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In 1990, Madonna's Blond Ambition tour was one of the most controversial and talked-about events in entertainment history. The tour, which made more than £40m - a record at the time, also made stars out of her seven male backing dancers, who also featured in the 1991 film In Bed With Madonna. Now those dancers have their own documentary - Strike a Pose, directed by Dutch film-makers Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan.
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By Emma JonesEntertainment reporter
The tour featured Madonna's hit singles Like A Prayer, Express Yourself, Like A Virgin and Vogue, and the singer, wearing her now iconic Jean-Paul Gaultier corset, drew complaints from religious groups for her provocative performances on stage, while shocking the society of 25 years ago by openly discussing HIV, Aids and homosexuality.
The film reunites six of the seven dancers - Carlton Wilborn, Salim Gauwloos, Oliver Crumes III, Luis Camacho, Jose Gutierez and Kevin Stea - while the seventh, Gabriel Trupin, who died of complications due to Aids in 1995, is represented by his mother, Sue Trupin.
Director Zwaan remembers being 11 years old when he saw In Bed With Madonna and said the dancers inspired him "because they were out and proud - it taught me what was possible".
"It was 1990, and it was the height of the Aids epidemic, and society was going through a backlash," he says.
"I felt there was so much prejudice towards gay people - to be homosexual at the time implied you might have HIV or Aids.
"It was not an easy time to be gay.
"But there on stage, and then in the film, was Madonna and her dancers, and six of them were gay, and Madonna was discussing those friends she had lost to the disease rather than keeping silent.
"I just found it very inspiring and helpful."
Zwaan and his co-director, Gould, tracked down the six men, who still worked in the world of dance and entertainment, and, after persuasion, reunited them for the first time in two decades.
It was an experience Crumes III recalls as "joyful".
"We are like brothers, we have this bond because of those experiences we shared a quarter of a century ago," he says.
"This reunion has just brought tears to all of us, and, amazingly, we picked up where we left off."
"I don't think we realised how much of ourselves were missing until we saw each other again," Stea adds.
"Really, that tour was a formative time for me in that it gave me permission to explore who I was, explore my sexuality.
"We were all from such different backgrounds, it just opened my mind to what was possible from the world."
However, the dancers were subjected to heavy media scrutiny, which, along with the social standards of the time, meant life on the tour and afterwards wasn't always easy.
Zwaan highlights "the contrast between the image of all those guys up there telling people, 'Express Yourself', while at the same time they were all struggling to be open about who they are - it's a very compelling story".
In Strike A Pose, some of the men admit to later experiences of alcoholism and drug addiction, while three of the dancers were HIV positive but wanted to keep it secret while on the Blond Ambition tour.
Gauwloos says he was often "petrified" on stage, whenever Madonna discussed Aids with the crowd.
Wilburn recalls forbidding a doctor treating him to tell the star he was unwell, and says he felt "shame about my condition".
"I couldn't even discuss it with my family," he says.
"Madonna felt able to discuss it openly, but we felt we couldn't.
"There was such a backlash against it. "
What made most headlines in 1991, however, was a scene in the documentary In Bed With Madonna, where Gauwloos and Trupin share a kiss.
At the time, two men kissing openly made global news headlines.
Sue Trupin, Gabriel's mother, says in Strike A Pose that Madonna's decision to include it and expose her son's sexuality "wasn't a statement that he wanted to make".
Trupin, along with Stea and Crumes, went on to take legal action against Madonna in 1992 for what they saw as an invasion of their privacy, before settling out of court two years later.
However, while Madonna turned down giving an interview for Strike A Pose, she did give permission for archive footage to be used.
"It was very clear to us that the story was supposed to be about the dancers," says Gould.
"We are just not interested in gossiping about Madonna.
"Of course, there was a certain pressure on us to try and include her, particularly from film financiers, but it would have severely changed the film.
"While we would have loved a reunion at the end, we are very proud of the film as it is, and it's not her celebrity power making audiences watch it."
The remaining six say that, after rediscovering each other, they are now planning on working together again.
And Wilburn says he would love to see Madonna again - "just really to show her what happened to us after the tour ended".
None of the group has seen the superstar for years, but Stea calls her "a vanguard of freedom" for speaking up in the media when the subject of HIV was taboo.
"These days, I am thankful and grateful to her," he says.
"I don't think a tour such as the one we did could happen right now.
"With the new pop stars, it's become an absolute spectacle, and most artists won't move back into storytelling.
"The Blond Ambition tour was more than a set of headlines - there was an art to it, and each song was crafted to blend into the other.
"It was one of a kind."
"I respect her more now as a person than I did back then," adds Crumes III.
"I like her more than ever.
"I see the pattern of how she's evolved herself - she is so clever.
"Back in our day, I just saw her as another person.
"Now, I see her as a pop icon, someone who analysed the culture around her and made some really smart decisions."
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English athletes at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have reportedly been briefed on how to cope with possible booing by Scots fans. What's the best way for public figures to react to such behaviour, asks Justin Parkinson.
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Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts
Collective booing - or jeering - goes back at least to public festivals held in ancient Greece. Some just laugh it off. When Chancellor George Osborne was booed as he presented medals at the 2012 London Paralympic Games, he smiled. "Booing's all part of the pantomime nature of sport," says David Fletcher, a sports psychologist at Loughborough University. "People are looking for entertainment. I think Osborne realised that."
Quiet dignity is another way of surviving. During the 1998-9 season, David Beckham was constantly booed at Manchester United's away games after being sent off in a World Cup match against Argentina, which many said cost England the game. Through a series of sensational performances for his country over the next few years, he became a national hero. "Beckham demonstrated his inner toughness," says Fletcher. "It was admirable. You have to have that sort of focus to train yourself to cope with booing and vilification."
Psychologists practise visualisation techniques and advocate measures including meditation and personal calming routines to help them cope with the pressures of abuse by crowds. But sportspeople also have to demonstrate imperviousness. England cricketer Stuart Broad was booed by Australian supporters throughout the recent Ashes series, after he refused to walk when not given out for an obvious catch the previous summer. Rather than wilting, he had a good series. Fletcher describes Broad as having a "type A" behaviour pattern, meaning he is little affected by not being liked and able to focus is on getting the job done. Others have to work hard to block out criticism.
Booing - a disapproving sound designed to mimic the "lowing of oxen" - has been used in Britain since at least 1801, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, yet crowds have loved to rile performers for far longer. In Roman times crowd disapproval literally became a matter of life or death, as emperors listened to its verdict when deciding whether defeated gladiators should be killed. Perhaps Commonwealth Games athletes might remember that as they put their own suffering into perspective.
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Former Olympic heptathlon champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill has announced she is expecting a second child.
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In a post on her Twitter account, the Sheffield star said she was "so happy" at the news.
Ennis-Hill, 31, who won a gold medal at the London games in 2012 and a silver in Rio de Janeiro, already has a two-year-old son named Reggie.
Following her retirement from athletics last year she was made a dame in the New Year Honours list.
More on this and other Sheffield stories
She married her long-term partner Andy Hill in a ceremony at Hathersage, Derbyshire in May 2013.
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A website giving walkers and climbers locations of where deer stalking takes place has been launched as a pilot project.
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The service is in addition to the Hillphones scheme run by Scottish Natural Heritage and Mountaineering Council of Scotland.
The new website covers 13 estates across Scotland.
Hillphones provides recorded messages on where stalking is happening so walkers can avoid the areas.
Author and hillwalker Cameron McNeish has welcomed the website's launch.
He said: "As a keen walker myself, I understand the need for responsible access on the hills.
"This pilot website will help this to happen and builds on the success of the Hillphones service."
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There is rising violence in towns across Wales as drug gangs from the UK's big cities fight for control of the market. BBC Wales Investigates has discovered there are now thought to be over 1,000 so-called County Lines drug networks across the UK - a four-fold increase in four years - recruiting children as young as 13. So why is Wales being hit so hard?
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By Rhidian Thomas & Ceri JacksonBBC News
This report contains strong language
Matthew Cassidy's last meal was served to him early evening at a restaurant in Shotton, Flintshire.
He was 19 years old but as he left Wok & Go with another teenager he had dined with, he had less than an hour-and-a-half to live.
The final moments of his life were violent to say the least. A resident of a block of flats in nearby Connah's Quay, where Matthew was murdered, recalled hearing "horrifying screams".
Matthew, who had come to the area from his native Liverpool only the day before, was stabbed to death.
Of the nine wounds inflicted on him, one went through his heart.
"What we know is that he struggled from that location, probably ran from his assailant, made it up to the first floor but has either fallen or been dragged backwards and his body was found on the landing," said Det Supt Iestyn Davies.
He was further stabbed with the same kitchen knife as he lay dying shortly before 20:00 BST on Sunday 29 May last year.
It was not long before the police investigation began piecing together the depressing background to Matthew Cassidy's death.
The end of his short life embodies a UK-wide national problem which has sprung up virtually "overnight" - a problem that has hit the region of north Wales particularly hard.
Trying to cope with it has changed the face of policing as North Wales Police is faced with the highest proportion of organised crime of all the four Welsh forces.
"It has become a national problem in the scheme of things almost overnight," said Tony Saggers, former head of drugs threat and intelligence at the National Crime Agency.
"It's a growing problem based upon the success of what is basically a very ruthless business model."
The astonishingly effective business model? County Lines.
Its sales reps? Children and young people hungry for money and a stake in society.
Urban gangs have found their traditional markets in big cities have become saturated and dangerous.
By expanding their business into the provinces - sending young people there to act as runners - they not only stand to make huge profits but have less resistance from local dealers and a lower risk of being known by police.
The National Crime Agency estimates half the communities targeted by County Lines are small coastal towns. With its proximity to Liverpool and Manchester, north Wales has found itself a prime target.
Children as young as 13 lured by the promise of "easy money" are groomed and trafficked out of major cities to the provinces or "counties".
Once in situ, they sell drugs via dedicated mobile phone numbers or "lines".
"This is how it works," explains DC Vicky Knight, based in the seaside town of Rhyl, Denbighshire.
"The drug runners arriving in small towns give customers an untraceable mobile phone number with its own brand name - this is the county line number.
"The key is this mobile number is held back in the city by an anonymous dealer. They have no obvious contact with the drugs but have total control over what is being sold and when."
Like a legitimate business, subscribers will be sent texts offering special deals and fire sales.
It is lucrative to say the least. Phone lines can make up to £3,000 a day. And as with legitimate business, that level of wealth inevitably attracts competition.
But competition in the drugs trade inevitably means violence.
Police investigating the murder of Matthew Cassidy arrested David Woods, then also aged 19, and from Liverpool.
"Woods had been involved for six months, working for a specific gang supply chain from Liverpool city itself," explains Det Supt Davies.
"So, two different Liverpool gangs with different telephone lines in Connah's Quay. So Cassidy turns up the day before, believed to be sent by a rival gang. Clearly, David Woods wanted to protect his patch…
"We think Cassidy was employed to take over the drugs scene in Connah's Quay. Woods realised what was going on. He wasn't going to put up with anyone disturbing his business.
"My firm belief is that Woods went out to befriend Cassidy, to lure Cassidy to his death on that day."
Some youngsters are caught before they can come to harm.
Kyle Graham, then 18, from Runcorn in Cheshire, had been dealing in Bangor, Gwynedd, for five days when he was arrested.
A court heard he owed £200 in a drug debt and was ordered to go to Bangor where for 13 hours a day he would sell drugs from a lane in the town where his supplies were constantly replenished.
Each day he would sell £1,000 worth of Class A drugs - primarily heroin and crack cocaine - but his cut amounted to just £50.
Pleading guilty, Graham was sentenced to three years.
But his conviction would have been of little concern to the drugs gang he worked for.
"The adults use them for anonymity and to minimize and to exclude the risks that come along with drug dealing," Tony Saggers said.
"If you look at it ruthlessly, they're looking to recruit more people than they need, ultimately to have people on standby to send into those towns so that if a couple of them get arrested, the city-based drug dealer can continue without any real impact by using the next two young people who are waiting to go into supply."
Drug runners or mules are recruited on the streets of the UK's big cities and joining a gang can seem like a tempting choice.
London-based gang members, who agreed to speak to BBC Wales Investigates anonymously, explained how they got involved.
"We've got no GCSEs, government's not giving us no job so we have to get it ourselves," one said.
"I got no college, no nothing, so I had to go to the 'elders' and they brought me in.
"They sent me up a few times, I made good money. Then I got arrested and then I came back and set up my own line and now it's running… made good money man."
Recruiting runners to dispatch to the provinces is easy they said.
"They want in on it," one said. "They see us making the money. Why not? They want a job, simple.
"You know what? There are people in bad homes, those kids, we grab them quick, they have nothing to do. We give them a little job to do, send them off, make our money, make their money - everyone is eating right.
"The feds (police) won't even look at them. Sometimes walking down the road, the feds would have their eyes on us… but the young buck will be walking down and the feds won't take them on.
"So that's why it's good to send them out to do the job for us. Not like they're doing it for free. They are getting payment."
When asked if youngsters - who they arm with knives and who are routinely expected to hide drugs inside their bodies - do not deliver or lose drugs, the gang members reply: "They get touched."
What does that mean? "They get hurt."
When asked how you stop this from happening, one gang member replied: "Listen boss, if they don't want to see it happen then give us a fucking opportunity to work.
"Tell them why don't they raise funds for the fucking kids who don't have nothing. We are just helping out in our ways."
Jermaine Lawlor, now 26, was recruited by a gang in his native east London when he was just 13 years old.
"Usually the kids that didn't have their dads around were out on the streets selling drugs and trying to find a way out of the struggle," he said.
"It [the gang] was like a unit, like a support network because you were all coming from a common place… deprivation, poverty. It was about trying to find a way out of it, trying to make money together, hustling."
Now a youth worker, who runs Voice 4 Youth Against Violence, he said: "The kids, they're pawn pieces, used in a game of chess. And they're disposable."
"The grooming's so strong that the rewards seem much greater than the risks so it seems much better to stay away from your parents and to stay with this new 'family' that are going to look after you and provide for you…
"It's grooming. It's child trafficking. It's child exploitation…
"We need a new structure in our country, it's not working. The government's failing communities and that is as a result of financial opportunities.
"There's a lack of funding in these communities whether that's in housing, schools, local facilities, jobs… there's not enough opportunities."
The numbers of potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery have risen by a third. This increase is due in part to County Lines.
Other vulnerable members of society, such as existing drug addicts, fall victim to "cuckooing" where drug runners newly arrived in a town and without accommodation, commandeer their homes to use as a base.
Those who cannot find someone to cuckoo are expected to sleep rough.
According to the latest estimate there are now more than 1,000 County Line operations across the UK - a four-fold increase in just four years.
A new law that could stop children being used in drug dealing was used for the first time in the UK last month in Swansea - one of many town and cities in south Wales also hit by County Lines - when two dealers were convicted under modern slavery laws for trafficking.
The Home Office is convinced the new law will help crack down on the problem.
Tony Saggers is not so sure.
"It's a fine line," he said. "You certainly cannot say all County Line drug runners are victims. It then becomes a recruiting campaign.
"The drug dealers will say 'work for us and the police and authorities will protect you'.
"So the balance is to examine each situation on its merits. You have to get that right or you end up with a situation with those doing it feel there's a degree of impunity where they won't ever be prosecuted because they are victims and some of them are clearly not."
Last month the Home Office launched a £40m initiative against violent crime.
"We want this to stop," said Victoria Atkins, parliamentary under secretary of state at the Home Office.
"Everybody is agreed that we want this violence to stop and we want the cause of this violence to stop and so this is why we have launched the Serious Violence Strategy, which looks at the causes of the serious violence and we know that one of the major causes of violence is drugs and the drugs market.
"In addition we've committed £11m specifically into an early intervention youth fund because we recognised that with some of these very vulnerable young people they have been let down pretty much by every adult in their lives."
But with hundreds of millions cut from youth services in recent years, for Dr Anthony Gunter who specialises in youth crime, it will take an awful lot more than that.
"If this is a national policy - £10m, £40m - you can't do anything," he said.
"Local authorities were having that for their work with young people in a year.
"I was a street-based youth worker for years, I used to work a lot with the young people you would talk about with County Lines and we couldn't always impact on all the young people but we were a positive force in their lives, we were someone they could talk to.
"Hopefully five years down the line our voices would be in their head to keep them on the right path. Those voices are now gone."
While some are critical about the falling number of police officers in recent years, the UK government says it is putting a further £450m into policing.
But some believe more ambition is needed to begin to tackle the UK's drug problem.
Paul Walmsley, who grew up on Liverpool's Norris Green estate, was a major drug smuggler and one of Britain's most wanted criminals.
He handed himself into police and was given a 10-year jail sentence. He said he had grown tired of the life he was leading and wanted some integrity.
Now working with young people both in and out of mainstream education, he said: "I think I'm lucky to be alive so why wouldn't I want to help young people?
"I've got to try and give opportunities to young people because I can see where I've gone wrong.
"It's too attractive an option to go into the game.
"Maybe some of the older lads who are dealing drugs, who are making money, have nice clothes, can go to Mac-ies whenever they want… and that's what they want, they just want to fit in."
But he added: "Awareness is the key, making people aware of it. You're not going to stop it; it's still going to go on… make people aware that there is a way out of it. That's it, that's the key.
"But it needs to be in schools across the north west and most likely across Wales… some of the areas these kids are getting sent."
BBC Wales Investigates has been told public bodies in Wales are liaising on County Lines.
All 22 of Wales' councils were asked if they were running presentations on the issue in schools. A few had plans but so far only two councils have actually done it.
'Bold vision'
When asked to respond to this, the Welsh Local Government Association acknowledged County Lines was a problem but one "best tackled with other agencies" such as the police and charities.
"There should be a national youth provision, just like the education system," insists Dr Gunter.
"Whether it's linked to our education or health system it should be a commitment to say 'right, we are going to fund informal education' to get those harder to reach young people, to get them to realise their potential and reach their potential in society.
"But that takes commitment and a bold vision."
Tony Saggers believes the right action would not only benefit young victims caught up in County Lines but the society they are currently exploiting.
"I'm a great believer that most of those young people would not be in those situations if they had something better in life to do because they're showing entrepreneurial ability, they're resilient and robust," he said.
"They're intelligent young people often but just strayed from more positive paths. So they are already a victim in that regard."
And without that intervention he warns society will pay the ultimate price.
"It will become normal and that's the problem - we will accept it as normal," he said.
"And this, for me, in 30 years I've been involved in looking at the drugs market, this for me is the most exploitative, coercive way drugs have been supplied."
Last month David Woods, now 20, pleaded guilty to murdering Matthew Cassidy in a turf war over drugs.
His accomplice Leslie Baines, 48, was found guilty by a jury. Both men will be sentenced next week.
It was the second drugs gang execution-style murder in north Wales in six months.
It makes no difference to the drug gangs. Woods and Baines will have been replaced within hours of their arrest.
Gangsters controlling the County Lines across north Wales will of course be unmoved by Tony Saggers' warning; to them the violence that led to the death of Matthew Cassidy is already entirely normal.
* On Monday 21 May 2018, Woods and Baines were sentenced for 27 and 26 years respectively.
BBC Wales Investigates' Gangs, murders and teenage drug runners on iPlayer
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Names and faces of legendary bands and artists have appeared on the front of a theatre in Stockton.
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The temporary facade has been installed on the front of the Globe Theatre while its owners Jomast work on proposals for its renovation.
The theatre is to be renovated as part of a multi-million pound regeneration of the high street.
Stockton Councillor Mike Smith said the facade "showed support for the Globe and regeneration of the high street".
The picture includes the faces of Paul McCartney, Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and Lulu, among others.
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The Daily and Sunday Politics are with you six days a week for much of the year reporting the political news from Westminster and beyond.
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Here are some of the clips from our interviews hosted by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn or films from our reporting team.
Follow us on twitter and Facebook where we look forward to your comments.
The Daily Politics is on BBC2 from 1200-1300 on weekdays, with an 1130 start on Wednesdays for PMQs, and the Sunday Politics is on BBC1 from 1100-1215, occasionally moving for live sport events.
Both have a repeat on BBC Parliament at midnight, and are on BBC iPlayer for seven days.
Friday December 21
Political review: 2012 for the coalition
2012 political review for Labour and Ed Miliband
2012 political review for SNP, Greens, Respect and Ukip
Political week: Queen in Downing Street and plebgate
Thursday December 20
Plebgate: Baker on Police Federation and Andrew Mitchell
Students and principal on universal technical colleges
Christmas festive card images from political leaders
Wednesday December 19
David Davis on Andrew Mitchell and police pleb claims
Martin Narey: MPs should get a salary increase
MP salaries: Margaret Curran, Alan Duncan, Martin Narey
Council tax: Local Government Association on spending
PMQ review: Nick Watt on Cameron, Miliband and Newsnight
PMQs: Arctic Convoy veterans to be honoured
PMQs: Cameron on Muppets and giving Ed Balls the sack
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on food banks and poverty
Cameron on 'serious' Mitchell 'pleb row' claims
Tuesday December 18
Living wage: some councils paying staff higher wages
Women in unions and TUC's new leader Frances O'Grady
Energy Bill: Tim Yeo on government fossil fuels targets
TUC's Frances O'Grady on rail and Underground strikes
Bernard Hogan-Howe on Andrew Mitchell officer arrest
Monday December 17
Christmas lights: council spending and sponsorship
Civil servants: Douglas Carswell and Sir Richard Mottram
US handgun culture: Charlie Wolf and Lord Hennessey
Sunday December 15
McLoughlin on 80mph motorway speed limit consultation
Patrick McLoughlin on road, rail and airport plans
Welfare benefits and tax credit increase policies
Friday December 14
European week: Nobel peace prize, Scotland and voting
Personal health budget spent on drum kit and sat-nav
EU languages: translation services in Brussels politics
Single market: Baggage handlers protest at EU plans
Scotland and EU: Alistair Darling and Blair Jenkins
Thursday December 13
Green Party: neo-greens on nuclear and GM crops rethink
Nuclear power: Caroline Lucas and John Hayes
UK-EU relations: Mark Field on Boris Johnson comments
Wednesday December 12
PMQs review: Nick Robinson on Cameron v Miliband
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on unemployment and benefits
PMQs: Cameron tribute to Duchess of Cambridge hoax call nurse
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on Ed Balls and bullying
Pubs and beer duty escalator: Camra and Greg Mulholland
Public Order Act: Rowan Atkinson and Peter Tatchell
Viewpoint: Simon Callow on same-sex marriage
Tuesday December 11
Census and UK immigration: Keith Vaz and Andrew Green
England and Wales census: population and migration rise
Communications Data Bill: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
Communications Data Bill: Jimmy Wales and Michael Ellis
Gay marriage: Coalition For Marriage's Dr Sharon James
Chris Skidmore on petitions against planning decisions
Mark Littlewood on government spending taxpayer money
Monday December 10
Immigration cap hurting UK businesses?
Immigration cap: Lord Bilimoria and Tory MP Mark Harper
Tories on gay marriage: Peter Bone and Tim Montgomerie
Leveson: Harriet Harman on Labour press regulation plan
Sunday December 9
Nadine Dorries MP on I'm a Celebrity jungle holiday (film)
Nadine Dorries on jungle celebrity show reaction (interview)
Chuka Umunna on Autumn Statement and welfare benefits
Friday December 7
Political week: Autumn Statement, royal baby and papers
Starbucks and tax: Anna Walker and Andrew Perloff
Ann Clwyd on husband Owen Roberts' care in NHS hospital
Scotland and EU: Michael Moore on legal advice
Scotland and EU: SNP MEP Alyn Smith on Scotsman claims
Passports: political statements over design and colours
Thursday December 6
Fracking and shale gas: Dan Lewis and Caroline Lucas
Fracking gas fears from residents in Balcombe, Sussex
UK AAA credit rating: Allister Heath and Larry Elliott
Parliament Choir: MPs unite to sing at carol service
Reshuffles 'no good for government' says Chris Mullin
Wednesday December 5
Autumn Statement special (text and video)
Tuesday December 4
Leveson: Independent editor Chris Blackhurst on PM meeting
Usain Bolt and UK tax laws on sports stars' earnings
Ex-Apprentice Kate Walsh on sales profession reputation
Monday December 3
Margaret Hodge taking legal action on Stemcor tax claims
HMRC tax collection: Margaret Hodge and Jesse Norman
MPs and religion: politics, the church and 'doing God'
Sunday December 2
Chris Grayling on knife crime and votes for prisoners
Leveson Report: reaction to legislation and regulation
Friday November 30
Press Complaints Commission chair Lord Hunt on Leveson
Political week in 60 seconds: Boris Johnson and Lord Patten
Thursday November 29
Leveson Inquiry hearing into British press highlights
Printed newspaper sales and online news subscriptions
Newspaper sales: Matthew Parris and Guido Fawkes blogger
Wednesday November 28
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on work programme figures
Leveson report: Cameron and Milband call for co-operation
PMQs review: Nick Robinson, Matthew Hancock, Sadiq Khan
Martin Lewis: Save money, don't buy Christmas presents
Tuesday November 27
Work Programme figures: Labour's Liam Byrne
Work Programme figures: Employment minister Mark Hoban
Mark Carney, Margaret Thatcher and Grant Shapps predictions
West Somerset: smallest district council under threat
Public votes on opinion polls and surveys
Monday November 26
Michael Fabricant on Conservative-UKIP pact and Farage
UKIP's Nigel Farage on Michael Gove as Tory leader
Rotherham Council faces fostering legal threat from UKIP
European Parliament political week news in 60 seconds
Sunday November 25
Liam Byrne on benefit cap and disability payments
Leveson Report on press standards to be published
Friday November 23
European Council: Why John Major adviser hid under table
UK referendum: Norway and Switzerland EU relations
Youth Parliament Day: Curriculum For Life debate
European Parliament political week news in 60 seconds
Euopean budget: MEPs divided on bigger EU budget
Thursday November 22
UK lessons from US election with pollster Frank Luntz
Prisoner votes: Dominic Raab and Shami Chakrabarti
UK lessons from US election with pollster Frank Luntz
Wednesday November 21
Sgt Danny Nightingale: Philip Hammond hopes for review
Katie Hopkins on NHS eating, smoking and drinking costs
Hammond and Thornberry on NHS charging smokers and drinkers
PMQs: Miliband 'like Rory Bremner' says Cameron
PMQs: Cameron on Sir Cyril Smith child abuse claims
PMQs: Cameron and Milband on Israel and Gaza violenceDaily Politics highlights of 2012
PMQs: Cameron on police commissioner election costs
Cameron: Synod vote on women bishops 'very sad'
PMQs review: Robinson, Hammond and Thornberry
Tuesday November 20
Mobile phone signal and broadband speed in rural areas
Tim Montgomerie on Lynton Crosby Conservative role
Lord O'Donnell on civil servants and rating agencies
MPs job share: Meg Hillier and David Amess
Monday November 19
Political advertising: archive and modern marketing
NHS: Richard Taylor on new National Health Action Party
Scottish finances: Stewart Hosie and Alistair Darling
Sunday November 18
Grant Shapps on police election votes and Lynton Crosby
Prisoners' vote: MPs to decide on European ruling
Recess
The Daily Politics was off-air through a short recess
Tuesday November 13
Prof Michael Clarke on UK troops leaving Afghanistan
Geoffrey Robertson on Iran and nuclear weapons
Griff Rhys Jones on localism and planning controls
Abu Qatada: Geoffrey Robertson and Chris Bryant
Monday November 12
BBC sex claims and Entwistle: Tessa Jowell and Conor Burns
Nadine Dorries in jungle and extra pay for MPs
British High Street shops fight online threat
Sunday November 11
Philip Hammond: army, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Trident
BBC and George Entwistle: Kevin Marsh and David Mellor
BBC independence must not be next victim, says Harriet Harman
Friday November 9
Health complaints: Daniel Poulter and Katherine Murphy
Corby by-election - new MP after Louise Mensch resigns
Political week Dorries, Clegg, Cameron and Merkel
Thursday November 8
Woodland Trust on as tress and dieback disease in UK
China: Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang names are tested
Neil Wallis on press regulation and Leveson Inquiry
Press regulation: Charlotte Harris and Neil Wallis
Wednesday November 7
Zac Goldsmith on voter power to recall Nadine Dorries
Police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales
PMQs: Nick Robinson on Clegg v Harman and Leveson
PMQs: Nick Clegg on abuse of children in care homes
PMQs: Harman and Clegg on Dorries on I'm A Celebrity TV show
Tuesday November 6
Celebrity nightmares: Osborne, Brown, Widdecome, Balls
Dorries in jungle celebrity TV show: Mullin and Letts
US election TV adverts from Romney and Obama campaigns
Candidate selection - how political parties select MPs
Monday November 5
Celebrity support in UK and US election campaigns
CPRE on Growth and Infrastructure Bill planning changes
Electoral Commission on voting deadline queues review
Sunday November 4
Nigel Farage on trade, National Insurance and expenses
Friday November 2
Justice and Security Bill: Ken Clarke on secret courts
Ken Clarke recalls eurosceptic Maastricht Treaty fears
Police commissioners: US and New York lessons for UK
Political week: EU budget, wind farms and Heseltine
Thursday November 1
Wind farm debate: Caroline Lucas and James Delingpole
Beer tax 'leading to pub closures' claims Andrew Griffiths MP
Movember MPs Henry Smith and Michael McCann on cancer
Movember: fake and real moustaches on political faces
Former MPs on life after office: Martin Salter and Sue Doughty
Wednesday October 31
Wind farm and energy: Andrew George and Michael Fallon
Lord Heseltine: city-states and single-tier councils
PMQs review: Nick Robinson on Cameron v Miliband
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on Europe and EU budget
PMQs: Cameron threatens veto on EU budget talks
PMQs: Miliband and Cameron clash over Heseltine report
Tuesday October 30
Elected EU president: Blair wants job says Rees-Mogg
EU president: Liddle, Rees-Mogg, Poirier and Dale debate
Hill farmers struggle with food bills after wet summer
Gay marriage divides Conservative Party and voters
Gay marriage: Nadine Dorries and Iain Dale on Tory views
Ash trees and dieback disease: MPs on government action
Monday October 29
Labour MP Gisela Stuart: UK should leave European Union
Press regulation: Charlotte Harris and Neil Wallis
Lawyer Charlotte Harris on Leveson and the press
Online news: readers move from newspapers to tablet PCs
Sunday October 28
Danny Alexander: economy, banks, austerity and recovery
Child benefit cap to limit money to families on benefits
Friday October 26
Child benefit changes criticised by Tory MP Mark Field
Chloe Smith recalls Paxman Newsnight interview
UKREP: UK base in Brussels for European civil servants
European political week: EU budget and 'Robin Hood' tax
Admiralty Arch to be made into a luxury hotel
EU Parliament's journeys from Strasbourg to Brussels
Thursday October 25
Public sector pensions: Neil Marsh and Darren Philp
Afghanistan: Malcolm Bruce on UK troops helping women
Ed Balls on GDP, UK economy and 'structural deficit'
Matthew Hancock on GDP figures and UK out of recession
Westminster Dog of the Year: MPs and their pets
Westminster Dog of the Year: Charlie Elphicke and Star
Wednesday October 24
Scotland joining EU: SNP Jamie Hepburn on legal advice
Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst relative on women's rights
PMQs review: Nick Robinson on Cameron v Miliband clashes
PMQs: Miliband and Cameron on West Coast rail franchise
PMQs: Miliband mocks Cameron on energy bill
PMQs: Watson on paedophile ring links to previous PM
PMQs: Cameron confirms CPS will review Savile decision
David Cameron rules out allowing prisoners right to vote
Attorney General Dominic Grieve on votes for prisoners
Tuesday October 23
Badger cull: RSPCA's Gavin Grant calls for vaccinations
Nuclear and green energy: David Morris and Natalie Bennett
Jack Straw on Iraq war and Gordon Brown as PM
Jack Straw and Iraq war: Kevin Marsh and Philippe Sands
BBC DG George Entwistle on Savile: Steve Hewlett reaction
Monday October 22
Votes for 16 and 17-year-olds: Lord Adonis on bill
Savile: Ben Bradshaw, John Whittingdale and Kevin Marsh
Parental leave changes - and impact on small firms
Sunday October 21
Press regulation changes after Leveson and Savile
Press regulation and Savile: Neil Wallis and Anne Diamond
Theresa May on police reforms, elections and Mitchell
Friday October 19
US election: Romney and Obama go 'gangnam style'Daily Politics highlights of 2012
SNP conference: Alex Salmond on Nato and Scottish currency
Scottish referendum: Stirling's view of independence
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: W for whips
Political week in 60 seconds: Scotland and McKinnon
Thursday October 18
MP addresses and renting: Julian Lewis and Lord Howard
SNP's Nato and defence policy for an independent Scotland
Lord Howard on Andrew Mitchell swearing at police
Wednesday October 17
PMQs review: Robinson on Cameron, Miliband and Mitchell
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on Mitchell 'pleb' comments
PMQs: David Cameron on UK referendum and EU membership
PMQs: David Cameron pays tribute to Machynlleth community
PMQs: Cameron on disability benefit and universal credit
Disabled benefits: Tanni Grey-Thompson and Steve Webb
Explorer Dwayne Fields on black youths in countryside
George Galloway on cinema popcorn and drinks prices
Tuesday October 16
Northern Ireland's young politicians take top posts
Young people in politics: Pamela Nash and Joan Bakewell
Jimmy Savile allegations: Rob Wilson MP and Joan Bakewell
Joan Bakewell on treatment of women in television
Cuban Missile Crisis: Joan Bakewell and Peter Hennessy
Sir Menzies Campbell on Gary McKinnon extradition case
Monday October 15
MPs' salary: Steve Brine, Anas Sarwar and Lorely Burt
EU law and order rules: Chris Bryant and Dominic Raab
Government 'Dragon Den' to help businesses and economy
Sunday October 14
Grant Shapps on boundary review and Michael Green
Paralympian Sophie Christiansen on London transport
Scottish referendum: Dennis Canavan, Johann Lamont, John Curtice
Friday October 12
UKIP's Nigel Farage on EU wining Nobel Prize
Police Federation's Ken Mackaill on Andrew Mitchell
Nick Clegg- Sheffield view on Liberal Democrat leader
Political week in 60 seconds: Boris, Cameron, Gillard
NHS and health reforms in England: Prof Chris Ham
Thursday October 11
Allister Heath and Max Keiser on banker bashing
Votes at 16 and 17: Eleanor Laing and Rhammel Afflick
Lords Forsyth and Wallace on lowering voting age to 16
Housing Minister Mark Prisk on first-time buyers
Economic terms RPI, CPI, inflation, bonds and QE explained
Tory conference votes: Romney or Obama for US president
Wednesday October 10
Tory conference: Nick Robinson reviews Cameron speech
Tory conference: Maria Miller on David Cameron speech
Tory Conference: David Cameron's speech in full
Conservative conference: David Cameron's year reviewed
Tuesday October 9
Tory conference: Chris Grayling on tackling burglars
Tory conference: Jeremy Hunt on NHS and health budgets
Tory conference: Boris Johnson on mayor, MP and PM jobs
Tory Conference: Boris Johnson on goods made in London
Tory Conference: Boris Johnson addresses David Cameron
Tory conference: Boris Johnson as future party leader?
George Osborne compared to Mr Micawber by Lord Forsyth
Monday October 8
Tory conference: George Osborne's background profiled
Conservative conference: Now or later for EU referendum?
West Coast Mainline: McLoughlin on rail operator
Tory conference: Osborne on employment law changes
Tory conference: George Osborne on tax and benefits cap
Sunday October 7
Conservative Conference: Voters' views on politics
Philip Hammond on West Coast Main Line contract
Boris Johnson's diary with Cameron, Brooks and Murdoch
Douglas Alexander on voters' doubts on PM Ed Miliband'
Sunday Interview: Douglas Alexander on Labour conference
Friday October 5
Conservative Conference: Party aims in northern England
EU budget: Alain Lamassoure on call for 10bn euros
Mastermind chair: Douglas Carswell MP on big government
Political week in 60 seconds: Labour, rail, US elections
Thursday October 4
Gloria De Piero: Why people 'hate' MPs and politicians
Margot James on Conservative equality record for women
Labour conference: Harriet Harman on Ed Miliband speech
Labour conference: Discrimination and equality policy
Labour conference: Free schools to close or stay open?
Wednesday October 3
Labour policy on crime, ID cards and control orders
Labour conference: Cooper on police standards authority
Labour conference: Is Ed Miliband posh or not?
John Prescott on Ed Miliband, Disraeli and 'one-nation'
Police commissioner post: Lord Prescott on job cuts
Tuesday October 2
Labour conference: Nick Robinson on Ed Miliband speech
Labour conference: Ed Miliband speech in full
Labour conference: opinion polls on party and Miliband
Labour conference: Blairites to stay or leave party?
Labour conference: Ed Miliband review from Kevin Maguire
Labour conference: Ed Miliband 2012 highlights
Monday October 1
Labour conference: Ed Balls views from MPs and press
Labour conference: Ed Balls on cuts, taxes and spending
Labour conference: Ed Balls on homes and stamp duty
Labour conference: Jim Murphy on Europe referendum
Labour conference: Europe referendum 'vote' for delegates
Labour conference: Ethical foreign policy and wars
Sunday September 30
Norman Lamb: NHS reforms, social care and Dilnot Report
Labour conference: Harriet Harman on Ed Miliband
Labour and general strike: GMB, Unison and Kevin Maguire
General strike: PCS' Mark Serwotka and Philip Collins
Friday September 28
US election: Ryan Grim on Romney and Obama campaigns
Margaret Hodge on A4e and welfare to work providers
Political humour: Blair, Heseltine, Reagan and Johnson
Political week in 60 seconds: Mitchell and Lib Dems
Thursday September 27
Rain: Association of British Insurers on flooding cover
Cameron on Letterman show: Clive Anderson and Mike Hale
Israel and Iran tension: Douglas Murray and Ben Wallace
Philanthropy: City of London School and Royal Opera House
Wednesday September 26
Nick Clegg's conference speech in full
Liberal Democrat conference: Nick Clegg 2012 highlights
Lib Dem conference: Nick Robinson on Nick Clegg speech
Lib Dem conference: Nick Clegg in 2015 general election
David Cameron to appear on David Letterman TV show
Lib Dem conference: Alexander on deficit and spending
Tuesday September 25
Liberal Democrat conference: Danny Alexander on taxes
Scottish Lib Dems and Westminster coalition relations
Liberal Democrat delegates: Labour or Tory coalition?
Ed Davey denies Liberal Democrat leadership bid
Ed Davey dismisses Conservative climate change sceptics
Monday September 24
Liberal Democrats conference: mood box vote on being sorry
New state bank: Simon Hughes on Vince Cable speech
Tax: Conservative and Liberal Democrat financial plans
Lib Dem conference delegates on economic policy
Sunday September 23
Eric Pickles on Andrew Mitchell 'pleb' comments
Lib Dem conference: Danny Alexander on tax avoidance
Liberal Democrat conference: party plan for wealth tax
Tax rates on rich and poor: Evan Harris and John Redwood
Friday September 21
Cash in the Attic's Paul Hayes on political memorabilia
Boris Johnson's odds of being MP or prime minister
Nigel Farage on UKIP-Conservative deal over referendum
English Democrats: Robin Tilbook on party conference
Political betting: Bookies' odds on Cameron and Miliband
Liberal Democrat conference: Lamb on Clegg abuse
Political week in 60 seconds: Gove, Flynn and Clegg
Thursday September 20
Conservative UKIP electoral pact: Hannan and Stevens
UKIP, Europe and Tories: Young, Nuttall and Hopkins
Nick Clegg apology: Steve Webb on thepoke web remix
Electric cars: Quentin Willson on greener vehicles
Wednesday September 19
TUC General Strike bid and calls for union legislation
TUC general strike call: Sarah Veale and Digby Jones
UK business leaders on help needed for British firms
Racism in football: Garth Crooks and Therese Coffey MP
Manchester police shootings: Keith Vaz bail review call
Tuesday September 18
Birmingham: can people name England's Second City?
Economic green shoots: Leadsom, Myners and Portes
UK economy: US lessons to help British recovery?
Stephanie Flanders on 'green shoots' in UK economy
Monday September 17
Richard lll state funeral after car park skeleton found?
GCSEs: Ken Baker on English school exam changes
Think tanks and policies: Nick Pearce and Karen Lumley
Political books: why politicians and MPs write essays
Friday September 14
Eurozone banking union to control 6,000 banks?
European political week in 60 seconds
European Commission explained in A-Z of Europe
Euro Parliament President Martin Schulz on federal EU
Ann Clwyd MP meets 'men in white coats' in Parliament
Thursday September 13
Plaid Cymru leader: economy and independence for Wales
Hillsborough: Andy Burnham on Labour help for families
Esther Rantzen on Silver Line phone for older people
Childline-style phone service for lonely pensioners
Big Ben: Clock Tower renamed Elizabeth Tower for Jubilee
Boris Johnson apology for Spectator Hillsborough article
Wednesday September 12
HS2: Cheryl Gillan, David Willets and Douglas Alexander
Cheryl Gillian: cabinet sacking and Welsh secretary job
PMQs: Cameron on 'predistribution', Labour on taxes
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on unemployment figures
PMQs: David Cameron challenged over Greg Barker
PMQs: Landale, Willets and Alexander on Cameron v Miliband
Tuesday September 11
GCSE grades and Ofqual: Graham Stuart and Brian Lightman
Universities lose 0% VAT rate for listed building work
Party conferences: Gavin Hayes and Stewart Jackson
Party conference clips: Tory, Labour and Lib Dem leaders
Universal credits and changes to benefit claims debate
Monday September 10
Food, fuel and rail tickets costs: can government help?
Tanni Grey-Thompson on Olympic and Paralympic legacy
TUC's Brendan Barber on public sector wages
Payday loan regulation: Martin Lewis and Michael Fallon
Food and fuel costs: Martin Lewis and Nadhim Zahawi
Friday September 7
Boris Johnson as prime minister: mood box balls vote
Green Party conference in Bristol: Darren Johnson
Thick of It's Vincent Franklin on Steve Hilton PR role
Public sector unions: Paul Novak and Matthew Sinclair
Political week in 60 seconds: reshuffle and Paralympics
Thursday September 6
Rail and parking fares: Caroline Lucas and Brian Binley
Scottish Referendum: Nicola Sturgeon on independence talks
Atos protests and disability benefit payment changes
Eric Pickles vs Tory council in Cotswold planning row
Wednesday September 5
PMQs: Cameron in 'assertive and butch' jibe at Miliband
PMQs: Cameron on Heathrow third runway manifesto pledge
PMQs: Miliband and Cameron on reshuffle and chancellors
PMQs: Dennis Skinner taunts David Cameron on reshuffle
PMQs review: Nick Robinson, Grant Shapps, Rachel Reeves
Grant Shapps on Baroness Warsi as Tory party chairman
Work and training employment plans needed says author
Tuesday September 4
Reshuffle: Ken Clarke 'not house-trained' - Peter Lilley
Reshuffle: Mark Pritchard and Andrew George on moves
Cabinet reshuffle: Grayling, Clarke, Hunt, and Villiers
Nick Robinson explains Cameron's Cabinet reshuffle
Public Accounts Committee scrutinising civil servants
House of Commons: MP and peers to leave Westminster?
Monday September 3
Natalie Bennett elected as Green Party leader
Recess news: Johnson, Mensch, Clegg, Yeo, Gove, Cameron
Michael Gove policies on free schools and academies
Tuesday July 17
Cameron, Miliband and Clegg's 2012 political highlights
Keith Simpson's list of summer books for MPs to read
Population and migration: Matt Kavanagh and Alp Mehmet
Monday July 16
Census: Office for National Statistics on 2011 figures
Immgration: are foreign students visitors or migrants?
Rail investment: Norman Baker and Maria Eagle
Weather: shoppers with umbrellas on summer and the rain
Sunday July 15
Jeremy Browne on House of Lords reform and coalition
Yvette Cooper on migration figures, G4S and Olympics
House of Lords reforms dominate House of Commons week
London 2012: Olympic costs and traffic lane bans
Death row trip for Tory MP who wants death penalty
Friday July 13
Harold Macmillan's Night of Long Knives: 50 year on
Political bad luck: Miliband, Portillo and Opik
Nick Herbert on White Paper 'speeding up justice'
Political week in 60 seconds: Lords, banks and Morris
Forecast: When will UK economy and finances improve?
Thursday July 12
Conservative MPs' advice to David Cameron on management
G4S and Olympic security staffing: Lord West
G4S and Olympic security staffing: Patrick Mercer MP
Canal and River Trust takes over in England and Wales
Election night counts: move from Thursday to Friday?
Newsbeat listeners v MPs on why many young don't vote
Wednesday July 11
PMQs review: Robinson on coalition and Miliband future
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on Lords reform and economy
PMQs: Anne Marie Morris question on technical colleges
PMQs: David Cameron teased over Jesse Norman
Poundland boss on young people's working skills
Conservative rebel Eleanor Laing on Lords reform bill
Tuesday July 10
Norman Lamont on George Osborne, Ed Balls and Libor
Euro currency: Douglas Carswell and Andrew Lilico
Filibustering: How politicians 'talk out' legislation
UK in Europe and EU: Eustice, Nuttall, Lamont and Monks
Monday July 9
Tory MP Conor Burns faces sack after House of Lords vote
House of Lords 'deadbeats and has-beens' says Oakeshott
School has checklist to help improve pupil behaviour
Sunday July 8
No programme - due to coverage of men's final at Wimbledon
Friday July 6
Political week in 60 seconds
Peter Bone on coalition ending for minority government
Flooding risks and insurance costs after heavy rains
Alan Johnson on John Lydon's Question Time performance
Thursday July 5
Army reforms: How will the rise in reservists work?
Eurozone: Debate on whether or not it will break-up
Small businesses: Are they being treated well?
Which party is the party of business?
Wednesday July 4
PMQs review: Nick Robinson on Cameron vs Miliband
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband clash on banking inquiry
PMQs: Miliband quotes Cameron on bank regulation
Higgs boson God particle explained by MP Julian Huppert
Forests: Caroline Spelman and Bishop of Liverpool
HS2: Martin Tett and Peter Waterman debate rail plan
HS2 London to Midlands rail plan backed by Pete Waterman
Tuesday July 3
Bob Diamond resignation: Mark Field and Chris Leslie
Inquiry costs: test on Heathrow, Sizewell and Leveson
Health costs and care levels in UK, USA and Europe
Author James Robinson on China, Europe and Soviet Union
Monday July 2
Britain in Europe: sterling or euro currency choice
Tory MP Stewart Jackson: UKIP threat to Conservatives
Maria Eagle on rail fares, subsidies and franchises
Sunday July 1
Sunday Interview: Andrew Neil and Lord Strathclyde
Labour could back Europe referendum says Rachel Reeves
Reeves on Barclays' Bob Diamond and rate manipulation
UKIP's Nigel Farage on David Cameron's EU referendum
Friday June 29
Political week in 60 seconds: Blair, Clegg, Chloe Smith
Mood box: public mood of bankers and bank regulation
Thursday June 28
David Mellor memories of spy and Tory MP Raymond Mawby
UN Security Council and action in Syria against Assad
Syria and UN role: David Mellor and Mark Malloch Brown
Bankers thought rate fixing was 'joke' claims Heath
Wednesday June 27
Defamation Bill: Prof Brian Cox on libel law changes
PMQs review: Nick Robinson on Cameron vs Miliband
PMQs: David Cameron calls for progress on Lords reform
PMQs: Miliband quotes Dorries' Osborne 'coward' tweet
PMQs: Miliband accuses Cameron of 'panic at pumps'
Arthur Laffer on VAT, taxes, prosperity and the economy
Reagan adviser Arthur Laffer backs VAT cut call
George Monbiot: Public schools should be closed down
Tuesday June 26
Headteacher TV sacking: Mary Bousted and Michelle Rhee
Michelle Rhee's Washington lessons for Michael Gove
House of Lords corruption claim from Lib Dem president
Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy on Queen visit to N Ireland
Monday June 25
Guide to European Central Bank and Bank of England
'Whitehall waffle' threat from minister Alan Duncan
Harriet Baldwin on Conservative benefit reform bid
Greece 'will be forced out' of euro says Deanne Julius
Sunday June 24
Why we still talk about the Falklands
George Galloway: Share Falklands with Argentina
Danny Alexander on benefit cuts
Sunday Interview: Danny Alexander
Friday June 22
Political week in 60 seconds: Cameron in Mexico
Hitchens and Bryant on Labour's immigration policy
Social media: Facebook and twitter enables people power
Thursday June 21
Doctors' action: Simon Burns and Hamish Meldrum
Olympic and Jubilee effect helping UK sell abroad?
Euro 2012: football messages from MPs on Europe
Euro 2012: Jeremy Browne on human rights in Ukraine
Wednesday June 20
PMQs review: James Landale and MPs on Hague and Harman
Doctors should go to work, says William Hague
PMQs Aung San Suu Kyi praised by Hague and Harman
PMQs: Bone calls for 'yellow peril' coalition divorce
PMQs: William Hague takes swipe at absent Ed Balls
Parliamentary stone: MPs tempted with free doughnuts
Economist Robert Skidelsky on Keynes and working hours
Tuesday June 19
London 2012 Olympic Games budget and legacy
London 2012 Olympic Games legacy: Jowell and Jenkins
Institute for Government on civil service staff cuts
Chris Mullin on A Walk On Part play and Rupert Murdoch
Monday June 18
Pronouncing foreign leader names test for politicians
Lord Fowler on life as minister with Margaret Thatcher
Cabinet resignations: Jacqui Smit advice for ministers
Care system 'failing vulnerable young' says Ann Coffey
Sunday June 17
Cameron, Brown and Major before Leveson Inquiry
Hammond on Trident replacement and defence spending
£1bn contract for UK nuclear submarines to be announced
Friday June 15
George Galloway's Respect Party conference in Bradford
Greek euro exit like 'Lehman Brothers' - Allister Heath
Political week in 60 seconds: Leveson, the euro, Falklands
MPs Kevan Jones and Charles Walker on mental health
Charles Walker MP on his mental health issues
Thursday June 14
Oldham scheme to get youths into training and jobs
David Davis: Theresa May wrong over Communications Bill
Commons debate: Jeremy Hunt and News Corp's BSkyB bid
Ed Balls or George Osborne choice in mood box vote
Wednesday June 13
PMQs review: Nick Robinson and MPs on Cameron/Miliband
PMQs: Speaker teases Michael Gove over 'exclusion'
PMQs: Goldsmith and Cameron on Heathrow third runway
PMQs: Cameron's Falklands warning to Argentina
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on Jeremy Hunt and Leveson
Newlove on underage drinking and anti-social behaviour
Tuesday June 12
Cage cricket: Sir Ian Botham and Crispin Blunt MP
Lord Ashdown on UK and west's role over Syria
Gay marriage: Bishop of Norwich and Chris Bryant MP
Discrimination, human rights and equality law changes
Monday June 11
European Court of Human Rights' role in UK justice
Spelling and maths times tables tests for passengers
Can Saltire, St George and Union flags affect our mood?
Cycling campaign to get British on the bike
Sunday June 10
Labour backs primary school foreign language lessons
Stephen Twigg: Labour free school and academy policies
Eurozone: single currency disaster, says Allister Heath
Heathrow Airport expansion vs Boris Island estuary plan
London Heathrow Airport third runway U-Turn ahead?
Sunday May 27
Sunday Interview: Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna
Chuka Umunna: Christine Lagarde 'is no Oracle'
Chuka Ummuna on Baroness Warsi expenses allegations
UK in Europe: UKIP's Paul Nuttall and Denis MacShane
Europe referendum: George Eustice and Baron Liddle
Friday May 25
Political week in 60 seconds: Cameron in US and PMQs
Edinburgh: Scotland Yes to independence campaign launch
Caravan tax: Budget U-turn after Yorkshire campaign?
Thursday May 24
Cameron: 'muttering idiot' to 'calm down dear' lines
Online pornography: Nick Pickles on internet filters
Online pornography: Claire Perry MP and Nick Pickles
Tory MEP leader Martin Callanan rules out UKIP pact
How to get more women in top politics and business jobs
Wednesday May 23
Political words: twitterati, chillaxing and eurogeddon
PMQs review: Nick Robinson, Jeremy Browne and Andy Burnham
PMQs: Cameron taunts Miliband on Jubilee strike threats
PMQs: Cameron on Beecroft Report and employment rights
PMQs: Cameron told to withdraw 'muttering idiot' jibe
Cameron says Parliament should decide prisoner vote rights
George Trefgarne on economic lessons from Chamberlain
Tuesday May 22
Labour's role in supporting coalition government policies
Beecroft Report debate in House of Commons highlights
Michael Sandel on markets and selling Olympic torches
Charles Hendry: 'Low-cost low carbon energy security'
Monday May 21
Beecroft report: IoD's Simon Walker on no-fault sacking
Beecroft report: Chuka Umunna on hiring and firing
2015 election: Labour and Liberal Democrats together?
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: J for journalists
Sunday May 20
Sunday Interview (n full): Energy Secretary Ed Davey
MPs on police service reforms, cuts and strikes
Friday May 18
People's Pledge polls to call for EU referendum
Lucas, Goldsmith, Farage, Galloway: bigger than party?
Political week in 60 seconds: Europe and Leveson
Technology and texting tips for tweeting MPs
Online test to discover if you are happy or sad
Thursday May 17
1922 committee: Graham Brady on backbench elections
Free speech campaign on Public Order Act and insults
Political insults: Blair, Cable, Watson and Farage
Diamond Jubilee: Why British love Queen and monarchy
Wednesday May 16
PMQs: Nick Robinson and MPs review Cameron v Miliband
Economy: 'National pay' cut hitting UK says Heath
PMQs: Cameron calls for decision on eurozone future
PMQs: 'No smoking gun' over Andy Coulson says Cameron
PMQs: Miliband challenges Cameron over police numbers
PMQs: Cameron faces Brooks LOL text jibe
No packed lunches or chips at school says Alex Reid
Tuesday May 15
Heathrow Airport queue warning from London First group
Damian Green on Heathrow and Stansted border queues
Tory 1922 and 301 groups: Dan Poulter and Philip Davies
Mary Bousted and Graham Stuart on harder school exams
George Osborne: Euro uncertainty 'undermining recovery'
Bob-a-job scouts clean up Houses of Parliament rubbish
London 2012: Justine Greening 're-moding' in film
Monday May 14
Police Federation's Paul McKeever on Theresa May's plans
What Rupert Murdoch told Michael Howard at 2005 election
Conservative MPs want Cameron to move party to right
Sunday May 13
Sunday Interview: Eric Pickles and Andrew Neil
UK economy: coalition plans on growth and labour market
Friday May 11
Political week in 60 seconds: Queen's Speech review
Snooping powers 'completely wrong' says David Davis
Cameron's pledge on ending Punch and Judy politics
Thursday May 10
Lord West on government fighter planes 'shambles'
Strike: Police Federation and PCS union on march
Streatham campaign to save High Street shops
Griff Rhys Jones on appeal of the British high street
Wednesday May 9
No Daily Politics - Special programme on State Opening of Parliament
Tuesday May 8
Nick Robinson behind the scenes before Queen's Speech
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: Q for Queen's Speech
Queen's Speech - previewing coalition government plans
Peter Bone's 'more conservative, less liberal' call
London 2012: Shapps' Olympic evictions jail warning
Monday May 7
No Daily Politics (bank holiday)
Sunday May 6
Ed Balls on economy, Lords reform and election results
Nigel Farage calls on Conservative MPs to join UKIP
Election night review of Labour, Tory and Lib Dem votes
Conservative backbench MPs' warning to David Cameron
Friday May 4
No Daily Politics - see Vote 2012 index
Thursday May 3
Weatherman's forecast for election day polling
Election day: Busting a few polling day myths
Election result times for councils and mayor votes
Political week in 60 seconds: penguins and football
Garth Crooks on minister's Ukraine Euro 2012 protest
Bank of England gets Financial Services Authority roles
Wednesday May 2
Prorogation: MPs, Lords and Parliament are not sitting
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: P for PMQs
Louise Mensch on Murdoch phone-hacking report confusion
Airport border queues 'still too long' says minister
MP Louise Mensch calls for local newspapers subsidy
MPs don't back Mensch local newspaper subsidy plan
Tuesday May 1
Rupert Murdoch 'not fit to run' international company
News of the World 'misled' MPs on phone hacking claims
Phone-hacking report 'partisan' - Tory MP Louise Mensch
Local elections: English district and unitary councils
Tony Blair elected PM 15 years ago: was he good or bad?
London mayoral election: Boris Johnson on PM's support
London mayor election: Inside Boris Johnson campaign HQ
Monday April 30
MP Rushanara Ali on Olympic missiles on London flats
'Money-saving' tablet computer or iPad plan to help MPs
Coalition agreement changes party election manifestos
Nick Boles and Simon Hughes on coalition manifestos
Sunday April 29
Harriet Harman on Hunt, Livingstone and local elections
Conservative comeback from Hunt and Budget headlines?
Friday April 27
Political week in 60 seconds: Murdoch at Leveson
London mayor: Brian Paddick on housing and policing
Conservative party chairmen in action for TV cameras
Every Scottish council seat up for election on 3 May
Thursday April 26
Ed Balls on borrowing, inflation, taxes and recession
London mayor: Benita on schools and airport policies
Workers asked about retirement: have you got a pension?
Ariel 1 satellite: 50 years of Britain in space
Wednesday April 25
David Willetts on UK GDP figures and British recession
Miliband and Cameron clash over GDP at PMQs
PMQs: David Cameron on Nadine Dorries posh boy comments
PMQs: Miliband on Hunt 'helping' NewsCorp bid for BSkyB
PMQs: Jeremy Hunt has 'full support' of David Cameron
Tuesday April 24
Leveson Inquiry: Chris Bryant on James Murdoch evidence
Decriminalise drugs says Labour peer Robert Winston
Celebrities help in political election broadcasts
UKIP candidate Lawrence Webb on crime and pub policies
Ken Livingstone criticised by Labour peer Robert Winston
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: U for Upper House
Monday April 23
Tory Peer claims Lords would be 'strengthened' by elections
RSPCA: Microchipping dogs 'wasted opportunity'
Extra support for stressed MPs, says Dr Ashley Weinberg
Cameron and Osborne 'arrogant posh boys' says Nadine Dorries
Cameron and Osborne: Posh or ordinary blokes?
Sunday April 22
Pasty tax: Nick Clegg disowns Lib Dem Cornwall leaflet
Nick Clegg: No referendum for elected House of Lords
Clegg to carry on as Lib Dem leader at 2015 election
Sunday Interview (in full): Nick Clegg
House of Lords reform 'no priority' for Tory MPs
Labour's Sadiq Khan on House of Lords referendum
Council house prices fall with bigger discounts
Friday April 20
Lords reform: Matthew Oakeshott and Charles Falconer
Welsh local council elections: view from Barry Island
French presidential election: Sarkozy vs Hollande
London elections: BNP's Carlos Cortiglia on immigration
Political week in 60 seconds: Budget, Qatada and May
Thursday April 19
Big Ben tower renamed in Diamond Jubilee tribute?
Elizabeth Tower name for Big Ben backed by Kate Hoey MP
London City Airport should be closed - Green candidate
Bakewell: granny tax funding tax cuts for rich
Ex-Treasury Minister David Laws on returning to government
Local elections: Liberal Democrat chances in May polls
Wednesday April 18
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on 50p tax rate and Budget
PMQs: Speaker's health warning to minister Simon Burns
PMQs: Galloway and Cameron on UK leaving Afghanistan
PMQs: Douglas Carswell's Yes Minister question
PMQs: James Landale reviews Budget backlash
Fig trees: deal over £30,000 Portcullis House greenery?
Fat tax call for cola drinks and unhealthy foods
Fat Tax: Angela Eagle and Steve Webb on unhealthy food
Tuesday April 17
UK will join euro currency says Michael Heseltine
English cities vote on elected mayors for councils
Who are the political 'Big Beasts at Westminster'?
Spain 'almost too big' for a bailout says Louise Cooper
Monday April 16
George Galloway on Bradford and Birmingham elections
Bradford council elections and Respect by-election win
Disability Living Allowance changes and cost-cutting
Local elections: Baroness Warsi on Conservative launch
Should MPs and politicians publish tax returns?
Sunday April 15
Tax forms: UK lessons from Sweden's full disclosure
Grant Shapps on Ed Miliband's party funding plans
Grant Shapps on party donations and tax plans
Tim Montgomerie on Conservative opinion poll rankings
Nigel Farage on Conservative MPs defecting to UKIP
Sunday April 1
Heath and Social Care Bill: Lansley explains changes
Full Sunday Interview with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley
Health and Social Care Bill: NHS bill becomes law
Tuesday March 27
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: R for recess
Public information films: Kevin Keegan to nuclear war
Banker George Peabody's legacy of homes in London
Prescott and Fowler on government housing projects
Monday March 26
Lobbyist Mark Adams on Peter Cruddas and cash for access
Cash for access: Michael Dugher and Michael Fallon
Classrooms ruled by pupils or teachers?
Sunday March 25
Budget 2012: Conservative MPs on Osborne's Granny Tax
Budget 2012: Ed Balls on 50p tax rate and granny tax
Michael Fallon on cash for access and Peter Cruddas
Friday March 23
Bradford West by-election candidates bid to be new MP
Kaleidoscope talk with John Bercow and David Cameron
David Mundell on Conservative fight in Scotland
Political week in 60 Seconds: Budget, Queen, road tolls
Thursday March 22
Police commissioner elections to be held in November
Budget 2012: British Chambers of Commerce's Adam Marshall
Budget 2012: Andrew Lilico on Granny tax effect
Budget 2012: growth figures 'unrealistic' says Heath
Budget 2012: newspapers kick George Osborne announcements
Wednesday March 21
Budget 2012
Tuesday March 20
Health Minister Simon Burns on NHS bill for England
NHS Bill for England: What changes will the public see?
Could Orkney and Shetland leave Scotland but stay in UK?
Budget: backbench MPs John Pugh and Matthew Hancock
Queen in Parliament to mark Diamond Jubilee
Monday March 19
Politicians making gaffes in TV interviews and debates
The role of a special adviser (Spad) in Westminster
Labour's Maria Eagle on government road tolls plans
Mark Prisk on economic recovery outside London
Sunday March 18
Budget: CBI's Cridland on tax rates, growth and deficit
Budget: Redwood claims 50p tax rate cut would raise money
Budget: Stephen Williams on 50p top rate of income tax
Planning reforms: Simon Jenkins and Stephen Hammond
Revised rules on planning and development in England
London's air pollution levels, monitoring and EU limits
Friday March 16
Political week in 60 Seconds: Joyce, Cameron and Clegg
Harriet Harman struggles with bank bonus and job figures
Big Ben and St Stephen's Tower £15 visit fee scrapped
1984 miners' strike: Dave Nelliist at Daw Mill Colliery
Thursday March 15
A brief history of political photo-ops
MP calls for publication of extradition evidence
Lord Levy on the different sides of President Assad
Is the perception of bankers in the UK still 'toxic'?
Wednesday March 14
Budget ideas from blogger Tim Montgomerie to Chancellor
Budget plans: Tim Montgomerie, Sadiq Khan, Mark Harper
PMQs: Dennis Skinner quizzes Nick Clegg on PM and horse
PMQs: Nick Clegg challenged on health by Harriet Harman
PMQs: Harriet Harman and Nick Clegg on unemployment
PMQs review: Landale, Khan and Harper on Harman v Clegg
Tuesday March 13
Expand Heathrow but no Estuary Airport says Tim Yeo MP
UK airports - green arguments and calls for expansion
Apps a prime minister needs on tablet computer or phone
NHS bill debate: Diane Abbott and Lord Clement-Jones
Budget: Lord Lawson on cutting tax rate to raise money
Monday March 12
Ed Miliband and Ed Balls pre-Budget conference
Labour plan on children benefit, 50p and mansion tax
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke must go - Douglas Carswell
Could UK intervene in Syria and Iran?
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: C for committees
Sunday March 11
Iain Duncan Smith on welfare, benefits and working
Bill of Rights commissioner Pinto-Duschinsky resigns
Friday March 9
Political week in 60 Seconds: Cable, tax and jubilee
English cities want elected mayors, BBC poll finds
Lib Dem MPs could defy conference over health bill
EU Growing Together film pulled after racism accusation
Thursday March 8
German mittelstand lessons for UK firms and businesses
Philip Hammond on UK servicemen in Afghanistan war
Syria: Philip Hammond on UK arming and helping rebels
Mortgage cost and interest rate rise prediction
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: O for Order
Wednesday March 7
Cameron v Miliband reviewed by Robinson, Shapps, Murphy
Ed Miliband attacks David Cameron over child benefit
Cameron and Miliband praise soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Portsmouth Council leader on Scotland naval contracts
Navy and defence jobs: Stewart Maxwell and Jim Murphy
TUC on rally to block government health care bill
Steve Hilton guru's tweets on Downing Street life
Budget: Polling advice on tax, benefits and spending
Tuesday March 6
Mark Pritchard MP: Europe, immigration and resignation
Can governments measure happiness by survey?
Christian and church role in Westminster and government
Monday March 5
Lembit Opik on Nick Clegg as Liberal Democrat leader
Ken Clarke on Abu Qatada deportation from UK to Jordan
Lord Bach on legal aid changes in government bill
10 Downing Street's inner-circle of political advisers
Sunday March 4
Petrol prices: Budget fuel duty cut call to chancellor
Alex Salmond: Independence campaign and shared currency
Friday March 2
Quiet House of Commons: one vote for MPs in seven days
Tuition fees: David Blunkett recalls introduction
Political week in 60 Seconds: health, Leveson and horse
Thursday March 1
50p tax claims: Charlie Mullins and Richard Murphy
Social care plans to look after old and vulnerable
NatWest Three's David Bermingham on Tony Blair and bail
Extradited Christopher Tappin's conditions in US jail
Wednesday February 29
English Democrats: Robin Tilbrook on new Parliament
PMQs: Miliband taunts Clegg over NHS reforms in England
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on support for NHS reforms
PMQs: Cameron attacks Unite union's Olympic strike call
PMQs: David Cameron questioned on A4e's Emma Harrison
PMQs review: Nick Robinson and MPs on Cameron/Miliband
SWP's Michael Bradley on Tesco work experience protests
Tuesday February 28
Minister rejects US comparison to English health bill
Women MPs debate: Nadine Dorries and Nia Griffith
Women MPs at Westminster in power and Borgen influence
Barclays Bank and retrospective legislation on tax
Badger cull to control TB: Bill Oddie and Simon Hart MP
Monday February 27
Eric Pickles: 300 authorities to cut council tax levels
MPs after office: Neil Hamilton and Martin Salter
MPs after office: Ann Widdecombe and Matthew Parris
Council tax bills frozen in some English counties
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: B for Bills
Sunday February 26
Lords reform debate: Lord Oakeshott and Philip Davies
UK to elect MP for Northern Europe in French Parliament
Simon Hughes on Budget, 50p tax rate and NHS reform bill
Andy Burnham: English Heath bill turns NHS into market
Liam Fox on tax cuts, coalition relations and comeback
Friday February 24
Political week in 60 seconds: Lansley, Ebdon, RBS, Adele
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: H for Hansard
GM foods: Meacher on super tomatoes and trampled fields
Green Party's Adrian Ramsay on tax, spending and cuts
MP uses 29-letter word: floccinaucinihilipilification
Thursday February 23
Camera shows cyclist's view of dangers of London roads
Does Parliament need more working class MPs?
NHS reforms: GPs do not want bill says Clare Gerada
How rationing affects NHS health care and operations
Andrew Mitchell on Somalia conference in London
Wednesday February 22
PMQs review: Nick Robinson, Caroline Flint, Nick Herbert
Olympics ruined London wasteland says writer Iain Sinclair
PMQs: Cameron produces Labour briefing on NHS bill
PMQs: Cameron quizzed on police numbers and helicopter
Health Bill: MPs calls for risk register publication
Marie Colvin tribute from David Cameron at PMQs
Tuesday February 21
UK Border Agency security report author John Vine
Blair, Brown, Cameron and Clegg tackled by protesters
Labour's economic plans: Rachel Reeves and John Redwood
Industrial relations: unions to hold more strikes?
Monday February 2
Sun on Sunday: Dr Evan Harris on News International title
MP on Sun on Sunday sales in Liverpool and Merseyside
More shorter school holidays says NAHT's Russell Hobby
Isuzu Trucks' Nikki King on UK economy and tax cut call
CBI and smaller firms on economy and UK recession
Sunday February 19
Michael Fallon: Balls plan could lose UK its AAA rating
Does Borgen reflect life for woman MSPs
Michael Moore on Scotland independence referendum date
Occupy London's Tammy Samede on court eviction hearing
Foreign criminals could be returned to home country
Greek minister Constantine Papadopoulos on euro and wages
Police commissioners: Lord Blair v Lord Prescott
Friday February 10
Political week in 60 seconds: Greening, Hague, Cameron
Legacy of 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak for agriculture
Tory blogger Tim Montgomerie questions coalition NHS plans
Health minister Simon Burns on NHS reforms in England
Thursday February 9
UKIP leader Nigel Farage's influence over his party
Farage backs English Parliament and House of Lords reform
Ed Miliband 'misrepresented Tory Reform Group on NHS'
Councils fined for missing landfill rubbish targets
Livingstone and gay Tories: Chris Bryant and Mike Freer
Wednesday February 8
Lord Owen calls on PM to stop NHS reform plans
PMQs: Robinson, Duncan and Kendall on NHS reforms
Cameron and Miliband on health secretary and reforms
PMQs: Miliband claims Tories don't back NHS reforms
Ann Widdecombe MP gives winter fuel money to charity
UK-Nordic-Baltic summit: Norway, Denmark, Sweden links
Tuesday February 7
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts: D for division
Regional pay deals and scales for public sector workers?
Liberal Democrat peers rebel against coalition plans
House of Commons Top Totty and Kangaroo Court beers
Abu Qatada: Hazel Blears on control orders and courts
Monday February 6
Charles Dickens anniversary: What books should MPs read?
Maria Eagle: Greening can block Network Rail bonuses
Network Rail: Christian Wolmar on Justine Greening's powers
Single-sex or co-educational schools for girls and boys?
Sunday February 5
Justine Greening to vote against Network Rail bonuses
Church of England General Synod divided on gay marriages
Friday February 3
Political week in 60 seconds: Banking and Europe
Chris Huhne - political career of Liberal Democrat MP
Chris Huhne political career praised by Chris Davies MEP
Chuka Umunna on UK banking lessons from Germany
Thursday February 2
Welfare reform debate: Byrne, Redwood, Soubry, Grayling
Young people and the skills they need for the work place
Austerity no solution for eurozone - French socialist MEP
Immigration minister Damian Green on who can come to UK
Wednesday February 1
PMQs: Robinson, Vaizey and Twigg review Cameron v Miliband
PMQs: Cameron taunts Labour MPs on welfare reforms
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on bank bonuses and reforms
Historian Dan Snow on Goodwin, Raleigh and Churchill
Tuesday January 31
Saving the High Street's shops from online threat
Primary schools: Shortage of places for children
Syria: Mark Malloch Brown and Mousab Azzawi
Education Secretary Michael Gove asks to go to the loo
Education Secretary Michael Gove answers public tweets
Lord West: UK could not recapture Falklands from Argentina
Monday January 30
Police Federation: Massive cuts put public at risk
A-Z of Parliament with Quentin Letts : A for Adjournment
RSA report on community capitalism at a B&Q DIY store
RBS Hester bonus should have been allowed, says editor
Sunday January 29
Danny Alexander: 'No-one wants bonus culture'
Commercial names to sponsor London transport landmarks?
Friday January 27
Political week in 60 seconds: Davos and welfare reform
Boris Johnson on bonus to RBS boss Stephen Hester
Community charge or poll tax: John Selwyn Gummer's memories
Thursday January 26
Accents: Joan Bakewell and voice coach Barbara Berkery
Politicians' voice: sound of PMs Thatcher and Blair
House of Lords reform with elections and retirements
Young people's internships and paying for work experience
Wednesday January 25
Lobbying: Byrne and Grayling on opening up government
Lobbyist Mark Adams speaking up for lobbying profession
PMQs: Robinson, Byrne and Grayling review Cameron v Miliband
PMQs: David Cameron quotes Robert Burns on the union
PMQs: Miliband attacks Cameron over GDP and UK economy
PMQs: Cameron defends government's NHS reforms
Louise Cooper on GDP, UK economy, eurozone and bailouts
Tuesday January 24
Sir Richard Branson welcomes drug mule 'leniency'
Health minister Simon Burns on Dorrell report criticism
Rebel MPs who vote against the government
Government cuts number and size of cars for ministers
Monday January 23
Gas and electric bills - challenge to 'big six' utility firms
MPs complain about food standards in Parliament
Council tax freezes is 'gimmick' says Brighton councillor
Sunday January 22
Northumberland widow's battle for asbestos compensation
European Court of Human Rights in need of reform
London Underground Tube stations have no light switches
Friday January 20
Political week in 60 seconds: yacht and airport talk
Thursday January 19
GMT and Somerset clocks: Jacob Rees-Mogg on time zones
Buckingham: UK's only independent university, could we see more?
Private universities: AC Grayling and Tessa Blackstone
Wednesday January 18
DLA changes: Tanni Grey-Thompson and Iain Duncan Smith
Dementia care reform needed, says Rosie Boycott
Portcullis logo scares public off Parliament, says adviser
Macmillan cancer figures wrong, says Iain Duncan Smith
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on unemployment figures
PMQs: Dinosaur jibe to Dennis Skinner from Cameron
Tuesday January 17
Harriet Harman on Len McCluskey criticising Ed Miliband
Baroness Flather on housing benefits and welfare changes
Could the UK see US-style negative election adverts?
Will housing benefit caps bring down private rents?
Monday January 16
Queen's Diamond Jubilee present: What to buy for royals
Business reacts to government bid to cut red tape
Sunday January 15
Scrap metal thefts: Private member's bill to control trade
Westminster parking row council leader stands down
Michael Gove on improvements to England school rankings
Scotland questions over currency, tax share of UK debts
Alistair Darling on independent Scotland using sterling
Salmond on independent Scotland using sterling currency
Friday January 13
Political week in 60 seconds: Scotland, HS2 and Top Gear
Fuel price protests 2000: farmers and motorists remember
Child benefit cut to hit 1.5m families, says IFS
Thursday January 12
Scottish independence: London people's views on SNP plan
Swinney on independent Scotland finances and currency
Filkin Report reaction on police links to journalists
Scottish independence: London people's views on SNP plan
Wednesday January 11
Nuclear power needed to fight climate change, says Al-Khalili
PMQs review: Nick Robinson on Cameron v Miliband
Scottish referendum: Bruce Crawford and Douglas Alexander
PMQs: Cameron and Miliband on Scotland referendum
SNP: Cameron behaving like Thatcher over Scotland
PMQs: Cameron quizzed on rail fare rises by Miliband
Tuesday January 10
HS2 high speed rail project: Martin Tett and Lord Adonis
'Crony capitalism': Jesse Norman MP's reform plan
Monday January 9
Scotland will decide independence vote date says Sturgeon
Alcohol advice no green light for beer binge, says MP
Public vote on austerity cuts and spending plans
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In December 1866 a colliery in Barnsley was ripped apart by a series of explosions over two days, killing at least 361 men and boys, in what remains England's worst mining disaster. The events of this largely forgotten tragedy and its devastating effect on the community have been recreated in a new film.
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By Sarah PortlockBBC News
On the fateful morning of 12 December, more than 300 workers started their shifts at The Oaks colliery in Hoyle Mill.
During the afternoon there was a huge explosion. Many volunteer rescuers were still down the pit the next day when another explosion, bigger than the first, took place. Rescue attempts were then halted.
The death toll was recorded as 361 - although recent research puts the figure at 383.
"When The Oaks exploded there was just nothing to compare it with; it was absolutely huge," historian Brian Elliott said.
"The impact was enormous on the communities. Virtually the entire adult male population of several streets in Hoyle Mill was eliminated in an afternoon."
Contemporary accounts describe houses shaking for miles around as coal was blasted upwards, turning the sky dark grey, and depositing a deathly residue, described as "black snow".
Largest loss of life in colliery disasters
The largest number of deaths in a single day in England was at Pretoria Colliery, in Westhoughton, in what is now Greater Manchester, on 21 December 1910, where 344 miners lost their lives.
Source: NUM
Researchers for commemorations to mark the 150th anniversary of the disaster soon realised they faced a mammoth task. Volunteers, funded with a lottery grant, spent more than 5,000 hours working on the project.
"There's no one place to go to to get a list of victims," said Stephen Miller, who was the lead researcher with the Dearne Valley Local Partnership (DVLP).
"There are some lists but they are not complete - plus they are just names. We wanted more information: where were these people from, where did they live?
"We wanted to connect with them at a human level so we looked at age profiles and looked to see if children were involved."
Parkin Jeffcock
Parkin Jeffcock was a respected mining engineer.
As soon as he got a telegram informing him The Oaks was on fire he got on a train at Sheffield and travelled to Barnsley.
He and others descended into the pit to assess the damage and help stabilise the conditions for rescuers.
Jeffcock was still down there at 9am the following day when a second, bigger, blast occurred, killing him and 26 other volunteers.
His body was not recovered until 5 October 1867.
St Saviour's Church in High Green, Sheffield, was built as a memorial to him in 1872.
Source: DVLP
Death certificates held in the basement of Barnsley Town Hall were trawled through, burial registers at cemeteries and churches scrutinised, and newspaper articles containing missing persons lists pored over.
"We eventually came up with a list of more than 500 names. But we knew some would be duplicates, or the result of misspellings, so we researched them all," Mr Miller said.
A figure of 383 was eventually reached. Among the dead were boys as young as 10.
One of the surprises the research threw up was the geographical spread of the workers.
"We had some from as far as Ireland and Northumberland as well as the coalfield areas of Wales, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire," Mr Miller said.
"We also had one, James Haycroft, from Shoreditch in east London, which is very strange.
"He was 38 and had married a girl from Barnsley.
"The Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported his body was found two years after the disaster but we could not find a burial record for him.
"His wife identified him by his flannel trousers, belt and boots."
The task of making a film recreating the events of 12-13 December 1866 proved challenging as, despite the scale of the tragedy, the historical evidence was scant.
Stephen Linstead a filmmaker and professor at the University of York's York Management School, teamed up with Andy Lawrence and Alan "Archie" Andrews to try to recreate the explosion.
Mr Andrews, a miner turned digital artist, recreated the scene using virtual reality.
"I looked at historical illustrations, although these were limited," he said.
"I used sources such as the Illustrated London News but also used my mining background. I knew what many of the buildings would look like.
"It was a mix of artistic licence with background information."
"I put the explosion where some stairs would have been, where the clean air would mix with returning air, possibly helping to cause the explosion," Mr Andrews added.
"We do know The Oaks was a very gassy pit."
"We had to use our imagination," director Mr Linstead said.
"We looked through the contemporaneous press accounts and picked out phrases that were of use.
"The virtual reality reflected that there is no final version of history that you can use to get the truth of it."
The reports that were laid down in Parliament after the disaster gave differing reasons for the explosion.
The first, the inspection report, put the cause down to the shot firing, Mr Linstead said. The second, from the coroner, mentioned a broken lamp being a possible cause.
"The main thing is nothing happened as a result. There was no full inquiry," he said.
"Twenty years later things began to change. But there was no change in legislation following The Oaks."
William Henry Hart
William Henry Hart, originally from Dukinfield in what is now Greater Manchester, was aged 11 and working as pony driver when The Oaks exploded.
He was underground at the time having a break, sitting in an archway with his donkey, Tom, in front of him.
Tom took the brunt of the blast and Hart survived, although he was badly burned and broke his arm.
He was brought out of the mine by volunteer rescuer William Sugden, who was killed in the explosion the following day.
Hart was among the first miners to go back down the mine when it reopened two years later.
Source: DVLP
NUM secretary Chris Kitchen agreed that although nothing changed immediately after the disaster, it was not long before there was a better system for recording incidents.
This eventually led to the UK's mining industry becoming one of the safest and most highly regulated in the world.
"But it was reactive, rather than proactive," he said.
"A slow learning curve."
Black Snow is being distributed to schools in and around Yorkshire. Anyone who would like a copy should contact the NUM.
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Agricultural Bank of China raised a record $22.1bn (£14.4bn) in its initial public offering (IPO) in July despite a lukewarm response when the shares first went on sale.
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The IPO is the last by China's four biggest state-owned banks.
Its total surpasses the $21.9bn set by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006.
The bank managed to raise the figure after exercising an over-allotment option for its Shanghai share sale.
Agricultural Bank of China failed to excite investors during the first day of trading because they were worried about whether the bank's management could transform it into a modern, profitable concern.
The bank is China's main lender to the rural community.
Chinese investors are watching closely to see whether this latest news might help lift the beleaguered stock market in Shanghai.
The Shanghai bourse has lost about 25% of its value since the beginning of the year.
Concerns about slowing economic growth and problems overseas in key markets such as Europe, are said to be worrying investors.
Agricultural Bank of China is the third-largest component on the main China index.
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Emergency services are attending a chemical leak after clouds of fumes were reported following a reaction in an industrial cylinder.
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Essex Fire and Rescue Service has set up a 100m exclusion zone around the leak in Stoneness Road, West Thurrock in Essex.
People living in the area have been advised to keep their doors and windows closed and to stay inside.
Roads have been closed and people are being asked to avoid the area.
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The Brit Awards will be handed out to the year's best music acts from the UK and beyond at the O2 Arena in London on 24 February. The nominees are:
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British male solo artist
British female solo artist
British group
British breakthrough act
Critics' choice
Brits global success award
To be announced
British single
British album of the year
British producer of the year
British artist video of the year
International male solo artist
International female solo artist
International group
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Brazil's indigenous tribes are as diverse as they are numerous: from the south-western sate of Mato Grosso do Sul to the impenetrable northern jungles of the Amazon to the eastern Atlantic seaboard.
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Wyre DaviesRio de Janeiro correspondent
There's one thing, perhaps above all others, these tribes have in common - the relentless, insatiable pressure on their land and resources.
Indeed, there is nowhere else on earth as dangerous for "defenders" of land or the environment as Brazil.
"Home" for the Ka'apor people is a legally defined area of about 5,000 sq km in the fast diminishing forests of Maranhao in the eastern Amazon.
The tribe's numbers have recovered in recent years from a perilously low figure of 800 individuals to about 1,800 but their lives and their lands are under constant threat.
Since 2008, six Ka'apor leaders have been killed and many more have been injured for trying to protect their land from illegal loggers and miners.
The front line of Brazil's land invasion
The most recent murder was that of Eusebio Ka'apor (some tribes people adopt common Brazilian names as well as their traditional titles).
Eusebio's knowledge of traditional medicines was invaluable in a community that is still wary about regular contact with "modern" Brazil. He was shot and killed in an ambush by two hooded men on a motorbike.
His killers have not been caught.
As is the case in the vast majority of murders or threats against indigenous people, the perpetrators are thought to be connected to powerful business or logging interests and, as such, enjoy the protection of corrupt public officials and law enforcement agencies.
Brazil tribe tackles illegal loggers
The Ka'apor's response to the constant threat and the inability of federal or state agents to protect them has been to rely increasingly on their own wits and resources to defend themselves.
Tribal elders have relocated some of their villages, which number only 10 in total, from the jungle interior to the fringes of their territory.
From there men go out on regular patrols, through the forest and along the rivers, to monitor illegal logging or mining. On rare occasions they take the law into their own hands, confronting and briefly detaining loggers then destroying their equipment.
It's a risky strategy, because the Ka'apor patrols are only lightly armed with the same small calibre rifles and machetes that they use for hunting, but it underlines the tribe's mistrust of politicians who, they say, prioritise economic development above the protection of traditional lands and peoples.
'Our way is the forest way'
Ka'apor elders told me that about 15% of their legally demarcated land has either been invaded or degraded (the removal of tonnes of valuable timber or the pollution of land and waterways by mining operations.)
Tribal leaders say their survival depends on these lands, which may seem sizable by comparison to the cramped modern living conditions of urban Brazil, because nearly all of their food, water and resources is sourced from the forest itself.
I'd watched earlier in the day as a group of hunters returned to the village with the day's catch, a sizeable deer cut into two and carried on their backs in baskets woven from forest plants.
Almost every part of the animal would be eaten over the next two or three days. Nothing goes to waste.
That night, after a modest meal of deer, river turtle and rice I sat down with village elders as a council of leaders from several Ka'apor communities met to discuss new reports of illegal logging within their territory.
"We depend on this land, the forest. It feeds us and provides us with what we need," said Chief Osmar, resplendent in a modest but colourful headdress made from feathers and beads, reflecting his position as headman of the aldeia, or village.
Defending the recent Ka'apor policy of active, rather than passive, resistance the chief said, "We don't want to live in the city - it has nothing for us. Our way is the forest way and we can't lose that, so even if our blood is spilled we will fight on."
An uphill battle
Powerful business interests and allegations of political corruption in Maranhao mean that little action is ever taken against illegal logging or mining operations at a local level.
However, the federal environmental protection agency, Ibama, does conduct targeted operations.
Several illegal sawmills on indigenous land in Maranhao were destroyed earlier this year and I've witnessed first hand as armed Ibama agents fly risky helicopter patrols into the Amazon to confront rogue logging operations.
But it's an uphill battle. Controversial Brazilian laws allow for selective cutting and export of Amazon timber. That's been ruthlessly exploited to such an extent that an estimated 80% of all wood felled and exported is done so illegally.
"In reality we're facing a situation of organised crime. There are well resourced and big financial interests driving this," says Ciclene Brito, the regional coordinator for Ibama in Maranhao.
"This problem doesn't just go away. Earlier this year we closed down 15 illegal sawmills in indigenous areas in the north of the state, but they're being re-established in many areas already," said Ms Brito.
In a major new report, the campaigning organization "Global Witness" says that at least 50 environmental campaigners or defenders were killed in Brazil in 2015 alone.
Last year was, says the report, "the worst year on record for killings of land and environmental defenders", not only in Brazil but also across the developing world where economic and environmental interests collide.
Fleeing for their lives
It's not just indigenous communities who are losing out to unscrupulous outsiders determined to get their hands on the Amazon's valuable resources.
A day's drive from the Ka'apor territory, over dirt tracks and country roads, we're still in the state of Maranhão although the environment and climate feels more arid.
Here, in the community of Vergel, it is small-scale farmers and peasants who are being threatened, forced from their land and, sometimes, killed.
Sitting in the entrance of the mud and bamboo shack she used to call home, Dona Marina cuts a lonely, broken figure.
She built this house with her husband, Raimundo Pereira da Silva, and here they raised a family, eking out a meagre but happy living on their smallholding on the edge of the forest.
Raimundo was shot dead by two pistoleiros (gunmen) five years ago after repeatedly ignoring threats to leave his land.
"He went out, after finishing his chores, to wash in the pond behind the house," a tearful Dona Marina tells me. "All of a sudden I heard a shot, my husband cried out. Then a second shot, then nothing."
Marina and her then 10 year-old son, who also witnessed his father's murder, fled to the nearby city soon afterwards, fearing for their own lives.
"Our lives are worthless in the city", says Dona Marina. "We didn't have much here but at least it was ours."
The community of Vergel, once about 20 families strong, has disintegrated because of the threats and violence. Destroyed houses and the small church are overgrown with scrub and have long since been abandoned.
Father Jose, a German priest who has worked with these rural peasant communities for the last 25 years, says they have almost given up the fight after losing so many of their leaders, with the killers rarely being brought to justice.
"It's a huge problem here and across Brazil, there's complete impunity," the Father tells me.
"There's usually evidence and public information indicating who the killers are and who they were hired by but justice is slow and often is absent," says the priest who has, himself, been threatened for defending the peasants' rights.
Fighting on
Back in the Ka'apor village, they're certainly not defeated despite fresh threats against their community and open boasting by loggers that they would "soon return for the trees."
On our last night in the community, a group of village elders joined hands, danced and sang a song about the animals, the forest and their lives.
Earlier a group of indigenous children, the latest Ka'apor generation, had sung the same songs, taught to them by their fathers and mothers.
They are a tribe less than 2,000 strong with their own, verbal, unwritten language and customs. They've lost several important leaders in recent years, killed with apparent impunity, but say they have no choice other to fight on.
The Ka'apor aren't just fighting for their forest and the land they've lived on for centuries. They're fighting for their survival.
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As every patient knows, hospitals are complicated.
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Nick TriggleHealth correspondent
Just thinking about the network of different departments, rows and rows of beds, state-of-the-art equipment and armies of staff busily working away is enough to make anyone feel dizzy.
So sometimes it helps to think of them in simple terms when trying to understand the pressure they are under in England.
This year it has become abundantly clear that there are problems at the front-door (A&E) with more people facing long waits to be seen.
Then last month it was reported that the back-door (the discharge process) was getting clogged up too.
With that in mind, it is not surprising that other parts of the hospital system are struggling.
The annual hospital guide produced by the Dr Foster research group, which is published on Monday, will point to evidence which suggests the NHS is starting to ration access to the most life-enhancing non-emergency operations, such as knee and hip replacements.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Wherever you look, there are signs of trouble.
'Feeling the pinch'
Even when people do get access to these treatments they are now facing longer waits for the care than they were a year ago.
According to the latest data, covering the month of September, the average wait for all types of non-emergency treatment is now 9.2 weeks compared to 8.8 in 2012.
Patients are also more likely to have their operations cancelled.
In the three months leading up to September there were nearly 15,000 operations cancelled at the last minute - up by about 1,800 on the same period the year before.
But it is not just non-emergency care that is feeling the pinch.
Even cancer departments - where waits cost lives - are showing early signs of strain.
They are meant to ensure patients with an urgent referral from their GP start treatment within 62 days.
The latest data shows the numbers seen this quickly have fallen slightly in the past year down from 87.3% of patients from July to September 2012 to 86.8% in the same period this year.
Despite this, ministers continue to claim the NHS is doing well.
And that is understandable. After all, nationally all the major waiting time targets covering cancer, elective operations and A&E are being met.
However, the problem is that the national figures mask what is actually happening on the ground.
Many individual centres are struggling. The major A&E units (known as type 1) have not hit the four-hour waiting time target since July.
One in five hospitals are failing to achieve the target of seeing 85% of cancer patients within 62 days following the urgent GP referral.
But could this be just a short-term blip?
Probably not, according to Prof John Appleby, who regularly monitors NHS performance for the King's Fund think tank.
"Hospitals are under pressure and with the number in deficit growing things could get worse before they get better," he says.
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Parliament enters its pre-summer glidepath to the holidays, with MPs departing on Wednesday and noble Lords carry on legislating for a further week.
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Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent
But there's no sense of a lull - with plenty of political and legislative action on the pandemic and Brexit.
And there is the entertaining new sub-plot around the Intelligence and Security Committee, now preparing to publish its long-delayed report on Russian interference in the UK.
The political manoeuvrings which placed the (now-ex) Conservative veteran Julian Lewis in the chair have tickled Westminster, and the government's retaliation has simply kept the story alive.
At Commons business questions on Thursday, the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees Mogg, pointedly declined to promise he would not seek to remove Mr Lewis from the ISC, so one thing to watch out for is a motion to that effect appearing on the order paper.
It might not get through - Mr Lewis is a political maverick and a pro-Brexit Bercow ally (which is an interesting combination).
Any attempt to unseat him might upset already restive backbench heavyweights, who could use a vote on his position to signal their unhappiness about the lockdown, the conduct of Brexit and a basket-load of other grievances.
The casting vote
Meanwhile, it is also worth remarking the membership of the ISC, including four Conservative MPs - Chris Grayling, Sir John Hayes, Mark Pritchard and Theresa Villiers - alongside the now independent Mr Lewis, would have comprised a government majority over the combined opposition members.
Those members, by the way, are Labour's Kevan Jones, Dame Diana Johnson and Admiral Lord West, plus the SNP's Stewart Hosie.
Now Mr Lewis has a casting vote and is able to use it. Where might that lead?
In the last two parliaments, there was no party majority on the ISC, reflecting the closely balanced membership of the Commons.
There was a Coalition majority in the Coalition years, and a Labour majority in the 2005-10 Parliament.
But in the past, a lot of the judgmental ballast came from a contingent of massively experienced ex-ministers and civil servants from the Lords - such as Tom King, Geoffrey Howe, MI6 veteran Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale and former mandarin Lord Butler.
This time round, the sole peer is the former security minister, Lord West. It's a subtle, but possibly important, shift.
All in the detail
The remaining parliamentary action is about either polishing off legislation or teeing up important bills for detailed scrutiny in September.
This means a lot of second readings in the Lords and, refreshed by their summer break, peers look set to plunge into several days of detailed voting on the Agriculture Bill on their return.
In the Commons, Monday and Tuesday will see some intensive action to dispose of important measures on post-Brexit trade and terrorist sentencing.
September will probably see the detailed scrutiny of the Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill, where there has been some interesting preliminary manoeuvring by some interesting alliances.
The bill creates a new power of arrest for extradition to designated countries.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, Labour's Sarah Champion and busy Conservative backbencher Bob Seeley have amendments down to block extradition agreements with China or the Hong Kong special administrative region, while former Brexit Secretary David Davis wants to block extradition arrangements with the US.
The fact of a large government majority does not seem to have silenced the awkward squad.
Here's my rundown of the weeks ahead:
Monday 20 July
The Commons convenes at 14:30 BST for housing, communities and local government questions - doubtless including some targeted at the under-fire Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick.
Then, expect the usual crop of post-weekend ministerial statements and urgent questions, prompted by headlines in the Sunday papers.
This may include a statement about the relaxation of the lockdown and the new powers the government wants for itself and local councils to control local flare-ups of Covid-19.
The main legislative action will be the report stage consideration of the Trade Bill - there are currently 31 pages of amendments, so we can expect some votes and much interest in the selection of lead amendments for discussion.
The bill creates a framework for post-Brexit trade policy, so much of the debate will focus on the parliamentary process for dealing with agreements - which may have far-reaching consequences for domestic interests.
Labour, for example, are proposing that confidential negotiating documents should be available to select committees.
They want a review of each free trade agreement the UK signs up to every five years, to make sure a trade agreement would need to be ratified before regulations could be made to implement it, and to introduce a requirement for imported agricultural goods to meet the same animal health and welfare, environmental, plant health, food safety, and other standards as UK goods.
And the party has an amendment to protect the NHS and publicly funded health and care services from any form of control from outside the UK.
It will all be debated to a deadline, with the report stage due to conclude at 21:00, and the third reading concluded by 22:00.
There's a great deal of activity from a group of backbenchers, led by former minister Jonathan Djanogly, and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee chair, Neil Parish.
For example, they want parliamentary approval of trade agreements, requiring the international trade secretary to get approval for negotiating objectives from the Commons and the Lords before negotiations towards a free trade agreement commence.
Other proposed new clauses reinsert pledges made by the government during consideration of an earlier incarnation of the Trade Bill in 2018, during Theresa May's premiership - such as requiring a report to Parliament before the UK ratifies a new free trade agreement with a country that had a free trade agreement with the EU.
The report would have to set out any significant differences between the proposed new agreement and the existing agreement with the bloc.
The SNP has amendments giving the government a duty to protect the quality of the domestic food supply by ensuring that imports have to meet the same standards as domestic food, and to restrict market access to healthcare services.
The Greens' Caroline Lucas and Plaid's Ben Lake have a new clause which aligns the UK's trade policy with the climate and environmental agenda.
And the Lib Dems' Sarah Olney has an amendment calling for human rights impact assessments on new trade deals.
This is far from an exhaustive list of the amendments, but it seems highly likely that a number of them will be forced to a vote.
MPs will also be asked, on the nod, to extend their current pandemic proxy voting rules into September.
The adjournment debate, led by former cabinet minister Chris Grayling, is on the protection of endangered species and restoration of habitats in developing countries - which might give some uncharitable souls the chance for a bit of merriment at his expense, if they're prepared to stay up late.
On the committee corridor at 09:30, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee looks at technology use during the pandemic, and the implications of increasing reliance on digital platforms.
The committee will investigate the opportunities and risks this presents to consumers and businesses, and take evidence on telecoms infrastructure, AI adoption in the workplace and digital up-skilling.
The witnesses include James Heath, chief executive of the National Infrastructure Commission, Richard Piggin, of Which?, Felicity Burch of the CBI and Harry Armstrong of Nesta.
The Public Accounts Committee takes evidence at 14:30 about the NHS nursing workforce and the drive to end the shortage of nurses, from Sir Chris Wormald - the top civil servant at the Department for Health and Social Care, and other senior officials.
The Human Rights Committee has a hearing at the same time on black people, racism and human rights with NHS chief midwifery officer, Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, David Isaac, and the watchdog's CEO, Rebecca Hilsenrath.
In the Lords from 13:00, question time covers independent pharmacies, biodiversity targets, making England smoke-free by 2030 and ensuring young people leaving school in this academic year are prepared for work in a post-Covid-19 environment.
Then peers move on to the detail of the Business and Planning Bill - the measure to help businesses recover from the lockdown, with a variety of planning relaxations.
The bill was rushed through the Commons, and now there is some concern about the impact of measures to allow more off-licensed alcohol sales and pavement drinking.
Report stage is the normal moment for peers to make serious attempts to rewrite a bill, and there are plenty of amendments in the offing to tighten up the system for pavement licences - for example, to prevent takeaway drinks in glasses, to allow local councils to ban smoking, and to limit the hours for off-premises alcohol sales.
The theme of many of the amendments is to limit the impact on the community and environment.
The third reading will follow immediately and, if there are amendments, it is possible the bill will bounce back to the Commons so MPs can consider them before the recess.
Tuesday 21 July
The Commons day begins at 11:30 with business, energy and industrial strategy questions.
The day's Ten Minute Rule Bill, from the former prime minister Theresa May, will propose increasing the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving to life imprisonment.
Then, there's more heavy-duty legislating - this time on the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill, which aims to ensure the sentences served by terrorists reflect the severity of offending and strengthen the tools for monitoring them in the community.
Labour has a series of amendments down, calling for reviews on the impact of different aspects of the bill.
The House may also consider Lords amendments, presumably to the Business and Planning Bill.
The adjournment debate, led by Labour's Rosie Duffield, focuses on tackling the misuse of nitrous oxide - otherwise known as laughing gas.
The UK is a big consumer of the drug and it is particularly popular among 16-24s.
It causes brief euphoria and fits of laughter, but it does this by interfering with oxygen supply to the brain, and can cause severe headaches, difficulty breathing and unconsciousness.
It has been linked to 25 deaths since 2010 and Ms Duiffield will argue for a review into the classification of nitrous oxide, along with fast action on how the sale can be further restricted to professional catering and medical consumers.
On the committee corridor, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee kicks off at 09:30, continuing its look at the the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act - the Coalition-era legislation setting the time between general elections at five years and requiring a two-thirds majority in the Commons for an early election.
The early elections of 2017 and 2019 have led to calls for reform, and the committee will hear from Mark Harper, the minister who guided the act through the Commons, and Chloe Smith MP, his latest successor as the minister dealing with constitutional issues in the Cabinet Office
The Health Committee also starts at 09:30 and will question chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty on testing strategy, the UK's high mortality rates and what happened in the care sector as part of its inquiry into the management of the first wave of Covid-19.
In the Lords at 12:00, questions to ministers range from the political situation in Hong Kong, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social mobility, and the effect of the outbreak on the childcare sector.
After that, peers continue their yomp through the detail of the Agriculture Bill with the fifth day of committee stage consideration.
Wednesday 22 July
The Commons final day of term opens at 11:30 with half an hour of women and equalities questions, followed by Prime Minister's Question Time.
The day's Ten Minute Rule Bill, from Labour's Jessica Morden, is on terminally ill people in the welfare system.
And that will be followed by the end of term debate in which any MP can make a speech about any matter they wish to raise.
After that - barring a summer recall - MPs will depart until 1 September.
There's a bit of last-day committee action too.
The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee starts at 09:30, hearing from Secretary of State Robert Jenrick and the Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government, Simon Clark.
The Work and Pensions Committee kicks off at the same time, with Secretary of State Therese Coffey speaking on safeguarding vulnerable people - namely, how her department learns lessons from serious cases.
The Science and Technology Committee at 14:30 has a session on the UK's domestic capability to manufacture telecommunications infrastructure.
Its chair, Greg Clark, has issued a public invitation to Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden to come and give evidence on how he would ensure the UK could manufacture critical components for vital new infrastructure, rather than resort to "high risk" providers like the Chinese company, Huawei.
In the Lords at 12:00, questions to ministers cover the impact of Covid-19 on progress towards the UN's sustainable development goals, teaching the arts and, as lockdown restrictions are lifted, the reopening of church buildings for private prayer and public worship.
Peers then turn to the first of a series of second readings of bills, which should allow several pieces of legislation to begin committee scrutiny in September.
One such piece is the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill. This repeals EU free movement of persons and other related EU-derived rights in UK law, and makes EU, EEA and Swiss citizens subject to UK immigration controls.
Thursday 23 July
Now bereft of MPs, the Lords plough on from 12:00 with questions on reimbursing tuition fees for nursing, midwifery and healthcare students employed by the NHS, and the proposed tunnel by-passing Stonehenge, as well as reforming government debt collection.
The main legislative event is the sixth and final committee stage day on the Agriculture Bill. The report stage, and serious attempts to amend the bill, will begin in September.
Friday 24 July
The Lords meet at 11:00 to debate a series of statutory instruments.
First comes the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (No. 2) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, which relaxes the previous regulations to enable the reopening of indoor and outdoor public houses, restaurants, cafes and bars etc.
This, of course, is being debated after coming into effect - what's known in the trade as a "Made Affirmative Statutory Instrument".
Then there's the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Combined Authority (Functions and Amendment) Order 2020, which provides new powers for the mayor on transport, skills and further education.
And finally, the Insolvency Act 1986 Part A1 Moratorium (Eligibility of Private Registered Providers) Regulations 2020, which applies legislation to give struggling businesses a breathing space to pursue a rescue plan to social housing providers.
Monday 25 July
Peers begin the week 13:00, questioning ministers on topics such as making learning to speak and read English compulsory, the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, restitution of property seized from Polish Jewish citizens during the Nazi occupation and the operation of the Probate Service.
They then move on to the second reading of the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill, which allows the UK to depart from EU rules and regulations, makes regulation more flexible and responsive when a safety issue emerges, and strengthens the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Tuesday 28 July
The Lords opens at 12:00 with questions on the impact of a "new deal for Britain" - the plan announced by the prime minister on the economy in the wake of the pandemic.
They will also discuss government plans for further devolution of power and decision-making in England and the balance of trade with Russia.
Then peers debate the second reading of the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill - the measure to equalise the size of most Commons seats, so that (with a few named exceptions) they have an electorate of about 72,000, plus or minus 5%.
Wednesday 29 July
The last day of term in the Lords begins at 12:00 with questions on the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act moratorium process, amending the Constitutional Reform & Governance Act 2010 - the package of constitutional changes brought in at the tail end of the Labour government, which included rule on scrutinising international treaties - and on ensuring that data collection on domestic abuse includes people over the age of 74.
Peers will then rattle through some statutory instruments - the Draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, which deals with fees for planning applications and other issues, and the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) Regulations 2020 - asking them to give retrospective approval to the local lockdown imposed in Leicester.
And finally there are the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 - which enable the government to designate people involved in human rights violations carried out by a state - for example, torture and slavery - and impose a travel ban or an asset freeze.
Away from the chamber, the Constitution Committee at 10.30 will hear from the Leader of the Lords, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park, and the government Chief Whip, Lord Ashton of Hyde, about the constitutional implications of Covid-19
After that, peers will depart and return on 2 September.
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Plans have been approved that will enable a new football stadium for Gloucester City to be built, nine years after the club's ground was flooded.
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The Vanarama National League North side have been without a permanent home since their Meadow Park ground was destroyed in the summer of 2007.
The Tigers have ground-shared with Cheltenham Town, Forest Green Rovers and Cirencester Town ever since.
It means work on the 4,000 capacity stadium project can finally begin.
Outline planning permission was granted for the project in September last year, but the club asked for permission to carry out work in phases, rather than all at once.
At a meeting on Tuesday evening Gloucester City Council planners approved variations to conditions of the planning permission, meaning work can now begin before a footpath is widened and bicycle parking is built.
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The first meeting of the Irish government's Constitutional Convention got under way at Dublin Castle on Saturday afternoon.
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The body was established by the government to examine proposed changes to the constitution.
The convention is made up of 100 members.
They include chairman Tom Arnold, 29 members of the Irish parliament, four members of the Northern Ireland Assembly and 66 citizens.
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A new study, by marketers at a distilling giant, seeks to capture the fast-changing trends that define the modern consumer, particularly the young It focuses on identity, health awareness, values, and a search for unique or unusual experiences For the drinks industry, a downturn in youthful boozing is about "drinking less, but drinking better", trading up to premium products.
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Douglas FraserBusiness/economy editor, Scotland
We're into the season of young people dressing up to scare people. So Ofcom used youngsters to frighten the jeepers out of the BBC.
The watchdog's report highlighted the decline in engagement by a generation too busy with Instagram and Netflix for the twists and turns of Brexit, or Eastenders.
Hallowe'en, for a younger generation, has moved beyond tricking, treating and pumpkins to become something of a party season.
So you'd think at least the one sector of the economy that can feel secure about millennials and Generation Z is the one that supplies them with vodka, gin, wine and beer, variations thereon and mixers therein.
Not so. I spent a fascinating evening this week in the company of top types from Scotland's licensed on-trade, hosted by distillers William Grant & Sons.
I found them profoundly challenged by the latest generation to get their ID cards and head for the pub.
VUCA world
Grant, the family firm that makes Glenfiddich single malt and Hendricks gin, invests each year in a marketing report intended to define what is trending, at the high (and sometimes gufftastic) level that helps them understand consumers' relationships with brands.
What they have found is an "active-ist consumer, who is characterised by a desire for curated social experiences, greater control of personal data and purpose-driven brand engagement".
Put more bluntly, that target and typically young consumer is drinking less, partly because she or he is more health conscious. They are searching for unique or unusual experiences, and want association with brands that carry environmental kudos, and a social message too.
They embrace technology, but fear its reach into their privacy. They want choice, yet they also want that choice curated and simplified.
In the VUCA world - volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous - they seek to make sense of it alongside commercial brands that "go the extra mile for them, and with them - they are more concerned than ever before about the world around them and their role in it".
Gin genie
For the beer, wine and spirits business, which rose in its UK value last year to £43bn, it needs to be heavily invested in adapting to such trends, and recruiting new drinkers, if it is to maintain its growth.
While on-trade complains loudly about the advantages of off-trade, both are growing. Last year, on-trade was up to nearly £26bn, and off-trade slightly faster to £17bn.
One aspect of the battle that they welcome is minimum unit pricing, which cuts the ability of retailers to discount, though has less impact at the premium end of the market. "Pre-loading" on cheaper off-sales booze remains the means by which high on-trade prices can be avoided.
Within that total, the spirits sector is growing at twice the pace of the booze market, much of it thanks to the gin genie released from the bottle in the past decade. More than 400 new gin brands have launched in the UK since 2016, according to the Grant's report, Trending 2020.
One question in the on-trade is when that will decline, and which of the new gin distillers will survive. One wholesaler complained that he's carrying 225 types of gin, and wants to cut that to 75. But for now, the signs are that demand is beginning to plateau, and rum is established as the next big thing.
Dry generation
The bigger question, though, is how much further consumer demand, social pressure and government policy is going to undermine demand for alcohol. More than four million people took on the "Dry January" challenge this year.
The trend towards no or low-alcohol drinks has some momentum. The market data specialists at Kantar reckon that there was a drop in the number of people drinking in pubs, clubs and restaurants from 86% in 2014 to 81% last year.
It is reckoned that as many as one in five young people aged 16 to 24 do not drink alcohol.
William Grant & Sons recently got on board the move to both gin and low-alcohol, launching Atopia, an "ultra-low-alcohol spirit". It competes with Diageo's Seedlip.
Both are audaciously trying the trick of setting a price point comparable with spirits, even though they don't carry the huge whack of tax on a standard bottle of spirits. So the £25 price of a bottle of no/low spirit is very largely made up of profit, distilled and then conjured by clever marketing mixology.
Dinner parties
In the on-trade, it makes people wonder if they're getting their mocktails right by pricing them only just south of strongly alcoholic ones. Drinkers ought to know the absence of duty makes them much cheaper to make. But an inflated price gets them respect in the clubs.
What also gets respect in a lot of pubs and clubs is "instagrammability". A bright pink cafe that recently opened near my home claims to have been voted "the most instagrammable cafe in Glasgow". (The curmudgeon in me can't think of anything more likely to keep me from going there.)
So the on-trade is having to ally taste with looks. Don't be surprised to find a rubber duck paddling in your cocktail, or some candy floss set adrift on it.
The youngest cohort of consumers are reckoned to spend a total of five days a year looking at such pictures on Instagram. Food beats drink, of course, and so marketers are seeking ways to respond. Food and drink menus with pictures are appearing beyond the tourist traps where customers struggle to understand English.
Meanwhile, those data people at Kantar reckon that between 2013 and 2018, there were 38 million more in-home dinner parties, many of them exploring the visual appeal of food as well as its taste. Adapting the culture of the pop-up event, they offer a one-off experience instead of an endlessly repeatable digital product.
Run ragged
Meanwhile, with heightened awareness of mental health, people - and not just the young, of course - realise that booze can be a particularly bad answer to the blues.
Non-booze "mood management" is therefore big business. Non-alcoholic drinks offer mood enhancers, claiming in one example to regulate stress through adaptogens and brain-boosting nootropics. A low-calorie beer includes infusion with beer pollen to help muscle recovery post-workout.
CBD, a cannabis derivative, has emerged in the US and Canada as a legal alternative to alcohol, and before long, marketers expect to see it gain legitimacy and market share in enhancing the UK's mood.
The bit that can sometimes be forgotten is that Generation Z, born since 2000 plus some younger millennials who preceded them, may have old marketers run ragged by the rapid change in perception, expectation, the search for experience and a conscious search for values, but that doesn't mean that younger people understand what's going on either.
Individuals look to media, and mainly new media, to tell them where they should fit in. They may have the marketing world at their feet, but that's not to say it isn't a VUCA world for them too.
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More than one thousand workers have staged a walkout at Sellafield in Cumbria in a protest against redundancies, a union said.
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The company Mitie - which recently won a new contract at the site - is considering job cuts.
The 1,100 workers who walked out were from several different companies, which have been unavailable for comment.
Unite union said they would be back at work on Monday, and safety and security at the site had not been compromised.
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It's been claimed that Finland's baby boxes, given to every newborn in the country, help reduce cot deaths. But what evidence is there that they lower infant mortality rates, asks Elizabeth Cassin.
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In June 2013, the BBC News website published an article entitled Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes. It's been viewed over 13 million times and sparked global interest in the idea.
The article explained Finland's 75-year-old policy of giving every pregnant mother a cardboard box filled with baby products, such as clothes, sleeping bag, nappies, bedding and a mattress, and how the box itself could be used as a bed.
One reason it attracted such attention is that Finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world - two deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with a global rate of 32 in 1,000, according to the UN.
Over the past three years, companies selling the boxes have popped up in the US, Finland and the UK.
And they're incredibly popular not just with individuals but - more significantly - with governments. The promise of lower infant mortality rates is something to aim for.
But if you stop and think about it for a minute, this is a bold claim. How does getting a baby to sleep in a box and a few baby items bring down infant mortality rates?
In theory, the boxes offer a safe sleep space for babies.
There are lots of reasons why babies die, from health problems to accidents. But there's one in particular that these boxes have been thought to help reduce - sudden infant death syndrome (Sids), also referred to as "cot death", is the unexpected and unexplained death of an apparently healthy baby.
Although it's difficult to always understand what causes these deaths, there are environmental factors that increase the risk - including being around tobacco smoke, getting tangled in bedding, or sleeping alongside parents - especially if parents have been drinking.
Find out more
In the early 90s, many Western countries introduced Back to Sleep campaigns, when it was discovered that babies who sleep on their tummies are more vulnerable to Sids. This led to the last significant reduction in countries like the US and UK.
"Since we had the dramatic decline of Sids in the 90s, we're now in a situation where the remaining Sids is much harder to try to alleviate," says Prof Helen Ball, director of the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab in the UK. "And so people are looking for new interventions, new changes to social care practices that might specifically help some of the more vulnerable families."
Putting a baby in a box, and keeping the box near a parent, could prevent some of the hazardous scenarios.
But it's important to understand that nearly all countries have seen a dramatic reduction in infant mortality over the last century. In 1900, about 15% of babies in Europe would have died in their first year. Now it's less than 0.4%.
And Finnish academics and health professionals have been keen to point out that there is some misunderstanding about the box scheme.
To understand how policy changed in Finland, we need to go back to 1938.
Although infant mortality rates had been falling across Europe, Finland's rate was higher than their Nordic neighbours. The government decided to offer baby boxes to low-income women.
But the women didn't just get a box. The boxes were introduced "at the same time that the pre-natal care was started", says Prof Mika Gissler, a statistician at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland.
Women had to attend clinics early on in their pregnancy to qualify for the maternity package. Their health could then be monitored throughout and after the pregnancy.
Legislation in 1944 made it a legal obligation for municipalities to provide maternity and child health clinics. That year, only 31% of pregnant mothers had received prenatal care. The figure jumped to 86% the following year.
In 1949, the care package, including the baby boxes, was offered to all women.
"Then there was a big change from home birth to hospital birth," says Gissler. "We had the national health insurance system introduced very late in the 60s."
One of Gissler's colleagues, Prof Tuovi Hakulinen, says that to her knowledge, there is no direct link between the baby box and infant mortality rates.
And that if you look at the decline in infant mortality, the thing that's driving it more than anything else is a combination of advancement in medicine, vaccinations, nutrition, hygiene and increased prosperity.
Finland has reliable Sids data for the past three decades - and the rate is low. But the significant reduction in deaths has been in congenital anomalies and other diseases.
And yet one of the leading baby box companies sells its products as an essential gift for new parents, claiming studies have proven the link.
I asked the company if I could see these studies, but they said that studies showing positive results had not been published yet. Experts say that there are no studies showing the efficacy of baby boxes.
Countries across the world have been trialling variations on the Finnish box, including Canada, Ireland, and Scotland - with many tying in additional education for parents.
And while looking at the possibilities the baby box is interesting, there are bigger factors at play.
One country where the baby box idea has received a lot of attention is the United States - because they are struggling with poor infant mortality rates - six per 1,000 births, which makes them comparable to Poland and Hungary, below the level you'd expect based on their income.
Prof Emily Oster, an economist at Brown University, compared data from the US with various European countries, primarily Finland and Austria.
She says the US does fairly well in the first month of life - but from a month to a year, "you can see the mortality rate in the US kind of accelerating away from the other countries in that period".
When looking at women with a college degree - a marker for relatively high income - infant mortality rates were low and similar to the same groups in Finland and Austria.
"What we see is that well-off women in Finland, well off women in the US, are very, very similar," she says. "The difference is well-off women in Finland and less-educated women in Finland have very similar infant mortality profiles. Whereas that is not true in the US."
But it's not clear from their research what specifically causes these deaths - because there are many things which make the US different, such as their health system. Also, most countries in Europe have a pretty robust home visiting programme after birth. That's not something that has uniformly been true in the US.
"What often comes along with the boxes is some additional contact with somebody," says Oster. "It may be the healthcare assistant, a nurse, a social worker.
"The box alone doesn't seem likely to matter."
The baby boxes are hugely popular in Finland, but they are emblematic of a wider health care system.
Governments and individuals should not see the box as solely effective, without improving care and education for parents also.
After all, there are countries with the same infant mortality rate as Finland, such as Iceland, Estonia and Japan, that do not have baby box schemes.
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Has Tesco lost its mojo? Its results for the first quarter of the year are not strong, and yet the first few lines of its press release try to imply that they are, which is not the sign of a confident business.
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Robert PestonEconomics editor
For example, Tesco starts its press release by saying that "customer perceptions" have improved "on all key measures" - which may well be so, but is not the same thing as money in the till.
It goes on to say that there were "positive and improving" like-for-like or underlying sales "in all food categories with the exception of frozen and chilled".
For the leading retailer of frozen and chilled food, that is a bit like saying my team Arsenal is brilliant in midfield, and ignoring some conspicuous shortcomings in defence and attack
The point is that, in the round, Tesco's like-for-like sales in the UK were down between 0.8% and 1.6% in the three months to May 26, depending on which of the four measures of underlying sales provided by Tesco you may think is relevant.
For what it's worth. Tesco seems to think that the 1% drop, excluding VAT and petrol, is the one that is relevant. That compares with a 0.5% rise in the final quarter of the last financial year.
So Tesco seems to have gone backwards again, in spite of the £1bn it spent in 2012/13 on recruiting 8,000 new store staff, relaunching thousands of own-label products and "refreshing" the look and feel of its stores.
The chief executive of Tesco, Philip Clarke, gave two explanations on the Today Programme for what had gone wrong.
Sales of consumer electronics were poor. Historically these have been important to Tesco but Mr Clarke has decided that Tesco will significantly reduce its presence in this market (you can probably hear Dixons breathing a huge sigh of relief).
And although no new bits of horse have been found in Tesco's ready meals in the latest period, the memory of equine DNA in the mince seems still to be making some shoppers wary of its chilled and frozen foods.
None of which is to say that Tesco is in serious difficulties, or that Mr Clarke will ultimately fail in stabilising Tesco.
But it does rather imply that the recovery is taking longer than expected. And it raises the possibility that he won't succeed.
What's more, even Tesco's operations in Asia and eastern Europe - which in recent years were the glittering jewels in its empire - have lost some of their lustre.
Tesco's market leadership in a handful of developing markets overseas remains an enormous source of strength for the group but it is striking that in the latest quarter like-for-like sales fell quite sharply in China, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Turkey (though the rate of decline in important South Korea has slowed).
But back to Britain.
Businesses, like all social organisms, rise and fall.
Tesco's market share of a third of the grocery market and more than 10% of all retail sales, acquired under Mr Clarke's predecessor, Sir Terry Leahy, put the retailing group in a league of its own, in Britain.
But possibly that supremacy was something of a historical anomaly, too far from the mean to be sustainable.
Maybe, in an inclement climate for all retailers in the UK, and given that Tesco is so big, the very best that can be expected of Mr Clarke is that at some point he stops it going backwards.
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A fire at a derelict hotel on a seafront which forced the closure of the promenade and tram network is being treated as a suspected arson by police.
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About 60 firefighters tackled the blaze that broke out on the top floor of the former Ambassador Hotel in Blackpool at about 20:15 GMT on Wednesday.
No-one was hurt in the fire at the six-storey building, the fire service said.
The neighbouring Rutland Hotel was evacuated and guests were taken to temporary accommodation.
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A video showing the body of a young man being callously thrown into the sea has sparked an international investigation, and shone a spotlight on the "slave-like" conditions allegedly suffered by Indonesian fishermen on board Chinese-owned vessels. This is the story of just two families, mourning sons and brothers who died trying to build a new life.
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By Callistasia Wijaya and Rebecca HenschkeBBC News Indonesia
Sepri had never been to sea before, when he heard through a friend about the chance to work on a Chinese-owned fishing boat.
The promised money on offer was beyond anything the 25-year-old could dream of earning in his village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
"He was so enthusiastic about suddenly being able to earn such big money for us," his sister Rika Andri Pratama remembers.
With the assurance of training and a $400 (£326) a month salary, he set sail with a group of 22 Indonesian men on the Long Xing 629 fishing vessel in February last year.
"Before he left, he borrowed some money from me," says Rika.
"He said it would be the last time because he would come home with loads more and we could finally afford to renovate the family home."
But Sepri never came home. No money was sent. And Rika didn't speak to her brother again.
In early January, she received a letter. He had died at sea, his body thrown overboard into the Pacific Ocean.
"My heart was crushed when I heard he was thrown into the sea," she says holding back tears.
She was filled with guilt. "Before our mum died, her last words were, 'you should take care of your little brother'."
Two other Indonesian crew members died on the Long Xing 629. Sepri and another man died within days of each other in December, after just 10 months at sea. While Ari, who was from the same village as Sepri, died in March this year, shortly before the rest of the crew were rescued.
Like Sepri, their bodies were wrapped in cloth and thrown over the side. Like Sepri's, their families would never get the chance to say goodbye either.
A third desperately ill man, Efendi Pasaribu, would make it to shore alive - but only just.
There was a chance this could have all gone unnoticed - simply a few more deaths at sea - had the unceremonious sea burial captured on a mobile not come to light, and caused a public outcry in Indonesia.
Instead, the video sparked a renewed debate about the abuse of fishermen aboard foreign vessels in Southeast Asia.
Shockingly, the stories of life aboard the Long Xing 629 are eerily familiar, and come just five years after about 4,000 foreign fishermen, mostly from Myanmar (Burma), were rescued and freed from remote islands in Indonesia; some had been exploited in slave-like conditions for years.
At the time Indonesia vowed to fight to end unregulated fishing and the exploitation of fishermen on foreign vessels.
As the Long Xing 629's survivors began to talk, it became clear little had changed.
'All we could do was wash them and pray'
Fellow crew mates, who requested only to be identified by their initials, said they were often beaten and kicked. They couldn't understand what their Chinese bosses were saying and it led to confusion and frustration.
One of the crew told BBC Indonesia his friends' bodies all swelled up before they died.
Another said they were forced to work 18-hour days and only given fish bait to eat.
"They [the Chinese crew] drank mineral water, while we were only given poorly distilled sea water," 20-year-old NA said.
When it became clear how sick Sepri and the others had become, NA says they pleaded with the captain to bring them to land for treatment.
After the three men died, the crew begged to keep the bodies in a cooler so their friends could be buried in line with their Islamic customs once they reached the shore.
But the captain told them that no one would want them.
"He argued that every country would reject their bodies anyway," NA says. "All we could do was wash their bodies according to the Islamic law, pray and then throw them in to the sea."
The captain finally agreed to move the remaining Indonesian crew members to another Chinese vessel which landed in Busan, South Korea. Efendi Pasaribu was still critically ill, but he was alive.
'Leaving for a better future'
His mother, Kelentina Silaban, was able to video call her son while he lay in a hospital bed in Busan.
Efendi was almost unrecognisable from the healthy 21-year-old who had said goodbye to her just over a year ago.
"I said please, please just come home, we will take care of you in the village."
Instead, her son's body was returned to her. They were told he had died from kidney failure and pneumonia.
Before he left his village he had posted a photo of himself on social media, proudly pulling a suitcase, with the caption: "I am leaving in order to carve out a better future."
Efendi ended up being buried close to the family home in rural Sumatra.
"We hope that our brother's death helps uncover the slavery on foreign fishing vessels. We are hoping that this will be fully investigated," said his brother Rohman.
Answers - not money
Migrant rights groups are calling on the government to do much more to protect their citizens from becoming "slaves".
The Indonesian government says the Long Xing 269 survivors - none of whom received their full salaries - were part of a group of 49 fishermen, ranging from 19 to 24, who had been forced to work in poor conditions on at least four fishing boats owned by the same Chinese company, Dalian Ocean fishing Co Ltd.
It declined to respond to the allegations when contacted by the BBC, saying it would issue a statement on its website. No response has been released.
Both countries are promising the families answers. Jakarta described the sailors' treatment as "inhumane", while the Chinese embassy in Jakarta described it as an "unfortunate incident".
It has said that they are now carrying out a "comprehensive investigation" in partnership with Indonesia.
In Indonesia, three men have been arrested as part of the investigation into the recruitment firms that hired the young men. They could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty under human trafficking laws.
"We will ensure that the company has to fulfil our crews' rights," Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a video conference.
"Based on the information from the crews, the company has violated human rights," she added.
The Indonesian fisherman agency association (IFMA) told BBC Indonesia that there are numerous unregistered agencies hiring crews with no oversight from the government.
"There are so many requests from foreign vessels, these agencies just make the needed documents and send the men on on their way. There is no filter from the Indonesia side," said the group's vice president Tikno.
In response to public pressure, the government says they are now considering putting in place a six-month moratorium on Indonesian fishermen going to work on foreign vessels.
"This would allow us to have time to improve our oversight, so we can put in place a one-channel system where we have all the data we need to be able to monitor and make sure the rights of our fishermen are protected," fisheries ministry official Zulficar Mochtar said.
Meanwhile, the recruitment firm who hired Rika's brother, Sepri, has promised to pay her 250 million rupiah (£13,000) in compensation. But she wants answers, not just money.
"We need to know what happened on that vessel," she said. "Let us be the last family which has to experience this."
Additional reporting by BBC Indonesia's Affan Hedyer and Raja Eben Lumbanrau
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A 24-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to murdering a man outside a hotel in Bangor.
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Dean Skillin, 20, of Caernarfon, died in hospital following the incident near the Waverley Hotel, Station Road, in September.
Brandon Sillence, of Toronnen, Bangor, denied his murder but admitted a charge of manslaughter at a hearing held via video link at Mold Crown Court.
A provisional trial date has been set for 22 March at Caernarfon Crown Court.
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A man is in a critical condition in hospital after being rescued by firefighters from a blazing pub roof in North Yorkshire.
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Fire crews used hoses and an aerial ladder platform to put out the fire at the Old Swan Inn, Gargrave, near Skipton, on Tuesday.
People were evacuated from nearby buildings and the A65 was also closed.
Firefighters found the man in his 50s on the pub's roof and brought him down just after 18:30 BST.
An investigation has begun to establish the full circumstances of the incident, said North Yorkshire Police.
More stories from Yorkshire
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Quidditch - the game played by Harry Potter - is now magically appearing in the Oxford Dictionaries, joining that other Potter term "muggle". But what other words dreamed up by author JK Rowling are on the cusp of gaining official recognition?
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By Emma ThelwellBBC News
Potterhead... Wrock... Bellatrix... three terms that muggles may not understand. And if you need to be told what a muggle is in the first place, then you can at least consult a dictionary on that one.
The BBC has learned that another small list of words associated with the Harry Potter book series is on the Oxford University Press watchlist, which decides on the words likely to gain inclusion in its dictionaries.
Potterhead refers to a fan of Harry Potter, while Wrock [short for Wizard Rock] is a genre of Harry Potter-related music.
Bellatrix is the name of a character in the series, which Rowling named after a star in the Orion constellation.
The Oxford University Press has a vast database of some three billion words ready for editors to consider for publication in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the website Oxford Dictionaries.
The OED is a historical dictionary which records all the core words and meanings in English over more than 1,000 years, while the latter tracks "current" English and includes modern meanings of words.
Most words have to be in circulation for 10 years before they will be considered for the OED, but in the meantime many enter the Oxford Dictionaries website after careful consideration.
'Beyond the book'
Rowling's word "muggle" - which made its debut in 1997's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - was an exception to the rule.
Muggle leapt into the Oxford English Dictionary in less than half the usual time, appearing in 2002 as "a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way".
Charlotte Buxton, an associate editor at Oxford Dictionaries, explained that some words are fast-tracked if they "cross into our world" quickly and are widely used.
She said: "It's fairly unusual for a made-up word to get in. They have to move beyond the book - quidditch is now a real sport, not just a made-up game.
"It is really significant as it shows that Harry Potter has had such a huge impact."
Ms Buxton said she thought "Horcrux" - an object which contains a wizard's evil - might be next on Oxford Dictionaries' radar.
She added: "Harry Potter could be ripe for a project."
Previous Oxford University Press projects include last year's focus on Roald Dahl as a celebration of the centenary of his birth.
Almost 8,000 real words - and invented ones - were included in a special Roald Dahl dictionary, which took five years to compile.
Of these words, several do have a place in the OED, including golden ticket, oompa loompa and human bean.
Ms Buxton said it has been children's authors, such as Dahl, who have tended to coin the most new words over the last century because they are the most playful and creative.
"In particular, authors who create their own language - such as [Lord of the Rings author] JRR Tolkien. He created a complete world with its own language.
"Writers who do that - like JK Rowling - really make their mark." she said.
Really? 'Meh'
Other realms which have crossed into ours are the fantasy fiction of Twilight, and the animated comedy show The Simpsons.
The Simpsons lays claim to three words in Oxford Dictionaries: Jeebus, cromulent and embiggen. It is also credited for popularising the word "meh" - which has been added to the OED.
"Children's books are read by children and by adults to their children, which leads to words being used within the family and beyond," Ms Buxton said. This gives the words better staying power.
Meanwhile, realist authors, such as the Victorian author Charles Dickens, tend not to create as many new words as they are concerned with reflecting the real world, she said.
It is William Shakespeare who is famously credited for having the biggest influence on the English language - providing the first evidence of more than 1,600 words, from "admired" to "watch-dog" and "night owl".
But Ms Buxton says it is hard to know how many words Shakespeare invented and how many he simply recorded.
What we do know is that not all of them stood the test of time: has anyone met a "flirt-gill" recently?
10 other words invented by authors
Superman: A translation of the German Übermensch used by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to denote the concept of an "ideal superior man of the future".
Blatant: Invented by Edmund Spenser in his epic poem The Faerie Queene (1596), where he wrote of a "blatant beast".
Robot: Coined by the Czech author Karel Capek, robot made its first appearance in a 1920 sci-fi play called R.U.R, short for Rossum's Universal Robots.
Cyberspace: Invented by William Gibson for a 1981 science fiction short story called Burning Chrome, which was published in Omni magazine in 1982.
Serendipity: Coined by Horace Walpole in a letter he wrote to Horace Mann in 1754, after the title of the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, the heroes of which 'were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of'.
Eucatastrophe: Coined by JRR Tolkien in a 1944 letter to describe "a sudden and favourable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending".
Doublethink: In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four he created a language called Newspeak which included the word doublethink - which refers to the acceptance of contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time.
Blurb: Coined in 1907 by the American humourist Gelett Burgess, "blurb" was first found on a comic book jacket embellished with a drawing of a young lady whom Burgess dubbed "Miss Belinda Blurb".
Chortle: Introduced by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass, published in 1871, the word is probably a blend of chuckle and snort.
Cloud cuckoo land: In his comedy Birds, the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes named the city built by the birds to separate the gods from mankind - it was translated into English in 1824 as "cloud cuckoo land".
Source: Oxford Dictionaries
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A gritter lorry got wedged in a house after smashing into it in the early hours.
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Police found the yellow lorry stuck in the semi-detached house on Chester Road in Helsby, Cheshire at about 01:00 GMT.
None of the house's occupants were hurt, but have been temporarily rehoused with friends and family, Cheshire Police said.
The lorry driver was taken to hospital but is not believed to have sustained any serious injuries.
The A56 in Helsby is completely closed as a result of the smash and diversions are in place via the M56.
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Education Secretary Michael Gove plans to scrap GCSEs in secondary schools in England and return to O-level style exams.
Proposals include a single exam board and a different "more straightforward" exam, like the old CSE, for less academic pupils.
Here union leaders, teachers and parents give their views.
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Brian Lightman, Association of School and College Leaders
It's very difficult to respond to announcements that are made via hearsay and leaks rather than through properly detailed and published proposals.
I completely agree that our qualifications system needs to stand up to the best in other countries, but I cannot see how this proposal squares with the international research that says other successful countries don't have two-tier qualifications systems.
Without seeing the DfE [Department for Education] proposals, it is difficult to judge the impact. It seems that reintroducing a two-tier system, which was scrapped years ago because it ended up failing large numbers of young people, would be a hugely backward step.
O-levels were introduced for a small proportion of the population and CSEs were seen as an inferior qualification for the less able. I can't see how telling young people at age 14 that they aren't smart enough to sit a higher level GCSE will help to address social mobility and raising aspirations.
However, we need to see the actual proposals from the DfE before we can accurately predict what the consequences, intended and unintended, will be.
Russell Hobby, National Association of Head Teachers
I've seen it in the Daily Mail just like everyone else, and that's not a good way to introduce this to the profession.
I think a single exam board will remove a lot of concerns with the competition for easier exams. It isn't working and it's lowered trust in the system, so that's sensible. But I think the idea of an obviously two-tier exam system, the CSE/O-level split, doesn't sound like a good step forward to me.
I think it takes us back to a stage where we make choices about what a child is capable of very early in their school career. And that we're creating a qualification that potentially doesn't fulfil the need of employers in this day and age, where we need strong literacy, strong numeracy and science skills in almost every student.
We do need to demand high academic standards from as many lessons as possible, and I think it's the kind of core academic skills in literacy and numeracy, which actually are the truly vocational qualifications. But yes, children have different career paths and plans and some will be more inspired and engaged by a technical study, but that doesn't mean the technical and vocational qualifications are a lower exam to the GCSEs. They run in parallel.
I think this is clearly labelled as an exam for less clever children in the way it's been presented and I think that we will find that that switches people off in the way that CSEs switched people off very early on.
John Bangs, former NUT head of education
I think there is a case for reform. But I think that's to do with considered reform, setting up an independent review as the previous government did with the Tomlinson report, involving people in what we want from examinations.
But not doing headline-grabbing stuff saying that he believes current examination is broken beyond repair, incidentally casting thousands of young people into a state of despair because they're doing the exams at the moment, but doing it in a considered long-term way.
It may not get the headlines but it's the right thing for education.
Lord Baker, former education secretary
I think Michael Gove is absolutely right to reduce the competition between the exam boards for English, maths and science, which have undoubtedly been downgraded through competition. And that's going to be good.
Now he's a very radical reformer and is very interesting and rigorous at the heart of all his changes. What is important is to ensure that other subjects that are taken don't become second-class.
Engineering at 16 is just as demanding as maths and science.
That's what we have to ensure, and I think that will happen under the system that Michael Gove is going to introduce.
Geoff Barton, head teacher of King Edward VI school, Bury St Edmunds
What this government constantly tell us about is how we should look up to the international big boys with their national curricula and their tests and so on, and that's where we thought the direction of travel was.
Next thing we hear is that we're not going to have a national curriculum, which seems to me utterly bizarre, and a system, whereby we're going to start choosing children on ability for which papers they can sit when they're 13 or 14.
What we know about intelligence is that people improve and they develop, and we're in the business of motivating youngsters not de-motivating them.
Dr Wendy Piatt from The Russell Group
I certainly think the current system needs improving. The main problem is that some GCSEs simply don't stretch the very brightest.
In some ways it does make sense to have two types of exam - one for the very academic and one for people who are less academic who want to do something more applied, more vocational.
But there is a real danger here... there is a worry that at a very early age you will be pigeonholed and then put on a course that is not really suitable for you and you won't be able to change to the more academic course, which will open up opportunities to go to leading universities.
Exam board Cambridge Assessment
We support evidence-based educational reform and refute claims that competition has resulted in a "dumbing down" of standards.
Arbitrary changes to the exams systems and the multiple purposes that qualifications are now often expected to take on - accountability, driving up standards in schools, individual selection, and allowing greater access to education - have made it difficult to maintain standards over time.
There are challenges associated with a single qualification designed to recognise the achievement of all students - the current tiered system seeks to do that. However, we welcome a commitment to ensure that the 40% who do not achieve A*-C grades at GCSE are catered for and receive positive recognition of their achievement rather than simply 'failing' a GCSE.
Any reform requires measured and careful implementation and we will be engaging in the process when there is a consultation.
Jenny Cooper, parent
My concern is not that there would be a change, but that it might not be quick enough. Our oldest daughter takes her GCSEs next year.
I have another daughter two years behind her and a son in the year before that. With our other two children starting their courses before 2014, I wonder whether their exams will be devalued by the change.
If they really feel that we ought to be moving to the O-level style exams, then they really shouldn't be waiting two years to do it.
All the children taking the exams in the meantime are going to be taking papers like the old model of a car - devalued the minute people know a new model is coming out.
My daughters' school has already made a decision to only do the International Baccalaureate at sixth form because they know there is change coming to A-levels but they don't know what the change is yet and they don't want to risk the children's education.
For my children O-level style exams would be ideal. My children are academic. They are children who can learn a body of information and then use it. But the O-level style exams won't suit everyone.
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Ted Humble-Smith is a conceptual still-life photographer. He's well known for his fashion work. Ted can take a lipstick or a watch and with his extraordinary vision and skill turn the beautiful into something even more gorgeous.
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By Jonathan AmosBBC Science Correspondent
But speak to him for just a few minutes and it's clear he sees not just the colour and form of his subjects, but the engineering that underpins their design.
In fact, it's obvious Ted has a passion for it. He points to the 4-inch stiletto heel.
"Everyone laughs when I talk about it," he told me. "But you have this thing that's so elegant, so beautiful - and yet at the same time, there has to be some serious engineering and mathematics in there as well.
"Eight stones at least is going through a square centimetre. These are big loads but you rarely see people snap their heels these days."
Ted has just put his inquisitive eye to a project for the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He's produced a series of images to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MacRobert Award, which honours examples of remarkable British innovation. From the aerodynamic design of the Severn Bridge to the composite wing of an Airbus jet.
The photos are clearly conceptual in nature but the ideas that went into their creation are drawn directly from conversations with the engineers involved.
Ted took their explanations, extracted the essence and then reimagined his subjects. His favourite photo - at the moment; the choice changes - is the EMI X-ray brain scanner, the world's first computed tomography (CT) machine to be used in a clinical setting (MacRobert winner: 1972).
An illuminated, transparent skull is cut through by a rotating disc. The visual narrative describes the process through which X-rays are able to build a picture of the brain, slice by slice.
"It's a hell of an invention," says Ted. "When you consider that if you wanted to look inside someone's brain previously, you basically had to take it out, slice it on a bacon slicer and then put it on a lightbox. The CT scanner is phenomenal."
Ted builds many of the objects he photographs. At first glance, you might think he's done everything in a software package on his computer. You'd be wrong.
Ted uses models that have been lit in interesting ways and captured under different exposures. For sure, some image frames have been stacked and any scaffolding, such as rods and wires, has been digitally erased. But you'd be able to hold his MacRobert models in your hands.
Witness the picture he produced of Quantel Paintbox (MacRobert winner: 1988). Wholly apposite in this context.
Paintbox revolutionised computer graphics on TV and film. It enabled the industry for the first time to properly digitise colour and really play with it on our screens (see the Dire Straits video Money for Nothing).
In his image, Ted encodes this in his mind's-eye as paint flying around curved plastic sheets. "You can freeze liquids in photography now so well. I wanted it to look like paint was exploding on to the screen. So, you can do it in a very complicated way with robots and paint cannons, or you can do it in the slightly haphazard fashion that we did. Basically, you fling paint around."
A wonderful mess in the studio made for a striking image.
Ted's images for the MacRobert 50th anniversary are being showcased in an online exhibition the Royal Academy of Engineering has developed with the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. You can see it here. And for a taste of the sort of images Ted is best known for, take a look at the gallery on his website.
The finalists for the 2020 MacRobert award have just been announced. There are three on the shortlist and they are all recognised for contributing innovation to a greener future. They are:
Prof Sir Richard Friend is the chair of the judging panel. He's also himself a past winner for his work on "plastic electronics" - technology that has attained ubiquity in the touchscreens of our mobile phones.
He told me: "The shortlisted companies this year are splendid examples of things you might have thought the UK wasn't the natural place for their innovations to emerge. We sometimes write ourselves out of being world players in quite a few technologies. There's no reason for it and the MacRobert award keeps presenting with cases that are very obviously world-beating."
It's a theme emphasised by Ted Humble-Smith, who confesses to have gone on something of a conversion during his photographic projects.
"I started out quite despondent about where Britain was in the world - that the UK never seems to do anything anymore," he recalled. "But then I started talking to the present-day people and it just gave me a whole new belief that actually there's some blindingly cool stuff happening in the UK. The UK does make and innovate some incredible things."
[email protected] and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
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A hospital's chief executive has denied patient safety was put at risk, after watchdog Monitor launched an inquiry into its "poor financial performance".
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Monitor said it was concerned about the high costs and low income of Wirral University Teaching Hospital.
The NHS watchdog said it would "determine whether there are problems with how the trust is run which may in turn have an impact on patients".
Chief executive David Allison said care has not been compromised.
He said the financial situation at the trust, which runs the Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge Hospitals, had improved since October.
"I can assure people we will not compromise the level of patient care we provide, [despite the fact that] we've got rising demand for healthcare and less and less resources available."
Monitor said hospital finances were now being closely examined following the Stafford Hospital scandal.
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Two new schools are to be opened in Tenby following the approval of an £8.73m investment by Pembrokeshire council.
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A new English-medium primary school catering for 318 pupils will be built next to the site of the current Tenby Junior School.
A 210-place Welsh-medium primary school will open in the vacated junior school.
The schools, which will both offer nursery provision, will open in September 2016.
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Charlotte and Attila Szakacs only had four weeks with their daughter, Evelyn, before a rare chromosomal abnormality led to her death. Yet they were able to spend a further 16 days bonding with her before laying her to rest.
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By Jennifer ScottBBC News
"I know it might not be the best option for everyone," Charlotte told the Daily Mail. "But for us it was so important to be able to have that family time and just properly cuddle our little girl."
For the Szakacs family, that option was a cuddle cot, enabling them to stay together for a longer period after Evelyn's death.
The cots are refrigerated Moses baskets that create a cool environment for the child's body.
By using it, Charlotte and Attila were able to stay in Martin House Children's Hospice, near Leeds, for 12 days, spending that time holding Evelyn, dressing her and even taking her for walks in a pram.
The couple then made the choice to take their baby home for another four days, before holding a funeral.
"I think having the time with her made such a difference," added Charlotte. "Being able to do so many of the things you imagine like taking her out in her pram, it really helped emotionally."
Creating memories
Although hospitals and hospices only began using them around five years ago, the cots have already made big impact on bereaved families.
"It helps them to create memories," says Dr Michelle Hills, consultant in paediatric palliative medicine at Martin House.
"Some families want to push their baby in the pram they have bought, take them home to the nursery they have prepared. For some, it helps them in the bereavement process."
Medical staff also offer parents the option of taking pictures of their baby, footprints and handprints, and creating memory boxes.
Getting these mementoes of their child can be important for some families to help them with the grieving process.
And for some parents, taking their child home after they die is another method of helping them to cope with their grief.
Where you can find help if you lose your baby
But it is not one size fits all when it comes to something as traumatic as losing a child.
Dr Hills says the 16 days Charlotte and Attila decided to have was one of the longer periods she had come across, but the decision was up to each individual family.
"The important thing is there are choices available," she says. "Some people couldn't imagine taking their child home, some people want to stay in hospital, others want to use a hospice.
"It is absolutely devastating losing a child. We are there to help them with everything, from creating those memories to organising a funeral."
According to stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands, 15 babies die every day either before, during or shortly after birth.
"That is 15 families all affected by that every single day," says Erica Stewart, bereavement support and awareness specialist for the charity. "People don't realise it is that number and we need to address that."
The charity echoes the words of Dr Hills, saying what is important is that each family gets to choose how they want to proceed when a child dies.
"It is the approach staff take too," she says. "If they approach a family, tell them something like a cuddle cot has helped others through that time, then it normalises it."
But in some cases, funding makes it more difficult.
"There is an issue as you could find two babies who die on the same day, but there is only one cuddle cot and only one family has that option," says Ms Stewart.
"We have seen a number of families who have used cuddle cots go out afterwards and fundraise to make sure more are available."
But whatever families decide on in the immediate aftermath of the loss, the pain does not stop there.
Ms Stewart says: "A lot of parents feel isolated when they have lost a child and people are too worried to talk to them about it.
"They have not forgotten that child, it never goes away and we need to make sure we talk about it more.
"If you know someone who has lost their baby, drop them a text, give them a call, offer to do something for them like walk the dog or take their other kids to school. They will appreciate it."
How to help people who lose their baby...
Source: BabyCentre.co.uk
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The lecterns emptied, the lights were turned off, the union flags left hanging behind the grand double doors of the Downing Street room that's staged nearly a hundred briefings in the last few torrid months.
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Laura KuenssbergPolitical editor@bbclaurakon Twitter
The prime minister's announcements about how England will take a big step out of lockdown came pretty much as billed.
It promised a new phase, and Boris Johnson and his team hope, a new political era, where they can lift their heads from the intense operational struggles of managing coronavirus, to make the next set of decisions about how the country will cope with the after effects, particularly the economic consequences, of three months of extraordinary lockdown.
At that last outing in front of the cameras (at least for now) it was abundantly clear that this is not the moment to breathe a huge sigh of relief, not a moment when we can return to our lives carefree, and not a moment when the government can assume the dangers of the disease are going only in one direction.
The tensions between the political desire to move on and the scientific judgements of what's best to protect life were extremely clear. The government's top scientists and medics used almost every opportunity to urge caution and restraint.
The relaxation of the two metre rule, in particular, does not mean it's time for everyone to get close, Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty warning of the dangers of a "distorted" message that lets the population move on without heeding the precautions.
Remember Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are taking a slower approach to England.
And so in the coming days we enter as a country, a strange half world where the intensity of the dangers from the virus have faded, but not disappeared - not normal life, as we know it, back with comforting familiarity, but a new, ever-stranger normal where the public and our politicians must remain on guard.
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Every nation has its favourite tales from the past, but how accurate are they? On the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, Simon Jenkins, author of A Short History of England, casts a critical eye over British legends.
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Events in history like the Norman conquest, the "Glorious Revolution" and the American revolution have become rooted in national myth.
At the Battle of Agincourt, English forces defeated the numerically superior French.
It is a victory that lives on in the popular imagination thanks to the speech delivered on the eve of battle by the monarch in William Shakespeare play Henry V.
Actually, the truth can be a little different.
Norman Conquest, 1066
Myth: Good Saxons versus Bad Normans - with an arrow as the clincher
To every English school child it evokes a Saxon hero, Harold, and a French villain, William, who met and fought at the Battle of Hastings.
The outcome, we are told, was decided by an arrow in Harold's eye. But history is seldom as commonly related.
Harold, son of Godwin, was an Anglo-Dane with no claim to the throne beyond Edward's deathbed blessing.
William was no Frenchman, but descended from the Norse warrior Rollo and granted Normandy by the French king Charles the Simple in 911. He, too, had no claim beyond the late King Edward's apparent, but earlier, blessing. Both Harold and William were of Viking descent.
To cap it all, Harold's death was even more gruesome. Post-eye injury, he was hacked to pieces and was so mutilated that his mistress, the charmingly named Edith Swan-Neck, had to be summoned to identify its parts.
Myth: England's triumph
"For England, Harry and St George" ranks with Trafalgar and Waterloo in the annals of English arms. It was the climax of English success in the French wars.
Henry V was recognised by the Burgundians and most of Europe as King of France. Ironically, he was the first who was believed not to have spoken French.
Henry returned to London to a hero's welcome, with city aldermen coming to meet him at Blackheath and escorting him for five hours to London Bridge. Marrying the French Queen Catherine supposedly ended the 100 years' war.
But then it took five years for the French finally to capitulate at the treaty of Troyes (1420) and Henry to enter Paris in triumph. Worse, England was unable to hold in peace what it had won in war. Henry could not stay in Paris and keeping an army on mainland Europe was expensive.
In 1422 he succumbed to the battlefield curse of dysentery and the glittering new empire fell upon the shoulders of his 10-month-old son. A mere seven years after Agincourt, war broke out. Inevitablement.
Myth: The revolution was glorious
The Catholic James II ("dismal Jimmy", as Nell Gwynne called him) came to power in 1685, but lasted a mere three years before fleeing to France in what came to be called the "Glorious Revolution".
James's flight and his replacement by the Protestant William of Orange was viewed as an example of pragmatic, bloodless reform, in contrast to the current and future convulsions elsewhere in Europe.
The truth is a little different. It was bloodless only because James capitulated. William's Dutchmen invaded illegally and with main force, from a land with which England had only recently been at war.
He brought a huge fleet of 463 ships and some 40,000 men. Parliament had not requested such an invasion, the King clearly hadn't and the "invitation" from six peers and a bishop was constitutionally irrelevant. England was attacked by a foreign ruler to usurp a legitimate monarch.
The invasion was clearly treasonable but, as the saying goes, "if treason prosper, none dare call it treason".
Myth: The American colonists had nothing to lose but their chains
The American War of Independence began as nothing of the sort.
It was essentially an argument between loyalist and radical British subjects over trade and taxes, only gradually acquiring the rhetoric of civil rights and liberties. Even today that argument is mired in chauvinism.
London protested that a derisory £1,400-a-year in revenue was being gathered from the 13 colonies to pay for having been rescued by Britain from French autocracy in the Seven Years War.
To call this rescue "absolute despotism", as the Americans did, was absurd. The protested Stamp Acts were imposed throughout the empire, as were other trade restrictions, while the colonists enjoyed their own assemblies and were for the most part autonomous.
As a colony with self-governing rights, America was far better treated than Ireland.
Myth: Britain won World War II
World War II devastated half the globe, killing an estimated 20 million soldiers and 40 million civilians.
Instant histories of the war - not least Winston Churchill's own - depicted it as Britain isolated and alone against the might of Germany.
This was true only for a period in 1940-1941, when little fighting was done. By the time of the Yalta Conference in February 1945, it was Roosevelt and Stalin who divided the world.
Compared with the global total, British losses were comparatively modest. Some 375,000 service personnel were killed, just over half the number lost in World War I, and 60,000 civilians had died in air raids.
Some 2% of the total war deaths were British, against 65% that were Soviet. The USSR and America won the war with Britain as something of an also-ran.
Simon Jenkins is the author of A Short History of England.
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This year, for the first time, efforts have been made to catch sharks off the shore of Western Australia and to shoot the biggest of them. The state has applied for permission to continue the programme for another three years - but it's a divisive policy with many bitter critics.
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By Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore Perth, Australia
Elyse Frankcom was diving with dolphins in the vast waters of Western Australia when she felt the jaws of a great white shark clamp around her legs.
"It just hit me," remembers the 22-year-old, who was violently pulled down from the surface by the 3.5m (11ft) shark in late 2010. "I tried to punch and push it. I reached down to my foot and switched on [my shark shield]. That is the last thing I remember doing."
The shield, which emits an electrical field designed to repel sharks, may have forced the animal to retreat, but when it released its grip, she sank. A tourist dived down to retrieve her, hauling her, unconscious and bleeding, to the surface.
It took Frankcom months of physiotherapy to learn to walk again. The shark's jaw cut through the bone on one leg and tore muscles on the other - its teeth were found embedded in both. For weeks every step felt like "hitting [my legs] with a baseball bat".
Yet, despite the pain and the narrow escape, Frankcom is one of thousands of Australians protesting against Western Australia's controversial culling of sharks.
An unusually high number of fatal attacks - seven in just over three years, from August 2010 to November 2013 - prompted Western Australia's premier, Colin Barnett, to order baited hooks to be strung from floating drums near swimming, surfing and diving areas. Any great white, tiger shark or bull shark caught on the hooks is shot, if it exceeds 3m in length.
The lines went up on 25 January, and the first shark was killed the following day (Australia Day) with four bullets to the head.
So far, more than 100 sharks have been snared. While some welcome the attempt to make the beaches safer, others see it as little more than a political stunt. Barnett, who was photographed at the start of the programme grinning and clutching a large shark hook has declared that he has an "overriding responsibility to protect the people of Western Australia".
But opposition has been more intense than perhaps he anticipated. Protests have been unexpectedly large, and a swing of 6% towards the Green Party in a Senate by-election last weekend was widely attributed to the cull.
Furthermore, the policy appears not to have halted shark attacks - the body of a diver who went missing, near Dawesville, south of Perth, on 29 March was later found with shark bites. And when a 4m-shark appeared 100m from the shore near Perth on Tuesday, critics were quick to claim it had been attracted by the smell of the bait on the hooks.
Western Australia is not the first state to launch anti-shark policies that trouble environmentalists. Fixed nets were introduced around popular beaches in New South Wales as long ago as the 1930s, while Queensland uses a mixture of nets and hooks. Though neither state actively kills sharks, the measures often prove fatal anyway - of the 600-plus sharks caught in Queensland's nets in 2013, it's reported that only 32 made it out alive. And other animals, such as dugongs and dolphins, are at risk from the nets too.
While Western Australia's hooks may kill less indiscriminately than nets, Natalie Banks, a scuba diving instructor who has organised protests in Perth attended by thousands, believes that attitudes have changed and that many more people are now uncomfortable with the idea of killing sharks.
"There has been a huge shift in mentality with regards to conservation to our marine life," she says. The cull, she insists, is "a kneejerk reaction based purely on fear of the unknown".
Banks is now working with the pressure group, Sea Shepherd, which maintains that many of the smaller sharks caught on the hooks and then released end up dying. Last week they posted a video on YouTube showing activists helping a 2.4m-long tiger shark recover, by holding its fins and propelling it through the water. This helped to re-oxygenate the shark's body, and after an hour-and-a-half it was strong enough to swim off.
The group has also posted pictures of bleeding dying sharks, and of other by-catch - including two stingrays in the last week. The hooks are intended to snare only three species (bull sharks, tiger sharks and great whites) but the government of Western Australia acknowledged that in the first three weeks they caught, in addition to 63 tiger sharks, two mako sharks and one blacktip shark. More than three-quarters of the sharks snared (78%) were under the 3m length limit, and none were great whites.
Cull opponents typically put forward policies such as tagging potentially dangerous sharks, shark spotting networks, phone apps to raise the alarm and barriers that keep sharks out without trapping them - plus the use of shields like the one that saved Frankcom.
The state government already carries out some tagging (which allows the movement of sharks to be electronically monitored), has increased helicopter patrols, and is studying the effectiveness of shark deterrents.
"The preservation of human life is our number one priority and these measures are designed to do that, with minimum impact to the surrounding environment," Fisheries Minister Troy Buswell said in December, when the hook policy was unveiled.
On Perth's popular Cottesloe Beach, as tourists bake in the sun and school children attend swimming lessons in the ocean, reactions to the cull are mixed. "Kill them," urges one young male swimmer with salty blond hair.
Others are against the hooks. "They are a kilometre off here," says British wind kite surfer Graham Price, clutching his wetsuit and pointing to the orange drumlines bobbing in the ocean. "They've got dead fish on the end of them. If they're culling sharks they're attracting other sharks." "It's just luring more in," agrees 27-year-old local, Jedda Greenwood.
Other opponents point out that despite the apparent recent spike in the number of deaths from sharks, the chance of being attacked by a shark remains extremely low. Last year Australia saw 10 attacks, two of which were fatal. This year has already seen two suspected fatal attacks, including one last week in New South Wales.
On average, however, there has been just one death a year over the last half century, according to the Australian Shark Attack File. Statistically, a person has more chance of dying from a vending machine accident. The numbers who die from drowning are many times higher.
But unfortunately for the sharks, they trigger a potent mixture of fear and fascination.
"We're not just afraid of predators," writes the biologist EO Wilson. "We're transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal sense, we love our monsters."
For the WA policy to go ahead the federal government had to grant an exemption from the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which imposes an obligation to protect great white sharks - a vulnerable species which reach sexual maturity at just over 3m (the same length at which they are liable to be shot).
Nicholas Ray of the UK's Nottingham Trent university fears that breeding populations of all three shark species on the hit list will be reduced.
The fate of the grey nurse shark on Australia's east coast illustrates the potential problem - a bloody spate of shark hunting in the 1970s led to it becoming critically endangered, its fierce appearance apparently contributing to its undeserved reputation for being a "maneater".
And while Western Australia spends millions of dollars on its catch-and-kill programme, scientists are now working on shoestring budgets to restore the grey nurse population.
Rob Jones, the vet at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, last month celebrated the birth of the world's first ever shark to be born via a live semen sample transported from one facility to another.
The cull, he says, is "directly opposite" to his research on methods to assist grey nurse reproduction and, in his view, is "completely ludicrous".
The current cull is due to come to an end on 30 April, but on Tuesday Western Australia applied to the federal government to continue it for three more years in the summer months (November to April).
Frankcom, who regained full use of her legs, says the state's politicians are "petrified that Western Australian has become the shark capital of the world". But she says Australians never expected the ocean to be 100% safe.
"The surfers, the people that go out everyday - they accept the risk," she says. "There are lots of things in the ocean that are capable of harming us."
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The Chilean government has declared a health alert in four of the country's 15 regions as smoke from dozens of forest fires spreads.
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The fires - there are 70 separate ones - have destroyed 16,000 hectares of land, about eight times as much as was burned in forest fires last year.
Thick smoke has engulfed the capital, Santiago, creating the worst air conditions in seven years.
Strong winds and high temperatures have hampered the work of firefighters.
Santiago city officials urged residents to avoid exercising outdoors.
Health alerts have also been declared in the Valparaiso in the west and Araucania and Maule, both south of Santiago.
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There's been a great deal of coverage of a study this week that suggested that women feel temperature differently in workplaces from men. Is there an explanation for why men and women might feel comfortable at different room temperatures, asks Chris Stokel-Walker.
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By Who, What, WhyThe Magazine answers the questions behind the news
A study by two Dutch scientists has offered an answer to the longstanding question many office workers ask come summer - why when some men in the office are reaching for the air conditioning, are some women slipping on cardigans?
According to the paper, women feel the cold more readily - one small sample test the researchers carried out suggests that women are comfortable at a temperature 2.5C warmer than men - between 24-25C.
According to Prof Paul Thornalley, of Warwick Medical School, variation in average metabolic rate and body heat production between men and women "may explain why there is a difference in environmental temperature required for comfort between males and females".
The body's metabolism is responsible for growth and the production of energy, including heat. Resting metabolic rate is the minimal rate of energy expenditure per unit of time while we are at rest, calculated through a standard set of equations. On average women have a lower metabolic rate than men.
"A great determinant of resting metabolic rates is the fat free body mass in people's bodies," says Thornalley - accounting for around 60% of the individual difference in men and women's resting metabolic rates. Because men have more fat free body mass - all the components of the body like skin, bones and muscle, but excluding fat - than women, they have a higher resting metabolic rate.
Major body organs, including the liver, brain, skeletal muscle, kidneys and heart are where most energy is consumed.
Non-movement production of heat - where energy is expended outside of active exercise - occurs in the body in "brown fat", according to Thornalley. Humans have two types of fat - white fat, a store of excess calories, and brown fat, which generates heat.
Brown fat produces heat involuntarily through a process called thermogenesis. It is regulated by the thyroid hormone and the nervous system, and may account for further variation of resting metabolic rate, particularly in men. (Babies have higher levels of brown fat than adults to stave off hypothermia while young.)
This higher proportion of body mass which is able to produce heat involuntarily means that on average men don't feel the cold as easily as women - and, in sultry summer months, means they have a lower tolerance for hot weather because their bodies produce more heat at a resting metabolic rate, getting warmer quicker.
But, as Thornalley is quick to point out, not every person is the same. Some men have lower metabolic rates than some women, and so in some cases it may be Dave on reception reaching for a jumper more readily than Ellie in the boardroom.
Some people also have suggested less scientific reasons for the general gender divide over the air-con - while some women wear light dresses in August, some men are stuck in stuffy suits.
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Is the local authority care system in England failing children who run away and what happens to those who go missing? The BBC has uncovered evidence of young people disappearing off the radar for weeks, months and, in some cases, years.
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By Shelley PhelpsBBC News
"I couldn't count how many times I went missing," says Elsie (not her real name), 24, from Yorkshire, who was sexually exploited while missing from care.
"At one point, because I was such high risk, there were helicopters from the police looking for me because they were that worried about what was going on when I was running away."
Latest government statistics show councils looked after just over 78,000 children in the year ending March 2019.
While it is common for children to go missing from their placements, the vast majority will be found within 48 hours.
'Out of place'
But Elsie's story highlights the risks of harm and danger they can be exposed to, especially if they're gone for longer periods.
Between the ages of 11 and 18, she lived in a number of children's homes "from the top to the bottom of the country", with the longest placement lasting just 11 months.
Struggling to feel at home, she ran away a lot.
At first, she says, it was "boredom" and wanting to "get away".
"I just felt so out of place, it wasn't a home, I didn't feel at home, it was just somewhere that I was placed because they needed to basically put me somewhere."
Eventually, she says she met a "group of older males" who began to "pressure" her into running away.
"They knew where I lived at the time and they were threatening to come and get me."
'Saved my life'
Elsie stopped running away from care when she was able to access specialised and tailored support.
"Sometimes I felt like nobody cared. For me, the turning point was having someone who cared and listened, and believed me," she says.
"I've had a lot of social workers over the years and that did contribute to the deterioration of my behaviour, but in the whole, social services saved my life."
Now studying at university, Elsie is training to be a social worker herself.
The BBC has looked into the most serious cases of missing episodes among children in care.
Four in 10 councils (56 out of 137 who responded or 41%) recently had a looked-after child missing from their care for more than a fortnight, according to figures provided to the BBC in Freedom of Information requests.
Asylum-seeking child
Most councils (81, or 59% of the sample) said they did not have any children missing for this length of time.
Warwickshire County Council reported having a child missing for nearly three-and-a-half years. In Shropshire, an asylum-seeking child was reported missing for nearly three years, and Surrey County Council reported a child missing for two years and eight months.
One council gave us details on a child who was missing for 462 days.
"This relates to a young person who travelled to the UK as an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child in the back of a lorry on his own without family," a council spokesman said.
"The young person was found in a service area on a main road and placed in an emergency placement where he stayed for one night before leaving after saying he wanted to be in Middlesbrough and had been in touch with someone there believed to be of Kurdish origin.
"He was found 24 hours later and placed in emergency accommodation in Hartlepool overnight while a foster placement was found the next day intended to be a permanent placement in West Yorkshire.
"He was placed there the following day but, after one night in the placement, said he was going for a walk at 10:00, reported missing at 12:30, and has not been seen since."
Charities say many of those who go missing for long periods are likely to be young asylum-seekers and child victims of human trafficking, some of whom may end up forced to work in places like cannabis farms and nail bars.
Anti-trafficking and exploitation organisation ECPAT UK described the figures given to the BBC as "alarming".
'Fearful of detention'
"Child victims of trafficking are likely to go missing from care for a range of reasons, including control of traffickers, not being properly identified as trafficking victims, breakdown of placements, lack of trust in adults to keep them safe," said chief executive Patricia Durr.
"Unaccompanied children transitioning to adulthood are so fearful of detention and forced removal that this is a push factor for them in going missing," she added.
Lockdown has made it harder to support looked-after children, according to England's Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield.
She has previously criticised temporary coronavirus laws which she says relaxed duties on social workers visits.
Ms Longfield is urging the government not to delay a promised care review.
"We want to hold the government to their manifesto promise of a thorough review of children's social care to not only reform the whole system but tackle the reasons children are able to go missing from local authority care and how we reduce these numbers," she said.
Councils say they work as quickly as possible to find missing children and address the issues that caused them to disappear.
Judith Blake, children's service spokesperson for the Local Government Association said: "Councils are facing unprecedented demands within their children's services departments and want to work with government to ensure every child gets the best start in life and the care they deserve."
The government says responsibilities for missing children remain unchanged during the pandemic and it is committed to undertaking a care review at the "earliest opportunity".
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "The Care Review will be bold, broad and independently led, taking a fundamental look across children's social care, with the aim of better supporting, protecting and improving the outcomes of vulnerable children and young people."
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About 100 people had to wait in the street in their bathrobes when a fire alarm went off at a day spa.
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Customers were evacuated from the Thermae Bath Spa for about 30 minutes when the alarm sounded on Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters were called and the alarm was confirmed to be false and caused by a technical fault.
The spa apologised and offered customers the chance to extend their visits.
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As a growing number of North Sea oil and gas fields head towards the end of their production lives, industry leaders are waking up to the challenges - and opportunities - that lie ahead. Hundreds of business figures attended a conference in Aberdeen this week to learn more about where the decommissioning process is heading.
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By Ken BanksBBC Scotland North East reporter
There's a growing realisation that offshore decommissioning is now really happening.
Over the next 25 years or so, the process of retiring North Sea oil and gas facilities could cost tens of billions of pounds, according to projections.
But while that is a cost for the operators of the more than 600 oil and gas installations in the North Sea it is an opportunity for firms which can develop the safest and most cost-effective ways forward.
It could also mean hundreds of new jobs requiring a new kind of expertise in the coming decades.
A major industry event - Decom Offshore 2015 - has been running at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
The event is run by Decom North Sea (DNS), which was created in 2009, the representative body for the offshore decommissioning industry.
DNS chairman Callum Falconer said: "We are cutting our teeth. There's a sudden realisation that decommissioning is upon us.
"Decommissioning used to be seen as the beginning of the end. Now it's seen as the beginning."
"One challenge is that we have to make sure the workforce comes together.
"There's an opportunity for young graduates and engineers to carve out a career in decommissioning."
'Interconnected industry'
Mr Falconer highlighted work that is under way on a new decommissioning learning portal for the industry, to share ideas, which he predicted would be a "game changer".
One of the major decommissioning plans already in the pipeline is for the iconic Brent field, off Shetland, which operated by Royal Dutch Shell.
The oil field lends its name to the benchmark for setting oil prices in the North Sea - Brent Crude.
Shell has four platforms in the field but only one of them, Brent Charlie, still produces oil.
DNS chief executive Nigel Jenkins outlined five key areas of decommissioning focus - driving collaboration, efficiency, getting the supply chain ready, innovation, and delivering benefits.
Mr Jenkins said: "Collaboration is key due to the interconnected nature of the industry, and the need to share knowledge.
"Decommissioning on this scale has not happened before.
"Particularly for this region, for Aberdeen, we need to make this area is a centre of excellence, a place where the right sort of expertise is available."
He explained there had been about 10 major decommissioning projects in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) over the past 20 years, and there was now set to be a "ramp up" in such activity.
He said it was difficult to predict potential job numbers, but highlighted that Shell's Brent decommissioning project has hundreds of people working on it.
Mr Jenkins said: "There are so many influences over when a project will happen, including age, oil left in a field, and the price of oil.
"That equation is different for every operator."
'Seismic change'
He said: "This conference has shown what a great pool of talent there is to address the challenges. There is a positive feeling.
"We're at the beginning of the market. We are at a point of seismic change."
Shell's current work is not the first decommissioning project from the Brent field.
Twenty years ago, the Brent Spar got international coverage over Shell plans to dump the oil storage module in the deep waters of the North Atlantic.
Protesters from Greenpeace occupied it for several days in 1995 and Shell was forced to alter its plans.
Brent Spar was instead towed to Norway and moored in a fjord, before being broken up.
Although the first stage of this fresh wave of plans - using a giant ship to remove the top of platforms in a single lift - is unlikely to prompt controversy on that scale, there is little doubt the second phase will be the subject of closer scrutiny.
This involves contaminated concrete oil storage tanks, which sit on the seabed next to the platform's legs.
This challenging new chapter in the North Sea story is well and truly under way.
On Friday, BBC Scotland's Magnus Bennett reports on the technical aspects of decommissioning.
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Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, has been described as the most dangerous city in the world. But some people there are trying to bring life back to the place. During her regular visits, BBC World Service Africa editor Mary Harper came to know one of them - an entrepreneur named Mohamed Mahamoud Sheikh. Then she received some bad news.
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The last time I saw Mohamed, he gave me flowers. He chose one of the biggest and most colourful bunches from the display in his florist's shop. Next door, machines whirred at a dry cleaners - which also belonged to him.
Stopping off to see Mohamed was always one of my favourite things to do when I visited Mogadishu. While the world's media spoke of famine, pirates and suicide bombs, he quietly and determinedly got on with his life, bringing what many would see as entirely normal, mundane services back to his country.
He also encouraged others. He set up a community of people involved in start-ups, and became something of an inspirational figure - but always remained modest.
Lots of brave new businesses have sprung up, from the young man with a motorbike who has started a food delivery business to the girl who has set herself up as a mechanic.
Visiting Mohamed in Mogadishu was not entirely straightforward. As for all my other appointments in the city, I never fixed a precise time. Sometimes I would just show up outside the metal gates of the Somalia Premium Laundry on the busy Maka al-Mukarama road. I always travelled there with heavy security - at least six bodyguards in one vehicle, a couple more in the other.
It is best to be unpredictable - people say phone calls are listened in on and that there are informants everywhere.
But taking care with information and security is no guarantee of safety.
Earlier this month, Mohamed was driving in his car in full daylight in a heavily guarded area, known as Kilometre Five. Two men appeared and shot him. This unassuming but influential young man died later in hospital.
So far, his murderers have not been caught.
Now Mohamed won't be able to realise the other dreams he told me about - of opening a gym, a playground for children, of growing all the flowers for his shop in the fertile fields of Afgoye, not far from Mogadishu. He dreamed of greening the city and had already brought in flowering trees to plant there.
Somali social media was soon awash with comments from people whose lives he had touched. Many were accompanied by the hashtag #WeAreNotSafe.
Three days after he died, a rare demonstration was held in Mogadishu. Young people wearing white headbands held up banners emblazoned with phrases like "Stop Killing Youth". They asked how and why people like Mohamed were being killed, and why nobody was being held accountable.
Find out more
On that very same day, a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the city, killing at least three people.
I first heard about Mohamed when a friend called to tell me about someone who'd given up a safe, well-paid job in Dubai to return home and set up the first dry cleaners in Mogadishu for more than two decades.
I thought this would make a great story - Somalis like Mohamed, who'd lived in peaceful countries abroad, coming home to rebuild their nation.
The dry cleaning element also appealed. Every time I flew out of Mogadishu, politicians and businessmen would board the plane carrying vast piles of dirty suits to be cleaned in neighbouring countries. Once at a summit held in Ethiopia's most luxurious hotel, I was astonished to see Somalia's top politicians marching down the corridors with armloads of freshly dry-cleaned suits.
Mohamed had spotted an excellent business opportunity.
His murder has thrown up questions about the nature of violence in Somalia. About who is killing who. People often rush to blame the Islamist group al-Shabab which for more than a decade has spread terror in Somalia and beyond. But the jihadists are not the only killers.
It could be a politician who doesn't like what you do or say, a business rival… or caused by a property dispute, or plain jealousy. People are quick to reach for their guns in Somalia. I have been stuck in traffic jams where the guard in my car has rolled down the window and fired live bullets into the air, just to get the other vehicles moving.
Mohamed was not the only rising young star to have his life cruelly cut short. Abbas Abdullahi grew up in a refugee camp and was named a government minister last year. He was shot dead accidentally by the then-auditor general's bodyguards. Young journalists are murdered on a regular basis.
It seems strange that, with all the billions spent on security in Somalia, the presence of tens of thousands of African Union troops, US drones and special forces, there is little protection for people like Mohamed.
I keep catching myself thinking about him - about our friendship, his welcoming gap-toothed smile and his unswerving commitment to making life better.
I wonder about his businesses. Are they standing empty now, the dry cleaning machines quiet and still, the flowers wilting?
Is anybody watering the pots of plants he tended so carefully and sold to people trying to bring a bit of brightness into the homes and businesses they are rebuilding in Mogadishu?
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Many of us can hum the opening bars to Smells Like Teen Spirit, the opening track of Nirvana's second album Nevermind, but when did you first hear them? Fans of the band have been recalling the grunge explosion of the 1990s and weighing what it means a quarter of a century later.
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The album, Nirvana's first since signing to major label DGC Records, came out 25 years ago, on 24 September 1991. Together with the singles Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom and Come As You Are, the band and frontman Kurt Cobain set a tone for rock music in, and since, the 1990s, and heralded the sound of Seattle's alternative music scene going global.
While earlier grunge bands like Tad or Mudhoney were overtaken by the Teen Spirit phenomenon, acts such as Soundgarden and Pearl Jam benefitted alongside Nirvana, but the attention on Cobain as an icon of youthful angst saw him withdraw into heroin use and suicide in 1994 at the age of 27.
Tim Tucker, Nova Scotia, Canada
As a Canadian, I remember watching Much Music [music video channel on cable TV} one day when I was about 13 or 14, they had a Intergalactic Video Premiere from a band called Nirvana for the Single Smells Like Teen Spirit.
It was an instant impact. It was just so different from everything else I was listening to at the time, mainly, Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, Poison and other bands along these lines.
After hearing the song, I purchased Nevermind on cassette tape and my interest in the band only expanded. Same with my interest in "grunge".
Teens were looking for an identity apart from the '80s hair bands and new wave pop of their older siblings and grunge defined the Gen X mood perfectly. Apathy, disinterest in anything that would be considered fitting in.
My music preference changed almost instantly. I ditched hair bands and started listening to Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Rage Against the Machine and others. A pivotal moment in my music-listening hobby. It also, for me, fuelled a specific interest in lyrics that still exists today and sparked an interest in bands like Tool, A Perfect Circle, Queens of the Stone Age...
Looking back, I still have each of the Nirvana albums and listen to them on occasion. Smells Like Teen Spirit is probably the song I listen to the least. It has been vastly overplayed throughout the years and it just doesn't have the same impact on me as it used to.
Love it or hate it, Nevermind is definitely the album that defined the '90s and, perhaps, the mindset of Gen X as a whole. It was filled with anger, but not directed at any one thing. General anger and angst at expectations from society.
Adam Sah, California, United States
I'm part of the generation that remembers where I was the first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was driving in heavy traffic on the Long Island Expressway commuting to an uninspiring summer office internship. The DJ mentioned something about a new track by this punk band from Seattle, it's a little different but we think you'll like it.
I swear I saw people head-banging in their cars.
For me, Smells Like Teen Spirit, the movie Singles, Tom's Diner, they were the final nails in the 1980s' coffin.
The 1980s never felt right: the silliness, excessive everything, it all seemed pointless, and when Smells Like Teen Spirit came out, I was done with it. College graduation was on the horizon, it was a recession, nobody had jobs, and I was in no mood for George Michael.
It was the antidote and ushered in a new decade, precisely as I entered adulthood and started really questioning things about my life. I'd angrily given up my dream of becoming a stone sculptor but hadn't found a replacement. Cobain was this genius who said it's OK to question everything and accept a little anarchy in your life.
I moved to California and grunge gave way to early electronic dance music like Orbital. Then the internet swept me up and not even the crash stopped me. The music didn't stop until 9/11, when we faced real anarchy.
I wish Kurt had lived: he'd have had a lot to say about the past 20 years, and I can't even imagine the clever words he'd use to describe the presidential election.
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A Caerphilly comprehensive school has been closed until further notice after a structural report revealed the building contains asbestos.
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Further investigations are to be carried at Cwmcarn High School in the Ebbw Valley.
Caerphilly council does not yet have a plan for accommodating more than 900 pupils from the school elsewhere.
It said they are working on alternatives and will update parents next week.
The local authority said the decision to shut the premises was taken for the safety of staff and pupils.
It said updates would also be posted on the council's website.
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As you head up the motorway from the Mediterranean to Toulouse, there is a big sign outside the city that shows an aircraft and orbiting satellites and the words in bold letters: "Toulouse, capital of the aerospace industry."
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By Chris BockmanToulouse
Until Covid-19 struck, most of the sector was booming. Now it's reeling as airlines have no idea when they can resume flights or when they will require new planes. France's fourth city has seen relatively few cases of coronavirus and yet suddenly it is looking vulnerable to the fallout of the pandemic.
The sign outside Toulouse is no exaggeration:
Include all the supply chain manufacturers and around 90,000 people are employed in the region's aerospace sector.
Unprecedented crisis for aerospace industry
Such is the concern for the future that local reports have warned that Toulouse's fate may resemble that of Detroit, the US city once synonymous with the car industry.
Alain Brault, an aerospace engineer here since 1991, now works from home and is unsure about his long-term future. The industry has faced crises in the past but nothing like this, he says.
Hundreds of British expats are based in Toulouse working for Airbus. Roger, an engineer in his mid-50s, says he will probably scrape through to retirement, but he is relieved his son hasn't chosen the same career path.
Prof Marc Ivaldi from the highly regarded Toulouse School of Economics rejects the comparison with Detroit.
US car manufacturers uprooted factories to build more cheaply and efficiently elsewhere, he says, whereas in Toulouse a virus, not economics, has brought the aviation industry to a temporary halt.
However, he accepts the industry will have to adapt as fewer people fly for business in the future.
Is this the end of the Toulouse boom years?
Toulouse is nicknamed the pink city because of the colour of the local brick used to build the historic city centre. On summer evenings the view is achingly beautiful when the sun bounces off the buildings creating a rose glow.
For the past decade it has also been France's fastest-growing city.
Its population of around 900,000, including the suburbs, has been expanding by between 1% and 2% a year - with newcomers attracted by the quality of life and job opportunities.
According to government statistics, skilled people from Paris aged 30 and younger make up the biggest number of new arrivals. It's too early to say whether that trend has come to a sudden halt.
How is Toulouse coping?
Toulouse has also long been synonymous with rugby and rich food, from foie gras to cassoulet and sausage. In the famous Victor Hugo food market during normal times you would find evidence of both.
Toulouse are current reigning French rugby champions but didn't get a chance to defend their title as the season was cancelled just over half-way through.
Before games, supporters would huddle at the various wine bars in the market, with trombone bands known as bandas whipping everyone into a frenzy.
Since March those bars have been closed. One of the best-known meat stalls in the market belongs to the Garcias. Three generations of the same family have been raising their own black pigs fed on acorns.
The youngest, Loïc, told me they had lost 60% of their business. Restaurants have closed and the virus has made business owners and shoppers jumpy.
Nevertheless, he says, his customers in the city centre and well-to-do suburbs are returning because they want to eat good, locally produced quality food and have the income to do so.
Not so confident is Marc Péré, mayor of L'Union, one of the prosperous suburban towns that ring Toulouse.
Around 500 of his 11,000 constituents work in the aerospace sector - just like him.
Most are well-paid and 80% own their own home. His fear is whether or not they can hold on to their jobs. Then there is the possible ripple effect on local shops and restaurants, as well as on business tax revenues that are collected locally.
A city of both rich and poor
While Toulouse has lived well from the aerospace industry, a few kilometres from the centre are some of the poorest housing estates in southern France.
Tens of thousands of people from mainly North African immigrant backgrounds live in tower blocks with high double-digit youth unemployment.
Until now, the aerospace sector has provided a ticket out of poverty for many residents here, including youths who dropped out of school too early.
One charity called Envoi has provided hundreds of jobs with long-term training and placement programmes on the aircraft factory lines. Its president, Jean-Marc Thomas, a former head of Airbus France, says there is no doubt that second chances for young people will become much harder.
Looking to the future
Before the current crisis Toulouse was going through a facelift to attract new business and tourism.
A key arterial route in the city was turned into an avenue inspired by La Rambla in Barcelona. A vast, business and residential neighbourhood around the main train station is also emerging, including a transformed new skyline.
The mayor chose an American architect, involved in the new World Trade Center design, to build a sleek futuristic tower as a symbol of the city's new look. Not everyone is convinced it will ever be built or even should be.
Meanwhile, a public-private incubator called Aerospace Valley is bringing together 850 aviation and high-tech businesses in an attempt to branch out.
Its president, Yann Barbaux, accepts Toulouse has become too dependent on one industry and says they are now looking at autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and new energy sources.
The irony is that Toulouse and the south-west of France in general was one of the regions least impacted by coronavirus. Patients were flown down from eastern France as its hospitals had hundreds of beds free.
And yet the repercussions of the pandemic could hit the city hard.
Chris Bockman is the author of Are you the foie gras correspondent? Another slow news day in south-west France.
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The authorities in northern Sri Lanka say the flooding which has displaced around three-hundred-thousand people has now started
to recede.
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At least nine people have died as a result of the floods, minister in charge of disaster relief Amir Ali told BBC Sandeshaya.
Around eight thousand homes have been destroyed in the Jaffna peninsula and the Kilinochchi and Mulaitivu districts which
have seen heavy fighting between the army and Tamil Tiger rebels.
The Sri Lankan army said it was providing assistance to those affected and the transport authority was repairing roads that
had been damaged by the floods.
The meteorology department said the rainfall in the region was the heaviest since 1918.
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Train commuters face continued disruption after an ongoing shortage of drivers caused cancellations and alterations on 30 London Midland services.
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Trains running from Coventry to Nuneaton and Birmingham to London Euston via Northampton are affected.
Routes from Redditch to Lichfield via Birmingham and Wolverhampton to Walsall via Birmingham also face disruption.
More than 780 services have been affected in total since 14 October.
The company, which runs about 1,200 services a day, said approximately 2.5% of each day's trains since that time had been hit by the driver shortages.
London Midland claims the driver shortfall will be addressed by mid-December.
It added that commuters delayed by 30 minutes or more as a result of the alterations can claim compensation.
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Paddy Ashdown was the action man of British politics.
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A former Royal Marine officer, he was the first elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, a party then badly in need of some military-style discipline.
He led his party to its best election result for half a century but his combative style of leadership did not always sit easily with some activists.
His mixture of military and diplomatic experience meant he was well-suited for the role he later undertook in the former Yugoslavia.
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown was born in Delhi, India, on 27 February 1941, into an Irish family with a long record of service in the administration of the sub-continent. He boasted Irish nationalist leader Daniel O'Connell among his ancestors.
His father was an officer in the Indian Army who later faced a court martial for refusing to abandon his troops during the retreat to Dunkirk. The charges were eventually thrown out.
One of his earliest memories was seeing dead bodies in the streets, the result of conflict between Hindus and Muslims.
The young Ashdown spent his childhood years on a farm his father had purchased in County Down, Northern Ireland, before attending Bedford School, in England, where his Irish brogue led to the nickname Paddy.
He did not always find school easy, with one report describing him as vain and a poor team-player. There was a sexual relationship with a female maths teacher which he described in his memoir, A Fortunate Life, as "a rite of passage".
He quit before taking his A-levels and joined the Royal Marines in 1959.
Ashdown saw active service in Borneo and the Persian Gulf before joining the elite Special Boat Service, the seagoing equivalent of the SAS.
Horrified
In 1967, he went to Hong Kong where he learned Mandarin and qualified as an interpreter, before returning to Northern Ireland where he commanded a commando company in Belfast at a time when the Troubles were raging.
Ashdown quit the Royal Marines in 1972 and joined the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) where he worked with diplomatic cover in Geneva liaising with a number of United Nations departments.
Although he was a Labour supporter he had shown little interest in politics so there was surprise when he decided to quit his comfortable life in Switzerland and become an active member of the Liberal party.
"Most of my friends thought I was utterly bonkers," he later recalled, claiming he made the decision after being horrified at the state of the UK following the period of industrial unrest and fuel shortages in the mid-70s.
In 1976, he was selected as the Liberal candidate in his wife's home constituency of Yeovil which had been held by right-wing Tory MP John Peyton for more than two decades.
With what became a trademark energetic campaigning style, he set out to squeeze the Labour vote and, in the 1979 general election, took his party to second place, although still more than 10,000 votes behind Peyton.
Having given up a lucrative post with the foreign office, Ashdown took a job with a subsidiary of the Westland Helicopter company, based in Yeovil.
Prominent campaigner
He then moved on to work with Tescan, a processor of sheepskins, but found himself out of work when the firm closed in 1981.
As the personnel manager, he had to make his team redundant, something he described as "the worst day of my life". He was on the dole for six months before obtaining a job as a youth worker with Dorset County Council.
His continuing campaigning in Yeovil paid off in the 1983 election when John Peyton decided to stand down; he won the seat with just over 50% of the popular vote.
It was the era of the SDP-Liberal Alliance and Ashdown quickly found himself appointed as the Liberal spokesman on trade and industry.
He was a prominent campaigner against the stationing of American cruise missiles on British soil, describing them as "the weapon we have to stop".
Ashdown also spoke out against Margaret Thatcher's decision to allow the US to use bases in Britain to bomb Libya and was one of the harshest critics of the government's decision to ban workers at GCHQ from being members of a trade union.
He had become a popular figure in Yeovil, where he increased his majority over the Conservatives in 1987. He had gained a reputation as someone not afraid to speak his mind, but who did not suffer fools gladly.
Affair
In 1988, the SDP and Liberal Party formally merged as the Social and Liberal Democrats, later shortened to the Liberal Democrats.
When former Liberal leader David Steel declined to stand for the leadership of the new party, Ashdown comfortably saw off Alan Beith, the only other candidate.
He inherited a party licking its wounds after the arguments that had accompanied its formation and leading figures from both the Liberal and SDP camps walking away in protest at the merger.
Ashdown threw himself into getting his party into shape for the 1992 election and it was to his credit that, despite all the problems, the new party suffered a net loss of just two seats.
His career, and his marriage, also survived press revelations of an affair with his secretary, five years previously, leading to one Sun headline dubbing him Paddy Pantsdown.
A year later, Ashdown began negotiations with Labour leader John Smith over closer co-operation between the two parties. After Smith's death, he continued the talks with Tony Blair. It was the end of his party's historic stance of "equidistance" between Conservatives and Labour.
He developed a close rapport with Blair. One colleague said the two of them would "sit at the cabinet table and fix their gaze on each other - they worked exceptionally closely together".
Disappointed
The relationship was remarkably candid with Ashdown once telling Blair that "some folk think you are a smarmy git".
Despite early signs that Labour were on course to win the 1997 election, Ashdown still hoped that he could offer the support of the Liberal Democrats in return for Labour agreeing to voting reform.
Although Blair was sympathetic, the Labour landslide of 1997 removed any need for Lib Dem support and the majority of Blair's new cabinet, sitting on a secure majority, were not in favour of moving to some form of PR.
Ashdown was also disappointed that Blair refused to share the Lib Dem leader's enthusiasm for joining the euro.
In the election, the Liberal Democrats increased their number of MPs from 18 to 46, as the Conservative vote crumbled. But it remained the third party in UK politics.
Ashdown stood down as Lib Dem leader in 1999 and was replaced by Charles Kennedy. Two years later, he quit the Commons and entered the Lords as Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub Hamdon.
Retirement was far from his mind and, in 2002, his military and diplomatic experience saw him appointed as High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Energy
He had been a continuing advocate of intervention in the strife that followed the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and he made a number of positive contributions to creating a stable framework of government.
"Bosnia is under my skin," he said. "It's the place you cannot leave behind."
He appeared as a prosecution witness in the trial of the former Serbian leader, Slobodan Milosevic, although his claim that he had watched Serbian shells falling on villages in Kosovo was disputed by the defence.
He was considered for the post of UN representative to Afghanistan in 2008 after he had called for a high-level co-ordinator to lead the foreign mission to the country, but ruled himself out of contention.
He remained active in the Liberal Democrats. He often appeared as a pundit on radio and television and chaired the party's election campaign in 2015.
Appearing on the BBC election results programme, he took issue with the Exit Poll which suggested the Lib Dems would end the night with 10 seats. Ashdown promised to "eat his hat" if the Exit Poll proved right. In the event, the party won just eight.
Ashdown campaigned vigorously against Brexit and waved away sympathy after the diagnosis of bladder cancer. "I've fought a lot of battles in my life," he said.
He was a politician of great drive and energy, although some complained that he was not the most subtle or diplomatic of figures.
"It's not my job to be popular," he said. "I'm goal-driven, my job is to get results."
He relished the cut and thrust of political life and its potential for throwing up the unexpected.
"If you make a mistake you usually pay the price very quickly," he said. "It is what makes it more exciting and more terrifying than active service."
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The most feared bomber plane of the 20th Century is still going strong after 60 years in service in the US military - from Vietnam to Afghanistan. And she will keep on flying until 2044. How does this 1950s behemoth survive in the era of drones and stealth aircraft?
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By James MorganBBC News, Barksdale, Louisiana
We are sweltering in the Louisiana summer. The baking hot tarmac of Barksdale runway feels like burning coals.
A huddle of young mechanics - exhausted, perspiring - take shelter under the shady belly of a hulking, battered-looking bomber.
Its guts hang open. The battle-worn paint under the wings is peeling away to expose yellow primer underneath.
Her name is "Cajun Fear" - painted on her nose with a snarling alligator.
Parked alongside her: the Grim Reaper, Apocalypse, Global Warrior, and the Devil's Own, the pride of the 96th bomb squadron - the "Red Devils".
They call it "the Buff" - an acronym whose first three words are "Big Ugly Fat".
This bomber was built in 1960 - the year JFK won the US presidential election, Hitchcock's thriller Psycho was released in cinemas and the USSR successfully sent two dogs into space.
Two years later, in 1962, at a factory in Wichita, the last ever B-52 nuclear bomber rolled off the assembly line, fired up its eight engines, and took off to play its role in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Today, more than half a century later - after Vietnam, two Iraq Wars and Afghanistan - the ol' granddaddy of the US Air Force is showing its battle scars.
The pilots joke that if you flew upside down "chicken bones from Saigon would fall out."
But these senior citizens still proudly patrol the skies for the United States. When the US wants to deliver a message, it sends a B-52.
In November, to Beijing's fury, two B-52 bomber planes flew near disputed islands in the South China Sea.
"It is a symbol of American might," says Capt Erin McCabe. "Wherever we go in the world, people take notice."
The US puts such faith in these historic machines that they will keep on patrolling the skies until 2044 - well into their 80s.
In the era of drones, stealth aircraft, and cyberwarfare, a chunky old behemoth sketched out on a napkin three years after the end of World War Two still strikes fear into the enemy.
"This plane is the iconic war machine for the United States Air Force," says Col Keith Schultz, 2nd Bomb wing vice-commander, who has piloted B-52s for more than 30 years.
"When we load these weapons, the world takes heed. It's always the first aircraft in there in a conflict. We knock down the door - and let all the other aircraft in to do their job."
"Knocking down doors" in an aircraft this size - 159ft (48.5m) long, and with a wingspan of 185ft (56.4m) - is a team sport, performed by a crew of five.
Sitting downstairs in the dark, with no windows, targeting and releasing the bombs, is Capt Ryan Allen, a weapons systems officer ("wizzo").
"Think about the amount of political power this aircraft has," he says. "When an F-16 shows up in your country - big deal. But when a B-52 shows up… they start singing a different tune."
We hear a roar and look up. A dark bird is looming heavily over us, blocking out the sunlight.
Plumes of smoke from eight engines fill the sky and eardrums vibrate to a distinctive sound. Not just a rumble but almost a scream from the turbofans. "The sound of freedom" as Schultz likes to say.
Cruising at 650 mph at up to 50,000 feet (commercial airliners fly around 35,000 feet) the colossal bomber's 70,000lb payload includes hundreds of conventional bombs and 32 nuclear cruise missiles.
It can refuel in mid-air - giving it a potentially unlimited strike range. This created a "nuclear umbrella" for the United States during the Cold War, back in the era of Mutually Assured Destruction.
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
"Those engineers who drew it on a napkin in Ohio that first night, I think they knew they had a sweet, successful architecture that was gonna last the duration," says Schultz.
"And in that era you're not talking computers - you're talking slide rules.
"They built in a lot of durability to withstand a lot of take-offs, turbulence. It's over-engineered - and that's its staying power."
Col Warren Ward, a veteran pilot of Operation Desert Storm, also admires the Buff's sturdiness.
"It's gonna bring you home," he says. "It's ugly but it gets the job done. Other aircraft have come along that were supposed to replace it. The B-1 was gonna replace it... didn't happen. Then the B-2… that didn't happen either."
The exterior of the aircraft has changed little since the 1950s.
But internally, over the years it has been refitted with computers and GPS/INS (Inertial Navigation System).
It may have been designed with just one thing in mind - to rain bombs from a great height - but over the years the Buff has been adapted to carry almost any weapon in the US inventory, including laser-guided cruise missiles, and to conduct low-level bombing raids in Afghanistan.
As enemy technology has advanced, so too have the defence and disguise tools employed by the electronic warfare officer.
Sitting upstairs, facing backwards with no windows, he or she uses radar jammers and false target generators to help the B-52 dodge anti-aircraft missiles and fighter jets.
"We're as big as a barn on the radar. We're not going to hide from anybody. So what I do is very important," says McCabe.
The pointy tip of the spear
Captain Erin McCabe, electronic warfare officer:
I first heard about the B-52 on the History Channel. Because it is historic. It's older than my parents.
Usually the first question I get - "Is that thing still flying?"
But that's the beauty - it's so old and the enemy is thinking about the new thing - not the old B-52 any more. So all our tricks are still viable. It's just as lethal as when it was first made.
Versatility is our strength - we can carry almost any weapon in the US inventory.
My favourite is flying low-level and feeling the percussions of the weapons.
It burbles the aircraft, and you can feel how fast they hit - boom, boom, boom - the loud noises.
I want to be part of the pointy tip on the spear - the first person out there to knock on the door.
But as enormous as the B-52 is on the outside, once you fold down the hatch and clamber up the ladder into the dark interior, it is anything but spacious. The crew rub up against each other with little room for privacy.
"The airplane was not designed for people. It was designed for bombs," says Ward.
He should know, having once made a flight that lasted 47.2 hours.
"We took off here at Barksdale, flew east… and landed at Barksdale again - all the way around the world."
And of course there are no creature comforts.
"You can't even stand upright, except on the ladder if you want to stretch your back. Though if you're creative you can sling up a hammock, he says.
The ejection seats are "like sitting on a concrete sidewalk".
And as for the odour… "It does not have a new-car smell," says Ward.
"You get in and it's hot and you're pouring sweat into your seat cushion.
"But then when you climb to altitude it's freezing, and your clothes are still all wet, and you shiver…"
To get an uncensored flavour of what it smells like to steer a 100-tonne hulk of 1950s design, it's worth reading the blogs of a former pilot, alias Major Kong, named after the bomb-riding B-52 commander in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic Dr Strangelove.
"Every B-52 I flew in smelled like stale sweat, piss and engine oil," he writes.
The "facilities" for the crew consist of a can with a lid on it, which sometimes leaks.
"And if you have to go the other way, it's the 'honey bucket'," laughs Ward.
"But he who uses that is banished forever. On that round-the-world flight we had a bet going - whoever breaks first buys the beers.
"We made it all the way to the Aleutian Islands before our co-pilot broke out in a sweat and bolted up.
"A voice came over the intercom: 'We have a winner!" Then everybody went full oxygen..."
So it's uncomfortable to fly in. Maybe it's a joy to manoeuvre?
You can forget that idea, says Ward.
"It is a pig to fly. It's a dump truck. I equate it to herding buffalo.
"You turn the yoke… nothing happens. Turn it again… nothing happens. You turn it the third time, and the first instruction is kicking in.
"It's not nimble. But you come to respect it."
From this sleepy corner of Louisiana, Ward took part in one of the longest and most devastating bombing raids of the 20th Century.
One night in December 1991, he was woken in the middle of the night and called urgently to the briefing room.
He and 56 other crew entered seven bombers - his was the Grim Reaper, with a painting of Bugs Bunny carrying a sickle on its nose - and flew 14,000 miles to Baghdad to drop a wave of cruise missiles, which obliterated Saddam Hussein's air defences.
A day-and-a-half later (35 hours) they landed again, without their wheels having touched the ground.
The global strike range of the B-52 also created a new phenomenon in warfare - a new kind of psychological experience.
"It's very unique, to fight a war thousands of miles away and return home to a normal lifestyle," says Schultz.
"And at 35,000 feet you don't hear the battle cries. You don't hear the 200lb bomb going off. If you sneezed you'd miss it."
Ward agrees: "I could wake up here in my own home, take off and fly to a war half-way across the world, come home and sleep in my own bed. That's a pretty strange concept in the whole history of war.
"I can reach out and touch my family, which is a beautiful thing. But you're conflicted because you can't tell them anything. You can't decompress."
Instead the pilots rely on their comrades for support.
"It's not like a fighter pilot mentality where you're invincible and you do everything on your own," says Allen.
"It forces you to co-operate. I wouldn't trade that camaraderie for anything else in the world.
"When we're dropping bombs on the training range there's always cheering.
"Usually we have a contest to see who gets the closest bomb. The loser buys the beers.
"It's awesome. It's a rush. We thump our chests a little bit."
This pride and affection for the beloved Buff transcends all ranks at Barksdale.
The engineers for instance have a tradition of "patting the aircraft as she goes", says maintenance crew chief Jacob Dunn.
"All our planes are 'shes'. It's just a superstition we have."
And what about the bombs - does he ever hug them, like Major Kong?
"Of course! Who doesn't wanna hug a bomb?" he grins.
He is joking… at least, I think he is. Crude gags and devilish humour are the oil that holds these crews together.
But don't let that fool you into thinking they are relaxed about their duties. They scrutinise and inspect every last bearing. "Is that a crack up there? No, just dirt. OK, phew!"
In this age of "smart" new devices which break and cannot be repaired, the remarkable endurance of a mechanical 1950s bomber - and the Air Force's "don't discard, reuse" mentality - feels almost heartwarming.
That is, until you remember the destruction it has wrought. Seen from the ground, 60 years of the B-52 is a very different story.
Its future will include an improved weapons system, better data links for communications, and the re-engining of the aircraft to reduce fuel consumption.
But for the crews who fly it, it will still and always be the Buff. No technology can replace what makes it special, as Allen explains.
"I'm sitting in a jet that probably went to downtown Hanoi in the 60s, or shot cruise missiles into Iraq in the 90s.
"I'm sitting in an aircraft that's survived the ages and adapted to all kinds of mission sets… and it's still looking to go to 2040 and beyond.
"My kids and even my grandkids could fly it.
"That's awesome. That's huge."
That's a B-52.
Operation Secret Squirrel
Col Warren Ward (ret), deputy director of programming, USAF Global Strike Command:
I got into B-52s in 1988. Back then we had the Soviet menace, before the Berlin Wall came down. From my perspective, we just thought we were in a flying club.
I thought great - the government's paying me to fly and I'm never going to have to use it! There's no big Armageddon war coming.
Then all of a sudden Iraq rolls into Kuwait and the reality started sinking in... Oh my God what are we doing?
The squadron I was in - 596 Bomb Squadron - we got put on a mission called Senior Surprise. But that was classified so we had to call it something else. We called it Secret Squirrel.
We had a new cruise missile that was a variant of a nuclear missile.
While the rest went out into the field we stayed back in Barksdale. Our families asked, "Why are you staying back?" We couldn't tell them anything.
On the night of 15 January, we stayed up late watching the news, waiting. I remember going to bed at midnight, tired, and at 3am the loudspeaker comes on for all the Secret Squirrel crew to get into the briefing room.
I was tired, I don't wanna get up. The colonel is there - all the weather report, enemy warnings, where the bad guys are.
We took off at 6.30 in the morning. Seven jets taxiing out of the airport. I was in number three jet.
We fly non-stop from Barksdale to the Middle East. We never landed... 35.4 hours.
I'm not gonna stand here and act cocky. I was scared. I didn't know what I was getting into. It was the first time I'd dropped live ordnance against anybody.
We launched them cruise missiles from the airplane and when they go you think, "Somebody's gonna have a bad day."
The longest combat mission prior to that was the RAF flying Vulcans. We beat their record.
After 17 hours over there I was able to dial into the BBC on shortwave radio and find out what we did.
We asked you to share you thoughts - here are some of your emails:
David Meigh, Jakarta: I spent five years building irrigation systems in Vietnam for peasant farmers whose one million relatives were killed by these weapons of terror - old people, women and children. I have stood in craters made by them near Dau Tieng whilst our project had to clear vast quantities of unexploded bombs to build canals.
John McDonald, Nottingham, UK: About a million dead people have shared the B52 experience. They can't speak for themselves.
Dave Volker, Minnesota: I flew B-52s during the early 1970s. Stateside we stood ready to defend the US with nuclear capability. In South East Asia we flew combat missions over Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam while stationed in Thailand and on Guam. I accumulated 42 combat missions as co-pilot and pilot in command. I am proud to say that I flew these aircraft as a volunteer; I chose this aircraft and to fly it to defend the US. We faced down the Russian Bear and won the Cold War. We in the Strategic Air Command prevented a global apocalypse with one of the finest war machines ever made. Sometimes it takes a large and imposing sword to keep the peace.
Wayne, Wigan, UK: I was fortunate enough to maintain B-52G aircraft in Guam from 1988 to 1990. It was pretty mind blowing to later talk to my dad back home and to realise that some of the airframes that I worked on were the very same ones that he had maintained in the early 60s in Michigan. No surprise to me that they are scheduled to continue their mission for another 30 years.
Artem, London: Millions of people [have experienced B-52s] - these raids destroyed their countries infrastructures, killed their families and maimed them for life, something you clearly fail to make notice of.
Anonymous, Decan, Kosovo: I was blessed to live in the era of B52 and Nato who stopped ethnic cleansing of Albanians from Kosovo.
Alan, Essex, UK: In January 1991, at the start of the first Gulf War, I lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We were woken in the early hours to the sound of B-52s flying over the house very low, on a long slow approach to land at the airport. The noise was unbelievable, but the impression of power was awesome. We knew then that the war had started. Over the next few days, I watched further streams of bombers on approach intermixed with Hercules C-130s and KC135 and KC10 tankers, using any one of the airport's three runways. After the uncertainty following the invasion of Kuwait we realised that the kingdom had massive support.
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The United Nations has called on Thailand to amend its harsh law against insulting the monarchy. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said it was deeply troubled by the high rate of prosecutions, and the disproportionate sentences for the offence.
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By Jonathan HeadBBC News, Bangkok
The UN said that since the military coup in 2014 the number of people investigated for violating the lese-majeste laws has risen to more than double the number investigated in the previous 12 years, and that only 4% of those charged were acquitted.
Trials are routinely held in closed session, often in military courts where defendants' rights are limited. Earlier this month a man was given a 35-year sentence for Facebook posts judged to have defamed the monarchy, the harshest penalty to date.
Two years ago, a similarly harsh sentence was given to a woman in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
On 7 August 2015, two military courts in Thailand handed down what were then the harshest sentences ever imposed under lese-majeste.
In the first, a court in Bangkok sentenced a 48-year-old tour guide operator, Pongsak Sriboonpheng, to 60 years in prison, 10 years for each of the Facebook posts critical of the monarchy that he was charged with writing. Because he pleaded guilty the sentence was halved to 30 years.
Pongsak acknowledged that he had become politicised during the prolonged political conflict which preceded the 2014 coup, and had often posted his views on Facebook.
But the second case, in Chiang Mai, was baffling. A 29-year-old single mother, with no history of political involvement, was sentenced by a military court to 56 years in jail, also for posting anti-monarchy content on Facebook. Her sentence, too, was halved after she agreed to plead guilty.
She had begged for leniency, given the ages of her two young daughters, and her mother's poor health. The tribunal was unmoved. Her name is Sasiwimon, and her story illustrates the sweeping scope of the lese majeste laws, deployed by a military government which has made defending the monarchy's exalted status in Thailand its highest priority.
Facebook revenge gone wrong
The regime at the Chiang Mai Women's Prison is relaxed enough to allow frequent family visits. But Sasiwimon's mother, Suchin, can rarely break away from her job as a cleaner in a hotel, and the two girls are in school most days. At best they can go every week or two.
It takes up to two hours to get inside the prison, through the paperwork and security searches. Sasiwimon was brought out to meet us, in her loose blue prison dress, holding her arms out to the girls. For the hour we were allowed to stay, she did not let go of them.
She had been married to a mechanic, she explained, but he had left her for another woman. A friend she had made during a previous job in a restaurant had suggested to Sasiwimon a way to get back at the woman, by using a fake Facebook account.
She says the friend came back to her home, and used her computer to set up the account. Sasiwimon only found out what kind of comments the she was leaving on the fake Facebook page when she was sent screenshots of them a few days later. That friend has since disappeared, she says.
Ultra-royalist activist
At around the same time Krit Yeammaethakorn, who leads a group of ultra-royalists in Chiang Mai that monitors social media for anti-monarchy content, spotted the offending Facebook page.
"I was angry," he recalls. "This was not about politics. It was a natural reaction. We discussed what we had seen among ourselves, and decided that we had to act."
Mr Krit has strong feelings about the monarchy. He sobbed openly when he remembered hearing of the death of King Bhumibol last year. "I know we are the only country in the world that still treats kings like gods, like demigods. Yet our late king was not just a god - he was a living deity.
"That's how Thais feel toward him. I believe that in 5,000 years of world history, there has been no other king who was as great as he was."
On 27 September 2014, Mr Krit's group informed the Chiang Mai police, whose investigations eventually traced the Facebook page to Sasiwimon's computer.
Sasiwimon remembers the police coming to the house early in the morning a few days later. They confiscated her computer and two mobile phones. She accompanied them to the station, with her youngest daughter, who was running a high temperature.
The police showed her some of the comments from the Facebook page, and asked her to sign a document acknowledging that she had seen them. She says she did not understand that she was in fact signing a confession. She and her mother say they knew nothing about the lese majeste laws.
Sasiwimon says she had an alibi for the times the posts were published on Facebook; that she had been at work, in the hotel where her mother is also employed, and that she had no internet access there.
Martial law, no appeal
Four months later, Sasiwimon was asked to come back to the police station. She has been in custody ever since.
"I thought she was going to show up and then leave," Suchin told me. "I had no idea it was going to be this severe. I thought it might be a one-year sentence, maybe suspended. We never sold drugs. We never killed anyone, or stole anything.
"We learned about this law when it was too late. I didn't even have time to come to terms with the fact that my child would be gone."
Typically for a lese majeste case, she was refused bail. When her trial date finally arrived after five months, on 7 August 2015, her lawyer advised her that she had little chance of acquittal, and should change her plea to guilty to reduce the sentence.
The charges were read out in a closed session, because the alleged offences were deemed too sensitive for the public to hear. And because she pleaded guilty the evidence against her was never tested.
"When the verdict was read, my ears were ringing," recalls Suchin. "They said this offence insulted the high institution, so it carried a high penalty. I didn't know how high. I thought ultimately it might be four to five years, but I never thought for a second it would go that high. More than 20 years… I didn't even think about 10 years."
In a military court, under martial law, there was no right of appeal.
In their small rented house in Chiang Mai, the tatty calendar on the wall has been left with the front page at August 2015, the 7th ringed, and also the 28th. I asked Suchin why. She said that while her eldest granddaughter had understood the sentence, the youngest, who was then seven years old, had thought it meant her mother would be coming out on 28th August.
There are also faded pictures of the royal family on the walls. "No-one in this family has ever insulted or defamed the monarchy. Never," she said.
Hopes for a pardon
When he informed the police about the Facebook posts, Mr Krit had not known who was responsible for them. Would he do the same again, knowing that a young mother of two girls would get such a long sentence?
"I don't regret it and no-one else does. This is an issue affecting the highest institution, for which Thais have the utmost respect," he told me.
"It's like when a judge hands down a sentence but he still manages to remain unattached emotionally.
"Although the culprit was young, she didn't understand the law, and has two young children, the right thing is… even if we had not filed a complaint, the law had to deal with her. The offender had to be punished."
Mr Krit has not inquired about Sasiwimon's situation now, but hopes she will get a pardon. And perhaps there is some official acknowledgement that the sentence against her was too harsh, as she has already had her sentence reduced, in two royal pardons, to 12 years. This still means her daughters will have grown up by the time she leaves prison.
But she remains hopeful of further pardons, although embarrassed, she says, that she has to ask for mercy from the very institution she is accused of insulting.
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Five police officers were injured as a demonstration in London in support of jailed ex-English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson turned violent.
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Riot officers were deployed as hundreds of protesters blocked the roads around Trafalgar Square.
Five arrests were later made after Robinson supporters took over a sightseeing bus, and missiles and smoke bombs were thrown.
Robinson, 35, was jailed for contempt of court last month.
Appearing at Leeds Crown Court under his real name of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, he was sentenced to 13 months on 29 May after broadcasting on social media about an ongoing trial at the court.
A judge told Robinson, from Bedfordshire, his actions could cause the trial to be re-run, costing "hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds".
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Victims of crime are being put under extreme duress, leading to injustices, due to a lack of awareness of the Victims' Code by those working in the justice system, a watchdog has warned.
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Parliamentary Ombudsman Dame Julie Mellor said investigation of complaints had exposed a lack of understanding.
It came as ministers unveiled plans to revamp the code, which tells people what to expect when reporting a crime.
Victims' minister Helen Grant said "getting this right" was a priority.
'Basic rights'
Dame Julie, whose office looks into complaints of individuals being treated unfairly or receiving poor service from government departments and other public organisations, said: "Victims, including those who have been subjected to serious crime, such as sexual assault, have spoken to us about how they have been left feeling powerless and shattered.
"Failures by agencies to recognise even the most basic rights of those victims under the code, such as being told that the charges against the defendant have changed or that an appeal was taking place, have added to their distress and undermined their confidence in the criminal justice system.
"From customer inquiry teams to legal advisers, from court ushers to area directors, knowledge of the code and of the standard of service victims have the right to expect is alarmingly thin on the ground."
She called on the Ministry of Justice and all justice agencies "to take a stronger lead in ensuring that, as the code is finalised, staff are aware of their responsibilities."
She added that "a code that is not being followed is of little value".
All victims are currently offered support once they have experienced a crime, but in 80% of cases they do not take it up.
The Ministry of Justice has proposed automatically offering help to those who "most need it", such as victims of the most serious crimes.
'Confusing and intimidating'
Victim Support chief executive Javed Khan welcomed the draft Victims' Code but said the charity was "worried that victims will fall through the cracks".
"We hope that police and crime commissioners - with their responsibilities for victims - will want to go further than this to ensure that all victims have the support they need, when they need it," he said.
Ms Grant insisted victims of crime need "more help navigating a confusing and often intimidating criminal justice system".
"Too often they tell us they feel they are treated as an after-thought or that the system made their already horrific experience worse," she said.
She pointed out the "total revamp" of the code was one of her "main priorities" and she was very aware of the importance of "getting this right".
"Victims will now be able to understand and prepare themselves for their entire journey through the criminal justice system, from reporting the crime to after the trial," she added.
"It easily explains what they should expect from the system and who to demand help from if it is not being provided."
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The operations centre sits on one of the upper floors of GCHQ and runs 24/7. At any one time, a team of analysts might be monitoring the kidnap of a British citizen abroad or an ongoing counter-terrorist operation run jointly with MI5.
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By Gordon CoreraSecurity correspondent, BBC News
In one corner, a large globe visualises all the cyber attacks targeting the UK from around the world. The room is a reminder of the range of activity that GCHQ is involved in - as well as its global reach in monitoring communications and data flows.
Russian cyber attacks are high up the agenda, in the wake of claims Moscow interfered in the US election and is trying the same in Europe.
"We have been watching Russian cyber activity since the mid 1990s," GCHQ's outgoing director, Robert Hannigan, tells the BBC.
'Reckless and interfering'
"The scale has changed. They've invested a lot of money and people in offensive cyber behaviour and critically they've decided to do reckless and interfering things in European countries."
Mr Hannigan says that whilst it is impossible to be absolutely sure, the defences against such attacks seem to have held in the UK.
One of his legacies will be the creation of the National Cyber Security Centre, an arm of GCHQ which is based in London and is much more public facing in providing protective advice to the country about the threats in cyberspace.
Terrorism sits alongside cyber threats on the agenda. So-called Islamic State - or ISIL - has proved adept at exploiting the power of the internet.
"It's one of their most important assets. As they are defeated on the ground, the 'online caliphate' will become more important.
"They will continue to try to use the media to crowd-source terrorism to get people around the world to go and commit acts of violence on their behalf...
"There are things we can do to contest ISIL in this media space... but it's not just for governments to do operations online. It's for the companies and for the rest of media and society to have the will to drive this material off the internet..."
When he took over as head of GCHQ in 2014, Mr Hannigan launched what was seen as a broadside against technology companies - arguing they were in denial about the way they were used by terrorist groups to communicate and spread their message.
No place to hide
In the wake of the Westminster attack, the Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that companies should not offer a safe space for terrorists to hide - a reference to the development of end-to-end encryption services which make it impossible to provide the content of communications, even on production of a warrant.
GCHQ, as well as trying to break codes, also works to secure communications and so treads a fine line.
"Encryption matters hugely to the safety of citizens and to the economy.... The home secretary is talking about a particular problem - that this strong encryption is being abused by terrorists and criminals...
"Our best way forward is to sit down with the tech companies..."
The other area of tension with firms has been over extremist content hosted on websites.
Here, government has recently been placing pressure on the companies to be more proactive in taking down content rather than waiting for it to be reported to them.
"I think they have moved a long way [but] there's further to go," Mr Hannigan says.
"When I started the job in 2014 they really were reluctant to accept responsibility for anything they carried on their networks - whether that was terrorism, child sexual exploitation or any other kind of crime."
The threat from IS has been particularly acute in Europe in the last few years. That has driven increased security co-operation - so will Brexit be a problem?
"I don't think so, because the intelligence-sharing has never been through EU structures and national security has never been part of the European Union's remit.
"It's simply a statement of fact that we have very, very strong intelligence and security and defence capabilities and we bring a lot to Europe and to our European partners..."
The relationship with the US is by far the deepest, which he says will not change under the Trump administration.
"It's the most powerful weapon we have against terrorism in particular and has massively paid dividends in the last 10 years."
US spying claims
In recent weeks, there was controversy after reports claimed the Obama administration asked GCHQ to spy on President-elect Donald Trump.
GCHQ took the unusual step of publicly denying this.
"We get crazy conspiracy theories thrown at us every day," Mr Hannigan says. "We ignore most of them. On this occasion it was so crazy that we felt we should say so and we have said it's a ridiculous suggestion."
Deep underground, beneath the grass sit a series of cavernous computer halls. The noise is at points overwhelming.
Much effort goes into cooling the machines. Some of the endless racks contain off-the-shelf server technology but large specialist supercomputers sit alongside which are used by the cryptanalysts for code-breaking.
The exact specifications of these machines and just how much computing power sits in Cheltenham is classified largely to keep other states - primarily the Russians and Chinese - guessing.
"It's impossible to do counterterrorism or cyber security without that kind of power," Mr Hannigan explains, arguing that the challenge remains finding the small needle in the haystack of the massive volume of data on the internet.
Another aspect of Mr Hannigan's legacy will be the push for greater transparency and openness.
"It's very important in a democracy to have the consent of the public as well as the legislation in place and to explain that everything we do is under the law," Mr Hannigan says.
'Dark side'
He took over an agency bruised by the Edward Snowden revelations and allegations of "mass surveillance".
"Obviously a debate on privacy and greater transparency are good things - but it was perfectly possible to do that and indeed it was happening anyway without the damage that the Snowden revelations did. The same is true of the WikiLeaks disclosures."
Mr Hannigan says he and the organisation remain optimistic, rather than pessimistic, about the spread of technology.
"Technology and the internet are overwhelmingly brilliant things for human progress," Mr Hannigan says.
"Unfortunately there will always be people who want to abuse the latest technology. And it's our job to deal with that dark side."
Mr Hannigan's successor, Jeremy Fleming, formerly Deputy Director of MI5, takes over on Friday.
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Rain has affected numbers at Oxford's May Day morning celebrations with numbers down to about 4,000 from 18,000 last year.
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Traditionally people gather on and by Magdalen Bridge in the city to listen to a hymn which is sung from Magdalen College tower.
In the past people have been hurt jumping from the bridge into the river.
But this year no-one jumped into the river, which has been swollen by recent heavy rain.
South Central Ambulance Service said its crews dealt with five minor incidents, none of which need hospital treatment.
There were no arrests.
Last year the event also fell on a weekend so more people were able to attend.
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The man known as the godfather of Dutch crime has been released from prison in the Netherlands. Willem Holleeder served six years of a nine-year sentence for extortion. He has been a hugely powerful, notorious and influential figure on the Dutch underworld for decades.
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By Anna HolliganBBC News, Amsterdam
Holleeder's most infamous crime has recently been turned into a movie soon to be released across Europe and there is a new Hollywood version in the making.
So what makes him such an irresistible figure in crime fiction? Thriller novelist Ton Theunis believes the answer lies in his character rather than his crimes.
"He has this incredible aura about him. Like he is completely in control. Even inside it was like he was untouchable," Theunis says.
"He has a very strong presence and you can really feel that. He is exciting and dangerous and for some reason we will always be attracted to those things."
Life of crime
In 1958 Willem Holleeder was born in Amsterdam. His father worked at the Heineken factory. Friends say he had a difficult childhood.
One source who wishes to remain anonymous remembers growing up in the same area as Holleeder. In his early teenage years, Holleeder's gang was already establishing itself as a powerful force in the playground.
"They used to roar up on the latest mopeds, mostly stolen from German tourists, when we were all playing football," he says.
"Holleeder and his friends would invade the pitch and try to play and if any of us tried to object we'd get whacked with a motorbike helmet."
An early indication, perhaps, of the path Holleeder was destined to pursue.
Theunis met Holleeder when the former was working as a prison guard and the latter was locked up for extortion.
"He has been linked to just about every murder in Amsterdam in the last 30 years. But the police can never pin anything on him because of a lack of evidence," Theunis says.
Despite efforts on both sides to kill or capture Willem Holleeder, the "Dutch godfather" remains alive and now he is free.
Perfect kidnapping?
The Heineken Kidnapping is a fictional adaptation of a true story.
On 9 November 1983 Holleeder and his gang executed what they believed would be the perfect kidnapping. Armed with Uzis and shotguns they headed for Heineken HQ.
Grabbing beer magnate Freddy Heineken and his chauffeur Ab Doderer off the street at gunpoint, they bustled them into the back of a van. The hostages were driven to an abandoned lockup near the harbour where a secret room at the back had been specially converted to function as a makeshift cell.
When the hostages were securely shackled the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 16m euros ($21m; £13.3m).
Eventually Heineken's family handed over the cash. But instead of releasing the hostages, Holleeder's gang fled leaving Freddy and Ab locked up.
Luckily the police had a lead through a Chinese takeaway the gang had been using. After three weeks in captivity they were finally rescued.
Blocking the blockbuster
They were accused of a plethora of crimes including murders, blackmails and shoot-outs but it was this single event that gave Holleeder's gang a reputation more notorious than any other in Dutch history.
The Heineken kidnapping had all the makings of a blockbuster. But the uncooperative star of the show, Willem Holleeder, launched a lawsuit from behind bars to try to stop the film from being released.
"Mr Holleeder didn't like how the character was depicted in the film," says Jens van den Brink, the lawyer representing the film company IDTV.
"For example, in the film there is a mock execution like Russian roulette where they put the gun to the head of Heineken and pull the trigger.
"Mr Holleeder said: 'That never happened and you are making people think we are worse than we really are.' I argued that first, there is artistic licence and second, if you have already kidnapped two men at gunpoint and chained them to a dirty mattress in an abandoned warehouse - well, it is hard to harm the reputation of someone accused of doing so many terrible things."
The release
Almost three decades have passed since the Heineken kidnapping. These days the real William Holleeder isn't the young, virile, untouchable gangster feared by so many back in the 80s.
Most of his former colleagues have been murdered, locked up or taken off to less dangerous destinations. Holleeder has repeatedly refused earlier parole - maybe feeling life is safer on the inside than it is on the outside. According to those that know Willem he is not looking forward to freedom.
Does crime writer Ton Theunis think this fear is justified?
"Imagine you are accused of being involved in so many murders. Maybe you have not been found guilty but still you know people want you dead," Theunis says.
"I remember working at the prison and one of the prisoners was being allowed to go home for Christmas," he recalls.
"I was watching him leave, he got on his bike in a shiny new track suit smiling and waving at us. Then as soon as he got to the car park - bang! - and he was gone.
"Criminals are killed all the time. Of course Holleeder is right to be afraid."
Willem Holleeder reportedly left prison in a car with blacked out windows before being transferred to another secret vehicle. It is a whole new underworld out there. He no longer commands control over the criminal network in the way he once did and his health is not what it used to be.
There is speculation Holleeder will try to escape the Netherlands on the next available flight. He has so far turned down all of our interview requests and his lawyer says he wants to avoid any further attention.
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A whopping pumpkin that is "heavier than two baby elephants" has won the North of England heat of the International Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC) competition.
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The winning pumpkin, weighing 309.5kg (682 lbs), was entered by Peter Geyelin, from Nottingham at the contest held at York Maze, North Yorkshire.
It was later carved into a dragon by chainsaw sculptor Lorraine Botterill.
The UK record for the biggest pumpkin was set last year at 854kg (1,884 lbs).
The world record stands at an enormous 1,054kg (2323 lbs).
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Tears and wails of grief fill the air around a hilltop cemetery in the outskirts of Kabul. "Why did you leave us?" one distraught mother cries out. Another lovingly caresses the photograph of her dead child.
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By Secunder KermaniBBC News, Kabul
Families of about 50 students killed in a suicide bombing by the Islamic State group on a tuition centre in the Afghan capital in August have gathered here for a memorial service.
Many of the dead were just teenagers. All were from the Hazara community. Followers of the Shia sect of Islam who are believed to be descendants of the Mongols, Hazaras are hated by IS who view them as heretics. Armed soldiers stand guard around the graves in case of further attack.
Amongst those killed was 16-year-old Fatima. Her mother Amina tells me she used to weave carpets to pay for her schooling. One, unfinished, lies by the entrance to their small home. Fatima had been working on it the day she died.
"She was my eldest child. She was very good and very brave," Amina tells the BBC. "She used to ask me to pray she would one day become a doctor."
Fatima's father Nasrullah recalls the moment he found his daughter's body.
"I went to lots of different hospitals after the attack trying to find her. Finally someone said: 'There are six bodies here, check if your daughter is one… I uncovered their faces and saw my child."
The family moved to Kabul from another province around two years ago to search for work. But the Shia dominated neighbourhood they settled in, Dasht-e-Barchi, in the west of Kabul, has become a focus of IS attacks.
Fatima's father wants to go back to their village, but her mother is torn about what to do. "I'm not letting my other children go to school now because there's no security here. It's a bad situation, but if we leave Kabul, I will be leaving Fatima behind."
At the bombed tuition centre, shrapnel is stuck in the blackboard whilst handwritten notes lie among the rubble. This horrific attack was one of more than a dozen claimed by IS in Kabul this year.
IS militants first appeared in Afghanistan in 2015, and although they are outnumbered by the Taliban with whom they have at times clashed, they have established a stronghold in the east of the country. IS have been repeatedly targeted by US airstrikes, with a number of their leaders killed, but over the past two years they carried out more attacks in the Afghan capital than any other militant group.
Hazaras are reported to make up 9-15% of the population in Afghanistan, though figures are at times disputed. They have often faced violence and discrimination both because of their ethnicity and their Shia faith, including when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan. The hardline Islamists ruled from 1996 until they were toppled by US-led forces in 2001.
But Hazara leaders say even the Taliban have never targeted the community in the kind of deliberate sectarian suicide bombings that IS are now carrying out.
As a result, many Hazaras are deciding to leave the country. Mohammad Sadiq runs a secondhand shop in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood. He says he set it up last year to buy the possessions of the rising number of community members leaving Afghanistan to seek sanctuary in Iran, Turkey and Europe.
"People are fleeing the country because of unemployment and the lack of security," Mr Sadiq told the BBC. "Daesh [IS] are carrying out all these attacks. They want to wipe our people out."
As a sign of how desperate people in the area now are he shows me elaborately embroidered quilts stitched by mothers to hand down to their children, but sold off to pay for the cost of travel. Pointing to a set of saucepans, he says they were wedding gifts given to a newly-married couple that recently left the country.
Many in the community blame the government for not doing enough to prevent the attacks. But Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told the BBC the authorities regularly thwart plots.
"We recently stopped four attacks in the west of Kabul. That shows how effective our security forces are."
Outside the mosques in Dasht-e-Barchi armed volunteers stand guard, some with weapons provided by the government. Many here say they feel afraid every time they are in a public space.
But the students of the tuition centre are back in the classroom, in a new building. The attack weighs heavy on everyone's mind but there's also a sense of defiance.
"I was so scared after the attack, it's hard to get over it," says 19-year-old Leylu Rasuli. "But if I don't study I won't achieve anything. My family don't like it but I have to keep coming here."
Fellow student Gisu Gity adds: "We won't surrender… By getting good qualifications and studying we will defeat the terrorists."
A few weeks after the attack on the students, twin suicide bombings at a nearby wrestling club killed at least 20 people. Since then there have been no further blasts in Dasht-e-Barchi, but residents remain fearful.
On 11 November, six people were killed in an IS attack on a Shia-led protest near the presidential palace in central Kabul. At the tuition centre sandbags line the windows and armed guards watch over the students as they head home. This is a community braced for further violence.
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Members of the public are to get the chance to assess the proposed design to tackle a traffic blackspot at Aberdeen's Haudagain roundabout .
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The junction at the bottom of Anderson Drive is a notorious bottleneck.
Exhibitions will be held at the Lord Provost Henry E Rae Community Centre in Manor Avenue on Wednesday 1 July from 12:00 to 19:00 and Thursday 2 July from 10:00 to 18:00.
Transport Scotland said it was a chance to view designs and have a say.
It is hoped work will be ready to begin in 2018, when the Aberdeen bypass is completed.
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British planes are now in action in Syria, after Prime Minister David Cameron won the backing of MPs for air strikes against so-called Islamic State extremists in the country.
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The UK has been bombing IS targets in Iraq since September 2014, as part of the US-led coalition.
Here we look at some of the aircraft and weaponry that has been used in the fight against the IS group.
UK AIRCRAFT
Tornado
The UK has ten Tornado GR-4 jets in Cyprus at the RAF Akrotiri base.
The Tornado has been one of the mainstays of the RAF since first entering service in 1980. It is an all-weather, day or night aircraft, capable of operating at a low-level.
It is primarily a strike or attack aircraft, with an ability to deploy specialised precision-guided munitions, but it also has sophisticated targeting and imaging tools, which have proved very useful for surveillance missions.
Raptor - the Reconnaissance Airborne Pod for Tornado, is a stand-off electro-optical and infrared long-range photography pod, which can create hundreds of images during a single sortie.
The Litening III Laser targeting and reconnaissance pod provides a vital air-to-ground targeting capability.
Tornado jets carried out their first strike mission in Iraq in September 2014 using Paveway IV guided bombs.
The GR4 typically carries up to five Paveway IV smart weapons or two Stormshadow cruise missiles, but it can be configured with various weapons.
The Paveway IV is the most modern and accurate precision-guided munition in the RAF inventory. It carries a smaller warhead than earlier versions of the weapon allowing aircraft to carry more bombs, which the RAF says can be delivered with greater accuracy and less risk of unintended collateral damage.
Subsequent missions have also involved dual-mode Brimstone - a highly accurate weapon against vehicles and multiple targets. This is a development of what was originally an anti-armour weapon. Dual-mode Brimstone is both radar and laser-guided.
The MoD said 93 Brimstone missiles - each costing more than £100,000 - were fired in the year to September in military operations in Iraq.
The weapon has what is known as a "fire and forget" capability, which uses a wave radar seeker to lock onto a moving target. It has two warheads, the first smaller warhead is designed to knock out any reactive armour on the target, so the second warhead can penetrate the target before detonating.
Typhoon
The RAF has six Typhoon jets at the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus.
The Typhoon was originally designed as an air-to-air combat fighter, rather than for ground attacks. After modifications, the jets were upgraded to carry Paveway guided bombs in 2008, but they are not yet capable of carrying the Brimstone missiles.
Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft
The reconnaissance operation in Iraq has been bolstered by one of the Royal Air Force's Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft, which has been deployed alongside the Tornados. It has been based at the al-Udeid air base in Qatar.
The RAF took delivery of its first Rivet Joint aircraft in 2013. It is based on a US reconnaissance aircraft, which first came into service in the 1960s.
The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, flown by 51 Squadron, was helping "build an understanding of the humanitarian situation in northern Iraq and the associated [Islamic State] threat".
Reaper drone
The first Reaper drones were used by the RAF in Afghanistan in October 2007. They are operated by a crew consisting of a pilot, sensor operator and a mission co-ordinator from ground control stations.
Two cameras in the nose of the aircraft provide the crew with the view of what is in front of the drone. A satellite communications system gives the crew control of the aircraft once it has disappeared from view.
Each Reaper is normally armed with two 500lb laser-guided bombs and four Hellfire missiles.
In September, the prime minister announced that an RAF-operated drone had killed two Britons linked to IS in Syria, describing the action as an "act of self defence".
Sentinel spy plane
The Sentinel R1 is the RAF's only long-range battlefield surveillance plane. The aircraft's powerful radar can identify and track numerous targets over great distances.
An on-board team of intelligence analysts help make sense of the data collected by the aircraft, which is passed back to commanders and decision-makers on the ground.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the RAF has carried out more than 30% of all the coalition's Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance missions over Iraq and Syria.
In September 2015 he announced that the UK would continue to provide surveillance aircraft in Iraq and Syria into 2016.
RAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes
RAF Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport planes - based at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire - were originally sent to Iraq to drop emergency supplies, including water, food and solar lanterns, to civilians left stranded by the conflict.
But they have also been providing support to British military training teams helping to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the region.
Voyager tanker
The Voyager is used for air-to-air refuelling, as well as air transport. It can carry up to 291 personnel, as well as cargo. A single aircraft is capable of refuelling four Tornados and still carry 11,000lb (5,000kg) of freight on a trip across the Atlantic.
It is based on the design of a modern Airbus A330 and can also be adapted to carry up to 40 stretchers and three critical care patients.
US AIRCRAFT
F-22 Raptor
This stealth fighter jet flew its first combat mission against IS in Syria. It carries air-to-ground missiles and guided bombs, capable of hitting precise targets, as well as air-to-air missiles and radar-evading stealth equipment.
It entered active service in 2007, but due to technical problems has not flown any previous combat missions.
The F-22 can operate at high altitudes and is also capable of sustained supersonic flight without using fuel-hungry afterburners.
It is likely the Raptors were used to enter Syrian airspace undetected and send back information about the targets to the ships in The Gulf and Red Sea.
F-18 Hornet
The US F-18 Hornet, is a multi-role combat aircraft, used for battlefield surveillance and strikes. They have been based on a US aircraft carrier in the Gulf.
In October 2015 the USS Theodore Roosevelt left the region and will be replaced the the USS Harry Truman. The Truman will be accompanied by its carrier strike group, which includes three Arleigh-Burke class destroyers and a cruiser.
In the meantime, US aircraft have been flying out of Incirlik airbase in Turkey and other airbases in the region.
The aircraft is equipped with a sophisticated radar system that can track targets in all weather and from great distances. The Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod can locate targets by day or night, at ranges greater than 40 miles (65km) and from an altitude of 50,000ft (15,240m).
The newly acquired Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) allows the pilot to effectively designate targets in any direction.
The Royal Australian Air Force has also deployed F-18 Super Hornets to the Middle East to support the air strikes, along with refuelling tanker and airborne early warning aircraft.
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a compact, multi-role fighter. It's extremely manoeuvrable, can locate targets in all weather conditions and can fly long distances without refuelling.
F-16s were used in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and later in Operation Iraqi Freedom and in 2011 in the intervention in Libya.
As well as the US, a number of coalition countries have also sent F-16s. Washington has also agreed to sell 36 F16s to the Iraqis to help them combat IS. The first four jets arrived in July.
EA-18G Growler
The Growler is a high tech version of the F-18 Super Hornet.
It can counter enemy air defences using jamming techniques. The Growler can also be effective as an escort for other attack aircraft.
The aircraft can operate from land or aircraft carriers.
F-15E Strike Eagle
The F-15E Strike Eagle can perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.
The aircraft - used in the strikes against IS - can fly at low altitude, day or night, and in all weather.
The jets are based at al-Udeid in Qatar - along with the US B-1B bombers.
B-1B Lancer
The B-1 Lancer is the US Air Force long-range strategic bomber and has been used in the strikes against Islamic State targets in northern Syria.
The bomber can deliver huge quantities of precision and non-precision weapons and can track and target moving vehicles.
Predator drones have been used by the US both for surveillance and strike missions in the region. They are being joined by two Italian Predators, which will be used solely for surveillance.
ALLIED AIRCRAFT
Dassault Rafale
France was the second country to take part in air strikes against IS targets in Iraq and in September 2015 it began air strikes on Syria.
The first French attack was launched on 19 September against an IS depot in the north-east of the country was carried out by Rafale fighters, based at Dhafra near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The Dassault Rafale is a multi-role, twin-engined delta wing aircraft capable of mounting air defence, ground attack, and reconnaissance missions.
The Rafale is equipped with technology which allows it to detect and track up to eight targets simultaneously and generate 3D maps for navigation and targeting.
France announced on 5 November 2015 it was sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Gulf. The carrier has 26 strike aircraft on board, which will add to the 12 French fighters which have been operating from bases in Jordan and UAE.
The carrier was in operation against IS targets in Iraq earlier this year following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.
Atlantic 2 maritime patrol aircraft
France has one long-range maritime patrol aircraft in the region.
The first production model was delivered to the French Navy in 1989. The aircraft are currently being upgraded to extend their operational life into the 2030s.
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is favoured by a number of nations who are supporting the US-led strikes.
Jordan, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium have all deployed F-16s to support the operation. Aircraft from the Arab partners were used in the first wave of attacks against IS in Syria.
Denmark, which is sending seven F-16s, the Netherlands, which is sending six and Belgium, which is also sending six F-16s, say their aircraft will only be used against targets in Iraq - not Syria.
The F-16 is capable of deploying a range of weapons, including air-to-air Sidewinders and air-to-ground Maverick missiles, plus a range of bombs and rockets. It can also carry electronic countermeasure pods to jam radar.
Italy announced in November 2014 that it would send four Tornado jets to carry out reconnaissance flights from Ahmed Al Jaber air force base in Kuwait.
Mirage 2000
The UAE also has the French Mirage 2000 which has similar capabilities to the F-16.
The multi-role fighter is the descendant of the famous Mirage III of the 1960s - the first European aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight.
The Royal Saudi Air Force is perhaps the strongest Arab strike force in the Gulf. The kingdom has a large fleet of American-built F-15s, as well as the European Tornado strike bomber and the multi-role Typhoon air attack and strike aircraft - which can be used in air-to-air combat, and can also attack targets on the ground.
All these fleets carry a similar mix of Western-made precision guided munitions such as GPS and laser-guided bombs and anti-tank missiles.
Tomahawk cruise missile
Tomahawk missile
The Tomahawk Cruise missile is 20ft (6.1m) long and flies at more than 700 mph for a range of about 1,000 miles, close enough to the ground to take enemy air defences by surprise.
It was originally developed to deliver a nuclear payload, but proved its use in the two Allied wars against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and against Serbian targets in Bosnia as a means of delivering conventional explosives.
Each missile usually carries a 1,000lb charge, specially shaped to penetrate hardened concrete buildings.
The US fired dozens of Tomahawk missiles during the first wave of strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria on 22 September 2014. The missiles, fired from US ships were used to target the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
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A philanthropist couple have launched what they say is the world's first privately funded vessel to help migrants in trouble at sea. But can one ship really help the thousands of people who try to cross the Mediterranean each year?
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By Mario CacciottoloBBC News, Malta
Last summer, Regina Catrambone and her husband Chris were on board a yacht cruising around the Mediterranean - but the idyllic holiday scene was interrupted when they spotted something in the sea.
"My husband and I were on the deck and we saw a winter jacket floating in the water, like a ghost," says Regina.
They asked the captain how it ended up there. "His face became very dark and he said probably the person who was wearing it is not with us any more. That started to trigger our attention."
They realised it had probably belonged to one of the thousands of migrants who try to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe - 1,889 have died in these waters since the start of the year, 1,600 of them since the beginning of June, according to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.
The defining moment for the couple came soon after, when they saw Pope Francis on television, calling on entrepreneurs to help those in need.
"We looked at each other, me and my husband, and we said: 'Let's do something.' From this moment came the idea of buying a boat and doing something in the Mediterranean, where people are dying every day."
By October, when the Catrambones heard how more than 360 migrants had drowned near the Italian island of Lampedusa, they were determined to turn their plans into action.
Since then the couple, who are in their 30s, have drawn deeply from their own pockets to fund a highly-sophisticated ship, the Phoenix, based in Malta, where they live. It has dinghies and two state-of-the art drones which they are using to find and help migrants trying to enter Europe by boat, mostly from Africa.
They have named their operation Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS).
But while some ships begin life on the sea with a bottle of champagne smashed against their hull, the Phoenix began its time as an aid station for migrant ships by having holy water sprinkled inside it.
During a Catholic mass, held in the ship's lounge the day before the Phoenix embarked on its first patrol on Monday, a priest told the assembled crew that they are on a mission from God.
He gave each of them a small bottle of holy water from Lourdes and gave the ship a golden crucifix to carry out on the Mediterranean.
The service was "very important for my husband and me, and for the crew to have spiritual support before they leave, because they will be weeks at sea so they will need God's help," says Regina, who is Italian.
Her husband Chris, who is from New Orleans in the US, proudly shows off the custom-made flight deck, home to two Schiebel S-100 camcopters, or drones, which MOAS has leased.
He explains how their HD-quality, night vision and thermal imaging cameras are powerful enough to read a piece of paper in a passenger's hand from the air.
"We are making history in many ways by being the first civilian ship to use such grand technology. We hope that this is going to change the environment for rescue at sea. We're innovators here. We're trying to do something that no-one else has been able to do. We've put our money where our mouth is," he says.
When the ship comes across a migrant boat in international waters, the crew will contact the nearest authorities. "We will communicate the position of the boat in distress to the authority and we will wait for what they tell us to do," says Regina.
While they wait for instructions, they will use the dinghies to approach the boats, pass over food, water and lifejackets and offer medical assistance - the Phoenix has a paramedic on board and also has a well-equipped medical bay.
"However, in case the boat is taking water, or the number of the people [on board] is higher than should be, we will communicate that to the authorities and we will do what needs to be done. If we need to take people on board we can, until Malta or Italy come to take them, and disembark them on land."
Regina and Chris will take it in turns to go to sea on the Phoenix. It may seem naive to think such an operation can be carried out by civilians but the director of the project was, until recently, the commander of the Armed Forces of Malta and members of the crew have experience in the armed forces, maritime rescue and medicine.
The entire project, the couple say, has cost them "millions" with the total running costs of the ship's initial 60-day mission being 2m euros, (£1.59m, $2.64m) which they say is the extent of their budget.
The Catrambones have a group of companies registered in Malta, providing insurance and services to people operating in conflict zones. They are hoping to crowd source extra funding for MOAS, aside from their own cash, and extend it into an all-year-round operation.
The Phoenix
According to the UNHCR, about 19,000 migrants have arrived in Malta from Libya since 2002. Last year it was estimated that about 30% are still on the island, which has a local population of some 417,000.
Once they are ashore tensions frequently arise, with less than charitable comments about migrants often appearing on Maltese media websites.
No-one from the Maltese government responded to interview requests about MOAS - migration has been a thorny issue for the local authorities, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat saying his country is struggling to cope with the influx. But he was forced last year to cancel two flights repatriating migrants back to Libya by the European Court of Human Rights.
Maltese columnist Pamela Hansen says the MOAS operation will provoke mixed reactions in Malta, with some being pleased that lives are to be saved, but others being concerned more migrants will arrive as a result.
"Obviously the authorities are going to be very cautious. They are worried because we do have a problem, just as Italy has a problem. The whole of Europe is anxious about this.
"But because we perhaps are the first stage sometimes of where the migrants land, there's a bit more apprehension.
"I don't know what the government's feeling about MOAS, but what I can tell you is there's a lot of public opinion that is anti-illegal immigration, so maybe the authorities are being rather cautious before they comment."
While Regina is diplomatic about MOAS's "ongoing" dialogue with the local authorities, she does reveal the Phoenix is flying under the flag of Belize because the process of getting a Maltese registration was "taking too long".
But she bristles at suggestions that the couple's cash should be deployed another way, perhaps to help migrants once they disembark. "There are NGOs doing that on land, but not at sea," she says.
She mentions Mare Nostrum, the Italian navy and coastguard's search-and-rescue operation, launched after the October Lampedusa drownings.
Doubt had been cast upon its long-term future, and now the EU and Italy have just announced the formation of Frontex Plus, an extension of its current border management scheme, to take over from Mare Nostrum in November.
One migrant who did make it to Malta is 24-year-old Ibrahim Ahmed Adam, who arrived from Somalia via Libya in May 2012. "My boat broke down on the sea, and if I had not been rescued it would have been the last journey of my life.
"So I can understand deeply the meaning the MOAS operation has for people at sea. It's a very good step."
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A traffic-free road circuit for cyclists in Bath has been officially opened by an Olympic gold-medallist.
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Cyclist Dani King MBE, team pursuit medal winner at London 2012, joined a crowd of spectators to open the 1.5km cycling circuit at Odd Down.
The closed-road circuit cost £600,000 to build and is available to cyclists of all ages and abilities as well as for private hire for cycling clubs.
Sir Chris Hoy also visited the British Cycling-funded track last month.
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For most people, a 65th birthday signals the end of one's working life and hopefully the chance to begin a long and happy retirement. But then, Prince Charles is not most people and the "job" he was born to take on is a unique one.
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By Sarah CampbellRoyal correspondent, BBC News
Unlike the Queen, who had to demonstrate wisdom beyond her years when she acceded the throne aged just 25, Prince Charles has had to live most of his life preparing for the day he will be King.
At times that may well have been frustrating, but it has also allowed him to speak out on matters which are important to him in a way the constraints of kingship would not have allowed.
The Queen is now 87 years old and the process of handing over duties to her son is well under way. This week is an important sign of that transition.
For the first time since 1973, the Queen will miss the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The official reason for her absence is to protect her from the long-haul flight to Sri Lanka, but it is also a chance for the Prince of Wales - who will represent her - to take his place on a global stage.
Over the coming months and years other duties which the Queen currently performs which involve travel or physical exertion will be taken on by the Prince.
However, it still may be many years before he becomes King.
Long letters
His apprenticeship has been a long one, but he has used the time both publicly and privately to promote issues he believes to be important.
Long before environmental concerns such as climate change became part of the mainstream political agenda he was pressuring the establishment to take them seriously.
He has made his views known on issues as diverse as GM crops, alternative medicines and modern architecture. Government ministers have had to become used to receiving long letters from him detailing his views.
And he has become used to being accused of inappropriate meddling.
His need to find a role has undoubtedly changed other's lives too, for the better, through the hundreds of charities he supports.
Chief among them is the Prince's Trust, which he founded in 1976 and which has helped three quarters of a million young disadvantaged people to gain work experience and forge careers.
According to the constitutional expert, Vernon Bogdanor, his achievements to date have helped shape and change the modern monarchy.
"It is no longer a mystical or magical monarchy, it has become a practical or utilitarian monarchy and people judge it in terms of its contribution to society and public welfare.
"The Prince of Wales is very much attuned to that mood. In a sense he symbolises the practical, welfare monarchy - and that's the particular contribution he's been able to make."
When he does become King, the time he will be able to devote to his passions will be severely curtailed.
In a recent profile in the magazine Time, Catherine Mayer wrote that he was "impatient to get as much done as possible before, in the words of one member of his household, "the prison shades close".
'King in waiting'
While Buckingham Palace disputed any suggestion that the Prince sees kingship as a prison, it is true that his duties will have to come first.
As well as discovering a role beyond that of the "King in waiting", the Prince has also had to come to terms with the impact his position inevitably has on his private life.
Combining the two cannot have been easy but after the break-up of his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, and her untimely death, he does seem to have found stability and happiness with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Both his sons are growing into their respective roles and as he said to the waiting press, he was "overjoyed" at the arrival of his first grandchild, Prince George.
His delight was clear from the accompanying photographs.
Now a pensioner - although he is donating his state pension to an unnamed charity supporting older people - Prince Charles can celebrate a happy family and marriage in the knowledge that as Prince of Wales he has contributed much to British society.
That is a good basis for the job he will inevitably have and has spent much of his life preparing for.
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On a Christmas night out exactly a year ago Brian Stirling was punched in the side of the head as he stood outside a pub in West Lothian. He was knocked to the ground, smashing his head off the pavement and died soon after.
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By Steven BrocklehurstBBC Scotland News
His younger brother Alan says Brian was a "peacemaker" who had never acted violently in his life.
He was the victim of someone lashing out after too much drink and was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Alan says.
The 54-year-old bakery worker had been out for a few drinks in Bathgate on the Friday before Christmas.
In the early hours of Saturday morning he left the pub with his friend and was standing outside, a few doors down from the entrance.
His brother Alan says: "There had been a disturbance at the front door of the pub with some guy who had been thrown out.
"While this was going on, a woman approached Brian and his friend and asked if he could hold her bag so she could find her cigarettes.
"Brian, who was the sort of guy to help anybody, held her bag open.
"Unfortunately, on seeing this, the guy who got thrown out of the pub, ran over and punched Brian in the side of the head for no reason."
Brian fell over and smashed his head against the pavement.
He was taken to St John's hospital in Livingston with serious head trauma but they could not save him.
Alan received a call at 06:00 on Saturday morning but Brian was dead by the time they arrived.
"Nobody should go out for a few drinks and not get home the next day," he says.
Police Scotland is running a campaign called One punch can ruin two lives.
It is seeking to highlight the severe damage a single punch can do.
They said a single violent act could kill or seriously injure the victim and it could result in a prison sentence for the attacker.
'Not justice'
Alan Stirling says: "When you are in a bad moment, when you are ready to lash out at somebody, you have think very carefully about all the good things in your life and in the other person's life, all the stuff you care about, all the stuff you have worked hard for, in that one moment of violent stupidity, you are going to throw it all away.
"Not just for you but for the person you are going to lash out at.
"Do you really want to throw your life away on one punch?", Alan says.
The man who killed Alan's brother was sentenced to two years and eight months for culpable homicide.
Alan says the attacker only served 10 months before being deported to Poland.
"That's not justice for my brother's life," he says.
Craig Porter's life was also devastated by a single punch.
A brain injury suffered as a result of a punch eight years ago has left him unable to walk and with great difficulty speaking.
Craig, who is now 35, worked in IT for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service at Gartnavel Hospital before he was punched in Glasgow city centre in 2009.
He says: "I took for granted my life before this injury and I was warned 'your life is a bit too eccentric'.
"But I thought 'I'm just a lad, I'll be fine, it'll never happen to me'.
"But then I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I got into a fight and I knocked my head on the kerb."
Craig says he was heading to get a taxi home after a night out when he and his friends "got into an altercation".
He says there was a stand-off.
"Then basically he punched me and that was it. Lights out," Craig says.
"I banged my head, instantly knocked out and cracked my head on the pavement."
Craig was in a coma for five weeks and doctors told his family that if he survived he would probably never breathe on his own.
They also said he would not talk or walk.
"It's been a hard slog," Craig says.
"I've not got there, far from it, but I'm getting there."
'Incredibly sad'
Eight years on, balance issues mean that Craig still can't walk or drive.
He can't write, his speech is affected and his eyesight is poor.
"Every few months I'll get down and think I'm not getting anywhere but then something will improve, my balance, my swimming or something," he says.
"I couldn't stand up before but now I can stand up and get dressed.
"I get incredibly sad at times but then I realise at least I'm alive and I've got a great support network."
No-one has been convicted of the attack on Craig.
He says: "I am proof of what one punch can do.
"Fortunately I am living proof which I can thankfully say. There are plenty of people who have not been as fortunate as me.
"I have got the chance to get as well as I can and I'm going to take it. Simple as."
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After Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize in 2008 they were supposed to get straight to work on a follow-up to capitalise on their success.
Instead, they put that to one side to produce fellow Manchester band I Am Kloot. The resulting album has been nominated for this year's Mercury - and Elbow singer Guy Garvey and I Am Kloot frontman John Bramwell explain how it came together.
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By Ian YoungsEntertainment reporter, BBC News
Reaching the top floor of the 170-year-old former mission building that Elbow call home, the stereotype of the small, sterile recording studio is immediately shattered.
To walk across the cavernous room, you must carefully pick your way between dozens of speakers, microphones, stands, drums and guitars that are strewn about, as well as cables snaking around the room, and buckets and towels catching leaks from the roof.
"In this room we have five or six drum kits, nine or 10 guitar amps, three pianos, two electric pianos, a Hammond organ, any number of percussion instruments," Garvey explains.
"There's a really odd little thing called a Sounder. It was £50 from the window of Cafe Pop [in Manchester]. It's an electronic keyboard that makes a weird repeating noise. Things you can blow. An accordion. And lots and lots of microphones."
The loft, which is Elbow's headquarters at Blueprint Studios, Salford, has the air of a teenager's bedroom that got out of hand.
"And this is a bar," Bramwell chips in.
"Oh and there's a bar in the room, yeah," Garvey continues. "It was very handy after Christmas - there was a huge party here and they left a lot of stock in the bar."
Next door is a smaller room where Garvey's bandmate and co-producer Craig Potter is hunched over a computer. On the wall is a whiteboard where Elbow will, eventually, write the names of all the tracks on their new album.
For now, about half of the spaces remain empty. ("We're a bit behind schedule now as it goes," Garvey admits.)
Garvey and Bramwell, who met 18 years ago when Garvey got on stage to play harmonica with Bramwell, make a fine double act.
They did not become firm friends until a decade ago, when Bramwell was booking bands for Manchester's Night & Day venue and three members of Elbow worked at the nearby Roadhouse.
"When we'd finished work we'd come over to Night & Day and pretty much end up round the same bar every night," Garvey says.
The friendship led Garvey to produce I Am Kloot's debut album, the excellent, overlooked Natural History, which was released in 2001, just as Elbow were taking off.
But aside from short bursts of touring, the two bands never managed to synchronise their schedules in order to work together again - until I Am Kloot's new album, Sky At Night.
"With the strength of songs on this record, it was impossible for us not to be involved," Garvey says. "We made the time."
Kloot have gathered a cult following since Natural History, but Bramwell speaks of being "very very broke for years" and recording their last album in three days "because we had so little money".
Sky At Night, though, is their first top 40 album and has brought more acclaim and sales than any previous release.
The pair describe an intuitive studio relationship and a democratic process where all of the band's ideas would be written on a whiteboard (Garvey admits he is a "stationery fetishist") and tried out.
Garvey played good cop - "bouncing off the walls, keeping everybody buzzed up", as he describes it - to Potter's perfectionist taskmaster.
"I've definitely learned over the years from different producers," Garvey explains. "It's important that you enjoy as much of your life as possible, that's a personal rule of mine. The best production experiences I've had have been the most fun.
"The worst experiences have been when whoever's at the helm is pretending they're a magic man and they're going to sort your life out. Smoke and mirrors, not showing you how you're doing something. It's nonsense.
"What you need to know is that who's in charge of the recording loves your songs and keep reminding you why your songs are good. Hopefully that's what I did with Kloot."
Bramwell concurs and describes Garvey as "inspirational".
"It's a question of keeping momentum and keeping freshness," he says. "And Craig is incredibly meticulous and able to keep concentrating on something.
"Sometimes you could spend a whole day and not see Craig's face because he's sat looking at the machinery and might not even turn around for a good three or four hours."
Garvey picks up the theme: "He's sparing with his words, Craig. For instance he used fruit instead of words on a few occasions.
"I'd be three floors downstairs having a smoke with the lads, and if this went on for too long and he was bored of waiting, he'd find an orange. I don't know where these oranges were coming from, but I'd get an orange on the top of the head, which meant 'back to work'."
There were drawbacks to recording in such a large space amid organised chaos.
"If Pete was recording a bass track and a certain note made something rattle, finding that rattle could take half an hour because there are so many things that could rattle," Garvey recalls.
"So Craig and I would run in with strips of tape while Pete played this note continuously for half an hour.
"Some of my favourite moments are John, Pete and Craig all sat at pianos, all playing the same riff at the same time, with the microphone at the other side of the room, at Craig's behest.
"But it's a sound that you couldn't have got if you'd tried to do it digitally."
In this case, organised chaos has proved to be the most productive kind.
The Mercury Prize winner is announced on Tuesday. Watch live coverage of the ceremony on BBC Two at 2200 BST.
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Guernsey Electricity is to carry out preventative repair work on the undersea cable link between Guernsey and Jersey at a cost of around £5m.
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The cable-laying vessel Ndurance will arrive in island waters in late January.
Guernsey Electricity said testing showed damage to the cable with repairs expected to take up to four weeks.
The area of repair is half a kilometre from Les Terres Point, close to Havelet Bay.
In November an inspection of the cable was carried out by the vessel Wave Sentinel.
Chief executive Alan Bates said: "Costs are expected to be around £5million and the costs will be shared between both Guernsey Electricity and our Channel Islands Electricity Grid (CIEG) partners Jersey Electricity."
Mr Bates said islanders' tariffs would not be increased to pay for the repairs.
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Two tractors - one towing a muck spreader - have crashed leaving a huge slurry spill covering a Cornish road.
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One of the tractors rolled on to its side in the crash on the B3266, near Camelford at around 16:15 GMT.
Both drivers were able to get out of their tractors and were not injured, but the road was closed for a major clean-up.
Devon and Cornwall Police advised people to avoid the area and "possibly keep their windows closed".
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The chair of National Theatre Wales (NTW) has offered to meet playwrights to discuss their concerns, after 40 of them signed a letter accusing NTW of "undermining" Welsh artists.
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In his response, NTW chair Clive Jones said the trustees had been "deeply saddened" to read the letter.
He added that the company was "rigorously scrutinised".
Mr Jones has offered to meet the writers within a fortnight and said NTW welcomed "honest and open discussion".
Playwright Lisa Parry, who was one of those who signed the letter, wrote on Twitter: "The letter's signatories are currently arranging the best date for this meeting. We really welcome this move from the board."
In the playwrights' letter to NTW last week, they said it was not supporting Welsh writers and was a "roadblock" to success. Signatories included writers Gary Owen, Caryl Lewis and Kath Chandler.
NTW said, "whilst much of the letter's content was factually incorrect our door is and always has been open to artists".
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A suspected rhino poacher has been trampled on by an elephant then eaten by a pride of lions in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
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Accomplice poachers told the victim's family that he had been killed by an elephant on Tuesday. Relatives notified the park ranger.
A search party struggled to find the body but eventually found a human skull and a pair of trousers on Thursday.
The managing executive of the park extended his condolences to the family.
"Entering Kruger National Park illegally and on foot is not wise," he said. "It holds many dangers and this incident is evidence of that."
Kruger National Park has an ongoing problem with poaching and there remains a strong demand for rhino horn in Asian countries.
On Saturday, Hong Kong airport authorities seized the biggest haul of rhino horn in five years, valued at $2.1m (£1.6m).
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It was a case that lifted the lid on modern day "slavery" in Wales. David Daniel Doran was jailed last month for forcing a vulnerable man to work unpaid at a farm near Newport. Now as BBC Wales' Week In Week Out programme delves further into the case, we take a look at some of the issues raised.
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Darrell's story:
A vulnerable man who was forced to work unpaid on a farm for 13 years has spoken for the first time about his ordeal.
Darrell Simester, 44, had been made to work for up to 16 hours a day at Cariad Farm in Peterstone near Newport, only ever having two days off.
He lived in appalling conditions, first in a rat-infested shed then a cold, squalid caravan, with only a horse trough to wash in and no soap or toothbrush.
David Daniel Doran, 42, who is from a traveller family, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to forcing Mr Simester to perform forced or compulsory labour.
Speaking of the moment the farmer was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court, Mr Simester told BBC Wales' Week In Week Out programme: "I wished he'd have got 13 years for what I'd gone through.
"Living in a shed, then a caravan, in them cold, dampy nights, freezing cold and frightened as well.
"In my heart every day I was thinking I wonder what happened to the rest of my family.
"Just kept going over in my head and in my stomach every day I was on that horrible, horrible farm."
Mr Simester's family, from Kidderminster in Worcestershire, believed he was missing after going on a trip to the seaside in Porthcawl in south Wales in 2000.
In fact, a member of the Doran family had picked him up at the side of a dual carriageway while travelling home and taken him to the family farm.
After his family finally tracked him down early last year following a social media campaign, they hardly recognised him, describing him as being a "broken man" who looked far older than his years.
Mr Simester's father Tony, who had feared his son was dead, told Week In Week Out: "I went that's not my son; that's not my son.
"But as he got closer and looked up, cause he walked towards me with his head bowed, I could see it was my son."
His mother Jean added: "I just said 'You're coming home. You can't stay here'.
"And it was like winning the lottery: getting my arms around him and giving him a hug."
As he jailed Doran, Judge Neil Bidder QC told him the way he had treated his victim was "repellent and wrong" and "not much better than a slave".
Mr Simester, who was left malnourished, with a chest infection, a hernia and calloused feet after his time at Cariad Farm, is continuing to rebuild his life and now has his own place to live.
When asked what he wanted in the future, he replied: "A wife and a couple of kids."
Vulnerable targets:
Police investigating the Simester case say a pattern is emerging across the UK involving criminals from the travelling community exploiting vulnerable adults for their own benefit.
Det Supt Paul Griffiths of Gwent Police said they were deliberately targeting vulnerable, often homeless men, at specific places and forcing them into labour.
"Whether they are shelters, park benches, or other locations where they would congregate but similarly those suspected of these offences would be able to target different people for their own means," added Det Supt Griffiths.
Michael Stewart, a social anthropologist who has worked and lived with traveller families, said most travellers treated their workers well, but in Mr Simester's case it was clearly exploitative and abusive.
"What's certainly true is that travellers are not highly thought of," said Mr Stewart, who says he does not speak for travellers but has studied them and tried to see things from their point of view.
"Travellers are often despised, not many people would go and live in a travellers compound on a travellers site.
"So to some extent you could say the labour market is restricted... So travellers tend to pick up people who are less able to find a position in the mainstream labour market.
"Sometimes those relationships, it's quite clear from the court cases there have been, have become exploitative and abusive.
"In other occasions, in other places and in other families, those relationships can be protective and supportive."
He added: "It's certainly true that in some cases for traveller families having dependent servants who are non-travellers is a form of demonstrating wealth and status and achievement and you have the space to house these people, you have the social pulling power in a sense, that you're an attractive enough proposition."
David Phillips, chief executive of the South East Wales Race Equality Council, which speaks for traveller communities, said there were plenty of examples of homeless people choosing to live with and work for traveller families.
"We recognise that this is not what happened on this occasion and our communities are as horrified as everybody else at Mr Simester's treatment," said Mr Phillips.
Finding Darrell:
Clare Hutchinson is a researcher at Week In Week Out and has followed Mr Simester's story since he was found.
I first spoke to Darrell Simester's mum, Jean, in February 2013.
I worked at a local newspaper and she sent us a long and heartrending email explaining that she was looking for her son, who had been missing for 13 years. She believed he was in south Wales.
When I picked up the phone and spoke to her, I had little idea how far the story would go.
Jean was heartbroken and desperate for someone to help her family in their hunt for Darrell - a search that had already gone on for more than a decade and had involved dozens of meetings with police that always ended with officers telling her he was a "missing contact" - not a missing person.
In her words to me during that first phone call: "He's not a missing contact, he's my son."
Jean and her husband Tony described their son, who would now be 43, as "timid" and "easily-led". They also told me of their suspicions that he was being held against his will somewhere in Cardiff. He had gone on holiday with another family in August 2000, and after an argument had run away.
A few days later they heard from him: he was working on the roads. For eight years he would call a couple of times a year, often from withheld numbers, often with voices in the background telling him what to say.
Then, in 2008, Darrell called his family at Christmas. He promised to speak to them again in the New Year - but that phone call never came.
We ran a story in the newspaper in which Jean and Tony made a desperate plea for anyone who recognised Darrell to come forward.
It was a last-ditch attempt after 13 years of searching but - incredibly - it paid off.
A few days later, Jean's mobile phone rang and the person at the other end told her they had seen Darrell working on a farm on the Gwent levels between Newport and Cardiff.
I was in work on a rainy morning in late February 2013 when I got a tearful phone call from Jean saying they may have found Darrell - and that they were on their way down to Cardiff.
I rushed out and met Jean, Tony and Darrell's younger brother Duncan outside Cariad Farm just as the police arrived.
The family had not known what to expect - or even whether the man would be their son. Duncan approached him first, but when Darrell told him he could not leave the farm the family were suspicious enough to call the police.
Officers arrived a short while later - and wearing torn, filthy clothes, a flat cap and carrying his worldly goods in a black bin bag, Darrell emerged from the farm.
His face was dirty and furrowed with deep lines. In Tony's words, his son looked like an old man.
The reunion between the Simester family was emotional, and difficult to witness. As Darrell walked out of the farm's driveway, head bowed, Jean ran forward and hugged him. I later asked her what she said at that moment. She replied through tears, "I just said, you're coming home".
His dad and brother walked around the farm, taking photos of the dirty caravan in which he had been made to live.
A short while later, Darrell and his family got in their car and returned home to Kidderminster.
Over the following weeks and months I stayed in contact with the Simester family, speaking to Jean and Tony about Darrell's progress.
The first shock came when they got home and discovered the terrible condition he was in: a hernia on his groin the size of a football; a fungal infection that had turned the soles of his feet green; curvature of the spine and severe weight-loss.
Darrell would wake up every day at 6am, his dad said. He would fall asleep on the armchair in the evening, but jerk awake at the sound of a person walking into the room, or closing a door.
While his parents believe he had learning difficulties from a young age, he was now suffering deep psychological problems and has since been seeing a psychiatrist.
And while they have struggled, the family have continued to help him return to a normal life. Together they have been on holidays, on day trips to see his favourite football teams, held a homecoming party and - more recently - helped Darrell move into his new place.
We went to visit him for our programme, and Darrell showed us around with pride. There is a clock on the mantelpiece that used to belong to his grandmother; DVDs and books donated by well-wishers; and a Manchester United duvet on the spare bed.
His family have helped him develop routines for cleaning and cooking. When we visited a new kitchen had just been fitted - and Jean was planning to help her son make a cheesecake.
The court case was difficult for them all but, while they feel the four-and-a-half year sentence handed to David Daniel Doran was not enough, they are satisfied with the outcome.
As Tony said to me when we last spoke: "I've banned all talk of the last 13 years - we just want to look forward and talk about the years to come."
The way in which South Wales, West Mercia and Gwent police investigated Mr Simester's disappearance is now the subject of a supervised investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
All three forces have said they cannot comment while that investigation is continuing.
Week In, Week Out - 13 Years A Slave: Darrell's Story is on BBC1 Wales at 22:35 BST on Tuesday, 4 November.
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Car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover has announced it is to open a £20m technical centre near Coventry.
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The firm said 100 new "highly skilled" engineering jobs would be created at the 225,000 sq ft (209,000 sq m) facility in Prologis Park, Ryton.
It will focus on building limited edition and customised vehicles at the site.
Earlier this week, Indian parent firm Tata Motors said strong Jaguar Land Rover sales had boosted its profits.
The firm said the first vehicles to be worked on at the site would be released in mid-2015.
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If I'm honest, I was a bit jealous when gravitational waves were discovered. One hundred years after Einstein said they existed, researchers from the University of Birmingham throw the switch on their big new detector and find gravitational waves on day one.
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David Gregory-KumarScience, Environment & Rural Affairs Correspondent
I mean, who does science like that? That's just showing off.
I wrote about the discovery back in 2016. Click here for more details, but, long story short, physicists from the University of Birmingham are a key part of a 1,000-strong global team behind the LIGO gravitational waves experiment. In Birmingham, they both helped build the actual detector and also analyse the data it produces.
Since the aim of LIGO was to prove the existence of gravitational waves and it did that on day one, what on earth have they been doing since then? And was that early result a fluke? Well now we know.
Violent cosmic events
First a quick word about gravitational waves themselves. These are ripples in the very fabric of the universe. Wobbles in actual space-time itself. They are only created by the most violent of cosmic events. In the case of the first signal detected by LIGO, they were generated by two black holes that were locked into a death spiral. Orbiting each other in ever decreasing circles before smashing into each other.
The LIGO team have now finished analysing all the data they took and revealed they have seen 10 similar events. A variety of pairs of black holes locked together and eventually joining in a violent release of energy. They've also seen a new type of event - a pair of neutron stars also doing the death spiral dance.
Cosmic black hole factory?
Every 15 minutes somewhere in the universe one of these extraordinary events takes place. That means there's a lot of binary black holes out there and something must be making them. The question for the LIGO team now is what is this cosmic black hole factory?
Already in a Birmingham laboratory they're trying out new ideas for LIGO upgrades and then entire new telescopes. Because what the team have created isn't just a big machine to confirm ideas arising from Einstein's theory of general relativity, it is also an entirely new way to look at the universe. A radical new type of telescope for a radical new type of astronomy.
If you want to learn more about LIGO and black holes, the team have created a number of free apps for mobile phones and tablets (including a pocket black hole!) which you can find on this website.
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One of the biggest economic experiments of our age is coming to an end.
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By Andrew WalkerBBC World Service Economics correspondent
The United States Federal Reserve has called time on "quantitative easing" (QE), a policy that has pumped trillions of dollars into the US financial system.
The jury is still out - and will be for a long time - on whether it has worked.
There are real anxieties about what the consequences will ultimately be.
For now though the Fed's main policy making committee has concluded that "there has been a substantial improvement in the outlook for the labor market" and "there is sufficient underlying strength in the broader economy". So, QE is being wound up this month.
It started back in November 2008. The financial system in the US and beyond was still reeling from the failure of the investment bank Lehman Brothers.
There were widespread fears about the wider economic consequences. Were we looking at the prospect of another Great Depression?
In the US the Federal Reserve had almost run out of its traditional ammunition, cutting interest rates. So it embarked on something that was new, at least for the Fed, namely QE.
So what is it? Instead of reducing the price of money - that is, cutting interest rates - the Fed increases the quantity of money. It does that by going into the financial markets to buy assets and it creates new money to pay for them.
The Fed has focused on buying two types of assets: government debt or Treasury bonds, and assets backed by home loans.
The next question is: how is it supposed to work?
The first step is the impact on the price of the type of assets the Fed buys. More demand (from the Fed) raises the price.
To put it another way, there is less supply of these assets available for everyone else, which also tends to raise their price.
Then many of the sellers of these assets use the money to buy something else, pushing the prices of those other assets up too.
That in turn has implications for interest rates. Bonds are a kind of IOU, a promise to pay certain sums of money in the future. Governments and some companies use them to borrow money. They sell them in the financial markets. The higher the price they get the lower the interest rate they are in effect paying.
If it all goes to plan that effect can filter through the economy and reduce interest rates for many borrowers.
John Williams, a senior Fed official spelled it out in a speech in 2012 and it's worth quoting at some length: "If the Fed buys significant quantities of longer-term Treasury securities or mortgage-backed securities, then the supply of those securities available to the public falls.
"As supply falls, the prices of those securities rise and their yields decline. The effects extend to other longer-term securities.
"Mortgage rates and corporate bond yields fall as investors who sold securities to the Fed invest that money elsewhere.
"Hence, [QE] drives down a broad range of longer-term borrowing rates. And lower rates get households and businesses to spend more than they otherwise would, boosting economic activity."
The aim is to push down interest rates paid by business and households even lower than is possible by using the central bank's own conventional interest rate policies.
It's worth bearing in mind what that conventional policy is in the US. The Federal Reserve has a target for the overnight interest rate on lending between commercial banks - it's called the federal funds rate.
Reducing that does usually affect interest rates for everybody else. But when the target is practically zero as it now is, it can't go lower.
So that's where QE comes in. It provides a tool for getting rates lower for companies and consumers.
While the most important effect is on borrowing costs, QE is also thought to have been responsible for much of the strength of stock markets. Shares are among the assets that investors have bought with all the new money they have received from the Fed.
The graph highlights the impact of the Fed's QE programme. It shows the changing level of what is called the monetary base. It's made up of cash and "reserves", money held by commercial banks at the Federal Reserve. Before the financial crisis it grew steadily, but then increased dramatically from late 2008 as the Fed created new money as it sought to stimulate the US economy.
What impact?
So that's what QE is. But has it worked? Its supporters say it has kept interest rates low for households and firms, stimulated job creation and saved the US economy from a much more severe downturn, even another Great Depression.
Critics say it could lead to a new financial crisis, raging inflation and has punished responsible savers. So let's take those arguments, starting with the case for QE.
Establishing the impact is not a straightforward question. It's not a matter of is the US economy in better or worse shape than it was, but is it better or worse than it would have been without QE?
And of course you can't observe what the US economy would have looked like in those hypothetical circumstances.
So economists have tried to work out what difference QE has made.
With that caveat in mind, the former Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, said in 2012: "There is substantial evidence that the Federal Reserve's asset purchases have lowered longer-term yields and eased broader financial conditions."
He also said that the first two rounds of QE raised economic activity by almost 3% and increased private sector jobs by two million - compared to what would have happened without QE.
Fed official John Williams said later the same year: "We're at long last seeing signs of life in the housing market. Likewise, cheap auto financing rates have spurred car sales. And historically low corporate bond rates encourage businesses to start new projects and hire more workers."
Having said that, QE has not given the US a particularly strong recovery. It has been weaker than many previous post-recession rebounds.
Nonetheless Roger Bootle of Capital Economics thinks it was worthwhile. He wrote: "I suspect that in the US it (QE), and the other support programmes, prevented a complete disaster."
So that's the case for the defence.
But there are plenty of opponents with quite a catalogue of criticisms.
A recurrent theme is the idea that QE creates a danger of surging inflation. The policy involves creating new money - an awful lot of a particular type of money - and there is a long history of economic theory that argues that rapid increases in the money supply eventually leads to higher inflation.
At this point it's important to note what type of money the Fed has been creating. It's called reserves - money held by commercial banks in accounts at the central bank.
In some circumstances increasing reserves can lead banks to lend more to the public, which creates new money in their accounts.
But this time the increase in reserves did not translate into anything like as large an increase in money in the hands of the public and inflation has so far remained relatively subdued.
Inflation pressure
Prof Martin Feldstein of Harvard University says the risk is that banks might in the future use their reserves to expand lending to firms and households, which would increase the money supply and add to inflationary pressure. But he also says the Fed has options to prevent higher inflation.
Some, including some Fed insiders, are worried that it will be difficult to get it right. One recently retired Fed economist warned of a serious inflation risk.
Prof Allan Meltzer of Carnegie Mellon University supports the first stages of QE but says "the benefits ended long ago".
He worries that by buying government debt or bonds, the Fed is in effect financing what he calls outsize deficits: "Sooner or later the results are inflation, always and everywhere."
Prof John Cochrane of Chicago University has another criticism. He describes QE as a policy that creates a lot of noise but no real effect.
It has no stimulative effect, but nor is it inflationary. But it's not harmless, he says. It distracts attention from what he considers the real obstacles to growth - tax and regulatory barriers.
Then there is the idea that QE punishes savers, by driving down interest rates, while it rewards borrowers, some of them irresponsible ones.
A study by the consultants McKinsey, published in 2013, found that the combined effect of low Fed interest rates and QE had cost US households $360bn (£220bn).
By and large younger households - who are more likely to be borrowers - had gained; older ones - with more savings - had lost.
Other estimates have put the figure even higher. The Fed's policies have even been described as a "war on seniors".
There are also concerns about the impact of QE on financial markets. Has it created a danger of another bout of financial instability?
The International Monetary Fund referred to that possibility in a recent report.
Fuelling risk
The IMF accepted that policies such as QE were important for economic recovery but it also warned of a danger of "excessive financial risk taking".
Low interest rates make it cheap to borrow money to invest in financial assets.
They also encourage investors to look for alternative assets that have higher returns, which are usually also riskier.
They may be bonds issued by less creditworthy businesses, or shares in companies with uncertain prospects.
That brings us to another criticism. One alternative chosen by many US investors seeking something more lucrative was to put money into emerging markets.
In the process they drove up the value of many of the currencies. Many people in those countries worried that they would be made less competitive as a result. In 2010 the Brazilian Finance Minister, Guido Mantega, called it a "currency war".
More recently that concern was turned on its head after the Fed signalled last year that QE was likely to be gradually "tapered" or discontinued.
There were some episodes in which emerging market currencies fell markedly as investors pulled money back to the US anticipating the end of QE and the prospect of higher interest rates.
The concern about competitiveness was overtaken by worries that falling currencies in emerging economies might aggravate inflation.
QE is one, perhaps the most important, of a range of tools often described as "unconventional monetary policies". That is quite an understatement. Throwing huge sums of money at the financial markets is something that would normally bring a central banker out in a cold sweat.
But the financial crisis was such a challenge that it led them to use tools they would normally keep locked away.
One former Fed official once put it like this: "You don't want to be found dead after a shoot-out with unused ammunition."
So QE may be ending, but we can be sure the debate about its impact will not. Has it saved the US, and perhaps the rest of us, from economic disaster?
Or has it sowed the seeds for the next financial crisis?
Quantitative Easing: Step by step
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As a journalist in Venezuela, José Gregorio Márquez reported from poor areas of Caracas, while being careful to hide his own humble beginnings. But years later, a love letter to the neighbourhood he'd felt so ashamed of would be his ticket to a new life abroad.
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By Natasha LipmanBBC World Service
When José Gregorio Márquez was a child, he used to love writing plays for his classmates at school. He particularly remembers one about a group of animals who picked on a rabbit and bullied him.
"My message there was that we are all equals and we need to treat people decently. At the end of the story, the other animals got to know the rabbit they didn't like at first, and grew to love him," he says.
He also used to imagine stories for his toys, with each new tale entertaining and keeping him company for up to a week.
It was a form of escapism for the young José.
"Most of the time I was at home alone. My mum used to work the whole day, and I didn't have anyone my age to play with," he remembers.
"All these games were a distraction. I was creating the world that I wanted to live in, which was very different from the world I was living in."
That world was Niño Jesús, a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Venezuela's capital city, Caracas. Gangs controlled the streets, so José's mum, a cleaner bringing up four children alone, didn't allow him to leave the house.
"Many mums in the neighbourhood thought that was the way to make sure you don't become a criminal," he says.
José was nine when Hugo Chávez, a former paratrooper, came to power promising a socialist revolution. To low-income families, like those in Niño Jesús, he was a hero, at least to begin with.
José was used to seeing Chávez on TV. Every Sunday the president hosted a talk show called Aló Presidente, where he took calls from people across the country. But it was watching a political crisis unfold on television that inspired José's career.
"I actually remember the specific day I decided I wanted to be a journalist," he says.
It was 11 April 2002, two days after the start of a general strike. A huge demonstration made its way to the presidential palace, gunmen started shooting into the crowd and 19 people died, including a photojournalist.
José, who was 13, watched the events unfold live on television. Then the picture changed: Chávez was giving a national address.
"The channels divided the signal, showing an urgent message from Chávez on one side of the screen and on the other they continued to show the demonstrations."
But within minutes the government succeeded in cutting off live coverage from the street.
"So one side of the screen was black and the other had Chávez," remembers José.
"For me, it was very shocking not to be able to know what was going on. But it was also very shocking to see all those journalists trying to get the information, despite all the risks. So then, almost an obsession with journalism started."
Within hours of his broadcast, Chavez was forced to resign by the military high command, but 72 hours later - after huge demonstrations by his supporters - he was back in charge. From then on, he set about dismantling the private TV networks, which he felt were against him.
But José was set on his path, and in 2008, while studying for a degree in Social Communication, he joined a daily newspaper called Últimas Noticias as an intern, and worked his way up to writing for a section called Ciudad (City).
"It consisted of collecting information from the neighbourhoods of Caracas with people's demands for the government. So it was more or less what I had lived in my own life. Now I could give a voice to all those people and publish their stories."
But José always kept it a secret that he lived in Niño Jesús.
"I used to hide it completely. I didn't tell anyone that I was from there," he says. "I was ashamed of the area I came from, despite being a reporter for other neighbourhoods where humble people lived, who were demanding improvements."
This was a challenging time to be a journalist in Venezuela. Chavez had grown increasingly tyrannical and journalists were now at risk of imprisonment if they criticised a government official.
José felt like he was coming of age as a journalist just as press freedom was disappearing.
The daily newspaper that José had been working for ended up being nationalised, like many other newspapers and television networks. Outlets that managed to avoid it, stopped holding the government to account, in order to avoid nationalisation or closure.
Find out more
In 2013, José started working for El Nacional, a newspaper with a 70-year history, which remained one of the last critical voices in the country.
"The government took every step possible for the newspaper not to have actual paper to be printed on," José remembers.
"It was interesting to be a journalist at the time, because sometimes you could write a headline that didn't make any critical reference, but then down in the news story, you could because the censors didn't read the whole story. So I did that a lot - until I was found out."
Later, while working as a cultural reporter for a newspaper, José was sent to review a performance by the daughter of a prominent politician, Diosdado Cabello.
She wanted to be a singer, and José watched the audience shouting and booing at her because of who her father was.
When his report was published, he was almost fired and the union of journalists had to step in to save his job. It was the last time he wrote something that could be perceived as critical of the regime.
For years José was waiting for the day when he could leave Niño Jesús. He wanted a better life - a home where he could feel safe, and had access to drinking water every day. In Niño Jesús, you could often only get it once a week, and there would also be periods up to 20 days long where there was no access to water at all.
So, in November 2012, a few months before he graduated, José moved into an apartment in the Altamira neighbourhood of Caracas, sharing a room with a friend to make ends meet.
But almost as soon as he left, something strange happened. The shame he had felt about the barrio for so long evaporated and was replaced by a fierce sense of love.
"As the saying goes, 'You don't appreciate what you have until you lose it.' I connected more with where I came from once I saw it from afar," says Jose.
He realised that the skills and experiences he'd gained growing up in Niño Jesús had shaped him in a positive way. "I guess I grew up," he says.
And within months an opportunity arose to tell the world about it.
Even before Chávez came to power, Venezuela held a popular annual love letter writing competition.
"It was just another way to give some colour to people's lives in a country where everything is wrong and nothing works," José says.
Hundreds of people took part in the contest, and it became so successful it was eventually opened up to participants from other countries.
Most of the letters were written to loved ones, relatives, or even pets. But in 2013, when José saw the competition advertised, he felt inspired to do something different.
He decided to write about Niño Jesús.
"I was declaring my love to a neighbourhood, but it was also a way of telling the truth about how society looks away from these neighbourhoods, instead of looking at them and taking care of them," José says. "I made peace with the neighbourhood."
José had seen the violence, the crime, the death that Venezuelans associated with Niño Jesús. But he also wanted to show the colour, the life, behind all those stories.
"From far away, you didn't see the people who live in those little houses, people who love and smile in those neighbourhoods," José says. "So my intention was to put that into words, telling how I came to love and understand the place, and understand that it had been very important to the person I was becoming."
José was selected as a finalist in the competition and was asked to read his love letter in a theatre in Caracas.
"Dear Niño Jesús, I still remember your abstract shapes and your misshapen shadows," he began.
Although when I lived in your streets and walked your stairs, I'd rather just look up at the sky because it was the only thing I liked around me. I was an idiot...
You're not to blame for anything, but I wanted to be far away from you.
I used to hate waking up at four in the morning to fight for a seat on the bus that would take me to work.
I hated going up or down each of your damn steps. I hated the zinc roofs that didn't stop the stones, the raindrops, or the bullets. I hated the sheets spread over stiff bodies that could no longer feel the cold of the asphalt. I hated you.
Now, however, I miss you.
I miss the kites undulating among the clouds like roving sperm. I miss the green of your trees, next to the orange of your bricks, caressing the blue of your water tanks. I miss the impudence of the roosters at dawn and the eloquence of the cats at dusk. I miss you.
Although I understand how important you were to building my life, I was always ashamed of you. I denied knowing you.
And I'm sorry.
I never belonged to you as much as I do now, when I am without you and you are without me. I had never realised before that I loved something I'd already lost.
I never asked you for anything before, but this time I'm asking you to forgive me...
I came from you and I will always be yours.
José
After a moving performance, much to his surprise José won the competition. As he walked up on to the stage he thought there must have been a mistake, and that the judges had intended to name one of the other finalists - some far more well-known, and with beautifully written letters.
José was awarded a watch worth $5,000. He knew it was an insurance policy, a way of getting money if he really needed it, and concealed it carefully in his underwear drawer.
About a month later, his apartment was burgled and many of his valuables, including his laptop, were stolen.
But his watch remained safely hidden under his socks and pants.
President Chávez died in the same year as Jose won his prize, and Vice-President Nicolás Maduro took over. Simultaneously, with falling oil prices and inflation rising, the country's economy went into freefall.
"You just couldn't get food," José says. "They assigned all citizens a day of the week to buy groceries according to your ID card number. My day was Friday, but normally food got delivered on Monday. So by Friday, you wouldn't have any food in the supermarket any more. If I tried to buy on Monday, I wasn't allowed. It was just pure, utter despair. It was very humiliating and very sad."
By 2015, unable to live off of his income as a journalist, José started thinking about leaving Venezuela. But first he moved back to his childhood home.
"My mum was still living there, and given that I couldn't have any way to take my family with me at the time, it was nice to be with them. It was a good way to say goodbye and it was actually lovely to get back to the place I had grown up, to see those colours again."
José found the idea of leaving extremely difficult because he feared he wouldn't be able to return as long as Maduro remained in power.
But the country he knew no longer existed. Things had been changing so rapidly and deteriorating so quickly. And he realised that even if he had to leave the country, he'd never again leave behind that part of himself that was forged in Niño Jesús.
José knew that in order to leave he would need US dollars, but the value of the Venezuelan currency, the bolívar, had sunk so low they were virtually unobtainable.
So he asked a friend who was travelling to the United States if he would take his watch and sell it. He agreed, but was only able to get $1,500 for it - $3,500 less than its actual value.
That was enough, though. He decided to emigrate to Buenos Aires with a friend who lent him the money for a one-way ticket. He would use the money from the watch to help him survive once he got there.
José had previously visited Argentina in 2011, and already had friends living in the country. He liked the openness of the culture, and, vitally, he believed he'd be able to get a residence permit.
After saying an emotional goodbye to his family, José arrived in Buenos Aires, with photographs and bolívar coins and tickets as memories of his life back home.
He expected to land on his feet. After all, he'd been a successful journalist at respected publications in Venezuela, and thought this would make it easy for him to find a job in journalism.
But it wasn't to be. He spent his first month feeling sick, unused to the cold Argentinian winters, and had no leads for job interviews. He decided to start working in a cafe, which he says helped him grow as a person, and learn to work as part of a team.
"It made me see that nothing can be taken for granted in life, and that you can always start from scratch. To start from the beginning, without ego."
Six months later, he was able to find a job in an advertising agency.
In the four years since he left Venezuela, José has not returned. And he doesn't see that changing while the government continues with chavismo - the political system and ideology established by Chávez.
There are things that he misses - most notably, the beach, the weather, and the El Ávila mountains.
But these are not reasons enough to leave Argentina.
"Not only because of the current economic crisis, but also because I am gay and Venezuela is a homophobic country where LGBTI people have no rights and are constantly mistreated," José says.
In February, after saving for many years, José moved his 70-year-old mother to Argentina. He wanted her to live comfortably in her later years and this would not have been possible in Venezuela.
José says his love letter to Niño Jesús changed his life.
"It made me feel validated, not only as a human being, not only for my story of humble origins, but also for what I had to offer as an aspiring writer who, until then, always felt that I did not have enough talent, even though I had been writing for newspapers for years," José says.
"That award is so important in my life, it allowed me to emigrate from the country, flee from the crisis, and it continues to bring me closer to incredible people from all over the world."
Listen to Jose speaking to Outlook, on the BBC World Service (producer, Tom Roseingrave)
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Unless you are an aficionado of the great moments of Chinese Communist history, you probably won't have heard of Wuhan ( it is the site of Chairman Mao's legendary swim across the Yangtze ).
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Robert PestonEconomics editor
But perhaps more than any other Chinese city, it tells the story of how China's remarkable three decades of modernisation and enrichment, its economic miracle, is apparently drawing to a close, and why there is a serious risk of a calamitous crash.
In Wuhan I interviewed a mayor, Tang Liangzhi, whose funds and power would make London's mayor, Boris Johnson, feel sick with envy. He is spending £200bn over five years on a redevelopment plan whose aim is to make Wuhan - which already has a population of 10 million - into a world mega city and a serious challenger to Shanghai as China's second city.
The rate of infrastructure spending in Wuhan alone is comparable to the UK's entire expenditure on renewing and improving the fabric of the country. In this single city, hundreds of apartment blocks, ring roads, bridges, railways, a complete subway system and a second international airport are all being constructed.
The middle of town is being demolished to create a high tech commercial centre. It will include a £3bn skyscraper that will be more than 600m high (roughly double the height of London's Shard) and either the second or third tallest in the world (I met executives of the state owned developers, Greenland, who were coy about precisely how tall it would finally be).
And, of course, the point of my visit to Wuhan was to tell a broader story. Over the past few years, China has built a new skyscraper every five days, more than 30 airports, metros in 25 cities, the three longest bridges in the world, more than 6,000 miles of high speed railway lines, 26,000 miles of motorway, and both commercial and residential property developments on a mind-boggling scale.
Third wave
Now there are two ways of looking at a remaking of the landscape that would have daunted Egypt's pharaohs and the Romans. It is, of course, a necessary modernisation of a rapidly urbanising country. But it is also symptomatic of an unbalanced economy whose recent sources of growth are not sustainable.
Perhaps the big point of the film I have made, to be screened on Tuesday (How China Fooled the World, BBC2, 9pm) is that the economic slowdown evident in China, coupled with recent manifestations of tension in its financial markets, can be seen as the third wave of the global financial crisis which began in 2007-08 (the first wave was the Wall Street and City debacle of 2007-08; the second was the eurozone crisis).
Why do I say that?
Well in the autumn of 2008, after the collapse of Lehman, there was a sudden and dramatic shrinkage of world trade. And that was catastrophic for China, whose growth was largely generated by exporting to the rich West all that stuff we craved. When our economies went bust, we stopped buying - and almost overnight, factories turned off the power, all over China.
I visited China at the time and witnessed mobs of poor migrant workers packing all their possessions, including infants, on their backs and heading back to their villages. It was alarming for the government, and threatened to smash the implicit contract between the ruling Communist Party and Chinese people - namely, that they give up their democratic rights in order to become richer.
So with encouragement from the US government (we interviewed the then US Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson), the Chinese government unleashed a stimulus programme of mammoth scale: £400bn of direct government spending, and an instruction to the state-owned banks to "open their wallets" and lend as if there were no tomorrow.
Which, in one sense, worked. While the economies of much of the rich West and Japan stagnated, boom times returned to China - growth accelerated back to the remarkable 10% annual rate that the country had enjoyed for 30 years.
But the sources of growth changed in an important way, and would always have a limited life.
Toxic investment
There are two ways of seeing this.
First, even before the great stimulus, China was investing at a faster rate than almost any big country in history.
Before the crash, investment was the equivalent of about 40% of GDP, around three times the rate in most developed countries and significantly greater even than what Japan invested during its development phase - which preceded its bust of the early 1990s.
After the crash, thanks to the stimulus and the unleashing of all that construction, investment surged to an unprecedented 50% of GDP, where it has more or less stayed.
Here is the thing: when a big economy is investing at that pace to generate wealth and jobs, it is a racing certainty that much of it will never generate an economic return, that the investment is way beyond what rational decision-making would have produced.
That is why in China, there are vast residential developments and even a whole city where the lights are never on and why there are gleaming motorways barely tickled by traffic.
But what makes much of the spending and investment toxic is the way it was financed: there has been an explosion of lending. China's debts as a share of GDP have been rising at a very rapid rate of around 15% of GDP, or national output, annually and have increased since 2008 from around 125% of GDP to 200%.
The analyst Charlene Chu, late of Fitch, gave a resonant synoptic description of this credit binge:
"Most people are aware we've had a credit boom in China but they don't know the scale. At the beginning of all of this in 2008, the Chinese banking sector was roughly $10 trillion in size. Right now it's in the order of $24 to $25 trillion.
"That incremental increase of $14 to $15 trillion is the equivalent of the entire size of the US commercial banking sector, which took more than a century to build. So that means China will have replicated the entire US system in the span of half a decade."
Anyone living in the rich West does not need a lecture on the perils of a financial system that creates too much credit too quickly. And in China's case, as was dangerously true in ours, a good deal of the debt is hidden, in specially created, opaque and largely financial institutions which we've come to call "shadow" banks.
There are no exceptions to the lessons of financial history: lending at that rate leads to debtors unable to meet their obligations, and to large losses for creditors; the question is not whether this will happen but when, and on what scale.
Which is why we've seen a couple of episodes of stress and tension in China's banking markets over the past nine months, as a possible augury of worse to come.
Slowing growth
More broadly, for the economy as a whole, when growth is generated over a longish period by debt-fuelled investment or spending, there can be one of two outcomes.
If the boom is deflated early enough and in a controlled way, and measures are taken to reconstruct the economy so that growth can be generated in a sustainable way, the consequence would be an economic slowdown, but disaster would be averted.
But if lending continues at breakneck pace, then a crash becomes inevitable.
So what will happen to China's economic miracle?
Well, the Chinese government has announced economic reforms, which - in theory - would over a period of years rebalance the economy away from debt-fuelled investment towards consumption by Chinese people.
Charles Liu, a prominent Chinese investor, with close links to the government in Beijing, explained to me how far China's growth rate is likely to fall from the current 7-8%:
"I think China could do very well if the quality of the growth is transformed to higher value add." He said. "You're really looking at 4% is fine."
But as yet the reforms are at a very early stage of implementation, and the lending boom goes on. What is more, the current building splurge so enriches many thousands of communist officials, from a system of institutionalised kickbacks, that there are concerns about the ability of the central government to force the changes through.
Also, the social and political consequences of Charles Liu's 4% growth could be profound: it is unclear whether that is a fast enough rate to satisfy the people's hunger for jobs and higher living standards, whether it is fast enough to prevent widespread protest and unrest.
And what if the lending and investing bonanza can't be staunched? Then we would be looking at the kind of crash that would shake not just China, but the globe.
The biggest story of my career has been the rise and rise of China. Hungry, fast-growing China has shaped our lives, sometimes but not always to our benefit.
It boosted our living standards, by selling us all those material things we simply had to have, cheaper and cheaper. But its exporters killed many of our manufacturers. And the financial surpluses it generated translated into our dangerous deficits, the secular and risky rise of indebtedness in much of the West.
Also its appetite has led to huge increases in the price we all pay for food, for energy, for commodities. What's more, China's influence in Asia and Africa has profoundly shifted the global balance of power.
So would an economically weakened China be good for us in the West? Well, it wouldn't necessarily be all bad.
But a China suddenly incapable of providing the rising living standards its people now see as their destiny would be less confident, less stable, and - perhaps for the world - more dangerous.
Watch This World: How China Fooled the World - with Robert Peston on BBC Two at 21:00 on Tuesday, 18 February. Or catch it later on the BBC iPlayer.
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The BBC has again delayed its release plan for the Micro Bit.
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By Leo Kelion and Jane WakefieldTechnology reporters
The tiny computer was originally supposed to have been given to one million schoolchildren last October.
The corporation said it now planned to start giving teachers their own units just after the half-term holidays, to help them plan classes.
It added it was "pushing to deliver as many as possible" to pupils before the term's end but could not be more specific about how many or when.
The idea behind the project has been widely praised, but some teachers are concerned they will no longer have enough time to do it justice this school year.
Digital skills
The Micro Bit is designed to run code written by children that will let them display text and patterns on its 25 LEDs and make use of its built-in sensors.
The idea is that they will be able to create simple games they can play on the device.
In addition, they can physically connect it to other hardware or link it up to a smartphone via Bluetooth to carry out more complex functions.
The BBC has promised to give one to every child in Year 7 or equivalent.
Last September, it revealed a problem with the power supply had caused a delay, adding teachers would receive the device before the end of 2015 and children "early in the new year".
But on Wednesday, at the Bett education trade show in London, the BBC said its timetable had slipped again.
"The main issue has been some fine-tuning," BBC Learning executive Cerys Griffiths said.
"We have created hardware, it's very complex, it's very sophisticated, it's very new.
"What we were really hoping for was that the teachers would get their devices before Christmas.
"But our commitment to teachers has always been that we would get them the devices first to give them time to play and get familiar with them."
Smiley faces
Some schools have been given prototype Micro Bits.
Emily Rowland, a teacher at Manchester's Fairfield High School for Girls, said even the least able of her pupils had been able to use them to show smiley-face graphics.
But she added the delay to the proper rollout was causing concern.
"Some teachers get panicked by the idea that they can only use them for six weeks of the summer term and haven't even seen one yet," she said.
"Quite a lot of schools will struggle to put them in place this summer, and some will have to put it off until the next school year, and then the issue is who do you give the freebies to?"
Another computing teacher, Steve Richards, from Eastlea Community School, in London, had a more positive view of events.
"I understand the frustration of other teachers, because it is this wonderful thing that is slightly out of reach," he said.
"But judging by the kind of things we have been able to do with [the prototypes], it will be worth the wait."
Android app
Although the hardware may be delayed, there is already software available to give children a chance to start coding in advance of receiving their micro-computers:
To help offset any disappointment, the BBC has also promised to release more copies of the device than it had originally planned, meaning some children in other school years should also receive one.
Ms Griffiths also stressed that just because the Year 7 pupils would receive the Micro Bits later than had originally been hoped, that would not mean their time with the devices needed to be more limited.
"This device was never intended for just for one year," she said.
"Each child will own their own device, so we are hoping they will use them during the summer holidays.
"And we will have loads of activities and stimulus for them to use into Year 8, so it won't be just for one term."
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A mother's praise for a teenager on his Saturday job - who patiently helped her daughter, who has autism - has reached hundreds of thousands of people on social media, thanks in part to his father's pride.
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By Sherie RyderBBC UGC hub and social news
James Tayler, from Bicester, Oxfordshire, posted on Twitter he had a very good reason to be "ridiculously" proud of his 18-year-old son, Jacob.
When Jacob finished his Saturday job at a Clarks shoe shop, he was handed a "celebration alert" from the store.
The alert was prompted by an email from a shopper to say Jacob had gone "above and beyond" their expectations back in March, when helping the customer's daughter.
"I might be a little choked up," said James in his tweet.
Sensory overload
Jacob told BBC News: "I was asked to measure a little girl's feet.
"I didn't know she had autism but she wasn't responding very well.
"She was having sensory overload in the shop environment."
The customer emailed the company, describing how Jacob had sat patiently while her daughter had cried and had carried on when she had been ready, without any fuss, adding: "He didn't once make us feel like we were taking too long or being a nuisance."
Loves kindness
More than 90,000 people have "liked" James's sharing of the story on Twitter on Sunday, including 69,000 in the first day, and retweeted it to thousands more.
It has also been picked up on social media forum Reddit, where the story was upvoted more than 52,000 times within nine hours of being posted.
Among those to see the tweet was Dawn Brown, the customer who had emailed Clarks.
"Everyone loves a little bit of kindness," she responded to James's tweet.
"I am so happy that Jacob got his recognition," Dawn tweeted in a conversation with James.
"Teens today are given bad press, not enough praise."
"Most people only email/phone to complain these days," said Dawn.
"I like to go the other way and spread the praise."
She also joked she would ask Jacob for his autograph when they next bought shoes, to which Jacob said to let him know when so he could be there.
Jacob, who is finishing his A-levels this year, is no stranger to helping children with disabilities.
He has been working with the charity Barnardo's since he was 16 years old.
Calming people
James said the work had "taught him a huge amount about autism, sign language and other non-verbal communication".
"I spend all my holidays working with children of various abilities, I really enjoy it," said Jacob, who has also picked up the sign language Makaton, which he finds very useful.
This coming summer holiday he plans to work overseas, helping children in need, before he comes back to apply for a firefighter apprenticeship.
"I like to help people and I'm very good at calming people down when they're stressed," said Jacob.
However, he may get an opportunity to continue working with children, as Dawn could recommend Jacob for a job working with children with special needs.
Unite people
IT worker James is still bursting with pride and is amazed at the responses he has had on social media.
"My phone hasn't stopped buzzing since I posted the note," James told BBC News.
"I thought it would be nice to share good news, amid all the misery at the moment.
"It's nice to unite people with some positivity."
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Ariana Grande had finished her set at the Manchester Arena last May and concert-goers - many of them children - were streaming out of the main performance area and into the lobby of the building. Parents waiting to collect young fans had gathered there; others were buying memorabilia or making their way to the nearby railway station.
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Also in the foyer at that busy time was a man with a home-made bomb. He detonated it at 22:31, murdering 22 people and injuring more than 700.
Members of the audience said it sounded like a balloon bursting. British Transport Police, running toward the sound, assumed they had heard a train crash.
The emergency service response has now been assessed in an independent report, the Kerslake Review.
Here are six things we have learned.
Assumptions, confusion and delays hampered the response
Poor communication was at the heart of many of the problems identified in the Kerslake report.
Some firefighters heard the explosion from their base at Manchester Central fire station, which is about half a mile from the concert venue, but they were ordered to drive to another station, three miles north of the city centre.
Because the fire service could not communicate directly with the police duty inspector - whose phone was in constant use - due to a lack of a radio link, it could not confirm the true situation and prepared for an escalating terrorist firearms attack - similar to those seen in Paris.
As a result fire crews stuck to national guidance, which say personnel should keep 500m (1,600ft) away from any zone of danger in such situations.
Meanwhile, the police duty inspector had declared the incident Operation Plato, the code name for the protocols meant to be followed in situations where there is a belief semi-automatic weapons are being used indiscriminately.
Because of communication difficulties neither the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) nor the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) were informed or updated of the status of the operation.
GMFRS did not arrive at the scene for nearly two hours, meaning a valuable resource was not available to assist on the scene, particularly with the movement of those who were injured from the foyer to a casualty clearing station that had been set up on the railway station concourse.
A dedicated and regularly tested radio, operating between the control rooms of the police, ambulance and fire services, has now been established.
Kerslake recommendation: While not criticising the GMP force duty officer, the service should review its protocols to identify ways to reduce the load placed on the force duty officer during major incidents. This could include providing the force duty officer with a dedicated incident management support team as soon as possible.
'Crucial decisions' saved lives
The area where the supposed shooting is going on is called a "hot zone", a safe area is called a "cold zone". A "warm zone" is an area where active terrorist activity has stopped, but cannot be guaranteed safe.
Within minutes the force duty officer had to make a life-or-death decision: should unprotected emergency responders be left in what was considered at that time to be a hot zone?
One of the rules under Operation Plato is that only suitably trained and equipped firearms officers should be in a hot zone. All other personnel should be evacuated.
The force duty officer decided that to tell the responders to evacuate would be "unconscionable". So they remained, treating patients and saving lives.
"In terms of protecting saveable lives," the Kerslake Review said, "this was one of the most crucial decisions taken on the night.
"The force duty officer should be congratulated for this dynamic decision making in an extremely stressful, chaotic and dangerous environment".
Kerslake recommendation:Sticking rigidly to the Operation Plato protocol may introduce the real risk that responders will be focused on written instructions when they should be trusting their own judgement and training...when protocols become too constraining there is immense value in empowering and enabling responders to deal with incidents using situationally aware, informed and risk-assessed initiative.
The emergency communication system failed
After an event such as the bombing, a casualty bureau is usually set up for concerned families to call and find out if their relatives were missing or injured.
This is done by something called The National Mutual Aid Telephony Service, which provides an 0800 number for worried members of the public and call handling for police forces.
This would have enabled other police forces to help call handlers in Greater Manchester and should have also allowed the local force to set up a bureau to coordinate information about missing and injured people.
The system could not be activated on the night of the Manchester attack because one of the servers was full. This meant a new message could not be recorded, and instead callers received a message from a previous incident.
Communication with the families caught up in the attack was badly affected. A restricted local telephone contact service was not up and running until about 03:00.
The report found: "This failure was a cause of significant stress and upset on the night to the families involved, who were seeking to find out more about the situation of their loved ones. A number were reduced to a frantic search around the hospitals of Greater Manchester to find out more".
Vodafone, which has held the contract since 2009, has said: "This was clearly unacceptable and we sincerely apologise for the distress caused to those affected by this terrible attack.
"We have since undertaken a major upgrade of the system in question and it is being tested on a daily basis."
The Kerslake report also said there was an inadequate level of knowledge or expertise within Vodafone or its sub-contractor Content Guru.
Kerslake recommendation: The Home Office should urgently secure appropriate guarantees from Vodafone that the necessary fall-back and disaster recovery arrangements are in place to address the failures which occurred.
Families felt 'hounded' by the media
Most participants of the Kerslake review who commented on their experience of the media in the attack aftermath were negative. People talked about feeling "hounded" and "bombarded".
Some described being put under pressure to participate in TV programmes.
One member of staff at a hospital said a tin of biscuits given to staff contained a note offering £2,000 for information about the injured.
At least two examples of impersonation were also reported - one respondent said they spoke to someone on the telephone who claimed to be a bereavement nurse, while another described talking to someone who claimed to be from the police.
Specific mention was made of photos being taken through glass windows of family being given news of bereavement. There were descriptions of people having to run to cars with coats over their heads to escape. Someone described having to be taken into hospital to see their injured child via a staff entrance because of the behaviour of some media representatives at the main entrance.
Several people told of news crews outside their homes. One mentioned the forceful attempt by a reporter to gain access through their front door by ramming a foot in the doorway. The child of one family was given condolences on the doorstep before official notification of the death of her mother.
Another family told how their child was stopped by journalists whilst making their way to school.
In the case of one family, which has subsequently been reported, the daughter was visited by a reporter at their home and given condolences on the death of her brother whilst her parents were at the family centre that had been set up at the Etihad Stadium. This took place on the morning following the attack. The family were not told that their son was likely to be among the fatalities until later that day.
In response Matt Tee, chief executive of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), said: "It is clear that the behaviour of some, but by no means all, of the media added to the distress experienced by some families of victims.
"The editors' code - the set of rules that IPSO members must follow - requires journalists to approach bereaved family members with sympathy and discretion, to ensure their reports are accurate and to respect people's privacy and stop their approaches when asked to do so.
"We will be looking at what more we can do to support victims, families and the agencies that work with them as well as making sure that IPSO-regulated publishers are aware of their obligations and responsibilities under the Editors' Code of Practice."
Kerslake recommendation: IPSO should review its code of conduct and consider developing a new code specifically to cover such events.
How survivors and the bereaved were treated
The Kerslake Review promised to "put the experience of bereaved families" at the heart of the report, and spoke to many of the people affected.
Some talked about the arrangements made for them to see their deceased loved one.
"Our expectations were that he'd be pulled out of a freezer … the reality was that he was actually lying in a room set up like a hospital room, he was in a bed, his head was on a pillow and he was covered up with a duvet. The room had a pleasant temperature and he looked as if he was in a deep coma rather than dead. The nurse gave me a little cuddly toy telling me it was with him throughout the whole time he entered the building. We were given time alone with him and were allowed to hug and kiss him. The nurses were available to comfort us before and after."
Many praised a vigil staged at the station before it re-opened.
"We went to the vigil that was in the train station … and they made it so beautiful... there was a stand with their names on, everybody was there for that reason," said one relative.
How the public helped those affected
The Kerslake panel praised a number of people for their courage, including staff from Northern rail who were asked to leave the arena for their own safety by police officers but refused, choosing to stay with the casualties.
In addition to members of the public who ran to help, staff with no formal remit in this role "selflessly and bravely did their best to provide care and support and undoubtedly made an important contribution to the response.
"Others also played a part away from the Arena whether providing shelter in local hotels or donating food and drink. Every one of them is owed a debt of gratitude".
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Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered a statement setting out plans to help workers and businesses hit by new coronavirus restrictions.
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It includes plans for a job support scheme to replace furlough, help for the self employed, business loans and VAT cuts.
Here is a summary of the main points.
Job Support Scheme
How could the new Job Support Scheme work?
If an employee works reduced hours the employer pays for that. And in addition the employer and government pay one third of the lost pay each (up to the cap).
So for someone on £2,000 a month working 50% hours, they would get £1,000 normal pay plus £333 extra from their employer and £333 from the government.
Support for the self-employed
Business loans
Taxes
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A raid on a cashpoint machine by thieves using a JCB telehandler has left a 6ft (2m) wide hole in the side of a Co-op store.
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The ram raid on Polka Road, Wells-next-the-Sea, happened between 02:50 and 03:00 GMT on Monday.
The suspects used the telehandler to remove the cash machine before loading it on to a 4x4 truck, said police.
Officers believe a dark-coloured hatchback was also used. Witnesses are asked to call Norfolk Police.
Police have cordoned off the scene and there is a hand-written note at the store saying it is closed.
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The style and scale of the attacks in and around the Kenyan town of Mpeketoni have left many questions unanswered. Who carried out the violence? Why kill only men? President Uhuru Kenyatta has blamed a "local political network", but Somali militant Islamist group al-Shabab says it was behind the killings. However, for the moment, most Kenyans remain unclear as to who the perpetrators are.
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By Dennis OkariBBC News, Nairobi
Possibility 1: Al-Shabab
Al-Shabab has said it carried out the attack in order to take revenge on Kenya for the presence of its troops in Somalia, where they are battling the militants, as well as for the killing of radical clerics linked to al-Shabab in the port city of Mombasa.
If the Somali group is to be believed, then it may have changed tactics for fear of losing support.
Many women and children, including Muslims, were among the 67 people killed during the siege of the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi last September.
The indiscriminate attack angered some al-Shabab sympathisers, and the Mpeketoni attack could have been a way of sanitising the group's image: kill the men, spare the women and children.
Sowing terror among ordinary Kenyans could be a strategy to increase pressure on the government to withdraw its forces from Somalia.
Who are al-Shabab?
Possibility 2: Local dispute
Mpeketoni is a farming area, not a popular tourist resort like the nearby Lamu island, and the attack took the country and security agencies by surprise.
In the past, terror groups have concentrated on Kenya's major towns and cities, or targeted foreign tourists in order to gain maximum international publicity.
According to reliable accounts, the attackers were well organised, and as soon as they finished their mission, they disappeared, supporting the theory that they may be locals.
"This... was not an al-Shabab attack. Evidence indicates that local political networks were involved in the planning and execution of a heinous crime," said President Kenyatta.
"The attack in Lamu was well planned, orchestrated and politically motivated ethnic violence against a Kenyan community, with the intention of profiling and evicting them for political reasons," he said.
Many of those who died in the attack came from Mr Kenyatta's Kikuyu community.
There are long-standing political and ethnic divisions in this area.
It could be that local Somalis and Oromos who claim the area as their ancestral home are trying to drive out Kikuyus, who they see as interlopers.
The president's father, independent Kenya's founding President Jomo Kenyatta, gave the area to ethnic Kikuyus in the 1960s.
Such disputes over land ownership were behind much of the ethnic violence which broke out across Kenya after the disputed 2007 elections.
A group of Kenyan Somalis or Oromos could easily wave al-Shabab flags and shout slogans such as Allahu Akbar (God is great) in order to divert blame.
But opposition politicians have dismissed the president's statement as a "joke".
Kenya violence: Survivors' tales
Possibility 3: Separatist rebels
President Kenyatta did not name the local political group he was accusing.
In recent years, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) has been campaigning for autonomy for Kenya's largely Muslim coastal region, arguing that local people see little economic benefit from the region's trading ports and tourist industry.
It has been accused of carrying out small-scale attacks in and around Mombasa, which it has strongly denied.
But it might be that it has launched an armed insurrection.
The MRC has denied any links to the attacks.
Possibility 4: An alliance
Of course, it could be that one of the Kenyan groups has decided to work with al-Shabab, which would explain some of the confusion.
President Kenyatta would want to downplay the al-Shabab angle in order to try and protect Kenya's embattled tourist industry, so if there were an alliance, he would focus on the local group.
This would also enable him to send Kenya's security services after some of his political enemies.
While if some al-Shabab fighters were involved, it would enable the group's spokesman to say they were behind the attack, even if it was not solely their idea.
They have never previously said they carried out an attack which later proved to be untrue.
And al-Shabab might like to target ethnic Kikuyus in order to take their battle right to the president's doorstep.
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The Royal Mint has been criticised for featuring a picture of King John signing Magna Carta with a quill on a coin celebrating its 800th anniversary. A wax seal was actually used, but does the mistake really matter, asks Justin Parkinson?
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Magazine MonitorA collection of cultural artefacts
The £2 coin shows King John holding Magna Carta in one hand and a large quill in another. The meaning is obvious - he signed it.
Actually, he didn't. John, like other medieval monarchs, used the Great Seal to put his name to the document, making concessions to England's barons in 1215, following years of arguments over royal power.
The Royal Mint has been accused of making a "schoolboy error". Historian Marc Morris stated that medieval kings "did not authenticate documents by signing them" but "by sealing them".
The Mint has defended itself by saying the scene shown on the coin is not meant to give a "literal account of what actually occurred".
No quill was used, but was the Magna Carta still "signed" in a sense? The Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb "to sign" in this way: "To put a seal upon (a letter or document) as a means of identification or authentication; to stamp with a seal or signet; to cover with a seal." The first use the OED records of the verb used in this way was by King John's son Henry III, saying a document was "sened wiþ vre seel (signed with our seal)".
So, the idea of signing something predated our more narrow modern sense of a person writing their name or something else to denote their consent - the autograph signature.
Is criticism of the Royal Mint fair? "I think it's pretty harsh," says Jane Caplan, professor of modern history at Oxford University. "The story is pretty complicated and it's not surprising that people make mistakes."
The wording of Magna Carta, a verbal agreement between the king and the barons, was written down later and the seal added by officials. So he didn't seal it himself either. The contents of the copies made were to be read out in public in what was still more of an oral official culture than our own.
The wax seal helped validate the understanding that Magna Carta was the King's true will. "The seal was the conventional way of authenticating a document at that time," says Claire Breay, medieval manuscripts curator at the British Library.
It was not "signed" according to the conventional modern usage of the word, but 1215 was not the modern world.
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The Queen has officially opened the new Queensferry Crossing.
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She was accompanied by Prince Philip as she cut the ribbon on the £1.35bn road bridge - exactly 53 years after she opened the Forth Road Bridge.
The Queen said the structure, the UK's tallest bridge, was a "breathtaking sight" and one of three "magnificent structures" across the Forth.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said people would "marvel" at the bridge in 100 years.
The Queen met children and officials at the south end of the bridge and was given a floral posy by Elizabeth Martin, grand-daughter of crossing project director Michael Martin.
After cutting the ribbon to cheers from the watching crowd, the Queen then travelled by car across the bridge.
She then made a speech and unveiled a plaque to declare the crossing formally open.
There was also a fly-past by the Red Arrows and a flotilla of boats travelled under the bridge as the national anthem was played.
The bridge was blessed by the Church of Scotland's Moderator, The Right Rev Dr Derek Browning.
The Queen said the bridge, which sits beside the Forth Road Bridge and the Forth Rail Bridge, would be an "important link" between the Lothians and Fife.
"The three magnificent structures we see here span three centuries, are all feats of modern engineering and a tribute to the vision and remarkable skill of those who designed and built them," she added.
In her speech, Ms Sturgeon told the workers who built the bridge that in 100 years people would "gaze at the towers and marvel and what you have created".
Ms Sturgeon said the creation of the bridge was an "outstanding achievement" as she thanked those involved in the project.
She told them: "The nation's heart is bursting with pride at what you have achieved."
The bridge opened to traffic last Wednesday. It then shut at the weekend to allow 50,000 members of the public to walk across it . They were selected in a ballot.
Local schools and community groups will be allowed to walk over the bridge on Tuesday before it closes to pedestrians for good.
It will then reopen to traffic on Thursday.
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.
Construction of the Queensferry Crossing began in 2011, with a variety of milestones marked along the way.
More than 10,000 people have worked on the site at some point, clocking up over 13 million hours of work.
About 24 million vehicles are expected to use the crossing each year, reducing the strain on the older road bridge.
The new bridge has a projected life of 120 years but could last for longer than that, experts believe.
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Inside Out is returning to your screens for another series in 2015.
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Chris JacksonPresenter, Inside Out, North East & Cumbria
We'll be back on 12 January, 2015 in our usual Monday night slot of 19:30 GMT on BBC One.
We're already working on the stories we'll be covering and have done quite a bit of filming already.
Needless to say I can't give the game away just yet on the nature of those topics, but as always we hope to be revealing things about the North East & Cumbria that you never knew before.
One change we're having to make however is the blog. It's become increasingly difficult to sustain a weekly blog alongside making films and presenting the programme.
So even though I've enjoyed it immensely this will be the last blog from me. It's been a terrific way to give you more details about each week's stories and it has been a quick way for you to give us your comments.
The good news is it's still easy to get in touch with me by social media and email.
You can email me [email protected] and I'd be thrilled if you'd like to follow me on twitter. Don't forget that you can send me your feedback on the programme via my email address.
Just look for @insideoutcj
Alternatively, you can read more of our North East and Cumbria stories on the BBC Inside Out website which also hosts our iPlayer offer.
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The violence and murder of a protester in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend has been attributed to far-right elements that descended on the city to demonstrate against the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate war hero Robert E Lee.
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By Brenna CammeronBBC News
President Donald Trump drew widespread criticism on Saturday when he said that there was violence on "many sides" in Charlottesville and initially neglected to explicitly censure the white supremacists who organised the rally.
On Monday, he bowed to pressure to castigate the KKK, white supremacists and neo-nazis.
But many conservatives say blame should be shared by Antifa, a loosely affiliated group of far-left protesters.
Critics argue the media tends to excuse violence by Antifa militants just because they are fighting white supremacists and their odious ideology.
What exactly is Antifa?
The social causes of Antifa (short for anti-fascist or Anti-Fascist action) are easily identifiable as left-leaning.
Most members oppose all forms of racism and sexism, and strongly oppose what they see as the nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim policies that Mr Trump has enacted.
However, as their name indicates, Antifa focuses more on fighting far-right ideology than encouraging pro-left policy.
Unlike the mainstream left, they do not seek to gain power through traditional channels - winning elections and passing bills into law.
Antifa is anti-government and anti-capitalist, and their methodologies are often perceived as more closely aligned with anarchists than the mainstream left.
Antifa does not shy away from militant protest methods, including the destruction of property and sometimes physical violence.
They were present at the 2017 Berkeley protests of right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos and at violent protests against Donald Trump's inauguration; they were also present at Charlottesville.
Antifa's roots go back almost as far as Nazis
Much like the far-right, Antifa members around the world comprise a patchwork of groups, though the most active appear to be based in the US, the UK (under the name Anti-Fascist Action) and Germany (Antifaschistische Aktion).
The German movement was founded in 1932 to provide a militant far-left group to counter the fast-rising Nazi party.
They were disbanded in 1933 after Hitler took control of parliament and resurrected in the 1980s as a response to neo-Nazism after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
President Trump's election seems to have been something of a touchstone for the Antifa movement, which has links with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and various anarchist groups.
According to James Anderson, one of a group of people who run the popular anti-fascist and anarchist news site, It's Going Down, interest has spiked since Mr Trump's election.
The It's Going Down website, which received around 300 hits daily in 2015, now garners between 10-20,000 hits a day.
Since the events in Charlottesville on Saturday, the It's Going Down Twitter handle has gained 2,000 new followers.
While interest may have spiked since Mr Trump's election, it is all but impossible to quantify how many people are active members of Antifa.
Much like the far-right, chapters of Antifa are loosely connected and highly secretive, and organise mostly on message boards such as Reddit and over social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
Calls to label Antifa a terror organisation
Antifa has become a popular topic for right-leaning websites and among conservative pundits.
Fox News commentator and conservative speaker Erick Erickson says in The Resurgent, a conservative blog, that "Antifa and the white supremacists are two sides of a common coin. The people dead in Charlottesville died because of one neo-Nazi, but there were dozen [sic] of people left bleeding in the streets because of Antifa".
Meanwhile, a change.org petition lobbying Mr Trump to declare Antifa a domestic terror organisation has garnered nearly 100,000 supporters.
While Antifa has gained relatively little attention in the mainstream media, that may soon change.
According to Mr Anderson, the events in Charlottesville over the weekend represent a "sea change" in how Antifa is perceived.
"This is a huge turning point and vindication for our movement," he said.
"We are working with Black Lives Matter, local clergy, this is not a movement that wants to be a lone group of militants," he said.
"This is about popular power. Sometimes that looks controversial - but this is a broad movement, and we are looking to engage a wide variety of people."
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Two men have pleaded guilty to affray in connection with the death of a man from Teesside whose body was recovered from the River Tees.
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Luke Jobson, 22, went missing following a night out in Yarm in January, 2019.
Edwin Taha, 20, of Lavender Way, Norton, and Ali Abdulmajieed, 19, of Corvus Drive, Stockton, pleaded guilty earlier ahead of their trial.
Taha and Abdulmajieed are due to be sentenced next month at Teesside Crown Court.
Charges of affray against Ryan Alpay, 19, of Duneside, Elm Tree, Stockton, and Hammad Asif, 18, of Osborne Road, Stockton, were ordered to remain on file.
Mr Jobson's body was recovered from the river on 28 January 2019.
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Some of the poorest communities in the south Wales valleys are revitalising themselves through social enterprises, officials have said, as a £10m European grant scheme comes to an end.
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Nearly 150 groups have been backed by the South East Wales Community Economic Development (SEWCED) programme.
They range from furniture recycling and youth training to homelessness support.
Programme manager Ian Evans said the scheme helped projects which found it hard to raise cash from banks.
It has also created more than 140 jobs and 27 social enterprises since 2010 in Bridgend, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Torfaen.
Mr Evans said SEWCED money helped projects win match funding from other sources, and eventually generate their own income.
"The majority of our projects would not have received the same support elsewhere," he said.
"We are proud of what we have achieved and look back over five years of helping Valleys communities to help themselves."
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A 25-year-old man has been arrested after a disabled man's body was found at a house in Wrexham.
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Nicholas Anthony Churton, 67, was found dead at his home in Crescent Close at about 08:20 BST on Monday.
North Wales Police said Mr Churton, former owner of Churtons wine bar in Rossett, lived alone at the property and was a "vulnerable man".
Three other people have also been arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender.
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Sony has been coy about the details, but it's all but certain the firm is about to unveil its next-generation console - the PlayStation 4.
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By Leo KelionTechnology reporter
The machine is expected to offer better graphics, a new controller and should fit in with the firm's wider efforts to promote 4K - or "ultra-high definition" - television technology.
Gamers will also be hungry for any news of launch titles.
These can prove critical to a console's early fortunes as Nintendo has discovered. The company recently reported sales of its rival Wii U were "losing momentum" a mere two months after launch acknowledging it needed to "enrich the software line-up".
Based on console sales Nintendo was the clear winner in the last round of the video game wars.
By the end of 2012, 100.2 million Wiis had been sold compared to 79.2 million Xbox 360s and 75.2 million PlayStation 3s, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.
But in many "hardcore" gamers minds the key battle is between Sony and Microsoft.
At launch the PS3 appeared to trump the Xbox 360 thanks to having a more powerful CPU (central processing unit).
As things turned out it ultimately proved hard to pick one machine over the other when it came to cross-platform titles. Even so, expect thousands of web pages to be dedicated to comparing the PS4 and next-generation Xbox's specs before they go on sale.
Cost will also be scrutinised - the PS3's $500/$600 (£325/£390) initial price tag was blamed for limiting its appeal. It is traditional to sell new console gaming hardware at a loss to begin with - the question is how low Sony is willing to go to secure market share.
One reason it may wish to be aggressive is that the PS4 is much more than a gaming system. It also represents a chance to become a gateway to other kinds of internet-based entertainment.
Microsoft has been more successful at securing video-on-demand deals - and linked subscription fees, but this battle is still in its early stages.
Ahead of the launch the BBC asked a range of experts for their views of the challenges and opportunities facing Sony and the wider console sector .
Fasol Gerhard, Eurotechnology Japan
Sony is often taken as a poster child for Japan's stagnation.
Over the last 15 years, the firm has shown essentially no revenue growth and its profits have been wiped out by its losses.
One must be careful not to overstate gaming's ability to turn that around. Its Computer Entertainment division accounts for 11% of Sony's sales, while 56% of the firm's profits - disregarding the parts that make losses - come from selling life insurance, consumer loans and financial products in Japan.
But the new consoles could drive additional earnings by helping sell the firm's movies, music and other media.
But there are challenges facing the launch.
In Japan, the smartphone-based social games market is huge with users spending a small fortune on virtual items and other premium content. In anticipation of their global success, the country's two biggest social gaming firms - Gree and DeNA - now have a combined market cap value that is half that of Sony' whole business.
Across the world Sony is also facing disruption from free and $0.99 "snack-type" games. To win in this sector Sony would have to beat Rovio's Angry Birds brand, Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja and others.
If I was chief executive of Sony, I would also worry about the fact there are currently 800 games on PlayStation, while there are about 130,000 games on Apple's iOS platform.
The prospect of the US firm taking this enormous developer support to a next generation Apple TV ecosystem would give me sleepless nights.
Personally, I like Sony's acquisition of the cloud game platform Gaikai - a gaming service which offloads the processing work to remote servers which monitor controller commands and stream graphics to users via the internet.
The Wall Street Journal has suggested it might be used to provide access to last-generation PlayStation 3 games, and other uses are possible.
Ultimately Gaikai might become Sony's most important game platform.
David Braben, Frontier Developments
We see the arrival of new consoles like the new PlayStation as a great opportunity - the console is a key showcase for game technology.
At Frontier we have our own game engine and tools used for all of our games, and we pride ourselves at getting the most out of each machine.
When a film company sets out to make a feature film, they imagine the viewer watching in glorious surround sound in a cinema. Clearly the people creating it want it to be watched in the best possible setting that shows off all their creative work, and the same applies to a game.
Graphics and audio are moving ever closer to Hollywood-quality visual effects, and we will take full advantage of those capabilities, but it also goes beyond that.
As network connectivity gets ever better, control and input capabilities get ever more sophisticated, then so do the opportunities for our games like to shine and transform the players' experience and immersion. For example, our 2014 game Elite: Dangerous is an unashamedly high-end PC and Mac game, but I have every expectation it will come to new consoles, too.
People have regularly talked about consoles being "killed" by mobile devices. In practice, these are all just different venues for our games, and with careful thought can be integrated into the same game.
It is great to see the next generation of consoles being announced, as mobile devices have become ever closer in performance to the six or so year old current console designs and the new wave of machines will once again push consoles out in front.
Keza MacDonald, IGN.com
The PlayStation 4 will be launching into a very different world than Sony's previous consoles.
When the PlayStation 3 came out in 2006 - early 2007 in the UK - the iPhone and iPad did not exist, smartphones were nascent, and only a very few people owned HD televisions.
The PlayStation 4, meanwhile, is competing with many other expensive gadgets for consumer cash, most of which are also capable of playing games.
What Sony has to show is that the games you'll be able to play on the PS4 are in a totally different class to what's already available.
The actual hardware is less and less relevant for a video games console now - if all people wanted was better graphics, they would all buy high-end PCs.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 have both been key players in the "battle for the living room" that has raged over the past five years, but with Apple, PC-specialists Valve and smart TV manufacturers stepping onto this battleground, things are getting crowded.
In order to remain relevant, the new generation of games consoles will have to offer more than just a box that plays discs: they will have to offer viable platforms for digital distribution of games and entertainment, and of course huge libraries of content.
What it really comes down to is the games themselves.
In order to build confidence in the PS4, Sony will need to announce at least three strong, exclusive games titles, ideally both entirely new games or new entries in the company's existing well-loved franchises like Uncharted and Gran Turismo.
This is what will really matter to gamers.
Prof Ian Bogost, Georgia Institute of Technology
Thanks to the enormous cost of developing blockbusters, AAA [big budget] games often settle on proven approaches.
The PS3 deepened Sony's commitment to visual realism, and new versions of popular game engines like Unreal extended that commitment.
This is a conservatism of technology as much as design. Given particular hardware and software tools, it's easier, cheaper, and less risky to make the games those consoles and engines were designed to run.
The PS4 has opportunity and reason to offer something different.
Until now, high-end consoles have focused on the physical world via 3D-graphics and physics.
Given a realistic world like those of Uncharted or Far Cry, what else can be done within them besides more variations on action or science fiction exploration and combat?
Consider all the things other than visuals, movement, and collision detection that might deepen the experience of games.
There's a lot visually realistic worlds leave out.
To name a few: the biology of organic life-forms; the mental motivations of individuals; their group social, cultural, and economic dynamics; their political behaviours under different kinds of regimes; the logics of narrative progression and plot.
These are difficult but not intractable computational problems.
Research on procedural methods for narrative, behaviour, and motivation exist, they just haven't had the time and investment to develop into stable commercial systems.
Normally such work would be done in software anyway. But over time, proven software methods sometimes find their way back into hardware.
Sometimes it's better that way, because those methods become encapsulated and treated as givens.
The new, even more powerful multicore AMD64 architecture rumoured to run the PS4 might seem to allow game creators to do anything they want, but sometimes being able to do anything amounts to less freedom than being given specific tools.
Instead, the PS4 seems poised to offer a touchpad on the controller, in a foolish bid to compete with touch-controlled platforms like phones and tablets, rather than to offer new computational capacities that can't be found anywhere else.
Brian Fargo, InXile Entertainment
Sony recognised early on the power of connecting their users to each other to make the gaming experience more meaningful.
Nothing beats the personal nature of joining your friends in a game either co-operatively or competitively. And this functionality does not come without a lot of effort and planning.
There are a number of systems and tools that need to be created in order to trigger people to jump in with their friends.
The basics start with the simplistic leader boards to stoke the vanity and competitive aspects of gaming. From there you need to make it simple to find your friends and be alerted when they come online.
Throw in the ability to chat online and you suddenly have your community of real life friends around you at all times.
I would expect Sony to greatly expand upon these systems to bring social connectivity to another level. A greater ability to jump in and out of multiplayer games would turn up the social aspects.
Having alerts or information come to you while away from your gaming console would keep the players involved even while they are not playing. Players will want to access information on their favourite games and friends from any device they are operating.
In addition, we have also seen the power of the crowd as is relates to content creation and this is another area that could be area to be exploited.
It used to be that the console wars were won by who had the most powerful hardware but now it comes down to all of the systems that support a connected and greater experience.
Lewis Ward, IDC
It's clear that the device formerly known as the game console is quickly converging with a range of multimedia-capable devices that can be used in the living room.
Many smart TV's can now access over-the-top services, including casual games. The set-top boxes from cable and fibre companies are becoming web access points to an extent.
And then there are emerging gaming-centric technology providers like Valve's so-called Steam Box and the Android-based Ouya and GameStick consoles that have their sights set on the family room, in addition to tablet-makers like Apple and Samsung.
A successful gaming platform has four elements in my mind:
If any of these elements are missing it's going to be difficult to make headway against the PS4 or the ecosystems that Nintendo and Microsoft have established.
Going back through the emerging alternatives to the likes of the PS4, smart TV's come up the shortest on the game catalogue today. Their main challenge will be to get enough games to get people to switch their spending patterns away from game/entertainment consoles.
Cable and fibre company set-top boxes are currently short on games as well as social networking capabilities.
Right now, there are too many unknowns about Ouya and GameStick to make a call about their competitiveness. I'm sure they'll be low-priced from both a hardware and a game perspective relative to the PS4, but what's the catalogue look like and what about their social features?
The most intriguing near-term alternative to my mind is the Steam Box.
Valve already has an amazingly loyal hardware customer base - a base that's proven willing to open up their wallets - so I wouldn't put it past them to launch a successful connected gaming-centric platform in the living room.
More than any of the other current threats to the hegemony of the console manufacturers, at least in North America and the UK, I think Valve has the potential to peel off a significant market share in the next 3 years.
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The northern Afghan city of Kunduz is not the kind of place you'd expect to find a radio station run by women, promoting women's rights. But this is precisely what Radio Roshani is, and it's broadcasting today despite several attempts by the Taliban to kill its founder and editor, Sediqa Sherzai.
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By Mike ThomsonBBC News
Radio Roshani broadcasts to a man's world. In most of Afghanistan, tradition has long dictated that women and girls are rarely seen or heard outside the home.
Amazingly, many men actually consider them their property.
In 2008, Sediqa set up Radio Roshani to challenge such attitudes but quickly found herself at loggerheads with the Taliban. Although no longer in government, it has remained a force to be reckoned with in many parts of the country. At first it warned Sediqa to stop broadcasting. Then, in 2009, rockets were fired at the station.
Briefly Sediqa halted broadcasts. She asked the Afghan government for protection, but it became clear that none was forthcoming. So after a few days she went back on air, "because we just couldn't give in to threats".
There has continued to be much local resistance. Men have often told Sediqa that she is leading local women astray, and promoting conflict between men and women in the home.
"These actions are so bad that you deserve to be killed - even more than an American does," they told her.
Find out more
So it was with particular horror that Sediqa watched Taliban sweep into Kunduz in September 2015, taking complete control of the city. Very soon her phone rang.
"Someone speaking in the Pashtu language asked me where I was, wanting me to give my exact location," says Sediqa, who mostly speaks Dari (an Afghan version of Persian). "I wasn't sure who this person was and was suspicious. After that I turned off my phone and did my best to get away."
This was a wise precaution. After finding the radio station's staff had fled, Taliban fighters destroyed the station's archives, stole its equipment and planted mines in the building.
Even though they were eventually driven out of the city, the station remained closed for two months while explosives experts defused the mines and staff replaced the missing equipment. But death threats against Sediqa and her team have continued ever since.
Radio Roshani promotes womens' rights largely via phone-in programmes. One of the commonest concerns among women in Kunduz, Sediqa Sherzai says, are disputes that sometimes arise between wives in polygamous marriages.
"A lot of men, as soon as they have some money, go for a second or third wife, and so on," Sediqa explains.
According to Islamic convention, this is acceptable in cases where the first wife cannot bear children, she says, but in practice it's mainly done "for sex life purposes".
The husband is supposed to promote justice and harmony among his wives at all times, but Sediqa says they often don't. Most disputes between wives arise because the husband shows favouritism to one over another, she says.
"When the second wife brings more children, she's being treated more favourably than the first. And if the first or second wife are illiterate and the man then gets an educated wife, again she is treated more favourably because she is more educated," Sediqa says.
Often the wives who have the hardest time are those who did not consent to the marriage, having either been sold to the man by their parents or given to him in lieu of a relative's debt.
She adds that it's very rare for the women to support one another, and to apply collective pressure on the husband to behave well.
"There is little understanding or sympathy between them, because of the tensions in the marriage. Some are jealous of other wives because they are closer to the husband, while they [themselves] are more distant. So there is often hardly any co-operation between them."
While Radio Roshani is now the only radio station in Kunduz run by a woman, there are three others that were launched by women, and which still broadcast some programmes for women even though they are now mainly run by men.
Zohal Noori, who works both for Radio Roshani and one of the other stations, says that some men tune in to women's programmes, and that this is helping to change attitudes.
More are now willing to allow their wives to go to work and become active in the local economy, she says.
A growing number are also permitting their wives and daughters to be examined in hospitals, Zohal says, thanks largely to an influx of women doctors. There are still men, though, who regard this as unacceptable.
"They take [their wives and daughters] to clerics, who just tell them to read specified parts of the Koran. These women have no option but to just put up with the situation. Some get very depressed and some have even taken their own lives," Zohal says.
But if in general the situation for women in Kunduz has been improving, there have also been setbacks, partly because of a shaky security situation - underlined by a new major Taliban incursion on 31 August, which led to battles across the city.
"There are lots of assassinations, kidnappings and crime," Zohal says. "Kidnappings are very common at night and things are just getting worse and worse."
As a result, some families that had begun to allow girls to go to school with their brothers are now changing their minds.
It's also feared that talks now being held between US and Taliban representatives, could end up unravelling the progress made on women's rights that Radio Roshani and the other women broadcasters have fought for for so long.
The worry is that in the haste to pull its forces out of Afghanistan, the US will let the Taliban bring back Sharia (Islamic law).
"We're hoping that the peace negotiations will become a real peace," Sediqa says. "And not at the cost of women sitting back at home all day, and that all our achievements are not reversed."
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When Rumisa Lakhani and Rashida Shabbir Hussain created a placard for an International Women's Day march in Pakistan, they had no idea just how much it would place them at the centre of a fierce national debate.
The 'womanspreading' placard that caused fury in Pakistan
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North Korea's Defence Minister Hyon Yong-chol has been executed, South Korea's spy agency has told parliament, apparently for not obeying instructions, and falling asleep at an event attended by Kim Jong-un.
Expert Michael Madden looks at what this tells us about the country's young leader.
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Hyon Yong-chol's reported execution was a surprise to analysts but looking back at the history of the people who have held this position, he was probably not long for the post.
Four years, four defence ministers
In four years, the position of defence minister has been held by four people. Mr Hyon is the only one to have been purged in such a brutal fashion - reportedly executed by anti-aircraft guns in front of an audience. Here's a rundown of the people to have held this position and their fates.
April 2012 - November 2012: Vice Marshal Kim Jong-gak held the position for just seven months. He is now the dean of a military university.
November 2012- April 2013: General Kim Kyok-sik is known to have passed away recently.
May 2013 to June 2014: General Jang Jong-nam occupied the post for just over a year and is still seen at military parades.
June 2014 to May 2015: General Hyon Yong-chol replaced him and has now reportedly been executed.
The context is that there have been multiple personnel shuffles in North Korea's senior military leadership. For example, the director of military operations, the post that controls all conventional military forces and links to special forces, has changed hands six times since Kim Jong-un's ascension.
Quiet military man with a lot of knowledge
There is little in Hyon Yong-chol's profile that tells us why Kim Jong-un may have wanted to eliminate him.
It was in 2010 that he was promoted to the rank of four-star general and on exactly the same day as Kim Jong-Un was promoted. That military promotion list was the North Korean leader's major public debut, a sign that he was the anointed one. His fellow general, Hyon, remained a relatively obscure figure.
But Mr Hyon is a man who would have had a lot of knowledge of North Korea's military situation. He supervised training schools and was the commander of the 8th army corps, stationed in the north-west near the border with China.
This is an area in which the Yongbyon nuclear research facility is located and where two missile launches have taken place. Mr Hyon will have had a detailed knowledge of this region. He was also in a senior position at some very critical points in the development of North Korea's arsenal: he had a lot of knowledge of weapons programmes and the army.
A demonstration of power and authority
This execution is likely to be entirely a demonstration of power and authority. This is indicative of Kim Jong-un's impulsive decision-making and a sign that he is not feeling secure.
It is unclear whether we are dealing with a personal issue of emotional security or basically the insecurity he feels in discharging the job of North Korean leader. There is the question of whether this is a clear and present danger to his ultimate authority or simply a power play. But ultimately, this is not the sign of a man confident in his job.
However with all these reshuffles, there is the persistent risk of instability.
And there are all kinds of interesting contexts to his reported death. First of all, it comes at about the time of the reported passing of former Defence Minister Gen Kim Kyok-sik, probably due to natural causes. So we are in a situation in North Korea where we have the death of two senior officials. One is being buried as a state hero and the other met his demise with ignominy.
But balancing power is not easy
Like his father Kim Jong-un is in a balancing act between the many of entrenched interests in North Korea. Many of these are military interests and Kim Jong-un - whatever might be said about him - does know about military affairs. He is educated in the military and not just to a cosmetic degree. More than 50% of his time is spent doing military field inspections.
There are signs that North Korea is not getting much foreign direct investment and some people coming out of North Korea have indicated big problems with maintaining power supply.
Others may have fallen too
But perhaps most interesting is the suggestion from some sources I have been in contact with - as yet unverified - that others may have been eliminated too. We know about the report from NK News about images - which could not be confirmed - showing large weaponry facing a very close target, a viewing area and several passenger vehicles.
They believe it could be a "gruesome public execution" by anti-aircraft fire, the way that Mr Hyon appears to have gone.
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Tensions between China and Japan are at their highest level for decades as Tokyo defies pressure from Beijing over disputed East China Sea islands. As US President Barack Obama tours the region, Charles Scanlon asks whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is deliberately fanning the flames of nationalism in his drive to make Japan a more assertive and self-confident power.
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By Charles ScanlonBBC News
The forlorn elderly couple handing out leaflets on a street corner on the outskirts of Tokyo had a bizarre and scarcely credible story to tell.
They said that their 13-year-old daughter had been kidnapped by North Korean secret agents while returning from badminton practice.
The couple told anyone who would listen that she was probably grabbed by frogmen emerging from the ocean near their home and bundled off to North Korea on a submarine.
To some passers-by, 14 years ago, it sounded as if the couple's grief had turned to paranoid fantasy.
That was also the view of the police and much of Japan's diplomatic and political establishment.
But there was one ambitious politician, from a famous political family, who did take them seriously.
Shinzo Abe took up the cause of the Yokota family, and their missing daughter, Megumi, and helped drive it to the top of the political agenda.
He and the then prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, went to Pyongyang and secured a stunning confession from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. Their visit led to the return of five abducted Japanese citizens - but not several others, including Megumi, who the North Koreans claimed had committed suicide.
The Yokotas still count on support from Mr Abe, whose government recently negotiated a first-ever meeting with their 26-year-old grand-daughter, born to Megumi and an abducted South Korean who she married during her years of captivity.
Revisionist circle?
Mr Abe's career received such a boost from his championing of the abduction issue that he is now serving his second term as prime minister.
He was able to present himself as a rare beast among Japanese leaders - someone who cared about ordinary people and was prepared to stand up to hostile neighbouring countries.
For many Japanese, frustrated by long years of economic stagnation and a succession of weak prime ministers, Mr Abe brings hope. He has a plan to revive the economy with aggressive stimulus measures, dubbed Abenomics. He is also admired for standing firm in the face of what is seen by many as bullying by China and the two Koreas.
For anyone reading newspapers or watching television in China or the Korean peninsula, however, Mr Abe appears in a more sinister light. He is portrayed as a hard-line nationalist and militarist bent on rearming Japan and asserting its dominance in the region.
Shinzo Abe remains an ambiguous figure. He tries to cultivate the image of a well-meaning patriot, set on restoring the self-esteem of a country down on its luck. But some on the left of Japanese politics suspect a grander strategy - to undermine Japan's post-war pacifist culture and rebuild the military against a resurgent China.
"Shinzo Abe has shown he can be cautious and pragmatic," says Garren Mulloy, who specialises in the Japanese military at Daito Bunka university. "He may be a nationalist, but it's really some of those around him who are the real problem - some are revisionists who are seeking to challenge the established post-war order."
The threat from China, with its fast-growing naval power and direct challenge to Japanese sovereignty over the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, has boosted Mr Abe's popularity despite the instinctive suspicion of nationalistic rhetoric felt by many in Japan.
Mr Abe has sent out signals that encourage rightists, who contest Japanese war guilt and favour a more authoritarian country with the emperor at its core.
His visit late last year to the Yasukuni war shrine was a clear sign of his growing confidence. The shrine honours the country's war dead including convicted war criminals, and symbolises Japan's old martial spirit.
The government has also flirted with revisionist views of Japan's war-time aggression without firmly committing itself either way.
The cabinet's suggestion it was reconsidering the evidence behind a 1993 apology for the sexual enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Asian women sparked such an outcry at home and abroad that Mr Abe intervened to say that the apology would stand. It is a touchstone issue for nationalists, who insist that Japan's image has been deliberately smeared by ill-intentioned foreigners.
Some influential conservatives in Japan also deny that the Nanjing massacre of 1937 took place and want the government to withdraw its central apology for wartime aggression.
Mr Abe has been more cautious. But his language is carefully calibrated to evoke nostalgia for the past with references to the "beautiful country", an image of a mythical pure Japan free of contamination from western liberalism and individualism.
The nationalist world view portrays Japan as an innocent victim of rapacious and hypocritical foreigners. Right-wing academics, politicians and commentators believe that Japan was forced into a defensive war in the Pacific and was obliged to accept victors' justice after its defeat.
Denying Japanese guilt for the war is seen as a key step in rebuilding national pride, and establishing independence from the United States.
Naval power
Some see a clear connection between such revisionism and Mr Abe's move to reinterpret a key article in the constitution that restricts the activities of Japan's military
But Prof Mulloy says this concern is overblown. "The idea that Japan is being militarised is fanciful. Military spending has actually fallen until recently," he said.
"The Japanese navy is one of the best in the world after the United States. But its capabilities are front-loaded, with very little in support. The navy probably couldn't sustain effective combat operations against China for more than two weeks."
Others agree that China is deliberately making a false link between Mr Abe's policies and the militarism of the past to try to weaken Japan internationally.
"Whatever the views, often objectionable, of these revisionists, there is absolutely no evidence that Japan is returning to any form of expansionist military policy. Indeed... recent changes in Japanese defence policy bind Japan in to its allies and partner countries, and further reduce any possibility of an aggressive military posture," says Simon Chelton, a former British defence attache in Tokyo.
The present government, however, is increasing military spending and deploying forces to the south and west to meet the threat from China.
Japan is also working to strengthen its alliance with the United States and forge military ties with other Asian countries that feel threatened by a rising China.
Some in the Japanese foreign ministry worry that Mr Abe's ties with revisionists and war-guilt deniers could be counter-productive. He has already upset Washington by ignoring advice not to go to the Yasukuni shrine.
Opinion polls also indicate that anti-Chinese sentiment has surged to new levels in Japan.
Many Japanese are infuriated by continuing demands for apologies from Chinese communists who make no attempt to address the reality of their own history. They see the constant references to past crimes as an attempt to weaken Japan's standing in the world and shake its hold on disputed islands and offshore resources.
The fear is that Mr Abe, or those around him, could exploit such sentiment for their own ends.
What is clear is that angry nationalism is on the rise in China and Japan, and the two feed on each other in a dangerous spiral.
Whatever Mr Abe's true intentions, he has shown little inclination, as he attempted in his first term, to ease the dangerous tension with China and refocus on economic co-operation between the world's second and third largest economies.
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It has been a remarkable year of promise in medical science - from inventing ways of treating the untreatable to reversing paralysis and keeping the brain alive after death.
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By James GallagherHealth and science correspondent
"It was like [being the] first man on the Moon," said 30-year-old Thibault.
He was describing the moment he was able to take his first steps since being paralysed in a fall two years ago.
He can now move all four of his paralysed limbs with a mind-controlled exoskeleton suit.
His movements, particularly walking, are far from perfect and the robo-suit is being used only in the lab.
But researchers say the approach could one day improve patients' quality of life.
Meanwhile, nerves inside paralysed people's bodies have been "rewired" to give movement to their arms and hands.
Patients in Australia can now feed themselves, put on make-up, turn a key, handle money and type at a computer.
A unique drug made for just one girl with unprecedented speed
Mila Makovec's doctors have performed a seemingly impossible feat - a girl with a deadly brain disease has been given a unique drug that was invented from scratch just for her and all in less than a year.
She was diagnosed with fatal and untreatable Batten disease.
The eight-year-old's medical team in Boston performed whole-genome sequencing - a detailed interrogation - on Mila's DNA, her genetic code, and uncovered a unique mutation that was causing her disease.
Having seen the fault, the researchers thought it might be possible to treat it.
They designed a drug, tested it on Mila's cells and on animals in the laboratory and won approval to use it from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Drugs normally take about a decade and a half to get from the laboratory, go through clinical trials and get to patients.
The US team got there in a year.
Mila is now having far fewer seizures, although she is not cured.
Gene-silencing drugs arrive
A new class of medicine - called gene silencing - has shown its ability to reverse previously untreatable diseases.
A gene is part of our DNA that contains the blueprint for making proteins, such as hormones, enzymes or raw building materials.
But our DNA is locked away inside a cell's nucleus and kept apart from a cell's protein-making factories.
So our bodies use a short strand of genetic code, called messenger RNA, to bridge the gap and carry the instructions.
Gene-silencing drugs kill the messenger.
Sue Burrell no longer has bouts of severe pain caused by her acute intermittent porphyria.
And Vincent and Neil Nicholas are both taking gene silencing medicines for a disease called amyloidosis.
Viruses to the rescue
Isabelle Carnell Holdaway's life was saved by an experimental cocktail of viruses.
The teenager's body was being attacked by deadly and seemingly untreatable bacteria and she was given less than a 1% chance of survival.
She had big, black, festering lesions forming on her skin where the infection was taking hold.
And she ended up in intensive care when her liver started failing, with large colonies of bacteria forming in her body.
But doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital attempted an untested "phage therapy", which uses viruses to infect and kill bacteria.
Phage-therapy never became mainstream medicine and the field was eclipsed by the discovery of antibiotics, which are much easier to use.
But now phage-therapy is having a resurgence due to the rise of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics.
Isabelle's case could be the first of many.
A new approach to cancer
Charlotte Stevenson, a two-year-old from Belfast, was one of the first patients to benefit from a "revolutionary" new class of cancer drugs.
Tumour-agnostic drugs do not care where the cancer is growing in the body as long as it has a specific genetic abnormality inside.
The first, called larotrectinib, has been approved for use across Europe.
It is designed to target tumours with a genetic abnormality known as an NTRK gene fusion.
They can be found in Charlotte's sarcoma as well as some brain, kidney, thyroid and other cancers.
Meanwhile...
Cancer immunotherapy has reached a huge milestone.
The medicine uses a patient's own immune system to fight cancer and is a story we have followed closely.
Now more than half of patients are surviving a deadly skin cancer (melanoma) that was considered untreatable just a decade ago.
Ten years ago just one in 20 patients would live for five years after being diagnosed with late-stage melanoma. Most would die in months.
It has been an extraordinary and rapid transformation in care.
A first drug to slow dementia?
A US pharmaceutical company says it has developed the first drug to slow Alzheimer's disease.
The drug, called aducanumab, is an antibody that clears toxic proteins that build up in the brain.
The announcement in October was a massive surprise, as the firm Biogen had written off the drug in only March this year.
Then it reviewed the evidence to show that those taking the highest dose did benefit and retained more memory and language ability and were better at day-to-day tasks such as cleaning, shopping and doing laundry.
If the drug is approved, which is not guaranteed, it would be one of the most significant moments in modern medicine.
A new type of dementia
Meanwhile, experts think they have found a new form of dementia and millions may have been wrongly diagnosed.
Dementia is a symptom found in many diseases of the brain and memory loss is the most common feature.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and others include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, fronto-temporal dementia, Parkinson's disease dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Now "limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy" or more simply "Late" has been added to the list.
Separating twins
One of our most followed stories of the year was the separation of two conjoined twins.
Safa and Marwa were born joined at the skull and they had never been able to see each other's faces.
There are no official figures for how often this happens, but one estimate says craniopagus conjoined twins are born once in every 2.5 million births.
Most do not live longer than a day.
To separate them required multiple surgeries, months of hard work and the expertise of hundreds of hospital workers.
Pig brains partially revived four hours after death
The line between life and death became fuzzy in 2019.
Pig brains were partially revived four hours after the animals were slaughtered.
The study showed the death of brain cells could be halted and that some connections in the brain were restored.
The feat was performed by rhythmically pumping a synthetic blood around the decapitated brains.
The surprise findings challenge the idea that the brain goes into irreversible decline within minutes of the blood supply being cut off and could lead to new treatments for brain damage and disorders.
However, there were no signals from the brain that would indicate awareness or consciousness.
A new tool to manipulate DNA
A new way of editing the code of life could correct 89% of the errors in DNA that cause disease.
The technology, called prime editing, has been described as a "genetic word processor" able to accurately re-write the genetic code.
It is a bit like pressing Ctrl-F to find the bit of text you want to change, then pressing Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to copy over the new text (or the command key if you're a Mac user).
There are some 75,000 different mutations that can cause disease in people and the researchers say prime editing can fix nearly nine in 10 of them.
It has already been used to correct damaging mutations in the lab, including those that cause sickle cell anaemia and Tay-Sachs disease (a rare and fatal nerve condition).
Giving people a voice again
Scientists have developed a brain implant that can read people's minds and turn their thoughts to speech.
First an electrode is implanted in the brain to pick up the electrical signals that manoeuvre the lips, tongue, voice box and jaw.
Then powerful computing is used to simulate how the movements in the mouth and throat would form different sounds.
This results in synthesised speech coming out of a "virtual vocal tract".
It is not perfect.
If you listen to this recording of synthesised speech:
You can tell it is not crystal clear (the recording says "the proof you are seeking is not available in books").
The team at the University of California, San Francisco says the technology could help people when disease robs them of their ability to talk.
E cigarettes do help smokers quit
Vaping has been under intense scrutiny this year.
More than 2,400 people have needed hospital treatment, and there have been 50 deaths, in the US from "e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury".
Meanwhile, a teenage boy nearly died after vaping caused a catastrophic reaction in his lungs.
But experts have continued to stress vaping is safer than smoking tobacco and this year came proof that vaping helps smokers quit.
A trial, in the New England Journal of Medicine, found 18% of smokers who used them to quit remained smoke-free after a year, compared with 9.9% of those using traditional nicotine-replacements.
Other things that caught our eye:
* Researchers have produced unprecedented images of a baby's heart while it is still inside the womb.
* Measles has a devastating impact on the body's immune system that could make it harder to fight infections for years.
* The origins of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa are in both the mind and the body, with changes hardwired into some people's DNA altering the way they processed fats and sugars.
* The ultimate limit of human endurance has been worked out by scientists analysing a 3,000-mile run, the Tour de France and other elite events.
* A diet rich in bananas, chickpeas and peanuts can boost good gut bacteria to help malnourished children grow.
* People keep making new brain cells throughout their lives (well at least until the age of 97), according to a study on human brains.
* A "pumping" patch containing millions of living, beating stem cells could help repair the damage caused by a heart attack.
* A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria.
* Supercooling human livers to -4C triples the time they can be kept before transplant compared with putting them on ice.
* It may not come as a surprise, but the food we eat is putting 11 million of us into an early grave each year.
* Scientists have taken cancer apart piece by piece to reveal its weaknesses, and come up with new ideas for treatment.
* Nearly everyone can lower their risk of dementia by up to a third, even if it runs in the family, by living a healthy lifestyle.
Follow James on Twitter.
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More than a century ago, a French actress-turned-aristocrat achieved her dream of building a world class museum in the north of England. But Josephine Bowes's impact on the art world was almost expunged from the history books by her widower's jealous second wife.
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By Duncan LeatherdaleBBC News
For 125 years, the sleepy town of Barnard Castle has been a surprising pit-stop for art aficionados.
The Bowes Museum, most famous for its silver swan automaton which periodically preens itself from its bed of twisted glass rods and sparkling fish, is filled with fine furniture, paintings by El Greco and Canaletto, and attracts 120,000 visitors a year.
But its beginnings can be traced back to the vision of Josephine Benoite Coffin-Chevalie - a woman described as a "philanthropist" and "pioneer" of the art world, but who at the time of writing does not even have a Wikipedia page.
Her journey from Parisian clockmaker's daughter to wealthy wife of a British aristocrat began in 1847, when she was introduced to John Bowes, the illegitimate son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore and a distant ancestor to the Queen Mother.
He was part of what was known as the demi-monde, a scene in Paris consisting of artists and courtesans, aristocrats and decadence, prostitutes and absinthe drinkers.
To please one of his paramours he purchased the Theatre des Varietes playhouse in the city's second arrondissement - the very place he would first see his future wife - then 22 - take the stage.
John, 14 years her senior, was captivated. And Josephine, like many young Parisian women of her set, was keen to climb the social ladder.
"The way to get power as a woman in Paris was to become the mistress of a powerful man," said Judith Phillips, archivist at the Bowes Museum.
"You would get bought a house and be well looked after and even respected.
"Having a mistress was a common thing, but marrying them was rarely heard of."
Josephine's allure clearly had an impact on her smitten lover because after a five-year fling, the pair bucked the trend and wed.
As a wedding present, he bought her the extravagant Chateau du Barry near Paris, the former home of a mistress of King Louis XV, which Josephine later went on to immortalise on canvas.
Though they had their home in France, the pair regularly visited John's family estates in County Durham, where the couple decided to leave their legacy - the Bowes Museum.
They had a vision - to improve people's lives through art - and believed that what the farmers and coal-miners of the region needed was a place of cultural refinement.
Because of the John's illegitimate status - his parents having married just 16 hours before his father died - and the stigma attached to not inheriting the title, he was keen to leave a legacy in his own name.
"They didn't have children and they always knew John's estates would pass back to the family," Ms Phillips said.
"They wanted to leave something behind, but it was more than that.
"They were part of the industrial age, people were becoming better educated and Josephine and John wanted to introduce the people of the area to art and culture.
"At that time art was viewed as a refining agent, exposure to it would just make people better.
"They were philanthropists."
Josephine was a keen artist and it was her Parisian connections and ability to find the next big thing which was key, Ms Phillips said.
"She knew what was going to be popular before everyone else.
"She had great contacts and knew a lot of the artists when they were young and before they were famous.
"She was buying impressionist-type paintings before Impressionism was even a thing. She was very much a pioneer."
However, museum curator Joanna Hashagen said Josephine's husband is the more remembered of the two for his contribution to the site.
It is just one of the reasons the museum is marking its 125th anniversary with an exhibition to remind the world of the pivotal role the actress played in its creation.
"Josephine was absolutely crucial," said Ms Hashagen.
"John gets the main billing, he is remembered, but that's not really fair.
"It is fair to say that without his money Josephine would not have been able to do this, but without her he would never have done it either.
"About 90% of the bills and letters from art dealers were addressed to Josephine, she made it happen."
As construction work got under way, there were plans to build an apartment for Josephine to live in at the museum - the assumption being that she would outlive her husband and would spend her widow years organising the collection.
But neither lived to see it.
Josephine had always suffered from regular bouts of illness and it is believed her conditions included asthma and bronchitis, not to mention more scandalous afflictions rife in their raffish circles.
"We know John had venereal disease," Ms Hashagen said.
"We think Josephine probably had it too, lots of people did, it was a very racy time. That could be why they never had children."
Josephine died on 9 February 1874, five years after she had laid the museum's foundation stone.
She was 48 years old.
But it is because of what John did next that so little is actually known about her.
The art collector had amassed more than 15,000 objects for the museum but, thanks to the jealousy of her husband's next wife, few of Josephine's personal possessions actually remain.
Alphonsine de-Saint-Amand launched a ruthless campaign to expunge the memory of her predecessor in new husband's life, for example destroying all but one of the hundreds of letters Josephine had written to her husband.
Realising his error, John was in the process of divorcing her when the stresses of the ill-fated relationship and funding the museum took their toll.
He died on 9 October 1885 aged 74, seven years before the museum opened.
"In fairness to John he was probably lonely and believed his new wife would help complete the museum," Ms Phillips said.
"Sadly that was not the case."
The museum opened on 10 June 1892, about 25 years after Josephine laid the foundation stone.
Though she could dispose of Josephine's things, the second Mrs Bowes could do nothing to stop the museum's creation and success.
More than 100 years later, it has cemented its place in the art world as a highly regarded and respected outlet, which in recent years has hosted international exhibitions from Yves Saint Lauren and Vivienne Westwood.
The exhibition pays homage to both Josephine's vision and life, which is far more than the tale of a rich aristocrat being seduced by a racy artist, according to Ms Hashagen.
"When they were apart they wrote to each other every other day and we know from the way John talked about her in letters to other people that he cared for her deeply, he was very thin-skinned and protective of her.
"It is clear they did genuinely love each other," she said.
Josephine Bowes: A Woman of Taste and Influence is on at the Bowes Museum until 16 July. The museum will celebrate its 125th anniversary on 10 June with a day of festivities.
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Scotland's first openly gay minister has questioned claims that legalising gay marriage would have huge social implications.
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Reverend Scott Rennie, of Aberdeen's Queen's Cross Church, told the BBC that in 100 years no-one would see what the fuss was about.
The Scottish government is currently holding a consultation on whether same sex marriage should be legalised.
However, Mr Rennie said marriage had always been an evolving institution.
He said he failed to see how two people of the same gender sharing love was any different from a man and a woman sharing the same.
Mr Rennie was appointed at Queen's Cross Church in 2009.
The Kirk's General Assembly voted in May to allow the induction of some gay ministers.
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Even now the Facebook story seems barely believable.
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By Russell HottenBusiness reporter, BBC News
A 21-year-old geek starts a social media phenomenon in his bedroom; transforms the way we use the internet; is feted as a visionary by world leaders; has the globe's biggest investors and advertisers queuing at his door; clashes with privacy regulators and strikes fear into parents; is the subject of a film that wins three Oscars; and, err... makes billions along the way.
And Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has done it all in about eight years. No wonder the stuffed shirts of Wall Street and the T-shirts of Silicon Valley call the company "hot".
Can this remarkable story continue? We are about to find out.
Facebook's decision to float on the stock market is a watershed moment that will force the brash young business into adulthood.
The private company - private in both the legal and cultural sense - will be exposed to scrutiny like never before; its business model dissected by investors looking for a quick buck, and its executives made to endure the demands of Wall Street.
"The transition to being a publicly listed company will inevitably change the dynamic of Facebook, despite Mark Zuckerberg's insistence that his focus will remain on users and not shareholders," said Andrew Tonks, a social media expert at the online marketing agency Koozai.
Mr Zuckerberg is said to have initially resisted a stock market launch, and investors will be watching to see how the "brains" behind Facebook deals with the new pressures.
'Big Kahuna'
The company's size, and the breadth of shareholder base - many of whom, no doubt, want to cash in some of their investment - meant that a stock market listing became inevitable.
Facebook's IPO will be big. As a Wall Street Journal headline put it last week, it will be the Big Kahuna Of Stock Listings.
However, the decision to raise just $5bn from the flotation (via the sale of just a small percentage of the available shares) is about half what analysts expected the company would seek.
The final figure to be raised will be determined over the coming months once Facebook's financial advisers have assessed demand for the shares.
Many analysts still think Facebook will achieve a valuation of some $100bn, putting it above Ford, at $47bn, and Citigroup, at $89bn, but way behind Apple, at $425bn.
Sceptics argue that there is a lot of hype priced into Facebook's valuation, and legendary investor Jim Rogers has already said that he is unlikely to be a 'buyer'. Facebook's shares can be privately traded on the SharesPost secondary market. There, the company's valuation is about $74bn.
Facebook supporters, however, point to its money-spinning track record, and potential to refine its advertising model and add to the 845 million active users of the site.
The bulk of Facebook's revenues come from online display advertising, the big banner-style ads that typically include text, logos or videos.
Facebook's revenues in 2011 almost doubled to $3.7bn, and research firm eMarketer believes the figure could reach almost $5.8bn in 2012.
In data published this week analysts at another research group, comScore, estimated that Facebook's share of the US online display ad market grew to 27.9% in 2011, up from 21% a year earlier.
This compares with Yahoo's 11%, and Google and Microsoft, which have less than 5%, comScore said.
In short, say the Facebook bulls, the company is growing fast and smashing the competition - success that will continue as ever-more advertisers are persuaded that online marketing is the way to reach an audience.
Not convinced?
But advertising prices for online are far lower than for the rates traditional media - well under half, say analysts - because many ad companies remain unconvinced about the return on their investment.
Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer's principal analyst, said: "Even though Facebook has spent several years wooing marketers, many of them still believe the ads are not effective at driving clicks and other actions.
"Facebook must either work to improve its clickthrough rate or show advertisers that advertising on the site is effective even without a click or other action," she said.
Key to Facebook's continued growth will be rolling out new and improved services, such as music and movies, that will get users spending more time on the site.
So-called 'user fatigue' presents a real challenge to a company that must remain fresh.
There are, of course, hundreds of millions of more potential users that Facebook has yet to enlist, although it has been pointed out that many of these are in countries without infrastructure or run by governments hostile to social networking sites.
Facebook's user growth is certainly not flatlining, but it may slow over the next few years. This could be especially true as Twitter and the Google+ service evolve in new directions. Even Amazon is adding more social features to its site with reviews and interaction.
Slower user growth may not matter if Facebook can extract a bigger financial value from its existing users through improved data mining and more sophisticated targeting by advertisers.
Martin Pyykkonen, analyst at Wedge Partners, said that Facebook's 'like' button, which when clicked by users can allow advertisers to target promotions more directly, is ripe for expansion.
'Holy grail'
"It is likely that advertisers will be able to even better target their audiences as Facebook goes deeper with integrating apps, games, movies, music," he said.
What is important is not necessarily the way in which users view ads and click them, but the way in which consumers talk about brands with their Facebook friends.
Koozai's Andrew Tonks believes Facebook has achieved "the holy grail of advertising platforms... by weaving brand messages into the fabric of people's social lives.
"It can deliver advertising to people without them realising they are being sold to," he said.
But many marketers believe firms can engage consumers on Facebook without spending a great deal on advertising.
Ms Williamson said: "Having amassed a large quantity of 'likes', some brands feel that they can continue to market to these people directly through their pages rather than by buying advertising on Facebook.
"This may especially be the case for companies that market to Facebook's younger users, because they tend to be more willing to 'like' or comment on brand pages."
She expects advertising will continue to decrease as a proportion of total revenues as Facebook diversifies its revenue streams.
Already we are seeing the importance of other parts of the business. Facebook supports a network of app developers, such as the hugely popular gaming group Zynga.
And app firms must take payments from customers via Facebook Credits, the company's online payment system. EMarketer estimated that revenues from Facebook Credits doubled last year to $470m - and is set to grow.
Facebook's headline figures are undeniably impressive. And given that the full potential of its business model appears untapped, the omens look good.
But there are two financial maxims worth considering: that past performance is no guarantee of future success; and that the only reason a company floats on the stock market is to sell its shares for more than they are worth.
We are about to see whether the most anticipated stock market debut in history holds them to be true.
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In a small room lined with shelves of skulls, fossils, bones and antique violins, researchers are using advanced computer imaging to study priceless objects, including a mummy from Peru. So what's inside?
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By Daniel Nasaw and Matt DanzicoBBC News Magazine, Washington
Some patients find CT scanners and other medical imaging devices claustrophobic.
But this lady, a high-born Peruvian woman in her 40s, was not complaining - she has been dead for about seven centuries. And researchers at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History would like to know a bit more about her.
The nameless woman is one of the best preserved Peruvian mummies anywhere, and the CT scanner allows researchers to peer inside her without damaging her.
The scanner uses x-rays to shoot thousands of images of the object in thin slices. Computer software then reassembles the images to create highly accurate, detailed three-dimensional models and reconstructions.
"We could probably do the same with a traditional autopsy," says Bruno Frohlich, a physical anthropologist with the museum, "but there would be nothing left for future generations and it would destroy something that should not be destroyed."
The National Museum of Natural History is one of Washington's most popular, and on a given day its public galleries teem with school children and tourists.
To reach the CT scanner lab, a visitor passes the stuffed elephants, birds, mammals and native American artefacts and takes a lift upstairs into the research wings. Next, there is a long walk through a labyrinth of dim corridors lined with drawers holding thousands of once-living specimens - a crate of whale bones here, a box full of chipmunks there.
Spacesuits and violins
The museum's newest CT scanner, worth a cool $250,000 (£155,472), was donated by global technology giant Siemens in the spring. The company has donated four to the museum since the 1990s.
"It allows us to connect the dots of history," says Kulin Hemani, a vice-president at Siemens' computed tomography division, explaining the significance of the mummies. "How these people were living, what were their habits, how did they die?"
The CT (computed tomography) scanner has proven invaluable to researchers as it allows them an increasingly high-resolution peek inside the objects and artefacts they study, without having to cut them open or destroy them.
In addition to mummies, researchers here have used CT scanners to examine priceless Stradivarius violins, marine fossils, pottery, aging Nasa spacesuits and more. The applications are innumerable, researchers say.
On Thursday, Dr Frohlich, a native of Denmark who has been with the museum since 1978, brandished a set of fossilised reptile jaws between 50 million and 100 million years old.
Heads and bodies
Because the rocky sediment lodged in cracks and crevices in the jaws has a different density than the fossilised bone, the CT scanner will allow researchers to remove the sediment digitally by isolating it from the bone in the digital images, says Dr Frohlich.
That offers a picture of the scrubbed fossil without the risk of harming it with physical tools, he says.
Researchers ran a Nasa spacesuit through the CT scanner in order to learn how its polymer fibres were breaking down with age, in order better to preserve it for the future, says David Hunt, another museum anthropologist.
And recently, researchers in Mongolia sent Dr Frohlich a collection of mummies - with the bodies separated from the heads and no records to match them up.
This was fine, Dr Frohlich says, because the CT scanner will allow him to reassemble the mummies by matching the bone density of each specimen.
Natural mummification
The woman mummy, discovered in Ancon, Peru, arrived in the museum's collection between 50 years and a century ago, he says.
When she died, she was placed upright in what looks like a red dress with an elaborately crocheted fringe, sitting cross-legged. Rather than decompose, her body was mummified by the cold, dry mountain air and wind.
The process is called natural mummification, as opposed to the classic Egyptian mummification in which the body is eviscerated and treated with chemicals.
Researchers have only recently begun to investigate her, but Dr Frohlich says the CT scanner has revealed her internal organs are intact.
That will eventually enable investigators to learn about her nutrition and diet, her general level of health, whether she suffered illness, whether she had overcome disease, whether she had broken bones or other injuries, and more.
"Maybe she's pregnant," says Dr Frohlich. "Who knows?"
Such studies add to the human understanding of ancient peoples, he says.
"We should learn about our history. Why did cultures and civilisations start up and especially why did they disappear? Is it economy or is it environment? We may be able to help our own society to learn, which will help us in our decision making."
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"A kind of embodiment of the British constitution," one Westminster savant told me, the sort of politician who has been marinated in parliamentary practice so long they have an instinctive feel for its unwritten rules and unspoken conventions.
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By Mark D'ArcyParliamentary correspondent
To him, Lindsay Hoyle is a classic example of the political operator turned constitutional fixture.
His father was an MP (and is now a Labour Peer) and he served as a councillor in his home seat of Chorley in Lancashire, becoming deputy leader, before moving to Parliament in 1997.
This is a man steeped in politics.
And that shows through in other ways.
He is seen in the tea room as a strategic streetwise campaigner, who set his eyes on the prize he won today perhaps a decade ago, when he was one of the first three MPs to be elected as deputy Speaker.
"The by-ways of Lancashire are littered with the bodies of those who've underestimated Lindsay," one former parliamentary neighbour told me.
There is steel under the cheerful surface.
The succession to John Bercow had been a Westminster talking point for at least 18 months, and it was striking how cautious potential competitors were about showing their hand too soon, with Lindsay already spoken of as the commanding frontrunner in that race.
When the election finally came, much later than many expected, he played a cautious hand - emphasising his record in the chair, for example during the terror attack on Westminster.
He has also been the point of contact for MPs concerned about security issues, for themselves, their staff and their families - a vital role in the current political climate.
His list of nominators was a careful cross-section of serious backbenchers - balanced on Brexit and on party factions, and on political generations.
Heading the list of nominators was Sir Charles Walker, vice chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, and one of those who dragged John Bercow to the chair (I'm told he won't be doing any dragging this time, though).
Sir Charles was talked of as a potential candidate himself, so it was quite a coup to have him front and centre, signalling seriousness of purpose and a dash of reform-mindedness to MPs.
As chairman of the Commons Procedure Committee, Mr Walker has a shopping list of changes he wants to implement, but he has also shown his disquiet at some of Speaker Bercow's recent rulings, so his support sends a nuanced message.
'Traditional route'
What kind of Speaker will he be?
Sir Lindsay has taken the traditional route - serving since 2010 as a deputy, so MPs have had plenty of opportunities to observe his avuncular style, and, on occasion to contrast it favourably with Speaker Bercow's.
And as the senior deputy, the Chairman of Ways and Means, he has a guaranteed spot in the limelight every year, chairing the Budget debates (this is a tradition going back to the Stuart kings, when the Speaker was seen as an agent of the Crown, while the deputy was chosen by MPs and therefore seen as more suited to chairing debates on taxation).
He also selects amendments to be considered when MPs sit as a Committee of the Whole House, as they did over the Early Election Bill, last week.
His decision to rule out amendments not strictly within the compass of the Bill bolstered his reputation as a straight shooter who was not keen on Bercow-esque stretching of the rules.
If there is to be change, the likelihood is that it will be by consensus, and probably with the stamp of approval of Sir Charles's committee.
But Mr Speaker Hoyle could find himself having to decide, in the heat of controversy, whether to allow some of his predecessor's innovations to continue; extra amendments to the address of thanks for the Queen's Speech (Speaker Bercow's 2013 decision to allow an extra amendment ratcheted up the Commons pressure for an EU referendum), amendments to Business of the House Motions and substantive emergency motions.
These all sound like technical in-house issues, but their impact on the politics of the last few years has been enormous.
Some of these questions may not arise if there is a stable government majority to vote them down - but, especially if there is a hung Parliament, the new Speaker may have to decide whether to accept or reject some of the precedents that have been set in the last few years. And the consequences could be huge.
Even if the next House of Commons has a majority, the chances are that it will not default back to its 2005 factory settings - and MPs will still expect plenty of urgent questions, emergency debates and chances to put their questions at PMQs, and a Speaker who seeks to erase the practice of the last decade may get some pushback.
And MPs will also expect their Speaker to stand up to ministers where appropriate - which is a lot more difficult to do where the government has a majority.
In conducting debates, his put-downs and shuttings-up will be gentler, and the advice of the clerks - those priests of parliamentary practice - is more likely to be implemented.
With a demand for a kinder, gentler politics, this could help the Commons lead the way.
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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced the Scottish government is to provide funding for a feasibility study into carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the North Sea.
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It centres on the Acorn Project, which aims to create a CCS project at St Fergus in Aberdeenshire.
A UK government-led £1bn pound competition to develop carbon capture and storage was dropped in 2015.
Ms Sturgeon said help would be provided during investigations.
Peterhead power station and the White Rose scheme in North Yorkshire were in the running to win the £1bn contract before it was cancelled in 2015.
It would have seen emissions from heavy industry stored permanently underground.
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Salma Hayek, Rose McGowan and Gwyneth Paltrow are among dozens of women who have come forward with allegations ranging from rape to sexual harassment by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
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He is currently facing five charges relating to two women in New York.
He has previously admitted his behaviour has "caused a lot of pain" but has described many of the allegations against him as "patently false".
His spokesperson has said "any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied" and there were "never any acts of retaliation" against women who turned him down.
Here are some of those who have made allegations against him.
Rose McGowan
The actress has accused Weinstein of raping her by performing oral sex in a hotel at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997, when she was 23 and had just appeared in Scream.
She later reached a $100,000 settlement with him - and says he offered her $1m for a further non-disclosure deal to stay silent. She declined and has been one of his most vocal accusers.
Annabella Sciorra
The Emmy-nominated former Sopranos actress has alleged that Weinstein forced himself into her apartment in New York in 1992 and raped her.
"I was so ashamed of what happened," Sciorra told the New Yorker. "And I fought. I fought. But still I was like, Why did I open that door?"
Ashley Judd
The actress says Weinstein asked her to go to his hotel room under the guise of a business meeting, but appeared in a bathrobe and asked if he could give her a massage or if she could watch him shower.
She refused, and says he got revenge by seeking to damage her career. Director Peter Jackson has come forward to say he removed her from a casting list "as a direct result" of what he now thinks was "false information" provided by Weinstein.
In May 2018 Judd sued Weinstein claiming he damaged her career in retaliation for her rejecting his sexual advances but a Los Angeles court later dismissed her sexual harassment suit.
Her defamation claim may still proceed, the judge said.
Mira Sorvino
The Mighty Aphrodite star says he harassed her in a hotel room in 1995. "He started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around," she said.
Like with Ashley Judd, Peter Jackson said Weinstein warned him off casting her.
Salma Hayek
The Frida actress says she turned down repeated sexual advances from Weinstein while making the 2002 film Frida.
And she says his persuasion tactics included threats. Hayek said Weinstein once told her: "I will kill you, don't think I can't."
Asia Argento
The Italian actress and director Asia Argento says she reluctantly agreed to give him a massage in a hotel room on the French Riviera, but he then raped her.
Weinstein "terrified me, and he was so big", she said. "It wouldn't stop. It was a nightmare."
Lucia Evans
Lucia Evans - nee Stoller - encountered Weinstein in 2004 in a New York club when she was an aspiring actress. She says she was forced to perform oral sex by the producer after going to his office for what she thought was a casting meeting.
"The type of control he exerted, it was very real," she told The New Yorker. "Even just his presence was intimidating."
Paz de la Huerta
The Boardwalk Empire star has accused Weinstein of raping her twice in New York in 2010.
The first time was after he offered her a ride home, and the second was when he turned up uninvited at her apartment. "I did say no, and when he was on top of me I said, 'I don't want to do this'," she said.
Gwyneth Paltrow
Paltrow says Weinstein asked her to give him a massage in his hotel suite after casting her in the leading role of 1996's Emma when she was 22.
She refused. "He screamed at me for a long time. It was brutal," she said. She told then boyfriend Brad Pitt - who threatened to kill the producer if he did anything like that to Paltrow again.
Mimi Haleyi
Former production worker Mimi Haleyi alleges that she was raped by Weinstein when he forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006 in his New York apartment.
"I told him 'no, no, no'. But he insisted," Ms Haleyi told a press conference in New York.
Dominique Huett
The actress also alleges she was raped by Weinstein when he performed oral sex on her without her consent. She says he lured her to a hotel room in 2010 under the guise of helping her procure future TV and film roles.
"I didn't know how to say no to someone like him at the time, which I regret," she said.
Natassia Malthe
The Norwegian actress accuses Weinstein of raping her in a London hotel after the 2008 Bafta Awards ceremony.
She also alleges that he then asked her to engage in a threesome with him and another woman when back in Los Angeles following the Baftas.
Lysette Anthony
British actress Lysette Anthony says he carried out a "pathetic, revolting" attack at her London home in the late 1980s, which left her "disgusted and embarrassed".
Lysette Anthony told The Sunday Times she had reported an attack by Weinstein to the Metropolitan Police in London.
Cara Delevingne
In an Instagram post, Delevingne writes how uncomfortable she felt during an encounter with Weinstein in a hotel room and describes what allegedly happened when she told him she wanted to leave.
"He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips. I stopped him and managed to get out of the room," she says.
Lea Seydoux
The French actress has written about how he invited her to come to his hotel room for a drink.
"We were talking on the sofa when he suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me," she wrote in The Guardian. "I had to defend myself. He's big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him."
Angelina Jolie
Jolie says she was propositioned by Weinstein in a hotel room in 1998.
"I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did," she said.
Uma Thurman
The Pulp Fiction actress says Weinstein pushed her down and "tried to expose himself" at the producer's hotel room in London during the 1990s.
"He tried to shove himself on me... He did all kinds of unpleasant things," Thurman said. "But he didn't actually put his back into it and force me. You're like an animal wriggling away, like a lizard."
Heather Graham
The Boogie Nights actress told Variety she was once propositioned by Weinstein in the early 2000s when she met him to discuss being cast in one of his movies.
She alleges he implied she had to sleep with him to get a film role, telling her that his wife would have been fine with it.
Zoe Brock
The model and actress says he asked for a massage in the south of France in 1997. She said: "I didn't know what to do and I felt that letting him maybe touch me a little bit might placate him enough to get me out of there somehow."
Before long, she "bolted" into the bathroom. He banged on the door with his fists before eventually retreating, putting on a dressing gown and starting to cry.
Louisette Geiss
The actress and producer says she was attacked by Weinstein when he invited her to his office in a hotel for a meeting about a script she had written at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.
He insisted on listening to her pitch in his hot tub, then asked her to watch him masturbate, she says - and told her he could green-light her script if she did so. She left.
Daryl Hannah
The Splash actress says she repeatedly turned down Weinstein's advances during promotion for Kill Bill and its sequel. He tried, she says, to get into her hotel room on multiple occasions, once getting a key and "burst[ing] in like a raging bull."
He asked to grope her breasts and then asked her to expose herself to him, she alleges. She suffered physical repercussions as her flights were cancelled and she was left stranded after she turned him down on one occasion, she adds.
Rosanna Arquette
The actress says she rejected Weinstein's advances and that she believes her acting career suffered as a result.
She told the New York Times in the early 1990s she was directed to his hotel room, where he was in a bathrobe and asked her for a massage. When she refused she says he grabbed her hand and pulled it toward his crotch.
More voices
Model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez has said she was groped by Weinstein and later went to New York police in 2015, saying the producer assaulted her. She then met Weinstein wearing a hidden microphone. But prosecutors took no action.
Other stars to have detailed how he made advances in his home or hotel rooms include Brit Marling, Lupita Nyong'O, Lena Headey and Kate Beckinsale.
Other women who have come forward since then with their stories include French actresses Florence Darel, Judith Godreche and Emma de Caunes.
British model Kadian Noble, US actresses Jessica Barth, Katherine Kendall and aspiring actresses Dawn Denning, who is now a costume designer, Tomi-Ann Roberts, who is now a psychology professor, have also gone on the record.
TV anchor Lauren Sivan alleges Weinstein cornered her in an empty basement area of a New York restaurant in 2007 and masturbated in front of her.
And other workers at the Weinstein film company told the New Yorker about their experiences, including Emily Nestor, who was a temporary front desk assistant who said she had had to refuse his advances "at least a dozen times".
Actress Claire Forlani has said "nothing happened" between her and Weinstein - but only because she "escaped five times".
In an interview with Canadian TV, actress Lauren Holly said the producer approached her naked and requested a massage, at which point she "pushed him and ran".
Zelda Perkins, a British former assistant of Harvey Weinstein, says she resigned after a colleague accused him of trying to rape her.
Weinstein's spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister issued a statement on 10 October in response to the allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
"Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein," she said. "Mr Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.
"Mr Weinstein obviously can't speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual. Mr Weinstein has begun counselling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path."
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected].
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New Zealand is making cyber bullying a specific crime.
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The country's Harmful Digital Communications Bill has been approved by parliament last week and is expected to come into effect on Monday.
It means people could be fined or sent to prison for using deliberately harmful, threatening or offensive language.
An agency will also be set up to work with firms like Facebook, Google and Twitter to remove the content.
Tech companies will be expected to ask authors to remove a post before taking it down themselves if it has not been removed within 24 hours.
Critics say the law is too broad and could limit free speech but others think the threshold for prosecutions will be high.
How is this different from the UK?
In England and Wales, there is no specific offence of trolling, but trolls can be prosecuted through three existing laws; the Malicious Communications Act, the Communications Act and the Protection from Harassment Act.
These can be used to deal with online threats and stalking and messages causing distress, although they provide no clear definition of "trolling".
Scotland and Northern Ireland have similar legislation.
Media lawyer Nick McAleenan believes the current laws are sufficient, saying: "Over last 12 months or so, police have really got a grip on these laws.
"We've seen a massive increase in prosecutions but it is hard to police and there are a lack of resources for prosecutions."
But he thinks the police and the public need more advice on what constitutes an offence.
He says a new single law could send a clear message on what's acceptable but a lot of time and money would be wasted creating it.
What could be prosecuted in the UK?
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, social media messages which "specifically target an individual or individuals and which may constitute harassment or stalking" could be a criminal offence.
Posts which also make a "credible threat of violence" against a person or property, may also be prosecuted.
There is also a possibility of "grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or false" messages also falling foul of the law.
People under the age of 18 are unlikely to be prosecuted as children "may not appreciate the potential harm and seriousness of their communications".
What about freedom of speech?
The CPS advises a "high threshold" for prosecuting social media users under the Malicious Communications Act.
"Just because the content expressed in the communication is in bad taste, controversial or unpopular, and may cause offence to individuals or a specific community, this is not in itself sufficient reason to engage the criminal law," the guidelines add.
Posts must be more than "banter or humour" for prosecution to go ahead.
What are the potential punishments for trolling?
Depending on which of the laws outlined is used to prosecute, maximum sentences for trolling can range from two to five years in prison.
But Nick McAleenan says: "Although more people are being prosecuted, in reality, we haven't seen massive sentences."
Last year, Peter Nunn, 33, from Bristol, was sent to prison for 18 weeks after being found guilty of trolling Labour politician Stella Creasy over her campaign to put Jane Austen on the £10 note.
He sent what were viewed as "menacing" messages to the Walthamstow MP.
The judge also imposed a restraining order, preventing him from contacting either Ms Creasy or Caroline Criado-Perez, who began the Jane Austen campaign.
In 2011, Sean Duffy from Reading was also jailed for 18 weeks after he mocked dead children online.
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Sweden has been experimenting with six-hour days, with workers getting the chance to work fewer hours on full pay, but now the most high-profile two-year trial has ended - has it all been too good to be true?
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By Maddy SavageBusiness reporter, Gothenburg
Assistant nurse Emilie Telander, 26, cheers as one of the day patients at Svartedalen's elderly care home in Gothenburg manages to roll a six in a game of Ludo.
But her smile fades as she describes her own luck running out at the end of the year, when after 23 months of six-hour shifts, she was told to go back to eight-hour days.
"I feel that I am more tired than I was before," she reflects, lamenting the fact that she now has less time at home to cook or read with her four-year-old daughter.
"During the trial all the staff had more energy. I could see that everybody was happy."
Ms Telander is one of about 70 assistant nurses who had their days shortened for the experiment, the most widely reported of a handful of trials in Sweden involving a range of employers, from start-ups to nursing homes.
Productivity boost
Designed to measure well-being in a sector that's struggling to recruit enough staff to care for the country's ageing population, extra nurses were brought in to cover the lost hours.
The project's independent researchers were also paid to study employees at a similar care home who continued to work regular days.
Their final report is due out next month, but data released so far strongly backs Ms Telander's arguments.
During the first 18 months of the trial the nurses working shorter hours logged less sick leave, reported better perceived health and boosted their productivity by organising 85% more activities for their patients, from nature walks to sing-a-longs.
However, the project also faced tough criticism from those concerned that the costs outweighed the benefits.
Centre-right opponents filed a motion calling on Gothenburg City Council to wrap it up prematurely last May, arguing it was unfair to continue investing taxpayers' money in a pilot that was not economically sustainable.
Saved from the axe at the eleventh hour, the trial managed to stay within budget, but still cost the city about 12 million kronor (£1.1m; $1.3m).
"Could we do this for the entire municipality? The answer is no, it will be too expensive," says Daniel Bernmar, the Left Party councillor responsible for running Gothenburg's elderly care.
But he argues the experiment still proved "successful from many points of view" by creating extra jobs for 17 nurses in the city, reducing sick pay costs and fuelling global debates about work culture.
"It's put the shortening of the work day on the agenda both for Sweden and for Europe, which is fascinating," he says.
"In the past 10, 15 years there's been a lot of pressure on people working longer hours and this is sort of the contrary of that."
More trials
Yet while work-life balance is already championed across the political spectrum in Sweden, the chances of the Nordic country trimming back its standard 40-hour week remain slim.
On a national level, the Left Party is the only parliamentary party in favour of shortening basic working hours, backed by just 6% of voters in Sweden's last general election.
Nevertheless, a cluster of other Swedish municipalities are following in Gothenburg's footsteps, with locally funded trials targeting other groups of employees with high levels of illness and burnout, including social workers and hospital nurses.
Cleaners at Skelleftea Hospital will begin an 18-month project next month.
There's also been an increase in pilots in the private sector, with advertising, consulting, telecoms and technology firms among those testing the concept.
Yet while some have also reported that staff appear calmer or are less likely to phone in sick, others have swiftly abandoned the idea.
'Like skipping homework'
"I really don't think that the six-hour day fits with an entrepreneurial world, or the start-up world," argues Erik Gatenholm, chief executive of Gothenburg-based bio-ink company.
He is candid enough to admit he tested the method on his production staff after "reading about the trend on Facebook" and musing on whether it could be an innovative draw for future talent.
But the firm's experiment was ditched in less than a month, after bad feedback from employees.
"I thought it would be really fun, but it felt kind of stressful," says Gabriel Peres, as he slots a Petri dish inside one of the 3D printers he's built for the company.
"It's a process and it takes time and when you don't have all that [much] time it kind of feels like skipping homework at school, things are always building up."
On the other side of the country, his concerns are shared by Dr Aram Seddigh, who recently completed his doctorate at Stockholm University's Stress Research Institute and is among a growing body of academics focusing on the nation's shifting work patterns.
"I think the six-hour work day would be most effective in organisations - such as hospitals - where you work for six hours and then you just leave [the workplace] and go home.
"It might be less effective for organisations where the borders between work and private life are not so clear," he suggests.
"This kind of solution might even increase stress levels given that employees might try to fit all the work that they have been doing in eight hours into six - or if they're office workers they might take the work home."
Flexible working
Back in Gothenburg, Bengt Lorentzon, the lead researcher for the Svartedalen care home project, argues that the concept of six-hour days also jars with the strong culture of flexible working promoted by many Swedish businesses.
"A lot of offices are already working almost like consultancies. There's no need for managers to have all their workers in the office at the same time, they just want to get the results and people have to deliver," he says.
"Compare that to the assistant nurses - they can't just leave work to go to the dentist or to the doctors or the hairdressers."
"So I don't think people should start with the question of whether or not to have reduced hours.
"First, it should be: what can we do to make the working environment better? And maybe different things can be better for different groups.
"It could be to do with working hours and working times, but it could be a lot of other things as well."
Listen to Maddy Savage's report on Sweden's experiment with six-hour days on The World Tonight.
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Lisa Montgomery - the only female inmate on federal death row in the US - has been executed for murder in the state of Indiana. Her lawyers had argued she was a mentally ill victim of abuse who deserved mercy. Her victim's community said otherwise.
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By Jessica LussenhopBBC News, Washington
This story was first published on 11 January - before Lisa Montgomery's execution on 13 January.
For Diane Mattingly, there is one moment from her childhood for which she feels both enormous gratitude and guilt.
She credits this moment for her "fairly normal" life - a house on eight peaceful acres, a loving relationship with her children, nearly two decades at a job working for the state of Kentucky.
At the same time, she blames it for the fate of her younger half-sister, Lisa Montgomery.
Montgomery was sentenced for the murder of a 23-year-old woman who was eight months pregnant. In December 2004, Montgomery, who was 36 at the time, strangled Bobbie Jo Stinnett before cutting the baby out of her womb and kidnapping it. Stinnett bled to death.
Mattingly and Montgomery lived together until Mattingly was eight and her half-sister was four. It was a terrifying household, she says, where physical, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of Judy Shaughnessy, Montgomery's mother, and her boyfriends was routine.
The girls' biological father left the home, and after a while, Mattingly was whisked away to foster care. Montgomery was left behind with her mother.
It would be 34 years before the half-sisters would see each other again. And that would be from across a courtroom, where lawyers for the US government were trying to persuade a jury to sentence Montgomery to death.
"One sister got taken out and got put into a loving home and was nurtured and had time to heal," says Mattingly. "The other sister stayed in that situation, and it got worse and worse and worse. And then at the end, she was broken."
In late December, Montgomery's legal team submitted a petition to President Donald Trump that makes the case that after a lifetime of abuse - which they characterise as torture - she is too mentally ill to be executed and deserves mercy.
However, in the tiny town of Skidmore, Missouri, where the crime was committed, there is little sympathy for that argument. Many there believe the final moments of Bobbie Jo Stinnett were so horrific, the death sentence is warranted.
Lisa Montgomery and Bobbie Jo Stinnett got to know each other online through a shared love of dogs. They had corresponded for weeks on an online forum for rat terrier breeders and enthusiasts called "Ratter Chatter". Montgomery told Stinnett that she was also expecting, and the pair shared pregnancy stories.
In December 2004, Montgomery drove 281.5 km (175 miles) from her home in Kansas to Skidmore, where she had an appointment to look at some puppies owned by Stinnett.
But it wasn't Montgomery that Stinnett was expecting, it was a woman who went by the name of Darlene Fischer. But Fischer was a name that Montgomery had been using when she separately began messaging Stinnett from a different email address inquiring about buying one of her puppies.
When Stinnett answered the door, Montgomery overpowered the pregnant woman, strangled her with a piece of rope, and cut the baby out of her womb.
Investigators quickly realised that "Darlene Fischer" did not exist, and tracked Montgomery down the next day using her emails and computer IP address. They found her cradling a new-born girl she claimed to have given birth to the previous day. Her story quickly fell apart and she confessed to the killing.
Since 2008, Montgomery has been held in a federal prison in Texas for female inmates with special medical and psychological needs, where she has been receiving psychiatric care. Since receiving her execution date, she's been placed on suicide watch in an isolated cell.
Montgomery is scheduled to be put to death by a lethal injection of pentobarbital at Terre Haute prison in Indiana. It is the only federal prison with an active death chamber.
Montgomery's lawyers argue that because of a combination of years of horrific abuse, and a raft of psychological issues, she should never have been given the death penalty. They believe that at the time of the crime, Montgomery was psychotic and out of touch with reality. They have been joined by a chorus of supportive voices from the legal field, including 41 former and current prosecutors, as well as human rights entities like the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
However, calls for Trump to be merciful are hardly unanimous. According to Gallup, while support for the death penalty in the US is at its lowest level in more than 50 years, 55% of Americans still believe it is an appropriate punishment for murder. And nowhere is that support more palpably felt in this case than in Skidmore.
"Bobbie deserves to be here today. Bobbie's family deserves her," says Meagan Morrow, a high school classmate of Stinnett's. "And Lisa deserves to pay."
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Lisa Montgomery's current legal team has conducted some 450 interviews with family members, friends, case workers, doctors and social workers. Stitched together, they form a tapestry of family dysfunction, abuse, neglect, professional negligence, substance abuse and untreated mental illness.
"The whole story is tragic," says Kelley Henry, one of Montgomery's federal defence lawyers. "But one of the things that the president can do is say - to women who have been trafficked, and who have been sexually abused - 'Your abuse matters'."
For Montgomery, her lawyers argue, it began before she was born. According to an interview with her father, Montgomery's mother Judy Shaughnessy drank heavily throughout her pregnancy, and their daughter was born with foetal alcohol syndrome. Multiple medical experts have given statements agreeing with that diagnosis.
When Mattingly and Montgomery were young, Shaughnessy beat them and doled out cruel forms of punishment, like taping Montgomery's mouth shut, or pushing Mattingly out into the snow, naked. After their biological father left the home, Mattingly says they were left alone with Shaughnessy's boyfriends, at least one of whom started raping Mattingly.
"Judy was manipulative and - I hate to use this word, but - evil. She enjoyed torturing the people around her," says Mattingly. "She got joy out of it."
After Mattingly was removed from the home by social services, Montgomery fell prey to her mother's new husband, who according to statements from his other children, was a violent alcoholic who began sexually abusing Montgomery when she was a pre-teen. The family moved from place to place dozens of times, but it was in a trailer in Sperry, Oklahoma, where her lawyers say the abuse turned into something more akin to torture.
According to interviews with her half-siblings and others who spent time with the family, Montgomery's stepfather built a shed onto the trailer where he, and eventually his friends, raped and beat her. Her mother also began trafficking her, allowing handymen like electricians and plumbers to sexually abuse Montgomery in exchange for work on the house.
Watch on BBC iPlayer
Execution: Lisa Montgomery's story
As a teenager, Montgomery confided in a cousin, telling him the men would tie her up, beat her and even urinate on her afterwards.
But the cousin, a sheriff's deputy, confessed to Montgomery's current legal team that he did nothing. In fact, he drove her back home and dropped her off in the hands of her abusers.
Lawyer Kelley Henry says one of the things that disturbs her most is that adults in positions of authority were told about what was going on but did nothing.
When Shaughnessy eventually split from her second husband, she and Montgomery testified in divorce proceedings about the sexual assaults. The judge in the case scolded Shaughnessy for not reporting the abuse - but did not report the abuse himself.
"There were so many opportunities where people could have intervened and prevented this," says Henry.
Montgomery's cousin told her legal team that he lived with "regret for not speaking up about what happened to Lisa".
When she was 18, Montgomery married her stepbrother. The couple had four children in five years, but the relationship was not the escape from violence that Montgomery might have hoped it would be. At one point, one of Montgomery's brothers found a home movie that showed Montgomery's husband raping and beating her.
"It was violent and like a scene out of a horror movie," he said in a statement. "I felt sick watching the video. I didn't know what to do or how to talk to my sister about it."
Friends and family began noticing Montgomery's tendency to slip into "a world of her own". Her children were disturbed by it. Henry says this was an early sign of her mental illnesses, which include bipolar disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder and traumatic brain injury.
Montgomery eventually divorced her first husband and married Kevin Montgomery. Around this time, she repeatedly claimed to be pregnant again, although she had undergone sterilisation after her fourth baby was born.
One theory her lawyers put forward regarding the chain of events that led to the murder, is that Montgomery feared her ex-husband would expose her lies about being pregnant and use it against her as he sought custody of their children.
"There was so much pressure on her at that point," says Henry. She describes Montgomery's ex-husband as cruel and harassing. "She was completely detached from reality."
Her lawyers say that as she lost touch with reality, she fantasised about being pregnant.
Henry says Montgomery's original legal defence after she was arrested and charged with murder was woefully inadequate, and presented few of the details about her abuse, trauma and mental illness.
Her lawyers at the time also presented an alternative theory of the crime, which was that Montgomery's brother had actually committed the murder, even though he had an alibi. That was ultimately dropped in favour of an insanity defence, but Henry believes the damage to Montgomery's credibility was already done.
After five hours of deliberation, the jury found Montgomery guilty. They recommended a sentence of death.
Diane Mattingly has been speaking publicly for the first time in the hope it can make a difference.
"I would say, 'President Trump, I want you to look at the life that Lisa had led, I want to look at all the people that have failed her, I want you to look at the rape, the torture, the mental abuse, the physical abuse that this woman had endured,'" she says. "I'm asking him to have compassion on her as a person that has been failed over and over and over again. And to not fail her."
The tiny farming town of Skidmore sits in the far northwest corner of Missouri. A generation ago, it was the kind of place where you could "get your hair cut, see a show, buy rabbit feed and eat dinner" - but those days are long gone. Today there is a single restaurant and few of the streets are paved.
The population hovers around just 250, and everyone knew Bobbie Jo Stinnett and her family. Friends recall her as a good student with a love of horses and dogs. She liked going down to the Nodaway River to swim, and playing Nintendo games at slumber parties. She was quiet and kind, they say.
At the time of her murder, she was newly married and pregnant with her first child.
Although the alumni have scattered somewhat, in recent years, the Nodaway-Holt R-VII High School graduating class of 2000 - which had only 22 members - has a tradition to mark the anniversary of the death of their classmate Bobbie Jo Stinnett.
They hold a collection and try to do something nice for Stinnett's mother. "Last year, we got flowers, and gave her a $100-plus gift card and then paid her water bill," says Jena Baumli.
The murder 16 years ago is never far from the minds of the town's residents.
For one thing, the wider world won't let them forget. It has been the subject of two books, multiple true crime television shows, documentaries and countless podcast episodes. And though there's been much recent debate over the fairness of Montgomery's sentence in courthouses and in the opinion pages of newspapers like the New York Times, a similar debate does not exist here.
"I think that in a lot of the opinion pieces that are being posted, in a lot of things that people are sharing, Bobbie Jo and her daughter, and her mother and her husband and other friends and family, are kind of being forgotten," says Tiffany Kirkland, another member of the class of 2000.
"She always wanted to be a mom," says Baumli. "She was really the first one to have a decent marriage, you know, and I guess looking at Bobbie Jo was like, what your dreams were when you were younger."
Because of Stinnett's easy-going reputation, Morrow remembers instantly dismissing the initial reports of her murder.
"I was like, 'Oh, she was not.' You know, like, that doesn't happen to Bobbie," Morrow says.
But what happened at the modest clapboard house where Stinnett lived with her husband still haunts some of those involved in the investigation.
Nodaway County Sheriff Randy Strong says that the scene that he and his four colleagues found that day was so bloody, they are still traumatised by it. It makes him even angrier that it was Stinnett's mother who discovered her that way.
"The people that are defending [Montgomery], I wish I could take them back in time, and put them in that room," he says. "And then go, 'Look at this body'. And then go, 'Stand there and listen to the 911 call of [Stinnett's mother]. This is the stuff of nightmares."
Many of the residents of Skidmore cite the details of the crime, and the amount of planning that went into it, as evidence that Montgomery was a calculating killer.
She had catfished Stinnett online under a fake name. She had bought supplies, including a home birth kit, and searched online for how to perform a caesarean section. Sheriff Strong insists that the crime was meticulously planned and that the woman he arrested continued to lie until backed into a corner.
Dr Katherine Porterfield, a clinical psychologist who evaluated Montgomery and spent about 18 hours with her, says that psychosis does not always look the way people expect it to.
"Being psychotic, it does not mean you are not intelligent, nor that you cannot act in a planful way," she says. "We've seen crime for years and years in our country in which people enact terrible violence coming out of a psychotic set of beliefs or thought process. Lisa Montgomery is no different. She enacted this in the grip of a very broken mind."
The baby was returned to her father, after being recovered from Montgomery.
Bobbie Jo's mother and husband have have not spoken publicly in many years. But Strong says this is the first year he's heard directly from Stinnett's husband. He thanked the sheriff for recovering his daughter and allowing him to be the parent that his wife couldn't be.
"I cried," says Strong. "The whole community over there's traumatised by this."
School friend Baumli says she's read the descriptions of Montgomery's abuse, but it mostly just makes her angry. She says it's not as if all the other people of Skidmore lead idyllic lives free from abuse, poverty and other destructive tragedies. She gives herself as an example - when Stinnett was murdered, Baumli was in rehab for a drug addiction. She missed the funeral because of it.
"Let's say I didn't stay clean very long," she says.
"I'm sick of hearing about Lisa Montgomery and what she went through. And it's never about what my friend went through," she adds. "I get these images in my head of [Bobbie Jo's mother] finding her daughter that way."
Three federal inmates - Orlando Hall, Alfred Bourgeois and Brandon Bernard - have been put to death since the 3 November presidential election. Several high-profile figures had appealed for clemency in Brandon's case but Mr Trump did not heed those calls.
President-elect Joe Biden has already pledged to end death penalty proceedings, although he hasn't said when.
Until July 2020, there had been no federal executions for 17 years. At state level, the number of sentences and executions continues a historic decline. Only 18 death sentences were handed down in 2020 and the number of executions carried out hit a 30-year low. More recently, the states that have been carrying out executions, such as Texas and Tennessee, have halted and delayed executions because of the pandemic.
However, the executions ordered by President Trump are continuing. If they all go ahead, the federal government will have executed more people than any administration in nearly 100 years.
Two other inmates are scheduled to die at Terre Haute prison before Mr Trump's presidency ends. Recently, there has been a virus outbreak on death row at the institution, and previous executions have been linked to outbreaks among the execution team and prison staff.
"They made this a priority at the risk of the health and lives of corrections officials, of the prisoners on death row, and the communities that all of those Bureau of Prisons officials who flew in from across the country were returning to," says Ngozi Ndulue, senior director of research and special projects at the Death Penalty Information Center.
"This was a very coordinated and determined plan to ensure that as many people could be executed on federal death row as possible before the end of this administration term."
Montgomery's lawyers want her sentence commuted to a life sentence, which would allow her to remain under psychiatric care in prison for the rest of her days.
Mattingly says looking back to the moment life changed for her as an eight-year-old, she feels guilty that when the social workers came for her, she didn't tell them what was going on in that house.
"If I had, would they have taken Lisa out of the home also?" she says. "There's so many people that failed her throughout her whole life. And I am just asking for somebody - once - not to fail her."
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