increased to 20 years after the Appeal Court ruled his term was too lenient.
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The payments concern patients treated at private Spire Healthcare hospitals in the West Midlands, who Paterson worked for when he carried out hundreds of botched operations.
The fund is intended to halt legal proceedings by patients against the group and account for any new claims.
Heart of England NHS Trust was part of the civil action because patients said it failed to notify Spire of Paterson's dangerous methods discovered while working for Solihull Hospital.
The NHS has already paid out £9.49m in damages, as well as £8.31m costs, to hundreds of others treated by Paterson, 59, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
Ian Paterson's victims fall broadly into two camps. Those who underwent unnecessary surgery, and those who did need operations but were left prone to cancer returning because of the untried technique he used.
The criminal trial dealt with cases from the first group - nine women and a man who were either subjected to intrusive surgery or had their breasts removed despite there being no evidence that there was anything wrong them.
The civil case which was settled today involved the many others whose cases did not come to court, as well as those who were treated using something called a cleavage-sparing operation in which tumours were removed but potentially cancerous tissue was left behind.
The technique was something that was only ever performed by Paterson and never properly tested.
The surgeon's trial heard he wildly exaggerated his patients' cancer symptoms, leading them to have several needless operations which left them scarred for life physically and emotionally.
Fellow medics at Solihull Hospital first raised concerns about his conduct in 2002 when it emerged Paterson, who grew up in County Down, Northern Ireland, was carrying out unregulated 'cleavage-sparing' mastectomies on cancer patients, which left them at higher risk of the disease returning.
Despite three reports into his actions, he carried on working until 2011 when he was suspended by the trust.
The payout concerns patients treated at private Spire Healthcare hospitals in the West Midlands
Hundreds of Paterson's private patients were due to take their case for compensation to the High Court in October.
In its statement, Spire said the agreement was conditional on all parties agreeing, and the court approving, the terms of a formal court order.
It said the order would also "provide for a portion of the fund to be set aside to provide compensation for any former patient of Mr Paterson who has not yet brought a legitimate claim against Spire Healthcare and the other defendants, but does so prior to 30 October 2018."
Simon Gordon, interim chief executive at Spire, said: "Earlier this year a criminal court decided that Ian Paterson must bear responsibility for his actions, finding him guilty of assaulting a number of his patients.
"He behaved with clear criminal intent and abused the trust of those who looked to him for his care and relied upon his expertise."
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Mr Gordon added: "However, whilst nothing diminishes Mr Paterson's responsibility for his actions, these events took place in our hospitals, and this should not have happened.
"We accept that better clinical governance in the private hospitals where Mr Paterson practised, as well as in his NHS trust, might have led to action being taken sooner, and it is right that we have made a material contribution to the settlement announced today.
"We have apologised unreservedly to Mr Paterson's patients for their suffering and distress and we would like to repeat that apology."
Emma Doughty, a specialist medical negligence lawyer from Slater and Gordon, which represents more than 100 of Paterson's victims, said no financial settlement would heal the physical and mental scars inflicted on their clients but added they were relieved to have won their battle for justice.
Lawyers Irwin Mitchell, which represents 30 patients, echoed the sentiment but said questions still remain about the redress that private healthcare patients have if they are the victims of negligent treatment.
It also said the sum set aside by Spire is likely to be less than the patients will need.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41255962
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EU: Juncker sees window of opportunity for reform - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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European Commission head says the wind is back in Europe's sails to build a stronger union.
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Europe
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Brexit is "a very sad and tragic moment in our history"
The "wind is back in Europe's sails", European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said in his annual state of the union address.
He told the European Parliament there was a "window of opportunity" to build a stronger, more united union - but it "wouldn't stay open forever".
Mr Juncker said Europe's economy was "bouncing back" and the EU had to move beyond Brexit.
He called for the union to embrace reforms and forge new trade deals.
Last year, the EU was "battered and bruised by a year that shook our very foundation", Mr Juncker said - facing the challenges of Brexit, the migrant crisis and the rise of populism.
In his speech of more than an hour, during which he switched from English to French to German, Mr Juncker said member states "chose unity" and the union was "slowly but surely gathering momentum".
The speech was markedly different from recent years, says the BBC Europe correspondent Damian Grammaticas. Gone was the sense of crises besetting the EU - instead Mr Juncker mentioned Brexit just once in an address focused on a post-Brexit vision for the EU.
Addressing the UK's decision to leave the EU on 29 March 2019, he said that "we will always regret this" and, departing from his script, he added "and you will regret it soon, too". "We will move on because Brexit isn't everything. It isn't the future of Europe - it's not the be all and end all."
He called for a summit in Romania on 30 March 2019 for decisions to be taken on a "more united, stronger and democratic Europe".
The state of the union address gives the Commission's president a chance to outline the political objectives of the EU executive.
Mr Juncker hailed a European Union where membership of the banking union, eurozone and the Schengen border-free zone would be standard.
On trade, Mr Juncker hailed recent deals with Canada and Japan, and said deals with Mexico and South America were in the pipeline.
Trade talks should open with Australia and New Zealand, he said, and be completed by late 2019. But he said there had to be reciprocity in trade deals: "We have to get as much as we give."
And he promised new openness in trade negotiations and - amid concern about Chinese investment in strategic European assets - said investors in the EU would be screened.
Mr Juncker praised Europe's progress on migration, saying it protected its external borders in a more efficient manner. He highlighted Italy's "perseverance and generosity" in helping to manage irregular migration from Africa.
But work needed to be done opening legal migration routes, ending "scandalous" conditions in Libya and investing in Africa.
Mr Juncker said the EU must embrace the value of equality - between member states, workers and consumers.
Referring to growing controversy over different food standards across the union, Mr Juncker said he "would not accept that in some parts of Europe, people are sold food of lower quality than in other countries, despite the packaging and branding being identical".
Europe had to pursue a "credible enlargement project to the countries of the western Balkans", and it was high time for Romania and Bulgaria to be brought into the EU's border-free Schengen zone, along with Croatia when it was ready, he said.
Mr Juncker joined the chorus of criticism against Turkey's imprisonment of journalists
But he sternly reminded member states that final jurisdiction in the union belonged to the European Court of Justice, and said the rule of law was not optional. That might have been a tacit reference to countries such as Poland, which have defied judicial decisions from the EU on a number of issues.
In the EU "the rule of law, justice and fundamental rights" took priority, he said - and "that rules out EU membership for Turkey for the foreseeable future".
He demanded that Ankara free imprisoned journalists and stop personal attacks on European leaders.
"Stop calling our leaders fascists and Nazis!" he demanded, to applause from the assembly.
Mr Juncker also called for a number of key reforms to the union's organisation.
He suggested his own role of Commission president should be merged with that of the Council president, and elected following a "pan-European campaign".
This proposal, he added, did not "target in any way" the work of his "excellent friend" Donald Tusk - the current incumbent of the Council presidency. Any attempt to merge the two roles would require a change to EU treaties.
The Commission leader also proposed the creation of a Europe-wide finance minister, enabling deeper integration of the eurozone.
In response, Denmark's Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he agreed with Mr Juncker that there should not be treaty changes. "No new grand projects or institutional discussions," he tweeted.
But the role of the Council president was important, he said, and needed as a voice of member states.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41251914
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Public pay: What will unions do next? - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A behind-the-scenes look at the TUC conference where talk of illegal strike action loomed large.
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UK Politics
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As this year's TUC conference draws to a close, counter-intuitively the government has forged a high degree of unity within the union movement.
Expectations on the lifting of the pay cap were raised, then dashed, when the awards to police officers were above the pay cap but palpably below inflation. The unions feel they are winning the argument on pay after seven years of restraint.
But there is less unity over how to respond if the government fails to use its new flexibility to award bigger increases next year or if any increases come at the expense of existing departmental budgets rather than from the Treasury.
So the unions will be poring over the small print of the November Budget.
They agreed this week to push for a 5% increase for public service workers and to co-ordinate strike action if necessary. But scratch beneath the surface and there are significant tactical differences.
First there is Len McCluskey's oft-repeated call for illegal industrial action. He first advanced the case for this in 2015 when the then majority Conservative government pushed ahead with plans to increase the threshold for strike action.
But there was, to put it mildly, huge frustration from other union leaders when he reminded shop stewards at a meeting open to the public and the press on Sunday that he had changed his union rule book to allow members to strike outside the law.
Both the BBC and Sky reported this. But the story, Lazarus-like, rose again when Len McCluskey warmed to his theme in a pre-recorded interview for the Today programme two days later.
The reaction in Brighton from senior union officials ranged from groans - "he plays into the stereotype of a union leader" to frustration - "talk of this is a diversion from our agenda" - and to anger "he was just worried he wasn't getting enough media... I'm extremely angry". ("extremely" is a polite form of the word that was used).
But however unwelcome his intervention, the question is whether there is a realistic prospect of illegal action.
TUC sources put the likelihood between "zero and nothing".
What's significant is that other union leaders every bit as left-wing as Len McCluskey - and maybe even more so - are not singing from the same hymn sheet. Sure, they want the union laws scrapped. But they believe the level of frustration amongst their members over pay restraint would mean the government's higher thresholds for industrial action would be exceeded.
The left-led civil service union the PCS will hold a consultative ballot next month to test the water. And some union leaders fear their funds could be sequestered if the McCluskey rhetoric ever became reality. So it fails the cost/benefit test.
They want the focus to remain on the pay issue, not illegality. Indeed one union leader refused all media bids for interviews yesterday in case his appearances were dominated by questions about illegal strikes rather than public sector pay.
Frances O'Grady said co-ordinated strike action was a "last resort"
However, the second option - co-ordinated legal action, last carried out in 2011 - is real.
The PCS, GMB, and the Fire Brigades Union, amongst others, met to discuss this privately here at the TUC yesterday.
There is anger that the 55% of public service workers not covered by Pay Review Bodies might get left behind.
Co-ordinated action is unlikely to begin until early next year - once the unions have assessed the generosity or otherwise of the budget and further tested the mood of their members.
But while co-ordinated action is the official policy of the TUC, its general secretary Frances O'Grady stressed to me that this was very much "a last resort".
And a long-standing official in one of the big public service unions was cautious about co-ordinating action with other unions and extremely sceptical it would happen at all.
Indeed some unions - and one big public sector union in particular - favour a more subtle option. Pleased as they are with the Corbyn-led Labour Party's willingness to support co-ordinated strikes, the focus of their lobbying efforts are Conservative MPs.
They see Tories who heard voters' frustration with pay restraint on the doorstep at the election as potential allies. The unions were delighted when some Conservatives who had worked in the public services or the military before entering Parliament spoke out in favour of lifting the pay cap and they feel they can pile more pressure on backbenchers to in turn pressure the government to make further concessions.
Combined with a public campaign, they feel this might be more effective than asking already hard-pressed workers to lose pay by going on strike.
But it's easy to overdo the differences. The unions do stand united in their message that pay restraint has run its course and this week's announcements seem only to have strengthened their resolve.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41252658
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Watchkeeper drones crash in sea off Wales, MoD confirms - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The British Army drones were lost in the Irish Sea earlier this year.
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Mid Wales
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The aircraft is capable of transmitting high definition images - day or night
Two multi-million pound British Army drones crashed after taking off from a base in mid Wales, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.
The unmanned Watchkeeper aircraft were lost in the Irish Sea earlier this year, leading commanders to temporarily ground the entire fleet.
Flight trials resumed at Aberporth Airport in Ceredigion in early July.
The crashes are the latest in a series of accidents and delays to have hit the Army's new spy planes.
The MoD ordered 54 Watchkeepers in 2005 as part of an £847m deal.
Originally, it was hoped they would be in service by 2010.
A recent report from the UK infrastructure and projects authority said the project had already cost £1.1bn.
Delays have been blamed on technical and safety issues and a lack of trained personnel.
The MoD said despite the crashes, it hoped to bring the aircraft into full service by the end of the year.
A spokesman said: "Inquiries into the specific incidents are ongoing as they look to learn all they can from the events".
A demonstration was held outside the airport on Wednesday
The Watchkeeper has proved controversial and protests have been held at Aberpoth Airport by peace campaigners.
Harry Rogers, who runs Drones Campaign Network Cymru, is concerned about their safety.
He said: "There's been two previous incidents, one crashed into the runway about three years ago and another one crashed into the road outside the base and hit a parked car. No one was in the car but there could have been.
"The main reason people are opposed to drones in this area is the noise and the surveillance issue. People are worried about their privacy."
But business owner Derfel Thomas said he had "benefitted business wise" from the airport.
"We've sold them specially-built trailers and we maintain their tractor. Across 12 months we do a fair bit with them," he said.
"We have to support anybody that creates work."
The aircraft operates at altitudes of up to 16,000ft (4,876m) and can stay in the air for 16 hours
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-41259087
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Hurricane Irma: UK's aid budget cannot be spent on overseas territories - BBC News
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2017-09-13
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Britain's Caribbean islands are too rich to qualify for development resources, the BBC has learned.
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UK
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The army has been landing aid vehicles on Anguilla's Sandy Bay Village beach
The UK's £13bn aid budget cannot be used to help the British overseas territories hit by Hurricane Irma, the BBC has learned.
Under international aid rules, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands are considered too wealthy to qualify for assistance.
Instead, the UK's emergency relief will have to be funded by various budgets from across government.
The government has pledged £57m so far to help with recovery efforts.
The Department for International Development denied that its response to the crisis had been affected by any budgetary considerations.
In a statement it said: "This is an unprecedented disaster. It is absolutely right that the UK responded immediately to the people affected.
"This has been our primary focus and continues to be our priority. We are looking at how the current overseas aid rules apply to disasters such as this one."
There are very strict international rules about what officially counts as foreign aid.
These are agreed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, of which Britain is a member.
And these rules make clear that only the poorest countries can receive what is known as official development assistance or ODA.
The OECD confirmed that Anguilla, Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands do not qualify for this official aid. Their national incomes are too high.
The Royal Marines have been helping to repair damage at the Princess Alexandra hospital in Anguilla
One well-placed minister told me this made it harder for the government to raise the funds needed - and he claimed five times as much money would have been available if the official pot of aid could have been used.
"These millions (announced by the government) are non-ODA," he said. "Therefore they come from rather scanty resources.
"This great pot of ODA, necessary for development, needs to be spent on crises like this and we have to find a way of doing it."
The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla and promised £25m more relief money - on top of the £32m already being spent in the region.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson: "You can't but be affected by the scale of the devastation"
The Department for International Development insisted that the fact that the territories were not eligible for official development assistance had not affected the UK's emergency relief.
And officials categorically denied that five times as much money would have been available if ODA could have been used.
A DFID source said: "Claims that we could have provided five times as much money are absolute nonsense. These are British people on British territories and in times of crisis we stand by them.
"Absolutely nothing held us back in sending help. Our response was based on need alone."
The problem for the future is that a lot more money is going to be needed to help the long-term reconstruction of the three territories and that will put a huge strain on government budgets if official aid cannot be used.
The MoD says it is funding its response from cross-government funds.
In Haiti, many roads were blocked or damaged by the storm, hindering recovery operations
It has also emerged that the group of charities that form the Disasters Emergency Committee are refusing to launch an emergency appeal for the three British territories.
The committee said that the scale of the damage on the islands did not justify an appeal.
In a statement, the DEC said: "Many of the islands that have been affected are supported by wealthy nations such as the UK, France and the US, and those governments are providing the assistance needed.
"The DEC and its members have been closely monitoring poorer islands such as Haiti, but the current assessment is that the scale of the long-term damage to infrastructure and livelihoods is not at the level which justifies DEC members collectively appealing to the UK public for funds."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41258435
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Myanmar conflict: Fake photos inflame tension - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Images spread on social media are confusing the facts about the escalating conflict in Rakhine state.
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Asia
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This photo is from Bangladesh in 1971 but is being shared on social media to describe Rohingya people in Myanmar as terrorists
A recent surge in violence in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine state has been accompanied by a slew of misleading images being shared on social media.
Photos and video purporting to be from the conflict have been circulated widely.
Much of it is gruesome and inflammatory, and much of it is wrong.
Deep-seated mistrust and rivalry between Rohingya Muslims and the majority Buddhist population in Rakhine have led to deadly communal violence in the past.
The Rohingya have faced decades of persecution in Myanmar where they are denied citizenship.
WARNING: This article contains images some people may find upsetting.
Information is very sketchy and journalists have very limited access to this region.
Even those who have managed to reach the area have found that the volatile situation and intense hostility towards the Rohingyas makes it very difficult to gather information.
Here is what we know about what is happening in Rakhine:
On 29 August, the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister, Mehmet Simsek, tweeted four photographs, urging the international community to stop the ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas.
His post was retweeted more than 1,600 times, and liked by more than 1,200 readers.
But he was quickly criticised about the authenticity of the photographs.
Three days after his tweet, with many people challenging the images, Mr Simsek deleted it.
The BBC has blurred parts of these images because they are too distressing to show
The first photograph, showing a number of bloated corpses, has been the hardest to track down.
A number of Burmese who have challenged Mr Simsek for the tweet have suggested they are victims of the devastating Cyclone Nargis in May 2008.
Others suggested they are victims of river boat accidents in Myanmar.
No similar photographs can be found related to those events.
But the image does appear on a several websites dated last year (we have not linked to these sites due to the graphic content).
This suggests the image is not from the recent violence in Rakhine state.
The BBC has ascertained that the second photograph, of a woman mourning a dead man tied to a tree, was taken in Aceh, Indonesia, in June 2003, by a photographer working for Reuters.
The third photograph, of two infants crying over the body of their mother, is from Rwanda in July 1994.
It was taken by Albert Facelly for Sipa, and was one of series of photos that won a World Press Award.
It has also been difficult to track down the fourth image, of people immersed in a canal, but it can be found on a website appealing for funds to help victims of recent flooding in Nepal.
There is now a frenzied social media war around the Rohingyas as the rival stories of each side battle for supremacy.
I have personally been bombarded with gruesome images, purporting to show victims of massacres, most of which are difficult to verify.
But some of the images are clearly wrong.
One image I was sent (below), supposedly showing Rohingya militants training with rifles, turned out to be a photograph of Bangladeshi volunteers fighting in the 1971 independence war.
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Earlier this year, when a team from the United Nations Human Rights Commission carried out research into alleged human rights violations in Rakhine state, it refused to use any photographs or video it had not taken itself, because of the problem of authenticating such material.
Their report gives meticulous details of their methodology.
Yet its findings, of "devastating cruelty" towards the Rohingya community, and actions it said could amount to crimes against humanity, were rejected by the Myanmar government, which then refused to issue visas for a fact-finding mission to Rakhine state.
The information we are piecing together from different sources on the current situation in Rakhine state paints a clear picture of a serious conflict, with large-scale human casualties.
There appear to have been atrocities committed by both sides, but the situation for the Rohingya, now under sustained attack by the security forces and armed civilians, appears to be far worse.
Obtaining an accurate picture of what is happening, though, will take a long time, given how little access neutral observers have to the area.
But the social media disinformation campaigns will harden attitudes on both sides, and quite possibly make the conflict worse.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41123878
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Would you take a ride in a pilotless sky taxi? - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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How Dubai may be winning the race to launch the first passenger-carrying flying drones.
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Business
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Dubai says it will begin a five-year test period of the Volocopter later in 2017
Tech companies are competing to develop the first viable passenger-carrying sky taxis, whether manned or pilotless, but how soon could these clever copters really be whizzing over our cities? And would you trust one?
Dubai is racing to be the first to put drone taxis in the air.
In June, its Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) signed an agreement with a German start-up Volocopter to test pilotless air taxis towards the end of this year.
The firm has received 25m euros (£22m; $30m) from investors, including German motor manufacturer Daimler, to develop the 18-rotor craft capable of transporting two passengers at a time.
The promotional video claims a top speed of 100km/h (60mph) and a maximum flight time of around 30 minutes, while nine independent battery systems ensure safety.
"You will never require" the onboard emergency parachute, Volocopter assures us.
Dubai's RTA has also teamed up with China's Ehang and is testing the drone maker's single passenger Ehang 184 "autonomous aerial vehicle".
The Ehang 184 will land automatically if any systems malfunction, its maker says
But the largest city in the United Arab Emirates faces stiff competition. It seems the whole world has gone gaga for air-cabs.
In February, ride-sharing giant Uber poached Nasa chief technologist Mark Moore and set him to work heading their Project Elevate - "a future of on-demand urban air transportation".
Airbus, the French aircraft maker, is also working on a prototype air taxi, Vahana, saying it will begin testing at the end of 2017 and have one ready by 2020.
They all spy opportunities in the air because traffic is becoming increasingly clogged on the ground. To take an extreme example, in Brazil's Sao Paulo, the world's 10th richest city, traffic jams average 180km (112 miles) on Fridays, and sometimes stretch to a barely credible 295km.
Yet the world's megalopolises are continuing to grow. No wonder air taxis are capturing people's imaginations.
The Airbus Vahana drone concept features rotors that can swivel for vertical and horizontal flight
Ehang carries a single passenger, Volocopter two, while City Airbus is looking at four to six. And each of these companies is pursuing electric propulsion, seeing it as greener and quieter.
The preferred horizontal rotor technology allows for vertical take off and landing, which makes sense in densely built up urban spaces. And composite materials, such as carbon fibre, help keep weight to a minimum.
But how will they work in practice and will they be affordable?
Uber's Mr Moore says the cost, with three or four passengers sharing a pool, will be "very similar to what an UberX [car] costs today".
More seriously, given the trade-off between power and weight, how long will these things be able to stay up in the sky relying on battery power alone?
Because if you don't like your mobile going flat, you definitely won't like it when your air taxi does.
With traffic jams like this in Sao Paulo, Brazil, it's no wonder sky taxis are an appealing concept
China's Ehang drone currently flies for 23 minutes. But US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulates stipulate that aircraft require a spare 20 minutes of fuel. So this would limit the drone to a commercially unviable three-minute flight.
"It's really a problem," says Janina Frankel-Yoeli vice-president of Israel's Urban Aeronautics, a firm taking a manned, combustion-engine approach to air taxis instead.
But Mr Moore argues that improvements in batteries are "on the track we need for them to be there in 2023", when Uber plans to have its first 50 air taxis ready.
The vastly increased investment in electric cars around the world is improving recharging speeds and capacity, he says.
"We don't need long range - 60 miles covers the longest trip across a city."
So rapid recharging capability is more important than range, he argues.
Airbus concept: Is it a car? Is it a plane? Could it be both?
Another solution may involve a two-part drone, with the batteries stored in a detachable base that can be swapped quickly between flights, says Tim Robinson, editor of the Royal Aeronautical Society's magazine, Aerospace.
"If there was a drone waiting and it had a flat battery I'm pretty sure it wouldn't let you take off, whatever your journey was," he says.
In other words, it's very unlikely that a sky taxi would run out of juice mid-flight. Once battery levels reached a critical point, the drone would make an emergency landing.
"I think we'll see multiple redundancy and back-up systems," says Mr Robinson, "like a ballistic parachute which would trigger automatically if it detected a descent rate beyond the parameters."
Another major challenge is managing the airspace and avoiding collisions.
Most major cities already have air corridors set up for helicopters that air taxis could use, Mr Moore says. But requesting to enter the corridors is currently done manually.
"You'd fly to the edge of that airspace, request to enter, and maybe be told 'Nope, hold, wait'," he says.
So Nasa's NTX research centre is exploring how flight corridors can work without voice interactions. This includes improved "sense-and-avoid" technology that will allow drones to communicate with other passenger aircraft to avoid one other.
But perhaps the biggest drag on sky taxi development is regulation.
While commercial aircraft are already "virtually capable of taking off, flying and landing on their own", says Ms Frankel-Yoeli, the US FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency will not allow them to fly without a pilot.
It may take a long time for autonomous drone tech to win regulatory - not to mention public - trust. And that's ignoring the potential complaints about the noise all these buzzing copters would make in our cities.
Uber's Mr Moore believes air taxis will have autonomous capability built in from 2023, but will have human pilots for the first five-to-10 years while enough data is collected to convince regulators that sky taxis are safe.
Meanwhile Dubai seems to be racing ahead, with ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum saying "by 2030, 25% of the mass transportation in the city has to be autonomous".
But Dubai is a harsh aviation climate, where "winds can go up to 40-50 knots [46-58mph], there's sand, there's fog", warns Mark Martin, an aviation consultant working there.
Perhaps Dubai is moving too quickly and should work more closely with the slower US and European regulators, he argues.
"If one crashes, who's ever going to take a drone?"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41088196
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Catching the hackers in the act - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A BBC experiment gains an insight into the range of attacks companies and other organisations suffer every day.
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Technology
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Cyber-criminals start attacking servers newly set up online about an hour after they are switched on, suggests research.
The servers were part of an experiment the BBC asked a security company to carry out to judge the scale and calibre of cyber-attacks that firms face every day.
About 71 minutes after the servers were set up online they were visited by automated attack tools that scanned them for weaknesses they could exploit, found security firm Cybereason.
Once the machines had been found by the bots, they were subjected to a "constant" assault by the attack tools.
The servers were accessible online for about 170 hours to form a cyber-attack sampling tool known as a honeypot, said Israel Barak, chief information security officer at Cybereason. The servers were given real, public IP addresses and other identifying information that announced their presence online.
"We set out to map the automatic attack activity," said Mr Barak.
To make them even more realistic, he said, each one was also configured to superficially resemble a legitimate server. Each one could accept requests for webpages, file transfers and secure networking.
The attack bots look for well-known weaknesses in widely used web applications
"They had no more depth than that," he said, meaning the servers were not capable of doing anything more than providing a very basic response to a query about these basic net services and protocols.
"There was no assumption that anyone was going to go in and probe it and even if they did, there's nothing there for them to find," he said.
The servers' limited responses did not deter the automated attack tools, or bots, that many cyber-thieves use to find potential targets, he said. A wide variety of attack bots probed the servers seeking weaknesses that could be exploited had they been full-blown, production machines.
Many of the code vulnerabilities and other loopholes they looked for had been known about for months or years, he said. However, added Mr Barak, many organisations struggled to keep servers up-to-date with the patches that would thwart these bots potentially giving attackers a way to get at the server.
"This was a very typical pattern for these automatic bots," said Mr Barak. "They used similar techniques to those we've seen before. There's nothing particularly new."
As well as running a bank of servers for the BBC, Cybereason also sought to find out how quickly phishing gangs start to target new employees. It seeded 100 legitimate marketing email lists with spoof addresses and then waited to see what would turn up.
Phishing gangs were quick to find new email addresses and start sending booby-trapped messages
After 21 hours, the first booby-trapped phishing email landed in the email inbox for the fake employees, said Mr Barak. It was followed by a steady trickle of messages that sought, in many different ways, to trick people into opening malicious attachments.
About 15% of the emails contained a link to a compromised webpage that, if visited, would launch an attack that would compromise the visitor's PC. The other 85% of the phishing messages had malicious attachments. The account received booby-trapped Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDFs and executable files.
We use a lots of honeypots in a lot of different ways. The concept really scales to almost any kind of thing where you can create a believable fake or even a real version of something. You put it out and see who turns up to hit it or break it.
There are honeypots, honey-nets, honey-tokens, honey anything.
When a customer sees a threat that's hit hundreds of honeypots that's different to when they see one that no-one else has. That context in terms of attack is very useful.
Some are thin but some have a lot more depth and are scaled very broadly. Sometimes you put up the equivalent of a fake shop-front to see who turns up to attack it.
If you see an approach that you've never seen before then you might let that in and see what you can learn from it.
The most sophisticated adversaries are often very targeted when they go after specific companies or individuals.
Mr Barak said the techniques used by the bots were a good guide to what organisations should do to avoid falling victim. They should harden servers by patching, controls around admin access, check apps to make sure they are not harbouring well-known bugs and enforce strong passwords
Criminals often have different targets in mind when seeking out vulnerable servers, he said. Some were keen to hijack user accounts and others sought to take over servers and use them for their own ends.
Honeypots have become a useful tool for security firms keen to understand hack attack techniques
Cyber-thieves would look through the logs compiled by attack bots to see if they have turned up any useful or lucrative targets. There had been times when a server compromised by a bot was passed on to another criminal gang because it was at a bank, government or other high-value target.
"They sell access to parts of their botnet and offer other attackers access to machines their bots are active on," he said. "We have seen cases where a very typical bot infection turns into a manual operation."
In those cases, attackers would then use the foothold gained by the bots as a starting point for a more comprehensive attack. It's at that point, he said, hackers would take over and start to use other digital attack tools to penetrate further into a compromised organisation.
He said: "Once an adversary has got to a certain level in an organisation you have to ask what will they do next?"
In a bid to explore what happens in those situations, Cybereason is now planning to set up more servers and give these more depth to make them even more tempting targets. The idea is, he said, to get a close look at the techniques hackers use when they embark on a serious attack.
"We'll look for more sophisticated, manual operations," he said. "We'll want to see the techniques they use and if there is any monetisation of the method."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40850174
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Houston floods: Uninsured and anxious, victims return home - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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As the water recedes in Houston, three families return home to survey the damage from Harvey.
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US & Canada
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"I don't know where to start" - Herman Washington and his wife Mary Woodard found their home wrecked
As the water recedes in Houston, three families return home to survey the damage from Hurricane Harvey. Like so many others, they have no flood insurance and no way of paying for repairs.
At each house it was the same: a neat line, visible from the street, that showed where the flood finally abated. The lines ringed the small, one-storey homes in northeast Houston, where three bayous wind through the streets carrying water to the bay. For many of those returning home for the first time, the line would separate what was salvageable from what was lost.
At James and Rose Hert's house, a few hundred yards from the Greens Bayou, the line crossed the screen door about 5 ft from the ground. The water came in so fast it was up to Rose's neck by the time they waded onto the front lawn on Saturday, she said. At 59, recently recovered from thyroid cancer, and with arthritis that forces her to walk with a cane, Rose can't move fast. Neither can James, who's 63 and has nerve damage to his right leg and partial vision in his left eye.
The couple first made their way to a neighbour's house, on higher ground, but that too filled with water. Eventually they were pulled from the flood by a man with a truck, who drove them to a bus which took them to the mass shelter at the downtown convention centre. "I was terrified for my life," said Rose. "But that man was like an angel sent from heaven."
Their small, two-bedroom house, part-clapboard and part-brick, was a wedding anniversary present for Rose, purchased 23 years into the marriage and paid for with nearly all the money they had. Rose called it her castle. With the money left over she bought furniture - two couches, an armchair, a wooden dining table and a new refrigerator.
The most important piece of furniture though was an old one - an antique secretary desk handed down through three generations of women in Rose's family. She planned to pass it on to her daughter. She cried at the shelter when she thought about it. She couldn't face going back to the house, she said, so when James returned for the first time on Thursday he went without her.
When he turned the key in the lock, the door wouldn't budge. It would be the same at other houses, the first sign that the furniture inside had been picked up by the water and soaked and dumped back down where it didn't belong. He couldn't have known, as he forced the door, that it was Rose's secretary desk in the way, toppled onto its back, one leg already broken, but the glass, miraculously, intact.
As the door inched open, the rank odour of the water hit. It had seeped into the couches and the carpets and pooled between the floorboards. Underneath the water line, the walls were stained and Rose's prize furniture lay tumbled about. The fridge was on its side, blocking off the kitchen. None of it was salvageable.
Above the water line, the couple's marriage certificate hung unscathed in a frame, alongside James's army discharge and diploma, and a picture of Rose's late mother. "I guess that's something," James said.
Earlier, at the shelter, as he kissed Rose goodbye, his eyes had filled with tears. He was not given easily to emotion, she said. Maybe for a two-tour veteran of Vietnam, with 12 years service, the flood did not seem too tough. Later, at the back of the house, where the water line was 7 ft high and the deck was caked in mud, he paused for a cigarette and stood in silence looking down towards the bayou.
"There's $20,000, $30,000 worth of damage here," he said, looking back. "We just don't have it. We don't."
James Hert bought a house to mark his 25th wedding anniversary. Two years later, he will have to sell
Insurance experts estimate that only about 20% of those in Houston's worst hit areas have flood insurance. The Herts don't have any. The premiums were too high, they said. They live off $1,100 dollars a month in disability payments. After their other bills and outgoings, that leaves about $100 spare.
The number of homeowners across Houston with flood insurance dropped 9% over the past five years and as much as 23% in some counties. Harris County, where James and Rose live, has 25,000 fewer flood-insured properties than it did in 2012, according to an Associated Press review of government data.
Mary Woodard and her husband Herman couldn't afford the insurance either. The floodwater that washed through their house, a few miles south of the Herts in a low-income neighbourhood by the Hunter Bayou, was the latest in a long list of financial and personal hardships for the couple.
Herman, who's 63, had to retire from his work as a removals man last year after a stroke badly affected his right side. Mary, who's 59, worked 14 years in the local courthouse before retiring in 2011, after a diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
"It's the stink that gets you," Mary said as she pushed open the front door, entering her home for the first time after six nights in two different shelters. The tiled floor was slick with mud, the furniture soaked, the bases of the wooden cabinets warped. Food had floated out of the lower drawers and off the shelves and begun to rot on the floor. Mary didn't really care about what was beneath the water line, she wanted to know if the pictures of her first son and her first daughter had survived.
"I lost him when he was only eight years old," she said, fighting back tears. "That's when he got drowned in the pool. And my daughter, she got killed just about 12 years ago now. Her boyfriend killed her. That's why I was so glad to see those pictures. That was very important to me that they survived. Very important."
Much of Mary's income had been diverted to helping raise her daughter's four sons, as well as to taking care of her other three children. It didn't leave much for savings to help her and Herman through retirement. Like the Herts, they have about $100 spare each month.
"We don't have the insurance or anything," she said. "The few companies we did talk to, they were either too high or they didn't carry the flood insurance."
There was no money to pay for repairs, she said, they would have to move on. "We'll salvage what we can. I probably couldn't stay in this house anyhow, not after this."
"It's much worse than I thought," said Mary Woodard when she saw her house for the first time
The only hope for couples like the Woodards and the Herts is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fema will give money to uninsured homeowners to cover repairs and emergency costs. The grants are capped at a maximum of $33,300, but most will get significantly less.
At the convention centre in Houston, a long line of people formed early every morning, waiting for hours to find out if they can claim. Mary and Herman had spoken to a Fema agent on Wednesday and he told them someone would be in touch within 10 days. By that point, they'd been in the shelter for five sleepless nights.
"I've had maybe eight hours sleep since I got there," said Mary. "You get an hour here, an hour there. There are people walking all around you and people fighting. It's a lot of chaos. It's 2am before it starts to get quiet."
The first call from Fema will tell Mary and Herman whether they are eligible. Then they will have to wait up to 30 days for an adjustor to visit the property and assess how much they can claim. In the meantime, they hope Fema will pay for a hotel room. Mary's eldest son and her elderly mother both live in Houston but they both flooded just the same as Mary. "Eventually we all winded up at the convention centre," she said.
Mary Woodard and her husband Herman found their grandson's toys floating across the road
James and Rose had been told they needed to go online to apply for relief. They had spent five days in borrowed clothes - James in an old sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms, Rose in a pink nightgown - and they were overwhelmed. Three attempts to apply on a borrowed smartphone had failed as the Fema website repeatedly crashed.
Rose sat in the cavernous hallway of the convention centre and wept. She looked exhausted. She was still recovering from her brother's suicide last year, she said, and the loss of her mother two years before that. And now this. Two years after moving in, her dream home was gone.
"We put a tin roof on, we put new flowers in, we painted it," she said. "We fixed it up. It was my little castle, like no one else could describe it. It was all I ever wanted."
But it was cheap, too, partly because it needed fixing up, partly because it sits on low ground near the bayou, and that puts a significant premium on the flood insurance. Just over the road, where the ground is higher, flood insurance costs about $200 a year. On the Herts' side of the road, the premiums can run into the thousands of dollars.
Texas law stipulates that anyone in a Special Flood Hazard Area must have flood insurance, but only if you have a mortgage, people who own their homes are exempt. And the vast majority of those flooded by Hurricane Harvey fall outside the hazard zones and they never expected to see water washing through their homes.
"There's a lot of people here that have never been flooded," said Mark Hanna, from the Insurance Council for Texas. "And if you don't have to have flood insurance, and you've never been flooded before, a lot people say 'Hey, the water's have never been this high, we'll be OK'.
"People weren't prepared for a thousand-year flood. Who is?"
Rose Hert called her home her castle. She couldn't bear to see it after the flood
Frank and Melvin Lee Rogers never thought it would happen. The two brothers had been flooded once before, when Storm Alison came through in 2001, but it was nothing like this. They escaped on Saturday with just the clothes on their back and one of their cats, a tiny kitten called Squeaky.
Frank, 70, and Melvin Lee, 63, live in the Lakewood neighbourhood by the Halls Bayou, which cuts across the bottom of the street on its way to the Buffalo Bayou further south. The water had washed through the trees, leaving detritus in the branches as it went, including an old manual lawnmower which hung tangled 10 ft off the ground.
"I live down on the corner there, the white house with the blue trim," said Frank, as they crossed the bayou on foot on the way home. "You can see the dirt on the side of the house. That's the water line right there."
At the front door, the smell was so strong it seeped out of the building. Inside, a floating couch had punched a hole in the wall and smashed through a glass coffee table. Scores of worms and a small snake lay dead on the carpet. A wall calendar, neatly marked off for each day before Saturday, was cut in half by the water line, the last two weeks of the month underwater.
Frank Rogers stands in his kitchen on his first visit home, with the waterline visible behind him
Frank, a Vietnam veteran who settled in Houston and became a plastics mould operator, called out for Goldy, their five-year-old cat, who they couldn't find when the water began coming in through the walls. "No Goldy," he said. "She's gone, or dead."
Outside, his car had drifted 6 ft and was hanging off the edge of the driveway, with a film of mud over the body and the motor flooded. The mailbox was just high enough. He pulled the catch to one side and looked in. "We've got mail!" he said, cheered at finding something dry.
Around him, those neighbours who had returned, mostly Hispanic families, played music and shouted to each other as they threw furniture, carpeting and wet sheetrock out onto the front lawns.
Frank stood back and surveyed the damage. They would have to sell up, he said. But about $20,000 in repairs lay between them and a sellable house. "I don't have that kind of money," he said. "That's the point, I don't have the money. And it's hard to go to the bank and borrow money when your house is flooded. They'll tell you you're a risk."
It wasn't so much the money that prevented them getting flood insurance in the first place, said Melvin Lee, Frank's younger brother by seven years. "We just didn't see this coming," he said. "We had no idea it would be this bad. I don't think anyone thought it would be this bad."
Melvin Lee Rogers surveys the damage outside the home he shares with his brother
Five days after the flood washed away his mobile phone, Frank reached his sister. She told him she would collect him and Melvin Lee from the house. They set their few possessions down outside - a handful of dry clothes in a clear plastic bag, and Squeaky, in a carrier donated by the shelter - and began to wait.
Back at the convention centre, Mary and Herman were getting ready to bed down for a sixth night on their cots, surrounded by thousands of others. Mary was making sure to keep her phone charged at the charging station, so she wouldn't miss a call or an email from Fema. They were relieved to have seen the home, they said, despite the state of it.
James was relieved too. It seemed like knowing was better than not knowing, no matter how bad the damage. As he took one last look around his house and got ready to leave, he flicked a light switch absentmindedly. The bulb over the dining table caught him by surprise. "We have light!" he said. "That's a start!"
On the drive back from the house he was upbeat. He told the story of how he first met Rose. "I was fixing her boyfriend's car, so I had my shirt off and in those days I was still pretty well built. Anyway, it wasn't long after that I was working on another guy's car near her house, and she had a nice tree there I could use for pulling motors. She jumped up on the truck to help get some bolts out and that was that."
At the shelter, Rose waited anxiously for James to return. When he found her, he told her about the house. It wasn't bad at all, he said. The glass in the secretary desk was intact and the power was still on. The two dogs next door, which Rose loved, had survived, and the picture of her mother was hanging exactly where she left it. She cried with relief. James took her arm and walked her back to their cots, before getting in line again to speak to Fema. "I can wait another few hours," he said. "I've got time."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40927487
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Friend or foe: Borrowing money at the door - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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What do the woes of the UK's biggest door-to-door lender Provident Financial mean for hard-pressed borrowers?
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Business
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Money is short and school uniforms are needed for the new term, or there are Christmas wishes are to be fulfilled.
At the door is a friendly face, often a neighbour, offering an expensive but convenient and immediate cash loan. The deal is done and the relationship between customer and agent begins.
"We would come to know everything about them," says one agent. "By the second month, we would know what colour clothes they wore on a Friday."
"They could call us and we would go and do a loan. Our customers would come to rely on it. But we would also keep them on the straight and narrow."
Whatever the moral viewpoint of this model it was undoubtedly a very successful one for Provident Financial, the 137-year-old door-to-door lender that says it has delivered a profit every year since listing on the UK stock market in 1962.
But then the Bradford-based company replaced these self-employed agents by hiring "customer experience managers". Clients jumped ship, profit warnings were issued, the company's share price plummeted, and its chief executive resigned.
The reasons for this business decision are complex, with regulation and accountability part of the equation. Yet, back on the doorstep, those in financial strife remain. So who are these millions of customers, what will they do, and is the door-to-door lending model damaged?
Most of the self-employed agents were women as, they say, were their customers. There were single mums, tenants and people living on the breadline, but there were also professionals such as teachers and builders who may have had credit issues in the past which blocked them from the mainstream market.
Their loans have been relatively expensive. Somebody borrowing £200, and paying it back over 26 weeks, would generally pay interest of more than £100.
Former agents - many of whom are angry at the way they were moved out by the company - say that the personal touch, as much as the convenience, was the key selling point for these doorstep loans.
"Somebody is coming to the door. A few of my customers didn't see anybody, so they liked the wee interaction," former agent Daniel Miskelly told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Two ex-agents, who wished to remain anonymous, say that on the odd occasion, understanding the sensitivity of borrowing, this personal touch extended to picking up repayments in secret from a rubbish bin. It also meant they could talk some customers out of loans they thought might get them into financial trouble.
They still receive calls from their old customers. There were "cuddles and tears" when they stopped working for Provident. The company has "taken the personal" out of Provident, they say.
Even though it may have been a positive for the company, those personal relationships may have actually been a weakness for many customers, according to debt charities.
StepChange says that customers struggling with repayments may feel more of an obligation to keep repaying doorstep loans, owing to that personal relationship, when they should instead be concentrating on repaying priority debts such as rent, or council tax.
Rolled over loans tend to lock people into long-term debt, it adds, and many of those who sought help from the charity also had other forms of high-cost credit.
For example, 54% of the charity's clients who had doorstep loans also owed an average £2,681 in total on more than two credit cards.
Another charity - Citizens Advice - says that some doorstep loan customers might not get such a friendly service from providers in general.
"Although some customers like the personalised experience of a doorstep loan, where a lending agent visits their house each week to collect a repayment, for other customers it can cause big problems," it says.
"Citizens Advice has seen many cases where lending agents use high-pressure sales tactics, carry out inadequate affordability checks to issue a loan, and use aggressive practices to collect repayments."
One borrower, who did not want to be named, says she was sold a loan while suffering from depression. Although the agent was "pleasant", she says, she never really wanted anyone to come to the door.
"That loan should never have been made. They put the money in front of me," she says.
Eventually the debt was written off.
Mick McAteer, founder of the Financial Inclusion Centre, says that the temptation provided by high-cost lenders as a whole has caused wider financial difficulties.
"These lenders made it incredibly easy to borrow money. It is quick to borrow money, whereas it takes time and effort to save and years to see the benefits," he says.
"[High-cost credit customers] see money in their hand very quickly. It is immediate gratification."
He says that the strict regulation of the payday lending industry had been one of the most effective developments of recent years, creating a gap in the market which he hopes will be filled by credit unions.
There is little evidence of that so far, nor do these not-for-profit credit unions appear to have filled the gap left by Provident Financial's woes.
Earlier this week, Provident's major competitor, Morses Club, said its loan book had increased by 12% in the six months to the end of August, and that the number of customers had also grown by 12% to 233,000. It has hired a number of Provident's old agents.
Its chief executive, Paul Smith, said the firm had "capitalised on market conditions" but that its growth had been "accelerated by Provident's current position, rather than caused by its position".
It will take much longer to know whether the customers themselves are able to capitalise too.
You can hear more about doorstep lending on Money Box on BBC Radio 4 at 12:00 BST on Saturday 2 September, and again at 21:00 on Sunday 3 September
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41122097
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Newspaper headlines: Conservation charity and countryside campaigners clash - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A row between the National Trust and the Countryside Alliance over hunting makes headlines.
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The Papers
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The National Trust is "embroiled in a row with countryside campaigners", according to the lead in the Daily Telegraph.
The conservation charity has been accused of "effectively painting targets" on people who hunt after it decided to publish details of the times and locations of legal hunts on its land.
Hunt supporters say such information could be used by saboteurs, increasing the risk of violent disruption.
The trust is due to vote at its AGM next month on whether to ban the sport on its land in a motion tabled by the League Against Cruel Sports.
It tells the paper it had lost confidence everything possible was being done to ensure the law on hunting was being upheld.
The Sun accuses Labour of "betrayal" over Brexit.
"Labour is now the anti-Brexit party", it says, after deputy leader Tom Watson said the UK could remain a permanent part of the single market and customs union.
The Daily Express agrees, saying any effort to keep Britain within the bloc following Brexit would be "shamefully undemocratic".
The Daily Mail accuses Labour of a "risible volte-face" - for soft Brexit read no Brexit at all, it says.
The Financial Times says a ruling by Kenya's Supreme Court to nullify the presidential election will go some way to restoring faith in the country's democracy.
Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at the Chatham House think tank, tells the Guardian it is good news for Kenya but says there is no precedent for such a judgement anywhere on the continent.
The Times says the decision will be especially keenly felt in other Commonwealth countries - such as South Africa, Uganda and Rwanda - where democracy is under threat.
But it will be a slap in the face for international observers, led by former US Secretary of State John Kerry, who declared that the last election had been largely fair.
The Telegraph has learned that the Metropolitan Police has paid £100,000 in compensation to Lord Bramall and Lady Brittan after raiding their homes during child sex abuse investigation Operation Midland.
The paper says lawyers for Scotland Yard agreed the settlements, which include gagging clauses, after accepting that the searches had been unjustified and should never have taken place.
John Lewis has become the first major retailer to ditch "boys" and "girls" labels from its clothing range, the Mail reports.
The department store, which is introducing non gender-specific clothes for children, has also ditched boys and girls signs in stores.
It says it does not want to reinforce stereotypes.
The paper points out that the move has been welcomed by some parents on social media but Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said the signs were informative, and removing them could be very confusing.
"It appears political correctness continues to march", he said.
The grass is always greener in Stuart Grindle's garden.
The Express reports the 74-year-old from Doncaster has taken the title of Britain's Best Lawn.
The Daily Mirror points out that the lawn has taken work - Mr Grindle cuts it four days a week, two or three times a day, and would not let his son play football or cricket on the grass when he was a child.
He tells the Times he might sound a bit of a geek but "it's the be all and end all".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41131803
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Was summer 2017 the craziest transfer window ever? - BBC Sport
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2017-09-02
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What was the biggest shock? Who was the biggest bargain? And biggest risk? BBC pundits assess the signings in a topsy-turvy transfer window.
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Last updated on .From the section Football
After two months of mind-boggling spending, miles of social media speculation, smoke, mirrors and silly signing announcements, the transfer window has finally closed.
Amid all the noise, which are the bargains, bloopers and just plain bonkers signings of a roller-coaster transfer window?
Stoke midfielder Charlie Adam, ex-England winger Trevor Sinclair, former Everton winger Kevin Kilbane and Andy Townsend, once of Aston Villa, Chelsea and Republic of Ireland's midfields, were in the BBC Sport centre for transfer deadline day.
Amid all the breaking late news, they gave their perspectives on a topsy-turvy transfer window.
• None Everton's Barkley 'did not have Chelsea medical'
• None Who did what? Complete list of transfers
• None Watch: Who were the transfer window's winners and losers?
What was the biggest surprise?
Andy Townsend: I was really surprised at Chelsea's decision to sell Nemanja Matic - such a key part of their title-winning squad - to Manchester United - such a key rival. That seemed peculiar and I bet that Jose [Mourinho] could not believe it when he was told it was possible.
That brought in £40m which was pretty much what Chelsea had spent on Monaco's Tiemoue Bakayoko. But then they were reportedly after Danny Drinkwater at Leicester as well. All very strange.
Trevor Sinclair: One of the biggest surprises for me was the lack of planning at Arsenal. They were not able to react to Manchester City's interest in Alexis Sanchez. There was no contingency plan in place.
I thought they would have [Paris St-Germain winger] Julian Draxler lined up given the French side have brought in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe at such expense.
Draxler is 24 years old still, a player that Arsene Wenger is believed to have been interested in in the past and has a ton of experience.
The rush for [Monaco midfielder] Thomas Lemar - after Wenger had said any deal for him was dead - was just too late.
Charlie Adam: That Manchester City could not get a deal done for Jonny Evans was surprising to me.
He has got the experience of playing at a big club in the same city having been at Manchester United, he has won trophies and he plays the game the way that Pep Guardiola likes.
That would have been a great bit of business for both the player and City.
Kevin Kilbane: The sheer size of Neymar's £198m deal to go from Barcelona to Paris St-Germain has got to be the biggest surprise.
When Paul Pogba joined Manchester United for a world record £89m last year, it felt like we were already seeing the record shift dramatically. Now, it has more than doubled. It really is remarkable.
Trevor Sinclair: The deal to sign Neymar got people talking, but he is already established as a star of the club and international game.
But, the deal that has been set up to take Kylian Mbappe from Monaco to Paris St-Germain is extraordinary.
He obviously looks like an exceptional prospect, but he is still only 18 and his value is based on one outstanding season.
He scored 24 goals in 41 appearances for Monaco last season and he looks the real deal, but £165.7m is a huge amount for someone who is still a little bit of an unknown quantity.
Andy Townsend: I think that £45m is a lot for Everton to have spent bringing in Gylfi Sigurdsson from Swansea. He has the ability to score goals and create, but he is nearly 28. I don't think he would have improved any of the clubs above Everton.
I can understand why Everton wanted him and how well he fits into Ronald Koeman's plans, but at £45m it seemed like a lot of money.
Trevor Sinclair: I think if Liverpool can keep Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain fit I think they have got a matchwinner on their hands. He has explosive power, balance, the agility and trickery to go past people and, at his best, takes games by the scruff of the neck.
At 24, he is at a good stage of his career, he has a heap of experience and I think Liverpool's narrower shape will suit him.
If they can get him on the pitch 80% of the time, I think that £35m is a bargain.
Charlie Adam: Swansea's loan deal to take Renato Sanches from Bayern Munich for the season is not cheap - there is talk of a £4m loan fee and the Welsh club having to pick up most of his wages.
But if they stay in the league it is going to be small change and he will be committed to the cause. Paul Clement will put an arm round him, tell him to express himself and get the best from him. I think that is a good move for Swansea.
Andy Townsend: I think that Tottenham have done very good business in bringing in right-back Serge Aurier from Paris St-Germain for £23m.
I have seen a lot of him and he is an incredible athlete, very quick, a real beast of a player. He has actually got more facets to his game than Kyle Walker I think.
He has had issues off the pitch, but if he knuckles down, he is a proper player.
Who much would you have been worth in your prime?:
Trevor Sinclair: When Ray Wilkins first came in at QPR in 1994 he put a £10m pricetag on my head, which would have been a British record at the time.
There were a few inquiries about me around that time. It was only a few years later that I found out that when Bobby Robson became manager of Barcelona in 1996, he asked about me.
That was the time that they had Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Hristo Stoichkov. If I had known about that at the time, I would have swum there!
Andy Townsend: I went to Chelsea for just over £1m in 1990, when some of the really top deals were around £1.5m to £2m. Dennis Wise joined the same summer for £1.6m.
When I left for Aston Villa in 1993, I cost around £2.5m and there were deals around the £3m mark.
I don't know what that equates to in today's money, but I'm very happy to have played in the era that I did.
There are a lot of obvious reasons why being a young footballer nowadays is tempting but there are a lot of downsides as well.
Their privacy is seriously invaded, everywhere they go they are scrutinised and any mistakes are pounced on.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41108842
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Could a new political party be on the way? - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Voices in Westminster are whispering about change but how realistic is talk of a new political force?
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UK Politics
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How realistic are Westminster whispers about a new political party?
Whispers of collaboration waft through the air. Rumours of a new political entity emerging into the light. Stories of politicians ready to cast aside tribal instinct and join something new.
But that is quite enough about the political intrigue in Germany where, weeks before the general election, there is no doubt breathless discussion in the cafes near the Bundestag about who Angela Merkel may end up working with if she's returned as chancellor again.
I talk of the occasional chat here, among those who describe themselves as forced to sleep on the political streets: homeless in the era of Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn.
Destitute, desperate and with a desire for something different, the story goes, they are smooching their way discreetly towards an immaculate political conception.
They are searching for the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of France's En Marche, the miracle birth over the water.
President Emmanuel Macron built his own political kit car widget by widget, and, fuelled by the French electorate, drove it straight to the Elysee Palace.
So this political correspondent peeled himself away from the feverish summer squalls over the Big Ben bong ban, and instead made some inquiries.
One household name had already told me privately that they frequently passed colleagues from other parties in the corridors here, and thought that they had much more in common with them than plenty of their own supposed political brethren.
Another well-known politician told me of their desire to "create a home for those deeply politically engaged people who I call the 'militant, muscular moderates'".
"On the surface, there is the two-party system, but it is more complex than that," I was told.
"There is a lot of voter churn - the electorate is soft and fluid."
That's Westminster speak for: "No-one's quite sure what's going on, so anything's possible." Possibly.
Look closely and what could be the embryonic beginnings of a new party are there.
Left-leaning parties worked together to try to defeat the Conservatives at the general election
There was what was called the Progressive Alliance at this year's general election.
There were 42 seats across the UK where candidates broadly of the left stood aside with the intention of helping another candidate on the left beat the Conservatives.
In 38 of them, the Green Party didn't put up a candidate. In two, the Liberal Democrats didn't bother. And in one, the Women's Equality Party didn't. Not one Labour candidate stood aside.
Then there is the More United campaign. It says that at the general election it "backed 49 candidates from five different parties. Of these, 34 have been elected to be members of Parliament."
Of those, 26 were Labour, five were Lib Dem and there was one each for the Conservatives, Greens and the SNP.
Again, then, the same asymmetry: Labour was the principal beneficiary.
Former Chancellor George Osborne argues there's a potentially fertile gap between the right and left
But glance towards the Conservatives and some see contemporary politics as a doughnut or a mint: something with a large hole in the centre.
There's "a real gap in the middle of politics at the moment between the Corbynistas and the hard Brexiteers," says the former Chancellor George Osborne in an interview with Influence, a magazine for the PR industry, to be published next month.
Another Tory tells me they are "frightened". Politics, they say, "is dominated by the far-left and the far-right".
But, they point out, politics for most at Westminster is like supporting a football team: tribal blindness reigns. Plus, there's the 2017 general election result.
Two quotes from my notebook here: "The election changed everything" and "A new party is not a goer".
These remarks from two people within Labour, one of whom thought, until June, that their party was "more likely than not to split".
Next, a third voice. A trenchant, persistent critic of Jeremy Corbyn who still harbours vast doubts about him, but acknowledges his election performance reshaped the landscape.
Jeremy Corbyn's campaign slogan "For the many, not the few" resonated with many young voters in particular
"There is no place - and no need - for another party. He killed that. It is dead, literally dead. You don't vote against someone who is going to get you into power."
You'll have noticed in this report the absence of people speaking on the record.
There's a good reason for that. Beyond saying "it's not going to happen," plenty are reluctant to talk publicly.
For the adhesive that binds parties together becomes altogether stickier when the two giants of Westminster politics each poll at least 40% of the vote.
Even the other established parties resemble toddlers in a world of giants, reducing the nascent rumblings described above to the microscopic level.
And then, the bete noire of any potential political pregnancy: the first-past-the-post electoral system for Westminster. It requires concentrated pockets of support to ensure any breakthrough.
Glance into the graveyard of political failure, and you see the tombstones of Veritas, Libertas, The Jury Team, No2EU and Your Party.
The one example still alive: UKIP. But even it only ever managed to win one seat at a general election.
It won't stop the chatter, the never-ending asking of the question: "What next?"
And yes, it's been a rough old time at Westminster recently for our old friend conventional wisdom.
But, for now at least, I see little sign of the midwives gathering or a delivery suite assigned for the birth of a new political giant.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41096500
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US reveals details of recent 'sonic attack' on Cuba diplomats - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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A suspected acoustic attack on embassy staff in Havana was reported as recently as last month.
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US & Canada
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Employees at the embassy in Havana reported feeling unwell late last year
A suspected acoustic attack on US embassy staff in Cuba was reported as recently as last month, US officials have revealed.
It was originally thought that the incidents had ended several months ago.
The US State Department also said the number of staff who have reported health problems had increased to 19.
It comes as the union representing diplomatic staff says some victims suffered mild brain injuries and permanent hearing loss.
Cuba has denied any involvement in the attacks and says it is investigating the reports.
US embassy staff and at least one Canadian began to notice symptoms late last year.
However, the affair was first reported in August when the US expelled two Cuban diplomats from Washington. Officials said the expulsions were in protest at Cuba's failure to protect its diplomats.
Sonic devices may have been used to emit inaudible sound waves that can cause deafness, US media suggest.
On Friday, the US government confirmed that an incident took place as recently as August and that the number of staff reporting problems had increased.
"We can't rule out new cases as medical professionals continue to evaluate members of the embassy community," state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
In a statement, the American Foreign Service Association, which represents US diplomatic and international aid staff, said it had spoken to 10 people who had received treatment.
"Diagnoses include mild traumatic brain injury and permanent hearing loss, with such additional symptoms as loss of balance, severe headaches, cognitive disruption and brain swelling," it said.
It urged the government to do everything possible to help those affected and to "ensure that these incidents cease and are not repeated".
The statement is the first time that the hearing loss has been described as permanent. It is understood that "mild traumatic brain injury" could include concussion or headaches.
The state department is yet to blame anyone for the incidents.
The US mission in Havana was reopened as a full embassy in 2015 following 50 years of hostilities between the two countries.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41133855
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Jose Mourinho stars in Game4Grenfell charity match - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The Manchester United manager opts to play as a goalkeeper as they do not have to "run so much".
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UK
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Jose Mourinho has shown off his rarely-seen skills on the pitch by starring in a charity football match for people affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
The Manchester United boss came on as a sub goalkeeper in the Game4Grenfell match between two teams of celebrities and ex-players at QPR's Loftus Road.
His team lost 5-3 on penalties in the match, in which multiple Olympic gold medallist Sir Mo Farah scored a goal.
At least 80 people died in the tower block blaze in west London on 14 June.
Homeland's Damian Lewis played against former footballers Chris Sutton and Jamie Redknapp
Sport stars, celebrities and former footballers all took part in the charity match
Celebrities including actor Damian Lewis, Olly Murs and Wretch 32 featured in the game which saw two teams managed by Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer battle it out at the stadium, just a mile from the tower block in North Kensington.
All ticket money went to the Evening Standard's fund for those affected by the tragedy, although 2,000 complimentary tickets were given to survivors, their families, volunteers who helped in the aftermath of the blaze and the emergency services.
During half-time, singers Rita Ora, Emeli Sande and Marcus Mumford entertained the crowd with a live performance.
Mourinho, who previously managed Chelsea and still has a home in west London, made his entrance midway through the second half when he replaced former England goalkeeper David James to a noisy reception.
Although he was the son of a professional goalkeeper in his native Portugal, Mourinho himself never played above the semi-professional level and was a midfielder.
But the 54-year-old showed some useful touches between the posts, making a crucial early save as he battled to maintain his side's slender 2-1 lead at that stage of the match.
In typically combative style, Mourinho was centre of attention for much of the time he was on the pitch - being booked for time-wasting, arguing the equalising goal was offside and even scoring a penalty in the shoot-out.
Sir Mo Farah's team-mates did his trademark Mobot to celebrate the Olympian's goal
On the 80th minute mark, four Grenfell survivors and two firefighters who tackled the blaze came on together in a mass substitution and received the loudest reception of the day from the sell-out crowd at the 20,000-capacity stadium.
The match went to penalties after it ended 2-2 with ex-QPR star Trevor Sinclair and Kasabian's Chris Edwards joining Sir Mo on the scoresheet.
And despite Mourinho's best efforts, he was unable to prevent a defeat for his side as Olly Murs scored the winning goal during the penalty shoot-out.
Grenfell survivor Paul Menacer said being given the chance to play in the match "means the world to me".
"We met people who want to talk and actually care about us. Someone as big as Jose Mourinho coming down and talking to us is just an amazing thing."
Jose Mourinho failed to stop any goals during the penalty shoot-out
Grenfell volunteer Omar Salha, who also scored a penalty against the Manchester United boss, said he felt shivers of "goose bumps" when his goal went in.
He said: "He tried some mind tricks - I'm definitely going to play it back when I get home."
Speaking after the game, Mourinho joked that he had chosen to play as a goalkeeper so he didn't "have to run so much".
Asked whether he enjoyed playing the role of the day's "pantomime villain", he said he wanted to bring "something fun and different" to the charity match.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41137944
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Cop who arrested Utah nurse over blood sample put on leave - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Video footage shows Alex Wubbels screaming for help as she is manhandled and handcuffed.
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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. Nurse Alex Wubbels was following hospital protocols when she was arrested in Utah
A US police officer who forcibly arrested a nurse for refusing to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient has been placed on administrative leave.
An investigation is under way after footage of the incident at a hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, emerged.
It shows nurse Alex Wubbels screaming for help as she is manhandled outside and handcuffed.
The hospital said she had correctly followed its policy.
Blood can only be handed over without a patient's consent if they are under arrest or the police have a warrant - neither of which was the case in this incident, the University of Utah Hospital said.
Salt Lake City Police Department said both the officer involved and another police department employee had been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.
The incident occurred on 26 July, but the video was only made public on Thursday at a news conference held by Ms Wubbels.
"The only job I have as a nurse is to keep my patients safe. A blood draw, it just gets thrown around there like it's some simple thing. But blood is your blood. That's your property," she told reporters.
Ms Wubbels said in a subsequent statement that the city's mayor and police chief had both apologised to her over the treatment she had received, and that she had accepted their apologies.
Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown has said he was "alarmed" by the footage, while city Mayor Jackie Biskupski described the incident as "completely unacceptable".
The University of Utah said it supported Ms Wubbels "and her decision to focus first and foremost on the care and wellbeing of her patient".
It added that it had created a new policy on blood samples that barred officers from coming to the hospital in person to seek them.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41134797
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Storm Harvey: Trump seeks $7.8bn for flood recovery - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The $7.8bn would be a first instalment in the massive relief effort following Hurricane Harvey.
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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. Flood victims have been returning to inspect the damage
US President Donald Trump has asked Congress for $7.8bn (£6bn) as an initial payment to help with recovery efforts following flooding in Texas and Louisiana.
Officials say there will be further requests for funds when the full impact of Hurricane Harvey becomes known.
Some residents have been allowed to return to their homes but flood waters are still rising in other areas.
Mr Trump is to visit Texas for a second time on Saturday.
The hurricane made landfall in the state a week ago, causing devastating floods.
It has been blamed for the deaths of at least 47 people and about 43,000 are currently housed in shelters.
In a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney warned that failure to raise the US debt ceiling could hinder recovery efforts.
The debt ceiling is a cap on the total amount the US government can borrow. Only Congress can raise that limit.
"This request is a down-payment on the president's commitment to help affected states recover from the storm, and future requests will address longer-term rebuilding needs," Mr Mulvaney said.
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott has said the state may need more than $125bn in aid.
These residents of Port Arthur, Texas, used a bucket to try to recover items from their home
Houston resident Stephanie Martinez tried to salvage precious family photographs from the flood
Mr Mulvaney said almost half a million households had registered for support for rental assistance and for essential home repairs.
He called on Congress to act "expeditiously to ensure that the debt ceiling does not affect these critical response and recovery efforts". A vote on the emergency request is expected next week.
It is believed that about 80% of Texans do not have flood insurance to cover the wreckage.
Harvey dumped an estimated 20 trillion gallons of rain on the Houston area. It was later downgraded to a tropical storm but continued to batter Texas and parts of neighbouring Louisiana.
Governor Abbott warned on Friday that the recovery programme would be a "multi-year project".
"This is going to be a massive, massive clean-up process," he told ABC News.
As the water recedes in Houston a huge clean-up operation is under way. Firefighters have been carrying out door-to-door searches in an operation that could take up to two weeks.
Mr Abbott warned that in some parts of the state, rivers were still rising and flooding "poses an ongoing threat".
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Search-and-rescue teams have continued work in Beaumont, a city of about 120,000 people near the Louisiana border, where flooding has cut off the drinking water supply.
The Environmental Protection Agency has warned that floodwater can contain bacteria and other contaminants from overflowing sewers. It said the biggest threat to public health was access to safe drinking water.
Thousands of homes and businesses remain without power.
President Trump and his wife Melania visited Texas earlier in the week but stayed clear of the disaster zone, saying they did not want to divert resources from rescue efforts.
However, Mr Trump was criticised for not meeting victims of the flooding and for focusing largely on the logistics of the government response.
The White House said he would visit Houston on Saturday to meet flood survivors and volunteers and would then travel to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41133862
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MPs declare sports and bookies as most common donors - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Ladbrokes Coral companies appear 15 times for hospitality in the register of MPs' donations.
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England
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MPs have declared about £215,000 worth of gifts, benefits and hospitality
Sports and betting companies top the list of donors treating MPs to gifts and hospitality.
The Ladbrokes Coral group appeared 15 times in the register of members' interests, more than any other donor.
Out of 187 donations from UK sources registered by MPs, 58 were from the world of sport. A further 19 were from betting companies.
Ladbrokes Coral said it wanted MPs to take decisions "from a position of knowledge".
But campaigners for tighter rules on gambling said companies could use hospitality to lobby MPs not to change rules on fixed odds betting terminals.
MPs are required to declare any gifts, benefits and hospitality over a value of £300. The latest register was published on 29 August and most declarations date from the beginning of 2016 to July 2017.
The Ladbrokes Coral Group accounted for 15 entries including trips to Ascot, Doncaster and Cheltenham races, the Community Shield at Wembley and dinner at the Conservative Party conference.
Altogether, the group of companies donated £7,475-worth of hospitality to four MPs, Conservatives Philip Davies (eight occasions - totalling £3,685), Laurence Robertson (four occasions -£2,550) and Thérèse Coffey (twice - £890) and Labour's Conor McGinn (once - £350).
The total does not include any gifts or hospitality worth less than £300 as MPs do not have to declare this.
ITV appeared eight times and Channel 4 was mentioned five times. BBC Northern Ireland appears once.
While Ladbrokes Coral appeared most often it was not the biggest donor in terms of the value of its hospitality.
The largest individual donor in the section on "gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources" was the Road Haulage Association, which the register revealed funds a researcher in the office of Dover's Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke at a cost of £22,577.
Mr Elphicke said: "The researcher is looking at how we can be ready on day one for Brexit - particularly at the Dover front line.
"This is vital work for both my constituency and the haulage industry. No-one wants to see long queues of lorries at Dover.
"In this work the interests of the haulage industry and my constituency are strongly aligned. That's why we decided to join forces."
Matt Zarb-Cousin, spokesman for the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, accused Ladbrokes Coral of being "desperate" to keep fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) at £100 a spin.
He said: "They will throw as much money as they can. It shows a lot about the strength of their argument that they need to wine and dine MPs."
The organisation wants to see the maximum stake on the terminals cut from £100 to £2 amid concerns vulnerable people can lose a lot of money very quickly.
Its founder Derek Webb has funded the Liberal Democrats and also appeared in previous registers of members' interests as a donor to Labour deputy leader Tom Watson.
The government is conducting a review into FOBTs.
A spokesman for Ladbrokes Coral said: "We employ over 25,000 people, we have a high street presence in nearly every constituency in the land and pay UK taxes of circa £55m per annum.
"Of course we engage with politicians, we want to make sure that when decisions are taken that affect our 25,000 people, they are done from a position of knowledge."
Mr Davies, MP for Shipley and one of the recipients of Ladbrokes' hospitality, said: "I am the elected chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Betting and Gaming - and a former bookmaker - so of course I meet with bookmakers.
"It would be rather extraordinary if I didn't."
Tewkesbury MP Mr Robertson said he did discuss FOBTs with Ladbrokes, but also other issues such as taxation and their relationship with horse racing.
He said: "Very many companies (including the BBC) provide hospitality as a means of lobbying MPs pretty well every day of the week, inside and outside the Palace of Westminster, at various sporting and other events, at party conferences and so on.
"Charities do similar. Some of it is declarable, if it is over the threshold, and some of it isn't.
"I represent the Cheltenham racecourse and am also joint chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Racing and Bloodstock, so have responsibilities in this area.
"Similar to most countries in the world, UK horse racing is very largely financially supported by bookmakers and there is a fear that curtailing their income by reducing the stakes on FOBTs could cause many shops to close which would, in turn, lead to a dramatic reduction in the funding of horse racing, which, contrary to popular belief, is a very poorly funded sport in the first place."
Dr Coffey and Mr McGinn have been approached for comment.
• None Fifth of MPs still employ family member
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41027964
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Solar power deal will lower social tenants' energy bills - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Investment from the Netherlands will see 800,000 English and Welsh homes get free solar panels.
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Business
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Solar panels are to be installed in 800,000 low-income homes across England and Wales over the next five years, as part of a new government scheme.
The Dutch firm, Maas Capital, is investing £160m in the project.
The panels, which will be free to tenants, are expected to cut hundreds of pounds from energy bills, according to the UK firm Solarplicity.
The first people to benefit from the scheme include residents of a sheltered retirement home in Ealing, west London.
Speaking at the site, International Trade minister Greg Hands said: "This initial £160m capital expenditure programme will deliver massive benefits to some of the UK's poorest households.
"As well as creating 1,000 jobs and delivering cheaper energy bills for up to 800,000 homes, it shows yet another vote of confidence in the UK as a place to invest and do business."
The firm providing the panels, Solarplicity, will work with more than 40 social landlords, including local authorities across England and Wales.
It will profit from the payments received under the feed-in tariff scheme and payments for energy from social housing customers.
The feed-in tariff scheme offers guaranteed cash payments to households that produce their own electricity using renewable technologies.
It changed in February, adopting different rules and lower tariff rates.
Mr Hands also told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Solarplicity will target military veterans when it recruits staff to install the panels.
"Armed forces veterans are very good at doing this, actually," he said. "They understand how to put the panels on efficiently and well."
Tenants in the North West will be the biggest beneficiaries, with more than 290,000 homes receiving solar panels in towns and cities such as Oldham and Bradford.
The North East and Midlands will also see a significant number of homes benefit.
Tenants will not pay anything towards the installation of the panels and their energy bills will be reduced by an average of £240 per year, according to the Department for International Trade.
Julian Bell, leader of Ealing Council, welcomed the scheme, but said its own programme of installing solar panels had been curtailed after the government reduced the feed-in tariffs that offered a return on electricity generated from small-scale energy schemes.
"The business case didn't quite add-up when the government made changes to subsidies and feed-in tariffs for sustainable energy," he said.
"We're grateful that private investors are coming here and investing in Ealing and benefitting our residents but the government still needs to do more to move people to sustainable energy and solar power particularly."
Greg Hands says the scheme is a show of confidence for business in the UK
The chief executive of Solarplicity, David Elbourne, said the price of solar panels had fallen enough so that government subsidies were no longer essential.
"In the past, the feed-in tariff meant that people who could afford to have solar, benefitted from solar. But now people who can't afford to have solar [can]- we'll put it on the roof for free - and they will get a reduced energy bill."
David Hunter, director of market studies at energy management firm Schneider Electric gave the scheme a cautious welcome.
"Obviously any kind of investment in the transition to low carbon energy supply can be a positive thing and with any of these developments it's always best to consider whether it's best value for money.
"But certainly the idea of upgrading our social housing stock to make it more energy efficient and lower carbon is a worthwhile aim," he said.
Maas Capital is the equity investment arm of ABN AMRO, which specialises in shipping, oil and gas, and renewable energy. ABN AMRO is 75% owned by the Dutch government.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41122433
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Newspaper headlines: 'Secret' Brexit bill, and Tory rebels warned - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The Sunday Times says Theresa May has "secretly agreed" a £50bn sum to settle the UK's Brexit bill.
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The Papers
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According to The Sunday Times, the outcome of the general election may have cost the country about £20bn. A source, described as a close ally of of Theresa May's, explains that meeting the UK's obligations to the EU had been estimated at up to £30bn. But, it says, the weakening of our negotiating position because the Conservative government lost a majority means the cost will rise.
The Mail on Sunday says the Prime Minister is hoping to keep the details of the likely "divorce bill" a secret until after the Conservative conference. Otherwise, it says, there could a furious backlash from Conservatives opposed to the EU.
The slow pace of the Brexit talks doesn't impress The Sunday Mirror. It calls on the EU to come up with a figure so Brexit Secretary David Davis can make the arguments for reducing it.
The Sunday People, among others, reports that government whips are at work trying to persuade "wavering Tory MPs" to support Mrs May's approach to Brexit. The Sun on Sunday says some have complained of "bullying". And The Observer believes the attempt to promote unity has left her facing "a growing Tory revolt over her leadership."
The Sunday Telegraph warns the rebels that blocking Brexit would undermine democracy and respect for our political class. Rather than do that, it urges anti-Brexit MPs to "put country before conceit".
Thousands of children going back to school this week could face an epidemic of bullying online, according to The Sun. It welcomes the training of more teachers to support pupils and combat the threat of cyber abuse. But the paper calls for more to be done - if the 8m children at risk are to be protected from a torment that doesn't stop at the school gates.
For several of the papers the main news is the ructions that have followed the arrest on suspicion of drinking and driving of the former England captain, Wayne Rooney. The People believes he is fighting to save his marriage. The views of his wife Coleen are forcefully delivered elsewhere. The Sun calls her "furious". The headline in The Mirror is "how could you do this to me when I'm pregnant?".
This autumn, says The Sunday Express, could turn out to be warmer than the summer. It says forecasters think hot air from Europe, and balmy air from the Atlantic, could combine to produce temperatures of 32C (89.6F). "How typical," says the paper, "that the sun should start shining as soon as the school holidays are over."
Britain must prepare itself for "invasions of growing numbers of foreign sea creatures" due to climate change, The Observer says. The paper says the experts believe that warming waters will drive some of our currently native species of mussels, fish and oysters further north. Their places may be taken by red mullet, john dory and pacific oysters, forcing us to change our seafood diet.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41138635
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Obituary: Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Former head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has died aged 85.
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UK
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Cormac Murphy-O'Connor served in holy orders for more than six decades.
The man who began his career as a priest in 1950s Hampshire went on to lead the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales and to don the red hat of a cardinal.
A traditionalist who opposed birth control and abortion, he preached that Christians must be more outspoken about their faith.
But he was heavily criticised when it emerged that he had failed to report a priest, who was later convicted of abusing children. It was a failing which he later bitterly regretted.
Cormac Murphy-O'Connor was born into a devout Catholic family in Reading, Berkshire on 24 August 1932.
His parents had emigrated from County Cork in Ireland before World War One.
He studied at the English College in Rome later returning as Rector
One of six children, two of his brothers, Brian and Patrick, would also become priests and his eldest brother, James, qualified as a General Practitioner and played international rugby union for Ireland.
The family would say the Rosary (a series of prayers) most evenings and always attended church together on Sundays.
The young Murphy-O'Connor attended the Catholic Presentation College in Reading where he gained a reputation as a useful rugby player and became an accomplished pianist.
By the time he went to Prior Park College in Bath he knew he was destined for the priesthood.
He studied at the Venerable English College in Rome, the seminary set up in the 16th Century to train priests for England and Wales, where he gained a degree in theology, and was ordained in October 1956.
He began his ministry in Hampshire, eventually being appointed secretary to the Bishop of Portsmouth, Derek Worlock.
Murphy-O'Connor in 1999 when he was the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton
In 1970 he was appointed as parish priest at the church of the Immaculate Conception in Portswood, a suburb of Southampton.
By then his theological acumen had brought him to the attention of senior clergy and he served as rector of the college in Rome where he had previously studied.
While there he hosted the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Donald Coggan, on his groundbreaking visit to Rome when, to the amazement of the Vatican, Coggan called for full intercommunion between the Anglican and Catholic churches.
Murphy-O'Connor was appointed as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton in 1977 where his theologically orthodox and pastorally engaged ministry was well received.
It was in Sussex that he also faced his greatest public challenge when a priest within the diocese, Michael Hill, was accused of child sexual abuse.
Murphy-O'Connor sought advice from a psychotherapist and a counsellor who suggested that Hill should be given a job that did not involve children. The bishop agreed and Hill was made a chaplain at Gatwick Airport. He went on to abuse more children and was subsequently jailed in 1997.
He became Archbishop of Westminster in 2000
He deeply regretted his failure to report the priest to the police, and said of his conduct: "I don't make any excuses. It was shameful. It's very hard for a bishop, who's told when he takes up that office, that a priest is your brother, you must help him, forgive him.
"What we didn't realise, as we should have done, was the grievous damage done to the victims," he added.
Murphy-O'Connor refused to resign but instead, upon becoming Archbishop of Westminster in 2000, established an independent committee led by Lord Nolan, to carry out a review on child protection practices in the Catholic Church in England and Wales.
The resulting report contained recommendations for key structures required at parish, diocesan and national level and in religious orders, the action needed to create as safe an environment as possible for children and those who work with them, and a strengthening of arrangements for responding to allegations of abuse.
Although he did not engage directly in politics, it was his careful nurturing that led Prime Minister Tony Blair to convert to Catholicism in 2007.
Blair later gave public testimony of his faith after the leadership of the Labour Party had passed to Gordon Brown.
He guided Tony Blair on his path to Catholicism
However, the two clashed over the issue of gay couples being allowed to adopt, with Murphy-O'Connor telling Blair that Catholic adoption agencies should be exempted from the measure, a proposal which the government rejected.
A year later Murphy-O'Connor published a book entitled Faith in the Nation in which he said that while Britain had become more diverse and pluralistic, the Christian values which had shaped its identity should not be abandoned.
Throughout his ministry he strove to improve relationships with the Church of England although that became something of a struggle for him when the Anglican Church began admitting women as priests, something which he opposed.
He was created a cardinal in 2001 and, a year later, read prayers at the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
It was the first time since 1509 that a Catholic Cardinal had taken part in an English royal funeral service.
He sought accommodations with other religious leaders in a bid to find common ground
When he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75, Pope Benedict asked him to stay on and he finally retired two years later in 2009.
He was the first Archbishop of Westminster not to die in office.
In retirement Murphy-O'Connor continued to rail against what he saw as the continuing secularisation of British society and what he saw as the marginalisation of religious faith.
"Religious belief of any kind," he said, "tends to be treated more as a private eccentricity than as the central and formative element of British society that it is.
"In the name of tolerance, it seems to me that tolerance is being abolished," he said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41003717
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Trump hails hurricane relief efforts as he visits Texas - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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"Things are working out well," says the president, as he and wife Melania meet flood victims.
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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. Donald Trump: "As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing"
US President Donald Trump has praised the relief response to Hurricane Harvey on his second visit to flood-hit states.
"Things are working out well," he said of the efforts, as he and wife Melania met victims and volunteers in Texas.
"As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing," he added. "I think even for the country to watch and for the world to watch."
The devastating hurricane made landfall in the state a week ago.
Some residents have been allowed to return to their homes but flood waters are still rising in other areas.
Harvey has been blamed for at least 47 deaths, and about 43,000 people are currently housed in shelters.
President Trump and the first lady visited Texas earlier in the week but stayed clear of the disaster zone, saying they did not want to divert resources from rescue work.
However, the president was criticised for not meeting victims of the flooding and for focusing largely on the logistics of the government response.
Visiting Texas again on Saturday, Mr and Mrs Trump made a point of meeting flood survivors and volunteers in Houston. They took part in food distribution at a shelter, handing out packed lunches, and posed for photographs with victims when they requested it.
During a tour of a shelter, the president said: "I think people appreciate what's been done. It's been done very efficiently, very well, and that's what we want. We've very happy with the way things are going. A lot of love. There's a lot of love."
The president and his wife then travelled to Lake Charles, Louisiana, which also suffered flash floods, before flying back to Washington.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted children at a centre for flood survivors in Houston
Amid the destruction, stories have been shared of people opening their homes and businesses to others, and forming human chains to save people from treacherous rising waters.
However, many are also now returning to destroyed homes without the insurance to fix them.
Experts estimate that only about 20% of those in Houston's worst hit areas have flood insurance.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Flood victims have been returning to inspect the damage
Mr Trump has asked Congress for $7.8bn (£6bn) as an initial payment to help with recovery efforts following the flooding in both Texas and Louisiana, which has also hit production at America's main petrol and oil refining centre.
The White House said on Saturday that the president had authorised an increase in the level of federal funding available for debris removal and emergency protective measures.
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott has said the state may need more than $125bn in aid.
The president has declared Sunday a "National Day of Prayer" for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Administration officials say there will be further requests for funds when the full impact of Hurricane Harvey becomes known.
Harvey dumped an estimated 20 trillion gallons of rain on the Houston area.
Governor Abbott has warned that the recovery programme will be a "multi-year project".
"This is going to be a massive, massive clean-up process," he told ABC News.
The Environmental Protection Agency has warned that floodwater can contain bacteria and other contaminants from overflowing sewers. It said the biggest threat to public health was access to safe drinking water.
Authorities in flood-hit Orange County, east of Beaumont, imposed a curfew on Saturday night to give its residents "peace of mind", officials said. Looting in Houston earlier in the week led to a curfew being implemented.
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Thousands of homes and businesses remain without power, and many schools are expected to remain closed in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros, the city's Major League Baseball team, returned home to take on the New York Mets on Saturday. Tributes were paid to those killed ahead of the game.
The team abandoned their home stadium this week, playing three games in Florida against the Texas Rangers.
"We hope that these games can serve as a welcome distraction for our city that is going through a very difficult time," Astros president Reid Ryan said.
"We hope that we can put smiles on some faces."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41134799
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Universities run cartel, says think tank - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The UK 2020 report argues that fast-track two-year degrees could cut student debt.
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Education & Family
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Universities have been accused of running a "cartel" and failing to offer enough two-year bachelor's degrees, by a right of centre think tank.
The UK 2020 report argues that fast-track degrees could cut student debt.
It is backed by Labour's Lord Adonis and Sir Anthony Seldon, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, which offers two-year degrees.
But the umbrella group Universities UK said uptake of existing two-year courses had been limited.
And a spokesman pointed out that official investigations have previously found that competition in the sector was largely working well.
"Several universities have been offering two-year, fast-track degrees for a number of years, but the demand from students has been limited under the current fees and loans system in England," said UUK in a statement.
Plans to boost two-year degrees were announced by Universities Minister Jo Johnson in February.
The UK 2020 report, co-authored by businessman and Leave.EU co-funder Richard Tice, says fast-track degrees could cut student debt, enhance choice and relieve pressured housing stocks.
It argues that tuition fees, reaching £9,250 this year, have failed to deliver real choice or competition for students in England and describes mounting student anger about debt and interest rates as a "timebomb" beneath the system.
It says most universities charge the maximum fees allowed and have acted as a cartel to slow reforms and freeze out private sector competition.
"Price competition is the area where most notoriously the universities have failed to deliver," says the report.
"In the long term, smarter ways of funding students will have to be found."
The authors argue that students promised a better experience by the increase in tuition fees were "sold a lie", while vice-chancellors with massive pay packets are the biggest beneficiaries.
The report estimates that two-year degrees could reduce individual graduate debt by up to £20,000, with major savings in accommodation costs.
Mr Tice said complaints of poor value for money from friends who were parents of university students prompted him to write the report.
"Investigating the truth behind these stories has shocked me, the powerful university cartel, interwoven with parts of the establishment care lots about money and little about students."
Lord Adonis, in a joint foreword with Conservative MP and UK 2020 chairman Owen Paterson, said: "It is not often that politicians from such different parts of the spectrum come together on a major question of such national importance.
"But we are united in our desire to find a solution to the crisis in how students and universities are funded."
Sir Anthony said the report did "an excellent service in channelling the debate on higher education towards the contemporary structure and its antiquated provision".
In its statement, Universities UK said it expected three-year undergraduate degrees to remain the preferred option for many students.
"But if changes can be made to the funding and fees system in England that help increase the flexibility of provision and are in the interest of students, this is a good thing."
Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, added: "Two-year degrees may make financial sense for some students.
"However, due to the compressed nature of a two-year degree there would be a significant reduction in opportunities for students to do part-time and vacation work which many students from lower or average income households rely on to help fund their university life.
"It is also less likely that a student would have the opportunity to carry out work placements or work-based learning in their chosen subject or area of study.
"This means their skills and readiness for the workplace could suffer as part of a two-year degree.
"The real need is for a funding regime which encourages more part-time study and study alongside work."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41125111
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Pedestrians embark on 'once in lifetime' walk over Queensferry Crossing - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Pedestrians embark on a first historic walk across the new Queensferry Crossing ahead of its official opening on Monday.
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Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Competition-winners take to the Queensferry Crossing for a one-off opportunity to walk across the bridge
The first of more than 50,000 people have completed their walk across the new Queensferry Crossing.
The new road bridge over the Forth was closed to traffic in preparation for the official opening ceremony on Monday.
The chance to walk the £1.35bn bridge has been described as a "once in a lifetime" experience. The new crossing has no pedestrian walkway.
The ballot to choose those taking part attracted 250,000 entries.
Joining the successful ticket holders on the 1.7 mile walk was First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Scotland's Transport Minister Humza Yousaf.
The official opening will be carried out by the Queen.
Competition-winners take to the Queensferry Crossing for a one-off opportunity to walk across the bridge
People began walking across the new bridge just after 09:30 on Saturday morning
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was among the thousands of people who completed the first crossing
One of the first to cross from north to south was 16-year-old Morgan Lewis-Wilson, one of three generations of his family from East Lothian who were taking part in the experience.
He said: "I ran the second half and I was one of the first people to finish north to south. It was a really amazing atmosphere coming in first with the saltire over my shoulders. It was just brilliant."
Shauna Killen, 45, from Anstruther, Fife, who was taking part with her family, said: "It was absolutely fantastic, I got quite emotional coming across it. It was wonderful and I'm really pleased to have done it.
"I applied for the kids really; it was just so amazing to watch it being built over the last few years and just to be a part of it today was a once-in-a-lifetime experience so hopefully they will remember it for a long time."
Competition winners take to the Queensferry Crossing for a one-off opportunity to walk across the bridge
Cilla and Graham Ferguson, from Dalgety Bay, Fife, dressed up as Toy Story's Woody and Jessie for the occasion to raise awareness for brittle bone disease, which their granddaughter suffers from.
Mrs Ferguson, 66, said: "What an achievement, what a once-in-a-lifetime, awesome thing to do."
Also raising awareness for the disease were Wilma Lawrie, 57, from Edinburgh, and Yvonne Grant, 56, from Dundee, who both crossed in wheelchairs as part of a four-person team fundraising for the Brittle Bone Society.
"It's a great privilege and honour to be walking or wheeling for the 5,000 members here in the UK," Ms Grant said.
Speaking ahead of the walk, Ms Sturgeon said: "It's only right that the public get the chance of an up close and personal look at this amazing structure so they can see the stunning engineering and views for themselves.
"Walking across the new Queensferry Crossing will be a once in a lifetime experience, before it is officially opened to traffic and pedestrian access continues on the Forth Road Bridge."
The crossing is essentially an extension of the M90 motorway across the Forth with a 70mph speed limit, although operators said an initial 40mph limit would be in place to take account of "driver distraction".
The new bridge will take most of the traffic that currently uses the 53-year-old Forth Road Bridge.
The old one will remain open for cyclists, pedestrians and buses.
Mr Yousaf added: "It's important to recognise the efforts of those workers who have delivered this project in challenging conditions, £245m under budget.
"That is a staggering achievement and we want to build on the momentum that these celebrations will create."
Local schools and community groups will be allowed to walk over the structure on Tuesday before it closes to pedestrians.
The crossing will remain closed to traffic until Thursday, with vehicles re-directed back to the Forth Road Bridge during this time.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-41126485
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The men who drew the Mason-Dixon Line - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The Mason-Dixon Line is 250 years old - but who were the two British men who created one of America's most famous land borders?
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England
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It is 250 years since America's Mason-Dixon Line was completed. Hailed as a groundbreaking technical achievement, it came to symbolise the border between the Civil War North and South, separating free Pennsylvania from slave-owning Maryland. But who were the two British men who created it?
"It was the equivalent of the moon landings today," according to Mason-Dixon Line expert David Thaler.
Baker's son Charles Mason and lapsed Quaker Jeremiah Dixon were established scientists when commissioned to settle a land dispute in the pre-revolutionary America of 1763.
For 80 years the Calvert family of Maryland and the Penns of Pennsylvania had been locked in a bloody dispute over the boundary between the two colonies they had been granted by the English Crown.
"The stakes were very high," said Mr Thaler, trustee of the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore and an expert on the Mason-Dixon project.
"There was about 4,000 sq miles of territory that was in dispute and nobody knew who to pay taxes to. Warfare regularly broke out along the border."
No portraits of either man remain, but US artist Adrian Martinez produced this interpretation of how Mason, seated left, and Dixon, also seated, might have looked during the project
Outdated maps meant fresh measurements were needed, but colonial surveyors had proved inaccurate. So the families hired Mason and Dixon, who were known in England as master surveyors and astronomers.
The Mason-Dixon Line was drawn in two parts. An 83-mile (133.5km) north-south divide between Maryland and Delaware and the more recognised 233-mile (375km) west to east divide between Pennsylvania and Maryland, stretching from just south of Philadelphia to what is now West Virginia.
Mr Thaler said: "This was the most outstanding scientific and engineering achievement, not only of its day, but of the American Enlightenment.
"It was so advanced for its time. The brains were the best and the technology was the best."
Mason and Dixon brought with them some of the most advanced surveying equipment of the day, including tools by renowned instrument maker John Bird, who, like Dixon, hailed from County Durham.
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"The map they produced is one of the most important historical documents we have here in America. It's almost the equivalent of the Declaration of Independence," added Mr Thaler.
"The accuracy is so extraordinary that even today it continues to astound. It represents the first geodetic survey in the New World."
Miner's son Dixon from Cockfield, near Bishop Auckland, and Mason, from Oakridge Lynch, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, originally came together in 1761 to map the Transit of Venus - making it easier to calculate the Earth's distance from the Sun.
It would take them almost five years - lugging their equipment across hundreds of miles of wilderness - to complete the survey and cement their place in the timeline of the United States.
Yet despite their groundbreaking achievement, both ended up in unmarked graves thousands of miles apart and remain virtually unknown in their home country.
Milestones were marked with M for Maryland and P for Pennsylvania
Dixon's great-great-great-great-great-nephew, John Dixon, still lives in County Durham and is proud of his connection to a "marvellous man" who was of "great significance" in his lifetime.
"Jeremiah was a Quaker and from a mining family. He showed a talent early on for maths and then surveying.
"He went down to London to be taken on by the Royal Society, just at a time when his social life was getting a bit out of hand.
"He was a bit of a lad by all accounts, not your typical Quaker, and never married.
"He enjoyed socialising and carousing and was actually expelled from the Quakers for his drinking and keeping loose company."
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An entry in the Quaker minute book of Raby in County Durham, dated October 1760, reads: "Jery Dixon, son of George and Mary Dixon of Cockfield, disowned for drinking to excess."
Mr Dixon added: "Nevertheless, it's marvellous to be connected to such a prominent man."
Mason's early life was more sedate by comparison. At the age of 28 he was taken on by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich as an assistant. Noted as a "meticulous observer of nature and geography" he later became a fellow of the Royal Society.
Mason chronicled his arrival in Philadelphia in his journal
Mason and Dixon signed a contract to begin the survey in 1763
"Not too much is known about his younger days, but we know his family was not terribly well off and that they ran a baking business," said Royal Society librarian Keith Moore.
"He had a school education, but didn't go to university. However, he did have some local connections and knew James Bradley, who was a very famous astronomer and also from Gloucestershire.
"Bradley got him a job at the Royal Observatory, which is really the start of his career as an astronomer and surveyor.
"While at the Royal Society, he was asked to undertake Transit of Venus observations and recruited Dixon as his assistant."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Star observations were used to measure the Mason-Dixon Line
The pair arrived in Philadelphia to begin work in November 1763. They used Bird's instruments to calculate their path by the stars and had to combat hostile Native Americans, mountains, dense forest, rivers and wild animals.
Limestone markers measuring up to 5ft (1.5m) high - quarried and transported from England - were placed at every mile and marked with a P for Pennsylvania and M for Maryland on each side. So-called Crown stones were positioned every five miles and engraved with the Penn family's coat of arms on one side and the Calvert family's on the other.
"No-one really knows why the stones were shipped from England," said Todd Babcock, of the Mason and Dixon Line Preservation Partnership. "But we know there were nearly 400 of them."
He added: "At the time all Mason and Dixon had in front of them was wilderness.
"There were some settlements, but west of the Susquehanna River and approaching the Allegheny Mountains there were very few roads. It was all mature forest so they had to come through and cut a vista about 30ft wide.
"That required axe-men to cut down the trees, pack mule drivers to get the trees out of the way as well as cows for milk, chain carriers, instrument bearers and tent bearers. It was like a small army moving through the woods.
"They started off with a crew of five, but by the time they got towards the end of the survey the party had grown to about 115.
"When they came into this I think they thought it would take a year or two, but it ended up taking five."
Yet while their achievement has been rightly hailed, modern technology has shown the line was not as accurate as Mason and Dixon thought.
It took Mason and Dixon five years to complete their survey
Adrian Martinex also imagined Mason and Dixon visiting a Pennsylvania tavern with some of their party a year into the survey
Crown stones were placed at five-mile intervals along the line
Mr Babcock said: "They thought at the end of the survey that the stones were accurate to within 50ft of where they should be. But what we're finding is that some of them are as much as 900ft off the intended line of latitude.
"Using modern GPS equipment we found they progressively went to the south and then started to come back to the north. The reason for that is not because they were inaccurate or because the equipment was faulty. It was actually gravity.
"Gravity had an impact on the plumb bob they were using. They had a 6ft telescope and it used a plumb bob on a fine wire to set it to true zero so they could measure directly overhead. But gravity varied from location to location because of the influence of things like mountains.
"We have found there was a direct correlation between the local variations in gravity and how far north or south of the line they were.
"The distances between the stones is supposed to be a mile, but what we're finding is that they are anything up to 15ft longer than a mile in places.
"That said, the idea of trying to stay on a line of latitude for 230 miles through the wilderness with equipment that had never been used before is just incredible."
Mason and Dixon began their return journey eastward on 20 October 1767 and later submitted a bill for £3,516.9s - estimated as the equivalent of about £500,000 today. But, according to David Thaler, neither died rich men.
"It was certainly a substantial amount for a world-class scientific effort," he said.
"But it wasn't enough to retire on."
The bill for the Mason-Dixon Line came to just over £3,500
A plaque marks the spot close to where Mason and Dixon began their survey
The Mason-Dixon Line took on an enduring symbolism in part because of the American Civil War
Mason and Dixon are unlikely to have seen their names directly associated with their achievement, as the official report on the survey did not mention them.
The term "Mason-Dixon Line" would become more widely used when the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 to allow slave-owning Missouri and free Maine to join the union.
And of course the line's enduring symbolism was firmly established after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, representing that demarcation between the North and South - and freedom over enslavement.
Mason and Dixon are buried thousands of miles apart in unmarked graves
After the mammoth project was completed, Mason returned to England to work again at the Greenwich Observatory but he ended his days virtually penniless back in America in 1786.
"Many years after the Mason-Dixon line was made, Mason returned to Philadelphia, but became sick during the journey," said John Hopkins, who oversees the burial ground at the city's Christ Church.
"When he got here he knew pretty much that he was close to death, so he wrote to Benjamin Franklin, who he knew, and asked him to give him a place to be buried so he didn't have to burden his wife and family.
"We don't know where he is. If he had a stone it's been lost over time.
"We have a plaque that a bunch of surveyors from around the country paid for with text close to what the inscription might have been at that time."
Charles Mason was friends with Benjamin Franklin, according to John Hopkins of Christ Church
Dixon returned to County Durham to ply his trade.
"For the last 10 years of his life he did work for Lord Barnard at Raby Castle and surveyed Auckland Castle for the Bishop of Durham," his relative John Dixon said:
"He died at the young age of 45 in 1779. There was no death certificate. We know he'd been quite a steady drinker through his life and there were rumours he died from pneumonia.
"We presume that after having been put out of the Quakers they reconciled and accepted him back. He is buried in the Quaker burial ground at Staindrop.
"We don't know exactly where he is because it was the convention at that time for Quakers not mark their gravestones."
Find out about musician Mark Knopfler's fascination with Mason and Dixon on Inside Out on BBC1 at 1930 BST on 4 September.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40638673
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Joshua Clements jailed for Hyde Park water fight stabbings - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Joshua Clements stabbed two men when thousands gathered in London's Hyde Park last year.
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London
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Joshua Clements stabbed two men when thousands gathered in London's Hyde park last year
A teenager who stabbed two men during a mass water fight in London's Hyde Park has been jailed for 14 years.
Joshua Clements, 19, attacked the men as violence broke out when thousands of people gathered on 19 July last year.
The Old Bailey heard he was masked and armed with a large hunting knife, and planned to rob people at the event.
He previously pleaded guilty to two charges of wounding and having an offensive weapon as well as two counts of handling stolen goods.
Clements, who had been released from Feltham Young Offenders Institution two months before the attack, also admitted possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent.
Police found a hunting knife with student Audean Thompson's DNA on it during a search of Joshua Clements' house
The court heard how Clements stabbed student Audean Thompson, 20, in the stomach and leg.
Mr Thompson, who used a walking stick due to a previous leg injury, was left with a 4cm (1.5 inch) stab wound to the chest and had £150 taken in the attack.
The attack was captured on mobile phone footage which was played in court.
Earlier that night, male model Duane Williams, 20, was stabbed in the stomach by Clements, leaving part of his bowel lining protruding. Clements did not attempt to rob Mr Williams.
A spontaneous water fight in Hyde Park led to violent clashes in which five officers were injured and one was stabbed
Mr Thompson wrote in a statement: "I worry people will recognise me. I have not been on a bus since."
Mr Williams said he was left fearful about going out and his scars stopped him working as a body model.
Judge Michael Topolski QC said: "These were vicious attacks on two unarmed entirely innocent victims."
The judge sentenced Clements to 14 years in a young offenders institution with an extended licence period of five years.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41124936
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Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton breaks pole record - how he did it in numbers - BBC Sport
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2017-09-02
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Lewis Hamilton has taken more pole positions than any other driver, but do the stats count towards "best qualifier" status?
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Lewis Hamilton has broken Michael Schumacher's career pole positions record by taking the 69th of his career.
The Briton moved level with the German seven-time world champion in Belgium last week and followed that up at the Italian Grand Prix with his eighth pole of the season.
BBC Sport takes a look at Hamilton's record in numbers.
How often does Hamilton translate pole to victory?
Hamilton's first pole position came in his sixth race - the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. He converted that into his first career victory.
Since then he has been on pole at least once every season he has competed in, with 2016 his most dominant year in qualifying, finishing fastest on a Saturday on 12 occasions.
Of the 68 previous occasions Hamilton has been on pole, he has translated it into a victory 37 times.
How does that compare to the other greats?
When it comes to turning pole positions into victories, Hamilton is up there with the best.
The Briton has a poles-to-win ratio of 54%. Schumacher won 40 of the 68 races he was on pole for - 58.82%, while Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna [29 wins from 65 pole positions] has a ratio of 44.6%.
Does pole always lead to podium?
Even if Hamilton does not manage to win a race from pole position, he rarely finishes outside the top three.
Just 16 of the previous 68 races he started on pole have ended with him failing to be on the podium.
Hamilton's finishes after being on pole
Monza to Melbourne - Hamilton at his best
There are very few circuits on which Hamilton has failed to take pole position.
The Briton has mastered a Saturday at least once on every track on the current calendar, with only poles at Magny Cours (France), Istanbul Park (Turkey) and Buddh International Circuit (India) eluding him throughout his entire career.
However, his best Saturday form has come at four grands prix - Australia, China, Canada and Italy - with six pole positions at each of the circuits.
Only in Canada has Hamilton managed to make that pole position count the most, winning six times there after starting at the front of the pack.
His worst pole-to-win record is in Australia, winning just one of the six times he has started on pole in Melbourne.
Two of Hamilton's three world titles have come while he has been at Mercedes, in 2014 and 2015, and it is with this team he has been the most dominant in qualifying.
He claimed 26 pole positions in 110 races for McLaren and 43 in 90 for Mercedes. That makes for an impressive strike rate of 47% while at Mercedes, compared to 24% at the team he started his career with.
The one thing a driver can expect if they link up with Hamilton is to finish second best in qualifying.
The 32-year-old has taken more pole positions than his team-mate in nine of his previous 10 seasons and is well on course to pip Valtteri Bottas to more poles this year. He leads the Finn 8-2 with seven grand prix weekends remaining.
The one season he has failed to take more pole positions than his team-mate was 2014, when current world champion Nico Rosberg secured front place on the grid on four more occasions than Hamilton.
Is Hamilton F1's best qualifier in history?
Hamilton is now officially the most successful qualifier in Formula 1 history, having broken the all-time record for pole positions.
As to whether that makes him the best qualifier in history - and by extension the out-and-out fastest driver - well, that's another thing altogether.
For a start, statistics are an unreliable guide in many circumstances in F1, including this one. Michael Schumacher, for example, held the pole record until Hamilton broke it, and precisely almost no-one would say he was a better qualifier than Ayrton Senna, whose record the German broke.
Senna scored 65 poles and Schumacher 68. But the Brazilian won his in 162 races and Schumacher in 250 [ignoring the last three years of his ill-starred comeback]. So Senna's percentage was significantly better [40.1% compared to 27.2%].
Hamilton's is better than Schumacher's, at 34%, but not as good as Senna's - and Senna is only fourth in the all-time list in percentage terms behind Juan Manuel Fangio (an amazing 29 poles in 52 races), Jim Clark (33 out of 73) and Alberto Ascari (14 out of 33).
Even if it was just down to the numbers, it would not be possible to say who was the fastest - how can you compare drivers from such different eras when it's hard enough to do with those who are racing at the same time?
But the quality of the machinery also comes into it. Hamilton's career statistics have improved enormously since he joined Mercedes, whereas by contrast, Fernando Alonso's have gone the other way in recent years. But that doesn't make either more or less good than they already were.
There are, though, a couple of things you can say with certainty about Hamilton.
First, most would agree that he is the out-and-out fastest driver of his era. His best qualifying laps are things of awe and wonder, and it's a privilege to watch him at work.
And second, he is up there with the very best of all time when it comes to qualifying speed. Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe, one of the few to have worked with both Hamilton and Senna, says Hamilton "undoubtedly" has Senna's speed.
"Those great drivers are able to pull out an extraordinary lap," Lowe says. "They can't do it every Saturday but every now and again they just go out there and something really extraordinary is required and they produce a lap where you go, 'Wow, where on earth did that come from?' And Lewis is certainly one to do that, and so was Ayrton."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/41003336
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Man held over Oval crossbow bolt which ended cricket match - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Armed police led a controlled evacuation of the cricket ground when a crossbow bolt was found.
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London
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A man has been arrested after a crossbow bolt was fired into the Oval cricket ground during a match.
The 35-year-old was held on on suspicion of attempted grievous bodily harm following the incident at the south London stadium on 31 August.
Spectators watching Surrey's match with Middlesex were asked to take cover and the players left the field.
Armed police carried out a controlled evacuation of the ground and the game was called off.
Det Con Dominic Landragin said: "Although nobody was injured, this was a reckless action taken with no regard for the safety and wellbeing of the spectators or the players.
"It is important that we trace those responsible and I urge anyone who has footage of the incident to get in touch as soon as possible."
The arrested man has been released on police bail pending further enquiries.
The game ended in a draw, with John Simpson's unbeaten 88 helping Middlesex into a lead of 181 runs with three wickets in hand when the players were taken off the pitch.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41136987
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North Korea 'has missile-ready nuclear weapon' - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Kim Jong-un views what is said to be a new type of hydrogen bomb that fits on a ballistic missile.
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Asia
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State media said Kim Jong-un "watched an H-bomb to be loaded into a new ICBM"
North Korea says it has developed a more advanced nuclear weapon that can be loaded on to a ballistic missile.
The state news agency released pictures of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting what it said was a new hydrogen bomb.
There has been no independent verification of the claims.
International experts say the North has made advances in its nuclear weapons capabilities but it is unclear if it has successfully miniaturised a nuclear weapon it can load on to a missile.
Pyongyang has defied UN sanctions and international pressure to develop nuclear weapons and to test missiles which could potentially reach the mainland US.
State news agency KCNA said Kim Jong-un had visited scientists at the nuclear weapons institute and "guided the work for nuclear weaponisation".
"The institute recently succeeded in making a more developed nuke," the report said, adding: "He (Kim Jong-un) watched an H-bomb to be loaded into a new ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)."
The report carried pictures of the leader inspecting the device. It described the weapon as "a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes".
Defence expert Melissa Hanham, of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in California, said that the North's claims could not be verified from the photographs alone.
"We don't know if this thing is full of styrofoam, but yes, it is shaped like it has two devices," she said on Twitter. Hydrogen bombs detonate in two stages.
She added: "The bottom line is that they probably are going to do a thermonuclear test in the future, we won't know if it's this object though."
North Korea has carried out a series of missile tests in recent months, including weapons that put the mainland US in range.
Last week it fired a missile over Japan in a move Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "unprecedented" threat to his country.
Mr Abe and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone after the latest report emerged. The pair agreed more pressure needed to be put on North Korea, Mr Abe said.
The North has previously claimed to have miniaturised a nuclear weapon but experts have cast doubt on this. There is also scepticism about the North's claims to have developed a hydrogen bomb, which is more powerful than an atomic bomb.
Hydrogen bombs use fusion - the merging of atoms - to unleash huge amounts of energy, whereas atomic bombs use nuclear fission, or the splitting of atoms.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests. Its most recent, and most powerful, came in September last year.
Correspondents say that although North Korea could conduct its sixth test at any time, there has been no recent activity at its Punggye-ri test site.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41138834
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Missing charity walker Laurence Brophy, 85, found safe - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Police had been concerned for Laurence Brophy who began walking the Taff Trail on Thursday.
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South East Wales
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Laurence Brophy is described as a "fit and active gentleman"
An 85-year-old charity walker reported missing on the Taff Trail has been found safe and was determined to finish his walk.
Laurence Brophy, from Pencoed, had not been seen since he set off on his solo trek from Cardiff to Brecon and back on Thursday.
South Wales Police had asked walkers to get in touch if they had seen him.
He was found by officers on Saturday on the Taff Mead embankment and insisted on finishing the walk.
A post on his support page on Facebook said: "He set his phone to airplane mode by mistake. That's why he could not be contacted or contact anyone else."
The retired teacher stood as a Green party candidate for the Ogmore seat at last year's assembly elections and has completed numerous charity walking and cycling challenges.
He was last seen in Tongwynlais at about 12:00 BST on Thursday, when he set off for the walk, wearing a yellow jacket and dark walking trousers.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-41136912
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Birling Gap beach: Shipwreck 'could be to blame for mist' - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Maritime and Coastguard Agency is investigating "a number of possibilities" for the toxic haze.
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Sussex
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People staying nearby had been told to keeps doors and windows closed
The chemical cloud that caused a Sussex beach to be evacuated on Sunday might have come from a shipwreck, the coastguard agency has suggested.
Part of the East Sussex coast was engulfed by the cloud and about 150 people were treated for breathing problems, stinging eyes and vomiting.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said emissions from the area's many shipwrecks might be the cause.
It is also investigating discharges from passing ships or lost cargo.
Birling Gap beach was evacuated after people began suffering unexplained symptoms from a "mist" that descended.
People had been enjoying the bank holiday weather at Birling Gap
In the past, chemicals have drifted across from European industrial units, but Sussex Police said weather models suggested the source was unlikely to have been in northern France.
The MCA said in a statement: "As part of our investigations we are considering a number of possibilities, such as discharges from a vessel, previously unreported lost cargo, and emissions from known shipwrecks.
"We have identified approximately 180 vessels that passed through the English Channel off the coast of Eastbourne on Sunday.
"We are working with all relevant environmental and public health regulators to conclude these investigations. We have no further information at this stage."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-41130937
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A-level places dispute pupils to return to their school - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A grammar school reverses its policy of refusing to let some students continue to the upper sixth.
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Education & Family
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Sixth formers excluded from a school because they did not get at least B grades at AS-level will be allowed to return, their lawyer has confirmed.
Pupils at St Olave's in Orpington, south-east London, were told they could not progress to take their A-levels.
Parents had begun legal action over the policy, but now the school has backed down, according to their lawyer.
St Olave's is one of England's top-performing grammar schools, with places decided on academic ability.
Dan Rosenberg, a lawyer for Simpson Millar solicitors who has been acting for the families, confirmed by email on Friday evening that the school had reversed its position.
He said he was "pleased the school has agreed to readmit the children and withdraw their policy".
"We would now expect all other schools with similar policies to do the same," he said.
In a statement issued by the Diocese of Rochester, the school said: "Following a review of the school's policy on entry to Year 13, the headmaster and governors of St Olave's grammar school have taken the decision to remove this requirement and we have today written to all parents of pupils affected to offer them the opportunity to return to the school and continue their studies.
"Our aim as a school has been and continues to be to nurture boys who flourish and achieve their full potential academically and in life generally.
"Our students can grow and flourish, making the very best of their talents to achieve success."
Ninety-six percent of pupils at St Olave's got grades A-B at A-level
St Olave's leadership and governing body had declined to comment publicly.
Parents contested whether pupils who had been admitted to the lower sixth should be stopped from continuing into the upper sixth and taking their A-levels.
They had claimed that preventing pupils from continuing into the upper sixth year was in effect an exclusion - and that it was unlawful for a school to exclude a pupil on the grounds of a lack of academic progress.
Parents had accused the school of behaving like "an exam factory", focusing on league table results at the expense of students' education and welfare.
This year's A-level results at St Olave's saw 75% of all grades being awarded at A* or A and 96% were at A* to B grades, far above the national average.
Jo Johnson, Conservative MP for Orpington and minister for universities and science, had previously said that it was hard to see how the exclusions were in students' interests and said he had raised the issue with school standards minister Nick Gibb.
After the decision to readmit students, Mr Johnson tweeted: "Sensible move by St Olave's - a great school."
In a statement, the Department for Education said: "All schools have a responsibility to provide a high quality education to every pupil and ensure there is no limit to their potential. Students enrolled in a sixth form cannot be removed because of academic ability.
"The law is clear on this and we expect all schools to follow it. We will be taking action to remind headteachers of their responsibility on this point."
Peter Read, a former headteacher in Kent who now runs an education advice service, said that the problem was not restricted to a few grammar schools.
He said: "The pressure on schools today is immense to deliver, deliver, deliver. League tables are forcing all sorts of things to go wrong in schools, this is just one example. But it's destroying young people's careers."
He said he had received an email from one parent, whose daughter was excluded last year under similar circumstances, that said "we don't know if she will ever believe in herself in the same way again."
"This is traumatic for young people who think they are going on to A-level [courses] and are then thrown out on the street," Mr Read said.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41132701
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The worst is yet to come for the NHS - hospital chiefs - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Hospital chiefs in England warn this winter could be the most difficult in recent history.
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Health
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The NHS in England may suffer its worst winter in recent history if it does not receive an emergency bailout, hospital chiefs are warning.
They say the cash is needed to pay for extra staff and beds because attempts to improve finances have failed.
The government has given councils an extra £1bn for social care services to help relieve the pressure on hospitals.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The NHS has prepared for winter more this year than ever before."
But the latest figures show A&E waits and bed shortages remain "stubbornly" bad, according to NHS Providers.
The group, which represents NHS chief executives, is calling for between £200m and £350m to be made available immediately.
The target to see most patients in A&E within four hours has been missed for two years now, while bed occupancy rates remain above recommended levels.
Over the summer, just over 90% of A&E patients were treated or admitted within four hours.
That was below the goal of 95% and was almost exactly the same percentage as last summer, which was then followed by the worst set of winter waiting times since the target was introduced in 2004.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "Last winter the health service came under pressure as never before. This winter could be worse."
He acknowledged that planning had been much better this year but said that despite those efforts, and the extra money for care services, hospitals were still struggling to improve performance.
"We are in virtually the same position as this time last year," he said.
"Unless we get extra money, patients will be put at greater risk as local trusts won't have the beds and staff they need to meet the extra demand we will face."
Mr Hopson said feedback from his members showed that delays in discharging patients, and workforce shortages, were hampering their efforts.
He pointed out that the NHS budget had increased by only 1.3% this year compared to a 5% rise in demand.
NHS bosses had already made savings of £20bn in the last Parliament and international evidence suggested the English health service was one of the most efficient in the world, Mr Hopson said.
But he said the Office of Budget Responsibility had estimated that the NHS would still have a £15bn funding shortfall by 2020.
Mr Hopson said: "There's a bit of a myth running around that somehow if the NHS could be that bit more efficient or a lot more productive we wouldn't need to put this extra money in.
"Of course we should find more productivity and efficiency, but it's not going to close anything like that size of gap."
The call for more money comes ahead of a meeting of NHS leaders and Prime Minister Theresa May, which is expected to take place next week.
It is understood Mrs May has called in bosses at NHS England, and the regulator NHS Improvement, to check on plans for this winter.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This animation explains how the NHS system works, and what causes delays in hospitals
Colchester Hospital University chief executive Nick Hulme said the past few months had been "as challenging as any I can remember - there has been no let-up".
"Our major concern going into this winter is staff - we are 50 junior doctors short on our rotas across the hospital. Every day is a constant struggle."
John Lawlor, chief executive of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, which runs mental health services, said: "Pressures on staffing, especially in psychiatry, are beginning to impact on services."
The government however, maintained that the £1bn extra for social care, coupled with a £100m fund set aside to get GPs into A&E departments to help see patients, would have an impact.
But Dr Tony O'Sullivan, the co-chairman of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, told the BBC this was an "emergency response to a situation that has been created over several years".
He accused the government of "deliberately underfunding" the health service.
Meanwhile, Pauline Philip, NHS England national director for urgent and emergency care, said she had already received feedback from hospitals that more than 3,000 new beds would be opened in the coming months, which would help alongside the measures being taken nationally.
She said: "The NHS will face challenges this winter, as it does every year.
"But as NHS Providers has stated, winter planning is more advanced than it was last year and, as they argue, special attention is being paid to areas where pressures are likely to be greatest.
"We are currently in the process of assessing how many extra beds trusts are planning to open over winter and early returns indicate that this will be more than 3,000.
"This is something we will continue to review on the basis of evidence rather than arbitrary estimates.
"If the expectations for reduced delays transfers of care outlined by the government are achieved, this would free up a further 2,000-3,000 beds over the winter period, on top of the extra 3,000 plus beds that hospitals now say they're going to open."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41030635
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Amazon customer sent lost engagement ring - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The diamond band was lost as the bride-to-be packed a box of children's books bound for Manchester.
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Glasgow & West Scotland
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The ring, belonging to Tatiana Fernandez, slipped off as she packed a box of children's books
A bride-to-be has been reunited with her engagement ring - after accidentally sending it more than 200 miles away.
Amazon worker Tatiana Fernandez, 49, lost the diamond band as she packed a box of children's books at a warehouse in Gourock, Inverclyde.
The ring was sent, along with the books, to a customer in Manchester.
Customer Stephenie Healiss later contacted Amazon to say she had been sent the precious possession.
Ms Fernandez, who is due to wed fiancé Stuart O'Neil, 52, said: "When I realised I'd lost my engagement ring, I went through a range of emotions, from sadness to anger at myself for losing it. I honestly thought it had gone forever."
The Cuban native added: "When our leadership team got in touch to say a customer found it in their package, I couldn't believe my luck.
"It's such a relief to get my ring back and I'd like to say a heartfelt thank you to our kind customer for returning the ring to me."
Ms Fernandez works at the Amazon warehouse at Gourock in Inverclyde
The couple, who met while working at the Amazon site near Glasgow, are currently planning their big day and are thrilled to be able to have their original engagement ring for the ceremony.
Ms Healiss said: "I was surprised, yes. I could tell the ring had a great deal of sentimental value and know from my own experience that things like that cannot be replaced.
"That's when we decided to contact Amazon. I am so pleased it's been returned safely and wish Tatiana and Stuart all the very best for their wedding day."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-41134831
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Inside the Iraqi courts sentencing IS suspects to death - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC's Yolande Knell gains rare access to trials of IS suspects in Iraq.
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Middle East
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Thousands of IS cases are being tried in courts like Nineveh Criminal Court in Qaraqosh (above)
A young man wearing a shabby, brown prisoner's outfit stands before three black-robed judges in a tiny, provincial courtroom, shaking nervously.
After sipping some water, he confirms his name: Abdullah Hussein. He is accused of fighting for so-called Islamic State (IS).
"The decision of the court has been taken according to articles 2 and 3 of the 2005 Counterterrorism Law," states the judge. "Death by hanging."
And then Hussein - who, like many suspects here, was picked up on the Mosul frontline - breaks down crying.
As IS is defeated on the battlefields of northern Iraq, some 3,000 suspected group members or collaborators are waiting to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. Usually there are at least 50 hearings a day.
IS fighters have been killed or captured amid a recent string of defeats
For security reasons, most are sent to two courthouses in this mainly Christian town, 30km (19 miles) south-east of Mosul, retaken by US-backed Iraqi forces in October.
Some human rights campaigners have criticised the system but top Iraqi judges insist it is playing a vital role in restoring law and order.
I was allowed to sit in on some of their trials.
The next defendant, Khalil Hamada, is 21 and more talkative. He comes from a town held by IS for two years, and recalls seeking out its local recruiter.
"I went by myself, nobody forced me. A lot of us joined," he says.
"How did you join? What oath did you take?" the judge asks.
"I can't remember the sentences exactly," Mr Hamada replies. "But I swore loyalty to [IS chief] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the caliphate."
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He goes on to recount how he did training with IS - in Sharia law, bodybuilding and using weapons.
But he tells the court he became "just a cook" - before admitting he was also one of six guards, "armed with Kalashnikovs" at an IS base.
He was paid about $150 dollars (£120) a month.
When the judge summarises his story, Mr Hamada nods, "Yes, it's true". A woman prosecutor then speaks and - albeit briefly - a state-appointed defence lawyer.
Like Abdullah Hussein, Khalil Hamada gets the death penalty.
He is told he can appeal and that a higher court in Baghdad makes final rulings.
However, his look of resignation suggests he knows this is little more than a formality.
During fighting in Mosul, Human Rights Watch (HRW) found evidence that some Iraqi soldiers were executing suspected IS members instead of sending them to trial.
It said men and boys fleeing the city were ill-treated, tortured and killed. Iraq's prime minister has since admitted there were "clear violations".
Now HRW says it has "serious concerns" about the quality of defence in cases being heard at the Nineveh Criminal Court in Qaraqosh.
The ancient Christian town of Qaraqosh was held by IS for two years
But Chief Judge Salam Nouri insists his court acts professionally and does an essential job.
"It sends a message to the people that the courts are the highest power and that the Iraqi government is back in control," he says.
"The judge remains neutral," says Justice Younis Jameeli, head of the Investigations Court, which has been temporarily set up in a large, family house.
He points out that IS targeted the judiciary in Mosul and says 15 of his colleagues were killed.
"Each of us lost family members and had homes destroyed but when a suspect appears before us, we treat him according to the law," he goes on.
Thousands of Christians fled and others were killed by IS
When I ask Judge Jameeli about evidence, he has a glint in his eye. "You know IS are helping us convict them," he declares, reaching for a file in the stack on his desk.
Inside there is further proof that IS are not some disorderly militia; they meant to function as a state. It is a spreadsheet, printed off from a computer and recovered by Iraqi intelligence.
Each of the 196 rows neatly identifies an IS member - his full name and address, job and a photograph.
With real fears that jihadists will try to blend back into the Iraqi population, the hope is that prosecutions can stop IS re-emerging as an insurgent group and prevent reprisals.
Outside the court, I meet Muwafaq who has come from Mosul to make an inquiry. He tells me his neighbour, who joined IS, burnt down his home. "I hope he gets to court before I see him," he says.
But others allege their loved ones were wrongly arrested.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Law professor Ali Alhadidy describes how he had to go into hiding when IS arrived
One woman claims her husband, detained two months ago, has mental health problems.
A father says his son was "a regular guy selling vegetables from a cart" - not part of IS.
Talking to them, it is clear that judging exactly who was a collaborator is a tricky business; it is hard to tell whether some locals did what they had to just to survive or whether they bought into extremist IS ideology.
As court proceedings end for the day, armed guards march a column of prisoners out the gates, their heads down.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Iraqi Christians returning to villages destroyed by IS
The streets of Qaraqosh, all around, are virtually deserted.
Three years ago tens of thousands of residents fled this mostly Christian town as IS advanced and very few have moved back.
Now Qaraqosh - with its desecrated churches - bears testimony to the barbarity of IS and just how hard it will be for ordinary Iraqis to rebuild their lives.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41110412
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Man stabbed in Stratford Westfield shopping centre 'mass brawl' - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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A man is left with a stab injury after a "mass brawl" at the Westfield shopping centre in east London.
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London
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Photos shared on social media appear to show a man lying on the floor inside the shopping centre
A man was stabbed in what witnesses described as a "mass brawl" at a shopping centre in London.
Police were called to reports of a fight at Westfield shopping centre, east London, at about 18.15 BST.
One man was taken to hospital with stab wounds, police said, while a second man sustained head injuries.
A suspect was arrested nearby on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon, Scotland Yard said.
Photos shared on social media appear to show a man lying on the floor inside the shopping centre.
On Twitter, BBC reporter Justin Dealey, who was shopping at the time, said there had been a "mass brawl".
Hollie Rose tweeted: "Imagine getting locked in a store in Westfield only to come out to find blood all over the floor and police everywhere, brilliant."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-41128411
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Inside the bridal store for refugees - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Meet the woman who dresses refugee brides
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Magazine
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Even in refugee camps life must go on, and when a man and a woman decide to marry the rare chance for a big celebration may be seized with both hands. In one camp in northern Iraq, beautician Rozhin Ahmed-Hussein - herself a Syrian Kurdish refugee - finds that she is rarely short of work.
"Most of the people in the camp are poor, and Syrian refugees like me, so when I do a beautiful bride, usually I'll dance out of the door with her because I feel so happy," says Rozhin Ahmed-Hussein.
A dusty refugee camp north of Mosul may not be the first place you'd expect to find a beauty salon and gown-hire shop, with frothy white frocks and diamante winking through the windows in the fierce sunlight - and slinky party dresses in vivid fuchsia and turquoise hanging from the rails.
In this camp, makeshift homes are separated by vast stretches of light brown gravel paths, which kick up dust in the wind and feel hot even through shoes in the 47C (117F) heat. There are 41,000 Syrian refugees living in two neighbouring camps here. The situations they've fled from are often desperate but that doesn't stop people falling in love. And when that happens, they do what people everywhere do, they get married.
Rozhin's salon isn't the only one in the camp, but it may be the most stylish. Small details, such as a coral sink placed next to a coral chair and proper reclining seats, let you know that Rozhin is not new to the business. She herself is immaculate, with no make-up. "I do make-up all day, it's like work for me," she says. Her five daughters aged from one to seven often wear matching outfits.
"I like to look glamorous, I'm always like this," she says.
Rozhin and her family fled Qamishli, a Kurdish town in Syria in 2012, as the civil war picked up pace.
"In Syria I had a normal life, a normal job as a beautician, and then when we came here it was too hard, too tough to adjust to the environment," she says.
She cried a lot, she says, because her daughter fell ill and she was homesick.
"I kept begging my husband to go back, even though it was dangerous, but he refused. In time, I adapted to the situation and my daughter got better."
It helped that she was able to open her business. The shop was initially a grocery run by her husband, but after it failed to make enough money, Rozhin saw her opportunity. She borrowed some money from her uncle and turned it into a salon.
After spotting the demand for wedding gowns and party dresses, she started stocking those too. Now the shop has been going for five years. It's named Tulin, after her daughter.
Aside from regulars coming in wanting a haircut, an eyebrow shape or a catch-up, Rozhin does up to 30 weddings a year. Many of her customers are Kurdish, and it cannot be overstated how lavish these weddings are.
The two suitable halls in the camp host 300-400 guests, which is - everyone in the room jumps in to explain - extremely small by Kurdish standards. One thousand guests would be more typical, they say. At Kurdish weddings, even the guests are made up exquisitely with flicked eyeliner, I'm told, thickly applied pale foundation, bum-length hair extensions or hijabs patterned with designer logos.
Because of the heat and sheer quantity of make-up needed, usually Rozhin does the bride's hair first and the make-up is done last to reduce the risk of it melting on the bride's face. Weddings usually take place at 7pm or 8pm when the air has cooled, but in the summer the temperature will still be in the 30s - which you have to factor in when the wedding make-up is as thick as face paint.
Each bride takes around two-and-a-half hours to get ready, but it's not just the brides. The whole wedding party may want their hair and makeup done, and sometimes Rozhin has two weddings to do in one day.
Fortunately she has friends on hand to help. The International Medical Corps runs a programme training survivors of gender-based violence to do hair and make-up, so she brings them in to lend a hand. "There's a lot of work to do with the bridal party," says Rozhin. "When I call them to come and help they're so happy - we are all sisters and we have confidence in each other. After the job is done we drink tea and coffee together."
The majority of Rozhin's brides are very young.
"Usually I don't ask how old they are, but from their faces they are 18 or 19 on average.
"I don't know why they get married in every case, but when you're 18 years old and you're living here with your family - what else is there to do?"
It also means having a big party. This is important for people coming to terms with a difficult past, and everyday refugee camp life - which means 20 people to one latrine, makeshift housing and constant vigilance against disease.
"For every single woman this is one special day to have a big glamorous dress and make-up," says Rozhin. "Just one day to feel special. No-one will be hurt by this."
While some brides might relish the experience of being made to feel glamorous, a mural showing a bride holding a teddy bear is painted outside the shop. It's a sobering reminder of the problem of young girls being married off to much older men - something which is particularly rampant in refugee camps.
A mural outside the shop warns against child marriage
But the shop is a place for escapism, even if the women can't forget their problems altogether.
"In the salon we try out new techniques with make-up, but we are always thinking about our friends and relatives."
Thinking about them, and often worrying about them.
Rozhin is the main breadwinner of the family. Her husband, Ahmed, finds work some days, but the next day there be no work to be had, and he stays at home.
"I am the one who brings money to the family and my husband does not have any problem with this. Usually the men here don't like that, for a woman to be in charge. But he says, 'If we're getting money that's OK.'"
Business has been up and down. Having her twin girls recently meant she had to close up for a few months, allowing her rivals in the camp to pick up some of her regular customers, but now things are getting better.
"There are another three that have a lot of customers," Rozhin says.
Many of the families in the camp have been living here for at least as long as Rozhin has. Communities build up, neighbours get to know each other, people fall in love. Getting married means having a stake in the future, even when that future is uncertain. If you look carefully at the wedding dresses in Rozhin's shop, you can see the hems are lightly stained the same colour as the gravelly paths of the camp.
How many women have worn these dresses, and made the same journey to the same hall, careful not to mess up their hair and make-up, and wondering what comes next?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41129078
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Hurricane Harvey: Queen 'deeply saddened' by disaster - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh send their condolences in a message to US President Donald Trump.
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UK
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The Queen has said she is "deeply saddened" by the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas.
The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh sent their condolences to the families of the 39 people known to have died in a message to US President Donald Trump.
Tens of thousands of people have been made homeless in widespread floods after the heaviest tropical rainfall ever recorded in the continental US.
The Queen said her "thoughts and prayers were with those affected".
The monarch said: "I was deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the devastation following the recent terrible floods caused by Hurricane Harvey.
"Prince Philip and I send our sincere condolences to the victims of this disaster, to those who have lost loved ones and to those who have seen their homes and property destroyed."
The US Federal Emergency Management Agency said about 364,000 people had already sought federal emergency aid because of the hurricane.
The storm initially made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Texas on 25 August before going back out to sea.
It became a tropical storm for days, flooding Texan cities including Houston before moving on to the neighbouring state of Louisiana.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said Houston's recovery from Hurricane Harvey flooding will be a "multi-year project".
"This is going to be a massive, massive clean-up process," he told the ABC News programme Good Morning America.
Mr Trump is proposing an initial $5.9bn (£4.6bn) for recovery efforts but the Texas authorities say the state might need more than $125bn.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41132706
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Has voodoo been misjudged? - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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While many African traditions and cultures are under threat from modern life, one is holding its own - voodoo.
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Africa
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The Temple of Pythons in Benin is considered a sacred place by voodoo followers
While many African traditions and cultures are under threat from modern life, there is one which is holding its own - voodoo.
It has suffered from a bad press internationally but is an official religion in the West African country of Benin.
In the voodoo heartland of Ouidah, the sound of drums fills the air, while men and women dressed mainly in white take turns to dance around a bowl of millet, a freshly slaughtered chicken and alcohol.
These are the day's offering at the Temple of Pythons.
They have an audience of about 60 people who have gathered from nearby towns for an annual cleansing ceremony.
Inside the temple, where more than 50 snakes are slithering around a custom-made pit, local devotees make amends for sins of the past year.
In voodoo, the python is a symbol of strength - the devotees explain they are relying on Dagbe, the spirit whose temple this is, to give them the power to change.
And to make that change happen, blood must be spilled.
Animal sacrifices are an important part of voodoo ceremonies - an offering to appease the spirits
The first offering is a chicken - some of the blood is spread across the tiles of the temple and the rest is mixed into a communal bowl of millet - which the devotees eat as it is passed around.
Voodoo is rooted in the worship of nature and ancestors - and the belief that the living and the dead exist side by side - a dual world that can be accessed through various deities.
Its followers believe in striving to live in peace and to always do good - that bad intentions will not go unpunished, a similar concept to Christians striving for "righteousness" and not "sinning".
Voodoo believers communicate with their gods through prayers and meditation
Modest estimates put voodoo followers here at at least 40% of Benin's population. Some 27% classify themselves as Christians and 22% Muslims.
But expert on African religions and traditions Dodji Amouzouvi, a professor of sociology and anthropology, says many people practice "dual religion".
"There is a popular saying here: 'Christian during the day and voodoo at night'. It simply means that even those who follow other faiths always return to voodoo in some way," he tells me.
To illustrate the closeness of the two faiths, there is a Basilica opposite the Temple of Pythons in the town square.
"At the moment many people here in Benin feel let down by the establishment, there are no jobs," Mr Amouzouvi.
"People are turning to voodoo to pray for better times."
But how did voodoo get exported to places such as New Orleans and Haiti?
At the edge of the sea in Ouidah stands La Porte du Non-Retour "The Door of No Return" - a stone arch monument with carvings of men and women in chains walking in a procession towards a ship.
The Door of No Return is a reminder of Benin's painful slave history
It was from this point that many thousands of African slaves were packed into ships and taken to the Americas - the only thing they took with them was voodoo, which they clung to as a reminder of home.
They continued to practise it, at times being beaten if caught by the slave masters.
This made some even more determined to keep it alive, according to reports.
Some practices in voodoo can appear threatening to the outsider - the slaughtering of animals have in part earned the faith its unflattering image, some say.
But Mr Amouzouvi says voodoo is not all that different to other faiths.
"Many religions recognise blood as a source of power, a sign of life. In Christianity it's taught that there is power in the blood of Jesus," he says.
"Voodoo teaches that there is power in blood, it can appease gods, give thanks. Animals are seen as an important part of the voodoo practice."
Regine Romaine, an academic with a keen interest in voodoo, agrees.
"The African experience is open for all to see - people are invited to witness the ceremonies, the slaughtering and that same openness has been judged whereas it isn't in other systems like the Islamic and Jewish faiths," she tells me.
"Slaughtering animals is not unique to voodoo. If you go to the kosher deli or buy halaal meat, it's been killed and allowed to bleed out before being shared.
"Ultimately, the gaze on voodoo over the years has not been one of love - that's why it's been given a bad image."
Ms Romaine is of Haitian and US heritage.
She first learned about voodoo from her aunt in Haiti - she travelled on a pilgrimage to retrace the "slave route" and her last stop was here in Benin where she has been living for more than a year.
According to Ms Romaine, voodoo's bad image abroad has a lot to do with what people have seen in Hollywood films.
"The image of voodoo went wrong from the first encounter - from the first visitors to the continent, the anthropologists who didn't understand what they were seeing and from that came a lot of xenophobic writing," she says.
"It was also worsened by the US invasion of Haiti much later, which gave rise to Hollywood's fascination with the horror stories that all had voodoo."
Back at the ceremony, the processing of devotees has now moved to the town square for the final stage of the rituals.
There is more drumming, singing, dancing and after four animals are killed and cooked inside three large flaming pots of clay, the meat inside is shared by all those who have attended the day's proceedings.
The Regional High Priest of Voodoo Daagbo Hounon is presiding over the day's rituals.
He is dressed in ceremonial robes, with a striking top hat, and holding a staff made from cowry shells.
Regional High Priest of Voodoo Daagbo Hounon says voodoo has been unfairly judged by outsiders over the years
He is a big man with a booming voice and speaks passionately about their belief system - he tells me that their faith is misunderstood.
"Voodoo is not evil. It's not the devil," he says.
"If you believe and someone thinks badly of you and tries to harm to you, voodoo will protect you. Some say it is the devil, we don't believe in the devil and even if he exists, he's not here," he tells me.
He is keen to welcome international visitors.
The small town offers an "initiation" from people from all over the world to come and learn about the practice - from how to use herbal medication, how to pray and meditate, how to perform rituals for the gods.
High Priest Hounon says the programme is popular with tourists from the US, Cuba and parts of Europe.
For many West Africans in the diaspora, voodoo has become a symbolic coming home.
Ceremonies are a chance for young and old to come together and celebrate
Ms Romaine, who is also member of that diaspora, believes voodoo is successful because it provides a connection to a neglected identity.
She tells me that voodoo is gaining appeal in the US amongst young people.
"There is a shift especially in the Americas. The younger generation now want to proclaim their identity in a way that the previous generation was perhaps more intimidated to do and spiritual identity is a part of that. For some voodoo meets that need."
The government here in Benin is committed to upholding the practice.
In the mid 1990s it built a monument to voodoo in a place known as the sacred forest - an ancient place of worship on the edge of town.
Life-sized metal and wooden totems have pride of place amongst the towering trees - this place is meant to help teach young people here about their voodoo heritage.
With the government supporting it at home and the descendants of slaves embracing it abroad, the ancient voodoo tradition has found a place in the modern world, where other African belief systems are often struggling for relevance.
Read more from Pumza on Africa's disappearing cultures:
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-41048840
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IS convoy stranded in Syria desert after US bombing - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The US-led coalition vows not to allow IS fighters and their families to reach Iraq, and bombs their path.
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Middle East
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The US-led coalition says the militants are "experienced fighters"
The US-led coalition says it will keep blocking a convoy of evacuated Islamic State militants in Syria from reaching IS-held territory on the Iraq border.
The hundreds of fighters recently surrendered an enclave on Syria's border with Lebanon.
They agreed with Hezbollah and the Syrian government that they would leave with their families and head eastwards.
But the coalition says it and Iraq were not part of the deal and on Tuesday bombed the road ahead of the convoy.
The buses are now stranded in an area of desert under Syrian government control between the towns of Humayma and al-Sukhnah.
However reports say the Syrian army and Hezbollah are seeking a new route for the convoy and a monitoring group says dozens of people have already left in cars heading for the IS-held province of Deir al-Zour.
"The coalition will not condone Isis [IS] fighters moving further east to the Iraqi border," the coalition said in a statement.
"Relocating terrorists from one place to another, for someone else to deal with, is not a lasting solution," it added.
There are some 300 IS militants on board the convoy, described by the coalition as "experienced fighters".
The convoy is stranded in the al-Sukhnah area, recently recaptured from IS control by the Syrian government
The coalition says it has not bombed them because about 300 women and children are also present, but it says a tank, armed vehicles and other vehicles facilitating the relocation have been targeted.
Food and water has been provided to the convoy, the statement says, and the coalition has also - via Russia - offered suggestions to Syria on possible ways of rescuing the women and children.
Meanwhile the Syrian army and Hezbollah were seeking a new route for the IS fighters and their families to reach IS territory near the Iraq border, Reuters news agency quoted a pro-government military source as saying.
And the UK based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said dozens of people had already left the stranded convoy in cars in a bid to reach Deir al-Zour by themselves.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows the militants and their families preparing to leave the Lebanese town of Arsal
Lebanese, Syrian and Hezbollah forces agreed ceasefires with IS militants last week days after attacking the jihadists' final foothold in the Lebanon-Syria border area.
More than 300 militants and their families were allowed to leave for Albu Kamal, a town in the Syrian province of Deir al-Zour that is 6km (4 miles) from the Iraqi border.
After the deal was announced Lebanon's army chief, Gen Joseph Aoun, said he had wanted to recover the bodies of Lebanese soldiers captured in 2014 and not risk any more lives.
But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi criticised it. "We fight the terrorists in Iraq. We do not send them to Syria," he said.
Meanwhile the US envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk, said IS militants "should be killed on the battlefield, not bussed across Syria to the Iraqi border without Iraq's consent".
Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes have been battling to oust IS fighters from the towns they control in northern Iraq.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41134559
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Met Police payouts to Lords over child abuse claims - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Lord Bramall and the family of Lord Brittan are compensated over false child sex abuse claims.
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UK
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"Nick" accused ex-head of the Army Lord Bramall (left) and ex-home secretary Lord Brittan
The Metropolitan Police Service has paid compensation to retired field marshal Lord Bramall and the family of the late Lord Brittan over false accusations of child sex abuse.
The Met has not revealed the amount paid but it is reported to be £100,000.
Both men were accused by a man known as "Nick", who is being investigated for perverting the course of justice.
It comes after the Met's child abuse investigation, Operation Midland, was criticised in a recent report.
Lord Bramall, a Normandy veteran who retired from the House of Lords in 2013, was accused in 2014 of child sexual abuse by Nick.
Within weeks, the Met launched a major investigation and the following year Lord Bramall's home was raided by more than 20 officers.
His wife died before his name was cleared.
Former Home Secretary Lord Brittan had also been investigated as part of Operation Midland, and in addition faced a separate allegation that he had raped a 19-year-old woman. His home was also raided by officers.
Both cases against him were eventually dropped, but only after he died in January 2015.
Then-Met Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised last year to former head of the Army Lord Bramall, ex-Conservative MP Harvey Proctor and the widow of Lord Brittan "for the intrusion into their homes and the impact of Operation Midland on their lives".
This came after all three men were accused of abuse by Nick, but later cleared.
Mr Proctor is continuing his legal claim against the police.
Operation Midland was a Met Police inquiry into claims a Westminster VIP paedophile ring abused children in the 1970s and 1980s. It closed in March 2016 without any charges being brought.
Former judge Sir Richard Henriques previously criticised Operation Midland for inaccuracies in search warrants used to search the homes of those accused, and failing to properly assess the credibility of Nick.
Sir Richard also said the investigation went on too long, and detectives lacked key information.
The Met was also criticised for describing the allegations as "credible and true" early in the inquiry.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41134863
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12 Britons arrested in Magaluf drugs raid - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The suspects are alleged to be part of a group supplying cocaine to partygoers, Spanish police say.
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UK
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Twelve Britons are among 14 people to be arrested as part of an alleged drug-dealing ring in the Spanish holiday resort of Magaluf, Majorca, police say.
The Spanish Civil Guard said the group was supplying cocaine to partygoers on the island.
Officers seized 3kg of high purity cocaine, 103,000 euros (around £100,000) in cash and other recreational drugs including ecstasy.
The UK's National Crime Agency worked with Spanish police on the arrests.
The arrests came after a series of dawn raids in Barcelona and Majorca, as part of Operation Tatum.
The two other suspects were Spanish and Dominican.
Cocaine was found in the boot of a car
Footage obtained by ITV News showed officers, carrying guns and wearing helmets, raiding a block of flats while a helicopter hovered overhead.
Police searched a wardrobe and a car, where cocaine was allegedly found wrapped in Clingfilm bundles.
Four vehicles were seized during the raids.
Footage showed a man being led into court in handcuffs.
Operation Tatum was launched following another drug raid last July, which saw four people - British and Spanish - arrested and 4.8kg of cocaine seized.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41138374
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Lightning strikes hurt 15 people at French music festival - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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Those injured include children who were in a tent during the event in the north-east.
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Europe
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Parts of France have been placed on alert for violent storms (archive picture)
At least 15 people have been injured, two of them seriously, by lightning at a music festival in the north-east of France, officials say.
The lightning struck in several areas of the Vieux Canal festival in the town of Azerailles, the regional council said in a statement.
Those injured include children who were in a tent during the storm.
The victims were "directly hit by the lightning and suffered burns", the regional council said.
A woman in her sixties and a 44-year-old man are reported to be in a serious condition as a result of the strikes.
Parts of France around this time of the year are often put on alert for violent storms.
Those hurt in the latest incident received first aid from the festival's emergency teams before going on to get treatment from local hospitals.
All of Saturday's performances were cancelled after the incident. Among those due to appear were French electronic act Pony Pony Run Run and pop group Black Bones.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41136592
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Second giant tuna hauled from Neyland waters in two days - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Tuna weighing about 540lbs is hauled in by shark fishermen, making it the second big catch in two days.
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South West Wales
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Mark Evans and skipper Rob Rennie were fishing for sharks when they caught the giant fish
A giant yellowfin tuna weighing about 540lb has been caught in the waters off Pembrokeshire.
Mark Evans and skipper Rob Rennie, from Tiers Cross, spent two hours reeling in the 244kg fish after it was caught accidentally during a shark fishing trip off Neyland
After posing for photographs with the prize, the tuna was then returned to the water and swam away, they said.
It is the second giant tuna to be caught in the area in just two days.
Last week, Andrew Alsop, 49, caught and released a bluefin tuna weighing about 500lb during a fishing trip from Neyland.
Jennifer Clifton, who was onboard the Lady Jue 5 on Saturday when the second big fish was caught, said "it truly was breathtaking and caused a lot of excitement".
On Friday a giant tuna weighing around 500lb was caught at the fishing spot
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-41138585
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Hiddleston's Hamlet praised by theatregoers - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The lucky few who got tickets to witness "HiddleHamlet" give their verdicts on his performance.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Tom Hiddleston's performance as Hamlet has been praised by theatregoers after the Shakespearian tragedy opened to a select audience in London.
The Thor and Night Manager star delivered a performance full of "grief and rage", according to ticketholders.
The play began its three-week run at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art's 160-seat theatre on Friday night.
But few will be lucky enough to see it, with all tickets sold through an online ballot and no recording planned.
The performance is directed by Rada president Sir Kenneth Branagh, who directed Hiddleston in the role of Loki in his breakthrough movie, Thor.
As pictures of Branagh's leather-clad Hamlet made front pages of Saturday's newspapers, some audience members took to social media to deliver their reviews, with #Hamlet trending on Twitter in the UK by Friday night.
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Many commented on the unique intimacy of the theatre, which means the audience are never more than a few metres from the cast.
The production at London's Jerwood Vanbrugh is a fundraiser, with all proceeds going towards Rada's Attenborough campaign, which aims to upgrade one of its main London sites and to provide on-site student accommodation.
Speaking ahead of the production, Hiddleston said: "The performing arts exist to bring people together, not to break or keep them apart. We need to keep the doors open for everyone."
He added: "Kenneth Branagh and I have long talked about working on the play together, and now felt like the right time, at the right place."
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There were some surprises from the actor, including singing, piano playing and a reading of Matt Haig's 'Reasons to stay alive' - a memoir about depression.
Hiddleston had plenty of funny moments too, theatre goer Emma Billman said, adding "that man is hilarious when he wants to be".
For Mary Kinberry however, Hiddleston's "clear, solid" Hamlet lacked the "soulful openess" of Andrew Scott's, who is playing the part in the West End's Harold Pinter theatre for the last time on Saturday night.
The professional critics were also impressed - although they reportedly had to win tickets through the ballot like everyone else.
It was four stars from the Telegraph, which said Hiddleston's anger was "undercut by a tenderness that is heartbreaking".
Meanwhile, the Guardian's theatre critic, Michael Billington, praised the star's "ability to combine a sweet sadness with an incandescent fury".
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For Hiddleston fans, reviews were scant comfort for not being able to see the man himself.
For them, posts like those from audience member Matthew Lumby, may be the closest they will get.
In a thread of tweets, Mr Lumby gave his verdict on the "well-paced" three hours of Hiddleston's "strong, classical" Hamlet.
He credited the supporting cast, staging and lighting and said by the end, most of the audience were on their feet.
"Overall a strong production by Branagh and Hiddleston for a good cause. Sad that so few people will be lucky enough to see it," he concluded.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41136178
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'Monster' tuna hauled by Neyland boat is 'catch of lifetime' - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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The endangered bluefin tuna was returned to the waters by the angler who caught it.
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South West Wales
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Andrew Alsop said he was exhausted and aching after the catch
A huge bluefin tuna weighing about 500lb has been caught in Welsh waters off Pembrokeshire.
Andrew Alsop, 49, spent two hours and 15 minutes to bring the 226kg "monster" in after it was accidently caught during a fishing trip from Neyland.
Mr Alsop described it as the "fish of a lifetime".
He returned the 7ft 7in (2.3m) tuna, which is an endangered species, to the water afterwards.
In a Facebook post, Mr Alsop, from Rhoose in Vale of Glamorgan, wrote: "Well what a day!!
"I caught a fish of a lifetime today after a 2hr 15min pain locker battle on my own...
"This bluefin tuna is now the biggest fish ever landed from Welsh waters."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Andrew Alsop says catching the 500lb tuna in Welsh waters was like 'a dream'
Speaking after the catch, Mr Alsop said that he was out shark fishing with five others and did not intend to catch any bluefin tuna.
"Out of the blue, one of the closest [fishing] lines went off like a rocket," he said.
"After two hours we finally got a glimpse of the fish and realised it was a giant tuna. We couldn't believe it.
"The boys were pouring water on me to cool me down, it was hard work.
"It's one of the hardest fighting fish in the sea. We were just praying the rod did not break."
Bluefin tuna are named on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of threatened species.
The UK government's Marine Management Organisation advises it should not be targeted and if caught accidentally, must be returned to the sea, alive and unharmed to the greatest extent possible.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-41125399
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Sir Tom Jones cancels US tour on 'medical advice' - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The 77-year-old singer from Pontypridd was due to perform in America on Wednesday.
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Wales
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Singer Sir Tom Jones has postponed his US tour following medical advice.
The 77-year-old, famous for hits like Delilah, It's Not Unusual and Sex Bomb, was due to start with a concert in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.
In a statement on his website, Sir Tom sent his "sincere apologies" to fans for cancelling the dates, which will be re-arranged for 2018.
Fans of the Pontypridd singer will be able to use their tickets for the new dates, yet to be announced.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-41136905
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Serena Williams gives birth to baby girl - BBC News
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2017-09-02
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The 35-year-old tennis superstar has her first child with partner Alexis Ohanian.
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US & Canada
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Parents-to-be Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian in New York in May
Tennis star Serena Williams has given birth to a baby girl at a clinic in Florida.
Williams, 35, whose partner is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, was admitted to the St Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach on Wednesday.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner said last month she was planning to return to tennis for the Australian Open in January.
Congratulations have been pouring in from sports stars and celebrities.
News of the birth came as her sister Venus prepared to go out on court at the US Open.
"Obviously I'm super-excited," Venus said. "Words can't describe it."
The couple are yet to confirm the birth themselves but Serena's coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, tweeted: "I am so happy for you and I feel your emotion."
He added: "Btw ... I wish you a speedy recovery... we have a lot of work ahead of us."
Serena admitted she had revealed her pregnancy to the world in April by accident, after mistakenly uploading a photograph on Snapchat.
She won the Australian Open title this January while newly pregnant, and in an article in Vogue last month she said she wanted to defend her title.
"It's the most outrageous plan," she said. "I just want to put that out there. That's, like, three months after I give birth."
In June she appeared in a nude cover photo for Vanity Fair, saying: "I don't know what to do with a baby."
The news has delighted the tennis world, with Rafa Nadal among the first to tweet his congratulations.
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At a news conference Garbine Muguruza joked; "a baby girl? Well, I hope she doesn't play tennis," Reuters reported.
Singer Beyonce posted a portrait of a pregnant Williams on Instagram, with the message: "Congratulations Serena!"
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Some on social media have, like Muguruza, been speculating about the baby's potential tennis ability.
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• None How did she compete while pregnant?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41130969
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Catching the hackers in the act - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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A BBC experiment gains an insight into the range of attacks companies and other organisations suffer every day.
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Technology
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Cyber-criminals start attacking servers newly set up online about an hour after they are switched on, suggests research.
The servers were part of an experiment the BBC asked a security company to carry out to judge the scale and calibre of cyber-attacks that firms face every day.
About 71 minutes after the servers were set up online they were visited by automated attack tools that scanned them for weaknesses they could exploit, found security firm Cybereason.
Once the machines had been found by the bots, they were subjected to a "constant" assault by the attack tools.
The servers were accessible online for about 170 hours to form a cyber-attack sampling tool known as a honeypot, said Israel Barak, chief information security officer at Cybereason. The servers were given real, public IP addresses and other identifying information that announced their presence online.
"We set out to map the automatic attack activity," said Mr Barak.
To make them even more realistic, he said, each one was also configured to superficially resemble a legitimate server. Each one could accept requests for webpages, file transfers and secure networking.
The attack bots look for well-known weaknesses in widely used web applications
"They had no more depth than that," he said, meaning the servers were not capable of doing anything more than providing a very basic response to a query about these basic net services and protocols.
"There was no assumption that anyone was going to go in and probe it and even if they did, there's nothing there for them to find," he said.
The servers' limited responses did not deter the automated attack tools, or bots, that many cyber-thieves use to find potential targets, he said. A wide variety of attack bots probed the servers seeking weaknesses that could be exploited had they been full-blown, production machines.
Many of the code vulnerabilities and other loopholes they looked for had been known about for months or years, he said. However, added Mr Barak, many organisations struggled to keep servers up-to-date with the patches that would thwart these bots potentially giving attackers a way to get at the server.
"This was a very typical pattern for these automatic bots," said Mr Barak. "They used similar techniques to those we've seen before. There's nothing particularly new."
As well as running a bank of servers for the BBC, Cybereason also sought to find out how quickly phishing gangs start to target new employees. It seeded 100 legitimate marketing email lists with spoof addresses and then waited to see what would turn up.
Phishing gangs were quick to find new email addresses and start sending booby-trapped messages
After 21 hours, the first booby-trapped phishing email landed in the email inbox for the fake employees, said Mr Barak. It was followed by a steady trickle of messages that sought, in many different ways, to trick people into opening malicious attachments.
About 15% of the emails contained a link to a compromised webpage that, if visited, would launch an attack that would compromise the visitor's PC. The other 85% of the phishing messages had malicious attachments. The account received booby-trapped Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDFs and executable files.
We use a lots of honeypots in a lot of different ways. The concept really scales to almost any kind of thing where you can create a believable fake or even a real version of something. You put it out and see who turns up to hit it or break it.
There are honeypots, honey-nets, honey-tokens, honey anything.
When a customer sees a threat that's hit hundreds of honeypots that's different to when they see one that no-one else has. That context in terms of attack is very useful.
Some are thin but some have a lot more depth and are scaled very broadly. Sometimes you put up the equivalent of a fake shop-front to see who turns up to attack it.
If you see an approach that you've never seen before then you might let that in and see what you can learn from it.
The most sophisticated adversaries are often very targeted when they go after specific companies or individuals.
Mr Barak said the techniques used by the bots were a good guide to what organisations should do to avoid falling victim. They should harden servers by patching, controls around admin access, check apps to make sure they are not harbouring well-known bugs and enforce strong passwords
Criminals often have different targets in mind when seeking out vulnerable servers, he said. Some were keen to hijack user accounts and others sought to take over servers and use them for their own ends.
Honeypots have become a useful tool for security firms keen to understand hack attack techniques
Cyber-thieves would look through the logs compiled by attack bots to see if they have turned up any useful or lucrative targets. There had been times when a server compromised by a bot was passed on to another criminal gang because it was at a bank, government or other high-value target.
"They sell access to parts of their botnet and offer other attackers access to machines their bots are active on," he said. "We have seen cases where a very typical bot infection turns into a manual operation."
In those cases, attackers would then use the foothold gained by the bots as a starting point for a more comprehensive attack. It's at that point, he said, hackers would take over and start to use other digital attack tools to penetrate further into a compromised organisation.
He said: "Once an adversary has got to a certain level in an organisation you have to ask what will they do next?"
In a bid to explore what happens in those situations, Cybereason is now planning to set up more servers and give these more depth to make them even more tempting targets. The idea is, he said, to get a close look at the techniques hackers use when they embark on a serious attack.
"We'll look for more sophisticated, manual operations," he said. "We'll want to see the techniques they use and if there is any monetisation of the method."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40850174
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Houston floods: Uninsured and anxious, victims return home - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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As the water recedes in Houston, three families return home to survey the damage from Harvey.
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US & Canada
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"I don't know where to start" - Herman Washington and his wife Mary Woodard found their home wrecked
As the water recedes in Houston, three families return home to survey the damage from Hurricane Harvey. Like so many others, they have no flood insurance and no way of paying for repairs.
At each house it was the same: a neat line, visible from the street, that showed where the flood finally abated. The lines ringed the small, one-storey homes in northeast Houston, where three bayous wind through the streets carrying water to the bay. For many of those returning home for the first time, the line would separate what was salvageable from what was lost.
At James and Rose Hert's house, a few hundred yards from the Greens Bayou, the line crossed the screen door about 5 ft from the ground. The water came in so fast it was up to Rose's neck by the time they waded onto the front lawn on Saturday, she said. At 59, recently recovered from thyroid cancer, and with arthritis that forces her to walk with a cane, Rose can't move fast. Neither can James, who's 63 and has nerve damage to his right leg and partial vision in his left eye.
The couple first made their way to a neighbour's house, on higher ground, but that too filled with water. Eventually they were pulled from the flood by a man with a truck, who drove them to a bus which took them to the mass shelter at the downtown convention centre. "I was terrified for my life," said Rose. "But that man was like an angel sent from heaven."
Their small, two-bedroom house, part-clapboard and part-brick, was a wedding anniversary present for Rose, purchased 23 years into the marriage and paid for with nearly all the money they had. Rose called it her castle. With the money left over she bought furniture - two couches, an armchair, a wooden dining table and a new refrigerator.
The most important piece of furniture though was an old one - an antique secretary desk handed down through three generations of women in Rose's family. She planned to pass it on to her daughter. She cried at the shelter when she thought about it. She couldn't face going back to the house, she said, so when James returned for the first time on Thursday he went without her.
When he turned the key in the lock, the door wouldn't budge. It would be the same at other houses, the first sign that the furniture inside had been picked up by the water and soaked and dumped back down where it didn't belong. He couldn't have known, as he forced the door, that it was Rose's secretary desk in the way, toppled onto its back, one leg already broken, but the glass, miraculously, intact.
As the door inched open, the rank odour of the water hit. It had seeped into the couches and the carpets and pooled between the floorboards. Underneath the water line, the walls were stained and Rose's prize furniture lay tumbled about. The fridge was on its side, blocking off the kitchen. None of it was salvageable.
Above the water line, the couple's marriage certificate hung unscathed in a frame, alongside James's army discharge and diploma, and a picture of Rose's late mother. "I guess that's something," James said.
Earlier, at the shelter, as he kissed Rose goodbye, his eyes had filled with tears. He was not given easily to emotion, she said. Maybe for a two-tour veteran of Vietnam, with 12 years service, the flood did not seem too tough. Later, at the back of the house, where the water line was 7 ft high and the deck was caked in mud, he paused for a cigarette and stood in silence looking down towards the bayou.
"There's $20,000, $30,000 worth of damage here," he said, looking back. "We just don't have it. We don't."
James Hert bought a house to mark his 25th wedding anniversary. Two years later, he will have to sell
Insurance experts estimate that only about 20% of those in Houston's worst hit areas have flood insurance. The Herts don't have any. The premiums were too high, they said. They live off $1,100 dollars a month in disability payments. After their other bills and outgoings, that leaves about $100 spare.
The number of homeowners across Houston with flood insurance dropped 9% over the past five years and as much as 23% in some counties. Harris County, where James and Rose live, has 25,000 fewer flood-insured properties than it did in 2012, according to an Associated Press review of government data.
Mary Woodard and her husband Herman couldn't afford the insurance either. The floodwater that washed through their house, a few miles south of the Herts in a low-income neighbourhood by the Hunter Bayou, was the latest in a long list of financial and personal hardships for the couple.
Herman, who's 63, had to retire from his work as a removals man last year after a stroke badly affected his right side. Mary, who's 59, worked 14 years in the local courthouse before retiring in 2011, after a diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
"It's the stink that gets you," Mary said as she pushed open the front door, entering her home for the first time after six nights in two different shelters. The tiled floor was slick with mud, the furniture soaked, the bases of the wooden cabinets warped. Food had floated out of the lower drawers and off the shelves and begun to rot on the floor. Mary didn't really care about what was beneath the water line, she wanted to know if the pictures of her first son and her first daughter had survived.
"I lost him when he was only eight years old," she said, fighting back tears. "That's when he got drowned in the pool. And my daughter, she got killed just about 12 years ago now. Her boyfriend killed her. That's why I was so glad to see those pictures. That was very important to me that they survived. Very important."
Much of Mary's income had been diverted to helping raise her daughter's four sons, as well as to taking care of her other three children. It didn't leave much for savings to help her and Herman through retirement. Like the Herts, they have about $100 spare each month.
"We don't have the insurance or anything," she said. "The few companies we did talk to, they were either too high or they didn't carry the flood insurance."
There was no money to pay for repairs, she said, they would have to move on. "We'll salvage what we can. I probably couldn't stay in this house anyhow, not after this."
"It's much worse than I thought," said Mary Woodard when she saw her house for the first time
The only hope for couples like the Woodards and the Herts is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fema will give money to uninsured homeowners to cover repairs and emergency costs. The grants are capped at a maximum of $33,300, but most will get significantly less.
At the convention centre in Houston, a long line of people formed early every morning, waiting for hours to find out if they can claim. Mary and Herman had spoken to a Fema agent on Wednesday and he told them someone would be in touch within 10 days. By that point, they'd been in the shelter for five sleepless nights.
"I've had maybe eight hours sleep since I got there," said Mary. "You get an hour here, an hour there. There are people walking all around you and people fighting. It's a lot of chaos. It's 2am before it starts to get quiet."
The first call from Fema will tell Mary and Herman whether they are eligible. Then they will have to wait up to 30 days for an adjustor to visit the property and assess how much they can claim. In the meantime, they hope Fema will pay for a hotel room. Mary's eldest son and her elderly mother both live in Houston but they both flooded just the same as Mary. "Eventually we all winded up at the convention centre," she said.
Mary Woodard and her husband Herman found their grandson's toys floating across the road
James and Rose had been told they needed to go online to apply for relief. They had spent five days in borrowed clothes - James in an old sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms, Rose in a pink nightgown - and they were overwhelmed. Three attempts to apply on a borrowed smartphone had failed as the Fema website repeatedly crashed.
Rose sat in the cavernous hallway of the convention centre and wept. She looked exhausted. She was still recovering from her brother's suicide last year, she said, and the loss of her mother two years before that. And now this. Two years after moving in, her dream home was gone.
"We put a tin roof on, we put new flowers in, we painted it," she said. "We fixed it up. It was my little castle, like no one else could describe it. It was all I ever wanted."
But it was cheap, too, partly because it needed fixing up, partly because it sits on low ground near the bayou, and that puts a significant premium on the flood insurance. Just over the road, where the ground is higher, flood insurance costs about $200 a year. On the Herts' side of the road, the premiums can run into the thousands of dollars.
Texas law stipulates that anyone in a Special Flood Hazard Area must have flood insurance, but only if you have a mortgage, people who own their homes are exempt. And the vast majority of those flooded by Hurricane Harvey fall outside the hazard zones and they never expected to see water washing through their homes.
"There's a lot of people here that have never been flooded," said Mark Hanna, from the Insurance Council for Texas. "And if you don't have to have flood insurance, and you've never been flooded before, a lot people say 'Hey, the water's have never been this high, we'll be OK'.
"People weren't prepared for a thousand-year flood. Who is?"
Rose Hert called her home her castle. She couldn't bear to see it after the flood
Frank and Melvin Lee Rogers never thought it would happen. The two brothers had been flooded once before, when Storm Alison came through in 2001, but it was nothing like this. They escaped on Saturday with just the clothes on their back and one of their cats, a tiny kitten called Squeaky.
Frank, 70, and Melvin Lee, 63, live in the Lakewood neighbourhood by the Halls Bayou, which cuts across the bottom of the street on its way to the Buffalo Bayou further south. The water had washed through the trees, leaving detritus in the branches as it went, including an old manual lawnmower which hung tangled 10 ft off the ground.
"I live down on the corner there, the white house with the blue trim," said Frank, as they crossed the bayou on foot on the way home. "You can see the dirt on the side of the house. That's the water line right there."
At the front door, the smell was so strong it seeped out of the building. Inside, a floating couch had punched a hole in the wall and smashed through a glass coffee table. Scores of worms and a small snake lay dead on the carpet. A wall calendar, neatly marked off for each day before Saturday, was cut in half by the water line, the last two weeks of the month underwater.
Frank Rogers stands in his kitchen on his first visit home, with the waterline visible behind him
Frank, a Vietnam veteran who settled in Houston and became a plastics mould operator, called out for Goldy, their five-year-old cat, who they couldn't find when the water began coming in through the walls. "No Goldy," he said. "She's gone, or dead."
Outside, his car had drifted 6 ft and was hanging off the edge of the driveway, with a film of mud over the body and the motor flooded. The mailbox was just high enough. He pulled the catch to one side and looked in. "We've got mail!" he said, cheered at finding something dry.
Around him, those neighbours who had returned, mostly Hispanic families, played music and shouted to each other as they threw furniture, carpeting and wet sheetrock out onto the front lawns.
Frank stood back and surveyed the damage. They would have to sell up, he said. But about $20,000 in repairs lay between them and a sellable house. "I don't have that kind of money," he said. "That's the point, I don't have the money. And it's hard to go to the bank and borrow money when your house is flooded. They'll tell you you're a risk."
It wasn't so much the money that prevented them getting flood insurance in the first place, said Melvin Lee, Frank's younger brother by seven years. "We just didn't see this coming," he said. "We had no idea it would be this bad. I don't think anyone thought it would be this bad."
Melvin Lee Rogers surveys the damage outside the home he shares with his brother
Five days after the flood washed away his mobile phone, Frank reached his sister. She told him she would collect him and Melvin Lee from the house. They set their few possessions down outside - a handful of dry clothes in a clear plastic bag, and Squeaky, in a carrier donated by the shelter - and began to wait.
Back at the convention centre, Mary and Herman were getting ready to bed down for a sixth night on their cots, surrounded by thousands of others. Mary was making sure to keep her phone charged at the charging station, so she wouldn't miss a call or an email from Fema. They were relieved to have seen the home, they said, despite the state of it.
James was relieved too. It seemed like knowing was better than not knowing, no matter how bad the damage. As he took one last look around his house and got ready to leave, he flicked a light switch absentmindedly. The bulb over the dining table caught him by surprise. "We have light!" he said. "That's a start!"
On the drive back from the house he was upbeat. He told the story of how he first met Rose. "I was fixing her boyfriend's car, so I had my shirt off and in those days I was still pretty well built. Anyway, it wasn't long after that I was working on another guy's car near her house, and she had a nice tree there I could use for pulling motors. She jumped up on the truck to help get some bolts out and that was that."
At the shelter, Rose waited anxiously for James to return. When he found her, he told her about the house. It wasn't bad at all, he said. The glass in the secretary desk was intact and the power was still on. The two dogs next door, which Rose loved, had survived, and the picture of her mother was hanging exactly where she left it. She cried with relief. James took her arm and walked her back to their cots, before getting in line again to speak to Fema. "I can wait another few hours," he said. "I've got time."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40927487
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McDonald's hit by first UK industrial action - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The fast food chain has seen 14 workers walk out of two of its stores in a dispute over contracts.
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Business
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lewis Baker is one of the workers on strike
McDonald's workers are staging their first UK strike after walking out at two stores in a dispute over zero-hours contracts and conditions.
Some workers at Cambridge and Crayford, south-east London, began the 24-hour action at midnight. A union called it a "brave" move by low-paid staff.
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union said staff wanted a wage of at least £10 an hour and more secure jobs.
McDonald's said only 14 of the 33 union members balloted had joined in.
"A small number of our people representing less than 0.01% of our workforce took strike action in two of our 1,270 UK restaurants," said the company.
"As per the terms of the ballot, the dispute is solely related to our internal grievance procedures and not concerning pay or contracts."
But Ian Hodson, the union's president, disputed that.
"For far too long, workers in fast food restaurants such as McDonald's have had to deal with poor working conditions, drastic cuts to employee hours, and even bullying in the workplace - viewed by many as a punishment for joining a union," he said.
Speaking to the BBC, at a union protest near the Houses of Parliament in London, two of the striking McDonald's employees outlined their grievances.
Shen Batmaz, who serves customers in the company's Crayford branch, said that being on a zero-hours contract meant that some staff were anxious about going to work because they feared being bullied.
"Zero-hours contracts are the reasons why bullying managers can cut down on our shifts drastically," she said.
"When we had a bullying business manager in, when I stood up to him my hours were cut down from four days a week to one.
"A friend had the same shift pattern for five years but when he stood up to the bullying manager, he was cut down from five days a week to one," she said.
Steve Day, a striking staff member from the McDonald's branch in Cambridge
Steve Day, a McDonald's worker from Cambridge, said encouraging his colleagues to join the BFAWU and go on strike had been very difficult and 10 staff out of about 90 had travelled to the protest in London.
"We have had managers from everywhere coming into our store, the place has been crawling with them, our main organiser in Cambridge is followed everywhere, it's like we are being policed," he said.
McDonald's, which employs about 85,000 people in the UK, announced in April that workers would be offered a choice of flexible or fixed contracts with minimum guaranteed hours, saying that 86% had chosen to stay on flexible contracts.
And it pointed to a series of pay rises as evidence that it treated its staff well.
"McDonald's UK and its franchisees have delivered three pay rises since April 2016, this has increased the average hourly pay rate by 15%," said the firm.
The union has taken advice from protesters in the US and New Zealand who have campaigned for better conditions at McDonald's there, Mr Hodson said.
The staff have also won backing from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
"Our party offers support and solidarity to the brave McDonald's workers, who are making history today," he said.
"Their demands - an end to zero hours contracts by the end of the year, union recognition and a £10 per hour minimum wage - are just and should be met."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41143869
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Jose Mourinho stars in Game4Grenfell charity match - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The Manchester United manager opts to play as a goalkeeper as they do not have to "run so much".
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UK
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Jose Mourinho has shown off his rarely-seen skills on the pitch by starring in a charity football match for people affected by the Grenfell Tower fire.
The Manchester United boss came on as a sub goalkeeper in the Game4Grenfell match between two teams of celebrities and ex-players at QPR's Loftus Road.
His team lost 5-3 on penalties in the match, in which multiple Olympic gold medallist Sir Mo Farah scored a goal.
At least 80 people died in the tower block blaze in west London on 14 June.
Homeland's Damian Lewis played against former footballers Chris Sutton and Jamie Redknapp
Sport stars, celebrities and former footballers all took part in the charity match
Celebrities including actor Damian Lewis, Olly Murs and Wretch 32 featured in the game which saw two teams managed by Les Ferdinand and Alan Shearer battle it out at the stadium, just a mile from the tower block in North Kensington.
All ticket money went to the Evening Standard's fund for those affected by the tragedy, although 2,000 complimentary tickets were given to survivors, their families, volunteers who helped in the aftermath of the blaze and the emergency services.
During half-time, singers Rita Ora, Emeli Sande and Marcus Mumford entertained the crowd with a live performance.
Mourinho, who previously managed Chelsea and still has a home in west London, made his entrance midway through the second half when he replaced former England goalkeeper David James to a noisy reception.
Although he was the son of a professional goalkeeper in his native Portugal, Mourinho himself never played above the semi-professional level and was a midfielder.
But the 54-year-old showed some useful touches between the posts, making a crucial early save as he battled to maintain his side's slender 2-1 lead at that stage of the match.
In typically combative style, Mourinho was centre of attention for much of the time he was on the pitch - being booked for time-wasting, arguing the equalising goal was offside and even scoring a penalty in the shoot-out.
Sir Mo Farah's team-mates did his trademark Mobot to celebrate the Olympian's goal
On the 80th minute mark, four Grenfell survivors and two firefighters who tackled the blaze came on together in a mass substitution and received the loudest reception of the day from the sell-out crowd at the 20,000-capacity stadium.
The match went to penalties after it ended 2-2 with ex-QPR star Trevor Sinclair and Kasabian's Chris Edwards joining Sir Mo on the scoresheet.
And despite Mourinho's best efforts, he was unable to prevent a defeat for his side as Olly Murs scored the winning goal during the penalty shoot-out.
Grenfell survivor Paul Menacer said being given the chance to play in the match "means the world to me".
"We met people who want to talk and actually care about us. Someone as big as Jose Mourinho coming down and talking to us is just an amazing thing."
Jose Mourinho failed to stop any goals during the penalty shoot-out
Grenfell volunteer Omar Salha, who also scored a penalty against the Manchester United boss, said he felt shivers of "goose bumps" when his goal went in.
He said: "He tried some mind tricks - I'm definitely going to play it back when I get home."
Speaking after the game, Mourinho joked that he had chosen to play as a goalkeeper so he didn't "have to run so much".
Asked whether he enjoyed playing the role of the day's "pantomime villain", he said he wanted to bring "something fun and different" to the charity match.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41137944
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The great saucer invasion: The day six 'spaceships' landed in England - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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How six flying saucers generated a real emergency response and panic across the country in 1967.
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England
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The saucers were found to be giving out a low, ominous tone
They had big metal domes, emitted a strange, ominous hum and appeared one morning in a straight line across southern England. For a few hours, members of the public, police and the Army really believed alien spaceships had landed - until it was revealed to be a stunt by students. But how was the hoax so successful?
The apparently extra-terrestrial vessels prompted a major police and military response, witnessed by Ray Seager who was with other children playing outside when one of the six saucers was found in the Isle of Sheppey on 4 September 1967.
"We all came running over, and there it was," he said. "There were no two ways about it. It was there.
"It was the old flying saucer shape. It was a silver, big dome with the thing round the outside. Yes, it was a flying saucer."
While the children were excited, he recalls there was also real fear as the police arrived.
"They started coming up the hill, and as they started getting close, they started gesturing to us, all the kids, to move away. And they were frightened I think, just as much as we were."
Newspapers reported how the saucers were watched, listened to and weighed at police stations and one RAF base throughout the day.
The Sheppey saucer was removed by RAF helicopter, while satellite experts were called to a "landing" site in Berkshire amid reports the object found there was bleeping and hissing and full of a mysterious liquid.
The saucers were taken away and examined before it emerged that hoaxers were responsible
Doubts about objects arose after batteries were found in one of them
From the moment apprentices at Farnborough's Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) came up with the idea for the hoax, there was a determination it should be convincing, said engineer Chris Southall.
All of them were interested in sci-fi, and they set out to create a design that would not be recognisably human.
There could be no giveaway features on the saucers, such as portholes or aerials, nor anything that might be seen on terrestrial inventions such as a plane or a boat.
First they made the metal-coated, fibreglass saucers by forming plaster moulds to build them in two halves, and then they sandwiched them together with electronic sound equipment inside.
The objects were filled with a flour and water sourdough-like substance, which fermented and then exploded when the saucers were drilled into
"When you turned the saucers upside down, it flicked a switch and started a battery," Mr Southall said.
"We were putting them out in secret, in the middle of the night, in the early hours, and we didn't want them to make a noise until then. Only when we left, we turned them upside down and the noise started - and then we got away quick."
The saucers were also filled with a flour and water mix that fermented inside and turned into foul-smelling slime.
"We wanted to make something that looked really alien," he said.
They were placed in six locations in a straight line from east to west - Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey, Bromley in south London, Ascot, the village of Welford, near Newbury, in Berkshire, Chippenham in Wiltshire and Clevedon in Somerset.
Newspapers showed how the saucers "landed" in a straight line
Engineer Rog Palmer, who was also on the committee, organised teams of two or three apprentices to take the saucers to each location and briefed each group about how to carry out the task, including what to say if stopped by the police - that they had stayed out late at a party.
And by the time the saucers were discovered, the pranksters were back in their hostel - where 500 apprentices lived - bleary-eyed over breakfast after being up all night, but very excited.
They had risen to the task of planting the "spaceships" without detection, but were they prepared for the extraordinary success of their hoax?
Mr Southall, now 72 and an environmental campaigner who runs an eco-house in Clacton, Essex, remembers it was the era of Sputnik and space exploration - and says the whole point of the hoax was for it to be taken seriously.
"We thought the government should have some sort of plan if aliens did land," he said.
"So we gave them a chance to try out whatever plan they had - but they didn't have one."
He recalls the surprise of the apprentices when police and Army responders blew one saucer up and dropped another.
David Clarke, media law expert at Sheffield Hallam University and a consultant and curator for the National Archives UFO project, believes the response to the hoax was flawed.
"One of the saucers when they actually drilled into it, because it was full of this compacted, sort of papier-maché mess, actually exploded and showered the police officers with this stuff.
"If it had been some kind of radiation hazard, how would they have dealt with that? It would have been a disaster area.
"And what did they do? Just washed it down the drains."
The "landings" led to a major police and Army response
Dr Clarke and Mr Southall agree that in 1967 the public imagination was already gripped by UFO fever - at the time the Ministry of Defence was receiving near-daily reports of sightings.
But despite this climate, the apprentices did not expect the huge media response, which included international coverage and double-page spreads.
"It was more than we hoped for," Mr Southall said.
The events of that day remain something of a blur for him, but he remembers trekking to a TV studio in the evening after the hoax had been exposed.
By the time the papers went to press, journalists had been told about the prank, but it didn't deter them from reporting it as an alien invasion, Mr Southall said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It's 50 years since the great UFO hoax fooled the nation
Press cuttings from the time reveal official sources "tended to be snappy" when questioned about the hoax.
But police confirmed no action was to be taken against the pranksters, with one Bromley officer quoted as saying: "We are taking it like gentlemen."
Mr Southall admits that to put the police and Army to such an inconvenience today would have entirely different consequences.
"Those were hippie days," he said. "We were apprentices from the RAE and people had a kinder attitude to us because of who we were, and in those days it was different."
Now, he says, the saucers would be treated as explosive devices and detonated - and the hoaxers could end up in jail.
"That's one of the interesting things looking back at this, 50 years on.
"The times we live in now are much harsher, and I don't think we could do it now. We would end up in trouble."
See more on this story on Inside Out, on BBC One South East and South on Monday 4 September at 19:30 BST, and later on the BBC iPlayer.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41110193
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Lego job application from boy, 6, claiming 'lots of experience' - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Stanley Bolland is given work experience at the theme park after writing: "I am the man for the job."
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Hampshire & Isle of Wight
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Stanley Bolland, now aged seven, said he was "the best man for the job" of model maker at Legoland
A job advert for model builders at Legoland Windsor attracted one standout application - from a six-year-old boy.
In a handwritten letter, Stanley Bolland, from Waterlooville, Hampshire, said: "I am the man [for] the job because I have lots of experience."
The company did not give him the job but did arrange a day's work placement with the theme park's model makers.
Staff member Paula Laughton said: "Stanley showed great promise, so we hope this will inspire him."
Merlin Entertainments Group advertised earlier this year for Lego model designers to help design and build animated figures for the Windsor theme park.
The advert asked for experience in product design, IT and design packages, as well as an "interest or knowledge about Lego and creation of Lego models".
In return, the company promised a "competitive annual salary", 20 days of holiday and 40% discount on Lego kits.
Stanley saw the advert and felt he was a perfect fit for the role.
He applied, saying: "Dear Sir/Madam, I am six years old and I love Lego [and] have a box of it.
"I hide my Lego so my brother cant get it. I am the man [for] the job because I have lots of experience. Love, Stanley. (ref: model builders job)"
In its reply, the company said: "Loving Lego is the first step to being a model maker, so it certainly sounds like you'll be perfect for the job (once you've finished school of course).
"In the meantime, and because you say you're the man for the job, we'd love to offer you a one-off work experience day with our model makers."
Stanley, who has now turned seven, spent the day shadowing Ms Laughton, seeing how the model makers carry out checks and repairs on the Lego constructions throughout the theme park, and getting a behind-the-scenes tour.
He said: "It was awesome to spend the whole day at Legoland meeting the model makers and learning all about what they do every day. I loved it and I can't wait to tell all my friends about it at school."
Legoland staff showed Stanley how they take care of the models, including this 5ft dragon
Stanley learned the importance of keeping key attractions - such as this replica of the London Eye - clean
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-41141813
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Cornwall floods leave motorists trapped in vehicles - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Overnight rainfall left some areas under 4ft of water with cars submerged.
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Cornwall
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Polperro High Street was left under nearly 4ft of water
People were trapped in vehicles and roads were closed as surface water flooding hit parts of Cornwall.
Overnight rainfall caused water to reach heights of 4ft (121cm) in some places on Sunday.
A flood alert was issued by the Environment Agency, who said the main areas of concern were the rivers Camel, Allen and Bodmin Town Leat.
The fire service advised road users to avoid attempting to drive through flood water.
A spokesman for the fire service said it had been a "busy day"
Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service crews from Launceston, St Austell, Wadebridge and Looe were among those called out to several rescues across the county.
At least six people had to be brought to safety by water rescue teams after becoming trapped in their vehicles, they said.
Water rescue teams from Bude and Bodmin were deployed
A spokesman from the Environment Agency said all flood defences in the area were holding and no rivers had broken their banks.
He said the flooding was thought to be largely "surface water" caused by blocked drains and heavy rainfall.
The fire service said it could take as little as 60cm of water to trap a car
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-41141331
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Newspaper review Trump, N Korea, and police custody deaths - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Most newspapers highlight growing tensions with North Korea after its most recent nuclear test.
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The Papers
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The tensions between North Korea and US President Trump feature on many of Sunday's papers
The Financial Times says US President Donald Trump has opened the door to launching an attack on North Korea, while both the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail also highlight warnings by the US that it is ready to "annihilate" the country.
The Times lays part of the blame at the door of the US president. It says the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has been emboldened by the incoherence of Mr Trump's attitude towards him.
The Guardian says it has learnt that a long-awaited official report on deaths in custody, which has yet to be published, will call for far-reaching reforms to the police and justice system.
It says the review - ordered by Theresa May when she was home secretary - will recommend that police cells should be completely phased out as a place to hold people who are believed to have mental health problems.
It will also say that the families of those who have died in police custody should receive "free, non-means tested" legal advice.
The Daily Mail says people who overload their bins risk being fined £2,500 and getting a criminal conviction.
The figure rises to £20,000 for businesses such as corner shops. The paper says councils are threatening to impose the penalties on households under anti-social behaviour laws.
Putting bins out too early or too late is also said to be on the list of "offences".
The Times reports that Theresa May is using the threat of a reshuffle to bring Tory troublemakers into line as she seeks to tighten her grip on Downing Street. The paper says that Conservative backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg is being lined up for a ministerial job to test his suitability for higher office.
An investigation by the Telegraph has found that people who make false allegations of sexual abuse are being allowed to keep tax-payer funded compensation.
The paper says thousands of pounds paid out to fake victims has not been clawed back even after their claims have been exposed as false. It believes the problem has been compounded by a compensation culture that has included lawyers touting for business from sex abuse victims.
And the Daily Mirror leads on a report that hundreds of people died needlessly last year while waiting for a transplant organ.
It quotes figures showing that nearly 460 lives could have been saved by a change in the law so that people are assumed to consent to being donors after they die.
The government's chief mouse catcher has been earning his keep, according to the Sun.
Palmerston the Whitehall cat has caught 27 mice since arriving from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home last year, says the paper. Although volunteers who look after him have told the Sun that based on reported sightings, the number is "likely to be much higher".
And the Telegraph reports the white cliffs of Dover are under threat of development. It says the rolling chalk cliff tops could be sold if the National Trust cannot raise £1m in three weeks to buy it from the landowner.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41143819
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Kim inspects 'nuclear warhead': A picture decoded - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Hours before Pyongyang conducted a sixth nuclear test, it released photos. This is what we can tell.
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Asia
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Just hours before the sixth nuclear test North Korea is suspected to have conducted, the state news agency released photographs of Kim Jong-un inspecting a nuclear warhead. Defence expert Melissa Hanham decodes what information the picture could yield.
This appears to be the biggest and most successful nuclear test by North Korea to date. Initial estimates by the USGS that it reached magnitude 6.3, which would make it an order of magnitude greater than we have ever seen before.
It is probably no coincidence that on the same day North Korean state media outlet KCNA released photographs of Kim Jong-un inspecting a so-called H-bomb, or a thermonuclear warhead, just hours before.
There is no way of telling if this is the actual device that was exploded in the tunnel - it could even be a model - but the messaging is clear. They want to demonstrate that they know what makes a credible nuclear warhead.
Kim Jong-un is standing very close to the apparent warhead, dangerously close many might reasonably posit. However, it could very well be that this is simply a model of the nuclear warhead. Nevertheless it is an extraordinary bit of messaging. In March 2016 he stood very close to a missile set to be launched. He has even been photographed smoking cigarettes next to the solid fuel motors of missiles, so he is not averse to showing extraordinary risk.
Even if it is a model, there are enough signals in this model to make it look very credible and that is to do with its shape, size and how much detail they have showed.
Typically when we've seen pictures of warheads from the US and Russia in the past they've just been cones. Here the North Koreans have shown us quite significant detail.
The bulbous peanut shaped object is an order of detail that we haven't seen before. This is the warhead itself.
The larger side, closer to the silver cylinder with the wires protruding is probably the fission device. When that explodes it will then detonate the smaller end of the object - which is the fusion part of the explosion.
The cylinder at the back is the firing set: this is the power, the electronics that will start off the explosion.
They are showing off the nuclear warhead alongside a missile. In some of the photographs we see a tall tan-coloured cone with a yellow and black painted tip. That is the Hwasong-14 ICBM nose cone. This nose cone would be what is appended to the Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile, that was tested in July, and signalled that North Korea may just have made a significant leap in weapons development.
There is even a chart in the background detailing how it will work. In Korean, the chart seems to detail that this device is intended to fit into the cone.
The North Koreans are also showing us more detail than is required because this is a propaganda piece for outside consumption.
Melissa Hanham is a Senior Research Associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
• None This video has been removed for rights reasons
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41139741
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Nicola Sturgeon 'to scrap public sector pay rise cap' - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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It is understood the measure will be announced when the first minister reveals her programme for government on Tuesday.
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Scotland politics
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Nicola Sturgeon will scrap the 1% cap on public sector pay rises when she sets out her legislative plans for the coming year, it is understood.
The first minister will announce the measure when she reveals her 2017-18 programme for government on Tuesday.
The SNP had committed to lifting the pay cap for public sector workers earlier this year, describing it as "increasingly unsustainable".
Scottish Labour described the move as a "U-turn".
Labour's bid to scrap the cap for NHS nurses was defeated at Holyrood in May.
A Scottish government source told the Sunday Herald: "The programme for government will make clear that the time has come to ditch the 1% pay cap for the public sector.
"The cap will go from next year and future pay policy will take account of the cost of living.
"We need to ensure that future pay rises are affordable, but we also need to reflect the circumstances people are facing, and recognise the contribution made by workers across the public sector."
Scottish Labour's interim leader Alex Rowley MSP said: "This SNP U-turn is long overdue - and it is welcome to see that Derek Mackay [finance secretary] has finally followed Labour's lead to end the pay cap.
"The SNP voted down a Labour motion to end the pay cap for our hard-working nurses earlier this year.
Nicola Sturgeon will reveal her 2017-18 programme for government on Tuesday
"This SNP's change of heart should be followed by a commitment to go further and use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to end austerity and invest in public services."
In June an attempt by the UK Labour Party, under Jeremy Corbyn, to reverse the long-running freeze was voted down by Conservative and Democratic Unionist MPs.
The programme for government is also understood to include the introduction of a specific offence for drug-driving.
Ms Sturgeon has further promised major reforms in education, health and justice, along with a "bold" vision for the economy and "significant" measures to protect the environment and improve the quality of housing.
The Scottish government said MSPs at Holyrood could expect to hear details of Ms Sturgeon's "most ambitious" programme yet, with 16 bills to be added to the 11 currently in progress.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41141373
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North Korea nuclear test: 'Tunnel collapse' may provide clues - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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It's the biggest test yet for North Korea, but what can we hope to learn about its nuclear progress?
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Asia
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The USGS put the site of the quake near the Punggye-ri test site
North Korea has hailed its sixth "perfect success" of a nuclear test. The seismic readings indicate it is bigger than any other it has conducted, but the apparent collapse of a tunnel at the nuclear test site could provide valuable information, nuclear defence analyst Catherine Dill writes.
Seismic readings from the US and China place the explosion at a magnitude of 6.3, so we already know that this is likely to be the most powerful of North Korea's nuclear tests.
This magnitude roughly corresponds to the lower end of predicted yields of a thermonuclear weapon - basically the second generation of nuclear weapon, which works in two stages by having one bomb set off another bomb to generate a larger explosion
It is not yet clear exactly what nuclear weapon design was tested, but based on the seismic signature, the yield of this test definitely is an order of magnitude higher than the yields of the previous tests.
Some estimates say that this latest test comes in at about 100-150 kilotonnes. For comparison, Hiroshima was about 15 kilotonnes. North Korea's last test in September 2016 was estimated at between 10 and 30 kilotonnes.
We can guess this because equations have been developed that translate magnitude of a tremor into the estimated yield of a nuclear device tested, which is basically the strength of the bomb.
But it also depends on the geology of the test site and how deep the tunnels are. We don't have all that information and that's why the information about the yields are all so preliminary.
So what else can we tell from this latest test? This is where an apparent tunnel collapse reported at the nuclear test site could be very useful.
The other way to learn is to monitor the composition of radionuclides released, which are the products of the nuclear reaction that are released into the atmosphere. In the past the tests have been very well contained as the tunnels where the tests took place were sealed. So we have not had much to analyse in recent years.
But this explosion was large and it also looks like a portion of the tunnel collapsed. The US Geological Survey recorded a second event approximately eight minutes after the test. The USGS, as well as China, have assessed this event as a "collapse" of the cavity.
Why would the tunnel collapse? It could be that the tunnel was not constructed sufficiently to handle an explosion of that size. It's also possible that they intended for this collapse to occur - a way of signalling to the world that this was an authentic test through radionuclide release, a serious advance. It is still too early to tell.
The news came hours after state media showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspecting what it said was a hydrogen bomb
What it does mean is that we are likely to get information to analyse this nuclear explosion to determine what happened under the mountains of the test site. This will take weeks or even months as monitoring sites run by the CTBTO detect these radionuclides.
The information they give us may tell us the composition of the warhead: how much fissile material there was and what kind - was it plutonium or highly enriched uranium? North Korea produces both and has capability for both.
North Korea's sixth nuclear test is not definitively a thermonuclear weapon from the seismic signature alone, but it appears to be a likely possibility at this point.
This progress is not surprising, though the magnitude of this test is a stark reminder of the seriousness of the current moment. According to South Korean government seismologists, this test was five to six times more powerful than past tests.
So what is next for North Korea and where could they go from here? Part of this depends on how the US responds.
The concern among some analysts is that North Korea will feel compelled to prove this warhead they have just tested can actually fly on an ICBM. They could want to try a live firing exercise or even an atmospheric nuclear test, which was how the earliest nuclear devices were tested until that was banned. This would be among the most provocative gestures they could make in the testing arena.
The timing of this test may or may not be politically significant. US-ROK joint exercises recently concluded. North Korea has been intimating that a test may occur this year, and the exact timing of this test may be for technical reasons more than political.
And there is no doubt that they will glean useful technical information from this test and be able to make slight adjustments to the warhead to be confident it will work in the future.
In the official state announcement after the test, Pyongyang claimed a successful test of a two-stage hydrogen (thermonuclear) bomb ready to be deployed on an ICBM that Kim Jong Un inspected the previous day.
Cautious analysts have reason to continue to debate the exact nature of the device, but with the results of this test it will be difficult for observers to continue to claim that North Korea does not yet have a working nuclear weapons program.
Catherine Dill is a senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/41139740
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No interest rate rise for at least a year, economists say - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Uncertainty over Brexit is likely to stop the Monetary Policy Committee raising interest rates.
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Business
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Many economists do not expect UK interest rates to rise until 2019 despite inflation remaining above target, according to a BBC snapshot.
They believe that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be reluctant to raise rates during Brexit negotiations.
Inflation stood at 2.6% in July - well above the Bank's official target of 2%.
Half the economists contacted by the BBC think wages growth will outpace inflation in the first half of 2019.
Last week, one MPC member, Michael Saunders, said a "modest rise" in rates was needed to curb high inflation.
The base rate has stood at a record low of 0.25% since August 2016 - the first move since March 2009, when it was reduced to 0.5%.
In June, three MPC members voted for a rate rise - the first time since May 2011 that so many had wanted to tighten policy.
The same month the Bank's chief economist, Andy Haldane, also made a call for a rate rise this year.
However, Mark Carney, the Bank governor, said in his Mansion House speech in late June that "now is not yet the time" to start raising rates once more.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has cast doubt on an imminent interest rate rise
Stuart Green, of Santander Global Corporate Banking, told the BBC he did not expect a rate hike to happen before 2019.
"We believe that policymakers will be reluctant to tighten monetary policy until greater clarity emerges around the UK's post-EU trading framework, and our expectation of declining inflation through 2018 should also reduce the pressure for an interest rate rise," he said.
Others expect it to be even longer, with economists at Morgan Stanley not expecting any movement until March 2019 at the earliest, with Andrew Goodwin at Oxford Economics suggesting it would not happen until the third quarter of that year.
Similarly, Fabrice Montagne, at Barclays, expects rates to stay on hold until "at least 2019".
But there are those who argue that the Bank will raise rates sooner. Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at the EY ITEM Club, said he had one increase, to 0.5%, pencilled in for late 2018, adding: "I would not be at all surprised if it was delayed until 2019."
Michael Lee, at Cambridge Econometrics, expects a rise to come in either the second or third quarter of next year as he thinks inflation will stay above the Bank's 2% target for the next two to three years.
Philip Rush, at Heteronomica, is more specific, settling on May 2018.
The one outlier is George Buckley at Nomura, who expects the MPC to jump in November.
The BBC also asked the economists when they expect inflation to peak in the UK. Both Mr Rush and Mr Archer think it will hit 2.9% in October, with the latter predicting it will then start to fall back "as the impact of the sharp drop in sterling following the June 2016 Brexit vote increasingly wanes".
Several others, such as Mr Green, Mr Lee and Mr Goodwin, expect inflation to hit 3% in the final three months of the year before starting to retreat.
Morgan Stanley is more pessimistic, however, predicting a peak of 3.2% in Spring 2018.
Holiday makers planning trips to the continent in the next few months should prepare themselves for more pain, according to Morgan Stanley.
Its currency strategy team expect sterling to weaken against the euro by a further 10% by March 2018.
Mr Green at Santander also forecasts more weakness for the UK currency over the course of the next year, with an average of $1.25 to the pound and just 96 euro cents in the final quarter of 2018.
Mr Archer thinks the pound will sink to about $1.25 by Christmas, but recover to trade about seven cents higher by the end of 2018.
Heteronomica's Mr Rush is also a little more optimistic about sterling, expecting it to be stronger within a year.
The last time interest rates went up was 5 July, 2007. They rose by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75%. The next month the credit crunch struck, and so began a series of cuts, down to 0.5% in March 2009.
These were supposed to be emergency measures. Then came the Brexit vote, and in August 2016 the official rate dropped to a fresh record low of 0.25%. That compares to a typical range of between 5% and 13% for most of the 1990s.
Emergency rates are the new normal. That carries dangers. If we hit another slump, we've run out of road; there won't be much the Bank of England can do to help by cutting interest rates.
While some members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee think we should start restoring interest rates to non-emergency levels this year, that is a minority view, as our snapshot of economists' forecasts shows.
You could draw a number of conclusions. You might decide interest rates aren't effective on their own - so the government should rely less on the central bank stimulus and instead use fiscal policy such as cutting taxes or raising spending.
You might take the view that rates should rise to help savers and pension schemes.
Or you might take the view that an early rise could worsen the economic slowdown. You might even believe that we need to find ways to get the official rate below zero (so that I, the lender, pay you, the borrower, to take my money).
Take your pick, but whichever you choose, normality ain't what it used to be.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41141453
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Newspaper headlines: 'Secret' Brexit bill, and Tory rebels warned - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The Sunday Times says Theresa May has "secretly agreed" a £50bn sum to settle the UK's Brexit bill.
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The Papers
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According to The Sunday Times, the outcome of the general election may have cost the country about £20bn. A source, described as a close ally of of Theresa May's, explains that meeting the UK's obligations to the EU had been estimated at up to £30bn. But, it says, the weakening of our negotiating position because the Conservative government lost a majority means the cost will rise.
The Mail on Sunday says the Prime Minister is hoping to keep the details of the likely "divorce bill" a secret until after the Conservative conference. Otherwise, it says, there could a furious backlash from Conservatives opposed to the EU.
The slow pace of the Brexit talks doesn't impress The Sunday Mirror. It calls on the EU to come up with a figure so Brexit Secretary David Davis can make the arguments for reducing it.
The Sunday People, among others, reports that government whips are at work trying to persuade "wavering Tory MPs" to support Mrs May's approach to Brexit. The Sun on Sunday says some have complained of "bullying". And The Observer believes the attempt to promote unity has left her facing "a growing Tory revolt over her leadership."
The Sunday Telegraph warns the rebels that blocking Brexit would undermine democracy and respect for our political class. Rather than do that, it urges anti-Brexit MPs to "put country before conceit".
Thousands of children going back to school this week could face an epidemic of bullying online, according to The Sun. It welcomes the training of more teachers to support pupils and combat the threat of cyber abuse. But the paper calls for more to be done - if the 8m children at risk are to be protected from a torment that doesn't stop at the school gates.
For several of the papers the main news is the ructions that have followed the arrest on suspicion of drinking and driving of the former England captain, Wayne Rooney. The People believes he is fighting to save his marriage. The views of his wife Coleen are forcefully delivered elsewhere. The Sun calls her "furious". The headline in The Mirror is "how could you do this to me when I'm pregnant?".
This autumn, says The Sunday Express, could turn out to be warmer than the summer. It says forecasters think hot air from Europe, and balmy air from the Atlantic, could combine to produce temperatures of 32C (89.6F). "How typical," says the paper, "that the sun should start shining as soon as the school holidays are over."
Britain must prepare itself for "invasions of growing numbers of foreign sea creatures" due to climate change, The Observer says. The paper says the experts believe that warming waters will drive some of our currently native species of mussels, fish and oysters further north. Their places may be taken by red mullet, john dory and pacific oysters, forcing us to change our seafood diet.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-41138635
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Four injured as car smashes into house in York - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The car crashed into the living room of the house in York, hitting a man on a sofa inside.
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York & North Yorkshire
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The car crashed into the house and ended up in the living room, injuring a man on a sofa
Four people were injured, three of them seriously, when a car smashed through the side of a house and started a fire.
A white VW Golf crashed into the living room of the property in York at about 01:20 BST, injuring the driver and two passengers and a man on a sofa.
Sgt Paul Cording of North Yorkshire Police told Minster FM it was "astounding that no-one lost their life".
A man in his 20s, believed to be the driver, has been arrested.
Police said it was "astounding that no-one lost their life in this incident"
Sgt Cording said a man inside the house was sitting on the sofa when the car ploughed through the wall.
He said the car had "quite literally" gone into the house in Rivelin Way, on Clifton Moor.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue said the man suffered lower limb injuries but his wife and younger child managed to escape uninjured.
The occupants of the car all suffered head injuries.
North Yorkshire Police is appealing for information about the vehicle in the moments before the crash.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-41140279
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The female director who was issued a fatwa for her first film - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Her film, In Between, depicts three young Arab women drinking and taking drugs.
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Entertainment & Arts
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Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura and Mouna Hawa star in In Between
When 35-year-old Maysaloun Hamoud, a Palestinian director, said she wanted to "stir things up" with her movies - she achieved it.
Her first feature film, In Between, has resulted with her being issued with a fatwa (Islamic religious ruling), as well as death threats.
The movie, which is released in the UK this month, is about three young Arab women sharing an apartment in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.
Away from the traditions of their families, they find themselves "in between" the free lives they're aspiring to lead and the restrictions still imposed on them.
"It's naive to say, 'no I didn't expect any comeback' when I wrote it," says Hamoud, "but I didn't know how big it would be.
Scenes in the film feature nightclubs, drug-taking and homosexuality
"I knew when I started to write these characters that it could not be passed by, but I did not expect the extent of the reaction."
Her characters are: Nour, who seems to be heading for a respectable marriage, but her fiance is exposed as a religious hypocrite; Salma, who dreams of being a DJ and is unable to tell her family she is gay; and Laila, a successful lawyer, who hopes for a partner who is as liberal and independent as her, and is disappointed.
The film is also set within the Palestinian underground scene (a group of young Palestinians living in Israel who are using music to forge a new cultural identity for themselves) and features an electronic soundtrack from local DJs.
With scenes featuring nightclubs, drug-taking and homosexuality, the director admits that "characters like this haven't appeared in Palestinian cinema before," adding that while initially frightened by the level of violence threatened against her and her actresses from ultra conservatives, she stands by her film.
"I wanted to take provocative action, we need to shake things up and see different things on screen. If we keep making things that people think they want to see then it's not art, it's not cinema.
"I think I have a job to develop my society and that means changing reality. The essence of an artist is to bring change."
Maysaloun Hamoud has the name of her film in English and Arabic tattooed on her arm
Hamoud was born to Palestinian parents in Budapest in Hungary, but is now a resident of Jaffa in Israel. Her first short film, Sense of Morning, was set in the Beirut war of 1982, but believes In Between "is every bit as much a political film".
That would appear to be borne out by the reaction, particularly in the conservative Arab town of Umm-al-Fahm in northern Israel, where one of the characters, Nour, comes from. According to Hamoud, it was the mayor here who first declared her film "haram", or forbidden.
"Palestine has a young cinema and there are not a lot of genres here yet," she explains. "I think there was actually a lot of confusion here when the film first appeared as to whether it was a documentary or a fiction film.
"I think some people watching it actually thought it was real life, and this is when the local leaders said they were ashamed of it, and started to go against the movie, and started talking about closing the cinemas down where it was playing.
"So my film was declared "haram", the fatwa issued, and we started getting death threats. There was a very violent atmosphere for a couple of weeks that was pretty scary.
"But you know, there is no such thing as bad publicity," she adds. "More people started coming to see the film to see what all the fuss was about, and it ended up playing at cinemas for months. I've had great reaction from both men and women."
Sana Jammalieh, who plays Salma, is Palestine's first female DJ
In Between has since been nominated for 12 Ophir Awards - Israel's version of the Oscars, while Hamoud was given the best young talent award by the Women in Motion movement at the Cannes Film Festival this year, with Isabelle Huppert calling the three women characters of the film "heroines of our time."
Maysaloun Hamoud says that while the three women she wrote weren't necessarily representative of her or her own friends, "they do represent the things that we have never talked about in our society before.
"All three characters represent huge amounts of invisible women, women who have never had their voices raised before in cinema from this part of the world. Finally, the film has made people talk about it and I'm glad."
In Between is released in the UK on 22 September 2017.
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-41112388
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Inmates moved after trouble at Birmingham jail - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Twenty eight inmates are moved out of HMP Birmingham after disorder led by 10 'key protagonists'.
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Birmingham & Black Country
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This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. HMP Birmingham, operated by G4S, was the scene of 12 hours of disorder in December 2016
Twenty eight inmates have been moved out of HMP Birmingham after trouble flared when prisoners refused to return to their cells, security firm G4S said.
The disorder on Sunday involved a "small number of prisoners" on one wing, the Prison Service said, and saw 28 cells suffer water damage.
It began at about 17:00 BST and was resolved by 23:45. No injuries have been reported.
The moved prisoners include 10 "key protagonists" who led the disorder.
G4S, who took over running the jail from the Prison Service in 2011, said it expected the cells to have dried out by later on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.
The prison was the scene of 12 hours of disorder in December 2016, which required riot teams to be deployed.
Trouble flared after a group of prisoners refused to return to their cells, G4S said
G4S said it would review what had caused the latest outbreak of trouble at the Category B and C prison in the Winson Green area of the city.
A spokesman said trouble flared "after a group of prisoners refused to return to their cells" at the end of evening association.
He said: "Staff have successfully resolved disorder on one wing at HM Prison Birmingham.
One inmate was taken to hospital for an unrelated medical matter
"No staff or prisoners were injured during the incident and the rest of the establishment was unaffected."
One inmate, believed to be in his 20s, was taken to hospital for an unrelated medical matter.
Support staff were drafted in on Sunday evening
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-41143830
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Trump hails hurricane relief efforts as he visits Texas - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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"Things are working out well," says the president, as he and wife Melania meet flood victims.
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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. Donald Trump: "As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing"
US President Donald Trump has praised the relief response to Hurricane Harvey on his second visit to flood-hit states.
"Things are working out well," he said of the efforts, as he and wife Melania met victims and volunteers in Texas.
"As tough as this was, it's been a wonderful thing," he added. "I think even for the country to watch and for the world to watch."
The devastating hurricane made landfall in the state a week ago.
Some residents have been allowed to return to their homes but flood waters are still rising in other areas.
Harvey has been blamed for at least 47 deaths, and about 43,000 people are currently housed in shelters.
President Trump and the first lady visited Texas earlier in the week but stayed clear of the disaster zone, saying they did not want to divert resources from rescue work.
However, the president was criticised for not meeting victims of the flooding and for focusing largely on the logistics of the government response.
Visiting Texas again on Saturday, Mr and Mrs Trump made a point of meeting flood survivors and volunteers in Houston. They took part in food distribution at a shelter, handing out packed lunches, and posed for photographs with victims when they requested it.
During a tour of a shelter, the president said: "I think people appreciate what's been done. It's been done very efficiently, very well, and that's what we want. We've very happy with the way things are going. A lot of love. There's a lot of love."
The president and his wife then travelled to Lake Charles, Louisiana, which also suffered flash floods, before flying back to Washington.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump greeted children at a centre for flood survivors in Houston
Amid the destruction, stories have been shared of people opening their homes and businesses to others, and forming human chains to save people from treacherous rising waters.
However, many are also now returning to destroyed homes without the insurance to fix them.
Experts estimate that only about 20% of those in Houston's worst hit areas have flood insurance.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Flood victims have been returning to inspect the damage
Mr Trump has asked Congress for $7.8bn (£6bn) as an initial payment to help with recovery efforts following the flooding in both Texas and Louisiana, which has also hit production at America's main petrol and oil refining centre.
The White House said on Saturday that the president had authorised an increase in the level of federal funding available for debris removal and emergency protective measures.
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott has said the state may need more than $125bn in aid.
The president has declared Sunday a "National Day of Prayer" for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Administration officials say there will be further requests for funds when the full impact of Hurricane Harvey becomes known.
Harvey dumped an estimated 20 trillion gallons of rain on the Houston area.
Governor Abbott has warned that the recovery programme will be a "multi-year project".
"This is going to be a massive, massive clean-up process," he told ABC News.
The Environmental Protection Agency has warned that floodwater can contain bacteria and other contaminants from overflowing sewers. It said the biggest threat to public health was access to safe drinking water.
Authorities in flood-hit Orange County, east of Beaumont, imposed a curfew on Saturday night to give its residents "peace of mind", officials said. Looting in Houston earlier in the week led to a curfew being implemented.
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Thousands of homes and businesses remain without power, and many schools are expected to remain closed in the coming days.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros, the city's Major League Baseball team, returned home to take on the New York Mets on Saturday. Tributes were paid to those killed ahead of the game.
The team abandoned their home stadium this week, playing three games in Florida against the Texas Rangers.
"We hope that these games can serve as a welcome distraction for our city that is going through a very difficult time," Astros president Reid Ryan said.
"We hope that we can put smiles on some faces."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41134799
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Universities run cartel, says think tank - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The UK 2020 report argues that fast-track two-year degrees could cut student debt.
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Education & Family
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Universities have been accused of running a "cartel" and failing to offer enough two-year bachelor's degrees, by a right of centre think tank.
The UK 2020 report argues that fast-track degrees could cut student debt.
It is backed by Labour's Lord Adonis and Sir Anthony Seldon, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, which offers two-year degrees.
But the umbrella group Universities UK said uptake of existing two-year courses had been limited.
And a spokesman pointed out that official investigations have previously found that competition in the sector was largely working well.
"Several universities have been offering two-year, fast-track degrees for a number of years, but the demand from students has been limited under the current fees and loans system in England," said UUK in a statement.
Plans to boost two-year degrees were announced by Universities Minister Jo Johnson in February.
The UK 2020 report, co-authored by businessman and Leave.EU co-funder Richard Tice, says fast-track degrees could cut student debt, enhance choice and relieve pressured housing stocks.
It argues that tuition fees, reaching £9,250 this year, have failed to deliver real choice or competition for students in England and describes mounting student anger about debt and interest rates as a "timebomb" beneath the system.
It says most universities charge the maximum fees allowed and have acted as a cartel to slow reforms and freeze out private sector competition.
"Price competition is the area where most notoriously the universities have failed to deliver," says the report.
"In the long term, smarter ways of funding students will have to be found."
The authors argue that students promised a better experience by the increase in tuition fees were "sold a lie", while vice-chancellors with massive pay packets are the biggest beneficiaries.
The report estimates that two-year degrees could reduce individual graduate debt by up to £20,000, with major savings in accommodation costs.
Mr Tice said complaints of poor value for money from friends who were parents of university students prompted him to write the report.
"Investigating the truth behind these stories has shocked me, the powerful university cartel, interwoven with parts of the establishment care lots about money and little about students."
Lord Adonis, in a joint foreword with Conservative MP and UK 2020 chairman Owen Paterson, said: "It is not often that politicians from such different parts of the spectrum come together on a major question of such national importance.
"But we are united in our desire to find a solution to the crisis in how students and universities are funded."
Sir Anthony said the report did "an excellent service in channelling the debate on higher education towards the contemporary structure and its antiquated provision".
In its statement, Universities UK said it expected three-year undergraduate degrees to remain the preferred option for many students.
"But if changes can be made to the funding and fees system in England that help increase the flexibility of provision and are in the interest of students, this is a good thing."
Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, added: "Two-year degrees may make financial sense for some students.
"However, due to the compressed nature of a two-year degree there would be a significant reduction in opportunities for students to do part-time and vacation work which many students from lower or average income households rely on to help fund their university life.
"It is also less likely that a student would have the opportunity to carry out work placements or work-based learning in their chosen subject or area of study.
"This means their skills and readiness for the workplace could suffer as part of a two-year degree.
"The real need is for a funding regime which encourages more part-time study and study alongside work."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41125111
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The men who drew the Mason-Dixon Line - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The Mason-Dixon Line is 250 years old - but who were the two British men who created one of America's most famous land borders?
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England
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It is 250 years since America's Mason-Dixon Line was completed. Hailed as a groundbreaking technical achievement, it came to symbolise the border between the Civil War North and South, separating free Pennsylvania from slave-owning Maryland. But who were the two British men who created it?
"It was the equivalent of the moon landings today," according to Mason-Dixon Line expert David Thaler.
Baker's son Charles Mason and lapsed Quaker Jeremiah Dixon were established scientists when commissioned to settle a land dispute in the pre-revolutionary America of 1763.
For 80 years the Calvert family of Maryland and the Penns of Pennsylvania had been locked in a bloody dispute over the boundary between the two colonies they had been granted by the English Crown.
"The stakes were very high," said Mr Thaler, trustee of the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore and an expert on the Mason-Dixon project.
"There was about 4,000 sq miles of territory that was in dispute and nobody knew who to pay taxes to. Warfare regularly broke out along the border."
No portraits of either man remain, but US artist Adrian Martinez produced this interpretation of how Mason, seated left, and Dixon, also seated, might have looked during the project
Outdated maps meant fresh measurements were needed, but colonial surveyors had proved inaccurate. So the families hired Mason and Dixon, who were known in England as master surveyors and astronomers.
The Mason-Dixon Line was drawn in two parts. An 83-mile (133.5km) north-south divide between Maryland and Delaware and the more recognised 233-mile (375km) west to east divide between Pennsylvania and Maryland, stretching from just south of Philadelphia to what is now West Virginia.
Mr Thaler said: "This was the most outstanding scientific and engineering achievement, not only of its day, but of the American Enlightenment.
"It was so advanced for its time. The brains were the best and the technology was the best."
Mason and Dixon brought with them some of the most advanced surveying equipment of the day, including tools by renowned instrument maker John Bird, who, like Dixon, hailed from County Durham.
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"The map they produced is one of the most important historical documents we have here in America. It's almost the equivalent of the Declaration of Independence," added Mr Thaler.
"The accuracy is so extraordinary that even today it continues to astound. It represents the first geodetic survey in the New World."
Miner's son Dixon from Cockfield, near Bishop Auckland, and Mason, from Oakridge Lynch, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, originally came together in 1761 to map the Transit of Venus - making it easier to calculate the Earth's distance from the Sun.
It would take them almost five years - lugging their equipment across hundreds of miles of wilderness - to complete the survey and cement their place in the timeline of the United States.
Yet despite their groundbreaking achievement, both ended up in unmarked graves thousands of miles apart and remain virtually unknown in their home country.
Milestones were marked with M for Maryland and P for Pennsylvania
Dixon's great-great-great-great-great-nephew, John Dixon, still lives in County Durham and is proud of his connection to a "marvellous man" who was of "great significance" in his lifetime.
"Jeremiah was a Quaker and from a mining family. He showed a talent early on for maths and then surveying.
"He went down to London to be taken on by the Royal Society, just at a time when his social life was getting a bit out of hand.
"He was a bit of a lad by all accounts, not your typical Quaker, and never married.
"He enjoyed socialising and carousing and was actually expelled from the Quakers for his drinking and keeping loose company."
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An entry in the Quaker minute book of Raby in County Durham, dated October 1760, reads: "Jery Dixon, son of George and Mary Dixon of Cockfield, disowned for drinking to excess."
Mr Dixon added: "Nevertheless, it's marvellous to be connected to such a prominent man."
Mason's early life was more sedate by comparison. At the age of 28 he was taken on by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich as an assistant. Noted as a "meticulous observer of nature and geography" he later became a fellow of the Royal Society.
Mason chronicled his arrival in Philadelphia in his journal
Mason and Dixon signed a contract to begin the survey in 1763
"Not too much is known about his younger days, but we know his family was not terribly well off and that they ran a baking business," said Royal Society librarian Keith Moore.
"He had a school education, but didn't go to university. However, he did have some local connections and knew James Bradley, who was a very famous astronomer and also from Gloucestershire.
"Bradley got him a job at the Royal Observatory, which is really the start of his career as an astronomer and surveyor.
"While at the Royal Society, he was asked to undertake Transit of Venus observations and recruited Dixon as his assistant."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Star observations were used to measure the Mason-Dixon Line
The pair arrived in Philadelphia to begin work in November 1763. They used Bird's instruments to calculate their path by the stars and had to combat hostile Native Americans, mountains, dense forest, rivers and wild animals.
Limestone markers measuring up to 5ft (1.5m) high - quarried and transported from England - were placed at every mile and marked with a P for Pennsylvania and M for Maryland on each side. So-called Crown stones were positioned every five miles and engraved with the Penn family's coat of arms on one side and the Calvert family's on the other.
"No-one really knows why the stones were shipped from England," said Todd Babcock, of the Mason and Dixon Line Preservation Partnership. "But we know there were nearly 400 of them."
He added: "At the time all Mason and Dixon had in front of them was wilderness.
"There were some settlements, but west of the Susquehanna River and approaching the Allegheny Mountains there were very few roads. It was all mature forest so they had to come through and cut a vista about 30ft wide.
"That required axe-men to cut down the trees, pack mule drivers to get the trees out of the way as well as cows for milk, chain carriers, instrument bearers and tent bearers. It was like a small army moving through the woods.
"They started off with a crew of five, but by the time they got towards the end of the survey the party had grown to about 115.
"When they came into this I think they thought it would take a year or two, but it ended up taking five."
Yet while their achievement has been rightly hailed, modern technology has shown the line was not as accurate as Mason and Dixon thought.
It took Mason and Dixon five years to complete their survey
Adrian Martinex also imagined Mason and Dixon visiting a Pennsylvania tavern with some of their party a year into the survey
Crown stones were placed at five-mile intervals along the line
Mr Babcock said: "They thought at the end of the survey that the stones were accurate to within 50ft of where they should be. But what we're finding is that some of them are as much as 900ft off the intended line of latitude.
"Using modern GPS equipment we found they progressively went to the south and then started to come back to the north. The reason for that is not because they were inaccurate or because the equipment was faulty. It was actually gravity.
"Gravity had an impact on the plumb bob they were using. They had a 6ft telescope and it used a plumb bob on a fine wire to set it to true zero so they could measure directly overhead. But gravity varied from location to location because of the influence of things like mountains.
"We have found there was a direct correlation between the local variations in gravity and how far north or south of the line they were.
"The distances between the stones is supposed to be a mile, but what we're finding is that they are anything up to 15ft longer than a mile in places.
"That said, the idea of trying to stay on a line of latitude for 230 miles through the wilderness with equipment that had never been used before is just incredible."
Mason and Dixon began their return journey eastward on 20 October 1767 and later submitted a bill for £3,516.9s - estimated as the equivalent of about £500,000 today. But, according to David Thaler, neither died rich men.
"It was certainly a substantial amount for a world-class scientific effort," he said.
"But it wasn't enough to retire on."
The bill for the Mason-Dixon Line came to just over £3,500
A plaque marks the spot close to where Mason and Dixon began their survey
The Mason-Dixon Line took on an enduring symbolism in part because of the American Civil War
Mason and Dixon are unlikely to have seen their names directly associated with their achievement, as the official report on the survey did not mention them.
The term "Mason-Dixon Line" would become more widely used when the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 to allow slave-owning Missouri and free Maine to join the union.
And of course the line's enduring symbolism was firmly established after the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, representing that demarcation between the North and South - and freedom over enslavement.
Mason and Dixon are buried thousands of miles apart in unmarked graves
After the mammoth project was completed, Mason returned to England to work again at the Greenwich Observatory but he ended his days virtually penniless back in America in 1786.
"Many years after the Mason-Dixon line was made, Mason returned to Philadelphia, but became sick during the journey," said John Hopkins, who oversees the burial ground at the city's Christ Church.
"When he got here he knew pretty much that he was close to death, so he wrote to Benjamin Franklin, who he knew, and asked him to give him a place to be buried so he didn't have to burden his wife and family.
"We don't know where he is. If he had a stone it's been lost over time.
"We have a plaque that a bunch of surveyors from around the country paid for with text close to what the inscription might have been at that time."
Charles Mason was friends with Benjamin Franklin, according to John Hopkins of Christ Church
Dixon returned to County Durham to ply his trade.
"For the last 10 years of his life he did work for Lord Barnard at Raby Castle and surveyed Auckland Castle for the Bishop of Durham," his relative John Dixon said:
"He died at the young age of 45 in 1779. There was no death certificate. We know he'd been quite a steady drinker through his life and there were rumours he died from pneumonia.
"We presume that after having been put out of the Quakers they reconciled and accepted him back. He is buried in the Quaker burial ground at Staindrop.
"We don't know exactly where he is because it was the convention at that time for Quakers not mark their gravestones."
Find out about musician Mark Knopfler's fascination with Mason and Dixon on Inside Out on BBC1 at 1930 BST on 4 September.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40638673
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Brexit: UK to be 'educated' about consequences, says Barnier - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The EU's chief negotiator says it is his job to teach the UK about the cost of leaving the bloc.
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UK Politics
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The latest salvos come after a week of Brexit talks involving David Davis (left) and Michel Barnier
The EU's Brexit negotiator has said he sees the process as an opportunity to "teach" the British people and others what leaving the single market means.
Michel Barnier said: "There are extremely serious consequences of leaving the single market and it hasn't been explained to the British people."
The UK has hit back, saying the EU does "not want to talk about the future".
Brexit Secretary David Davis said it was "frightened" and the UK would not be bounced into a divorce bill deal.
The latest salvos come after a week of talks in Brussels about the UK's withdrawal from the EU - scheduled to take place in March 2019 - which increased tensions between the two sides.
The EU suggested little substantive progress had been made on three key "separation" issues, the size of the UK's financial liabilities to the EU, the future of the Irish border and citizens' rights after Brexit.
Mr Barnier accused the UK of "nostalgia" and cast doubt on whether enough progress had been made to broaden the discussions, in the autumn, to consider the UK's post-Brexit trading relationship with the EU.
This led to a frosty response from British ministers, one of whom, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, said the UK would not be blackmailed into doing a deal on money in order to open discussions on trade.
Speaking at a conference in Italy on Saturday, Mr Barnier said he did not want to punish the UK for leaving but said: "I have a state of mind - not aggressive... but I'm not naïve."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Davis: "This bill is about ensuring continuity"
"We intend to teach people… what leaving the single market means," he told the Ambrosetti forum.
On the issue of finance, he said the UK must accept some key principles, such as honouring the commitment it made in 2014 to pay 14% of the EU budget until 2020
He said that a future free trade deal would be different to all others in the past and there had to be assurances there would be no unfair competition in the form of social, environmental or fiscal dumping, or state aid.
But speaking to BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Davis insisted the UK would not be pressured into agreeing an EU divorce bill until it is sure the sums being demanded are fair.
He dismissed newspaper reports the UK had secretly agreed to pay a figure of up to £50bn as "nonsense".
The UK was assessing the EU's financial demands on an item-by-item basis in a "very British and pragmatic fashion" - which he said the EU found difficult.
While Mr Davis said he personally liked his counterpart, he said the European Commission risked making itself appear "silly" when it claimed no progress had been made in areas such as access to welfare and healthcare rights across Europe for British expats.
"What he's concerned about of course is he's not getting the answer on money… they've set this up to try and create pressure on us on money… they're trying to play time against money".
He added: "We're going through [the bill] line by line, and they're finding it difficult because we've got good lawyers… He wants to put pressure on us, which is why the stance this week in the press conference. Bluntly, I think it looked a bit silly, because plainly there were things that we've achieved.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sir Keir Starmer: "This is grown-up politics from the Labour party in the public interest"
"We put people before process, what they're in danger of doing is putting process before people".
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said some of the figures touted for the size of the divorce bill were "extravagant" and the UK would only respect a number that was "serious and validated in law".
"We will certainly honour our legal obligations as we understand them," he said, while stressing the UK would "certainly not pay for access to the European markets".
The continuing tit-for-tat between the two sides comes as Downing Street called for unity among its MPs as they prepare to debate the government's flagship Brexit bill.
The EU Withdrawal Bill will repeal the law that paved the way for the UK to join the European Economic Community in the 1970s and convert 40 years worth of EU statutes into domestic law.
Labour has said it will seek to amend the bill to stop the government from automatically accruing new powers after Brexit.
The opposition is courting europhile Conservative MPs, claiming its position on remaining in the single market and customs union during any Brexit transition is more "clear and coherent" than the Tories.
"To suggest, as some do, that you can have, as it were, bespoke, special arrangements negotiated between now and March 2019 is nonsense, and so this is grown-up politics from the Labour party in the public interest," shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer told Andrew Marr.
But Mr Davis said Labour was onto its "perhaps seventh, eighth, ninth" policy on Brexit and the opposition knew the legislation was essential to ensuring legal certainty and practical continuity as the UK takes responsibility for policy in a wide range of areas.
4 September 2017: This story was updated to amend the wording of some direct quotes from Michel Barnier.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41140564
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Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton breaks pole record - how he did it in numbers - BBC Sport
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2017-09-03
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Lewis Hamilton has taken more pole positions than any other driver, but do the stats count towards "best qualifier" status?
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Lewis Hamilton has broken Michael Schumacher's career pole positions record by taking the 69th of his career.
The Briton moved level with the German seven-time world champion in Belgium last week and followed that up at the Italian Grand Prix with his eighth pole of the season.
BBC Sport takes a look at Hamilton's record in numbers.
How often does Hamilton translate pole to victory?
Hamilton's first pole position came in his sixth race - the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix. He converted that into his first career victory.
Since then he has been on pole at least once every season he has competed in, with 2016 his most dominant year in qualifying, finishing fastest on a Saturday on 12 occasions.
Of the 68 previous occasions Hamilton has been on pole, he has translated it into a victory 37 times.
How does that compare to the other greats?
When it comes to turning pole positions into victories, Hamilton is up there with the best.
The Briton has a poles-to-win ratio of 54%. Schumacher won 40 of the 68 races he was on pole for - 58.82%, while Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna [29 wins from 65 pole positions] has a ratio of 44.6%.
Does pole always lead to podium?
Even if Hamilton does not manage to win a race from pole position, he rarely finishes outside the top three.
Just 16 of the previous 68 races he started on pole have ended with him failing to be on the podium.
Hamilton's finishes after being on pole
Monza to Melbourne - Hamilton at his best
There are very few circuits on which Hamilton has failed to take pole position.
The Briton has mastered a Saturday at least once on every track on the current calendar, with only poles at Magny Cours (France), Istanbul Park (Turkey) and Buddh International Circuit (India) eluding him throughout his entire career.
However, his best Saturday form has come at four grands prix - Australia, China, Canada and Italy - with six pole positions at each of the circuits.
Only in Canada has Hamilton managed to make that pole position count the most, winning six times there after starting at the front of the pack.
His worst pole-to-win record is in Australia, winning just one of the six times he has started on pole in Melbourne.
Two of Hamilton's three world titles have come while he has been at Mercedes, in 2014 and 2015, and it is with this team he has been the most dominant in qualifying.
He claimed 26 pole positions in 110 races for McLaren and 43 in 90 for Mercedes. That makes for an impressive strike rate of 47% while at Mercedes, compared to 24% at the team he started his career with.
The one thing a driver can expect if they link up with Hamilton is to finish second best in qualifying.
The 32-year-old has taken more pole positions than his team-mate in nine of his previous 10 seasons and is well on course to pip Valtteri Bottas to more poles this year. He leads the Finn 8-2 with seven grand prix weekends remaining.
The one season he has failed to take more pole positions than his team-mate was 2014, when current world champion Nico Rosberg secured front place on the grid on four more occasions than Hamilton.
Is Hamilton F1's best qualifier in history?
Hamilton is now officially the most successful qualifier in Formula 1 history, having broken the all-time record for pole positions.
As to whether that makes him the best qualifier in history - and by extension the out-and-out fastest driver - well, that's another thing altogether.
For a start, statistics are an unreliable guide in many circumstances in F1, including this one. Michael Schumacher, for example, held the pole record until Hamilton broke it, and precisely almost no-one would say he was a better qualifier than Ayrton Senna, whose record the German broke.
Senna scored 65 poles and Schumacher 68. But the Brazilian won his in 162 races and Schumacher in 250 [ignoring the last three years of his ill-starred comeback]. So Senna's percentage was significantly better [40.1% compared to 27.2%].
Hamilton's is better than Schumacher's, at 34%, but not as good as Senna's - and Senna is only fourth in the all-time list in percentage terms behind Juan Manuel Fangio (an amazing 29 poles in 52 races), Jim Clark (33 out of 73) and Alberto Ascari (14 out of 33).
Even if it was just down to the numbers, it would not be possible to say who was the fastest - how can you compare drivers from such different eras when it's hard enough to do with those who are racing at the same time?
But the quality of the machinery also comes into it. Hamilton's career statistics have improved enormously since he joined Mercedes, whereas by contrast, Fernando Alonso's have gone the other way in recent years. But that doesn't make either more or less good than they already were.
There are, though, a couple of things you can say with certainty about Hamilton.
First, most would agree that he is the out-and-out fastest driver of his era. His best qualifying laps are things of awe and wonder, and it's a privilege to watch him at work.
And second, he is up there with the very best of all time when it comes to qualifying speed. Williams technical chief Paddy Lowe, one of the few to have worked with both Hamilton and Senna, says Hamilton "undoubtedly" has Senna's speed.
"Those great drivers are able to pull out an extraordinary lap," Lowe says. "They can't do it every Saturday but every now and again they just go out there and something really extraordinary is required and they produce a lap where you go, 'Wow, where on earth did that come from?' And Lewis is certainly one to do that, and so was Ayrton."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/41003336
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North Korea 'has missile-ready nuclear weapon' - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Kim Jong-un views what is said to be a new type of hydrogen bomb that fits on a ballistic missile.
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Asia
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State media said Kim Jong-un "watched an H-bomb to be loaded into a new ICBM"
North Korea says it has developed a more advanced nuclear weapon that can be loaded on to a ballistic missile.
The state news agency released pictures of leader Kim Jong-un inspecting what it said was a new hydrogen bomb.
There has been no independent verification of the claims.
International experts say the North has made advances in its nuclear weapons capabilities but it is unclear if it has successfully miniaturised a nuclear weapon it can load on to a missile.
Pyongyang has defied UN sanctions and international pressure to develop nuclear weapons and to test missiles which could potentially reach the mainland US.
State news agency KCNA said Kim Jong-un had visited scientists at the nuclear weapons institute and "guided the work for nuclear weaponisation".
"The institute recently succeeded in making a more developed nuke," the report said, adding: "He (Kim Jong-un) watched an H-bomb to be loaded into a new ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile)."
The report carried pictures of the leader inspecting the device. It described the weapon as "a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes".
Defence expert Melissa Hanham, of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in California, said that the North's claims could not be verified from the photographs alone.
"We don't know if this thing is full of styrofoam, but yes, it is shaped like it has two devices," she said on Twitter. Hydrogen bombs detonate in two stages.
She added: "The bottom line is that they probably are going to do a thermonuclear test in the future, we won't know if it's this object though."
North Korea has carried out a series of missile tests in recent months, including weapons that put the mainland US in range.
Last week it fired a missile over Japan in a move Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called an "unprecedented" threat to his country.
Mr Abe and US President Donald Trump spoke by phone after the latest report emerged. The pair agreed more pressure needed to be put on North Korea, Mr Abe said.
The North has previously claimed to have miniaturised a nuclear weapon but experts have cast doubt on this. There is also scepticism about the North's claims to have developed a hydrogen bomb, which is more powerful than an atomic bomb.
Hydrogen bombs use fusion - the merging of atoms - to unleash huge amounts of energy, whereas atomic bombs use nuclear fission, or the splitting of atoms.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests. Its most recent, and most powerful, came in September last year.
Correspondents say that although North Korea could conduct its sixth test at any time, there has been no recent activity at its Punggye-ri test site.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41138834
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Brexit: PM appeals to backbench Tories over repeal bill - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Theresa May calls for unity, as MPs return from the summer break to debate the EU repeal bill.
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UK Politics
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Theresa May has appealed for unity from pro-EU Conservative MPs as the Commons is set to debate the government's Brexit repeal bill on Thursday.
The bill, seen as a key plank of the government's Brexit policy, transfers EU law into UK legislation
Mrs May has said there will be proper scrutiny, but some MPs fear it will give ministers sweeping new powers.
Brexit Secretary David Davis said this was "nonsense" and all Tories should back it as it ensured "continuity".
Labour has said that while it backs the principle of the bill, it will not give the government a "blank cheque to pass powers into the hands of ministers".
First Secretary of State Damian Green warned that if Tory MPs backed Labour attempts to amend the bill it would increase "the threat of a Corbyn government".
The prime minister said the legislation, known officially as the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, was "the single most important step we can take to prevent a cliff-edge for people and businesses".
She said the bill delivered the result of last year's EU referendum, adding that "now it is time for Parliament to play its part".
Mrs May added: "We have made time for proper parliamentary scrutiny of Brexit legislation and welcome the contributions of MPs from across the house."
In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, the prime minister's de facto deputy Mr Green said that "no Conservative wants a bad Brexit deal", and a potential rebellion threatened to strengthen Labour's position.
But former minister and Remainer Anna Soubry told the Observer that attempts to frustrate changes to the repeal bill would amount to "a trouncing of democracy and people will not accept it".
She added that it was "outrageous" to suggest pro-EU Tories supported Jeremy Corbyn.
The legislation is not supported by the Labour Party, which has requested changes in six areas, including guarantees that workers' rights will be protected.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the government's approach to the process was "completely wrong", as it was reserving the power for ministers to overhaul existing EU laws and regulations after Brexit without any Parliamentary scrutiny.
"This is not about frustrating the process, it is not giving government a blank cheque to pass powers into the hands of ministers," he told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show.
"You could entrench important EU rights on Monday and take them away on Tuesday without primary legislation."
But Mr Davis told the programme Labour knew the legislation was necessary to ensure an orderly Brexit and was acting cynically in an attempt to destabilise the government.
Asked what his message to Tory MPs was, he said: "Everything that is significant in terms of changes will be done in separate primary legislation, on immigration, customs you name it.
"This bill is about ensuring continuity. Every MP, whether leaver or remainer, should support this bill."
The Scottish and Welsh governments have also raised concerns about the repeal bill, with Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones describing it as a "naked power-grab".
Damian Green warned potential Tory rebels that voting against the repeal bill increased the threat of a Labour government
Separately, Downing Street has rejected reports the prime minister is preparing to approve a £50bn financial settlement with the EU after the Conservative Party conference in October.
According to the Sunday Times, a close ally of Mrs May said her negotiating position with Brussels had been weakened because of June's election result, in which the Conservatives lost the Commons majority they had won in 2015.
A spokesman for No 10 said the claims were "not true".
Britain's divorce bill with the EU has been frustrating talks with negotiators in Brussels.
During the third set of talks between the UK and the EU, Europe's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Mr Davis needed to "start negotiating seriously".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41138651
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Missing charity walker Laurence Brophy, 85, found safe - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Police had been concerned for Laurence Brophy who began walking the Taff Trail on Thursday.
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South East Wales
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Laurence Brophy is described as a "fit and active gentleman"
An 85-year-old charity walker reported missing on the Taff Trail has been found safe and was determined to finish his walk.
Laurence Brophy, from Pencoed, had not been seen since he set off on his solo trek from Cardiff to Brecon and back on Thursday.
South Wales Police had asked walkers to get in touch if they had seen him.
He was found by officers on Saturday on the Taff Mead embankment and insisted on finishing the walk.
A post on his support page on Facebook said: "He set his phone to airplane mode by mistake. That's why he could not be contacted or contact anyone else."
The retired teacher stood as a Green party candidate for the Ogmore seat at last year's assembly elections and has completed numerous charity walking and cycling challenges.
He was last seen in Tongwynlais at about 12:00 BST on Thursday, when he set off for the walk, wearing a yellow jacket and dark walking trousers.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-41136912
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The worst is yet to come for the NHS - hospital chiefs - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Hospital chiefs in England warn this winter could be the most difficult in recent history.
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Health
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The NHS in England may suffer its worst winter in recent history if it does not receive an emergency bailout, hospital chiefs are warning.
They say the cash is needed to pay for extra staff and beds because attempts to improve finances have failed.
The government has given councils an extra £1bn for social care services to help relieve the pressure on hospitals.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "The NHS has prepared for winter more this year than ever before."
But the latest figures show A&E waits and bed shortages remain "stubbornly" bad, according to NHS Providers.
The group, which represents NHS chief executives, is calling for between £200m and £350m to be made available immediately.
The target to see most patients in A&E within four hours has been missed for two years now, while bed occupancy rates remain above recommended levels.
Over the summer, just over 90% of A&E patients were treated or admitted within four hours.
That was below the goal of 95% and was almost exactly the same percentage as last summer, which was then followed by the worst set of winter waiting times since the target was introduced in 2004.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: "Last winter the health service came under pressure as never before. This winter could be worse."
He acknowledged that planning had been much better this year but said that despite those efforts, and the extra money for care services, hospitals were still struggling to improve performance.
"We are in virtually the same position as this time last year," he said.
"Unless we get extra money, patients will be put at greater risk as local trusts won't have the beds and staff they need to meet the extra demand we will face."
Mr Hopson said feedback from his members showed that delays in discharging patients, and workforce shortages, were hampering their efforts.
He pointed out that the NHS budget had increased by only 1.3% this year compared to a 5% rise in demand.
NHS bosses had already made savings of £20bn in the last Parliament and international evidence suggested the English health service was one of the most efficient in the world, Mr Hopson said.
But he said the Office of Budget Responsibility had estimated that the NHS would still have a £15bn funding shortfall by 2020.
Mr Hopson said: "There's a bit of a myth running around that somehow if the NHS could be that bit more efficient or a lot more productive we wouldn't need to put this extra money in.
"Of course we should find more productivity and efficiency, but it's not going to close anything like that size of gap."
The call for more money comes ahead of a meeting of NHS leaders and Prime Minister Theresa May, which is expected to take place next week.
It is understood Mrs May has called in bosses at NHS England, and the regulator NHS Improvement, to check on plans for this winter.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This animation explains how the NHS system works, and what causes delays in hospitals
Colchester Hospital University chief executive Nick Hulme said the past few months had been "as challenging as any I can remember - there has been no let-up".
"Our major concern going into this winter is staff - we are 50 junior doctors short on our rotas across the hospital. Every day is a constant struggle."
John Lawlor, chief executive of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, which runs mental health services, said: "Pressures on staffing, especially in psychiatry, are beginning to impact on services."
The government however, maintained that the £1bn extra for social care, coupled with a £100m fund set aside to get GPs into A&E departments to help see patients, would have an impact.
But Dr Tony O'Sullivan, the co-chairman of the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, told the BBC this was an "emergency response to a situation that has been created over several years".
He accused the government of "deliberately underfunding" the health service.
Meanwhile, Pauline Philip, NHS England national director for urgent and emergency care, said she had already received feedback from hospitals that more than 3,000 new beds would be opened in the coming months, which would help alongside the measures being taken nationally.
She said: "The NHS will face challenges this winter, as it does every year.
"But as NHS Providers has stated, winter planning is more advanced than it was last year and, as they argue, special attention is being paid to areas where pressures are likely to be greatest.
"We are currently in the process of assessing how many extra beds trusts are planning to open over winter and early returns indicate that this will be more than 3,000.
"This is something we will continue to review on the basis of evidence rather than arbitrary estimates.
"If the expectations for reduced delays transfers of care outlined by the government are achieved, this would free up a further 2,000-3,000 beds over the winter period, on top of the extra 3,000 plus beds that hospitals now say they're going to open."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41030635
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Inside the Iraqi courts sentencing IS suspects to death - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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The BBC's Yolande Knell gains rare access to trials of IS suspects in Iraq.
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Middle East
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Thousands of IS cases are being tried in courts like Nineveh Criminal Court in Qaraqosh (above)
A young man wearing a shabby, brown prisoner's outfit stands before three black-robed judges in a tiny, provincial courtroom, shaking nervously.
After sipping some water, he confirms his name: Abdullah Hussein. He is accused of fighting for so-called Islamic State (IS).
"The decision of the court has been taken according to articles 2 and 3 of the 2005 Counterterrorism Law," states the judge. "Death by hanging."
And then Hussein - who, like many suspects here, was picked up on the Mosul frontline - breaks down crying.
As IS is defeated on the battlefields of northern Iraq, some 3,000 suspected group members or collaborators are waiting to be prosecuted in Iraqi courts. Usually there are at least 50 hearings a day.
IS fighters have been killed or captured amid a recent string of defeats
For security reasons, most are sent to two courthouses in this mainly Christian town, 30km (19 miles) south-east of Mosul, retaken by US-backed Iraqi forces in October.
Some human rights campaigners have criticised the system but top Iraqi judges insist it is playing a vital role in restoring law and order.
I was allowed to sit in on some of their trials.
The next defendant, Khalil Hamada, is 21 and more talkative. He comes from a town held by IS for two years, and recalls seeking out its local recruiter.
"I went by myself, nobody forced me. A lot of us joined," he says.
"How did you join? What oath did you take?" the judge asks.
"I can't remember the sentences exactly," Mr Hamada replies. "But I swore loyalty to [IS chief] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the caliphate."
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He goes on to recount how he did training with IS - in Sharia law, bodybuilding and using weapons.
But he tells the court he became "just a cook" - before admitting he was also one of six guards, "armed with Kalashnikovs" at an IS base.
He was paid about $150 dollars (£120) a month.
When the judge summarises his story, Mr Hamada nods, "Yes, it's true". A woman prosecutor then speaks and - albeit briefly - a state-appointed defence lawyer.
Like Abdullah Hussein, Khalil Hamada gets the death penalty.
He is told he can appeal and that a higher court in Baghdad makes final rulings.
However, his look of resignation suggests he knows this is little more than a formality.
During fighting in Mosul, Human Rights Watch (HRW) found evidence that some Iraqi soldiers were executing suspected IS members instead of sending them to trial.
It said men and boys fleeing the city were ill-treated, tortured and killed. Iraq's prime minister has since admitted there were "clear violations".
Now HRW says it has "serious concerns" about the quality of defence in cases being heard at the Nineveh Criminal Court in Qaraqosh.
The ancient Christian town of Qaraqosh was held by IS for two years
But Chief Judge Salam Nouri insists his court acts professionally and does an essential job.
"It sends a message to the people that the courts are the highest power and that the Iraqi government is back in control," he says.
"The judge remains neutral," says Justice Younis Jameeli, head of the Investigations Court, which has been temporarily set up in a large, family house.
He points out that IS targeted the judiciary in Mosul and says 15 of his colleagues were killed.
"Each of us lost family members and had homes destroyed but when a suspect appears before us, we treat him according to the law," he goes on.
Thousands of Christians fled and others were killed by IS
When I ask Judge Jameeli about evidence, he has a glint in his eye. "You know IS are helping us convict them," he declares, reaching for a file in the stack on his desk.
Inside there is further proof that IS are not some disorderly militia; they meant to function as a state. It is a spreadsheet, printed off from a computer and recovered by Iraqi intelligence.
Each of the 196 rows neatly identifies an IS member - his full name and address, job and a photograph.
With real fears that jihadists will try to blend back into the Iraqi population, the hope is that prosecutions can stop IS re-emerging as an insurgent group and prevent reprisals.
Outside the court, I meet Muwafaq who has come from Mosul to make an inquiry. He tells me his neighbour, who joined IS, burnt down his home. "I hope he gets to court before I see him," he says.
But others allege their loved ones were wrongly arrested.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Law professor Ali Alhadidy describes how he had to go into hiding when IS arrived
One woman claims her husband, detained two months ago, has mental health problems.
A father says his son was "a regular guy selling vegetables from a cart" - not part of IS.
Talking to them, it is clear that judging exactly who was a collaborator is a tricky business; it is hard to tell whether some locals did what they had to just to survive or whether they bought into extremist IS ideology.
As court proceedings end for the day, armed guards march a column of prisoners out the gates, their heads down.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Iraqi Christians returning to villages destroyed by IS
The streets of Qaraqosh, all around, are virtually deserted.
Three years ago tens of thousands of residents fled this mostly Christian town as IS advanced and very few have moved back.
Now Qaraqosh - with its desecrated churches - bears testimony to the barbarity of IS and just how hard it will be for ordinary Iraqis to rebuild their lives.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41110412
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Inside the bridal store for refugees - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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Meet the woman who dresses refugee brides
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Magazine
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Even in refugee camps life must go on, and when a man and a woman decide to marry the rare chance for a big celebration may be seized with both hands. In one camp in northern Iraq, beautician Rozhin Ahmed-Hussein - herself a Syrian Kurdish refugee - finds that she is rarely short of work.
"Most of the people in the camp are poor, and Syrian refugees like me, so when I do a beautiful bride, usually I'll dance out of the door with her because I feel so happy," says Rozhin Ahmed-Hussein.
A dusty refugee camp north of Mosul may not be the first place you'd expect to find a beauty salon and gown-hire shop, with frothy white frocks and diamante winking through the windows in the fierce sunlight - and slinky party dresses in vivid fuchsia and turquoise hanging from the rails.
In this camp, makeshift homes are separated by vast stretches of light brown gravel paths, which kick up dust in the wind and feel hot even through shoes in the 47C (117F) heat. There are 41,000 Syrian refugees living in two neighbouring camps here. The situations they've fled from are often desperate but that doesn't stop people falling in love. And when that happens, they do what people everywhere do, they get married.
Rozhin's salon isn't the only one in the camp, but it may be the most stylish. Small details, such as a coral sink placed next to a coral chair and proper reclining seats, let you know that Rozhin is not new to the business. She herself is immaculate, with no make-up. "I do make-up all day, it's like work for me," she says. Her five daughters aged from one to seven often wear matching outfits.
"I like to look glamorous, I'm always like this," she says.
Rozhin and her family fled Qamishli, a Kurdish town in Syria in 2012, as the civil war picked up pace.
"In Syria I had a normal life, a normal job as a beautician, and then when we came here it was too hard, too tough to adjust to the environment," she says.
She cried a lot, she says, because her daughter fell ill and she was homesick.
"I kept begging my husband to go back, even though it was dangerous, but he refused. In time, I adapted to the situation and my daughter got better."
It helped that she was able to open her business. The shop was initially a grocery run by her husband, but after it failed to make enough money, Rozhin saw her opportunity. She borrowed some money from her uncle and turned it into a salon.
After spotting the demand for wedding gowns and party dresses, she started stocking those too. Now the shop has been going for five years. It's named Tulin, after her daughter.
Aside from regulars coming in wanting a haircut, an eyebrow shape or a catch-up, Rozhin does up to 30 weddings a year. Many of her customers are Kurdish, and it cannot be overstated how lavish these weddings are.
The two suitable halls in the camp host 300-400 guests, which is - everyone in the room jumps in to explain - extremely small by Kurdish standards. One thousand guests would be more typical, they say. At Kurdish weddings, even the guests are made up exquisitely with flicked eyeliner, I'm told, thickly applied pale foundation, bum-length hair extensions or hijabs patterned with designer logos.
Because of the heat and sheer quantity of make-up needed, usually Rozhin does the bride's hair first and the make-up is done last to reduce the risk of it melting on the bride's face. Weddings usually take place at 7pm or 8pm when the air has cooled, but in the summer the temperature will still be in the 30s - which you have to factor in when the wedding make-up is as thick as face paint.
Each bride takes around two-and-a-half hours to get ready, but it's not just the brides. The whole wedding party may want their hair and makeup done, and sometimes Rozhin has two weddings to do in one day.
Fortunately she has friends on hand to help. The International Medical Corps runs a programme training survivors of gender-based violence to do hair and make-up, so she brings them in to lend a hand. "There's a lot of work to do with the bridal party," says Rozhin. "When I call them to come and help they're so happy - we are all sisters and we have confidence in each other. After the job is done we drink tea and coffee together."
The majority of Rozhin's brides are very young.
"Usually I don't ask how old they are, but from their faces they are 18 or 19 on average.
"I don't know why they get married in every case, but when you're 18 years old and you're living here with your family - what else is there to do?"
It also means having a big party. This is important for people coming to terms with a difficult past, and everyday refugee camp life - which means 20 people to one latrine, makeshift housing and constant vigilance against disease.
"For every single woman this is one special day to have a big glamorous dress and make-up," says Rozhin. "Just one day to feel special. No-one will be hurt by this."
While some brides might relish the experience of being made to feel glamorous, a mural showing a bride holding a teddy bear is painted outside the shop. It's a sobering reminder of the problem of young girls being married off to much older men - something which is particularly rampant in refugee camps.
A mural outside the shop warns against child marriage
But the shop is a place for escapism, even if the women can't forget their problems altogether.
"In the salon we try out new techniques with make-up, but we are always thinking about our friends and relatives."
Thinking about them, and often worrying about them.
Rozhin is the main breadwinner of the family. Her husband, Ahmed, finds work some days, but the next day there be no work to be had, and he stays at home.
"I am the one who brings money to the family and my husband does not have any problem with this. Usually the men here don't like that, for a woman to be in charge. But he says, 'If we're getting money that's OK.'"
Business has been up and down. Having her twin girls recently meant she had to close up for a few months, allowing her rivals in the camp to pick up some of her regular customers, but now things are getting better.
"There are another three that have a lot of customers," Rozhin says.
Many of the families in the camp have been living here for at least as long as Rozhin has. Communities build up, neighbours get to know each other, people fall in love. Getting married means having a stake in the future, even when that future is uncertain. If you look carefully at the wedding dresses in Rozhin's shop, you can see the hems are lightly stained the same colour as the gravelly paths of the camp.
How many women have worn these dresses, and made the same journey to the same hall, careful not to mess up their hair and make-up, and wondering what comes next?
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-41129078
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Harvey puts Trump's crisis management skills to the test - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The BBC's Tara McKelvey joined the president as he made a second visit to flood-hit states.
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US & Canada
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President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump helped distribute meals to victims of flooding in Houston
After the tragedy caused by Hurricane Harvey, Donald Trump managed to oversee a federal emergency with only minimal distraction.
When the president headed to Texas and Louisiana on Saturday, the mood on Air Force One was serious.
A digital clock on the plane was set to Washington and "destination" time, and people wondered what they would see on the ground.
The president wore a jacket and carried a red baseball cap. White House staffers were dressed in jeans and flat shoes and seemed ready for anything. In contrast, First Lady Melania Trump wore snake-skin-style stilettos, later changing into trainers with bright, white laces.
It was the president's second visit in a week - for good reason.
The fourth most populous city in the US, Houston, has been deluged by water. At least 47 people have been killed by Harvey and more than 100,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Yet despite this even bigger disaster was averted.
The president's stewardship of the government effort gave him a chance to show steady leadership. The system functioned relatively well. It was all the more striking, given the chaos that has characterised the White House since the inauguration.
For the Trump presidency this has been - strangely enough - a peak moment. He's overseen a federal government that has rescued people and kept them safe in temporary shelters and he has personally offered a $1m (£772,000) donation to a charity.
The management of the crisis was a break for his presidency, one that has been characterised not by efficiency but by news about federal investigations, failed legislative efforts and staff shakeups.
For many people in Texas and Louisiana, though, the palace intrigue was irrelevant. They had more pressing issues and were happy he was there.
The president rode in a motorcade through an area of Houston that had been hit by the flood. A brick wall had a hole in it. Plasterboard was piled in backyards and fences were smashed. Carpets were rolled up and left next to a road.
He got out of his vehicle so he could talk to people in the neighbourhood. He was impressed with their efforts to rebuild. He helped, too. He loaded bottles of water and boxes of cleaning supplies on to SUVs and trucks in a Pearland car park, talking with the drivers briefly before they headed out.
President Trump loaded supplies on to trucks in Pearland
Before Mr Trump arrived in the car park, I heard a man say he'd tried to get several other people to come and meet the president. They didn't show up. They'd been out saving people, he said, and they were exhausted.
Federal aid workers and troops had been scouring the area looking for flood victims. Black Hawk helicopters swooped in. Ordinary citizens assisted, too, going out in boats to save people. Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) officials delivered food and water to people who were stuck in outlying areas.
It's too soon for an in-depth critique of what the authorities did or didn't do well. But early reports showed that the agencies functioned relatively smoothly and that officials co-ordinated their efforts in a thoughtful way.
"You saved a lot of lives," the president told a helicopter pilot he met on Saturday, adding: "I'm proud of you." Then the president wondered aloud how many lives had been spared. But of course it's impossible to know.
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, hundreds died. People didn't know how bad things were until it was too late. Or they were poor and didn't have reliable means of transportation and couldn't escape.
With Hurricane Harvey, officials were better at informing people of the dangers and helping them escape.
Mr Trump was in Washington but as president he was in charge of the government's work. His efforts have been, said George Mason University's Francis Buckley, "brilliant", pointing to the way that he called for a national prayer day for the victims, a gesture Mr Buckley described as "Lincoln-esque".
President Trump was happy to pose for selfies with those he met in Texas
More importantly, said Michael Caputo, who served as a Trump campaign adviser, the president hired competent people. Brock Long, the head of Fema, had worked for years in emergency management before taking the job and knew how to oversee a rescue effort.
Mr Caputo praised the president for choosing him and not "a political crony or an insurance executive".
Brock Long, who travelled with the president on Saturday, seemed preoccupied. He had a lot of work ahead of him.
However, the president's stewardship has not been without criticism.
On the day the hurricane hit, the president announced he would pardon a former Arizona sheriff, Joe Arpaio, who was known for his brutal tactics against immigrants. Mr Trump said he knew that more people would be watching television because of the hurricane so thought it'd be a good time for the announcement.
For some, his remarks seemed callous.
He visited Corpus Christi on Tuesday. "What a crowd!" he said to people. "What a turnout!" It was the kind of thing a candidate might say during a rally - not something you'd expect from a president.
"It's Trump being Trump," said Patrick Miller, a political science professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, explaining that the president talks about "his success, his wealth, his poll numbers".
"It's all about him," Mr Miller said.
Many are left with ruined homes and ruined possessions after Hurricane Harvey
On Saturday Mr Trump also said things that seemed inappropriate. "Enjoy," he said to a driver who was heading off to help rebuild a devastated part of Texas. When he was helping to serve food, he struggled to put on plastic gloves and joked: "My hands are too big."
Still, on the Trump-o-meter scale, the things he said and did on Saturday - and earlier in the week too - did not seem all that bad.
He seemed to take a genuine interest in the people he met on Saturday. He was also rooting for them. He got back on Air Force One with his fist in the air. He pumped it twice and headed back to Washington.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41139158
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Los Angeles wildfires: City battles 'largest fire in history' - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Some residents are allowed to return home as the largest fires ever to hit LA appear to be easing.
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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. Planes tried to tackle the flames
Hundreds of Los Angeles residents have been allowed to return home, as the largest wildfires in the city's history appear to be easing.
The fires, covering about 5,000 acres, started in La Tuna Canyon on Friday, triggering a state of emergency.
"We've turned the corner, but this is not over," Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Sunday as he warned of "strong" winds.
At least three homes have been destroyed and four people are reported to have been injured.
The evacuations around the Glendale and Burbank suburbs were lifted on Sunday as rain and cooler temperatures helped firefighters to tackle the blaze, the Los Angeles Fire Department tweeted.
The fire caused hundreds of people to evacuate their homes in Burbank, California
But Mr Garcetti, who earlier described the blaze as "the largest fire in the history of LA city in terms of its acreage", told reporters on Sunday that the situation remained dangerous.
"We do not have this fire contained," Mr Garcetti said, adding: "But we do have a good sense of, in the next day or two, how we can bring this fire to rest."
He said four firefighters had suffered dehydration or minor burns.
Mr Garcetti declared an emergency on Saturday night and a further emergency order was made by California Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday.
The declarations allowed state and federal funds to be provided as soon as possible.
California has been in the grip of a heatwave and strong winds have helped to fan the flames of the Los Angeles wildfire.
Major fires are also affecting other areas of the western US.
The government has already declared states of emergency in Montana and Washington state and thousands of residents there have been evacuated.
The fires were clearly visible from the centre of Burbank
The La Tuna fire has already ravaged about 5,000 acres
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41143987
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Bradley Lowery: Charity football match at Everton's Goodison Park - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Sunderland fan Bradley, who died aged six, "would've absolutely loved" the match, his mum said.
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England
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Michael Gray and Peter Reid battle for the ball
TV stars and former footballers have taken part in a celebrity charity match in memory of Bradley Lowery.
Two teams, led by Everton legend Peter Reid and model Katie Price, went head-to-head at Goodison Park.
Sunderland fan Bradley, who died from a rare type of cancer aged six, "would've absolutely loved it" and will "be there in spirit", his mum Gemma Lowery said.
Sunderland fan Bradley Lowery was a mascot against Everton, and then for the Merseyside team
Fans took selfies with stars Olly Murs and Shayne Ward before kick-off
The Lowery Legends beat Bradley's Blues 7-3 with Bradley's uncle scoring for the winning team and X-Factor winner turned Coronation Street actor Shayne Ward scoring from the penalty spot for the losing side.
Peter Reid came on for Steps star Lee Latchford-Evans while former Sunderland left-back Micky Gray and Calum Best also made an appearance.
The Bradley Lowery Foundation, which was set up after the youngster's death to help other children suffering illness, and Everton in the Community will benefit from the funds raised.
Bradley died on 7 July having been diagnosed with neuroblastoma when he was 18 months old.
Evertonians formed a special bond with the youngster, initially during Everton's match at Sunderland in September 2016 and then when he was a guest at Goodison Park for two matches in January and February this year.
The Lowery Legends took on Bradley’s Blues
Katie Price was managing The Lowery Legends, assisted by Liverpool's former boss Roy Evans
Bradley's mum said football "was his passion" and he even made them take him to watch "when he was really poorly... because he loved it that much".
"He loved meeting people, he was very sociable. He was a very happy little boy", she said.
"He'll be there in spirit. He won't miss that."
Bradley's mum Gemma Lowery described him as "a very happy little boy"
Ex-Everton player and club ambassador Graham Stuart said it was "an honour" to take part.
"Bradley was a terrific young man who showed so much heart to fight off his problems but unfortunately they overcame him in the end.
"There are loads of kids out there with similar situations and the foundation is there for them as well."
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41140507
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North Korea nuclear test - latest updates - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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Continuing updates after North Korea claims to have tested a nuclear weapon that can be loaded onto a long-range missile.
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Asia
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US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told BBC HARDtalk on Saturday that an American first military strike against North Korea is "inevitable" if something does not change.
Mr Graham was speaking to programme host Stephen Sackur at the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy, just hours before North Korea's new claim of a successful hydrogen bomb test.
"I am 100% certain that if Kim Jong-un continues to develop missile technology that can hit America, if diplomacy fails to stop him, there will be an attack by the US against his weapon system. I'm assuming the worst, I'm assuming we drop one bomb, he fires at South Korea and maybe Japan. Let me tell you how the war ends: it ends with his utter destruction. Thousands of people could be killed or maimed.
"There's a lot at stake here. Let me ask you: why would the world allow him [Kim Jong-un] to get a hydrogen bomb with a missile to deliver it anywhere in the world? Why would we do that?"
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-asia-41139559
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The most powerful nuclear blasts ever - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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There have been more than 2,000 nuclear explosions since people first learned how to make the weapons.
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Asia
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The first nuclear test was carried out by the US in the New Mexico desert in 1945
The apparent hydrogen bomb that North Korea is believed to have detonated underground on Sunday was a massive explosion.
Some estimates put it at 100 kilotons, which would be five times more powerful than Fat Man, the bomb dropped on Nagasaki by the US in 1945 and which killed 70,000 people instantly.
But it still pales in comparison to the largest man-made explosion ever on Earth - the Soviet Union's Tsar Bomba - King of Bombs - detonated in 1961 in the height of the nuclear arms race.
That hydrogen bomb unleashed a staggering power of 50,000 kilotons, or 50 megatons.
Reports at the time said the Tsar Bomba destroyed all buildings within 55km (35 miles) of the test site at Sukhoy Nos in the Arctic Novaya Zemlya archipelago.
Buildings were destroyed and windows broken for hundreds of kilometres all around. There were reports of broken windows in Finland and Norway, and the shockwave generated by the blast travelled around the planet three times.
It was a physically an enormous bomb, weighing 27 tonnes and about 8m in length, meaning it was entirely impractical as a genuine weapon. It was dropped by parachute, from a manned plane. The crew survived, though that had been far from a certainty.
It later emerged that the bomb could have been even more powerful - it was originally designed to generate a 100-megaton blast, but was scaled back to prevent the nuclear fallout affecting the wider population.
The Soviet Union carried out several other tests of immensely powerful nuclear weapons in the 1960s in Novaya Zemlya, which had a yield of 20-24 megatons.
But more than half of the more than 2,000 deliberate nuclear explosions since the dawn of the nuclear weapons age in July 1945 have been by the US, still the only country to use nuclear weapons in war.
In November 1952, the US blew up the world's first hydrogen bomb - a far more powerful nuclear device than atomic bombs. Codenamed Ivy Mike, the 82 tonne-weapon was detonated in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
It had an explosive power of 10 megatons.
The US hydrogen bomb explosion in 1952
Archive news footage of the blast shows observers watching from military boats about 50km away.
Harold Agnew, a physicist and leading figure in US nuclear programme, was on board one of the boats, and later said: "Something I will never forget was the heat. Not the blast... the heat just kept coming, just kept coming on and on. It's really quite a terrifying experience."
The blast cloud was about 50km high and 100km wide, and completely destroyed the island of Elugelab.
A huge concrete dome covers the site on Runit Island in the Marshall Islands where repeated nuclear tests were carried out
But the biggest ever nuclear device detonated by the US was Castle Bravo, in 1954 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Castle Bravo is mostly remembered for its unintended after effects. It was expected to have a yield of about 5,000 kilotons, but the scientists had miscalculated and the eventual yield was three times that.
The resulting mushroom cloud was more than four miles wide and radiation spread over 11,000 sq km.
This 1956 test was one of several carried out in Bikini Atoll in the 1950s
People nearby had been evacuated - many never to return - but the effects were wider than expected. In the days afterwards, hundreds more people across neighbouring atolls were exposed to nuclear fallout, as well as the crew of a Japanese fishing boat in the area, leading to radiation sickness.
In 1997, the International Atomic Energy Agency said the Bikini Atoll should "should not be permanently resettled under the present radiological conditions".
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41140491
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12 Britons arrested in Magaluf drugs raid - BBC News
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2017-09-03
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https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews
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The suspects are alleged to be part of a group supplying cocaine to partygoers, Spanish police say.
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UK
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Twelve Britons are among 14 people to be arrested as part of an alleged drug-dealing ring in the Spanish holiday resort of Magaluf, Majorca, police say.
The Spanish Civil Guard said the group was supplying cocaine to partygoers on the island.
Officers seized 3kg of high purity cocaine, 103,000 euros (around £100,000) in cash and other recreational drugs including ecstasy.
The UK's National Crime Agency worked with Spanish police on the arrests.
The arrests came after a series of dawn raids in Barcelona and Majorca, as part of Operation Tatum.
The two other suspects were Spanish and Dominican.
Cocaine was found in the boot of a car
Footage obtained by ITV News showed officers, carrying guns and wearing helmets, raiding a block of flats while a helicopter hovered overhead.
Police searched a wardrobe and a car, where cocaine was allegedly found wrapped in Clingfilm bundles.
Four vehicles were seized during the raids.
Footage showed a man being led into court in handcuffs.
Operation Tatum was launched following another drug raid last July, which saw four people - British and Spanish - arrested and 4.8kg of cocaine seized.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41138374
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